Well, looks like I need to play catch-up again. But that is not such an unpleasant thought to an English major stretched out on the floor in her fuzzy flannel pajamas, with the colorful Christmas lights blinking in her window and the ground covered in a blanket of snow outside. We had our first real snow the other day - the other ones were all just "pretend" snows, because here it takes a lot of snow to actually cover the ground. Because the temperatures stay below freezing, the snow isn't wet and doesn't stick to the top of the grass; it sifts down between the blades like sand, and it has to accumulate like sand before it gets high enough to hide the grass. It is nice to have everything so beautiful and white again; this past week we had a thaw and all the snow melted and all of Moscow turned into one huge muddy mess. Every time I went walking anywhere I had to come home and wash my pant legs in the bathtub - I'd have mud splatters all the way up to the backs of my knees!
The week before that, though, was quite snowy, and it was odd to be preparing my belated Thanksgiving feast when it was snowing outside. Speaking of which, I must pause here to state my appreciation for mothers everywhere who make Thanksgiving dinner for their families each year - it is HARD! I like cooking, so I enjoyed it, but I was literally in the kitchen all day. The great endeavour began the night before, when I came home from work and made up my list of all the food I would need to buy at the grocery store. Then I sat down with my dictionary and looked up the Russian names for all the random foods they don't teach you the names of in college - ginger, cloves, cranberries, etc. That being done, I mustered up my energy and marched over to the grocery store. It was 9:00 at night, and I was tired, but I was determined to buy everything I would need so that I could spend the whole of the next day purely cooking. However, despite my good intentions and an hour and a half spent in the grocery store (at least half an hour of which was spent staring at the spice shelves and trying to will powdered ginger and thyme into existence - it didn't work, and I ended up buying "Hmeli-sumeli" instead...which I'm pretty sure translates as "hmeli-sumeli"...and sticking a piece of ginger root into my cart at the last minute) my mission was doomed to fail. When I was checking out, the grumpy lady at the cash register (I can't blame her; it was 10:30 at night) sent me dashing back to the vegetables section because I had forgotten to get a weight sticker put on the onions, and I'm pretty sure that while I was gone she stole my piece of ginger, because when I got home it was definitely not in my bags. For a few moments I entertained the wild notion of trying to jump-start my sleepy brain to tell my legs to march back to the shop and buy the ginger then and there, but my brain just rolled over and started snoring again. So I reluctantly surrendered and made a second trip in the morning. Then it was time to dry the ginger in the oven, and then to cook the turkey and simultaneously chop onions for the stuffing...and then chop more onions for the stuffing...and then chop more onions for the stuffing...and then get lost in a fog of onion-created tears, feel blindly for the window, and crank it wide open so that the snowflakes could drift gently in and make little puddles on the floor while I finally finished the blasted onions and started on the celery...then make the pumpkin pie...then realize that my mom was right when she said the filling was enough for two pies and make more pumpkin pie... then make mashed potatoes...which turned into pureed potatoes because I was really excited that I actually had a mixer which my friend had lent me and got a little carried away...then chop more onions (*%$^*) for the sauteed squash. It was quite a masterly maneuver if I do say so myself, especially considering I only had one oven pan for almost everything, so baking times had to be strategically planned. But I finished, and I finished everything on time, and everyone came, and they all ate everything, and nothing was burnt and nothing was raw, and besides some jokes about the soupiness of the potatoes, the food part seemed to turn out all right. And the conversation flowed pretty well, and a couple of people brought champagne and wine, and overall I think it turned out well for my first real hostess endeavour (in my whole life, a fact which I was pondering right before people started to arrive: "This is my first time trying to cook a dinner for a whole group of people...my first real event as a hostess...why did I have to decide to start with a Thanksgiving dinner of all things?!?" But the heavens smiled down on me and there weren't any major disasters!
