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Tit Bits • Team ASL "A Spanish Life"


                                                              Tit Bits

 

Its surprising to find that all the cats and dogs that seem to wander around
homeless are so friendly, they seem to survive on scraps supplied from
numerous households and from scavenging through bins. Their lives seem
to be in constant danger, starvation or an accident is the most common
demise but if one of these unfortunate creatures can be captured then the
person doing the capturing can sell it for two lei. But don’t be alarmed,
Moldavian people do not eat them, they are just used to make soap!
The culture towards shopping is very different from our own, as it is
necessary for the people to do it on a daily basis. There isn’t any pleasure in
it what so ever, endless queues to buy nothing. This could be the reason why
all politeness seems to have gone, forget words like please and thank you,
all Russians simply say is ‘give me’.
There seems to be a great deal of everyday words from the English language
that has no meaning whatsoever in Russian. Words such as, is, are, a, and,
they do not exist, which not only makes it impossible to translate but
difficult to learn, as we use these words to join up sentences.
Water, gas, Heating and electricity are in the total control of the
government; they not only decide the cost but also when it is available. This
means that it is possible to be without all supplies at once if they so wish.
With temperatures as low as minus twenty-five, life becomes very cold and
miserable.
A few months after the great independence, for some reason the country ran
out of tobacco for four months. The capitalist amongst the people quickly
came up with the idea of hunting the streets and tips for old cigarette ends
which they would take apart so as to extract the little tobacco it held, put it
into small bags and sell it on the street markets for an extortionate price.
Apart from Vodka, it seems that the country' s delicacies is sunflower seeds.
Little old ladies sell them on every street corner. These seeds are cracked
open in the mouth and the small seed eaten. The hard shell then is spat out.
It seems to be a pastime occupied by old and young alike. Trying it just
once when it took me ten minutes to open one and its contents was nothing
to get excited about.
                                      

In general the dentist is feared here as in our own country, but for a very
different reason. With the lack of medicines teeth are filled without any
anaesthetic and for those who cannot pay, teeth are also extracted in the
same way.
The situation for some has gotten so bad that they have gone into the grave
robbing business, not only for the clothes and jewellery but bodies are also
stolen. Once a woman who had buried her husband in his Sunday best
discovered that a winning lottery ticket had been left in his suit pocket.
After seeking permission to resume his body she found that her husband
was naked. Some weeks later a man was arrested trying to claim the lottery
prize.
Insisting that it was his ticket, a fact that was difficult to disprove, but then it
was discovered that the suit, which he was wearing, belonged to the dead
man and still had his name tags sewn into the lining.
Russians play cards with a passion, but their games are very different from
our own mainly because their packs do not have twos, threes, fours and
fives in them. In total only thirty-six cards.
A spider loving people, it is believed to have one in
ones house is good luck, but to kill it is a sin.
Television can be very confusing at times. Some programmes that have
been made in English are dubbed in German; it then has a Russian voice
talking over the German and is subtitled in Rumanian. The silly thing about
it all is that they only have one speaker for all the parts.
With so many different languages being spoken, it is quite common for a
family to have a conversation in four languages.
In this lawless country, the corruption has even got on to the television with
pirate videos being shown on a daily basis. Three Lei a month is the cost of
a subscription fee to watch films that have company warnings stating that
they are not for retail showing or hire. Also if one watches them it should be
reported. This also extends to the music industry with open copying done in
department stores, and then sold for a fraction of the price in the streets.
                                        

In most houses you will see the normal collection of glasses and plates on
display, but amongst the cut glass you will find wrapping papers from
chocolate bars like Mars or Twix these are treasured items due to them
being rare Western things.
Market and street sellers are regarded as being people of privilege and
looked upon as influential with in the community, because they are regarded
as the new Capitalists. Standing outside in the snow in temperatures of
minus 15 from six in the morning until dark in my mind is nothing special,
even more so when you would be lucky to make £1 per day.
The financial system of each of the new countries are still very connected
with each other. For example in a one month period the Rouble in Russia
was devalued, so the Ukraine banned the Dollar in an attempt to stabilized
the Coupon, and Moldova made it illegal to use any coins. The reason given
was that a lot had been forged, and not the real reason that they could not
afford to make them any more.
There is no heat control in any of the apartments, only the government can
decided how hot or cold you are. Or when you can have it on.

 


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