Tuesday, May 28, 2013

The List....May It Rest In Peace

Since our first day in Mother Russia I have kept a rotating list of items I plan to buy when in America this summer. These are Items I either couldn't live without or items to make our apartment feel more like a home.

I would like to tell you what is on my list, if it weren't for the fact it is gone! Deleted....went in cyber unknown....never to be seen or heard from again..... Can we please have a moment of silence?

This list was my life line to the outside world. Okay, so maybe not THAT dramatic. When we first arrived in Moscow, I knew what I wanted here, but could not get. I knew what was available in my local store. Note-I said store as in ONE and not the FOUR I have to go to here. This is the reason the list started in the first place. I wanted vanilla extract. I found the extract. After a few weeks, I broke down willing to pay the $5 for 2 tablespoons of what ended up to be flavored sugar. Russians don't do baked goods or sweets well. They all look like beautiful works of art. Yet when you bite into the masterpiece it tastes like cardboard. In all seriousness, it isn't worth even tasting a bite. It's kind of like seeing a well made cake covered in Fondant. Have you tasted fondant? Let me save you some calories....DON'T! Why people use that stuff I will never know. A perfectly moist cake will turn uneatable in my eyes at the mere sight of Fondant. A wide arrange of food products were never available until the early 1990's. Russians had to make and bake with what they had access to. Vanilla extract was not one of those items, especially when you need toilet paper. Now that there is abundance (insert laugh here bc it is available IF you can find it, along with every other product you want and can't find) they don't know how to use it....because they never could. The extract isn't very good and now I import mine from Poland. It has been scratched from my rotating list of American items and placed on my "I will hoard whatever you want to bring me from another country on your travels" list.

Isn't that a great list? Doesn't it just sound fun? Items on that list include English magazines. If I could get a hold of a copy of People magazine, I would read the same one over and over again. You only have to bring me one. I will spend hours with my nose in the bind, studying every last word. A good Gossip magazine is worth the money! Want me to not talk? Give me a People. You have just bought yourself three hours. Ask the Mr. Another item on this list are TimTams. Have you heard of them? No? Good! That means more for me. Stay away. Dangerous.They are these amazing chocolate covered wafer cookies in different flavors made in Australia. Oh my! Put them in the frig and you have (sing with me) Heaven....

So where was I? Right! My list....it's gone, may it rest in peace. The longer I am here, the more I make do without luxury items. I improvised my way through not having canned pumpkin at Thanksgiving for a Pumpkin Pie. Minus the stress to not only find a pumpkin but the proper pumpkin, it turned out fabulous. A can of pumpkin filling may go on the new list just to have, just in case. Luxury like maple syrup for our pancakes. Russians (and Europeans) don't put syrup on their pancakes. Less face it, their pancakes really aren't even pancakes! They are given a fancy word like crepe or blini to be topped with jam or cottage cheese. Um, ok, maple syrup is going on the list! Thank you Canada for your gift of Maple. Can we talk cereal? The Mr goes through a box of cereal every other day, his breakfast of choice. I live in a world where chocolates occupy 2 long, American supermarket aisles. Coffee and tea has its own aisle. Did you know there was a dedicated cold section strictly for sour cream? And when I say dedicated, I mean 3 shelves, 10 feet long, stacked with different sour cream. In America, we have three kinds....regular, skim and fat free. Pick one. Oatmeal? No wonder why everyone is constipated....who knew there were so many kinds of oats. You can have your pick! But a healthy cereal with fiber will run you $8 a box and thats the cheap stuff. No, we don't have coupons here. But if you spend a certain amount you always get these stickers with your receipt. The receipt that is printed out on dot matrix paper and each page is stamped not once, but three times. I have yet to figure out what to do with those stickers. So, cereal may be going on the list.

Apparently, I can not live without those luxury items. I have just talked myself into needing them. Thank you for talking me into them. What have we learned here? What is our lesson for the day? That the Mr will be spending a lot of money on excess baggage this summer. It's really all your fault. I was doing fine with my lost list, until our little conversation. You talked me into it....

It's a good thing my brother is coming to visit and my parents, at different times...there's two shipment right there! The Mr will return from the States before we do. I will load him up! And I'll bring a shipment. Four shipments.....can you imagine?! Oh boy....I better get started on that list!

.....Medicine, spices (chili powder, nutmeg, cloves), food coloring, ziplock bags in all sizes, aluminum foil, powder Gatorade, hair care products (if you have seen the Easter Egg colored hair here-you would add it too!), yummy smelling candles, gifts-for children, friends, teachers, on bday s/holidays, hostess gifts.......

Feel free to add to my list Munchkin Reader! What would you like to put in your list?


Sent from my iPad

4 comments:

tricia booker said...

RATS! I wish I had been saving my People magazines! I think your list will come back to you in fits and starts...it's not lost, it's just misplaced in your head. Oh...and sorry I got Dubai and Saudi Arabia confused. Husband would be mortified. xoxo

The Diamond Lady said...

Loved your post. Reminded me so much of all the basics I missed while living one year in Moscow. But the most I miss is you my Friend. Can I add you to my list ? P.s. those Tim Tams are very dangerous don't you wish you had never been introduced to them :-)

Lois B said...

Pecans, shredded coconut, green chilies, and Equal for hubby's coffee are on my list. I'm with you about English reading material (and hair color!) I brought back several English newspapers from our hotel in Berlin, two weeks later, I'm still reading them, doing the crossword puzzle, etc.

Sarah and Mike said...

I am going to get off my butt and make some brownies and read some trash in your honor. I understand you sadness, maybe it is Mother Russia telling you, everything you need is right there, in four separate stores.