the russia adventure, day 4.

Me: Hey, its snowing outside.
JB: Yeah, it finally warmed up enough to snow.

It actually did snow on Monday, and it made it much easier for me to walk. My boots are great at keeping my feet warm and dry, but they provide next to no traction, so I keep slipping on the packed snow that's everywhere. Fresh snow is a lot less dangerous to walk on.

Because we were so busy the first two days that I was here, Monday was a much more relaxed today. In the afternoon, Iris and I walked a block to the local cosmetic store, which is kind of like an upscale cosmetic store in the US, except you can also get toiletries and cleaning supplies. You can find a ton of typical brands, like Herbal Essence and Pantene. They also have some small bottles of Russian-made home remedy lotions and masks and such, so I picked up some of those to use for gifts for friends and family back home.

In the evening, Iris invited several ladies over and asked them to bring some traditional Russian dishes for me to try. She made Salisbury steak, which is a lot like ?, and a seven-layer salad made with Chinese cabbage instead of lettuce (Russians are very big on salads). Natasha also brought a salad made with eggs, chicken, crab, squid (they call it calamari, even if it isn't breaded and fried), and mayonnaise. And yes, I forced myself to try some. (That's a very big deal). Then we played a couple card games that work well in both English and Russian and don't require much translation during the course of the game.