Bearshorty's musings

While setting up the website for the history classes I was finding the readings, mostly primary sources, on the internet and linking them. Since Abena is teaching the other section and she taught the modern Global class before, I’m relying on her picks. And she found this wonderful article in the Economist that came out recently. The article is called “Social Media in the 16th century: How Luther Went Viral.” It basically compared the Reformation to the modern revolutions that rely on social media in the Arab world. Very effective, I think and I also think students would find this engaging. It is a really good way to talk about Reformation. It makes me really look forward to the lecture too.

Papa sent me a link to these underground pictures of Minsk from roofs and forbidden buildings. They are quite nice. This is a city of my birth and, yes, while being in the country run by a dictator, it is a very beautiful city. Very interesting perspective on it.

This morning, right before I woke up I had that sensation of holding an object in my hand while I knew my hand was empty. This time it was a phantom apple. My brain knew logically that I was still sort of sleeping and there wasn’t an apple but I felt I had one in my hand down to the curve of the top stem. Only when I flexed my hand that illusion faded, just like I knew it would. This happened before occasionally and that is always a weird illusion.

( Leverage S3E14-16 )

( Burn Notice S4E17-18 )

There were riots with police in Minsk today because of people protesting fraud in the latest election. Not that it would do any good. (Watching “Leverage” episode about elections and riots was a bit surreal.)

This morning we went for the last walk in the center of the city. We saw Children’s theater and President’s palace (with absolutely no traffic around it), Karl Marx street – with plaques where famous writers lived . We also saw the history department of Belarusian State University. I took a picture next to it. It was still very warm this morning and that area has very beautiful buildings.

By the time we got to “Stolitsa” mall in center square this was the picture: the red church was on the right, Lenin statue was on the left and in the middle was the darkest cloud with approaching pouring rain. We got to the mall just in time. We went shoe shopping there. I got two pairs for sandals, one light blue, one brown. For $24 and $28 there were pretty cheap too and I figure that I might as well get the shoe shopping over with since I really don’t like it. I don’t linger over shoes, I pick fast, I try on, I’m ready to go. I got my fill of it today as my parents went to several other shoe stores to find white shoes for Papa. They were unsuccessful in their quest. Meanwhile, I found the first place to sit in each store, and I made a list of TV shows to watch when I get back that I missed in the last two weeks.

Finally, it was time to eat. We went to the same place where we ate twice before but it wasn’t as tasty this time. But we did get ice-cream afterward and I for my Eskimo ice-cream with yellow, lemon, cover. Mama bought cake and we went home. We had to run a little in the rain. It got colder too. We also had to walk home from the metro under one flimsy umbrella. It was easier to just walk under the rain.

After I took a nap in the afternoon, Papa and I walked to our old building again and even peeked at our door. (Papa met someone in the courtyard of our building earlier who recognized him and told him that some drunks live in our apartment now.) We took a trolleybus back.

Sasha copied all photos – mine, Katya’s, Uncle Tolya’s onto a DVD. Very convenient for me. Sveta and Lika came over. We had a table in the living room full of food. Lika ate only kolbasa – she likes meat. She also drew later with crayons, really well too. We said goodbye to them. Sveta needs to get on Skype more. I will miss her a lot.

We are trying to go to sleep earlier since we have to wake up at 3am to get to the airport by 5 for our flight at 7am. (Mama always likes to leave too early for flights). Tomorrow will be a really long day.

I started Neil Gaiman’s “Smoke and Mirrors.” I read the story in the introduction called “The Wedding Present” and the story called “Chivalry” that has Mrs. Whitaker as a main character and she found a Holy Grail in a antique shop and Galaad tries to buy it off her. Also I read a twisted perspective on Santa called “Nicholas Was.” I just love Gaiman’s short stories. Much more than even his longer works. He has nice twists and interesting ideas that stick in your head. Hopefully, it will keep me busy on the 10 hour plane ride tomorrow, although I’m sometimes too nervous to read on planes.

This is the last of my entries from my handwritten journal. Everything from now on comes from little notes I take each day.

Happy Birthday to me!

It is my birthday – my favorite day of the year. And it was truly a very happy birthday. I couldn’t fall asleep last night since palpitations decided to make themselves known and, I guess, I was a bit worried for today, but they were manageable again by morning and it all turned out well. And the weather started out rainy and by 11am for all blue skies and sunny and about 28C (82F) and very hot, just my kind of weather.

