Give Us This Day Our Daily Shampoo

Abortive though my time in Taiwan may have been, it has given me one advantage now that I am in Russia: it gives me something to compare my new cultural adjustment to.

The first, and best, comparison I can make is how professionally I have been handled by my school in Russia, compared with how poorly Ruby and Eve handled my transition. I was brought to my apartment immediately upon arrival and given the opportunity to sleep. Granted, this occurred partly because of the time of day I arrived. Had I come in the morning, I almost certainly would have been brought to the school first to have photographs taken and start the process of getting documents processed. Ruby, on the other hand, brought me first to her apartment (Shane's website had indicated I would be placed in a hotel until I found an apartment) and insisted on my having lunch with her and Eve when I felt as if I could barely stand up straight.

I have also done a bit better with the language. I can at least get the woman behind the ticket window in the Metro or the person at the blini stand to understand what I want, though it's obvious from the looks they give me that my pronunciation is pretty bad. It does make me feel better adjusted to be able to get these kinds of basic needs met.

On the other hand, not all compares favorably. My personal hygiene went to pot after my arrival in Russia, I am sorry to say, in a way it did not in Taiwan. The second day I was in Taiwan, Ruby took me shopping for basic toiletries, so I never lacked the means of keeping myself clean.

Here in Russia, however, I've had a bag go missing, and that bag contained such essential items as my undershirts, my underwear, my socks, and my electric razor. So for the time being, I am going without undershirts, am wearing underwear for two days at a time before washing it out in the sink, giving my three pairs of socks a quick nighttime rinse in the sink before leaving them to dry on a steam pipe, and am going unshaved until I can figure out where to buy a safety razor. Shaving cream seems to be on sale everywhere, but I have yet to see actual razors on sale with them, as would be common Stateside. I don't relish the thought of shaving with a manual razor. I've always done horribly with them, but unless my bag shows up quickly, and unless I can find some plug adaptors that aren't too bulky to stay in the socket, I may have to learn to make do. All part of the adventure, I suppose.

Yesterday, when I got lost in the Beliy Gorod, I made my first foray into an apteka, the Russian equivalent of a pharmacy. There, I finally found something else I had been lacking--shampoo! Since arriving in Russia, I had not been able to get my hair clean. The first night, I had nothing to use; what my roommate does for shampoo, I know not, but there was none in our bathroom. Thursday night, I resorted to trying to wash my hair out with body soap. The results were not favorable.

So this makes the first day since I got here that I am enjoying the luxury of clean hair. Stateside and in Taiwan, I washed my hair daily. I expect I will be a bit more conservative here, since shampoo seems to be relatively expensive. A fairly small bottle of Head and Shoulders at the apteka cost almost the equivalent of $5.00 U.S. That may not seem like much, but on a $1000 a month salary, things like this add up. Until I can find a cheaper Russian equivalent, daily hair washing may be out.