Archive for 'Russian life'
Looking for Russian Holiday to Celebrate? Posted by yelena on Nov 3, 2010
«Какой русский не любит праздновать» [What kind of a Russian doesn’t like to celebrate]! Russians celebrate with «смак» [gusto] both the well-established holidays and the newly adopted ones. Holidays that lose their «блеск» [luster] are never discarded, but instead reinvented. And even the ones that get forgotten or cast aside tend to «возрождаться» [reappear]…
Cold Remedies – Tea and Onions and Mustard Posted by yelena on Nov 1, 2010
The approaching winter brings not only «холод» [cold weather], but unavoidable «простуда» [cold]. Everyone around you is sick. «Как дела? Что новенького?» [How’s life? What’s new?] you ask and a friend replies «Всё по старенькому, вот только я, кажется, заболеваю» [Things are as usual, but I think I’m coming down with something]. A passerby, rushing…
Halloween in Russia? Posted by yelena on Oct 27, 2010
When I left Russia back in 1997 we didn’t celebrate Halloween. In fact, we didn’t even know about this holiday. But here I am living in «Штаты» [the US] where this «праздник» is huge and of course we’re sucked into the celebratory frenzy. And of course, I’m not the only Russian in the States…
«Прости» [Sorry] Seems to be the Hardest Word Posted by josefina on Sep 8, 2010
«В северной Калифорнии» [in northern California] where I’m presently living «не купить Ленина в шапке в стиле Санта-Клауса» [(one cannot/it is not possible) to buy Lenin with a hat in the style of Santa Claus]… This picture is yet another nostalgic trip down Ural Memory Lane – the «я люблю Урал!» [I love the Urals!]…
Russia Cannot Be Understood by the Mind Alone… or Can It? Posted by yelena on Sep 3, 2010
The infamous line “Russia cannot be understood by the mind alone” is one of those must-know Russian phrases that comes up pretty much constantly in many situations. It lends itself happily to a collection of jokes and funny images that, like the photo above, seem to confirm that Russia is indeed a land of…
Same-Same but Different III: Homographs Posted by josefina on Sep 1, 2010
Can it really be true that we’ve saved the best for our final, third, part of “Same-Same but Different”? After two posts – one on «омонимы» [homonyms] and another about «омофоны» [homophones] – we made it all the way to the truly troubling and trickiest of them all: «омографы» [homographs]. Here and now is when…
Celebrating the First of September Posted by yelena on Aug 30, 2010
I live 5 houses down from «начальная школа» [an elementary school]. It’s a pretty useless piece of trivia, except that every year since we moved into our house, I have had an acute case of «ностальгия» [nostalgia] at about this time of year. «Моя ностальгия – по Первому сентября» [I am nostalgic for the First…