As those of you who live in a foreign country know, it is the “small victories” which make all the frustrations of a different culture seem irrelevant. This week I had three such small victories:
1. I “discovered” that it IS POSSIBLE to buy Sugar-Free Red Bull. Red Bull mixed with vodka and a twist of lemon is a great drink. The problem for me had been “uglivodee” (aka carbs) or way too many is a standard can of Red Bull. Problem solved.
2. I learned how to “program” the treadmill at Orange Fitness to display Miles and Miles per Hour instead of kilometers. Although I have come to think in kilometers, sometimes it’s just nice to use the system you know best and not think. The funny thing is that every time I “reprogram” the treadmill I need to press about 27 buttons and the staff think I am another dumb foreigner who can’t figure-out the treadmill. Too bad my Russian is not yet good enough to explain to them that now that I can reprogram the machine (something which none of them can do) I am now at the “graduate level.”
3. Aram helped me buy a DVD player which is “region free.” See, every country has a region code assigned to it in an effort to block people from buying disks at a low cost in one country and then bringing them back home and using them. Therefore, the disks we had bought in the US (think Elmo and Princesses) wouldn’t play on Russian DVD players. Now that I have a “region free” player I can watch (and Dasha too) any disk we want. I think I will start with Vlad’s recommendation of Hotel Babylon.
If you have any “small victories” please share them with us in the Comments.
