Uva

Ува

January 1, 2004

Seth and I managed to buy tickets to Uva with only minor difficulties. They thought we said Ufa (Уфа) and so we arranged it and they asked for 400 rubles each at which point we realized we said Ufa and not Uva so we got it situated and bought tickets on the bus today for a 1:30 departure.

Our seats on the bus were taken so stood for about 2 hours, but it was alright. A very nice woman talked to us on and off for much of the ride and she let us know when to get off. We got off at the edge of town and Sveta and Olga were there to greet us and give us a ride to the house.

When we arrived we found the house packed with Yuri, Sveta, Igor, and Varvara, all of whom live there and then also Brad, Gavenge from Istanbul, Elena’s brother Sergei, his daughter and later Katya joined us.

The house was incredible, like an American house, bricks, two stories, and a basement; very big and modern, it has everything an American house would have. In the holy corner in the kitchen there are about 10 icons; one is from the 15th century, two from the 17th and one from the 18th century. They said they got the house and their store during perestroika; the icons I think they said were taken from a church in the Soviet times and hidden. The house only cost $15,000 and its literally 2,000 square feet if not bigger.

After dinner, Katya, Varvara, and Olga sang for us. Katya has the most incredible voice and she’s going to a jazz school in Moscow next year after she graduates. After about two hours of their singing concert we decided to go for a walk in the woods nearby then headed off to bed.

Before our walk however, the doorbell rang. It was Det Maroz (The Russian version of Santa Claus), he was Sveta’s friend and he was incredibly drunk and kept picking Sveta up and spinning her around. He said its tradition in Russia to drink enough that you put on the costume and go around to your friends. It’s also, according to him, tradition to drink vodka with Det Maroz and sing a song for him, so we all had a drink and sang him a song I didn't know. It was hilarious and he was completely drunk... but its Russian tradition he says and he's Det Maroz.

January 2, 2005

We slept late and after breakfast/lunch we went to the sanatorium, which is basically a sports complex with nearby trails in the woods. We went for a walk in the forest, while having snowball fights and looking at the incredibly detailed wood carvings, which are from a contest last year of objects symbolizing Udmurtia, all hand carved by axes.

After our walk it was already getting dark but not too dark yet, so we went on a sleigh ride in the woods. We fit eight people plus the driver on the sleigh and we were off. Our ride leapt into a fairy tale as we held onto each other so we wouldn't fall off. The snow was lightly falling to the earth and with each turn we tightened our grips to prevent falling out.

After the sleigh ride we got back in the car (all nine of us) and went to Sveta’s store. On the way we got stopped by the police, but they knew Sveta so let us continue. We went to their store and brought some stuff back to eat.

The evening consisted of a trip to banya; the ladies first, and then us. Banya was extremely hot: 110 degrees... Celsius. It was similar to the first time I went to banya, but this time we had food in the outer room, better snow to jump into and a vanik, which I used and was more confused than impressed with.

Like the last time I went to a banya, we heated ourselves to near medium rear, then jumped in the snow in the -20 degree weather and back into the heat. After we finished, we each wash off in the shower then wait 20 or 30 minutes in a towel to let our bodies relax at a warm temperature, then move to a cooler room and finally dress.

Banya is a tradition in villages much more so than in towns or cities and every Saturday night you can look around and nearly every third or fourth house has banya going, while the rest of the people are guests at one of the other banyas. Also here both men and women partake separately and use the vanik often to get the blood circulating through the body.

The evening concluded at a club in town with everyone. There are only two clubs in town and the other is typically only for children under the age of 17 or 18. The walk to the club was through the powder-like snow falling on us as we passed through the woods down a dark street with cars only occasionally passing. It seemed so perfect and as we passed other people we said hi and happy New Year. This would never happen in Izhevsk, but here the people are much more friendly and outgoing.

As we were walking I learned that you can’t walk under a ladder, which is bad luck, especially on New Year’s Day because how you spend your new year is how the whole year will go. I was told that they know a woman, whose coat burned on new years day from a firework and that year her house burned down.

On the walk I also learned that if you give knives as a present the receiver must give back change otherwise the two parties will fight each other with the knives. I wouldn't have minded prolonging the walk, especially since we were going to a dance club, but we were soon at the town square, greeted by a statue of Lenin, behind which was the club.

We each paid our 30 rubles, checked our coats and went upstairs to the café. We all had a beer, wine, or tea and unfortunately went out to the dance floor. The music, as usual was horrible and the dance club set-up was ok with a very small music selection. The best song was "Lady in Red," which I’ve now heard at about three places in Russia. By the end of the night I was looking for anyone who didn't want to dance and spent a lot of time talking to the girls in the café. No one in this group speaks English so I got some good practice in; I was nearly fluent by the end of the night, well at least I thought.

There are some vast differences between Russian and English. For example Russia has single words for specific things, like "flying snow," or "24 hours," but then they have less words in other situations like they only have skazat (сказать) and govorit (говорить), but we have talk, say, speak, converse, etc.

After the club (some people left early), we began to go home and continued our fairy tale, just to be very quickly sent back to reality. Gavenge tried to get a taxi (or passing car in this case), but when it failed to stop he gave them the finger which is the response many Russians give passing cars that don't stop, however this only encouraged the guys in the car to stop, punch Gavenge, and leave. It ended quickly when Katya stepped in and told everyone to stop and we refused to fight back.

We got back at about 3:00am, at which point we left Katya, exchanged addresses and we kissed each other goodbye, each person kisses the other on the check one time and only when they won’t see each other for a long time, which I've now done with Tatiana, Olga, and now Katya.

We got back and laughed at Gavenge and his black eye. We talked more and finally went to bed at about 4:00am, after looking at pictures and exchanging addresses with everyone.

January 3, 2004

This morning we got up and left with Sergei and his daughter. Sergei was sad to see us go and so I’m going to call him once I get to Moscow, which is where he lives.