I can't say I did much of anything else that weekend except sleep to recuperate from the cooking marathon, and my next week was not marked out by too much of anything special save for the fact that a number of my students were absent. It's sort of the reverse from NC with sickness and snow here. If you're sick in NC, you might miss a couple of days of school, but then you get on some antibiotics or some other medicine and you're back in class. But if a single snowflake falls from the sky, all the schools and even some businesses immediately shut down. Here, as one of my students put it, "The snow doesn't stop anybody...I like driving in the winter actually. Everyone drives until the stupid people have accidents, and then they stop driving and leave the roads clear for us." (I didn't ask him how he defines "stupid people"!) But if someone gets sick, then the turnaround time is a lot longer. One of my students came down with the measles of all things, and he developed complications and an infection and ended up being in the hospital and missed three weeks of classes. He's alright now, thank goodness, but it was so weird because kids just don't really have that same sort of thing happen in the U.S. - heck, I'm pretty sure nobody even gets measles anymore.
The other remarkable thing that week was that suddenly Christmas decorations started showing up in all the stores. Except they are not for Christmas...they are for New Year's. The Russians don't celebrate Christmas like we do, I think in part because of being communist for so long and also in part because the Russian Orthodox Christmas isn't until January 6th, I think. So instead of "Christmas trees" they have "New Year's trees." Regardless, seeing all the lights and decorations was really making me feel the lack in our flat, and it was creating a wild urge in me to dive into the first store I saw and buy loads of ornaments, lights, and even a plastic tree. However, common sense took hold and I decided to look around our flat first before I made any major purchases...and I'm really glad I did... I found an entire Christmas tree in a box out on our balcony, and glass balls in the closet, and even a strand of lights! It wasn't a little tree either; it's as tall as I am!
I dusted off all the balls, but I decided to nix the lights...they were from 1991, and some of the bulbs shone just a bit too brightly for my taste. So I splurged at the store and bought three strands of colored lights, and now they are twinkling merrily all around the flat. I'm not completely done decorating yet, so I think I will wait to post pictures until it's all done. The other thing I splurged on was Advent candles. I had been keeping an eye out for them ever since Advent started, but the only colors I could find were silver, gold, and blue - they don't seem to have the pink and purple tradition here. Finally I bought some silver candles and painted them...I think they turned out really well! Of course, it's a bit silly because I haven't even burned them yet, but at this point I think I'm going to save them for Christmas Eve night.
I have to figure out what I'm doing on Christmas, because both of my flatmates are leaving so I will be alone in the flat. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, but I need to think of ways to make Christmas special for myself since I won't be with my family and it would really stink to spend Christmas moping around because I'm not at home. Right now I'm thinking I will go to midnight mass, and probably on Christmas day I will make some hot chocolate, light the Advent candles, say a couple of rosaries, and skype with my family later in the day when Christmas morning arrives for them. The way I see it, the two things that make Christmas really special are 1) duh - the birth of Christ and 2) time with family, and since I can't have the second as much this year I'm going to make the most out of the first. I don't know what it says for me in terms of intelligence, but little things really make a difference for me, and having a Christmas tree with beautiful ornaments and lights and having lights in the windows does so much to brighten my mood that I think if I make sure I've prepared enough for Christmas it will still feel like a really joyful special day even if I can't celebrate it at home.
This past Friday was charged with frenetic excitement because I found out that Evgenia Obraztsova was coming to perform La Sylphide at a theatre in Moscow in January, and I was planning to buy tickets. Unfortunately, after trekking all the way into the centre and wandering about through the snow until I found the theatre box office, the tickets in my price range were already sold out. But I will see Obraztsova dance live someday!! Speaking of which, I am attaching a clip from her Romeo and Juliet here - in my opinion she is one of the best Juliets of our time, and if you haven't happened to see her dance before please watch this clip and just disregard the bits where people are talking - the most important part is seeing her telling this story with such passion and vibrance! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKd5xgcFk0o&feature=related
So anyways, I was disappointed not to get tickets, but it was a good wake-up call - I need to get in gear if I'm going to see ballets here! I had no idea tickets sold out so far in advance, so I'm glad I know now!
Friday night I got to hang out with some friends and see my co-worker's flat for the first time - it is definitely a cut above ours! But I really like our flat just the way it is, and any thoughts of jealousy were wiped from my mind as soon as one of Teya's flatmates opened her door and a putrid cloud of cigarette smoke drifted throughout the house - I just don't understand how some people can enjoy that smell! I stuck it out for an hour, but then I begged off due to the lateness of the hour and the fact that I had work the next day - it was almost midnight, so it was pretty late - and bounded gratefully out into the freezing air, taking deep gulps to try to cleanse my lungs.
