I PROMISE that I know my numbers

After my failed post office attempt yesterday, I decided to stop by the "Burger Club" that recently opened near my apartment. I thought that would make me feel better.

I ordered my meal: a cheeseburger and a coke. I had already pulled out my wallet and was waiting for the total when I heard something that totally confused me. I PROMISE that I know my numbers in Russian. I may not speak a lot of Russian or particularly well, but I learned my numbers right off the bat when I got here. However, the number that the Burger Club gal gave me made no sense. She gave me a series of about 6 numbers, several of them being "zero." I asked her, "How much?" and she responded with "How much?"

This just confused me further. She was looking at me like I had blue hair, and I'm sure my face looked equally confused. She rattled off the numbers again, and I listened closer. Yep. I had heard her correctly. She'd said "zero-three-zero-four-zero-five." There were, in fact, three zeroes in that list of numbers. I thought that maybe she assumed I was really ignorant and needed her to spell it out for me (i.e. $8.50 becoming eight-five-zero). That didn't make sense, though. I asked "How much?" one more time, fully expecting to be yelled at or thrown out of the building. She followed my question with her own "how much," and the confusion continued to mount.

She gestured for me to move down to the other end of the counter. When we got down there (next to the Coke machine), I realized what she'd been asking me. She'd been asking me what size Coke I wanted: 0.3 liter, 0.4 liter, or 0.5 liter.

I felt really ridiculous.