One thing that I thought was particularly painful, often times physically, when I was living in Angarsk and St. Petersburg was the process of going to purchase groceries. The act of shopping was not bad at all, since most of the time I did it with my wife and I enjoyed spending the time with her so much, but the hard part was carrying the groceries home. As some of you may not know, many people in Russia do not own vehicles and so you had to walk to and from shopping. carrying your purchases with you as you walked home. Their culture has adapted to this and neighborhoods have developed structural to accommodate this by strategically places markets within a reasonable walking distance within each neighborhood, usually within a couple of city blocks. However, there were those times when you wanted something specific that your closest market did not provide, and you had to walk a little further to get it.

In an effort to minimize trips to the store, especially if they were in opposite directions, you would often choose to purchase all your groceries in the same store, and if this happened to be one of those times when you had to walk a little further for something special, then you ended up carrying ALL of your groceries that extra distance home. My wife would graciously carry her share but being the man and all, I would opt to carry the heaviest bags, usually 3 or 4, and by the time we traversed the mile or so to the house, I was in pain. It was great exercise, and I lost weight doing it, but I dreaded it very much Yes, I know we Americans are spoiled, and often drive circles in the parking lot for 5 minutes just to park 20 foot closer to a store. By the way, my wife laughs at this and will not permit me to do it! This is a way of life for Russians though and now that I am back in the States, I miss it very much! Rain, snow, cold, or heat, you had to go to the store, and you had to walk. Yes, there were some stores that were accessible by bus, but you still had to walk at least a block to get to the bus, and then you had to fight the crowds with your bags so it was not often worth it. I miss it! I don't know how to describe it but it made life more a part of the outside elements and that was nice. Whatever the weather was, you were in it and a part of it everyday, and to me, that was nice. Here in the States, with my car parked in the garage, the most involvement I have with the weather for the most part is my dash from the car to my work building or the store.

This part of life was simpler there and it took a lot more time to accomplish things but this helped very much to slow the pace of life and that created a better lifestyle. My wife and I spent a lot more time together also. It was a nice time together while we walked and we had time to actually talk to each other.

I miss it!