Friday, May 30, 2008

сыром есть? (seerum est?)

Across the street from the school is a samsa stand, where nearly every day I buy a lovely, flaky, buttery pastry filled with cheese. This is known as a самса с сыром (samsa with cheese), or simply "сыром" for short. Every day I go to this stand and ask, "сыром есть?" (Do you have cheese?) because sometimes they've sold out of cheese, and other times the bazaars aren't carrying the cheese they use. The stand is run by a woman and her son, who is probably about 12 years old. The woman has always been friendly, but it took a while for her son to warm up to me, although now he always grins from ear to ear when he sees me. Anyway, a little after 9pm, I was walking to the internet cafe (where I am currently sweating away as their AC is broken and this place has no ventilation), when I heard a shy voice say, "сыром есть?" I turned around and there were the boy and his mother, on their way home, grinning profusely at seeing me in some other context. Totally made my day. Now I'm going to go home and boil some bathwater.

No comments: