Archive for 'Russian life'
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…
Meet the Verb: «собираться»! Posted by josefina on Jun 25, 2010
Maybe somewhere in between all the recent posts by Yelena on our blog – as well as Vickie’s excellent guest post two days ago – you might have asked yourselves: «А где же Джозефина?!» [“But where is Josefina?!”] I know there’s been a significant gap without me posting here about the wondrous world of Russian…
Summer Weekends, Russian Style Posted by yelena on Jun 23, 2010
I’m going to let you in on a secret… Move closer to the screen… Closer… Even though we just posted our guest blogger invite, we (Josefina and I) have been mulling over this idea for some time. We just needed a willing test subject (aka a guinea pig). Somehow our choice fell on Vicki, quite…
«Что делать в честь дня России?» [What to do in honor of Russia’s (Independence?) Day?] Posted by josefina on Jun 13, 2010
Yesterday – «12 июня» [June 12th] – was a very great and highly important day for citizens of Russia, Russians and, of course, our ordinary crowd of «сочувствующие» [pl. sympathizing] Russophiles worldwide. It was «день России» [‘Day of Russia’; or why not ‘Russia’s Day’], a public holiday formerly known as «день независимости России» [Russia’s Independence…
Real Russia: «Курение и курево» [Smoking and ‘something to smoke’] Posted by josefina on Jun 8, 2010
«Россия, у нас проблема» [Russia, we have a problem]. Last week I read some «пугающая статистика» [frightening statistics] about Russia in an online edition of a Swedish newspaper: every day in Russia «860 (восемьсот шестьдесят) миллионов сигарет» [860 million cigarettes] are sold. That’s 6,5 cigarettes per «гражданин Российской федерации» [citizen of the Russian Federation] «ежедневно»…
Juices, Waters and Bulgakov Posted by yelena on Jun 4, 2010
Do you know that most of Russia has «континентальный климат» [a continental climate]? This means very cold winters followed by short, but very warm dry summers with occasional temperatures “characteristic of tropical climates”. June’s barely begun and «температура» [temperature] is already in the lower 30ies in my native Volgograd. Josefina’s second home, Yekaterinburg, is expected…