I have gotten over the adrenalin rush of my first week in Moscow. I am only attending classes three days a week - in my second week it is starting to settle in as a routine.
This is a good and bad.
First, it means I am getting familiar with my surroundings. I am doing the metro more via memory then trying to read all the signs. Of course this could lead to a screw up where I mistakenly take the wrong train, make a left rather than a right or forget to count my stops. Hopefully this doesn't happen but if it does I can read enough to get around and I have my map. My above ground orientation is a little sketchy, but I am learning.
Ya Studient
School is part of the grind - after a week one of introductions with staff and learning things like the Alphabet some vocabulary and how to use some greetings and pleasantries we are moving on to more serious stuff.
We are conjugating verbs. ugh.
This isn't too bad - it is basically similar to the conjugations in Spanish. In the present tense there are 6 cases - 1st, 2nd and 3rd person in singular and plural. Most verbs fall into one of two conjugation groups that are fairly similar. In the next two weeks I will learn roughly two dozen verbs.
Commerce
I make my first trip to the store on my own. This is a relatively easy tasks as I use a credit card for my purchases and there is no real conversation required. I pick up Bread, Water, and Beer. Oddly these are three things that I actually do know the words for - besides what else does one really need?
My total comes to 291.40 rubles. When I checked one of the many locations exchanging Rubles earlier today the rate was 30.90 Rubles/Dollar - that comes out to $9.43. The bread and water were both around 65 rubles - the water is 5 Liters and bottled by Pepsi. The bread is a dark local variety. I picked up two single beers - a luxury I have since I am not in Pennsylvania right now. One is the Russian Produced Baltika which is probably a good session beer. The other is the Czech produced Budweiser Budvar - This is no relation to the US Bud - and I believe it cannot be purchased in the states due to copyright issues. The Baltika is an economical 29.9 Rubles while the Budvar is 132.50 - probably due to import taxes.
Branding
While on Ukraine Blvd near our home I saw a young child wearing a Chicago Bulls knit cap. Score one for the NBA - apparently Michael Jordan still has global Marketing appeal.
New York Yankees 4
Boston Celtics 1
Elliot Sadler 1
Atlanta Braves 1
Chicago Bulls 1
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