You can take capitalism to Russia, but you can't take Russia to capitalism...?

I read somewhere that your headphones are among the filthiest things in your possession. Being too lazy to actually clean mine, I settled for two sets: my gym headphones that I can sweat in and my "walking" headphones."

Unfortunately, this meant I had 2 sets of American headphones to break. And, in true Sarah fashion, I have broken both in the short weeks since I arrived here. My first, my walking pair, was easily replaced for 300 rubles (35R/$1) at the first kiosk I found. The second required a little more work....

Upon breaking my second (and more important) pair of headphones within a week, I realized I needed to walk to to the closest metro station, the center of life here, to search for an electronics store. Having found a promising-looking store, I went in, pointed to two sets of headphones, and asked whether I could examine them further.

The guy in charge replied, yes, I could, but that another store had a better selection and that I should go there instead. When I asked for further directions, he put a "be back in 5" sign on the cash register (completely disregarding the other customers perusing the DVD collections) and motioned to follow him. I followed him down the hall, down the stairs, and out the front door...and he finally pointed me to another store where I could find better (and cheaper) headphones.

...I guess capitalism hasn't quite made it to Russia yet.