Re: little things

HI! Yes, I'm from Russia, with love :) Only I'm not from Moscow, I'm from smaller city called Kaliningrad, it's Russian territory that's separate from the rest of Russia, it's on the Baltic sea right near Poland (20 minutes) and it's much more western/european. But of course everyone living there are russian and we have russian food. You are right, food over there is GREAT. Me and my husband went there for 10 days a year ago. Fisrt of all I felt much better over there, I don't know why. And we couldn't stop eating!!!!! My husband gained like 5 pounds, but I lost about 5 pounds, because we were walking a lot, much more then we do here.
Ponchiki are the best over there, you can't compare them to donuts. I'm not much of a meat eater, never have been, so you have to forgive me on that one. I still love pelmeni though, just depends on what kind of meat. I do cook a lot of russian foods at home. Do you know Borsch? It's actually Ukranian dish, but you might as well call it russian, also. I make it a lot, every week. It's yammy and it lasts for like 5 days, never spoils in the fridge. Also, I make Oliv'e, it's a salad, extremely popular in russia, everyone knows it (boiled eggs, boiled carrots, boiled potatoes, sweet peas, onion, meet, I use turkey bolony, and pickles, everything cut up to little pieces, and mayonese) - my husband eats it in one sitting.
I miss Kvas, the real one from big yellow barrels. I don't know if you know, they are just selling it on the streets. It's the best drink EVER! They sell it here in russian stores, they ship from russia, but it's in cans or bottles and not as good as the fresh one. And also expensive. Also, my grandparents always had 3 gardens, so every year we had all the fruits, veggies and berries - fresh from trees/shrubs. We ate them dirty, straight from the trees or from the ground, TONS of apples, cherries, straberries, raspberries, GOD, EVERYTHING! Never got sick. I miss that. I bet people here don't even know how a raspberry bush looks like, for example. Also my grandma would make juices and jams, because there was some much fruits and berries left over, that 4 of us grandkids and our friends couldn't finish during whole summer.
Just the atmosphere over there is different, even the air is different. I guess it feels like that for me because it's home. I left when I was 18, big girl, and I really miss living there, everything about it. Oh well. Now I have a husband here and we will be living from paycheck to paycheck for the rest of our lives. It's not so bad probably. Just... this life doesn't seem natural to me.