Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 17:14
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Kuril Islands Biocomplexity 08

dear KBP team,

I was wondering what the most bewildering or crazy thing was that you saw in any of the Y-S markets? I'll bet it was really weird!

Mia Hodges

Wed, 07/23/2008 - 16:28

KBP Team

Oddly enough, the Y-S markets are mostly filled with stuff you would recognize, even if you couldn't read the Cyrillic label. Bottles of shampoo look just like you'd expect them to. The produce stands are full of gorgeous looking fruits and vegetables.
But the weirdest thing? Probably the clothes that are fashionable here.
For whatever reason, fabrics with English words printed on them are really really popular: made into T-shirts, dresses, even aprons. But the fabric designers don't seem to have any English speaking people proof-read the sentences before they print them. So you see all sorts of funny nonsensical combinations of English words like "Radio electric dictionary" across the front of a T-shirt. One of our cook ladies has an apron that is really pretty funny-I will try to "sneak" a picture of it sometime and post it!
--Dr. E.

Wed, 07/23/2008 - 16:36

Misty Nikula

Mia
Here are a few links to pictures from last summer when I was in Russia that show you a little bit of what the Y-S markets look like:
Russian Magazin (store)
Fruit Stands 
Inside the Bazaar 
Selling Homegrown Fruit 
More of the Bazaar 
Enjoy!
Ms Nikula