Saturday night was fun in a quieter way - I invited my neighbor's two kids over to help me make ornaments and decorate the Christmas tree. I don't know if I mentioned Lilya in any earlier posts, but she is a really sweet fourteen-year-old who lives next door and who is really eager to learn English. She and her younger brother Timour came over, and I pulled out the glitter and markers and stiff paper and made banana bread and tea, and we supplemented the rather meagre array of glass balls with some beautiful paper ornaments. I was really glad they could come - it wouldn't have been any fun to decorate by myself, and besides, for me Christmas is linked with kids having fun, so it was cool that they could come over to help. Again, I will post pictures of the tree soon; for now here are some of the ornaments we made.Well, I was going to post pictures, but at this point my internet is being really flaky so I think I'll just have to wait til next time.
Today I went out to Mass and then went to watch a rehearsal of the dance group I am GOING TO JOIN!!! I made my decision and I'm really excited to start with them this week - I think it will be a good place to dance and that it will be a lot of fun. I can't WAIT to do character dance again! Which is probably a good thing - not being able to wait will stir me to do some classes on my own in the flat this week so I don't make a complete fool of myself on Friday. If you want to see pictures and stuff of the group, the link is here: http://www.sokolovteatr.ru/youth
And that's about all I have to report for now...Only two weeks until vacation and I'm SO excited. I'm going to start putting together a sightseeing list to make up for my appalling lack of activity in that area thus far, but I'm also going to spend at least two days doing absolutely nothing but SLEEPING, reading, and possibly having a cup of hot chocolate IF I'm motivated enough to get out of bed. :) However, there are still two weeks of teaching, and oh, yeah, Christmas cookies! Which thankfully won't mean chopping onions, but I do see whole ginger and cloves looming menacingly in my future....well, I say BRING IT ON!!!
yes, those are people walking on the pond!
I can't say I did much of anything else that weekend except sleep to recuperate from the cooking marathon, and my next week was not marked out by too much of anything special save for the fact that a number of my students were absent. It's sort of the reverse from NC with sickness and snow here. If you're sick in NC, you might miss a couple of days of school, but then you get on some antibiotics or some other medicine and you're back in class. But if a single snowflake falls from the sky, all the schools and even some businesses immediately shut down. Here, as one of my students put it, "The snow doesn't stop anybody...I like driving in the winter actually. Everyone drives until the stupid people have accidents, and then they stop driving and leave the roads clear for us." (I didn't ask him how he defines "stupid people"!) But if someone gets sick, then the turnaround time is a lot longer. One of my students came down with the measles of all things, and he developed complications and an infection and ended up being in the hospital and missed three weeks of classes. He's alright now, thank goodness, but it was so weird because kids just don't really have that same sort of thing happen in the U.S. - heck, I'm pretty sure nobody even gets measles anymore.
The other remarkable thing that week was that suddenly Christmas decorations started showing up in all the stores. Except they are not for Christmas...they are for New Year's. The Russians don't celebrate Christmas like we do, I think in part because of being communist for so long and also in part because the Russian Orthodox Christmas isn't until January 6th, I think. So instead of "Christmas trees" they have "New Year's trees." Regardless, seeing all the lights and decorations was really making me feel the lack in our flat, and it was creating a wild urge in me to dive into the first store I saw and buy loads of ornaments, lights, and even a plastic tree. However, common sense took hold and I decided to look around our flat first before I made any major purchases...and I'm really glad I did... I found an entire Christmas tree in a box out on our balcony, and glass balls in the closet, and even a strand of lights! It wasn't a little tree either; it's as tall as I am!
I dusted off all the balls, but I decided to nix the lights...they were from 1991, and some of the bulbs shone just a bit too brightly for my taste. So I splurged at the store and bought three strands of colored lights, and now they are twinkling merrily all around the flat. I'm not completely done decorating yet, so I think I will wait to post pictures until it's all done. The other thing I splurged on was Advent candles. I had been keeping an eye out for them ever since Advent started, but the only colors I could find were silver, gold, and blue - they don't seem to have the pink and purple tradition here. Finally I bought some silver candles and painted them...I think they turned out really well! Of course, it's a bit silly because I haven't even burned them yet, but at this point I think I'm going to save them for Christmas Eve night.
