Russian Breakfast

Today I was eating cornflakes. Now the significance is just a memory for me, but i thought I would share it anyway.

While in Russia we made our own meals. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were prepared by me and the team. None of us were really huge breakfast eaters nor were we morning people, except for my co-leader Ben, so many times although it was freezing outside we decided to have cereal and milk for breakfast. Fast easy prep and really easy cleanup :)

Anyway....we had the luxury of the choice of milk and cereal which was a huge blessing, but things always look a little different in a foreign country. Morning #2 of our stay in Russia and we needed milk to go with our cereal. (By the way mom...they don't have healthy cereal in Russia! It is all sweetened and kid-like. I LOVE IT!) Again a preface-our team does not speak Russian and the alphabet is soooo much different than the American alphabet so it is really difficult to figure out what you are getting at the grocery store.

Out we go to the store to get our milk and the assumption is....if it is in a quart container it is milk....that is the way things are done in America. So we buy two quarts of "milk" to bring back and eat with our cereal. I go to shake the container and there is a heavy slosh to the milk, so I decided to open it and smell to make sure it is not rotten. Upon opening the container and peering in, I see a more solid but still liquid form of milk....not rotten just a form of yogurt with a bitter bitter smell.

Russians LOVE yogurt. They also like it on their cereal, but it is often times plain and bitter and very very watery. Needless to say we did not eat our cornflakes with milk that morning nor did we eat them with yogurt.

Not wanting to waste the gallon of "stuff" we bought, after about a week and some convincing from my Russian friends I tried it on my cornflakes. Not too bad, but let's just say I much prefer milk on my cornflakes :)