Archive for December, 2014
Bizarre Russian Remedies Posted by Maria on Dec 11, 2014
We have discussed some peculiarities of Russian traditional medicine before, however, there are a few treatments that will seem outright bizarre to the unprepared. If you are planning to go to Russia for a long period of time, you may run into one of them. 1. Fire-Cupping Fire-cupping (банки) is a treatment where a patient’s back is…
Christmas is not Russia’s Main Winter Holiday Posted by Jenya on Dec 10, 2014
Since the beginning of December every minute of every hour brings us closer to the crazy, stressful, yet long anticipated, and magical winter holidays. Some of you may think I am being politically correct by not saying “Christmas” and using “winter holidays” instead. Let me assure you this is not the case. A lot of…
How to Ride Public Transport in Russia Posted by Maria on Dec 4, 2014
The subject of public transport was covered in a detailed post on this blog before. This time, I would like to concentrate on the practical aspects of ridership. As a reminder, the main modes of public transport (общественный транспорт) are автобус – bus троллейбус – trolleybus трамвай – tram/streetcar метро – underground/subway These are normally…
How to Drink Vodka with Russians Posted by Jenya on Dec 3, 2014
Because the holiday season is upon us, more and more alcohol will likely be consumed. Given that many people associate vodka with Russian people and culture, it seems like a good idea to say a little bit about it. This is my second blog this week about beer and spirits and it should be noted…
Baltika: a Taste of Home Whilst Abroad Posted by Jenya on Dec 2, 2014
During my tenure in America I have sampled many different types of beer ranging from the mega brands like Budweiser to many specialty and regional beers made in micro breweries. It may sound like I may be a connoisseur of sorts – not true. Nevertheless, there is one brand of beer that I really enjoy…
Metaphoric Country Names Posted by Maria on Dec 1, 2014
Russian is notoriously intolerant of repeating words within a sentence or in adjacent sentences. As a result, elaborate circumlocutions are used to say the same thing. A specific case is metaphors that refer to countries. As always, I will link to sources for words in languages I don’t know. All usage examples come from the Russian National Corpus…