I got a grill!

Yeah! That's right! I got braces! And they hurt like anything. Worse than that, though, they are making me feel CLAUSTROPHOBIC. Weird, right? Not something that I would have ever, ever guessed or thought about. I'm hanging in there, though. In general I've been having a lot more issues in Russia with crowded public transportation and so on, maybe due to more stress too. So, this is my big chance to overcome it once and for all! (And hopefully not rip $1000 worth of metal out of my own mouth with pliers....just kidding...kind of...) Last night I woke up and for the first time ever didn't notice the fact that I was sleeping on the uneven wooden planks poorly covered with fabric and nails that pass for a bed, but that was only because I was freaking out at the pressure INSIDE MY HEAD! Man! A whole new level of claustrophobia and no way to get away from it! I really don't think that I have ever felt anything worse than that ever, not in my entire life.

Anyway, panic aside, let's talk about Maslonitsa! To start, I freaked out on the bus there. There were WAY too many people, it was out. of. control. And there was no way to get off the bus, of course, because then I would have been standing in the middle of the Russian wilderness. But, really, all pagan holidays should start with a little insane panic. It just added to the overall feel of wildness that really characterized the day. When we got there, we had to walk about half a mile through the snow. Everything is warming up and melting and it really felt like spring. We finally got there and we ate (and ate and ate), mostly terribly overpriced street food like "warm" spiced wine, and crepes with sour cream, and shish-kababs, and mead, and tea and more mead. There were hoards of drunk men trying to climb a pole (some of them made it!), and geese fights (I didn't go see those), sleigh rides, a stage, traditional dances (people actually kicked up their heels, including us!), really it was just a wonderful wild and glutenous experience. Unfortunately we headed back around 3:30 so we missed the burning of the huge straw icon, but so it goes.

The next day we went to a little town called "Crystal Goose" to visit my ol' friend the dentist lady. (You know, the one who showed us where I could pay to get tortured.) Well! That was an experience, let me tell you! We got there without any problems because the bus was both large and empty, hopped off, and she busted out tea and pastries for us. (I wasn't surprised since she told me she was going to once...or twice...an hour...for the three days before we got there.) We immediately walked over to the local glass and crystal museum. The town was founded by a master artist who specialized in blowing glass. The whole economy developed around the crystal industry, and there are amazing art forms through the ages. Unfortunately, the cathedral where the museum is was ravaged during the Soviet Union like most of Russia's old buildings. They tore off the bell tower and took down the priceless lamps, etc. But in it's heyday, it was a collaborative work of art by some of the most famous artists of the time. The expositions there are absolutely stunning, everything from antique table settings to modern art (with crystal vases engraved with Stalin's face in the middle). We had a three hour tour in Russian, lead by one of Galya's friends. For me, that was about the coolest thing ever, and Adam and Emily were real troopers about it. After that we went back to her apartment and had a really nice meal. Her friend brought her 8-year-old daughter over and she whipped out Old MacDonald (with an oink oink here, oink oink, and a very, very oink oink eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo). We had to sit through some awful, awful family pictures first. It is still hard for me to believe that it is really acceptable to show strangers (Adam!) photos of your daughters dressed up and posing like fashion models at best, and like underwear models at worst! Galya's 19-year-old daughter even noticed how awkward we looked about 15 minutes in, and called us out on it. (Um....yeah. Obviously this is weird.)

In general, on day 1 Galya was nervous and worried that we wouldn't like the apartment and bustling around like Russian hosts do, plus there were a lot of guests so it wasn't too overwhelming for us. Adam, as the only male there, of course had to pour all the (awful!) wine, and he did a killer job, even remembered to stand the empty bottles on the floor for luck. I was pretty struck by how Russians relate to foreigners again. For example, if the situation were reversed and a Russian said something that no one understood at the dinner table, what would the reaction be? "What was that again?" maybe. Certainly not a long pause followed by (rude) laughter and "I didn't understand ANYTHING!" (statement not even directed at me!) I have to admit, I am getting tired of being the entertainment at these sort of get togethers, sort of trotted-out-"look at my Americans do tricks!"-style.

Also, apparently the reason that Galya wasn't worried about me being vegetarian was because she had decided that she would just feed me meat. I kind of guessed that ahead of time based on her totally derisive attitude when I told her. I feel like that was the start of the problems on day 1. For some reason, she has decided that I am her special little pet, which means that she was constantly telling me what to do and treating me like a 4-year-old. She even interrupted the excursion to put up my hood and tie it as tightly as possible. The thing was, it wasn't even cold, and she knew it wasn't! The weird part of Russian culture is that the attitude is "you can't do this alone, you're not capable, you don't know, you're too young, you need me" EVEN when people don't know the answer, they'll always tell you SOMETHING, or get up in your business and tell you what you are doing wrong. It is incredibly unpleasant, and in a lot of people, not a sign of caring, but more of a power play/hierarchy establisher.

