milk comes in plastic bags.

milk doesn't usually come in plastic jugs or even cartons here. milk comes in plastic bags. vacuum-sealed, opaque, white bags, with the occasional picture of a cow adorning it. and there are more varieties of milk here than i thought anyone would ever need. not only do you have your choice of 2% and the usual sorts, but you can go all out for a bag of 6% milk. i think at that point, it's more or less cream.
why the sudden interest in kazakhstani dairy products, you may be wondering? because dairy, bread, and potatoes are pretty much going to be my three food groups this winter. perhaps i'll be lucky enough to have the occasional cabbage or canned vegetable (if i'm really lucky, my host family will have made conserves/preserves in the autumn), but i'll basically be kissing fresh produce goodbye for the next five or six months while the entire country freezes over in a thick layer of ice. it is now, more than ever, that i wish winter was not so long here...

in other winter-related news, i bought a winter coat. i spent more on it than i wanted to, but i had such trouble finding a coat that didn't look absolutely hideous for a cheaper price. kazakhstanis have some extremely questionable fashion taste, and there were a lot of seriously ugly coats. and it's not a long coat, which may be a life-threatening problem come those days when the temperature dips to negative 40 Celsius, but i couldn't afford the extra meter of fabric. alas, poor wallet, i knew it well.
i think the coat may have been a pimp coat in a previous lifetime. (has anyone seen the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer wears the coat from 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat'? that's my coat, more or less). it's only a pimp coat because of the fur trim on the collar and cuffs. pimp coat or not, it better keep me from getting frostbite. let's hope i make it through this winter with all of my fingers and toes remaining!