agriculture?

does agriculture have anything to do with culture?
I thought I'd write about some cultural differences that I've noticed
Hope you enjoy it, Tessa!

-taking a taxi: you just stick your hand out into the street.. maybe a taxi will stop and maybe just a random car will stop if the driver is looking for some extra cash. I was also warned that taxi drivers carry baseball bats and they don't play baseball. There's no seatbealts in cabs. I always look for one, but they laugh.. "you don't have to wear a seatbelt" ha ha. silly me. what was I thinking? It's not illegal to not wear a seatbelt, so why would you wear one?
One morning I was running super late and I wanted to take a cab and there were 3 drivers standing there and 2 had a beer in their hand. (it was 9am) So I picked the one that didn't have a beer. But then I thought after that maybe he's just the fast drinker of the group.

Russians are very superstitious it seems. maybe we are too, but I feel kind of overwhelmed with the rules here. maybe just cause there's so many, or maybe cause they're new to me.
-you can't sit on the ground or by monuments or on steps. bad for your health
-empty bottles must be places on the floor, and NOT the table. otherwise it means you'll have no money.
-if you're passing jewellery between people, you must set it somewhere and then the other person picks it up. No direct jewerelly exchange. not sure why.
-black cat = bad! (we have this one too I think)
- if you forget something and you come back to get it, you must look in the mirror and smile. or it'll be bad news.

also, it's impossible to buy cd's in Kaliningrad that aren't pirated. Pirated cd's cost about $6 CAD and are available in all cd stores. It looks like HMV, except for everything is pirated. When I discovered this, I was very excited. I bought some Thievery Corporation, (Anna, it's so great!)

I already talked about the lateness thing. Odds are, if you're meeting a Russian, you can't be impatient, cause you'll go nuts. And don't expect an apology after waiting for an hour, either.

Drinking on the street is okay. bringing a beer with you into the cab is okay. Or a cooler or a bottle of vodka. No problem. brings the concept of pre-drinking to a whole new level.

No Recycling. I asked somebody from Ekaterinburg if there's any recycling and he said, "of course! we burn our garbage in the forest" Maybe I'm a bit extreme, but here I feel like some type of environmental freakshow.
Recycling vs. burning garbage? Not using the energy produced from the fire for anything else? Why didn't we think of that? We could just burn everything, people! paper, glass, mercury, muclear waste, scrap metal, batteries, plastic, rubber. Why the need for the 3 R's when you can "just burn it!" (that'll be my new recycle slogan) Plus, that would be one hell of a fire. I'll bring marshmallows.

-they don't drink alot of water here. More tea. tea tea tea. coffee. mostly tea, though. i guess cause they have to boil the water anyways, might as well make tea out of it.
Also, there's no place in the city where you can buy a coffee to go.. like Tim Hortons or second cup or starbucks or 7-11 or Mcdonald's. I'm not a fan, I'll admit.
No travel mugs either.

Today we went to an orphanage to hang out with the kids. Galia, max and I taught a group of 7 teenage boys how to play rummy. (I'm teaching rummy to the world!)

Okay, that's all that comes to mind right now, so I'm signing off. Good night. See ya later. Enjoy the pictures.