mall & jazz

I just returned from a long trip to the mall. The mall is not so different from American malls. However, I'm glad that most of my day was spent at a mall because we were with some Russian friends. For those interested in precision and accuracy, our group consisted of two Americans, one Israeli, and two Russians. I definitely would not have wanted to be there otherwise, but I managed to have some conversations, so it was worth it.

Anyhoo. I didn't buy anything except for a snackeroo (блины blini), mainly because the prices were about the same as American prices. It's hard to know whether things here are going to be ridiculously inexpensive...or not. For example, restaurant food is always cheap while some groceries (nuts, vegetables) are about the same. I also couldn't find any particularly Russian clothing, which is the only thing I had much interest in.

I'm trying to get people, not too many people, to go to a jazz club tonight. The main challenge when organizing anything is that many of us are housebound until our host mothers feed us dinner.

My parents are in Moskow now, I assume. They are supposed to return tonight some time around midnight. I hope they do!

Tomorrow, we are going to the баня banya. The girls went last week. I won't go into too many details based on my second-hand information, but I hear it's a riot. So I'll have a report by my next post, but probably without pictures. (Because we will all be naked.)

I'm listening to some music that I bought! Two CDs of folk music, some of which we sing in choir. The saleslady didn't speak any English, which was great for me because usually Russians with a bit of English want to practice their English. I cheated a bit by humming the songs I wanted.

Putin is going to be here tomorrow! There is a big tall ship regatta. I mean a big (tall ship) regatta. I'm going to try to hear him speak, or at least see him saunter around.