Hello, Hello, Hello
Just laying in bed on a lazy Sunday. And from what I hear its Super Bowl Sunday? I am way out of the loop. I just found out who was in the Super Bowl a few days ago. Arizona Cardinals?? Things have changed since I left I guess.
Well the Ruble (Russian currency) decreased in value once again this week. When I first got here it was 24 Rubles to the dollar, now its around 36. It's extremely popular for people here to buy dollars and put them under their mattress to safegaurd against their falling currency. Putin says everything will be okay but he might just be putin everybody on. Get it? Another funny thing about the Russian economy is that it still very much cash-based. I get paid in cash, a big stack full of Rubles, and I pretty much buy everything in cash. And vendors usually expect you to have either exact change or close to exact change, cause for some reason people just hate giving out change. And credit cards here are still a relatively new phenomena and most vendors are still pretty uncomfortable with them. Usually when I hand someone a credit card to pay for something they look at it as if I just handed them a dead rodent. Then they look as if it is the most tiresome and painful thing in the world to try and swipe it and wait for the receipt. And the concept of having both a credit AND a debit card is way, way beyond them. I tried explaining the difference to a couple people and they looked at me like I was speaking crazy talk.
Oh, and another thing, maybe the single most appaling aspect of Russian life for me....you have to PAY for grocery bags at the supermarket!
This week also marked the 65th anniversary of the end of the Leningrad blockade in WWII. St. Petersburg (formerly called Leningrad) was beseiged by the Germans for just under 900 days during the war and in that time all kinds of hell and deprivation broke out in the city. There are still plaques on the walls of some buildings warning people that this area is heavily bombed. There wasn't any food or utilities so people had to resort to....well, put in a search for Leningrad blockade if you want to learn more. So the Russian president visited the city and there were fireworks displays and the works. Thankfully, there were no re-enactments.
I added a new class to my roster this week. A tuesday morning class in the far out industrial suburbs which takes about an hour to get to and it starts at....7:30am! Ouch. So Tuesday mornings when I wake up at 5:30am I hate life for about 15 minutes before anything else happens. And its just a single student, a little old plump granny lady who works at one of the largest tobacco companies in the world. She's definitely smoked a few cigarettes in her day too. Its called the Japanese Tobacco Institute - they own Winston and Camel brands among others. But my Friday evening class is no longer which makes up a little for that Tuesday morning atrocity.
And last couple of things, I saw a different little old plump Russian granny get full-on splashed with dirty muddy ice water by a passing bus and then she started flipping out and cursing God and man alike in a shrill Russian voice which left me laughing for at least 15 minutes afterwards. And a couple days ago at the supermarket I was checking out and leaving for the door, but the damn flimsy bag that I had to pay for broke and a bottle of wine and a huge jar of sweet pickles crashed everywhere. I was stunned. Everything stopped in the store and everybody looked at me. Then everyone started speaking gibberish to me and pointing at this and that and I was just like, "Uh, so can I get some more pickles?" Bastards made me buy more. Any other food I wouldv'e just left but sweet pickles have become a firm staple of my Russian diet. Gotta have those sweet pickles.
Alright that's all. Have fun watching the Arizona Cardinals put on a shocking display of ineptitude.
Just laying in bed on a lazy Sunday. And from what I hear its Super Bowl Sunday? I am way out of the loop. I just found out who was in the Super Bowl a few days ago. Arizona Cardinals?? Things have changed since I left I guess.
Well the Ruble (Russian currency) decreased in value once again this week. When I first got here it was 24 Rubles to the dollar, now its around 36. It's extremely popular for people here to buy dollars and put them under their mattress to safegaurd against their falling currency. Putin says everything will be okay but he might just be putin everybody on. Get it? Another funny thing about the Russian economy is that it still very much cash-based. I get paid in cash, a big stack full of Rubles, and I pretty much buy everything in cash. And vendors usually expect you to have either exact change or close to exact change, cause for some reason people just hate giving out change. And credit cards here are still a relatively new phenomena and most vendors are still pretty uncomfortable with them. Usually when I hand someone a credit card to pay for something they look at it as if I just handed them a dead rodent. Then they look as if it is the most tiresome and painful thing in the world to try and swipe it and wait for the receipt. And the concept of having both a credit AND a debit card is way, way beyond them. I tried explaining the difference to a couple people and they looked at me like I was speaking crazy talk.
Oh, and another thing, maybe the single most appaling aspect of Russian life for me....you have to PAY for grocery bags at the supermarket!
This week also marked the 65th anniversary of the end of the Leningrad blockade in WWII. St. Petersburg (formerly called Leningrad) was beseiged by the Germans for just under 900 days during the war and in that time all kinds of hell and deprivation broke out in the city. There are still plaques on the walls of some buildings warning people that this area is heavily bombed. There wasn't any food or utilities so people had to resort to....well, put in a search for Leningrad blockade if you want to learn more. So the Russian president visited the city and there were fireworks displays and the works. Thankfully, there were no re-enactments.
I added a new class to my roster this week. A tuesday morning class in the far out industrial suburbs which takes about an hour to get to and it starts at....7:30am! Ouch. So Tuesday mornings when I wake up at 5:30am I hate life for about 15 minutes before anything else happens. And its just a single student, a little old plump granny lady who works at one of the largest tobacco companies in the world. She's definitely smoked a few cigarettes in her day too. Its called the Japanese Tobacco Institute - they own Winston and Camel brands among others. But my Friday evening class is no longer which makes up a little for that Tuesday morning atrocity.
And last couple of things, I saw a different little old plump Russian granny get full-on splashed with dirty muddy ice water by a passing bus and then she started flipping out and cursing God and man alike in a shrill Russian voice which left me laughing for at least 15 minutes afterwards. And a couple days ago at the supermarket I was checking out and leaving for the door, but the damn flimsy bag that I had to pay for broke and a bottle of wine and a huge jar of sweet pickles crashed everywhere. I was stunned. Everything stopped in the store and everybody looked at me. Then everyone started speaking gibberish to me and pointing at this and that and I was just like, "Uh, so can I get some more pickles?" Bastards made me buy more. Any other food I wouldv'e just left but sweet pickles have become a firm staple of my Russian diet. Gotta have those sweet pickles.
Alright that's all. Have fun watching the Arizona Cardinals put on a shocking display of ineptitude.
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