Open Air Market

Hey! Yesterday was my first day of classes, which was exciting (though not particularly notable). While my Russian classes were taught primarily in Russian, when I something was misunderstood, it could be explained in English if it really needed to be. Here, though, the professor speaks Russian and German, but very little English (some vocab, but not real speaking ability). It was still good, though. There are five people in my group (smaalll, whooo!), and we have until the end of the week to decide if this group is the right level for us or not. I'm pretty sure I'll stay.

Anyway, school isn't interesting. Afterwards, though, I grabbed lunch with a couple people from my class (150 rubles at the university cafeteria, which is about 5 dollars, but it's per plate, which I didn't know, so I can easily get it down to ~70 rubles if I decide I'd rather spend money on other stuff). Then, a group of four of us went to the open air market (рынок) that's really close to the Metro in Vyhino (it's the same Metro my host mom told me not to visit, because it's run by Uzbeki and Tajiki and other Central Asians). I had completely underestimated the size of this market; it is absolutely massive. There are people selling everything from jewelry to umbrellas to shoes to fish in funky solutions to vegetables. Oh, and you can sample almost anything if you want to (one of the guys I was with samples some uncooked bacon fat... I did not, although I did try a grape and pecan and cheese).

None of the photos I took do the market justice. They were all taken from the same spot (so none of the outdoor part of the market), because I didn't really want to be flashing my camera around, and, just as I'd feared, as soon as I started taking pictures, I had the merchants around me shouting "Откуда вы?!" which is "Where are you from??"

For the most part, the merchants became super friendly, and would have great big smiles when we'd talk to them in faltering russian, explaining how we're American's studying here. Some of them even went on to give us a discount on what we'd buy, as they knew we have more money, and they want us to return to their shop. However, I've been warned enough about not letting on that I'm American for a safety precaution that I couldn't help from wondering how much I should stop and chat. There was only one guy who seemed a little sketch when he found out we were Americans (started speaking faster Russian to his buddy, so we just took off), but one guy from Uzbekistan asked if he could take a picture with us, and then I was talking to some Iranians who also spoke really good English (I stayed in Russian, for what it's worth) when I first entered the market. Almost everybody asked us how we liked Russia and Moscow, and what we were studying.

Anyway, it's now Wednesday morning. My schedule for classes is Russian language lessons M,T,Th,F, with Wednesday being reserved for cultural and historical lectures (which means instead of needing to be on campus at 10, classes don't start until 11! because 10 am is just tooooo early to have to do anything!)