There's a chicken in my bag!

Yesterday was pleasantly free of obligations. No visas to register, no forms to fill out. And since Russians don't have call waiting, the lines of people I tried to call were busy.

So I took a little excursion to Metro stop "Akademicheskaia" to pay for my internet access. Now, as always happen when I go somewhere new in Moscow, while I'm on the train, I think about how I want to exit the station based on the map I've looked at before I left. I make this decision, but upon exiting the station, note the signs tell me otherwise. For street "x" go this way. I should have trusted myself, because it was wrong, which necessitated several turn-arounds before I was headed the right way. And when arrived, they were at lunch. (of course! Who takes lunch from 2-2:45 except the very people I need to see that day). I pay my 900 rubles ($30) and go to the market.

Instead of shopping at the downtown grocery store closest to my house, I've decided to patronage the Krestomag department/grocery store and the adjoining produce/meat market at Metro "Rizhskaia" where I lived with Lusia the past 2 trips to Moscow. Its not that far away, still technically near the center. It was just over a week ago that a suicide bomber set off a bomb just outside the station, killing 9 people. You can see some traces of the explosion on the pavement and on the building, but of course all the debris has already been removed. Along the sidewalk border, however, is a long row of flowers and candles and other remembrances. I purchased some flowers to lay there, my first participation in spontaneous public monument creation. Its very moving, and the next time I go I'll take my camera and take pictures.

The Krestomag grocery store is really nice and western-style. Not as large as our suburban behemoths, but more like urban stores. And you can find everything there (except fresh produce and meat, which is at the market), assuming one reads German. Many products are from Germany and are so labeled, if not in Russian. I can't seem to find dried basil or oregano, though, which means my spaghetti sauce will continue to be rather boring. Got some frozen blini (like crepes, but thicker) and some tvorg-filled raviolis (Tvor'g is a clotted-cream-cottage cheese sort of thing). I spent about $23 at the store, and a full 1/3 of my bill was the balsamic vinegar I bought. Everything else was either the same price or cheaper than in America.

Then I went to the market for potatoes, mushrooms and chicken. I had ot buy a whole chicken. You can't get a bag full of frozen chicken breasts in Russia. Nope, gotta buy the whole thing. The woman showed me its insides to assure me it was a good chicken. (Like I'd know the difference). So I trekked home, starving with my groceries, and a cold, dead chicken (minus head and guts) in a plastic bag in my Whole-foods canvas bag, and as I walked the chicken kept bumping my leg, and all I could think was, there's a chicken in my bag. .What the heck am I going to do with a chicken!?

So I baked it, froze the legs, ate the breast meat with dinner, and boiled the rest for some sort of stock/soup thing. I'm turning into quite the Russian housewife. Its cold outside - cooking warms me up!

I am very happy to have internet at home. More time for personal emails in addition to the blog. I am not even going to go into my adventure with the Russian tech help line! Let's just say it was an experience! Internet also makes waking up at 6am due to jet lag more palatable. There is no news or anything of value on TV at 6am. Only soccer. Russians start life at 10am. A by-product I'm sure of living so far north, wher for much of the year, its not really light until 8 or 9am.

Today, I don't know what I will do yet. Haven't gotten that far. I will spend some time preparing for my first archive adventure - the Moscow municipal archives. Whoo hoo! :-)