My world has become one big game of charades. Since my Russian is limited to about 20 words, I have to act out most everything to everyone around me. Day after day....charades!
Take, for example....
In IKEA, to tell our Russian speaking driver that I want to look around for awhile - 2 fingers (peace sign) in the eyes - then around the room symbol. Easy enough.
To tell our driver I’m going to walk into the bank - the “let your fingers do the walking” symbol of index and middle finger walking on the palm of my hand. Check - that works.
Looking for matches at the grocery store (those who know me well know I’m a fanatic about candles....this girl needs to light her candles!). I spent 5 minutes with the grocery store manager acting out “matches”. I found a package of birthday candles and used my hand to make a small explosion at the top of my index finger...clearly the charade for match - right? After multiple attempts - no clue....I put the b-day candles down and left in defeat. (For whatever reason, matches are one of the elusive items not to be found in Moscow - my neighbor finally took pity and gave me a book of matches she picked up at a hotel).
Ever thought about how you would charade toilet paper? I did...and decided to hunt it down on my own...no matter how long it took.
I’ve also found myself in hysterics, laughing, when the charade process doesn’t work after about 7 or 8 minutes. I have this out of body experience where I’m looking down on the scene and realize how completely idiotic I must look. What am I doing??? Most of the time, from the “charadee”, I get a dead-pan look back...and finally the shaking of the head that signals....nope...nada...nyet...not playing...game over. So then you realize you can get along without many things, but tomorrow is always another day!
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