С новым годом!

Russians give presents to each other on New Year's rather than Christmas. Cultural sensitivity being my middle name, I'm ending 2008 with three presents to myself.

1. After finding out that the $2 DVD stand in the metro that I knew about from my study abroad in 2006 had closed down (horrors! and also shock--the police actually did something about media piracy? what country am I in again?), I located a $2 DVD store (ah, still Russia. Okay.). Will the DVDs work? I don't know, but for $2, I'm willing to find out!

2. My first paycheck. It came in cash, in a small, unmarked white envelope. Love it.

And, most importantly...

3. Peanut butter. Glorious, glorious, over-priced peanut butter, how I've missed you. I looked everywhere for this last time I was here; only independent confirmation of its availability convinced me to try one more time. I was seriously willing to go up to $15 for a small jar of this, so the fact that it was only twice as expensive as in the US struck me as an incredible bargain. I am also wowed by my prescience in not just grabbing the first jar I saw and running off with it but checking the label and realizing that there were ordinary and sugar-free versions, which were indistinguishable except by looking at the ingredients list. (If I'm going to pay top dollar for peanut butter, it had sure as hell better have sugar in it. It's been over two weeks since I had peanut butter; diet is not going to cut it.) My Russian friends don't understand. My Belgian friend is actively disgusted. The stuff might be made in China, so it probably has anti-freeze or something in it. I don't care. Maybe now the withdrawal symptoms will stop.

Happy New Year!