The Plague

Sickness has descended upon us!  At least three of us have had something akin to tonsillitis.  What's funny is that the Russian word for tonsillitis is "angina."  So every time they say that, heart problems come to mind.

My understanding of the world has been shaken by two important events: 1. Apparently "chernika" and "chyornaya smorodina" are two DIFFERENT berries.  I thought they were both black currants, and that chernika was just a diminutive name of the other one.  NO.  Chernika means blueberry.  This throws me off because that name means little black thing.  Don't Russians know that blueberries are BLUE?
2. All this time I've been thinking that my host sister in law is named Olya.  Today I begin to doubt myself, because it sounds like they are saying Lolya every time.  How am I supposed to know?  Soft l's are really hard to hear.  I can never tell if they say Alyosha or Lyosha in referring to Marina's husband.  Oh well, I just won't refer to anyone by name.

Today was (L)Olya's birthday, so we went over to her apartment for dinner.  I thought it was extremely unfair that she had to cook dinner and her own cake on her birthday, but it was good dinner.  She made some great chicken.  The cake was weird, like all Russian cakes.  They seem to believe that a cake is not a cake unless there is some fruit flavor somewhere.  That's perfectly fine with me, but sometimes you just want chocolate cake with chocolate icing, you know?

We went Thanksgiving produce procuring today.  The store had four 8 pound turkeys amidst other strange meats like duck and goose.  Turkey was 200 rubles a kg.  So we had to pay 823 rubles for our modestly sized Turkey.  That's about $25.  But we're splitting the cost of the meal among 7 people, so it should turn out reasonably.  The spice selection at the store is incredibly sad.  They have black pepper, red pepper, garlic, dill, salt, cloves, and parsley.  No sage, rosemary, or nutmeg.  I'm going to attempt to make Alton Brown's green bean casserole for our Thanksgiving on Saturday, but it will have to be without the nutmeg.

We're going to celebrate Thanksgiving by going to see Harry Potter!  Sarah already saw it and said it was good, maybe even better for being in Russian, because you don't have to listen to Daniel Radcliffe's voice.

IT SNOWED!  AND IT'S STILL SNOWING!  It's a winter wonderland out there!  Russia is so much more pretty under a blanket of snow.  All the Russians are breaking out their shubi(fur coats) and those great fur hats.  My host Dad wore his fur hat today, and I sooo wanted to take a picture, because it makes him look like the stereotypical Russian guy.  But he's not, because he's not drunk all the time.