July 18, 2007 (Part II) || "Ice"/Pavlosk

Well, it's the middle of the week here... Harry Potter comes out in theaters tomorrow, and I've already scouted out a book store that should get English copies of the 7th book on Saturday (you know where I'll be Saturday morning)--hopefully I'll get there before they sell out, because I refuse to pay the sky-high prices at Dom Knigi for English books. This weekend I really should be visiting Kronstadt with Masha, we're going out somewhere tomorrow night, and I'm trying to put more plans in place. I found a comedy club I really want to check out, and I'm seriously thinking about cutting class to go to the beach on Friday... but next week are exams, and I could use all the extra practice I can get...

As our time here is winding down, we're going through all sorts of changes... starting to think about our lives back in the States and getting excited to be back, getting a bit burned out on Russian homework, feeling like we've got to do souvenir shopping and sightseeing and homework and sleep somewhere in there, so it's been busybusy day-in and day-out. This might be my last post for awhile, depending on finals and everything, but I'll try to squeeze in some time before we leave on our long trip to Vladimir, Suzdal, and Moscow.

Anyway, Tuesday night Anna, Liza, Trista and I went to a bar called "Ice." Everything there was made of--you guessed it--ice. We had to don big insulated coats and furry boots that they provided before stepping into the ice area... and literally, EVERYTHING was ice. The walls, the tables, the couch, the shot glasses, the bar... and everything was really pretty, carved nicely, and there were flowers frozen in the ice. It was a really pricey bar, so we only stayed for one drink before heading over to Dacha (a bar right next to the infamous Fidel), but what an experience! It was really, really cold in there (-10C), but the drinks were good and the atmosphere was really fun. And, you know, you had to try licking part of the place at least once.

Wednesday--ie, today--we had an excursion to Pavlosk, another Russian palace/park estate. The park here was two or three times as big as Peterhof's and lovely in a more wild way. I definitely want to come back to Pavlosk one day and have a nice picnic and just go exploring along the paths and through the woods. It was really peaceful and nice, a great break from the hustle and bustle of the city. Plus it's littered with ornate pavilions and statues and bridges that are basically works of art, so there's always a good destination to walk to. The best thing about today though, was the fact that 13 of the 15 people in our group were all together, and we just sat out in this big open grassy field and had a picnic, eating lunches we'd brought (or picking from the offerings some people threw in of candy, fruit, cookies, and tea breads--this is an extensive topic that I should cover later, because there are billions of snacks you can have with tea). Then, according to whim, we played badminton or catch, or laid out in the sun or drew or listened to music, or played hackey-sack and soccer with an uneaten orange. But then we all got together to play Red Rover, and even got Neil to join in. THAT was fun--Red Rover is just such a good nostalgic game in itself, but especially with new friends in the middle of Russia... I don't know how to explain it, it was just a really cool communal feeling. And Katya told us the Russian words! Apparently they play it just like we do, just say the words a little differently (I'll have to ask Masha--one day we're going to sit down and do Russian tongue-twisters and kids songs... already I've written down their equivalent of Roy G. Biv and the Alphabet song--for some reason, these are things that I really want to know and hang onto... hopefully my kids will grow up bilingual). So then, of course, we were all yelling these random Russian phrases back and forth at each other and just--it was a wonderful day.
Jessica and I jumped on the elektrichka (kind of like a day train) home early, not really sure if we were even headed in the right direction, and we really got a chance to talk... I love having her around because I'm really homesick for Notre Dame, and I think that's she's got the right opinions about all kinds of stuff.

I'm not sure what else to tell, since I'm wiped out--I basically got off the elektrichka, grabbed my computer, and headed over. There's a literally party at the apartment; hopefully Uncle Yuri, Polina, Danya, and Nora will all be there when I get back--Polina's mom told Nora she could get her ears pierced today! "I'm scared but I really want to do it," Nora said. She is the sweetest little girl ever, constantly asking if she can help me with my homework, helping her great-grandma around the house, painting my nails (which are now chipping silver like crazy), but she's got this little fiery streak too--I don't know what she's saying, but she'll definitely talk back to her great-grandpa (who I think is more annoyed by his great grandkids than amused by them) and try to reason things out with her great-grandma. I can't think for the life of me what to get my host family as a parting gift (can anyone think of good gifts for a 70s-ish couple that doesn't seem to need anything in life?), but I think maybe I'll splurge some of my money on a nice pair of earrings for Nora. That is, if I don't burn it all in Moscow, first.
Also, Curtis took a day off from class today and went around town visiting a bunch of the cultural sights he'd been really wanting to see. Throughout the day I'd receive SMSs saying things like "That was SO cool... off to the Pushkin Museum!" and it was good to hear that he was having such a good time.


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Since I mentioned the bar "Dacha" (which is really cozy and decorated inside with wallpaper like a typical Russian home--the Russian homes I've been to seem to really adore wallpaper), I might as well elaborate a bit on what the word means.
The Russian dacha is an integral part of life for city-dwellers. Dachas are basically little cottages that Russians keep far outside the city (normally more than an hour). The nearest comparison I can make to it is "going up North" for people in Michigan--you get out of the city, get away from the TV and telephone, and get to relax in nature. They can be little clapboard shacks or relatively big wooden houses, and might have their own gardens or porches. During the summer, lots of Russians go constantly to their dachas, every weekend, or sometimes they live there (Chris's younger brother, for example, is living at the dacha with their grandma to make more room for him in the apartment).
I just Wikipedia-ed them because they're such a hard concept to communicate, but Wikipedia reports a cool fact: Russia is ranked second in countries whose residents have second homes. Kind of odd, right, considering the financial situation of most Russians, and the difficulty of purchasing a nice apartment in the city? That just goes to show how important dachas are to the average Russian family--even people who live on the poorer end of the spectrum will make ends meet in order to have a dacha. I think this comes from what I see as a deeper connect with nature in Russia--judging from the number of parks in a city and how often they're used, the frequency with which Russians visit palace-estates like Petergof and Pavlosk, and the fact that it is STILL a ridiculously popular Russian past-time to go out into the woods and collect mushrooms.