Gettin' Around This City

Okay, here's your chuckle for the day at our expense. This is the old dedushka and babushka (grandpa and grandma) checking in from St. Petersburg. There is definitely a rainy season here, and it seems to go from about the middle of August through whenever it turns to snow. The rain doesn't bother us much though because we never leave the house without umbrellas. The only problem then is all the jostling of umbrellas as you walk along a crowded sidewalk where everyone has their umbrella unfurled.

As you can see, the weather has turned cold and we are all bundled up with our great hats. On the day of these first pictures we have just been to the market with our babushka carts, which are now full of groceries, and Lou is hailing a martruska (a small, commercial bus that will stop anywhere along it's route). Since we don't have a car these carts are great for getting the groceries home. Before we got them we could only eat what we could carry. (However, you may notice that we didn't get any slimmer.) This country has done me out of any vanity I may have had. It went out the door along with my poofy hair and stylish shoes. And the door really banged shut when I had to start wearing hats. My daughter used to try to get me to buy hats, which always looked cute on her but look pretty dorky on me. The funny thing is that the mink fur hat in the bottom picture I bought in Dillard's at home for 70% off. (Can't imagine why they had several fur hats left at the end of the season!) It's pretty stylin' over here. The picture is in front of our apartment building.


About our least favorite thing to do here is to inspect the elders’ and sisters’ apartments. But we try to be obedient so we do it, though not as often as President would like. (We think every other week is a little much.) A couple of days ago it was time to visit our district leaders who live way out in a suburb of the city. We left at 8:45 when it was barely getting light. It was a drizzly day, anyway, and we never saw the sun. First there was the 10 minute walk to the metro (subway) and the long escalator ride down to the train, which was packed so we had to stand. At the first stop we had to change trains which requires a long hike through the subterranean halls: up stairs, over and across, more escalators, down stairs to the next train. This one was also packed and we had to stand for the whole 15 minute ride. Then we got out of the metro and took a bus for a 50 minute ride. There was lots of traffic which made it slower than usual. At the end of the bus line we had just a short walk to the elders’ apartment. We were only there for 8 minutes but we had to take off our heavy coats because we were roasting after that long bus ride, and you always take off your shoes here. So we looked around and said, "Looks pretty good!" and left. The apartment is so old and crummy that it never can look very clean. Then we started the whole trip over again. Got home about 12:30. And the day cost us over $10! The one good thing about it was that Elder Kruschev had baked us a cake. It was an apple cake, warm out of the oven, and he sent it all home with us. That made it all worthwhile.