Bearshorty's musings

My cousin Vika had a little girl yesterday – congratulations to her!

It is rainy again and cold. Here the sky is blue in one part and them another part is gray cloud and rain. It was alternating like this all day.

I had eggs for breakfast for once. Papa made them for me.

My feet are really tired from all the walking in the past week. I have new sneakers too, which I don’t think helps. Today, first we took a metro to Yakub Kolas station to another general store and did a bit of random shopping. We saw a magnifying glass that was only $2, for example. I also bought lipstick and blue eye shadow. Lipstick was only $2 as well, much better than $14 in New York.

After the store we went to Komarovskiy Rynok – a big covered market (there is uncovered seasonal fruit and vegetable section too. The prices here are lower and it is a bit like farmer’s market). We got some kolbasa and cheese and had nice baked goods. Papa bought honey as well. My camera batteries died just before we got there, so no more pictures the whole day. I forgot to bring my extra batteries, they were in my bag at home.

We took the trolleybus to Nemiga and dropped all the shopping at Katya’s before we went to Belarus fast food place where we ate yesterday and got lunch. I had fried potatoes and a chicken cutlet and salad this time. It was ok, nothing special. Still, I’m eating as much potatoes as I can while I’m here.

We walked up to Komsomolskaya street to Karl Mark street to the National History Museum. We bought tickets to all exhibition rooms including the special collections. (The tickets are sold separately, in case people want to just see one room or two, or don’t have money for the whole thing. It cost us $4 per person and the museum sales person did ask us first how much money we were planning on. We were being extravagant. ) We saw ancient artifacts room that included Neolithic stuff and the first printing press. Then we went to see the special collection of Medieval Torture Devices. Well, it was actually late Early Modern Period torture devices, but “Medieval” looks better on the poster. Gruesome, cool display. There was mannequins to illustrate various tortures. I also learned that when a head is cut off, it still lives from a few seconds to a minute. That is just awful. We also saw a room of paintings about the Battle against Teutonic Knights (knights lost eventually). There was also lots of stuff about the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Belarus was part of that for a while) including awesome family trees going back 500 years, modern fashions, photographs and musical instruments and such from a century ago and a room of uniforms and weapons of the twentieth century.

After the museum – my legs were already killing me – we stopped by a book store where I bought a map of Belarus and a map of Minsk, postcards for grandparents, a book in Belorussian and a Russian-Belorussian dictionary. And a notebook that teaches first graders how to write in Russian for Bear. After seeing Belorussian everywhere, I figured I need a bit of a recap in it (I had Belorussian language and literature in school from third to seventh grades). I get the easy stuff like street signs and announcements on trains but literature is hard. Plus, it will be cool to have another dictionary. Papa recommended Bykov as a good Belorussian writer (he also translates his own work in to Russian, which we have at home). I tried reading some of it in the evening – I definitely need a dictionary. I can read easier children’s prose mostly with no problem.

Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian are three Slavic languages that are very similar in a lot of ways. Vocabulary is at times different but a lot of basic grammar rules are the same. Most people in Minsk speak Russian from birth, Belorussian is mostly spoken in villages. Since 1992 there is a bit of more of a movement to revive it and a language on the same level with Russian. Now Belarus has two official languages: Belorussian and Russian but all the signs are in Belorussian. It is not too hard to learn one if you know another but it is still a different language. Belorussian is a bit of a mixture in vocabulary between Russian, Polish and Ukrainian.

My parents also bought so much candy at the candy store. I keep eating little cakes all the time here, since they are so delicious.

While we were waiting for Katya, before going home, Mama and I stopped by Lidia Soveilevna’s apartment. Her view is just amazing – looking toward the river and the center of the city.

Mama went for her cosmetology appointment at 5:30pm while we went home and Aunt Vera fixed us dinner of venegret (salad from beats) and pickles and kolbasa. Then it was time for my own appointment. They didn’t have facials but they had face masks and I got one of those. It was very relaxing and everything. I felt very fancy.

In the evening we were too tired to go anywhere so we just hung out at home. Sasha only paid for the internet after nine, so I could only call Bear at ten. He already finished the latest Dresden Files book I gave them so we discussed Harry Dresden for a bit.