....и я попробовала купить шампунь

Whenever I am walking around the city or sitting at home, I promise myself that I will write a very composed and thoughtful and introspective and maybe not insane blog post. But then I become so frazzled just trying to get to a computer and enter a code and click two times here and three times there, that by the time I get on the internet I am already worried that I have wasted all of my 30 roubles. So then I just start frantically reading e-mails and replying to 6 at the same time, and then trying to post on my blog.....

Yesterday I tried to buy shampoo and soap and various other items. First of all I should preface this that the day before I tried to buy these things and entered a store that sold "продукты" but apparently they only sell food there. Then yesterday I went to a real store where I could purchase such items. Except they all sit behind the counter or under the glass shelf and I have to ask some woman to pick them out for me. I think it might be important to explain that it is impossible for me to purchase shampoo at home becuase I get overwhelmed and stand there for like 30 minutes and then just go with the kids shampoo that smells good. So there was a huge wall of shampoo, in Russian, and I was supposed to somehow convey which kind of shampoo I wanted. This was also necessary for the purchase of toothpaste, soap, various other items. So instead I ran away and didn't buy anything. Maybe today I will try again.

Real school started today. And we took both a written and a spoken exam. One of the other girls tried to explain to her family that we were taking an оральный тест (oral test) but was told that "oral" only refers to sex. Maybe that's not appropriate for this family minded blog. Oh well.

I have the afternoon free after the two classes, so I decided I should wander around. Except I still don't understand the weather forecasts and warnings that my babyska tries to give me every morning. So my coat is about 1 billion times too warm for the current weather. Except walking about in short sleeves seems to be sort of a faux pas as I haven't seen any women doing it (which is great since I brought so many short sleeve shirts...not joking...I just threw all my summer school clothes into a suitcase...bad idea). So then I went to the рынок which is just this ginormous, crazy place where they sell everything and there are stalls everywhere. And I bought this green jacket thing, which I shall be wearing upon my exit from this fine internet cafe establishment.

This morning when I was speaking with one of the teachers I told her I liked to play hockey and was interested in politics. She gave me this LOOK and said something like well that's interesting aka strange. Apparently those two interests don't mesh in Russia.

I am also going to try to go to a mainstream history class this evening from 6:30 to either 7:50 or 9:20. The schedule just pretty much baffles me.

Also in the market area, I just keep saying да which is a very bad solution. I also told these women I was from Canada because it seemed like a better answer. Then they just kept asking me why I was here studying like I had lost my mind coming here. I may be beginning to agree with them.

Once again, the blog post is just pure insanity. Well next time we will hope for composure and wise insights into the russian psyche.