Bad news for men world wide =(

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

It's all coming to a bad end. Just give it time.

They also have a store which is similar to Lowe's. Actually very similar to a chain they have in Canada called "Rona". Strange place. Given the labor rates, it is much cheaper to pay someone to build things like doors and windows than to buy factory made doors and windows. Also, almost everything is ordered and what they have is simply a display model. They do not have rows and rows of instock doors and windows like they have here. The tools are interesting and always were. It is like they are stuck in the 40's or 50's. It was certainly one of the interesting and challenging things about building there. Our workers used to build their own ladders. The power tools are huge and heavy, like 1940's portable saws and the huge drills we used to have. They are also far more expensive than here. It is not the norm for someone to own a drill or a power saw, whereas here it seems every household has one.

That ios a huge difference between the two places. The things we have and own for hobbies and DIY projects if far and away different, and much is due to labor costs. Here it is much cheaper to buy a tool and do it yourself, there it is cheaper to pay someone to do it for you. But they do a lot of things there this way...fixing shoes and clothes instead of buying new ones, etc. Alla had her wedding dress made for her at a shop because it was the cheapest way to get one!

[Brusik 11]

I agree people seem to walk more. I went to Tbilisi I weighed 156.. When I returned to Seattle I weighed 146.. In 10 days I lost 10 lbs. Meat and Potatoes everday haha and cheese bread.. Lots of walking.....I wish I still smoked when I was there.. Dollar a pack for Marlboro.. If that was the price in America I would never have quit..

[Captain Hammer 113]

I wish I still smoked when I was there.. Dollar a pack for Marlboro.. If that was the price in America I would never have quit..

That's ok, plenty of other cheap stuff here in America to kill you too.

[Brusik 11]

That's ok, plenty of other cheap stuff here in America to kill you too.

You implying cheap liquor haha

I havent smoked in 2.5 years and no drink in 20years..

I need an addiction so what in America is cheap :dance:

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

You implying cheap liquor haha

I havent smoked in 2.5 years and no drink in 20years..

I need an addiction so what in America is cheap :dance:

Heroin is cheap, especially that China White.

[Brusik 11]

Heroin is cheap, especially that China White.

In my youth it was Peruvian Coke :dance:

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I smoked until the day I had my heart attack.

I used to smuggle back a bunch of those $8/carton Marlboros. I still might. 10 cartons was enough savings at Vermont prices to pay for a plane ticket. Plane tickets cost more now. I tell Alla @I should start smoking again so we can save enough money smuggling cigarettes to pay for my ticket" She doesn't fall for it. I always bring back some cheap Ukrainian vodka for friends, it is probably not the kind of vodka you should give for gifts, I don;t drink so I wouldn't know, but it is genuine Ukrainian.

I never got caught with the cigarettes and all evidence is now gone. I burned it.

[Brusik 11]

I smoked until the day I had my heart attack.

I used to smuggle back a bunch of those $8/carton Marlboros. I still might. 10 cartons was enough savings at Vermont prices to pay for a plane ticket. Plane tickets cost more now. I tell Alla @I should start smoking again so we can save enough money smuggling cigarettes to pay for my ticket" She doesn't fall for it. I always bring back some cheap Ukrainian vodka for friends, it is probably not the kind of vodka you should give for gifts, I don;t drink so I wouldn't know, but it is genuine Ukrainian.

I never got caught with the cigarettes and all evidence is now gone. I burned it.

I was thinking of get rich scheme. I wanted to buy crates of cigarrettes and sell them cheap in America.. Marlboro 3 dollars a pack lol

Then my idea was ruined lol only allowed 2 cartons on the plane #$()@#$&_@#()

[Captain Hammer 113]

You implying cheap liquor haha

I havent smoked in 2.5 years and no drink in 20years..

I need an addiction so what in America is cheap :dance:

Heh, you name it, whatever your drug of choice is. Drugs, Twinkies, fast food, Big Gulps, guns, bungee jumping, paragliding, street racing...you name it. We may not have more ways of killing yourself, but ours are more fun.

[^_^ 5,021]

Heh, you name it, whatever your drug of choice is. Drugs, Twinkies, fast food, Big Gulps, guns, bungee jumping, paragliding, street racing...you name it.

And that's just the legal stuff. There's tons more here that's illegal but just as (or maybe more) plentiful.

[Brusik 11]

Just put them in your checked baggage. I did it...several times, we'll leave it at that.

I wanted cases and cases lol not a few cartons

[Captain Hammer 113]

I wanted cases and cases lol not a few cartons

Cheapest way to get cheap cigs in this country is to do what the pros do. Hijack a Walmart truck and sell 'em out of your trunk in a parking lot.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

They also have a store which is similar to Lowe's. Actually very similar to a chain they have in Canada called "Rona". Strange place. Given the labor rates, it is much cheaper to pay someone to build things like doors and windows than to buy factory made doors and windows. Also, almost everything is ordered and what they have is simply a display model. They do not have rows and rows of instock doors and windows like they have here. The tools are interesting and always were. It is like they are stuck in the 40's or 50's. It was certainly one of the interesting and challenging things about building there. Our workers used to build their own ladders. The power tools are huge and heavy, like 1940's portable saws and the huge drills we used to have. They are also far more expensive than here. It is not the norm for someone to own a drill or a power saw, whereas here it seems every household has one.

