I made a fool out of myself so many times today...so many times in Russia. Today was my first time on a bus in Ryazan, Tanya and I have taken a van several times (a regular van lined with bus seats that drives very fast and crazy – you practically have to jump into it while it's still going and it and only makes a stop when you yell at the driver) but I took the bus this morning because I had no idea what van number would get me to Pasha's house. Well, when you take a van in Moscow and in Ryazan, you hand the money up to the driver. When you take a bus in Moscow, you enter at the front and pay the driver. I walked up to the bus where the driver was, but he was separated from the rest of the bus. However, since his door was open, I thought maybe you went to the back if you had a ticket and paid the driver if you didn't. I apologized that I only had a 100 ruble bill to pay the 10 ruble ticket and he pulled out his wallet and gave me two of his own 50s in exchange for my 100 and told me to go sit down. So, I went to sit down and this old woman came up to me and started asking something, I had no idea what she meant. Older women often come up to me asking for money and other things I don't understand. I thought she wanted to know what seat I was going for, I had no idea, so I just sat down. When she followed me and kept asking, I figured that you have to pay her for your ticket, so I did. So then, the bus took an entirely different route from the one the vans had taken and I was all mixed up. I knew that my bus stop was the one after Lenin Square, but I didn't know what Lenin Square looked like, but I saw us pass a square and turn on to Lenin street. So, I asked the woman what the name of the stop was and she didn't understand and she asked me what I needed and I thought the stop was Dom Xozyayka, but it was Dom Xudozhnika and she was being so loud the whole time that the entire bus was looking at me and the man across from me was laughing, and then started on a rant about how hard it is when people come to Russia and don't speak Russian and no one there speaks English, etc. etc. I ended up at the right stop and Pasha met me and we were on our way, only my humility intact.
I worked on conference stuff at his home office all day but was mostly unsuccessful in the tangible things. We were able to print the kid's booklets, but I found when I got home that there's an error on the front page. We weren't able to print anything else I needed to print. My microphone stopped working, so I couldn't call Barclays about my PIN. Kim called and my pin number was not in like it was supposed to be. I got three translation jobs, but one wouldn't let me accept it for some reason. And the bank documents I brought to scan were Andy's and not mine, so I couldn't resolve my Paypal.
When I got home, Nina had made blini and a sort of pear juice, which I believe was poured from a jar of water and halved pears I've seen sitting on the table the last week. Tasted kinda like the mushroom tea Nastea gave me. Oh, Russia.
PS – Tanya told me 50% of Russia is hoping that Putin will get to be president again. I never thought of that. They only tolerate Medvedev because he is a Putin imitator. 
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