Glad you had a good time - I am not surprised you walked on ice all the time, same with me. My Svetlana told me of their new ice palace, in hindsight I am not sure if she didn't mean the whole city. Did anyone have a chance to experience a Russian Sauna, by the way? That was definitely cool, even by western standards.
I have this devil's advocate sixth sense that much of the 'walk on ice' marathons Lena and I did were part of her subtle ways to measure me...much like I did her with the way I watched her interact with her friends, family, her own kitchen, etc etc etc...small but huge details not to be overlooked when you're serious about looking for a good man or woman to start a new life.
No smile...hm, you know many people are ashamed of their teeth, the USSR dental medicine wasn't the best one, putting "golden teeth", and that really is not the best view!:) Every time I visit the dentist he says "you should do something with your teeth, the teeth on your upper jaw are not even" and when we communicated for some time he said "to hell with this, you're not ashamed with your teeth and you smile nicely, then why to do something about it?:)" And he was very surprised, that I'm not ashamed and can smile openly:)
Another thing, is that here, at least in my circle, people care about the health of teeth, and ot the color of the teeth. Once my dentist said "the absolutely while color of teeth is not normal, the teeth should be of ivory color", I don't know if it is right, or wrong...I trust my dentist, he is our family's dentist for several years:)
As for, not sharing the joy with the waiters at te restaurant....and what is so strange there? The waiters are at work...and if everybody would share with them their funny ideas, then the waiters will not work, but laugh only...:)
Scott, yes of course, each person has his own view:) But having an experience with our waiters...when you have to wait for long for a waiter to come, calling them, waiting...I personally prefer them to do their work:)
Pitch,
The customer-server interaction in the west is different, that's all.
Just another example of our cultural differences.
Neither is right or wrong. It is how it is.