When I was younger, I went to my mom's playschool with a girl named Rosie or otherwise known as "Yosie" as her baby triplet siblings called her. We shared many things in our childhood- sandwiches, reading competitions, clothes, Barbi dolls, chicken pox medicine and now, almost 20 years later, we are sharing the experience of living and working in Moscow together.
Rose arrived on Monday, slept off jet-lag on Tuesday and yesterday I took her out into the city to show her a bit of what I've learnt so far.
I had forgotten how it felt to start all over again and seeing things through a fresh pair of eyes, I found myself once again admiring a pretty steeple instead of watching my feet in case of slipping in ice.
The day started with buying a metro card, which took two ladies and three metro guards to do due to the complete communication breakdown between myself and the woman you purchase tickets from. This guards once scared me but now I find them to be slightly less intimidating as they are more helpful than anything else.
This was followed by a trip to Maree, Jacks and my favourite mall in order to buy a couple of things Rose would need- like a warm coat.
Walking around the mall we were stopped by one of the salesmen along the way who sells salt from the dead sea to wash your hands. His name was Erez and upon hearing we were from South Africa, was only too keen to ask us many more questions and offered much advice and hugs. It is very weird how being welcomed by someone, who doesn't really "go" here, and being given a huge hug by a complete strange can be rather comforting. We have began to discover that while Russian people can sometimes come across as "cold" (pun intended) once you open up to them and them to you, they are the most loyal and wonderful people. The friends we have made will do anything for us. It is really awesome to establish this foundation here, or anywhere for that matter.
I then found myself sitting in front of a mirror in a MAC make up store while an even friendlier lady made me feel like I was about to step out on the red carpet. I feel I should justify why I was in the MAC store for those of you who read the previous sentence with raised eyebrows. Firstly, enough of that Judgy.Secondly, due to my upcoming birthday, I decided to spoil myself. So there. That is my justification and I am sticking with it. The lady at the store kept commenting on how lovely it was to be able to speak English and converse with us, which she did very well I might add.
Rose and I then moved on to Marks and Spencers. Being distracted by all the beautiful clothes, we failed to see the very tall and equally beautiful models walking towards us. They were practicing their fashion show and we were on their runway. We found this hilarious but were then in the presence of the most amazing looking human I have ever seen up close. This man looked as though he walked off the cover of a magazine and into this Marks and Spencers. We were the ones doing this staring this time.
Some days are so good here that I feel like I live on the set of a movie.
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