Perspective based perception.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

All whom I love dearly,

I am still alive.

Learning life lessons at such a rapid rate, if I paused to take note of them all I would miss the next opportunity for a life lesson. My goal before I came out was to learn patience. That characteristic is definitely being learned and obtained. Next goal, gain self-discipline to where I really do ALL of the little things that I know I need to - when I need to. We'll see how that goal comes along.

For the sake of attempting to accomplish that next goal, I will be brief with this post and just list only some of the interesting differences I've noticed about our two great nations.

*Napkins, tissues, paper towels, and toilet paper are like cardboard here.

*Public restrooms are the nastiest places.

*No one has their own house - besides the super duper loaded people that have "summer houses".

*Families are much smaller.

*Children are much more valued than Americans, I think, value children. This however, leads to much spoiling, which continues to lead to interesting attitudes of the children. ha.

*They eat ketchup/mayonnaise on everything. Even pasta. I recently got the the point where I was almost enjoying it - that's when I decided I need to stop participating in that cultural activity.

*Most people don't look happy in public.

*Everyone wears fur. I decided today that the style is very New York - ish, plus fur. And the necessities of stiletto boots.

*It is polite to always say Bonne Appetite (in Russian, of course) everytime you walk in a room that people are eating in.

*American brands of clothing are the coolest thing...I've never seen so much Nike in my life.

*American music is everywhere. They all say, "Russian music isn't good compared to American music." Why can't they have their own hit Russian artists that make songs with lyrics they can actually understand? Our music doesn't really seem that hard to replicate..

*Everyone always slippers inside. If you have company over than you give them a pair of slippers to wear.

*Everyone wears hats outside. If it is a cold day and you aren't wearing a hat - expect to be reprimanded by a little, but tough, old woman. I've seen it happen.

*It's amazing the things I will eat here that I never eat at home..It's almost as if I have lost my identity when it comes to cuisine. I choked down tuna fish with minimal difficulty. Only gagged once. It was amazing. I've eaten things similar to hot dogs multiple times with potatoes. I've eaten at least 8 different kinds of potato salad-breakfast and dinner for 3 weeks. 3 things that I never - never never- eat. I don't remember the last time I had any of them. I do know for a fact I haven't had tuna fish for at least 10 years. Also, that you can leave food out for a few days and just warm it up and you're good to go. Also, yogurt is not refrigerated at the store. It's on a shelf. Americans are just paranoid about food poisoning.

*When we first got here I thought it was so weird that you have to buy water all the time. Now, I find it lame. It will be weird to fill up a glass of clean water straight from the faucet and not have my shower water smell funny.

*Light switches are more user friendly here. Big plastic things.

*There is wallpaper everywhere. I feel like people in America don't wallpaper much any more..

*They think you are completely crazy if you dip your bread in your soup. You eat the soup, then have a bite of bread. ha.

*There are NEON flashing lights on every business..even the pharmacy..

*The road draining system is terrible. Needless to say that puddles get beyond massive. It is amazing.

Huge similarities. I will list those next time. Most importantly - the church is true no matter where you are. I was the first to teach our *new* English Sunday School class. Topic: Birthright Blessings; Marriage in the Covenant. Such important info and something I avoid discussing, with semi-just cause. It went pretty well I think. I was a mess but I had a great crowd. That makes anything go at least pretty well. They had some great insights and I really learned a lot more than I think they did. Preparing info for talks and lessons always gives me such a bigger lesson than when I'm on the other end.

There are many more things I could discuss, but here is a glimpse of few random observations. Life is good in Russia. Not as good as America, but still good.