Another Good Reason to go to Uzbekistan
…cheap haircuts. Spent $5.25 yesterday on a chop. Hasn’t gone up so much really. 10 years ago it was like$3.25/3.50 on post, and there was this place just off post that was $4, but less waiting. I had been spending $15 with tip in Denver.
It may surprise you to know that it’s Uzbek locals who were doing the haircutting instead of old guys that had been doing it forever. It still doesn’t take all that long in any case, though I think she spent extra time on me. I guess she liked the shape of my skull or something, because she was almost massaging my brains. Skulls are funny things. Used to have a creepy neighbor who had various small animal skulls on display. It was sorta related I guess, as he worked with the Wildlife department, but strange nonetheless. (back to o’zbekistan) Maybe she just had extra time, what with no waiting and all, and it was something to do.
Anyways, it was interesting to just sit and listen, because I was the only other person in there with the two haircut ladies — it seems such a wrong term, since they were both younger than me. They spoke slowly enough, in a regular conversation that I was able to listen without problems. Life is different everywhere, but the people really are not basically so different. They want a lot of the same things, and they all know somebody down the street who’s an unbelievable moron.
So after a while this guy comes in. “Nash droog,” one of them mutters to the other. (Our friend – наш друг.) Seems like he imagines himself to have a different relationship with them than they do. 
He had some knowledge of a few words at least, hard to say how comprehensive, but I didn’t get the impression that he totally understood, and they seemed to be laughing at him a little bit. They were doing the “how do you want your haircut” discusion, and I more or less stop paying attention because he’s just throwing words at them. They are kind of laughingly making remarks to each other that don’t seem to phase him, when he somewhat defensively says “ne goluboy – не голубой!” which means of course, “not gay.” I am not totally sure if he meant to imply he himself wasn’t, or that he didn’t want some kind of gay haircut. It was rather out of place and jarring, and he seemed almost offended. It was very funny, and hard not to laugh. Very interesting what one hears when one appears not to understand. 