I woke up and read a bit until my parents woke up, pulled my ears and gave me lots of presents. Mama got me a pearl necklace from Novica, the same type as I got Sveta only in my stone. Papa got me a Russian biography of Catherine the Great and printouts of the presents waiting for me at home including a Soviet Moscow Olympics coin for the year of my birth, W. Somerset Maugham’s “Theatre,” soundtrack to “(500) Days of Summer,” and Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution Cookbook” (Uncle Tolya mentioned that he is on TV in Belarus too). I also opened Bear’s card, that he gave me before I left, and it was perfect: he found one with a polar bear holding flowers with a big heart and inside Bear wrote a mushy message.

In the kitchen were three white-pink roses with a card and diamond-shaped pendant with a blue stone from my Aunt’s whole family. I wore it today with my violet summer shirt.

( picture of my roses )

After a breakfast of omelet, we left under umbrella’s for Katya’s to pick them up to go to Park Gorkogo or Gorky Park. That part has lots of amusement rides for kids and it was always a favorite of mine. Not to mention the trees and woods are pretty too. So I saved the excursion there until my birthday. And that was loads of fun. We walked to it along the river back first and through another leafy park. Rain stopped by the then and it was a lovely walk with not a lot of people around. We got to Gorky Park right after 10:30, walked toward the rides and waited until 11 for the rides to open (you pay per ride). This is what we did:

• Bumper cars – I was going pretty fast there. Papa skipped this time. Still this one is always fun
• Ferris Wheel – not as scary as it used to be since the cabins are now fully closed. Well, one can go in one where you are just strapped in and your feet dangle but that is too scary for me. I’m not great with certain heights. Was still a bit scary going up even in a closed cabin, not as much going down. The view was amazing, though. Mama skipped this one.
• Swan ride – Mama and Lenya went on this one. A circular ride and you control how high the swan goes.
• Helicopter ride – Katya and Lenya this time. Same principle as the swan but smaller.
• Shooting range – Mama, I, Katya and Lenya all shot from this shooting rifle. We all had five shots, Mama a bit more. I missed all. Mama hit at least three targets, Lenya hit one and came close a few times (and that is with his not brilliant vision).
• Toilet – fun ride into Soviet times with a hole in the ground design and the privilege of paying for it.
• Fun house – Katya, Lenya and I went in a small room filled with fun mirrors. We had an awesome time. I liked the abstract mirror and skinny mirror.
• Soap bubbles – I used to love it as a kid so naturally I got me and Lenya some. We both had loads of fun with it. I got big bubbles out of it and we would try to catch some too.
• Lunch – pancake with mushrooms – a light lunch because of the café later and anticipation of tons of food.
• Boat ride – Mama wanted to go so we all went. Saw baby ducks and some views.

( view on the river )

At the end, around 2pm, we stopped by the tall Victory Memorial with the eternal flame outside the park and were trying to figure out how many hero-cities there actually are. We were counting too many on the display. ( I just looked it up – there are 12 plus Brest has a title of Hero-Fortress.) Then we all caught the metro home. Papa and I got out a stop early to exchange money and I stopped by “Thumbelina,” my childhood toy store. Then we walked home lamenting the heat.

I checked my email – Bear sent me an e-card as well with flowers, hug, cake and love and with a bear in it. I also chatted with Tjamke on Skype, which was fun.

Then I had to take a shower and get ready for the café and my party. My black dress that my parents gave me earlier is just awesome and very pretty. I wore my hair in a sort of low tail and put on my new pearl flower necklace, tan, stockings and heels. We left for the café a little early to find parking and we walked around the area a bit.

All guests arrived rather promptly at seven, which was surprising. We had ten adults and three kids. Tanya and Misha gave me a glass flower and an awesome book on history of Minsk. (The kids and I were examining it later – Lenya and I have love of books on common and it was great to relate to him looking at the book). Sveta gave me another beautiful set – a silver tray with a milk and sugar bowls, which I opened later at home.

The café itself was very nice. The food was very good - I got a steak – the music was perfect in that it wasn’t loud and we could have conversations, and our waiter Julia was lovely. I played with Lika a little. We took lots of pictures and stayed there for four hours. Misha sang for me and Lenya played a song for me on the piano. I has a really excellent day. If Bear were here it would have been perfect.

