2004 July 24

Weather Report – it’s getting warmer during the days… maybe 78 degrees F or so… and it has rained for a bit each of the last couple days… it feels muggy, but at least it’s still bear-able. We do not have air-conditioning… and we are believing that we may be able to get along without it… at least for this summer.



Interesting / Funny Observations – regardless of the temperature, the babushkas are always out in their head coverings, long coats, and walking canes. This is a fascinating part of the population…



Frustrating Adjustment Issues – the more aware we become of our environment, the more we notice the extreme poverty in the country. While things like housing and utilities cost next to nothing… people cannot afford to do things like go out to eat… or purchase a car. Most restaurants are empty most of the time… it’s a wonder how the restaurant owners make money. I read a statistic that the average Russian eats away from home only a couple times a year. While dining out in many restaurants is reasonably priced, the average Russian cannot it. I think the poverty will continue to be an issue for us…





Hi all… the last few days in Russia have been fairly busy for us (hence the dearth of entries for the last few days). I’ll try to catch you up on what’s been happening for us… I was planning to go to Moscow for the day on Friday for an all-day meeting… but I decided to stay in Novomoskovsk instead and dial in on the phone. Figured it might be nicer for Sara and I to go together on Saturday…



Saturday July 24, 2004 – had a nice (but long!) day today… Sara and I took a day trip up to Moscow to shop and get a nice American lunch. Our driver picked us up a little after 7AM from our cottage, and we were on the road! We arrived at the MKAD (the outer edge of Moscow - for your reference, Moscow as a city has 3 beltways: the Garden Ring, the Boulevard Ring, and the Moscow Ring Road, or MKAD. The MKAD is the outer ring / beltway) and made our way over to the MEGA Mall (which I’ve been to before… this was Sara’s first time). We were planning to stop at Auchen’s (large grocery store) and IKEA (for those that don’t know, IKEA is a Swedish furniture and décor retailer – Sara and I shop there regularly, although there retail outlets are pretty spread out… for example, when we were living in Cincinnati, the closest IKEA was in Chicago – and we stopped there basically every time we passed through the area).



Shopping at Auchen’s, Take 2

So, based on my previous experience at Auchen’s, I remember a couple things that are critical:

· Get rubles (cash) before shopping – had no problems here… used the exact same machine, exact same ATM card, exact same account balances as when I was at Auchen’s before – and this time had absolutely no problem… go figure. I happily grabbed our rubles and we went on our way to the store.

· Don’t get electronic supplies and groceries in the same trip (I’m still convinced that is why the woman behind me in line was yelling at me the last time I shopped at Auchen’s)



Shopping at Auchen’s was pretty good… the crowd was fairly thin and calm, so it wasn’t too hard to get around… we shopped smart, and went to get the heavy items first to put in the bottom of the cart (beer, bottled water). Sara became frustrated easily as she learned that… all shopping carts in Russia are broken. She commented on what a “quality job” I did in selecting a cart… I smiled and casually informed her… they’re all like this. These carts tend to operate better when you push them sideways instead of the normal way (from behind). Think of the worst shopping cart you ever used… the one with wheels that shake incessantly… or don’t turn at all (like there is a rock perpetually stuck in it)… or may be missing a wheel or a handle? These all pass quality control in the factory here… and of the thousands of carts at Auchen’s (and every other retailer in Russia) – every cart has some deformity.



We had a “successful” trip as we were able to find things that we had been looking for… legitimate dishwasher soap (last time I bought hand soap instead of dishwasher soap… it was a little extra sudsy, but it worked… sort of… then the dishwasher stopped working…hmmm), paper towels (Bounty they are not, but they will do for the time being)… picked up some additional staples, and headed to checkout. The lines were short (only 3 or so people ahead of us). We learned that taking a tag-team approach to shopping makes the trip go easier… because you have to do so much yourself… it’s hard for one person to get a large order.



When we finished our purchasing at Auchen’s – we headed back to the driver’s car… and our driver was no where to be found… Sara, after complaining to me that I didn’t take the driver’s cell phone number with me (a lot of good that’ll do – I don’t speak Russia, he doesn’t speak English J), she agreed to wait by the car with our groceries while I headed in to IKEA. Just trying to make good use of our time…



The IKEA Experience

I’m sensing we’ll be two-for-two on this trip… not much of a crowd at IKEA either. Because it’s still summer here, most people leave Moscow to go their dacha for the weekend (think very small cottage with utilities where Russians plant potatoes and other produce). So… the stores were a good experience. Sara caught up with me a few minutes later (she actually found me in IKEA!)… the driver had gone into the mall to buy windshield wiper blades for his car… he was going to pack our groceries and Sara and I continued our shopping in IKEA.



All in all, IKEA was a good experience… we got some additional décor things for our house, including new low voltage halogen lights (the ones that look very contemporary). Lighting in our cottage is not too good… so we are buying things to improve it. We also got other odds and ends (shot glasses for the vodka, more candles and candle holders, new bath mats, and a nice bright yellow metal garbage can – we’re trying to brighten up the outside of our cottage as well).



Check out was a breeze… we had the driver come over to pick us up… he helped load up the car (which was, unfortunately quite full by now). He asked if we were ready to go eat (and the only way we knew that’s what he was asking was that he made the universal sign for eating… that of moving your hand to your mouth J).



