Furball in the Grapes

A shot of Furball, for all her adoring fans.

March 8 Is My Birthday... and Women's Day

I'm not dead, yet. What a great way to start a blog post :) Last Sunday marked 32 years completed for me. 32 doesn't feel so bad, but then I haven't had much time get used to it. Sunday morning it was pouring rain, I got completely soaked on my 5 minute walk to the bus stop. Pastor Victor was the first to see me when I walked into church. He yelled "Happy Birthday!" in English and then gave me a huge bear hug. I tried to wave him off, but to no avail, and he was soon almost as wet as me. Victor had a small birthday present for me: a stick of deoderant. He was quick to explain that such gifts are common in Russia, I really didn't stink that much. Elena also gave me a card, which was nice, and someone had put a small birthday poster on the bulletin board for me.

March 8 is also Women's Day in Russia, a big holiday. It's a celebration for women, obviously, and not only mothers (like in America). After the service, 8 guys (including myself) got up front to read poetry to the ladies. The poems were in Russian, of course, and I spent most of the service practicing my piece. I notice that I was given the shortest piece to read:

Вы прелестны, словно розы,
Только разница одна:
Розы вянут от мороза,
Прелесть женщин- никогда!

The poetry was a big hit with the ladies in church. After the service, we had ice cream sundays for everyone. Yummy. Kolya and Oksana gave me a ride back to Su-Pseh so I wouldn't have to walk in the rain (very kind of them). We stopped by the flower market on the way home and I picked up some daffadils for my neighbors. Galina and Tanya have been very helpful to me here, so I thought I would do the Russian thing on Women's Day and buy them some flowers for Women's Day. 5 flowers, each. I'm told you're supposed to give ladies an odd number of flowers, you only use an even numbered bunch for funerals. I don't know why, that's just the way it is. I had shashlik again with Nikolai, Galina, Tanyan, and Kolya. Nikolai thought it was great that I had brought flowers for Women's Day and said that I'm now a Russian citizen. I wish getting a work permit was as easy as obtaining citizenship :) We had a good time together over some great food. We also had some of Nikolai's home made wine, made from the grapes they grow in the yard. All in all, a good birthday/Women's Day.

February 23 is Army Day

Army Day is one of the big holidays here in Russia, right up there with New Years. The Soviets started Army Day some years ago, I'm not quite sure when. Probably after the Great Patriotic War. As the name suggests, it honors the veterans that have served in the wars. The Russian Federation still celebrates Army Day. Kids get the day off from school, most people have the day off from work, and people get together with friends and family for the day. Army Day is also extended towards fathers and all men in general, not just veterans. So I guess it's Men's Day, which I appreciate because I got to partake of the 20 something different types of potato and cabbage salad that the ladies at church made for us men-folk. I spent most of Army Day with my neighbors Nikolai and Galina and Tanya (their daughter) and Kolya (Tanya's son). We cooked shashlik (similar to shish kabobs) outside as it was snowing lightly. We ate inside, of course, and had a lot of food and a little "Hammer and Sickle" brand vodka. Russians love making food for holidays. It was a good day.

A Trip to the Coast

A week and a half ago Nikolai and Galina, my neighbors, were kind enough to take me down the coast on a Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we left after I got back from church. Our first stop was a "holy" spring in a small town, Varvaravka, just up and over the hill from Su-Pseh. The spring had been blessed by the Orthodox church and the waters are supposed to have some healing properties. There is a small shrine set up next to the spring with some flowers and icons. Nikolai filled up some water jugs while Galina and I took a quick walk up to the new church that is being build above the spring. I took some pictures of the church, the cow, and the spring.

Our next stop was a viewpoint looking out over the sea, near a war memorial. The memorial is for a captain Kalinin who successfully repelled the fascist invaders (presumably with some help) during the Great Patriotic War. The Nazi's did lay siege to Novorossiysk down the coast for most of a year (300,000 people died), so the locals here were understandably pleased with the good captain. Traveling through Russia you will find war memorials in every hamlet, village, and city and along each road in between. They're everywhere. They're well kept and always adorned with flowers. Everybody here lost somebody in the Great Patriotic War, it must have been horrific. America is very blessed in that we haven't had a war on our own soil (excepting Attu and Kiska) in 150 years.

After the memorial, we piled into the growly Lada and went to Bolshoi Utrish on coast. It's a beautiful little spot. Nikolai and Galina come here fairly often and come to swim here during the summer to get away from the tourists in Anapa. We walked along some trails for a little while. There is a huge cliff here that is said to have been the cliff that Prometheus was chained to in the ancient Greek myth. It was also incredibly windy, I'd guess a sustained 40 mph (I think that's 2000 km/h). There were many windsurfers playing on the waves. We walked around the point for a little while, near the Delpinarium (the dolphin circus, as Nikolai calls it), and out to the lighthouse and chapel. A beautiful Sunday afternoon, if a tad bit windy, and it was a lot of fun hanging out with Nikolai and Galina. They're wonderful people, I'm very blessed to have them as landlords. They're coming over to my place for dinner tomorrow night, I'm making hamburgers. I hope that they'll attend church with me sometime.