Jitneys and banya hats

This is Bob in his new parka. Such jackets for kids are called "alaskas."
Our destination on this wet and snowy morning was Akademgorodok “Shah,” or the lower part. Not sure exactly why it is lower: physically, economically, or just what.



The jitneys are called “gazelles” because the company that makes them is called Ga (or is in a town named Ga) and after the African animal known for its speed. [Do look at Paulina and Sasha's comments to get the correct info here.] They are usually 13-passenger vans. It took a couple of trys before one came by with enough seats for all six of us. This one was too full for us. Paulina, Olga, Sasha, Jane, and Bob are deciding that we'll wait for another #7.






Olga and Jane in the jitney.













Sasha and Peggy across from them.











Paulina and Bob in the front of the bus.









Olga, Sasha, Paulina, Jane, and Bob at Bellalissimo, a restaurant in three parts: coffee, pizza, and Japanese. [Paulina and Sasha explain my Italian in the comments--have a look!] Our conversation this morning focused on food: what we call it; how we cook it; how it grows in gardens. Olga and Jane said their families grew shallots but they were unavailable in the market. They want us to try Cedar seeds—from the pine cone. We told them about pine nuts but they didn’t know what they were. We asked them about banyas because we have been invited by Olga G for one tomorrow. They said we needed banya hats and would go shopping with us!



Saturday is a regular school day at the university. So after our coffee time, the students went off to class. Paulina is holding a copy of the newspaper with an article announcing the opening of a Starbucks in Moscow next fall.



At the end of classes, we returned to the university to meet Paulina, Sasha, and Olga to go shopping for the banya hats. We went to a bed/bath store in the Trade Center and looked at several different styles of hats. Paulina thought we should get one that said Siberia on the front. We finally decided on a Napoleon-looking triangle affair that has flowers on the front for me. Bob demurred on the hat purchase for him.



We all had a small snack before we did some grocery shopping on the way home. Sasha helped Bob get some ham because he couldn’t find the stuff he’s been buying. I found a bag of pine nuts to show them and they turned out to be the cedar seeds that they had been describing this morning. They showed us the cirok curds they had told us about earlier in the week. They look something like a cross between cottage cheese and very dry cream cheese.