Monday, May 3, 2004
Kiselevsk
We spent the weekend in Kiselevsk (pronounce 'kissy-lyovsk'), the mining town where Olga was born and raised and where most of her relatives live. We had planned to go there on Friday, but seeing May 1 is such a big holiday in Russia (a combination of Labour Day and the first day of spring), and all the students want to go home for the holidays, we didn't manage to get any tickets, so we couldn't leave until Saturday, May 1 at 16:10. It took us about 3 and a half hours to get there and Olga's mother was there to meet us at the bus stop.
She had prepared an enormous amount of food, so we were quite glad when Olga's uncle and aunt - Sergey and Galina - and her cousin Julia showed up to help us eat it all.
We exchanged gifts: they were very pleased with the ones I had brought and so was I with the rare edition of Dahl's Russian dictionary Lyubov' Stepanovna (Olga's mom) gave me. We agreed to meet the next day at Sergey's and Galya's datcha to enjoy a nice banya.
The next day, Sunday, I was shown around the city centre, which was rather small and quiet. In summer it probably is quite a nice place, but now, due to the weather, it was rather gloomy. The thing that struck me most, funnily enough, were the hand-painted posters outside the cinema. Next, we took the bus to Baba Masha's place (Olga's grandmother). She lives in a real Russian izba (traditional log house) about ten minutes by bus from the city centre. Baba Masha and her sister-in-law aunt Motya (Matryona) were expecting us, of course, and they had really outdone themselves: we were fed all kinds of meat, salads and vegetables. I must admit I didn't really like her home-made brew of '7 herbs', though. In fact, I find that having to drink all kinds of spirits is the one minus to any visit to Russians' homes. You're not forced to drink, of course, - at least in most cases - but still...
Anyway, I really liked Baba Masha, because she was very lively and open. She said she liked me too
and wished Olga and me the best of luck. Also, she told me about 50 times to send my parents her regards and to tell them they should definitely come and visit.
By the way, after a while (and a certain amount of alcohol) Olga, her mother and grandmother started singing traditional Russian songs. I was really impressed with the nice sound of their combined voices.
Having left Baba Masha's, we went home for a rest (3 litres of home-made jam and pickled cabbage the richer) and to get ready for the banya.
At about 7pm, we arrived at the datcha and Olga and I were the first to go into the banya. Maybe I'll write about banya's in a later post, because this practice deserves more elaborate discussion.
Anyway, afterwards there was more food and drinks (and singing) in their relatively small but very cosy datcha.
At about 11pm we went home, because Galya had to work the next day.
On Monday, apart from eating (breakfast followed by lunch 15 mins later), we didn't do much but prepare for the ride home.
We left Kiselevsk at 13:00 and got home at about 16:30.
In conclusion, I should say that I really like all of Olga's relatives and appreciate all the trouble they went to on my behalf.
She had prepared an enormous amount of food, so we were quite glad when Olga's uncle and aunt - Sergey and Galina - and her cousin Julia showed up to help us eat it all.
We exchanged gifts: they were very pleased with the ones I had brought and so was I with the rare edition of Dahl's Russian dictionary Lyubov' Stepanovna (Olga's mom) gave me. We agreed to meet the next day at Sergey's and Galya's datcha to enjoy a nice banya.
The next day, Sunday, I was shown around the city centre, which was rather small and quiet. In summer it probably is quite a nice place, but now, due to the weather, it was rather gloomy. The thing that struck me most, funnily enough, were the hand-painted posters outside the cinema. Next, we took the bus to Baba Masha's place (Olga's grandmother). She lives in a real Russian izba (traditional log house) about ten minutes by bus from the city centre. Baba Masha and her sister-in-law aunt Motya (Matryona) were expecting us, of course, and they had really outdone themselves: we were fed all kinds of meat, salads and vegetables. I must admit I didn't really like her home-made brew of '7 herbs', though. In fact, I find that having to drink all kinds of spirits is the one minus to any visit to Russians' homes. You're not forced to drink, of course, - at least in most cases - but still...
Anyway, I really liked Baba Masha, because she was very lively and open. She said she liked me too
and wished Olga and me the best of luck. Also, she told me about 50 times to send my parents her regards and to tell them they should definitely come and visit. By the way, after a while (and a certain amount of alcohol) Olga, her mother and grandmother started singing traditional Russian songs. I was really impressed with the nice sound of their combined voices.
Having left Baba Masha's, we went home for a rest (3 litres of home-made jam and pickled cabbage the richer) and to get ready for the banya.
At about 7pm, we arrived at the datcha and Olga and I were the first to go into the banya. Maybe I'll write about banya's in a later post, because this practice deserves more elaborate discussion.
Anyway, afterwards there was more food and drinks (and singing) in their relatively small but very cosy datcha.
At about 11pm we went home, because Galya had to work the next day.
On Monday, apart from eating (breakfast followed by lunch 15 mins later), we didn't do much but prepare for the ride home.
We left Kiselevsk at 13:00 and got home at about 16:30.
In conclusion, I should say that I really like all of Olga's relatives and appreciate all the trouble they went to on my behalf.
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