Oh, and something I didn’t anticipate: instead of marriage questions, I got all sorts of wishes to procreate and give me parents some grandchildren. (which would also solve their hovering problem, according to Katya). They all skipped the wedding part. Maybe I should have had a game about that.

Two more days here, I’m ready to go home. I think packing starts tomorrow. This is turning out into a really good vacation but I’m ready to go home to my life.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

I think by the Jewish calendar, it is my birthday today (but it isn’t yet by the solar calendar so I’m not recognizing it). Today is actually my grandfather’s birthday – he turned 83. Papa and I called him on Skype. He asked my grandmother to buy him a new apron as his present – he cooks in that family. Tomorrow will be the last day of my twenties, I will not give that up. :)

Vika named her daughter Iris. A very pretty name.

Today was rainy again – not a pouring rain, more drizzling here and there and it wasn’t cold or anything, just gloomy. And I was in a grouchy mood a lot because most of the day involved Papa and I waiting for Mama.

We left home at around 9:30 to go to a store on Tanka street for Mama to look for a summer jacket. It was to be a simple thing – store, shop, go operation – that turned into afternoon since the store only opened at 11. So we walked toward Yama (Holocaust memorial) instead. That sculpture is just so touching. I noticed more detail in it like a pregnant woman and her husband touching her belly. The rain was appropriate.

( pictures of Yama memorial )

On the way back to the store, Mama noticed a hair salon and went to see how long it was until the next manicure appointment. It was really soon so we figured that it shouldn’t take a lot of time, so why not. Papa and I could go to a different store for a bit.

It took an hour. We went to a radio-technical store. We went to a little café and had a muffin and a cake dessert (it wasn’t all that good). And still we waited for Mama. I even looked into a movie theater to see all American movies on posters in Russian like “Sex in the Big City 2”.

( movie posters in Russian )

And after that and more waiting, there was still jacket shopping. Mama bought two jackets in two neighboring stores. By the time she was done, it was 1pm. By the time we stopped by the bread store by the bread factory and left the stuff at Katya’s and then went for our first touristy destination of Troitsky suburb (old Minsk really), it was 2pm.

At Troitsky we found a nice place to eat lunch. I had draniki again with a special sauce and salad. I’m determined to eat as many potato pancakes as I can. The portion was enormous. It was very delicious and very filling. It restaurants here, they mostly cook pork for meat – I try to avoid it. But sometimes they put it inside the potato pancakes.

After lunch, it was time to go to the café where I will have my birthday party. We had to pre-order some things like appetizers and drinks so that it would already be on the table. We had a nice girl, Julia, helping us with the selection. There will be 10 adults and 3 children. The café is called “My dear.”

Then we stopped by the main church. There are homeless people there. Then we went back to Troitsky for a more thorough look. I found a honey jar shaped a bit like a bear – the lid had two bear ears and the jar had bear eyes and paws painted on it. It says “Myed” (Honey) on the back. It is very cute and I had to buy it. We also found a very original art gallery by Ostashov with fairy tales like sculptures. Very cool art.

Mama wanted to go to Nemiga store again, so Papa and I waited at Katya’s for a hour or so. I took Lenya’s “Belorussian fairy tales” book and his Belorussian schoolbook – much easier Belorussian to read.

In the evening, I mostly hung out with Mama and Aunt Vera in the kitchen. I was looking at Lenya’s English textbook too and in their version of Goldilocks story little Bear and Goldilocks become the best of friends once little Bear finds Goldilocks sleeping in his bed. Even Disney have not white washed this story so much yet.

Papa and I woke up early all ready to go to the book market. Sasha was supposed to pick us up at 7:30 but he was late and not answering his cell phone. Papa said immediately that he was asleep after having a bit to drink but Aunt Vera was adamant that he was always punctual and doesn’t drink too often. There was a bit of a worry panic between Aunt Vera and Katya as more and more time passed. They called his friends including a cop friend of his. Finally, after an hour Sasha called. Papa was right. He had a little to drink and went to sleep late and missed twenty two phone calls right by his ear. Finally, at 8:45, he picked us up and we drove to Katya’s where we picked up Katya and Lenya and went to the book market. (Sasha got to hear many lectures the whole day on not stressing his mother and sister).

