As he was chatting with Liu Xiaojie, two girls came over.
One of the girls was tall and the other short, one fat and the other thin.
Even though he could not remember their names, Wang Ye had some impression of them, as they were also from his hometown.
However, both girls were rather ordinary in appearance. The short, plump girl couldn't handle the local weather and returned to her home country before finishing her preparatory course. The tall, thin girl transferred to another school after completion. Thus, Wang Ye did not know them very well.
The tall, thin girl said with a smile, "I heard that the dormitory here is co-ed, and we all have to stay in this building."
Liu Xiaojie's face turned slightly red. It was unclear whether it was due to embarrassment or the heat. He once again took off his glasses from his nose bridge.
However, this time he didn't lift up his shirt to wipe them. Instead, he pulled out a packet of tissues from his pocket to clean his glasses lenses.
After glancing at the tall, thin girl, he replied, "Actually, it's quite good this way. We can take care of each other."
The short, plump girl looked around and suddenly said, "Hey, that shop is still open, isn't it? I want to go buy something. Brother Ye, will you go with me?"
Among them, even though they all have received the same language training, Wang Ye's Russian was the best.
Interestingly, when Wang Ye was in high school, his English grades were poor, no matter how hard he tried.
But when it came to learning Russian, it seemed as if he had an epiphany. He picked up everything the teacher taught him immediately!
After just a few months of training, Liu Xiaojie and the others only mastered the basics: Russian alphabets, simple grammar, and conversations.
But Wang Ye was already capable of engaging in daily conversations with the teachers.
Of course, this was before his "rebirth". As for now...
He had been studying and working in Moscow for nearly eight years!
Upon returning to his home country, he worked in Russian trade. His Russian proficiency may not have reached the level of simultaneous translation, but his vocabulary and pronunciation standards were almost on par with ordinary Russians.
As for the short, plump girl, her Russian level is best not mentioned. Otherwise, she wouldn't have dared go shopping by herself and insisted on going with Wang Ye.
Wang Ye nodded. He was a little thirsty and wanted to go buy a bottle of water.
Upon seeing this, Liu Xiaojie quickly said, "Wang Dan, let's go together and buy some food and drinks."
He said this to the tall thin girl. At that moment, Wang Ye came to know that the tall, thin girl's name was "Wang Dan".
Wang Dan nodded slightly without commenting on Liu Xiaojie's suggestion. Instead, she turned to the short, plump girl, and said: "Xiao Yun, you don't need to buy food. I still have a few buckets of instant noodles in my suitcase. If we get hungry later, we can eat those."
The short, plump girl shook her head and laughed, "We still need to buy some. Without hot water, are we supposed to eat dry instant noodles? Let's go and see if they have cakes or something, and just buy some snacks."
Before they could decide on what to buy, a short, slim Chinese boy walked straight towards Wang Ye and the others.
From a distance, he smiled and greeted them, "Welcome, welcome! Teacher Wu came to find me earlier, and only then did I find you all. By the way, my name is Zhou Yuan. I came a few months earlier than you, and also came through the same agency."
Even though they didn't recognize this boy, they had heard of the name "Zhou Yuan".
That's because their accompanying teacher, Teacher Wu, had already told them about Zhou Yuan. He was the "class monitor" of their group and had come earlier.
After arriving, they could turn to Zhou Yuan for any help.
In a foreign land, seeing someone from the same country makes them "fellow town folks", there's a natural sense of closeness.
Not to mention that Zhou Yuan was from the same province as them, and came through the same agency and during the same year to study abroad. He was one of their own, indeed.
Everyone got to know Zhou Yuan, and Wang Ye also took the opportunity to remember the names of the other classmates.
He had already found out the name of the tall, thin girl. Her name was Wang Dan.
The short, plump girl's name was Li Xiaoyun.
There were also four other male students. This last batch of students coming from China, including Wang Ye, totaled eight.
After some small talk, Li Xiaoyun again brought up the plan to go to the small shop.
Upon hearing that, Zhou Yuan immediately offered to take them there.
He had been in Moscow for a few months now, and buying things with the little Russian that he knew was not a problem for him!
The other boys overheard their conversation, and eagerly came over, saying that they wanted to go too.
As such, they piled their luggage in a corner against the wall, and under Zhou Yuan's guidance, they stylishly walked into the small shop.
It was already quite late, and there weren't many people in the shop.
Only a fat middle-aged woman, a saleswoman, was lazily sitting behind the cashier counter.
Wang Ye looked around. This small shop was not a common supermarket like the ones in China, but rather a traditional old shop.
All the items were displayed behind a glass counter. You would need to tell the saleswoman what you wanted to buy and she would get it for you.
"Have a look around first, figure out what you want to buy, and then tell me one by one. I will help you buy them. Oh, you guys don't have any Rubles on you, huh? This shop doesn't accept American dollars. How about this, I'll lend each of you 200 Rubles, should be enough for you to shop. Tomorrow, I'll take you all to exchange some Rubles, then you can repay me," Zhou Yuan said as he took out his wallet from his pocket and started distributing money.
He indeed was a very helpful person. That's probably why he was chosen as the class monitor...
Wang Ye and all of them had just arrived from China, and all the money they carried was in US dollars. This was because in Russia, although the local currency was the Ruble, the real "hard currency" was the American dollar...
Their tuition and insurance payments, the notifications from the school were all in US dollars.
Of course, when it came to buying things or paying fees, they still needed to give Rubles.
In Moscow, it was very, very convenient to exchange US dollars for Rubles. There were exchange points all over the streets.
These exchange points were very conspicuous. The booth only had a small window for transactions, and there was a large electronic sign displaying the exchange rate of US dollars to Rubles.
You just needed to go over there, hand over your American dollars, and according to the exchange rate of the day, you could get the corresponding Rubles.
There were no procedures or documents needed.
In early 2001, one US dollar could be exchanged for about twenty-five Rubles.
Many people might find it hard to believe that just ten years prior, the exchange rate of Ruble to US dollar was almost one to one.
After enduring what was called "shock therapy," the Ruble began to depreciate drastically, and the savings accumulated by the people over the years almost disappeared...
Before their arrival, the agency in China had already told them to bring US dollars.
The school's notice, indicating tuition, accommodation fees and the likes, also displayed these fees in US dollars.
...
The saleswoman probably saw too many international students in her work. So when she saw Wang Ye and his friends come in, she did not even look up and continued to read.
Without a doubt, reading is a very popular habit in Russia.
On the bus, on the subway, among people lining up outside museums, you could see many people reading a book.
It's said that the graduation rate among universities in Russia is over 90%, and the cultural level of the people is quite high. On this point, it is way ahead of many countries.
The items sold in this small shop were simple, mostly bread, milk, beverages, and snacks.
"The bread here is quite good, but remember to buy white bread. Definitely do not buy black bread. It's sour and hard, and we're not used to it!" Zhou Yuan advised everyone.
In China, the Russian bread is often called "dalieba". Especially the dalieba in Harbin, which is different from that in Russia; it has been localized and improved.