Observations Part Tre

(that would look a lot more normal if I could figure out Cyrillic on my computer)

I’ve been getting quite the (unexpected) response about my observations so I’ve been writing them down as I notice them to put up here. Here goes round 3 (pronounced in Russian as ‘tree’ but rolling the ‘r’):

Sirok:
Again, this would look a lot better if I could figure out Cyrillic. But since I’m computer challenged, everyone who speaks Russian is going to know what I’m referring to and those of you don’t probably think this refers to either a plant, article of clothing or some sort of ancient witchcraft. It is, in fact, none of the above. Sirok is the one thing that I discovered way too late in Russia. I’m actually convinced it is a gift from God. When I was in Hebrew School I always wondered what manna tasted like, and I have discovered it in sirok. I swear. (For those of you unfamiliar with manna, it’s the stuff in the Old Testament that God gave to the Jews while they were wandering the desert with no food. I always imagined it as white fluffy stuff, but apparently it tasted like whatever you wanted it to taste like. So if you’re craving a hamburger- poof! Manna tastes like a hamburger. That’s the general idea.) Sirok are these little candy kind of things, but they’re stored in the fridge. There’s a thin layer of chocolate on the outside but that’s not the delicious part, it’s what’s inside. Inside is this stuff called tvorog, which I generally think is pretty gross, but this is sweetened tvorog. It’s a strange kind of marshmallow-y consistency, and can have different flavors- chocolate, coconut, etc. However, the manna is the vanilla. It’s this same white consistency that I always thought manna was and it actually tastes like a little piece of heaven on earth. No jokes. I was wondering if I would be able to find it here since there’s a lot of Russian food. Yesterday when I was wandering the grocery store that’s a little further from my house I found it and it took all the self-control in the world to not clear out the whole stock. I bought about 7 and I’ve eaten all of them in the past 24 hours. If I don’t manage to lose weight here there will be one reason: sirok.

Daily life:
There are a lot of little things about Russian/ post-Soviet life that you notice upon arriving here and then get used to immediately. I’m also used to them since I noticed them in Russia and now it’s not as much of a shock. Here’s a couple things that make life a little different and are daily reminds of living in a different country-
Switches- The light switches here are completely different. They are a small square that’s 1 x 1 inches. You simply press it up or down if you want the light to turn on or off. It’s peculiar, but again, something you just get used to.
Bureaus- I noticed this in Petersburg too. A Bureau (note that there are no closets- why waste that precious space) has a small space for hanging stuff, and then the rest of the bureau are just shelves. This doesn’t seem like it would be strange, but it’s definitely not the norm in the states. When was the last time you put your clothing on a shelf? We have drawers and hangers in the U.S., but we rarely ever use shelves. I actually kind of like shelves, it makes it easier to see what clothing is where and you don’t have to go digging for it. However, I am severely opposed to the idea of not hanging stuff up. There were 2 hangers in my closet when I arrived. I’ve been gradually buying more but I’m not nearly satisfied yet. I guess it’s just an American thing.
Doors- Soviet doors all look the same. Once you’ve seen one, you can spot another one. They’re a hard thing to explain. In Russia they were obviously padded and very heavy since it gets so cold there. Here it’s similar but a lot lighter on the padding. For one thing, the lock is on the other side (the left side). In fact, almost all the main front doors here open up from the opposite way from the U.S. It’s not like they drive on the other side of the street or anything, so I’m not sure what the rational behind this is. They are completely flat on the outside except for the peephole and the door. Then once you get on the inside there’s some intricate design on the door and about 4 locks, including one you have to stick your key into and lock it from the inside for extra protection. I guess all those years of getting forcibly moved from one house to another really add their toll.
Chainik- I could do a whole post on kitchens and if I run out of material I probably will. But for now I will just discuss the chainik. It’s this super-fast water boiler. Like a tea kettle, but probably the one thing that Russians have that’s more modern than Americans. You plug it in and press a button and depending on how much water you have in the chainik, it’s boiled within about a minute. It’s actually amazing that this hasn’t caught on more in the States. I don’t drink all that much tea, but this little device has become dead useful. For one reason because we don’t have water, and the water here isn’t safe to drink so we boil water and stick it in large plastic bottles in the fridge for later use, such as brushing teeth, washing hands, face, etc. It’s also useful since it takes about an hour to boil water on the stove so I just boil the water in the chainik, then dump it into a pot on the stove and then keep it heating it from there. Saves me about 40 minutes if I want to make pasta.
Bed covers- This is a random one, but it’s one that I found particularly odd in Russia and found that they do here. Maybe it’s a European thing. In America we have the fitted sheet that fits over the mattress, the flat sheet that goes above it, and then a blanket on top of that. Then you sleep in between the fitted sheet and flat sheet. Here, you have to tuck the flat sheet around the mattress, and then there’s a duvet (except not as nice) that you put over a blanket, and you wash these two sheets every so often. It actually makes a lot of sense. The ‘duvet’ cover here is just like our cotton sheets, maybe a little bit tougher. But this way, there’s not as much to care for and if anything happens to this sheet, you can just toss it and buy a new one to cover your bed with. My only problem with this is that when it’s hot, like it is now, I have no flat sheet and I get hot easily under the blanket. Such is life, and I just have to sleep half under it.

Gas station attendants:
You would think there would be more gas stations populating this city since there’s so much oil here but they’re found a lot more outside of the city center. Luckily I live not too far from one and I was able to observe the clientele and the attendants.
Rewind about 13 years back to Nintendo. Remember Luigi and Mario? And how they wore those little jumpers in bright blue and green? Can you see where I’m going with this? Well, all the gas station attendants wear these brightly colored cotton overalls. Whoever came up with this idea for men to swear these thick, ridiculous looking uniforms in this heat is out of their mind in the first place, but the execution is what’s worse. All the gas stations are different companies but they all wear these overalls in different colors, and the two I’ve seen so far are blue and green. Now, imagine what I’ve already written about the men in this area. They’re generally pretty short and squat (the older, the squatter) and Persian looking. So imagine short, dark-skinned men with mustaches wearing plain white t-shirts with brightly covered blue/ green overalls on over them. This city looks like it’s Halloween with about 400 Luigi’s and Mario’s running around.

Guten Tag!
This isn’t a long one but the other night a group of 5 of us were wandering around the city at night, just walking around after dinner. We were all talking pretty loudly in English (and none of us look remotely Azeri, except of course for the one Azeri girl we were with) and as we were walking by a family sitting on the steps someone yelled out, “Guten tag!”, which is German for “Good day". I commend them for trying to speak our language and be friendly, but really? German? Apparently there are actually a lot of German tourists here which seems like a very random destination for German tourists.

Shoes:
Another point on Azeri style. This will definitely be a recurring theme. Azeri men (they just make it way too easy…) all wear the exact same kind of shoe. It’s a black leather shoe, highly polished and very pointy. Their shoes are particularly accented by their pants which are super-tight and either jeans or tight dressy pants. (I know. The phrase 'tight dressy pants' makes me shudder.) These shoes are usually of the slip-on variety although if the man is a little more stylin’ they might have laces. I doubt they actually use these laces though, since the laces extend for about an inch and a half.

That's all for now. I have discovered the beauty of bootleg DVDs and although I feel like a bad citizen for buying them, my rationale is that they probably don't even sell legitimate DVDs here. Anyways I might make another trip to the bootleg store. (Aptly named "Hong Kong". Apparently Azerbaijan likes stereotypes just as much as the U.S. does.) Go see District 9- it's SO GOOD! I would have paid money in a movie theatre for it.