As soon as we got to the book market, Papa immediately met a classmate of his. I found Kir Byluchev’s (my favorite sci-fi writer) early Alice stories for about $3 and got two copies – one for Misha and one for Lika. I also found an encyclopedia about animals for Lika and a children’s fairy tale book for Bear that includes “Masha and the Bear,” a tale of slavery and outwitting your captor, and “Three Bears,” a tale of a break-in and the thief and wrecker of furniture not being punished. Papa bought a bunch of books for himself and three for Lenya. Lenya is obsessed with the War of 1812 (the one where Napoleon invades Russia) at the moment.

After the book fair we went to Misha’s ‘lineika.’ This is a ‘last bell’ ceremony for 11th graders (last grade in Russian schools), some 9th grades (who can go to technical schools after exams and not to 10, 11 grade if they want) and where first graders are present for contrast. Misha just finished first grade. It was all pretty cute. I can’t believe that this graduating class was born when I left for America. There was a little girl dance group that was very age appropriate (unlike that “single ladies” video storming the internet), I gave Misha his book as a present.

Then we picked up Katya again (we dropped her at home to get some chores done), and left for dacha. We bought some ice-cream on the way. We had a delicious lunch, once we got there, of potatoes with mushrooms and salad and delicious shish-kebabs that were even better than last week. We then relaxed a bit as I finished the monkey cross stitch and Katya was making something with a hook.

Later Sasha, Katya, Lenya and I went to Kurgan Slavy (Hill of Glory, a WWII memorial – where four soviet armies joined before driving Germans out of Belarus). When we parked, some guy named Misha asked Sasha for a ride to check on order for some sort of party going on there. He left us his documents for security (he is a border guard at the airport). Sasha makes friends at the strangest places. After he got back (we passed the time with the tanks at the bottom of the hill), we climbed up Kurgan Slavy – it was drizzling a bit and windy, but the view on top is awesome. We counted about 250 steps.

( Kurgan Slavy pictures )

We stayed at dacha until 7:30pm, relaxed, went for a walk in a real forest. The air there is just so rich and a bit wood smoky. Really wonderful air. We got home by 8:30 and it was still bright outside – at this time of year the sun rises very early and sets really late, we are north enough for a very short night. We called grandparents. Then we watched a little of Eurovision – about nine songs before we went to sleep. Eurovision is so popular in Europe and it is hard to believe that America really doesn’t know or care about it. So far out of nine songs, I like Spain. Belarus was ok - voices and costumes were really good but the song was a bit boring.

My brain feels different here. Surrounded by Russian, I’m thinking in Russian again and just generally my mind set seems different a bit.

My feet hurt. New sneakers, one week of lots of walking – not a great combination. By 3pm all my feet wanted was to rest. Tomorrow will be easier day and different shoes.

In the morning, we were all a bit sluggish getting out of the house but at least the weather improved – sunny and no longer cold. I’m still wearing a leather jacket, but it is much better. We took a metro to “Academia Nauk” (Academy of Sciences) to visit my parent’s university. Some of their professors still teach thirty years later. On our way to Botanical Gardens, Mama stopped by a shoe store much to my and Papa’s chargin. At least I saw a really cool building while waiting for her.

( picture of cool building )

Botanic Gardens themselves were as pretty as I remember. I took lots of pictures. I do need to ration taking pictures since I still a prehistorically tiny memory card on my camera – and I really need to get a new camera soon anyway.

( pictures of Botanic Garden )

We then went to Park Cheluskintsev. There was this terrible restroom there where we had to pay about 20c to use (they gave us some napkins then to use). Very old school soviet union there. Mama did some shooting at the shooting gallery at the amusement part of the park – she got two out of five. We then rode the bumper cars, although in Belarus this is called “autoracing” and bumping is actually expressly forbidden. We just drive as fast as we can in a circle. I did manage to still bump my knee a bit. When I was little, this was my favorite ride. Papa would buy enough tickets to go for three rides in a row and there used to be huge lines to get in.

After the park, we took a metro to Independence Square – the central square in the city with the government buildings. The Metro is still called Lenin Square after its former name, and the station comes complete with a sculpture of Lenin. A giant sculpture of Lenin still stands in front of the government building. We had lunch at a café at the new underground shopping center under the square. It was fast food style but with real food and big portions since dinner is served in the afternoon. I got sausage and mashed potatoes and salad. What amused me is that there was a contest for the best tile-master in the mall.

