The Little Things

While being in a city that is so vast, you begin to feel like part of an ant colony and just part of the system because things function like a well oiled machine. When you take on this perspective life starts to feel a little daunting and so it's important to zoom back in. You zoom in on your little functioning life and how you cope with how you have to function in your own oiled machine. We are still working on oiling the parts at the moment to be clear.
Throughout the day I have been noticing the small changes in everyday ant life that are different to that of life in South Africa. These changes and things are miniscule but they make all the difference to the oiling process. Strange how much the little things can have an impact on the bigger things.

Our location for today's adventures was set in a mall where we set out to do some grocery shopping as well as find shoes for Maree in order to keep her around a bit longer.

The grocery store was fascinating to me.
(The details which follow could highlight how little I've been exposed to in my life or how different life is for people elsewhere in the world but either way, I'm gonna write them down. If all else fails, my parents will still love me.)
Firstly, the trolleys are even on a higher functioning level. Baskets with wheels and can move around very easily because you merely pull the basket in the direction you want it to go by moving the handle. No awkward trolley reversing in aisles for me anymore!
However, the weird and annoying part of this shopping experience was that before you go into the grocery store, you have to bag EVERYTHING in this huge clear plastic bags and seal them. Much to our dismay, we had done a fair amount of shopping before which led to us having to be there a while. My comment was that we didn't even have to do that in South Africa and crime is supposedly much worse; to which Jackie responded that maybe this was why. -_-
In South Africa, it is someone's job to weigh veggies and pack groceries. Here, you look up the code and weigh things yourself as well as pack your own groceries once they've been rung up. I felt somewhat disillusioned and naive thinking that it was definitely harder than it looked. The range of products is unbelievable and would probably be far more impressive if we could actually read the labels but just judging by the pictures and look of things, Moscow's not too bad off.

The different shops that we've gone in and out of all day have been the best I've ever seen. I have already spent my pay mentally and I know that birthday present shopping is going to be the most fun.

Speaking of small changes making all the difference, we found out pretty quickly that even a slight change in the number of the metro buses obviously can be a matter of being lost in the big city. We were absolutely set on our bus 116 which would bring us straight home. We ended up running across a road (note: not in Moses fashion) in order to climb on, only to be told around the corner that we had to get off. At least that's what we assumed when everyone who was on the bus got off leaving only the three of us sitting there alone. The driver then had to get up and tell us (at least we think) that we had to get off, much to our amusement. The only option was to laugh at this point and once we were done, we sat on the side of the road and began to wonder if we would ever see the faces of Dean and Freddie McFly again. A Babushka (which is the Russian form of a Gogo I guess) came over and attempted to help us. Due to the communication failure (which happens all the time and makes us seem rude and stupid) this was difficult but she very forcefully managed to make us get onto another bus by pointing in the general direction of the next stop and holding up two fingers. We felt very obliged to do as told because she watched us all the way and when the bus arrived made very insistent gestures toward the bus. We got to the next stop and onto our dear 116 route again. We also made a huge show of our excitement when it arrived I might add.Slowly beginning to recognise small things close to where we're staying also helps and brings about feelings of comfort and familiarity.

Another thing I noticed which made my heart warm (helpful in this weather) was that you can pay for an extra coffee or meal when you go to a restaurant which can be collected by a person worse off than yourself later. They will come in at some point in the day and enquire if any meals or coffee has been placed on order for them and can happily receive a coffee or meal. Imagine an entire world where people who could afford to buy one other person a coffee would do so...everyone would have coffees in cold weather.

Like I said, the small things can really change the bigger things.