Getting in to Moscow

As we drove in to Moscow… traffic was not bad at all… which really means it was crazy, just a little less of it. Clearly, driving in Moscow is not for the faint of heart. Of all the big cities I’ve been in around the world, Moscow is clearly the most challenging to drive in.



So our plan was to go to TGIFridays in downtown Moscow… we were in the mood for some buffalo wings, maybe a burger… our driver, unfortunately, was not terribly well-versed in Moscow streets – he had to stop and ask for directions a few times. Sara and I generally know where we are going – so we weren’t concerned he was going way off course – we knew we were headed in the right direction. We did enjoy some brief drive-by sight-seeing while heading into the center of town (passed by the Kremlin, several monuments, etc. Our driver pointed out things as we passed… while there obviously was a language barrier; it’s clear that you can universally express wonder and amazement at some of the monuments and buildings here). I’ve included a picture of one the Seven Sisters buildings.



Lunch

Eating at TGIFridays (see the picture) was a nice diversion… tends to be populated with Americans… so it’s good to hear your native tongue for a change of pace. Lunch was pretty good… and it was nice to have more traditional American fare for a change. Also picked up Friday’s edition of the Moscow Times… and Sara was thrilled (see the picture) as it was the first English paper we’ve seen since we’ve been here. We’re trying to get a copies of it mailed to us from Moscow...



Next Stop – Stockmann’s

Step #4 in our 5 point itinerary for the day was Stockmann’s. This is a Finnish (I think) retailer that specializes in higher end merchandise. Their store is four levels, with lots of house wares, clothes, jewelry, etc. The lower level is a grocery store – where we’ve heard the meats are really good and you can find groceries that are hard to find in other places (hence why we stopped here). We took the “nickel tour” of the whole store (i.e. we rode the escalators up to the top and back down to the bottom) – and went into the grocery store.



As soon as we walked into the grocery store at Stockmann’s, we smiled with glee… shelf tags in Russian & English! No more playing “guess what you’re buying today!”. We knew this was a pricey store, but we had no idea of the sticker shock we were in for… here are some examples:

Item


Price in US Stores


Price at Stockmann’s (in US$)


Available in other Russian stores?


So… did we buy it?

A1 Steak Sauce


$4.99


$10


Not at all


My personal favorite condiment (with Frank’s Red Hot a close #2)… Nah – no sale… way too expensive… and I had several bottles included in our surface shipment, so it wasn’t a “need”. I may be stuffing my suitcase with a for more bottles on our next trip to the US…

French’s Yellow Mustard


$0.79


$5


We’ve found other mustard, but nothing like classic French’s


$5 for something I can get for free and unlimited supply at any baseball game anywhere in the US? Of course we bought it… Had some with a salami and cheese sandwich Saturday night! I’ve been craving plain yellow mustard for a while… I have four big bottles in our sea shipment. Now if we could only track down spicy banana peppers, we’d be set!

Parmesan cheese (in a block, not Kraft pre-grated or anything)


$8 a pound


$22 a pound… shipped in from Italy


No where… most people we’ve talked to said they haven’t seen blocks of parmesan anywhere


We got 2 blocks… each about ½ pound… Never saw it anywhere else, and we haven’t seen anything else close to it. It was expensive… but it was worth it. Especially since we also found a nice bottle of balsamic vinegar at Stockmann’s… and Sara would have been pretty upset if we didn’t get it.

Angus beef (steaks!)


$17 a pound


$41 a pound


In some places… but the quality is sometimes questionable, especially


Almost… then we realized we didn’t have a grill… and we weren’t about to pan-fry a $41 steak… maybe next time…



Needless to say… we will continue to shop at Stockmann’s – but will be very selective on what we get there… it was nice to find things that we haven’t found anywhere else (decaffeinated tea, yellow mustard, decent vinegars, etc.).



Off to M-Video

Our last stop of the day was at M-Video… which one of the largest appliance and electronics retailers in Russia. Think of Best Buy… but maybe 1/10 of the size of the store. They have a pretty good selection of goods… quality seems OK. We had to get a couple things – new telephone, home theater / stereo, coffee grinder, etc. We didn’t have as much luck here… we were hoping to find a coffee pot / espresso machine combination – but they didn’t have any… they had a nice selection of very expensive Italian espresso machines (about $1000 each) – but none of what we were looking for at a price we were willing to pay.



We picked out a reasonably priced home theater system, a wired phone (cordless ones were too expensive – like $225 each), and a coffee grinder. We paid for our belongings… walked back to our car… our driver helped load things up and we were on the road back to Novo.



The Drive Home

We had a pretty quick drive home (about 2 hours)… we were very surprised though… despite light traffic and very nice weather, there were 3 major accidents on the way down.. fortunately, our drivers are all very good, and maintain their vehicles pretty well. Most accidents you see involve poorly maintained Russian vehicles.



Sara slept quite a bit of the way home… she’s not much for shopping to begin with… so the 6 hours we spent in stores wasn’t exactly her idea of fun.



When we got home, we were happy to see Joe and Rommel faired just fine while we were gone… Sara and I sat and talked for a little bit more into the evening… then we had a nice late and light dinner of overpriced parmesan cheese, some of the dried meats we got at the store… some beer and wine. All in all – a good day!



Thanks for reading…

Michael