You are French, yes?

I know I said I'd finish the stories of adventures from the last week in my next post, but I need to write what happened today before I forget all of it.

Today I met Nesli/Masha, my friend from Conn who is on the Bard/Smolny program, who I haven't seen in a few weeks. We sat at a  pâtisserie and болтали (chatted) for a few hours, then decided to wander aimlessly for a while, as that's always a fun way to see a city and today it got up to almost 50˚F! Also, although it was cloudy all morning, by the time we left the bakery the sun was shining and there was hardly a cloud in sight.

After about an hour of wandering, we were getting hungry again and decided to get some пышки (Russian doughnuts).  I knew of a place nearby, but on the way, got sidetracked by the souvenir market near the Church on Spilled Blood.

I'd originally intended to just go through it, but then I saw the hats. The glorious fur hats. I think I've mentioned before that one of my goals was to find a fur hat that didn't cost a fortune? Well, here was my chance to try. With only 1500 rubles in my wallet, I decided to at least try on a hat and see how I liked it.

What followed was one of the most hilarious interactions with a salesperson that I've ever had.

As I got to the cart that displayed about 50 different varieties of hat, i asked the man "Сколько стоят?" (how much do they cost?) He responded, in English, "It depends on the kind you want, they're all different. What color do you like?"
 -"Черный или коричнывый" (black or brown)
-"Well, this one is a very nice hat, black, and it has the ear flaps for when it's really cold," he said as he placed a black rabbit fur hat on my head. Now, as far as I know, I don't have a very strong accent in Russian, but as the guy insisted on speaking to me in English, I just gave up and started speaking English as well.

I don't remember the exact order of what followed, but he originally told me that the black rabbit fur would be 3000 rubles.  There was another rabbit fur hat that he pulled out when I insisted that I didn't have that much money, but it was not nearly the quality of the first one. When I said that I didn't like it, he praised my good taste, explaining, "The black one, that is Siberian rabbit, but the gray one is Chinese. You can see, I don't know how to explain it, but (he picked up the hat to show me closer up) there are places where the fur is not as good. This is because it is Chinese. The Siberian is much better quality."

After trying on a couple of more hats, I really wanted one, which I suspect he could tell.  But I still only had 1500 roubles with me.  After I lamented to him that I really didn't have enough money, he turned to Nesli, who had been standing nearby the whole time, and asked her to "borrow" me some money.  "She is your friend, so she can't ask, but I'm asking. Pleeease (he almost whined) please borrow her some money so she can buy the hat."  In the interim, by the way, after my first hesitation, he had lowered the price from 3000 to 2000 for the black rabbit fur. I was really glad that I didn't have the money on me, as I probably would've paid the original asking price without a second thought.

Nesli and I briefly conferred--in French, so he wouldn't be able to understand--and she agreed to lend me 500 roubles.  The next problem was that I had now decided to buy the more expensive, more fashionable, fox fur one that was the third or fourth I'd tried. His original price was 4500 for it, but my hesitation and clear lack of money got him to bring the price down which was probably what he wanted to sell it for anyway.  I was now short of the price, however, even with the loan.  As Nesli and I conferred again, this time in a mix of French, Russian, and English, I mentioned that I could just go to an ATM and come back, and she suggested I ask him to hold it for me while I got more money.

Overhearing me mention the ATM (I think I used the Russian word) he perked up. "You need the ATM?" he asked, "I know where the closest one is, follow me."  And so he turned toward the nearest building.  Hat that I was buying in hand, Nesli and I followed.  As we approached the entrance of the building, he told us that inside was a collection of old cars that one man had that was now a museum. A really good museum. We should be sure to go to it, he really recommends it.

While I stood there getting my money, he asked "You are French, yes?" At which Nesli and I both laughed and said "No." "No, you are French, I can tell, don't lie to me." To which we just shook our heads. Not only are we not French, but I haven't spoken French in almost a year (excepting the one class I went to at the start of last semester) and Nesli is Turkish, and looks it.  After getting the money I paid him, got a plastic bag for the hat in return, and he left with a cheery "Take care, girls."

Later I realized that at any point from when I had the hat in my hands I probably could have run off with it. His confidence in my honesty was impressive.  I also really hope that the ATM wasn't rigged to steal my card info. I'm usually good about only using ones at banks.

Other random parts of the story which didn't fit into the above narrative:

After trying on the first hat or two, he took down another black rabbit fur one, explaining that it was the exact same, only smaller.  When it didn't fit, to measure my hat size, he circled his hands on my head and said "Yes, you are a 68," looked at the size of the hat he had first put on my head, and said "Yes, 68, this is the perfect size for you."

At one point in the transaction, in between when he was putting hats on me, a couple of Chinese men walked past the stall, looking curiously at the hats. Without missing a beat, my salesman called to his compatriot, "Коля! какие-то китайцы пришли!" (Kolya, some Chinese have come) upon which Kolya rambled over (the man was rather plump) and began speaking Chinese to the tourists. I was amazed.