Then Mama went shoe shopping and Papa and I went up to the square proper to see the new fountain. I stopped by the red Catholic church that is a big part of the square (during the Soviet times the church was converted to an archive, now it is a church again) and I bought a calendar and a little plate with St Mary for Bear’s grandmother.

( picture of the Red Church )

I hung around the square a bit and then Papa and I went to the main post office to buy some collectible stamps. Mama still shopped. My feet were really hurting so I dragged Mama out of shops and went to Katya’s. Papa bought ice-cream. Aunt Vera got me a really pretty dress – red with while polka dots summer dress. While Mama and Aunt Vera and Lenya went to Lenya’s music school and to research cafes for my birthday party, I cross-stitched and Papa and I watched TV (we were too tired to walk anywhere). We caught the end of “Legally Blond.” (it was dubbed, of course, most foreign stuff is dubbed. Subtitles are used very rarely). And then we watched their sci-fi channel which had a tail end of “Smallville,” second episode of “Heroes” and a beginning of “Star Trek: TNG”. All TV in English is dubbed as well and it is funny to listed to the familiar voices in dubbed form. I can’t believe there was “Star Trek.” And, of course, I could identify the season and episode by the opening scene. Dubbing of title sequence was especially hilarious since instead of stately Patrick Stewart voice you get not as stately actor.

Once Mama came home, we drove home. My feet were grateful for the break. I talked to Sveta a bit and had tea. I had to compose an email to Advisor so that took a bit of time. One of my documents wouldn’t attach, so I had to improvise. Then I called Bear for a bit. My feet were grateful for a hot shower too. For tomorrow and Saturday we have an easier plan at work for our feet.

A weird day.

I woke up early, went back to sleep, got up at 8:30 this time. Day is rainier than yesterday and cold (yesterday, it got warmer in the afternoon). I finished Part II of “Dune” this morning and then went to have breakfast. Nothing unusual so far.

We took the car to the new National Library. It is a pretty cool building. The tours only started after 1pm – so, hopefully, we will come back at a later date. But that is definitely one thing I would love to do – and I want to see the archives room. There is a monument to Francisk Skarina in front of the library – he introduced the printing press into Belarus and is one of great people in history of literature here.

( Library Pictures )

We, then, drove to a new church. It is still not finished inside but outside it is grand and pretty. (There were some churches in the Soviet Union when I was little, but not many went there, and some were converted to archives or theaters. Now there is a resurgence of religion and more churches, both Orthodox and Catholic are being built.) Right next to it is a wooden church – we went in there. Mama bought some souvenirs. While we waited for her, we watched a priest bless a car outside – with holy water, prayer and everything. That was quite amusing.

( Priest blessing Car pictures )

Then we drove through the streets of Minsk. Again, I feel like I’m in a brand new city – there are some familiar things but not as many. We parked near Katya’s and went up for a brief stop. Uncle Tolya went home to go to work. Papa and I went to change some money while Mama and Aunt Vera went to the store. This is where I started to feel very weak. No palpitations, just general sense of weakness and tiredness. Maybe it was the rain, maybe it was walking too much in the last few days since I was sitting on my behind too much in the past month, or my blood pressure just fell – but I was not up for much for the rest of the afternoon.

The money exchange person didn’t take one of my $20 because it was torn a tiny bit on one end.

I got some hematogen (it has iron in it but it tasted like candy) and Papa and I got some lunch in hopes of restoring some strength. That did help a little. I had draniki with meat and sour cream and a new fast food place (except they cook pretty regular food in the back) – it was very delicious. Meanwhile, Mama managed to try on and buy a fur coat. I didn’t feel up to anything and I knew I had to rest since we had to go to the opera that evening. So Papa and I went to Katya’s to rest while Mama and Aunt Vera shopped for a fur hat. I napped just a bit until Lenya came home from school with a few friends. Then I cross-stitched. I still felt weak but a bit better. Papa made me some tea with sweets. Then Mama and Aunt Vera came back (and Papa went to pay for the hat) and we left for home. When we got home I took a really long nap for at least an hour and a half. After the nap I felt much better.

I took a nice hot shower (the hot water finally kicked in) and used my new robe – very handy. I had some tea with kolbasa sandwich. I felt human again. I finally was able to talk to Bear by phone through Skype – modern technology is awesome. Then I got ready for the opera. I wore my black pants and a purple shirt.