Anyway, by day two, she was actually straight up bullying us, me in particular. I was literally at a loss as to what to do; I honestly could not force another layer of too-small clothes on or eat another bite. She was scrubbing our boots by hand and slamming the condition of our coats. I felt sick to my stomach and she was badgering us to have more, putting more food on the plate, ignoring me trying to explain that in our culture "I'm full" really means "I'm full." (Again, total lack of respect for/belief in diversity or cultural differences.)

This was obviously an extreme case, but the underlying theme of Russian hospitality is always that. Russians are so proud of how honored guests are, how people lay out feast even when they don't have the money, but really, even to Russians (I asked) relating to a Russian hostess is really stressful and unpleasant. We really had to start just laying down the law and being incredibly rude about what we were going to do. So all of that combined with some heavy conversation (that woman can make ANYTHING depressing) made the trip pretty stressful. But the crystal market there is AMAZING, the weather was beautiful, the forest was great (in the day that is; my favorite Emily quote from the trip was "I just don't know if we should follow a stranger into dark woods outside of town at night in a town with a big drug problem..." We literally had to refuse to walk any farther to get her to stop.) And the 8th of March, Women's Day, was HUGE. Everyone went crazy with gifts and good wishes on the street, it really is super important here.

Hooray!!!!

My grandmother is coming to visit me in Russia before I go home! I'm so excited I can barely stand it! I've already started planning a schedule! So, it looks like I will be coming home the 16th of July.

Not much has been happening lately. Natalia Petrovna, the woman who cleans the American Home is basically and angel; she is the one who bought me mittens for my birthday despite the fact that she probably makes about $200 a month. She always asks about my family and reads the stories I am reading for Russian class so she can discuss them with me after, and she just bought Adam's guitar for her son's birthday. He wouldn't let her pay full price so she made us an enormous cake pastry thing covered in powdered sugar and promised to invite us over. It was almost heartbreaking when she invited us. She came up to me and told me that she wanted to invite us over, but... It turned out that she was embarrassed that her house was too small for the "American standards". (She supports her daughter and her bum of a son-in-law as well as their little son.) Her dream is to see a classical ballet at the Bolshoi, so we wanted to buy her a ticket, but haven't been able to figure out a way to get her to accept them. A few months ago we gave her a card and a box of chocolates and she was totally overwhelmed just by that...

We are halfway through the winter semester so I have a few extra days off this weekend. We are planning to go to Suzdal to see the celebrations for Maslonitsa, a pagan holiday that revolves around worshiping the sun, celebrating the beginning of spring, and, more recently, starting the Lent fast. There are going to be goose fights, street mead, greased climbing poles and lots and lots of blini (crepes) which represent the sun. Sounds like a party to me... I also just heard from one of my friends from Middlebury, so I'm hoping he will be joining us for our little pagan celebration!

About a week ago Sasha invited me and Emily over to meet his family and have dinner. It was just the most pleasant evening of all time; they are such a great family and so silly. We just had a blast, did everything from looking at baby pictures to trying on Maxim's old Russian army jacket. At one point Sasha's mom started saying: "well, yeah, Stalin had his good points and his bad points. I mean, sure he was kind of strict, but..." and Sasha chimed in "yeah, kinda strict, I mean, he killed about 30,000,000 people" and everyone laughed for ages. His mom even was ok with me not eating meat! Everyone just really made an effort to understand everyone else. Things like that remind me of why I am here in this country, especially since Sasha is coming to South Carolina to work this summer! I can't wait for him to meet my family-- it really reminds me of how I felt finally meeting Masha's family this winter. International friendships are the coolest...

Spring is finally setting in here, too. Adam and I are planning a trip to Kazan in March, which should be amazing. We also bought tickets to a modern ballet in June; it is still surprising to me that I'm dating the coolest person ever, someone who actually wants to do all of the cultural things that I want to do and more. I told him that I've decided we are soul mates which it turns out he is ok with. Life is just so good right now...

Lots of love to everyone!

P.S. weird details of the day: maternity leave in Russia is THREE YEARS long! And you can come back and get your same job! Also, it is common knowledge that cabbage is "good for boobs", and the president declared no more daylight savings in Russia because all the switching of the clocks is making people sick. Really. Look it up.