The Day Time Stood Still

Sunday was the first day since we've been here that we've literally had nothing to do. My roommate left early in the morning so we all got up to see her off and (in Becky's case) try and hitch a ride to Moscow.  Later in the morning, Becky and I decided we needed to go to the city center so that I could unsuccessfully get a sim card for my iPad and she could unsuccessfully get yarn. Dejected from our inability to get either, we went to Travelers (the Internet cafe I post these blogs from) to get cinnamon rolls. We had no idea what we were in for.  Just as we were about to leave two belligerent Russian men who were clearly still drunk from the night before wandered in and tried to talk to us. Even though we responded with the standard "I don't speak Russian" (which isn't really convincing in retrospect when you said it in Russian), they seemed to think that was an open invitation to come talk to us. In Russian. And then make a show for the baristas. In short, we were trying to use google translate to communicate but I have a feeling a lot was lost in translation. Or maybe it wasn't because as soon as we told them that we worked at an orphanage drunk fool #1 decided he had to leave to take care of his child. Drunk fool #2 then proceeded to pretend he was a hockey player and continue trying to get us to go to a movie with him which shortly turned into "come to my house and watch Ghost Ship." On top of this he was on the phone with a friend he claimed was his mother and could speak English but apparently his mother is a man and the only things he knew were extremely offensive phrases. 45 minutes of sheer panic later I made my friend leave the "hilarious" situation because no matter how hilarious a situation is, it always goes downhill once you get abducted.  Then we sat around the home base and rocked back and forth in the sun room reliving our trauma for the rest of the day.