( Opera House pictures )
At the opera house, we saw Misha and Tanya and Tanya’s mother right away. They got tickets separately and it just happened that it was on the same night. Misha is just adorable and he smiles a lot. I wish we could spend more time with them. I did invite them to my birthday party, of course.

We saw Verdi’s “Nabucco” in four acts. I’ve never seen it before and I was actually surprised by the plot – it is about Assyrian invasion of Judea and the destruction of the First Temple. Jews are portrayed in a very positive light here. Of course, the ending in the opera was a happy ending – the Babylonian King accepts Judaism! The whole destruction and exile are sort of ignored there. Still, an opera about Jews as heroes and playing in Belarus to high acclaim is very cool. We sat in the third row center. They also used projection and other state of the art new technologies in the opera – in the prologue we see tourists on stage who laugh as people praying at the Western Wall, through magic of projection we see a globe spinning and they are sent backwards in time to be the characters in the opera and learn to respect the religion and traditions, so they don’t giggle and disrespect it. (Never mind that men and women would never come near the wall together). I did like the use of technology and projection. The main woman villain, Abigail, was great – at singing and in good nuanced portrayal of the character.

We got the program before the opera started and as I was reading it, I completely did not expect the following line (in English on translated page) “And the King was struck by lightning and turned into a werewolf, surrounded by ghosts with bloody rain pouring down.” That was awesome on many levels even as in the actual opera he merely goes crazy.

My watch battery finally gave in today after five years, my uncle replaced it – he is crazy about watches and clocks. It is kind of good that it happened here.

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.

I woke up at 6am. Still adjusting to new time. Still late evening in New York so we could call my grandparents on Skype. Had oatmeal for breakfast.

My parents, my aunt and I went for a walk in the direction of my old apartment building – about 15-20 minutes one way. While we were there looking around I rang Sveta’s apartment (she lives in the next building) but no-one was home even so early in the morning. On the way back we stopped by a grocery store – there are live fish and M&Ms. And bread! Got some local chocolate.

We needed to register our passports with local authorities for our stay (just having a visa is not enough, they needed the address were we lived) and we needed o buy health insurance for that so we drove to Katya’s apartment (Katya is Aunt Vera and Uncle Tolya’s oldest child and she now lives in the apartment where my grandma Tanya used to live and where I spent a lot of time as a kid. It also is in a center of the city.) There was an insurance office close by. But, first, before we left, we waited until 10:30 for Sasha to stop by and bring Mama’s earrings which she forgot the night before when we there showering.

Katya’s apartment has also has very nice renovations. She fits a lot into one big room and a kitchen.

I love that the grass everywhere (except public streets) is uncut with dandelions (which are considered pretty, not weed). It just brings such a natural look to everything.

After we got insurance and Papa and Uncle Tolya left to go register our passports, we went shopping a bit. I changed some money. $1=3,000 rubles which makes for some interesting calculations and large denominations.

We picked up Lenya from school at after noon (Lenya is 9, he is Katya’s son and he just finished third grade). He is a bit short for his age and adorable. A bit shy at first. Last time I saw him in person he was seven month old. He is a real person now.

Then my Uncle called and told us that we needed to come and personally register our passports. So we drove to their local police station to register. All bureaucratic hoops. Then we went home to have some lunch and I washed dished in the water warmed up on the stove. Ah, learning to live again with no hot water. I showed Lenya postcards of New York.

After a nice nap, I translated some comic books for Lenya and his friend. Mostly “Shrek.” Then I showed them American coins.

Katya came over after her long overnight shift in the hospital and it was so great to see her. We hung out, talked, had supper – on small plates that we could fill up as needed. And I forgot how small real, not chemically induced potatoes are. No wonder I remember that two potatoes was a serving, it was these small potatoes, not humongous American ones. We also had cake Mama bought earlier that day.

Then we drove Katya and Lenya home and went for a walk there with Lenya and my Aunt. We stopped by a bookstore where Lenya, raced around to pick at book, very happily (biography of Suvorov). I got picture books – one on Minsk and one on Belarus and a few little Minsk calendars. We also saw a new fountain next to the river – very pretty.

Finally got a hold of Sveta (Katya actually had her cell phone number) and made plans for Sunday. So I will meet her daughter then.

I will also meet Misha tomorrow (Misha is Sasha’s six year old son) and I’m looking forward to that.