Good morning, Moscow!

I'll right, so first I'll address what seems to be everyone's question: There are approximately 27 roubles to the dollar (when you include the exhange fee).

I realize I didn't write much in my blog about the flea market. I definitely need to expand on that: It was sooo crowded! It had everything from Harry Potter nesting dolls to babushka scarves to icons to pastry filled with meet. One of the guys on our trip got suckered into buying these really gross black leather boot/shoes for 150 ... NOT roubles, but dollars! I'm posting pictures tonight, so be sure to look for one of the shoes. The flea market was just enormous. While a large portion of it was outside with no cover, I would have to guess that MOST of it was actually INside. There was a big part of the inside that I lovingly refer to as China Town. It was populated almost solely by people from the Central Asian Republics. This area sold a lot of raw meat, live carp, and pirated DVDs. Oh and rip-off Nike and Adidas hats. The entire place smelled like cigarettes and pirozhki, everyone was yelling about prices and something in Russian that apparently meant "Get out of the way, cuz I'm running up behind you pushing this giant wheeled thing stacked to the ceiling with mattresses!" Also bootlegged Indian (Balliwood Indian) music seemed to be playing everywhere. Very truly Russian experience.

My "nap" yesterday turned into about 12 hours of sleep. That was nice - God did I need that! Today I woke up at 8 to a woman screaming at the hostel staff about "sheer stupidity" on their part. I'm still not sure what was going on, but it was REALLY loud. What I gathered was that the woman was trying to get to the airport and the hostel staff hadn't gotten her a good taxi. She said the taxi driver was an "idiot". Something about she wanted all her suitcases out of the taxi. I think she had also already paid several times to be taken to the airport and the taxi just dropped her back off at the hostel?? Who knows.

Anyway, a little bit about our rooms locality that might help you more fully appreciate our morning (and nighttime) situation: We are on the main floor right across the hall from the TV room (remember how much Raspo likes the TV); next to that room is the office, in which the twenty-something women who work here play 24/7 crappy American pop from the 90s (cf. Britney Spears "Crazy"); and next to that is the "kitchen", where people eat, talk, drink, etc. All the walls are paper thin, so if the snoring INSIDE the room doesn't get ya, you still have plenty of opportunities to be woken up by something OUTSIDE the room.

Expect another post tonight WITH pictures!