I have to figure out what I'm doing on Christmas, because both of my flatmates are leaving so I will be alone in the flat. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, but I need to think of ways to make Christmas special for myself since I won't be with my family and it would really stink to spend Christmas moping around because I'm not at home. Right now I'm thinking I will go to midnight mass, and probably on Christmas day I will make some hot chocolate, light the Advent candles, say a couple of rosaries, and skype with my family later in the day when Christmas morning arrives for them. The way I see it, the two things that make Christmas really special are 1) duh - the birth of Christ and 2) time with family, and since I can't have the second as much this year I'm going to make the most out of the first. I don't know what it says for me in terms of intelligence, but little things really make a difference for me, and having a Christmas tree with beautiful ornaments and lights and having lights in the windows does so much to brighten my mood that I think if I make sure I've prepared enough for Christmas it will still feel like a really joyful special day even if I can't celebrate it at home.
This past Friday was charged with frenetic excitement because I found out that Evgenia Obraztsova was coming to perform La Sylphide at a theatre in Moscow in January, and I was planning to buy tickets. Unfortunately, after trekking all the way into the centre and wandering about through the snow until I found the theatre box office, the tickets in my price range were already sold out. But I will see Obraztsova dance live someday!! Speaking of which, I am attaching a clip from her Romeo and Juliet here - in my opinion she is one of the best Juliets of our time, and if you haven't happened to see her dance before please watch this clip and just disregard the bits where people are talking - the most important part is seeing her telling this story with such passion and vibrance! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKd5xgcFk0o&feature=related
So anyways, I was disappointed not to get tickets, but it was a good wake-up call - I need to get in gear if I'm going to see ballets here! I had no idea tickets sold out so far in advance, so I'm glad I know now!
Friday night I got to hang out with some friends and see my co-worker's flat for the first time - it is definitely a cut above ours! But I really like our flat just the way it is, and any thoughts of jealousy were wiped from my mind as soon as one of Teya's flatmates opened her door and a putrid cloud of cigarette smoke drifted throughout the house - I just don't understand how some people can enjoy that smell! I stuck it out for an hour, but then I begged off due to the lateness of the hour and the fact that I had work the next day - it was almost midnight, so it was pretty late - and bounded gratefully out into the freezing air, taking deep gulps to try to cleanse my lungs.
Saturday night was fun in a quieter way - I invited my neighbor's two kids over to help me make ornaments and decorate the Christmas tree. I don't know if I mentioned Lilya in any earlier posts, but she is a really sweet fourteen-year-old who lives next door and who is really eager to learn English. She and her younger brother Timour came over, and I pulled out the glitter and markers and stiff paper and made banana bread and tea, and we supplemented the rather meagre array of glass balls with some beautiful paper ornaments. I was really glad they could come - it wouldn't have been any fun to decorate by myself, and besides, for me Christmas is linked with kids having fun, so it was cool that they could come over to help. Again, I will post pictures of the tree soon; for now here are some of the ornaments we made.Well, I was going to post pictures, but at this point my internet is being really flaky so I think I'll just have to wait til next time.
Today I went out to Mass and then went to watch a rehearsal of the dance group I am GOING TO JOIN!!! I made my decision and I'm really excited to start with them this week - I think it will be a good place to dance and that it will be a lot of fun. I can't WAIT to do character dance again! Which is probably a good thing - not being able to wait will stir me to do some classes on my own in the flat this week so I don't make a complete fool of myself on Friday. If you want to see pictures and stuff of the group, the link is here: http://www.sokolovteatr.ru/youth
And that's about all I have to report for now...Only two weeks until vacation and I'm SO excited. I'm going to start putting together a sightseeing list to make up for my appalling lack of activity in that area thus far, but I'm also going to spend at least two days doing absolutely nothing but SLEEPING, reading, and possibly having a cup of hot chocolate IF I'm motivated enough to get out of bed. :) However, there are still two weeks of teaching, and oh, yeah, Christmas cookies! Which thankfully won't mean chopping onions, but I do see whole ginger and cloves looming menacingly in my future....well, I say BRING IT ON!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment