En passant...

Sergey Z. called a little while ago to let me know that if I wanted to, I could join a van headed for town in... just under half an hour, whereupon I realized that I do not have my address book with me, so I shall have to adapt and improvise a new plan to send a few Christmas cards from Baikonur, at least for now.

During my previous trip into town, I bought a couple of packages of аджика (adzhika) mix, which is a condiment associated with Caucasian Georgia. The instructions on the mix suggest adding some salt and some wine vinegar (3-4%) to the desired semisolid consistency.

One interesting thing I notice is that the order of the ingredients differs with the language on the back of the package. The ingredients in Kazakh are: paprika, chili, coriander, sarymsak, and dill seed (names that are either identical to the Russian or cognate, except for sarymsak, which is probably garlic). In Russian, the order of these ingredients is: chili, dill seed, coriander, paprika, and garlic. This would suggest that there is no requirement, as there is in the United States, to state the ingredients in descending fractional order.

I must make a point of looking for birch twigs packaged for use in saunas. I had my third sauna yesterday and shared some interesting conversation with a fellow from Saab Space, who arrived a couple of days ago to install the clamp band that keeps the spacecraft attached to the adapter system, even when - and particularly when - the whole assembly is tilted from the vertical position into the horizontal.

More later, probably. Gotta go get ready for the trip.

Cheers...

A successful town trip...

Our time in town was limited, less than three hours. However, I managed to hit the main post office, the bookstore, and a few places inside the market, and even managed to grab a snack at the Ginza restaurant.

The meal was... interesting. I decided to throw caution to the wind and order something from the menu completely new to me. I selected bifun, which the waitress described as "living noodles," the meaning of which was completely lost on me. After some time, she came back with a covered dish, placed it before me and stood by expectantly.

I removed the cover.

My eyes must have bugged out for just an instant, because whatever it was that had been placed on top the broad, Japanese-style rice noodles (cheese, probably, sliced razor thin) was curling up and flailing around pretty much like something that was, indeed, alive and... well, if not kicking... at least wiggling around for all it was worth.

I was hungry enough to eat whatever was on my plate even if it had been a mass of wiggling worms, but as it turned out, the dish was quite tasty.

In other news, I managed to find a vendor of birch twig bunches (берёзовые веники) that are for use in saunas, which continue to be a mystery to me. I mean, I get the idea of the exercise - the heat, the plunge pool, and so on - it's the etiquette that befuddles me. I mean, it's easy enough when all of the participants are male, as locker-room rules from home seem to apply, but I'm not at all sure what the protocol might be should the session were to turn coed.

One of the regulars at the downstairs sauna told me, for example, that the French tend to be more modest than, say, the Germans, citing the example of a German family whose members - father, mother, and two teens - stripped to their birthday suits in "semi" public under circumstances not unlike ours here at the hotel.

There are also issues associated with setting the temperature (last night, it was 80°C, which suited me fine), pouring water on the hot rocks (which rapidly increases the humidity, and thus the sensible temperature), the addition of aromatic oils to said water (someone added a drop or two of peppermint oil to last night's water), and the consumption of beverages (beer seems to be the preferred boisson) either during or in between sessions in the heated area. Russians and Swedes seem born to the sauna; as an American, I'm enjoying the experience, but do struggle a little not to avoid committing a social faux pas, so to speak.

I've got some outside work I can be doing, and which I will start later tonight. For now, I plan to just continue my resumed "on call" duties.

Cheers...