While I was wandering around killing time this fine Saturday afternoon (it is my new Saturday/weekend hobby to wander aimlessly about the city taking various modes of public transportation to various locales, wandering about, returning, getting lost, getting found, returning home...) anyways the whole 4 hours I spent doing that today, I was trying to think of something to write about here. There's so many tidbits of daily life that are impossible to accurately describe in any language (and translation into english especially ruins them).
Anyways, this afternoon 4 different people on the street stopped me to ask various random questions. That is awesome! Maybe I don't look like an absolutely cluesless American wandering the streets. The first lady asked me something that I didn't understand, actually I didn't really understand she was talking to me until the conversation had ended. So I just said "I don't know." and sort of stared at her. The second lady asked me if this was the number 9 bus. I said yes just because I didn't really know what to say immediately and then I realized that we were in fact on the number 9 bus, so that was a good answer. Then the third lady asked me what time it was. This is perhaps the worst question ever to be asked in Russia.
Let me explain my basic understanding of time in Russia: they use both the 24 and the 12 hour clock. So if you are trying to say that it is 4:30 for example, you have several ways to say it. You could say "four thirty." You could say "half of five." You could say "sixteen thirty." You could say "half of seventeen." It is very confusing. Anyways, I was lucky enough that it was exactly 4:30 because if it had been 4:15 or 4:40 there are like 800 other ways to say those time. Anyways, I replied it is "half of five" and she said "thank you" and we parted. And it was awesome.
Then the fourth woman asked me something like "Are we going on the correct path" and I said "I don't know." Then I finally ended up at the internet center.
Also I just finalized my schedule (after deciding on the mainstream "fairy tale" class) so that is good. I am taking Grammer, Phonetics, Politics, Conversation, and Fairy Tales...
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3 comments:
good work abby- i always get really excited when someone french asks me where the metro is and i get to tell them. I've started seeking out english speaking people who seem lost too.
I had the exact experience of being asked about bus number (though in this case marshrutka) and not understanding the conversation and saying yes and then later figuring out what had happened and that I was right. It was the 61 marshrutka. Also, I always pretend that it's the exact half hour even when it's not. So much of Irkutsk is now misinformed about the time.
Я глагол тебя.
понимаешь, да?
конеч!
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