Home...

I've been here for a week today, and it really does feel like home. There are however all of the small things that I'm trying to learn how to do correctly, and thus avoid any problems that lead to a Russian lecture of which I don't understand. But one mistake at a time, and I'm learning one solution at a time. Quite possibly the funniest encounter that I had, was with Rachel my hands on roommate, and Mary Ann, my roommate, in the subway. I had been trying to get a surge protector for some time, which is another story in itself. Mary Ann saw one for sell in a small kiosk in the subway, and stopped to ask how much it was. This Ukrainian man, probably in his 30's, long shoulder length hair and looking very European, pulled out the box of a surge protector and put it on the counter. It had five plug spots, which was fine. Imagine all of the dialog in Russian. Again I asked, "how much does it cost?" He looked at me and told me, "I have 4, 5, 6" meaning plug spots. Confused, I said "ok, but how much does it cost?" Then he turned the box over and pointed to the back where written out in the form of a list was different lengths of cords I could choose from, and on this particular box, the 5,o m option was checked, again which was fine with me. So I asked, yet again, "how much is it?" This time he rolled his eyes and let out a little sigh or grunt, and turned to a shelf in his tiny kiosk and grabbed a tape measure. He proceeded to pull it out a little bit while making a nonverbal noise like "huuh", then a little further out, again paired with the noise at a slightly lower pitch, and a third time a little farther out with an ever lower pitched noise. I knew he was trying to tell us they were different sizes, but we understood that all along, I just wanted to know how much the one he had gotten out cost. So, I told him I understood, and again asked how much? He spouted out some numbers again pertaining to the length of the cord, and Mary Ann and I both saying "Pyat, Pyat" (5, 5) and pointing to the box, we finally came to an understanding and he told us how much the surge protector cost. Which was 40 gryvna, for those of you wondering. About 5 dollars. I gave him 100 gryvna, and he got my change, we said "spasiba" (thank you) and he leaned with both of his elbows on the counter so his face was directly in front of the small window into the kiosk, with a sly grin, on the verge of being giddy, and with his shoulders stationary and his head slightly sliding side to side, he said, "you're welcome" in Russian, while still holding my change. His head continued to move back and forth between his shoulders and he wore that giddy grin, while we all stood there in an extremely awkward silence in a bit of confusion. I smiled awkwardly and looked at Mary Ann and back at the man, then slowly and unsure, reached for my change, and again said thank you. His expression never changed. I'm not really sure what was happening. It was like he wanted to just look a bit longer at these clueless Americans. Every time I think about it, I can't help but laugh. I hope I was able to paint just a hint of how awkward it was. Needless to say, I have a surge protector now!