An Interesting Satuday in Moscow

On Saturday, we had an excursion throughout Moscow through Red Square, around the Kremlin and then later all over Moscow on a tour bus. While walking through the shopping mall, we went through a special shop which sells Soviet-era food and drink. I chose to purchase a Soviet-era soda. Without a twist-off top or a bottle opener, I elected to open the bottle on a bench near Red Square. While watching the graduation ceremony of seemingly thousands of Russia military officers, my friend asked me if I could open his as well. I obliged. So as not to disturb the numerous Russian police nearby, I returned to the same bench. With the same gentleness, I opened the bottle, but it did not simply open. The bottle broke, jostling the carbonation and shooting the soda out of the top of the bottle. I had my hand cupped to diminish the spray of the blast in the neighboring area, but it only channeled the spray, unfortunately directly on to a younger Russian couple and all of their baggage. My heart sank. I apologized again and again. My face turned red from embarassment and I slowly backed away, offering to buy my friend another soda.

In the evening, I moved in with my host family. They are from Chechnya. They moved to Moscow 21 years ago, so they are Moscovites through and through. My hostmom is a great cook and there is always more on the table than I can eat. My first meal, dinner, included sausage, a hotlink, swiss cheese, goat cheese, soup with a cut of beef, bread, blinchiki (like small crepes or pancakes) (with optional caviar), strawberries, an apricot, a peach, juice and tea. For dinner the following evening, we had barbecue chicken with a special mayonaise sauce that tastes just like Ranch dressing.