Wheee!
I spent the weekend getting reacquainted with all the various pleasures of life in Vladimir. If you want to skip straight to the pictures, they’re here. First up: Russia, the land of many holidays. Friday was Russia’s independence day, so in the morning my host father Andrei took me, my host brother Yarik (a diminutive of Yaraslav), and sister Kyusha (Ksenya) out to see the celebration downtown. It wasn’t much - a stage set up with various pop music acts, some tents selling souvenirs and shashlik and pierog - but it gave me a chance to see the city center. Not much has changed - a new shopping center, the old grocery store Grossmart replaced by a new one called Atak, more advertisements. You can still buy ice cream on every corner, which was fantastic because it was 28 degrees most of the weekend - felt like 90 or so. Plus crazy ridiculous thunderstorms and hailstorms once a day or so and in the middle of the night. Fortunately it’s cooled off a bit yesterday and today.
In the evening we went to Andrei’s friend’s house to eat shashlik. That house, if possible, is even nicer than my family’s. I seem to have gotten in with the wealthy crowd this time around. I happily stuffed myself with chicken while heated political and philosophical debates raged on (aided, I think, by cognac and vino) and the five-year-old daughter did my hair.
On Saturday it was Yarik’s 15th birthday, so he went off with his friends to see a movie and eat pizza, and we girls explored a very pretty garden not far from the American Home. Saw a couple of wedding parties at the Golden Gates, the cars with the ribbons and plastic rings decorating the hoods and roofs, the girls with their poufy white dresses, the guys wearing suits and sashes, and everyone pleasantly tipsy. In the evening three of Yarik’s friends and his grandmother came for cake and ice cream, and everyone gave lengthy toasts. I wasn’t able to beg off toasting duties but they did let me give mine in English, as Yarik, his friends, and his mom all speak English quite well. Then the boys headed out on the town, and I went to hang out with the American teachers. It’s always interesting to meet other people who’ve made the same life choices that you have, and find out what their reasons were and where they will go next.
I should pause and explain that any time you leave the house to spend time with your friends you are said to гулать (gulat), which literally means to go for a walk. Because the main entertainment here for young people actually is walking around in the city center with their friends, the word гулать has come to mean, basically, to hang out. So I гулалась while sitting around my friend’s apartment drinking beer!
On Sunday the whole family plus one of Yarik’s friends piled into the car and went off to the university’s banya, which you can apparently rent out for private use. This banya had, as usual, a small steam room, a larger tiled room for washing up with a small cold pool, and then a room to hang out and drink tea or beer. The men and women took turns - basically you sit in the steam room as long as you can stand it, then dunk yourself very quickly in the cold pool three times (my host mom kept hollering for me to do it faster) then dash back into the steam room. Then rinse off and go drink tea for a while. And repeat. It’s awesome. While in the steam room you can also hit yourself or your friends with the venik, the bunch of birch leaves, which detoxifies your skin (or at any rate smells fantastic). I just love it. You feel so good afterwards, clean all the way through, alive, healthy, and nicely drowsy.
Yesterday evening after the American Home I went with my host mom to a truly amazing concert. The Vladimir orchestra was hosting a famous pianist named Denis Mantsuyev, who at thirty years old has already played in most of the concert halls I’ve ever heard of, including Carnegie. He played a gorgeous Shostakovitch piece, the Concert for Piano and Orchestra Number 2, and then two little encores, a sweet peaceful lullaby and an outrageously fast version of Peter and the Wolf. Just extraordinary. Tonight I’m going to another concert, a children’s choir singing Russian folk songs. My host brother plays the piano and sings in the famous Vladimir boy’s choir, so he always has the lowdown on the good concerts. I have to say I totally lucked out with this family.
In the evening we went to Andrei’s friend’s house to eat shashlik. That house, if possible, is even nicer than my family’s. I seem to have gotten in with the wealthy crowd this time around. I happily stuffed myself with chicken while heated political and philosophical debates raged on (aided, I think, by cognac and vino) and the five-year-old daughter did my hair.
On Saturday it was Yarik’s 15th birthday, so he went off with his friends to see a movie and eat pizza, and we girls explored a very pretty garden not far from the American Home. Saw a couple of wedding parties at the Golden Gates, the cars with the ribbons and plastic rings decorating the hoods and roofs, the girls with their poufy white dresses, the guys wearing suits and sashes, and everyone pleasantly tipsy. In the evening three of Yarik’s friends and his grandmother came for cake and ice cream, and everyone gave lengthy toasts. I wasn’t able to beg off toasting duties but they did let me give mine in English, as Yarik, his friends, and his mom all speak English quite well. Then the boys headed out on the town, and I went to hang out with the American teachers. It’s always interesting to meet other people who’ve made the same life choices that you have, and find out what their reasons were and where they will go next.
I should pause and explain that any time you leave the house to spend time with your friends you are said to гулать (gulat), which literally means to go for a walk. Because the main entertainment here for young people actually is walking around in the city center with their friends, the word гулать has come to mean, basically, to hang out. So I гулалась while sitting around my friend’s apartment drinking beer!
On Sunday the whole family plus one of Yarik’s friends piled into the car and went off to the university’s banya, which you can apparently rent out for private use. This banya had, as usual, a small steam room, a larger tiled room for washing up with a small cold pool, and then a room to hang out and drink tea or beer. The men and women took turns - basically you sit in the steam room as long as you can stand it, then dunk yourself very quickly in the cold pool three times (my host mom kept hollering for me to do it faster) then dash back into the steam room. Then rinse off and go drink tea for a while. And repeat. It’s awesome. While in the steam room you can also hit yourself or your friends with the venik, the bunch of birch leaves, which detoxifies your skin (or at any rate smells fantastic). I just love it. You feel so good afterwards, clean all the way through, alive, healthy, and nicely drowsy.
Yesterday evening after the American Home I went with my host mom to a truly amazing concert. The Vladimir orchestra was hosting a famous pianist named Denis Mantsuyev, who at thirty years old has already played in most of the concert halls I’ve ever heard of, including Carnegie. He played a gorgeous Shostakovitch piece, the Concert for Piano and Orchestra Number 2, and then two little encores, a sweet peaceful lullaby and an outrageously fast version of Peter and the Wolf. Just extraordinary. Tonight I’m going to another concert, a children’s choir singing Russian folk songs. My host brother plays the piano and sings in the famous Vladimir boy’s choir, so he always has the lowdown on the good concerts. I have to say I totally lucked out with this family.