1. There is Dill in EVERYTHING!
2. Sign of the Cross
3. Paying for a Marshrutka Ride
4. So. Much. Mayonnaise.
5. Packaging
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6. Customer Service
One example of this is when Maggie went to take advantage of a cheap manicure one day. (It costs about $2.50 for a manicure without polish here and only $10 for a shellac-polish manicure!) When she got to the counter, the worker asked her to come back in 20 minutes because she was trimming her own nails behind the counter! When Maggie came back for her manicure 20 minutes later, a second worker gave her a manicure while the first worker (who had asked her to leave and come back later) had a third worker do her nails!
7. Treating People Like People...
One example of this phenomenon occurred on Valentine's Day. We decided to go on a date to a nice restaurant, so we asked if we could reserve a table for 6:30 pm. They told us that we could arrive anytime after 5 pm and stay as long as we wanted up until 11 pm, as there would be special music playing the whole time. Unlike American restaurants, which, in our experience, would want to get in at least 2 seatings on a big night like Valentine's Day to maximize revenues, this restaurant reserved our table for us all evening so that we could enjoy ourselves and feel no urge to rush.
The other two examples that come to mind to illustrate this point both involve marshrutkas. (Food and buses seem to have unintentionally emerged as the theme of this entry!) When walking along the street (typically towards a bus stop to catch a marshrutka), if your marshrutka comes down the road, you can just put your hand out and wave them down. On most marshrutkas (except for the very large buses), the driver will just pull over to the curb and let you hop on - regardless of whether you are near a bus stop or not; similarly, bus drivers will often let people off where they want to get off, even if it's not at a bus stop. Bus drivers also usually notice people running or walking toward their bus at a stop, and will almost always stop pulling out of the stop to give the person a chance to hop on. Another funny story illustrates this point about "treating people like people" perfectly. Our Ukrainian teacher told us that one time she took her cat somewhere and he had to go to the bathroom while she was on the bus. She explained the situation to the marshrutka driver, who promptly pulled over, let her get off to put her cat in the grass so he could do his business, and proceeded to wait for her cat to finish and her to get back on the bus before he went on with his route. If that isn't considerate beyond reason, I don't know what is!