Open Invitation to the Russian Blog Posted by yelena on Jun 22, 2010
«Заходите к нам на огонек!» [Drop in for some company!] Wait, if you’re reading this, then you’re already here, wherever this “here” is for you. So assuming that you’ve made yourself comfortable and poured yourself «стакан кваса» [a glass of kvass] or «кружка холодного пива» [a mug of cold beer] or, for our friends in…
Reading: Master and Margarita – Chapter 3 Posted by yelena on Jun 19, 2010
Weekend is a great time for catching up on our big summer reading project – Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita. Guess what, we are on Chapter 3 already! But before we dive into the review, let’s do the Readers’ Mail (look at me, I sound like a real National Public Radio show host!). So…
World Cup 2010 Without Russia Posted by yelena on Jun 16, 2010
By now even people who don’t watch TV (count me in), don’t listen to the radio (me again), and donate unopened and unread sports sections of newspapers to local pet shelters (well, I compost mine, but you get the idea) have heard of «чемпионат мира по футболу» [the World Cup]. To my great surprise…
Reading «Мастер и Маргарита»: Chapter 2 Posted by josefina on Jun 14, 2010
Where has your copy of «Мастер и Маргарита» [“The Master & Margarita”] been this week? I brought mine with me to the «университетская столовая» [university canteen] where I read it together with «кофе» [coffee] and «корзиночка со сливками» [lit. ‘little basket with cream’] a very tasty Russian pastry. Chapter 2 «Понтий Пилат» [“Pontius Pilate”] of…
«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…
Reading: Master and Margarita – Chapter 1 Posted by yelena on Jun 11, 2010
By now you know that the novel starts off at «Патриаршии пруды» [Patriarch’s ponds], but why there, of all other spooky places in Moscow. While even Bulgakov-ologists don’t know exactly why, the choice appears to be highly symbolic. First of all, there’s the name itself. Don’t you think it’s interesting that Woland and his motley…
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»…