A Nice Surprise

My favourite picture of Nastya - making her dinnerThis weekend I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from the baby hospital.   For some strange reason I stood in the longest line.  Not only was it long, it was slow.   I hadn't seen the cashier before at my store, but she looked familiar to me.  Her hair was an interesting cut and bright orange-red, like a maple leaf in fall.  I watched her scan the items.  The way she handled them I could see she had not done this long.  Something was familiar about her, the way she moved, the labret under her lip.  I kept looking at her absent-mindedly thinking about what I would be doing at the family home the next day.  When I was two people away she knocked a box of AAA batteries on the floor and her eye caught mine as she put them back. She broke into the biggest smile.

That was when I saw she had one hazel eye and one green eye.  It was Nastya! She is from the dormitory I used to visit and teach English lessons!  I was so surprised and happy to see her!  I didn't recognize her because she has changed her look so much.

We chatted a little.  I asked her how long she thought she would work here. "Not long." She said, "I work here and there . . . " at first I thought she meant she worked for Pityorochka and filled in for people at different stores, later when I remembered the long line I realized she probably meant that she worked one job for a couple of days, and another for a couple of days.   I congratulated her on having a job.  I will go back tomorrow night with a card for her.  I hope she's still there.

Not my Umbrella!

On the metro on the way to my Russian lesson today, I noticed the man next to me mumble to his companion.  They were pickpockets eyeing the open side-pocket of my bag.  I clutched it tighter, looked at them pointedly and stalked to the other side of the car.  Later my Russian teacher said, "They wanted your mobile phone."  I looked in the pocket, "There is no mobile phone there." She pointed to my umbrella handle.  Wouldn't they have been surprised if they tried to take my umbrella!

Umbrella handle in side pocket of my bag

October Came With a Cold Blast!

Although the leaves are just beginning to turn yellow and fall from the trees, and the calendar says "fall",  the mercury dropped on the first of October and I don't know about anyone else, but I'm thinking "winter".  I saw snow when I was leaving my Russian lesson the other day and we now bundle up in our winter coats and scarves.  I think they're right about their prediction of a cold winter this year!

Every day I've been checking the radiator in my room in hopes that it is warm.  We don't have control over our heat in the city.  Someone turns it on - usually in my apartment on October 1 - so far it's a week later than normal -  and someone turns it off usually sometime in April.  They keep it very warm in the winter - the temperature is usually between 75 and 85 degrees, and in the spring as the weather warms it can be in the 90s.  If you're too hot, you open the windows, too cold - close them.  Everyone else I have spoken with already has heat.  This morning when I woke, in my half-asleep state I thought a toilet was overflowing in my bedroom, but then I realized it was the "glug, glug, glug" of water in the radiators.  That's a good sign.  Means the heat will come on soon - but not yet - I checked!

My much-watched radiator