Chillin {Literally) in the Office

The Boy told me that the ladies at his office had wondered where I was the day before. They needn’t worry long – wild horses couldn’t keep me away after I learned that there was air-conditioning. I needed to do a bit of work, anyway, so it was convenient as well.

It was really wonderful meeting The Boy’s colleagues. We hugged it out and immediately felt like old friends. Then I hid myself away while they all focused on the audit.

It was a very good day. I can’t say it enough: air conditioning, air conditioning, air conditioning!

But seriously, it really was interesting to listen to how the office functions and learn more about the various projects the staff oversees. They are a fantastic group and very fun to be around.
 

At the office

I’m already wondering when we’ll be back for another visit!

Before returning to Gamma, The Boy and I stopped in a large mall/grocery store {I know, we have a thing for these places!} located next to the office. It was really fascinating to see how retail works oversees.

{If you don’t believe me, the next time you travel outside your own country, visit a shopping center to explore the local products and watch the shoppers.}

Frozen seafood self-service at the grocery store!

What we noticed:

• Brand homogenization continues – many of the products we saw on the shelves are the same as what we’ve found in grocery stores in the US, UK, Turkey, and France. {sigh}
• Retail square footage is smaller – think more products in a smaller store
• Russian women know how to dress – high heels (I’ve never seen so many women wearing uber-high heels on a daily basis as I have in Russia!), dresses and the like. It will make you think twice about dressing down. Ever.

For kicks, we decided to eat at the Russian KFC in the food court. Remember what I said earlier about communication challenges? Our smile-and-point routine failed miserably here. We pointed at the board and the cashier helpfully indicated that we should wait. As she went to fetch a printed menu, The Boy said, Great! They have an English translation of the menu.

No, they didn’t.

We were handed a menu in Russian. In Cyrillic. So I studied the characters on the picture board and matched them to some items on the printed menu. The cashier shook her head, gave me some instructions (in Russian), then pointed to the same items in a different section of the menu.

Upon further reflection, I think I was trying to order from the children’s menu. And, honestly, with the language skills that we have here in Moscow I think we qualify to order from the children’s menu!

Anyway, we received our order and discovered that we didn’t manage to order anything other than two sandwiches – no fries, no drinks. Oh well. I’d go order some fries, I told The Boy, if I had any idea of how to do it.

By now, The Boy had spotted a Baskin Robbins and suggested that we have ice cream instead of fries. Want to share a banana split? he asked. Sure! I said. Do you think we’d have any luck ordering it? he replied.

We looked at each other and at our lonely chicken sandwiches and decided to get scoops of ice cream instead.

Ice cream is good on a hot day!