Раз борщ, два борщ, три борщ, пол

Translation: one [bowl of] borscht, two [bowls of] borscht, three [bowls of] borscht, floor. A little known fact is that borscht is a distant cousin of the world famous tequila. Feeling sprightly this morning as I popped out of bed at 6:30, which is a first for me on a work day, I glanced about at what there was to eat. Ahh, borscht. And look, the pot is almost empty: I must finish. Three (or was it four) bowls later I feel rather like a blimpish beet. Even with some Nussenia-laden bread to wash it down my gizzard (Nussenia is a German brand of Nutella), it was a lot of veggies. Now that I've had my meal for the day, time to go back to bed. I wish.

I've set some goals for myself this month. One of which is to only stay up past midnight two nights a week. There is nothing wrong with staying up super late, but for me that means I sleep in super long. And there is much to be done, so figured I'd be more productive having my extra hours in the morning than the night.

Last Sunday a dude from church by the name of Sasha took me to see an old building. It turned out to be an Orthodox church that survived the war pretty much intact. The steeple had been rebuilt, but other than that, it was the real deal. I believe it is a convent now. After hunting around for the head father dude and receiving our photo blessing, we were permitted to take pictures inside the church. I felt bad that Sasha had gone through the trouble of obtaining permission and then I didn't take many pictures. It was overcast outside, so the lighting was great out there. Inside the building, however, lighting was abysmal. Perhaps if I'd had my real camera with different lens options the story would have been different. Even then I think a tripod would have been necessary. I took a few pictures with the cheap on camera flash to make Sasha happy, but they look like pooh in my opinion. It was interesting though. Perhaps some day I can hoof it back there prepared with external flash and mini tripod. The pictures I took of the grounds should be posted, eventually.

As the evening services were starting we headed away. Milling around his car were two teenage girls, looking a bit off kilter. After some discussion with them (which I couldn't quite follow), we left. One of his friends had offered dinner, but that wasn't for another hour. What to do. The first element of any nice [Russian] ride is to get pulled over by the police. Fortunately, there were no problems with his documents and we kept on rolling. Stopped at the museum of the world's oceans, but we were too late to buy tickets. Walked until it started pouring. I wish that he didn't know so much English. Don't get me wrong, he speaks pretty horribly, but enough so that he wants to practice it. Which means I don't get much practice time myself.

At the friend's apartment we waited for dinner to reheat. What should it be but more borsht and some rice. Her name is also Sasha, so the Sashas asked me if I'd ever had borscht. Good question. They were rather surprised when I said that yes I'd had it before and that I actually made some the other night. In my bowl I found a bay leaf, something I'd been unable to locate in the stores (probably because I was looking for the wrong thing. After the meal I asked where I could purchase bay-leaves and what they might look like. To my surprise, she gave me a bag. Now the next time I feel like overdosing on borscht, it can be flavored by лавровые листов (something tells me I didn't do the plural of leaves correctly, any Russian wanna comment?).

I stopped by Nina and Slava's apartment on the way home to grab the extra dishes they were talking about. I had sorely misunderstood what they said when they said they had a 'few' dishes for me. If only I'd known earlier. Oh well, now I've got I'd say a place setting for ten or so people; numerous pots; a few pans (including a small one just the right size for eggs); a large carpet; and maybe 12 other boxes and bags full of books, bedding, and who knows what else. Oh yeah, they have fleas. Yesterday morning I opened the carpet in my little sunroom area to try and assess its worth - I don't believe I'll be keeping it as it looks like a floor mat from a car. I'm hoping to filter through all the stuff by the end of the week without inviting the fleas into my apartment. We'll see how that goes. I'd like to wash all the dishes now and put them away, but my kitchen sink has problems and water goes down for approximately 2.3 seconds before coming back up. Perhaps I should fix that first.

Life is continuing. Yesterday there was sun. That makes three days in a row that there has been sun for more than five minutes at a time. From the looks of things, today will not continue that pattern, but as the saying goes, "You can't have your borscht and eat it too."