That ios a huge difference between the two places. The things we have and own for hobbies and DIY projects if far and away different, and much is due to labor costs. Here it is much cheaper to buy a tool and do it yourself, there it is cheaper to pay someone to do it for you. But they do a lot of things there this way...fixing shoes and clothes instead of buying new ones, etc. Alla had her wedding dress made for her at a shop because it was the cheapest way to get one!

I know what you mean. I added a hot water on demand tank to Kira's apt. there and what should have been a simple and easy job turned out to be a bloody night mare. Even getting my hands on some teflon tape was an adventure in itself not to mention the two ball valves I needed for the job. It took a trip all the way to Minsk just to get the stuff. Not sure about Ukraine, but in Minsk all the dept. stores are loaded down with security and everything is "behind the counter" where you have to ask for it. It's like you said...stuck in the 1940's.

I got the chance to watch a five guys take hours to change out a water main where here it would have taken two guys a few hours tops...more likely less than an hour. Those guys had ghetto tools and seeing how they were working on the governments dime...they were in no rush so to say.

Like you said, everyone there seems to be a handy man. Cut your own glass for the doors, etc... it's a trip.

Funny thing is when I was working in Sakhalin Island the Russian workers there had no gloves, were usually ripped off of pruno and vodka they made in the camp, yet they could weld like nobody's fool. Good workers when they showed up, but they would steal the light bulbs out of their own Atco trailers every chance they got. The Russian oil company's there were making bank yet paying those guys pure ####### wages. I was embarrassed by what we were making per hour vs what they got paid.

[TBoneTX 43,419]

Just out of curiousity..... are the portion sizes in American fast food restaurants overseas the same as the portion sizes in domestic fast food restaurants? For instance, I find a large beverage in Canada is the same size as a small in the US. Plus there are no free refills.

In Quito, Ecuador (the capital city, which does NOT mean that a very, very vocal rooster is NOT downtown somewhere, crowing like a ####### from 3 a.m. onward), I walked to the Burger King and managed to communicate, in perfect pidgin Spanish, that I wanted 6 hamburgers (my usual in the U.S.). Upon hearing me, the first clerk looked extremely alarmed and pointed me toward the bathroom. The second clerk understood, it seemed. I stressed "Sin lechuga, sin tomate" (without lettuce, without tomato) at least 3 times. "Comprende, amigo?" (Do you understand, buddy?) "Si, man," he said.

I ended up with 6 hamburgers (far thicker than in the U.S.) loaded with lettuce and tomato. I had intended to eat 5 for dinner and to save one for breakfast before catching the taxi to the airport. I was able to eat exactly 3 for dinner, and half of one for breakfast. What a waste, man.

Otherwise: In Guayaquil (the largest city), I first went to the Taco Bell in the food court in the big mall. They were out of tacos, si man. I went to the adjacent KFC (known in Ecuadorian longhand as Kentucky Pollo Frito) and ordered 3 pollo sandwiches (my usual in the U.S.), "sin lechuga." I was given 3 huge pollo sandwiches, thicker than in the U.S., loaded with lettuce, and 3 Pepsis, and 3 orders of French fries (thick ones). Mrs. T-B. was socializing with some of her hyskool girlfriends elsewhere in the food court, so this kept me out of trouble (and away from the hen-party) for a good long time. When I finished and went over to meet them, I believe that I must have spontaneously belched, because the girlfriends giggled and Mrs. T-B. looked mortified. ("My work here is done," I mused at the time.)

Addendum: In Cuenca (the third-largest city), I, Mrs. T-B., Mama-Mrs.-T-B., and youngest-sister-of-Mrs.-T-B. went to the food court in the large mall there. We went to the Kentucky Pollo Frito. They were out of pollo, but told us to wait 40 minutes. (There, fast food wasn't fast; I imagined that they were out catching and plucking the pollos.)

There, as in any restaurant in Ecuador, no matter what one eats (slimy tacos, greasy pollo frito, or whatever), one is given one teeny-tiny inadequate napkin, which apparently is considered to be adequate, because the natives expect to wash their hands in the restrooms that have no soap, no towels, and sometimes no running water. Having learned this the hard way on my very first visit, I would subsequently always take and use up a copious supply of U.S. fast-food napkins, and also generously hand them out to needy relatives, si man.

Oh -- and on a trip before the above, I ordered 6 tacos at the Guayaquil Taco Bell (in Mrs. T-B.'s presence), and she said that the clerk was floored that anyone, even a gringo, could eat as many as 6 tacos, si man. I proudly carry the flag so that America remains #1, si man.

[AmyWrites 593]

Where I live in Moscow, there's a McD's right smack next to the metro station. It's ALWAYS full of people. I can walk past there at 3 am, 3 pm, noon, etc, doesn't matter... always packed with people. I'm seeing more and more overweight people here, especially overweight children, and men and women who seem to hit the 35+ mark and just eat until they die. IMHO the younger (I mean older teens and 20 somethings) women seem to be gaining weight more so than the young guys, who I find are usually so thin they look too young. It's not as bad as in the US, but it is a problem that seems to be increasing.

Go to Arbat now... Dunkin Donuts, Wendy's, Starbucks, all that #######. I hate that street; talk about ruining a historic place with crappy American fastfood; I miss American food sometimes but it's not so good when fastfoods plague nearly every street of nearly every capital on the planet. Random note, I nearly died when my SO told me he was taking me to a restaurant with "real Mexican food", and it was Chilli's.

More cars doesn't mean much, I think. At least in Moscow it's hell to drive anywhere, or park, so most people I know take the metro or something during the week and sometimes, during the weekends, use the car for long drives.