Sunday, February 26, 2006


Thanks to the newly instituted holiday of ‘Defender’s of the Fatherland Day,’ I’m enjoying the tail end of a four-day weekend. Created two years ago by Putin as a kind of equal opportunity holiday to counteract women’s day, defenders of the homeland day basically means no work and provides an especially good excuse for all Russian men to get drunk. In the one-minute walk from my apartment to the bus stop that night, I passed about ten rowdy men celebrating, well, themselves. But I was a good little Russian and bought my host father and brother little gifts, but stubbornly refuse Vlad’s demands that on men’s day I do everything he orders me to do.
Otherwise, the weekend included some more deep snow running, more than enough eating, and a lot of snowballs fights (or rather attempts, as the snow is way to dry to make a solid mass that will survive the twenty foot flight) with Vlad and friends. We celebrated a birthday of one of the Americans in our group on Thursday night, which was a lot better than I had ever hoped. According to Russian tradition, on your birthday you’re supposed to buy gifts for other people. So when we showed up at the bar to celebrate, we were greeted with cakes and chocolate galore (and believe me, I took advantage… Russian candy is wonderful). I watched a little of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on TV last night, dubbed over in Russian of course. Even knowing the story and having now five weeks of Russian, I sadly understood very little. It was amazing, however, to hear them all in Russian (Ron sounded like a chipmunk). Russians have changed the name from Harry to Gary because apparently Harry sounds too much like the word for male genetalia. So yes, Gary Potter and the Magic Room = amazing.
I was forced to forgo running for the day due to continued heavy snowfall. It may be getting a little warmer, but the snow doesn’t seem to care. I’ve seen a few puddles though, so I’m assuming it’s only a matter of time before I have to trudge to the market and buy some galoshes.

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