2010 in Russia

I am just now finishing up my first winter break, before I start my second, month-long winter break within two weeks. In Russia, the first seven days of January are considered a federal holiday, as New Years (новый год - Novi God) in on the first of January, but their Christmas (Рождество - Rozhdestvo) is on January seventh. However, since I am studying Russian at the university with Chinese students, and they have yet another set of dates for their holidays (I think their new year is in February this year), I also get another month long break from university during February.
But speaking of New Years, the Russians celebrate it more or less the same way as we do in the US (but they don’t watch the crystal ball drop in Times Square…). The Russians have their own set of unique traditions for New Years Eve. New Years is the biggest holiday of the year in Russia, bigger than Christmas. In fact, New Years is like a combination of new years and Christmas, because they give out gifts to each other on new years instead of Christmas (more on the Russian Christmas later).
So on New years eve, there is this tradition in Russia that every year they show this old Russian film on TV called “Ирония судьбы или с лёгким паром” (“The Irony of Fate or s’logkim parum” (this phrase cannot really be translated. Literally it means “To easy steaming!” It is traditionally said to someone after going to the banya, or can be said to someone after they take a shower or bath)). I think it is kind of like in the US how every year they have to show “A Christmas Story” on TV before Christmas. Anyway, it’s a good movie. We prepared a lot of food, mostly a lot of salads (Russian salads are not made with lettuce, they usually contain meat, fish, mayo, and/or vegetables and eggs), cold meats, fish, and caviar. Then, on TV, Dmitry Medvedev came on and wished everyone a happy new year. Then right at midnight, they have this tradition where you have a little slip of paper, write your wishes on it, burn it, drop the ashes in your champagne, and then drink it. I think it is a cool tradition.
Then there are the fireworks. I have never seen such a fireworks display in my life. It is not really a city organized fireworks display, but instead people all over the city set of their own fireworks. I cannot even begin to explain how cool and how beautiful it was to see fireworks exploding above the buildings all over the city. You could look in a 360 degree circle and see fireworks exploding all around you. Not only that, but this "home-made" fireworks display went on for a full hour after midnight. It was spectacular.
On New Years Eve is also when you receive your gifts. All the gifts are sitting under the Christmas tree (an interesting fusion of x-mas and new years). For new years, from my host family, I got two books in Russian. One was “crime and punishment”, and the other was a collection of stories by Anton Chekhov. I actually really liked this gift, because I like collecting books in foreign languages. From my host councilor here, I also got this really cool old soviet military cap with a bunch of pins from the soviet era. After midnight, the tradition is that you go out on the street and walk around and go visit friends. So that’s what we did. We went to various friends, talked, watched TV, and played games. I didn’t get home until 6 AM and I promptly fell asleep. I didn’t wake up until about 4 PM, which was kind of strange, because the sun was already going down then.

In my city, Blagoveshchensk, in Lenin square, they have built a huge “ice city”. There is a city built out of snow, with dozens of ice sculptures, and a huge Christmas tree. It was pretty amazing to see. I have also been going ice skating a lot with my host family, and we have also been going to the pool. I’m still not an amazing ice skater, but I’m learning, and every time we go, I get better. We also went to a “nature base” together one day, with another family. There is a big lake there which has frozen over, and you can go ice skating and sledding. We were there all day, had a barbeque, and went skating and sledding. It was really fun.

As for Christmas in Russia, it is not really celebrated at all. They have no special traditions, and didn’t even really mention the word Christmas at all. It was just like another day off. However, on Christmas day, our Rotaract club did our first project at an orphanage, acting out their Christmas story and giving out gifts. It went really well, and all the kids there were really happy to see us. It was a great experience not only for the children there, but also for us.

Other random thoughts:
My language is still getting better. I am now reading Chekhov in Russian. It is really cool that I can actually read and understand this now. Being able to read in a foreign language is a great feeling.
I have seen on the news that all over Europe and the US there are freezing temperatures (20 F in Florida!!), but here, we have been experiencing relatively warm temperatures, getting as high as -6 C one day. And most important of all, it is still sunny all the time here.
The travel agent back home is already contacting me about booking my return ticket. It is kind of strange to already be thinking about my return home. I have only been here for a little over four months now, but I will soon be reaching the midway point of my exchange. The four months that I have been here already seem like such a long time, and I am excited that I still have another 6 months to live here.