McSplurge

Well, the sting of homesickness was tempered yesterday by a very productive day on my part.

This weekend the Davis Cup semifinals are taking place in Moscow- Russia vs. USA, and although I planned on going, I still had to buy tickets. So I decided to go buy tickets, and I took Megan with me because she likes tennis too (even though she calls Andy Roddick “Andy Rodderick”). I had only a “vague” idea of where the Olympic Stadium was located, but I wasn’t really worried about finding it once we got off the metro- how can you miss a whole stadium?! Well, it wasn’t so easy, and I had to ask a few people before I finally found the ticket office. And luckily there was a very helpful woman in line who spoke some English and helped us out a bit. But we bought 2 tickets to the Sunday session!!!! We could have gone for the 100 or 200 ruble tickets, but we decided to go wild and buy 600 ruble tickets. That’s about $23, which is a bit of a splurge for me. Now I just have to figure out who I am going to root for- Marat or Andy?

Then came the second splurge and the second success- McDonalds! McDonalds is pretty straightforward in Russia- a Big Mac is a Биг Мак and Chicken McNuggets are Чикен МакНуггетс- phonetically, they’re the same. But the first time we went, they couldn’t understand our English/ Russian accents and they pulled out these little picture cards and I just pointed to what I wanted. It was pretty humiliating and I felt like such an American. Fast forward to today: I ordered in Russian, and they didn’t pull out the picture cards! I was very proud of myself. To tell the truth, I wasn’t planning on ordering anything but a Coke, but I decided to give it another go and I was superbly rewarded. Unfortunately, that bit of pride cost me 125 rubles, or about $5. But McDonalds in Russia really is better than in America.

Also, Meghan and I went to the rinok again today (that’s the market outside our Metro stop) to get some cookies. I swear, my sugar consumption has gone through the roof since I got here. Actually I am eating a lot of fruit too, because it’s cheap and you don’t have to wait a week for it to ripen. Anyway, we went to this one fruit stall that I go to often, and the woman was really friendly. She came off her perch and showed us where the ripe fruits were, and then started a little conversation with us. I’m getting really good at small talk in Russian- everyone asks where I’m from, what languages do I speak, why am I here, how long have I studied Russian, where am I living. The rinok is the easiest way to practice Russian, because you’re forced to speak it at some point.

Also, thanks to everybody who has left comments and sent me e-mails. I appreciate every word you guys write, so please keep writing me. I know I am awful at replying quickly, but I’m trying!