About Russia... really

[Himitsu]

Considering the original Russia thread got taken over by ships, I decided to start a new one to ask Goric about his offer to buy things in Russia for us to pay him back.

The main problem I am having is not knowing what's available. Do they have good food that my father or I would enjoy eating? Do they have a good kind of clothes or art? I don't have a lot of money but would enjoy having a trinket from Russia if I just knew what is available or neat to buy.

[Althus]

You want one of the fur caps.

Trust me, you do.

[Himitsu]

Originally posted by Althus
You want one of the fur caps.

Okey, how much do these fur caps cost and do they come in different sizes or colors or styles? Can I have a picture of them to see if I want to buy one?

[Aethelred]

LOL

Watch any movie with Russian soliders in it - they all wear fur caps to identify them [;)]

For those of you old enough to remember when there WAS a Berlin Wall and Cold War, and who read about or followed Intelligence activities (or if you have read any Solzhenitsyn at all), you might this entertaining:

About two years after the Wall came down, my father went to Russia with a group designed to further business and financial dealings between the US and Russia. He said one of the most compelleing and unusual things he found was that they have now turned the Lubyanka Prison (or part of it anyway) into a tourist center! Visit the famous cells! Tour the KGB Museum and Gift Shop! Talk about change...

(And yes, he brought me back a fur cap - complete with the old Soviet Army insignia)


Aethelred

p.s.
He also got sick as a dog from the food and water - it is apparently as hard on the American digestive system as Central American is.

[GrayGradi]

Although I've never been to Russia, a Russian gave me a gift once which means much more to me than a mere fur hat.

In my days of teaching computer performance seminars in Europe, Asia and the U.S., I had three Russians attend a seminar I gave in Germany. (Although I frequently had Eastern Europeans attend, this was the only time Russians actually attended; these three could come only because they they had been seconded to the IT department of a Bulgarian bank which had some hard currency assets to pay for the seminar.)

At the end of the seminar the leader of these three badly wanted to give me some gift as a token of appreciation for the job I had done in the seminar. Unfortunately, he had no money to buy anything, but he found one thing among his possessions which, somewhat sheepishly, he offered. It was a simple plastic carrier bag of the type given out to convention attendees to stuff all the brochures and junk one normally picks up. But this bag was from the 1989 Soviet Traveling Exhibition and was adorned with a large graphic rendering of the word "Perestroika".

I was touched by the gift, for it was meant as far more than an expression of thanks between two individuals. To this day, it hangs prominently on my office wall.

----------------------

Speaking of gifts to the seminar leader, I often received small tokens from my European students, but rarely from Americans. The one exception to this was a fellow from Florida. At the seminar end, after thanking me for all the information I had conveyed, he told me he moonlighted as an instructor at a sky diving school. He said the next time I was near his location, I should be sure to stop by, and he would take me up for a free jump lesson.

(It was a nice moment to end that seminar, for this took place the week of the Challenger shuttle disaster, and the atmosphere had been rather somber throughout the seminar.)

My wife happened to be with me at this seminar, and afterwards, she asked me if she should find out from the fellow whether his offer was because he thought I had done a good job, or a bad job...