I popped into the local Asian grocery shop this afternoon to get a break from the office and to get out of the never-ending rain. I was hoping to find some Russian items- perhaps caviar, chocolates, or tea. Instead the aisles were filled with east Asian delights such as preserved duck eggs,
fish snack,
Snake Brand prickly heat powder,
and a little bit of jasmine rice.
OK, so I still can't get the neighbor to talk to me. However, I've almost decided that she's not speaking Russian. The problem is that I can't get close enough to really hear what she's saying. She goes silent when I get close enough to potentially make out clear syllables.
In the meantime, I decided to distract myself with some Portuguese lessons. I feel so dorky when speaking Brazilian Portuguese! Why? The only reason I can conjure up is that I have never heard Brazilian Portuguese spoken in real life, so it sounds really artificial when I fumble a few words out. Beside Portuguese, the only other language that I've studied, but never heard in real life, is Esperanto. I felt pretty dorky with Esperanto, too, but that might be for a different reason.
We have new neighbors down the way. It is a blond woman, a plump man, a little blond girl, and a big dog. I think I heard the woman speaking Russian. When I smile and say hello, she turns her head away and acts like she doesn't hear me. Her little girl is cute and friendly, but each time that the little girl makes neighborly eye contact with me, the woman yells at her.
I haven't heard the woman speaking in her native language long enough to make out if it is truly Russian or another slavic sounding language. I think this means that I need to do some more neighborly spying chatting.
