Accidents and Apples

Monday, September 5, 2011

Today, on my way back to my apartment from the center of the city I saw not one, but two car accidents on the same road!  I don’t know why this fascinated me so much, but I guess I was just surprised that I haven’t seen more given the way the Russians drive here.

I had a minor unplanned excursion on my way back today, as well.  I inadvertently took the wrong bus because I read the sign wrong.  It started going in the right direction, and then it turned off onto another major road, which I didn’t want.  Luckily, there are enough stops along the bus route that I was able to get off and thank god that after only being here a few days, I knew which road I needed to be on….it could have been slightly disastrous, especially since I have yet to buy a mobile phone.  But the whole time I could see the road that I wanted (since they run perpendicular to each other) and so I hopped off of the bus at the next stop and walked to my apartment.  It was a long walk, about a 20-25 minutes, but it was fairly nice out, so I didn’t mind.  And by “fairly nice,” I mean that it was not raining or snowing or incredibly cold.

The weather here is something else.  This morning, when I left for school, it was really cloudy and kind of chilly (think late September, early October temperature in New York).  But when I left the university, it was pretty sunny out and a little bit warmer (although not much).  A few other students and I walked around for a little bit looking for a store where we could buy shampoo and other such items, and when we came out, it was cloudy again.  It has at least sprinkled every day since I arrived here in Russia.  (Yesterday, it was a complete downpour while we were waiting for the trolleybus.)

I was so happy when I got back to my apartment and discovered that Tanya had gotten grapes when she was in the country visiting her daughter.  They were absolutely delicious!!  I had been thinking on the way back about how much I wanted a piece of fruit, and I had even contemplated stopping at one of the stands to get some.  I did get fruit juice, however, and was delighted to discover that it was a peach and apple mix.  (I didn’t specify what I wanted, I just said fruit juice.)  There has also been a huge plate of apples sitting on the table since I got here, but at first, I didn’t realize that was what they were.  They looked like giant cranberries or radishes, a little bit smaller than a golf ball, but they weren’t.  I did, however, learn the word for cranberry, which was good.  Tanya said that the apples weren’t very good to eat just alone, but she cooks them in syrup and then puts it in the refrigerator.  It is fantastic!!  I think it is my favorite thing that I’ve eaten here.

The apples that look like radishes or giant cranberries.