Come tomorrow we'll be on our way out of Russia, so I must jot down some things while they occur to me.
Fashion is perplexing here. Women tend to be very well dressed (Eve fits in famously). They also wear stilettos for any occasion - including just wandering around town. On the other hand, men's fashion is limited to three things: camo gear, jeans and adidas. In fact, it seems obligatory to wear at least one item of adidas at any given moment. If you can wear a full adidas tracksuit, that's the pinnacle.
May be life is literally too short for most blokes to think more about fashion. Life expectancy for a Russian male hovers around 60 (women get about 15 more years on average). The thinking seems to be that alcohol, smoking and a poor diet really don't help (being drunk also causes accidents). Fags cost about 50p a packet and it's been more common in our experience to see people drink beer on the street than anything soft (even women can be seen drinking a bottle of beer mid afternoon). On our bus back from the island yesterday, two guys in their late teens got through two big cans of 7% "alcohol and energy" drink each in about an hour between half eleven and half twelve - they also got the bus to stop for a fag break.
Finding English words adopted by other languages is not unusual, but I haven't seen it adopted and transliterated before. Business is a favourite in particular - such as the бизнес ланч - business lunch.
Fashion is perplexing here. Women tend to be very well dressed (Eve fits in famously). They also wear stilettos for any occasion - including just wandering around town. On the other hand, men's fashion is limited to three things: camo gear, jeans and adidas. In fact, it seems obligatory to wear at least one item of adidas at any given moment. If you can wear a full adidas tracksuit, that's the pinnacle.
May be life is literally too short for most blokes to think more about fashion. Life expectancy for a Russian male hovers around 60 (women get about 15 more years on average). The thinking seems to be that alcohol, smoking and a poor diet really don't help (being drunk also causes accidents). Fags cost about 50p a packet and it's been more common in our experience to see people drink beer on the street than anything soft (even women can be seen drinking a bottle of beer mid afternoon). On our bus back from the island yesterday, two guys in their late teens got through two big cans of 7% "alcohol and energy" drink each in about an hour between half eleven and half twelve - they also got the bus to stop for a fag break.
Finding English words adopted by other languages is not unusual, but I haven't seen it adopted and transliterated before. Business is a favourite in particular - such as the бизнес ланч - business lunch.
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