The Weekend

Sandy arrived Saturday at 12:00 pm from Boston. Total travel time door to door 15 hours. She left Boxford 9:00am for an 11:00 am flight to Kennedy then a four hour wait at Kennedy 9 hours to Moscow and then to the clinic. Throw in a eight hour time difference and it makes for a long trip. She stayed up as long as she could in a bit of a daze and then hit the rack hard I think she's now on Moscow time. We went out shopping at the market next door to the clinic on Sunday. I have attached pictures and will try my best to describe the scene and it is a scene.

The market next door does not appear to be tourist oriented in any way. It is a local supermarket as we would know it. What struck me as odd initially was the armed guards stationed at the entrances, it doesn't make for worry free shopping in my mind. It has a large building in the center then stalls or booths similar to flea markets have been built around the main building in the paved area. Everything you can think of is being sold. I have tried to included pictures of some of the stalls however I was told that most Russians do not like their pictures taken. As a result I took quick snapshots when I thought no one was looking. You can buy shoes,meats,cheeses,fish, home goods, clothing and toiletries just to name a few items. The technique is roll up (in my case literally) point to an item then give the shop keeper a piece of paper and pen to write the price down. This is always met with a shake of our heads no matter what they write and we then write down our price. They intern shake their head and no deal. We usually come back repeat the process and finally we agree to the price. We are now the proud owners of a bag of dried apricots ,wow it seems like a lot of work and Sandy did most of the negotiating! I took the picture of the shoes because believe it or not the women wear that type of shoe day to day. The spiked heel is big in Moscow I have no problem with it. We've been watching movies reading books and generally laying around waiting for Monday and the Doctors decisions. I think they will require more tests so we will see what they say.

Low and slow

JE