Izhevsk
Christmas
December 23, 2003
The New Year’s decorations are going up… its depressing with no Christmas anything.
December 26, 2003
Yesterday was Christmas for much of the world, but not for Russia. I went to School
27 to meet Seth, Tatiana, Brad, and Alcy after my lecture for a small celebration.
Brad, Seth, and I took off to buy ingredients for pizza, the Izhevsk foreigners’
Christmas tradition I’m told. This was the first time I’d been to a grocery store;
typically I just go to small shops to pick up little things since I get free lunch
at school and at my apartment. This store is very different from the small shops
or US grocery stores; a bag of potatoes, about five pounds, costs 11 rubles. They
had no mozzarella, so we bought three kinds of cheeses, hoping for the best. They
had no pepperoni or the closest thing (hunter’s sausage) but a random person recommended
something, which we bought.
We had finished shopping and headed over to Brad’s apartment… we started cutting
the cheese (no grater) and the kolbaca (sausage), but soon realized we didn’t have
a can opener for the tomato sauce so sent Seth to borrow one from a neighbor, something
unheard of in Russia. We didn’t know what it was called in Russian, so he tried
to explain through the closed door; eventually the guy gave it to him and offered
him a beer which they drank in the hall. As they talked Brad made the sauce and
I continued to cut. Once done, we went out to the hall until I quickly realized
this guy was talking about the war in Iraq and his very prominent anti-American
views, so I quietly disappeared.
Brad got some flour from another neighbor and we continued cooking. While doing
this we had French fries in the oven and Alcy was clearly upset that we were in
the kitchen. She has the typical Russian attitude and wanted the guys out of the
kitchen, and her in it. I hate stereotypes, and a prominent one in Russia is that
Russian women are submissive and obedient... besides a couple exceptions most girls
fit into that stereotype. Their dreams and goals do not go beyond being a house
wife, which although noble is not what a lot of these girls want. Here the women’s
place is in the kitchen and we men don’t belong there.
The fries turned out ok and the pizzas were very stiff. On one pizza we had sausage,
mushrooms, and pineapple and the other the same without mushrooms. The pizzas weren't
great, but were sadly better than most food here. This was without a doubt the oddest
Christmas I’ve ever celebrated, one Canadian protestant, an English Buddhist, three
Russian orthodox and myself an American catholic.
To conclude my Christmas, Brad and Seth said this is their third year in Izhevsk;
the pizza is now a tradition, three years running, homemade pizza. It was -15 degrees
yesterday, Merry Christmas!