Fun Observations

My favorite thing about traveling is observing all of the little things that make the country we are in unique. We haven’t been here too long, but I thought since we have internet access for the next few days I would post a few of the observations we have made so far. I am sure we will post another blog with more later.

1. We are not sure if it is nation-wide or just in our hotel, but the elevators here are really tiny. The door is about as wide as our suitcase and no more than four people can fit in the car. Also, there’s not an up or a down button, but just one button to call the elevator. Thus when you get in you are taken directly to your floor without stopping (besides, there wouldn’t be room to stop and pick up people on other floors!). It definitely makes the ride a lot quicker!

2. Despite the fact that it’s winter and pretty cold here, people seem to walk a lot more than they drive. Now because it’s winter, there is a lot of snow and ice all over the sidewalks, which makes it really difficult for parents to push children in a stroller or pull a cart with groceries or other goods. The Russians have an awesome solution to this problem: sleds. When you walk down the street you see all kinds of sleds, from the commercially produced to the cleverly homemade. I don’t know why, but every time I see them it makes me smile, especially when there are children aboard because they just look so happy.

3. Whereas Americans line up behind the person in front of them, Jeff and I have noticed a lot of people here line up next to you instead of behind you.

4. When exchanging dollars into rubles, Russian banks will not take dollars unless they are perfectly crisp and free of any defects. This makes perfect sense, because if you don’t deal in the currency often, you might not know the difference between real and counterfeit, so to avoid problems, you just take ones you know are perfect. Jeff and I learned this when several of our dollar bills were rejected at the bank for defects. We then decided to look at every bill we had and realized how many of them had writing or other ink blotches on them! It’s really funny, because it’s something that you rarely recognize when you’re in America, but I guess we have dirty money! Seriously, look in your wallet and compare the number of perfect bills to the number of bills with writing or ink or tears, etc. I think you’ll be surprised. In conclusion . . . stop writing on your money!

5. At the hotel here there is no such thing as a room tab. You pay for your room in advance, so every couple of days you go downstairs and pay for a few more days. Also, when you go to the café you can’t just charge something to your room. That’s definitely one way to make sure people don’t run off without paying their bill!

6. Before we left everyone asked us to see if the “traditional Russian hats” (you know, the big furry ones with the earflaps that tie on top of your head) are actually worn in Russia. Now it has been relatively warm here (nothing close to below zero Fahrenheit), so we can’t say for sure, but walking around I would say that about 1/3 to 1/2 of the people we saw were wearing the hats. They are so fun and Jeff and I definitely want to try and pick some up before we leave!