Holidays in Ekat, the mayonnaise capital of the world*

Merry Christmas!

I am sitting down to write this after celebrating my first American Christmas in Russia. It is strange to greet a holiday in a country that doesn’t recognize it—instead of sitting at home with their families, most inhabitants of Ekaterinburg put on their boots and coats and scurried off to work in the dark at 8:30 am (Russians celebrate Christmas on January 7^th, according to the old calendar). Fortunately, foreigners seem to huddle together with candles and chocolate in hopes of remembering that somewhere in the world, the holiday season has arrived in full.

After that opening paragraph, I should point out that I have actually been celebrating Christmas for the last three days : ) It all started on Saturday, when our friend Katya decided to throw a Christmas party in her apartment for all the foreigners she knows. Midori and I arrived to find a Christmas tree and a table full of food especially for us. After eating all of the traditional Russian holiday foods—including mandarin oranges, blini, olivye (a mayonnaise salad with all sorts of vegetables that Russians always have on new year’s), and pieces of toast with whole fish on them (scary, but surprisingly tasty), we moved onto playing games. The most entertaining game was by far “Telephone”—we sat foreigner-Russian-foreigner-Russian in a circle and watched words like “apple” become “fighter-pilot” as it went around the circle. The day ended with sledding our way back to the bus stop.

Last night we celebrated European Christmas with Josefina, Midori, Johanna, and Johanna’s friend Christian. We lit candles, ate lasagna, and talked about Christmas in our respective countries (apparently Midori—and most of Japan—buys a huge bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken to celebrate every year). This morning we awoke to American Christmas: Jen and I made breakfast and we all exchanged gifts. We had stockings full of candy from Santa and some hilarious homemade Christmas decorations (I’m hoping to have pictures up on the facebook soon). We all had our moments when it was difficult to be away from home on the holiday, but all in all we had a good time celebrating the day with our makeshift family.

Before entering the holidays, I had been busy entertaining Carrie Miller for the past two weeks. We had a good run around the Urals—we saw the opera and ballet, and also watched the entire city turn into one big mud puddle when the weather took an unexpected balmy turn. We had an amazing trip to Omsk. It was my first time to Siberia and I was pleasantly surprised—it was beautiful and not cold at all. I realized as we were traveling that I am only now beginning to understand just how vast, endless, and complex this country really is. [Carrie promised to write more about Omsk for you all and post it here]. One weekend we also made our way to Alfina’s parents’ place in the country, where I managed to shield Carrie from liver breakfast, but not from the banya ; ) Sergei and Alfina were amazing tour guides and had a great time utilizing their minimal English skills. In short, it was fun to show off my city and good to see an old friend. I discovered that translating is both exhausting and difficult and that I have a long way to go with it. That said, my Russian has been coming along as of late and my English has been slipping, a fact which may be more and more apparent on this lovely little blog.

In other news, I passed my “exams” in our university and am about to embark on a month-long traveling adventure. It starts with Jen and I leaving for Moscow, where we will celebrate New Year’s (which Russians celebrate like we in America celebrate Christmas) with Laura Erceg, our mutual friend Marina, and her family. Laura Eaton flies into Moscow on January 5^th and on January 7^th, she, I and Alfina (who is coming to Moscow for a few days) will make our way back to Ekaterinburg. After showing Laura my city, she and I will continue on to Petersburg, so that I can introduce her to my true Russian love. We make our way back to Moscow at the end of January—I have Fulbright mid-session training in Moscow at the very end of the month, so I will hang out in the capital until February 2^nd or so, when Jen will fly back in from America and she and I will head back home. Did you catch all of that? It is going to be a wild month, but I am looking forward to touring the Western half of the country!

I miss you all and hope you are enjoying a wonderful holiday! Happy New Year!!!

*Midori’s boyfriend discovered through a Google search that people in Ekaterinburg consume more mayonnaise than any other city in the world. It even made it into the Guinness Book of World Records! How’s that for getting our city on the map??

Turkey and Pumpkin, Russkii Style

Privet!

I have meaning to write for a while about my Thanksgiving adventures and am just getting around to it now. I used to think that Thanksgiving was by far the worst holiday to be away from America and in particular to be in Russia, in part because it is nearly impossible to find a single turkey in the entire country. Thanksgiving 2006 Ekat-style, however, has changed my mind.

