Shopping In Russia

So I needed an adapter for my laptop plug. I asked the front desk but they didn't have one so it was time to try my hand at shopping in a foreign country that doesn't speak a lot of English. The lady at the front desk told me about 2 places. One of them was close to the subway I need in the morning and she said it was a department store so I thought I could get some bottled water at the same time. So off I went on my adventure. When I first read about going to Russia I read warnings about corrupt police and skinheads but nobody wrote about walking down sidewalks that aren't shoveled and don't have crosswalks for major intersections. I got to the store and asked if a young lady (younger = more likely to speak English) if they had an adapter. They said they didn't but that "K" had them. I recognized that name as the "other" store the concierge mentioned. I wasn't too disappointed because now I knew where the subway was and I also wanted to buy water. I found the grocery part of the "department store" and it was very interesting. The store was about the size of a 7-eleven and half the shelves were empty. The liquor section was well stocked so was was the water shelf. Now I was getting pretty good a converting USD to RUB so I thought. I just take the RUB number and divide by 3 and move the decimal point since it's 1 USD to 30 RUB right now. Well the water was 52,39 or something like that. I was quite tired and forgot to move the decimal step so I thought this bottle of water was $17 dollars instead of $1.70. But online they said buy bottled water and I even noticed locals buying it so I wasn't going to take the chance. I walked up to the cashier and put the bottled water up and tried to hand her a 1000 ruble and she looked at me like I was crazy. All I had was 3 - 1000 ruble bills and my visa credit card. I offered my visa card and she swiped it and then pointed to the machine and said "pin". I said it's a credit card not a debit card. She gave me a blank stare. I wasn't sure what to do as she and the Russian guy behind me exchanged a few words. I then offer my 1000 ruble bill  again and she took it with a bit of impatience. She then counted out 950 RUB and gave it to me. As I was counting the change (as recommended online :)) I realized that the water was only 50 rubles which was less than $2. But I got my water and now some smaller bills which I now had the feeling would be a good thing. Reflecting on this I was basically offering to pay for $1.70 of good with a $33 dollar bill which doesn't sound nearly as bad as paying for a 50 rubles item with a 1000 rubles bill. Funny how bigger numbers at the same ratio feels different.

Now I had water but still no adapter. I went to the "K" store which really had about 15 letters in the name but I knew it was the computer store as it had "chip" in the name. I went in and asked a guy if he spoke English and he spoke good english (more likely if he wants to be in the computer industry). He showed me the adapter which looked right. I asked if I pay here or up front. He said I pay up front. He gave me a piece of paper with a part number on it. It reminded me of a hardware store where some things like nails don't have labels so you get a piece of paper so the cachier knows how to ring it up. I started to walk away and he said, "No you leave the part here, go up front and pay and then bring the reciept back here and I give you the part." I followed the instructions and got my part. That seems to make sence as it was a small part and I could have easily put it in my pocket and walked right past the cachier. The funniest part of the security routine was that it only cost 19 rubles which is about $0.75.

As I walked out the door of the computer store I pushed on the handle and it broke in my hand. I just let it dangle there and walked away. There are many things in Russia that are aging. When I was walking down the street I heard a loud noise that seemed like a jet overhead. As I got closer is was actually an electric rail car that was making lot's of noise and sparks flying everywhere. The water comes out a little bit brown which I think is from the rusting pipes.