10 Sivan/23 May, 2010

Woke up at 7 this time. I had breakfast with Aunt Vera. It was nice to talk to her and hearing her talk about her life. She is always very positive.

Sveta, her husband Vitalik and their four years old daughter Lika (pronounced Lee-ka, short for Angelika) came over at 9:30. They gave us a beautiful gift - small cups for wine on a special stand (if you pour into the top cup, it will pour into ones on lower level). We gave them their gifts. Lika was extra shy and clinging to her mom, since there were so many strange people looking at her. She is a very cute little girl.

After we chatted a bit, Sasha and I left with Sveta and her family on our excursion while my parents went to the city center. We went to Belarusian national open-air museum of architecture and everyday life at Strochitsy. It wasn’t really a long drive, it was close to the city. This museum reflects the life in Belarusian villages in 19th-early 20th century. Buildings like traditional village houses, barns, churches, mills were moved there along with many traditional tools, furniture and other things from everyday life. The idea is to have eight clusters of buildings from all regions of Belarus. Right now there are three, with a tour guide talking about the first cluster and then we could wonder around the others. First a tour guide (who could have talked in Belarusian, and English but we, of course, preferred Russian) showed us a barn and explained that part of village life.





There was also a schoolhouse with a room for a teacher attached to the building. I really liked the alphabet display.



Then we saw a church. It was a Unitarian church – joint Orthodox and Catholic one – since Belarus went from Poland and Lithuania (Catholic) to Russia (Orthodox) with some Protestants mixed in all the time and people were of both denominations. I actually didn’t know much about at least 200 hundred years of active Unitarianism in Belarus (that began in the 19th century).



Then we saw three village houses – a poorer Orthodox one and a richer Catholic one – the difference is reflected in the icon decorations in one corner of the room. Orthodox have just one. Houses were full of decoration and furniture that the guide explained had to be in a certain place. The table, for example, couldn’t be moved. She also explained why the entrance to the house was so low – so people would automatically bend over when they enter the house to respect the spirits. The tour guide was a nice young girl, who graduated with a history major for the university.





We got the special tour of the mill, where we climbed to the upper floors and she showed us how everything worked. It was a really nice tour.

We then walked around other clusters of buildings – those had houses that were built with a courtyard in the Russian style instead of a line in Belarusian style. I bought a little magnet and a sheep whistle made with ‘ancient’ clay technique. It was just nice to hang out all together and Lika was very interested in everything and never complained.



We had lunch at their traditional Belarusian restaurant there – so to keep with the traditional theme we got draniki (potato pancakes) and kvas (fermented non-alcoholic beverage). Sasha and Sveta had beer and I tried a bit of that too. Draniki were with mushrooms and onions and were supposed to come with pork too, but I asked to hold the pork. We had interesting conversation about good age to have children – all others at the table have children but they agreed that today in Belarus is was getting more normal to have children a bit later.

After lunch we drove to Sveta’s apartment for tea and delicious cake. I discovered that I’m no longer afraid of an elevator in her building like when I was a child (it is very narrow and a bit claustrophobic). Lika, by the time we got to her house, was much less shy – she showed us her dolls, made me open her new Barbie that I got her, was styling their hair with new hairclips. I’m glad she liked her presents.

We left at 3:30 since they had to drive me to Katya’s to get ready for the ballet. Having a real hot shower – awesome. I also really liked Katya’s robe – it had a zipper and was very comfortable. Lenya played on piano a tiny bit and I surprised Katya by picking up the sheet music and playing a bit too. I wore my summer green dress with light peach shawl. Saw Lidia Soveilevna, Katya’s neighbor, whom I knew since I was a little girl. Her first question to me “So are you married?”

The renovations at the opera house were really pretty. Ballet was called “The Creation of the World.” It is a modern ballet by Petrov that had God, angels, devil, Adam, Eve, people. My favorite segments were “lament of Eve”, “Adam, Eve and the devil in hell (which I saw as a threesome – ballet is not really my thing, unlike opera, so I need to amuse myself and keep myself awake)” and “introduction of Eve.” Eve rocked in general and devil was cool too, God was too Jesusy. Act II, in general, was much more interesting. Decorations were awesome. We also ran in to some friends of Aunt Vera.

Called grandparents on Skype when we got home, Bear’s phone was off. Checked email. Someone did a review of my story and another added me to favorites. Yay.

Cat threw up on Papa’s shoes. (He is a big fat orange cat named Faust).



Being here is much different than even nine years ago. Mentality is a bit calmer too. And I’m being and feeling more touristy too.