Archive for July, 2010
Reading «Мастер и Маргарита»: Chapter 6 Posted by josefina on Jul 12, 2010
It doesn’t really feel like «лето» [summer] until you’ve spent an entire afternoon doing nothing but the following simultaneously: «лежать в траве» [to lie in the grass], «пить холодное молоко» [to drink cold milk] and «читать Булгакова» [to read Bulgakov]. «Россия» [Russia] is a wonderful country in many, many ways – but during my six…
Once, at Summer Camp… Posted by yelena on Jul 10, 2010
Summer in Russia seems to be a theme for most of this week’s posts. So it only makes sense to «выразить поддержку» [express support] by writing about my summers growing up in Russia. For me, summers were like «американские горки» [roller-coasters]. First, there was excitement of the last day of school, of returning textbooks to…
A summer in Russia Posted by josefina on Jul 8, 2010
We spent two years in Russia, when I was Naval Attaché in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, 1981 to 1983. Here are some of my memories of summer there: «Белый пух» [white down; fluff; fuzz]: Summers in Russia are short, but intense, and sweet. In Moscow, our first memory of summer is «белый пух» [white…
«Моё первое русское лето» [My first Russian Summer] Posted by josefina on Jul 6, 2010
Russia is white not only in winter: during summer she’s («Россия» is after all a feminine noun!) covered in what I like to call «летний снег» [summer snow]. Other people call it simply «белый пух» [white down; fluff; fuzz]. The real name for it is «тополиный пух» [poplar fuzz] – and no Russian summer is…
Reading: Master and Margarita – Chapter 5 Posted by yelena on Jul 4, 2010
Don’t know about you, but with all the summer fun and travel I find it hard to find time to sit down and read even a few pages of the Master and Margarita. But a few paragraphs here, a page there and next thing you know you’re in Chapter 5 already. It just so happens…
Russian Language: The Lazy Man’s Version Posted by josefina on Jul 2, 2010
Some things in Russian language are not so difficult to learn and remember. Like this thing pictured above (the photo cold have been taken «в Челябинской области» [in Chelyabinsk Region], but it was not) – at first I wanted to call it «трактор» [a tractor], but that’s what happens when you bring a person from…