The highlight of my Thanksgiving by far was a presentation/craft-session that Danai [the American English Language Fellow in town] and I organized at the American Center. The American Center invited about 20 middle and high school students who study English. Danai gave a presentation about the history and traditions surrounding Thanksgiving in America and then we made hand-turkeys and little pilgrims with the kids. It was hilarious to watch teenage kids get excited about American-style crafts! Danai and I even managed to produce a pumpkin pie that we had made from raw pumpkin the night before—I didn’t even know this was possible.

In addition to inviting the students, the American Center happened to invite the press to the event. And, since I was the only Russian-speaking American present that day, I ended up on not one, but two regional news programs. The conversation went a little like this “You are Beeetsy [insert Russian accent here]?”. “Yes, I am.” “Great! You speak Russian like a native [based off of “Yes, I am”]. Can we please interview you?”. “I guess. But if I does makes much mistake while I talks, please, does not showing them at the public through the means of television.” And thus we started. About midway through the interview, I glanced at the microphone and realized that this was for one of the major news stations in town…And thus, for the last two weeks I have been running into people who saw me on the news. When I rolled into Alfina’s parents last weekend, her dad greeted me with “You didn’t tell me you were famous!”.

We followed the presentation up with dinner at one of the US consulate worker’s apartments. It was a bit strange to have Thanksgiving with ten people that I didn’t know, but I was nevertheless in heaven with a spread of all American food. Pictures from the presentation, mainly of the cute little Russian munchkins, are up on the facebook.

Since Thanksgiving, I have been busy both with work and school. That said, there have been a lot of moments lately when I have remembered just why it is so interesting to live in this country. I sat in a café for two hours on Monday with a new friend/coworker who talked to me about everything from Chicago architecture to the Russian draft [which he is dodging] to the disgustingly low pay of teachers and doctors in Russia [the highest paid surgeon in Russia makes no more than $350 a month. Teachers make significantly less]. At the same time, the last week has been blessed with lots of moments where I wonder “exactly why did I come here again?”. After spending the last blog describing the wonder and pain of Russian winter, the Urals decided that it is not, in fact, winter just yet. Carrie Miller arrived on this past Thursday and was greeted by a country of mud. We have been trudging through ankle, calf, and thigh deep puddles all week J More to come on the dirt and our Russian adventures in tourism to come.

Word of the Day: Замерзла

Замерзла (pronounced za-myerz-la) v. 1. English translation: Frozen. 2. The most common question asked in Russia during the month of December. 3. What I have been for the past two weeks. 4. The surefire way to fall ill and never recover, according to any average babushka.

Usage: Tyi ne zamyerzla? [Are you freezing?].
Da, zamyerzla. [Yes, I am frozen].
Vot blin, ya sovsem zamyerzla. [Dang it, I’m completely frozen].

Yes indeed, winter has arrived. And with it, about two feet of snow and regularly sub-zero temperatures. After weeks of snow and rain and snow and rain mixed with constantly fluctuating temperatures and muddy streets, winter came suddenly and seems to have settled in for a few months. We went to sleep one night and woke up the next morning and it was -23 degrees Celsius and the outside world was completely замерзло. Lucky for us, we also woke up to discover that the pipes in the dorms were замерзли. Consequently, we were замерзли like nothing else. I walked around in six layers of clothing, tried to keep warm with a blow dryer, and drank ten cups of tea a day. Fortunately, due to the gradual melting of our pipes and the impressive initiative of Josefina [who insulated and glued shut all of our windows], our rooms have now reached a livable temperature. Now it’s just dealing with the outside world that we’re working on : )

Замерзла is one of my favorite Russian words because it is used so often and because as a foreigner, I have been asked the question since September. Betsy, are you cold? Betsy, you must be frozen! Betsy, this weather is cold for you, yes? [when the temperature is a good 15C]. This plays into two exceptional characteristic of most Russian people: their obsession with discussing health [and assuming that if one is cold, then she will surely be sick within hours] and their incredible concern for the well-being of foreigners. When the frost hit two weeks ago, I was almost glad to finally be able to answer “Da, замерзлa.” Of course, that opened up the door for about 15 minutes of advice each time about how to stay warm, what foods I needed to be eating, and warnings that I should never ever eat ice cream on the street.

There are so many incredible things about winter in Russia that I could not decide where to start when describing it here. I finally picked the language and am looking forward to, over the next four long and cold months, telling you about the fur hats and coats, the block-long ice patches, the three-inch frost, and what the Urals look like when they are buried under months worth of snow. Until then, know that я замерзла (I am frozen), but nevertheless in love with winter for the first time in my life.