Bearshorty's musings

After taking yesterday off, I finally tackled the history final exams. I finished grading History of Law finals and did the Excel formula for final grades. One more set of exams to go. Then I cleaned the bathroom. And right after I was done, Bear drove up – great timing.

Since Papa is going on his non-iodine diet and won’t be able to have egg yolk, Mama decided to make potato pancakes for Hanukkah today instead of Tuesday. Best lunch ever.

Bear and I tacked Christmas shopping today and went to the mall. To me the mall is a soul sucking place that, if I believed in Hell, would be what hell is. I think this is mostly in clothing stores or shoe stores, other stores are a little better. But it was nice to actually get out of the house after a semester of teaching and grading. And it was a pretty good day overall. I got new lipstick and eyeliner at Victoria’s Secret and did some presents shopping. Mostly for Bear’s parents and sister and our grandmothers. And, of course, I had to get something for Galya since we stopped by a toy store. I still need a bit more presents, but I’m set for most of the stuff.

I ended up making pasta with sauce for us for dinner, since that was cheaper than going out and I was not really in the mood for take out anyway. I miss cooking. I can’t wait to make our traditional seafood lasagna on Christmas Eve.

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.

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.

We went to Brooklyn this morning so I could get a haircut and then to visit my grandparents. My Mom hated the haircut, but then she never likes what I do with my hair. I like it simple, just basic layers up front and straight in the back.

When we got back home we stopped by in Modell’s where I finally got new sneakers. My old ones were falling apart but there were so comfy. But it was time. I can’t travel in really old sneakers that have whole at the seams. So I bought shiny grey sneakers with some pink lines in it and that seemed very much like me. I was debating between them and white full leather sneakers but I went with the shiny ones. I generally don’t like clothes and shoe shopping, but sometimes I do like buying new things.

As I was doing cross stitch, I discovered that I was almost done with the main details. I will probably finish those tomorrow and then do the background highlights after I get back from vacation.

I was also packing today. Well, picking the clothes out that Mama fitted into suitcases. Unlike Papa and I, Mama can actually pack extremely neatly. I think I got the good combination of not taking too much but having enough clothes for two and a half weeks.

In the evening I had a bit of a battle with buckwheat. I can’t stand buckwheat kasha but Mama always makes it because it is good for you and has iron in it. So before I could bring myself down to eat it, I called Bear and whined about it some. But in the end, I convinced Papa to have it for lunch the next day and had some meat and sauerkraut instead. Win!