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What I'm taking to Russia/Tatarstan
One of my friends in Russia asked me to bring her a few items. What, you may reasonably ask, does a Russian citizen who has previously been in the US want me to bring her? She wants:
- An iPad 3. iPads are significantly more expensive in Russia.
- Two packages of semi-sweet chocolate morsels — She got in the habit of making chocolate chip cookies in the US and wants to make some more. That's not a standard item on Russian grocery story shelves. Nor is peanut butter. The latter I never miss. I can't even think of the last time I ate peanut butter. It's like cilantro. Why the hell would I put that in mouth?
- A children's book in Spanish, purchased during my trip to Spain. She wants to expose her child early to foreign languages. Do you hear that, America? That's why the rest of the world is going to outpace us over the next 100 years, because we keep doing asinine things like the "English only" legislation in AZ. There is so much to be proud of in the US, but things like that simply make us look like assholes.
She doesn't know it yet, but I will also bring her a "Smart Cover" for her iPad, which allows you to put your iPad in a standing position either in landscape or portrait position. A new mother can use the things that free her hands when dealing with a newborn.
I will try to bring her as well either the book "On Beyond Zebra," my favorite Dr. Seuss Book, or "Amigo," the story of a boy's friendship with a prairie dog. I grew up on both of the books, and the Dr. Seuss' one I seriously think influenced my life toward studying languages.
I'm going to link Amazon on both of those books below. That probably seems really capitalist, but I snatched the images from there, so it only seems fair.
3 comments
Peanut Butter, like cilantro is God’s gift to us that shows he loves us. Not a day goes by without PB! I thought you have left, let’s try and talk before you do.
Oh, and I’ve never read either book. I’m so American :(
and ReCaptcha is a pain to read!
You know what rocked my world about Russia not having it? Brown sugar. That would have driven me crazy if I’d realized while I was there.