december stories part two

The Christmas

I remember celebrating New Year’s last year with Victor and Dante, PCVs from the oblast south of Petro, here at my house. Everyone gave toasts in all the foreign languages that they knew, and the whole group of 6-7 people ended up sleeping on the couch and floor of my apartment. I wonder what this year will bring. Last night we celebrated Christmas first at English Club at the university. I played the guitar and we taught everyone Christmas songs including Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell Rock, Winter Wonderland, and O Holy Night. Then we went to Mike’s to make a big pasta dinner from the ingredients Meghan sent us from Italy. The spices were so hot! It hurt so good! Yevgeny Petrovich and my host mom came over and we toasted and sang. I’m learning a traditional Russian New Year’s song called “Oh, Moroz, Moroz”. It goes like this: “OOOHHHH MMMOORRRRROOOOSSSSS, MORROOOOOOOOOOSS. NE MOROOOOOSS MENYAAAAAA. NE MORRROOOOOOOOOSSS MENYAAAAAAA.” “Oh, frost, frost. Don’t freeze me.” I’m getting pretty good at being loud and obnoxious. The new volunteers came and we talked to everyone we possibly could on Skype: my parents, Katie’s parents, Meghan, Natasha’s daughter Lena.

We didn’t do presents like we did last year, but we did enjoy ourselves nonetheless. I don’t miss home as much as I did last year, which I think is due to two main factors. The first is that I’ve adjusted more completely to living here. I’m used to being away from home, and I know that I’m on the second half of my time here, meaning that I’ll be home within the next year. The second is that I didn’t miss a large family gathering this year. Last year everyone had gad gathered in Illinois, meaning that I was the only one missing out on the festivities. This year’s celebrations were on a much smaller scale, which is probably a good thing considering the scale of next year’s Thanksgiving blast. With the marriage of my brother Stephen to Sarah Denham, coupled with my homecoming, combined with Thanksgiving, we’re going to take little Murray, KY by storm. Maybe it’s for the better we all just rest up this year.

The Novi God – New Year

S novim godom vsyem! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and the new and improved 2009 is treating you well, that returning to work and school in the middle of winter isn’t too terribly awful. I know starting back to school here on Friday will be pretty awful. It’s not that school and work and teaching isn’t productive, rewarding, etc, but that feasting, singing, laughing, reading, sleeping, resting, studying, and playing on vacation is just so much better. Winter break in KZ has been wonderful, with Christmas celebrations and New Year’s festivities lasting an entire week. The village volunteers Tim (Kaz 19) and Brendan (Kaz 20) came into the city for a few days of fun, starting with New Year’s Eve. We went shopping for food and beverages, bringing home enough supplies to drag a four course meal out for five whole hours. At 10pm we set off my year-old fireworks that I had bought last December with the intention of celebrating July 4th but had forgotten completely about. They all still worked and were worth the wait. We then made our way to my apartment where Natalya had prepared another feast. We toasted and ate and laughed and sang some more, counting down the minutes to New Year’s. We gave toasts to send off the old year, toasts to welcome the new one, toasts for love and toasts for family. At 11:45 the President gave his New Year’s Address on the TV, but the crowd of 10 in the cozy living room was too loud to hear him. We took pictures with the man on the screen and counted down to the New Year. After a round of Auld Lang Syne and hugs and kisses, we took to the streets to see the people and the ice slides on Constitution Street. Like last year, the city department built an “ice city” out of ice blocks cut from our frozen lake where we picnic. They constructed arcs and walls, a stage and two large slides for children (and PCVs) to play on. We walked up and down, down and up the street, telling people “S Novim Godom!” and inviting them to dance with us. We sang American Christmas carols at the top of our lungs and made some friends. At 3am we returned to my house for tea to sooth our hoarse voices and warm our chilled bodies before finally heading to bed at 4am. There is a saying in Russian: “Kak vstretish novi god, takzhe provodish evo”. You’ll spend the New Year the same way in which you greet it. If the adage holds true, we’ll be loud, obnoxious and happy to be among friends all year long.