{"id":1076,"date":"2010-07-06T21:04:29","date_gmt":"2010-07-06T21:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=1076"},"modified":"2010-07-06T21:29:13","modified_gmt":"2010-07-06T21:29:13","slug":"my-first-russian-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/my-first-russian-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00ab\u041c\u043e\u0451 \u043f\u0435\u0440\u0432\u043e\u0435 \u0440\u0443\u0441\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0435 \u043b\u0435\u0442\u043e\u00bb [My first Russian Summer]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Russia<\/em> is white not only in winter: during summer she\u2019s (\u00ab<\/strong><\/em>\u0420\u043e\u0441\u0441\u0438<\/span>\u044f\u00bb<\/em><\/strong> is after all a feminine noun!) covered in what I like to call \u00ab<\/strong><\/em>\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043d\u0438\u0439 <\/em><\/strong>\u0441\u043d\u0435\u0433\u00bb <\/em><\/strong>[summer snow]. Other people call it simply \u00ab<\/strong><\/em>\u0431\u0435<\/span>\u043b\u044b\u0439 <\/em><\/strong>\u043f\u0443\u0445\u00bb<\/em><\/strong> [white down; fluff; fuzz]. The real name for it is \u00ab<\/strong><\/em>\u0442\u043e\u043f\u043e\u043b\u0438<\/span>\u043d\u044b\u0439 <\/em><\/strong>\u043f\u0443\u0445\u00bb<\/em><\/strong> [poplar fuzz] \u2013 and no Russian summer is complete without it!<\/em><\/p>\n

Today I was reading through our next guest post by Sam (which will be posted here on the blog on Thursday)<\/em> and the beginning of it brought me back to every summer I ever spent in Russia, but especially \u00ab<\/strong>\u043c\u043e\u0451<\/span> <\/strong>\u043f\u0435<\/span>\u0440\u0432\u043e\u0435 <\/strong>\u0440\u0443<\/span>\u0441\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0435 <\/strong>\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043e <\/strong>\u0432 <\/strong>\u041e<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\u043c\u0441\u043a\u0435<\/a> <\/strong>\u0432 2005 (<\/strong>\u0434\u0432\u0435 <\/strong>\u0442\u044b<\/span>\u0441\u044f\u0447\u0438 <\/strong>\u043f\u044f<\/span>\u0442\u043e\u043c) <\/strong>\u0433\u043e\u0434\u0443<\/span>\u00bb <\/strong>[my first Russian summer in Omsk<\/a> in 2005]. Even though Yelena and I had already decided that we would not have more than one guest post per month by our readers (really, we have the best, most attentive, interesting and creative readers any blog could ever ask for!)<\/em>, she sent Sam\u2019s post to me together with such thrilled comments from her that I couldn\u2019t but throw myself over it and read it straight away\u2026 Anyone who\u2019s ever been to Russia between \u00ab<\/strong>\u0432 <\/strong>\u043a\u043e\u043d\u0446\u0435<\/span> <\/strong>\u0438\u044e<\/span>\u043d\u044f\u00bb<\/strong> [the end of June] and \u00ab<\/strong>\u0432 <\/strong>\u043d\u0430\u0447\u0430<\/span>\u043b\u0435 <\/strong>\u0438\u044e<\/span>\u043b\u044f\u00bb<\/strong> [the beginning of July] remembers that \u2013 strangely enough, despite degrees between 30 and 40 C \u2013 the ground was white, covered in something fluffy. And what is worse: before the \u00ab<\/strong>\u0431\u0435<\/span>\u043b\u044b\u0439 <\/strong>\u043f\u0443\u0445\u00bb<\/strong> [white fluff] arrives safely on the ground, it is everywhere in the air around you (for some reason it sticks wonderful to lipstick\u2026 but even better on lip-gloss!)<\/em> and causes many a Russian to spend a large part of their summer vacation sneezing. This is nothing else but the dreaded \u00ab<\/strong>\u0442\u043e\u043f\u043e\u043b\u0438<\/span>\u043d\u044b\u0439 <\/strong>\u043f\u0443\u0445\u00bb<\/strong> [poplar fuzz] which comes from a tree\u00a0called \u00ab<\/strong>\u0442\u043e<\/span>\u043f\u043e\u043b\u044c<\/a>\u00bb<\/strong> [sing.<\/em> poplar<\/a>] in Russian. Surprisingly many Russian cities today have \u00ab<\/strong>\u0442\u043e\u043f\u043e\u043b\u044f<\/span>\u00bb<\/strong> [pl.<\/em> poplars] as the most common tree in public parks. Before my first Russian summer I was not familiar with this tree at all; I don\u2019t think I had seen it before in my life. \u00ab<\/strong>\u041b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043d\u0438\u0439 <\/strong>\u0441\u043d\u0435\u0433\u00bb<\/strong> [summer snow] was a new, foreign concept to me. I noticed the ground was covered in this white fluff, that many of my Russian friends in Siberia (where I lived at the time \u2013 \u00ab<\/strong><\/em>\u0430\u0445, <\/em><\/strong>\u0441\u043b\u0430<\/span>\u0434\u043a\u0430\u044f <\/em><\/strong>\u044e<\/span><\/em><\/strong>\u043d\u043e\u0441\u0442\u044c!\u00bb<\/em><\/strong> [oh, sweet youth!]) <\/em>suffered from terrible allergic reactions and I had to ask: \u00ab<\/strong>\u041f\u043e\u0447\u0435\u043c\u0443<\/span>?\u00bb<\/strong> [Why?] They told me it was because this particular tree grows very fast and can become \u2018full-grown\u2019<\/em> within three, four, five years. I joked: \u00ab\u041d\u0430\u0445\u043e<\/span>\u0434\u043a\u0430 \u0434\u043b\u044f \u043f\u044f\u0442\u0438\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043a\u0438!\u00bb<\/strong> [A find for the five year plan!]. They didn\u2019t find my joke very funny \u2013 because it was true.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A photograph from 2005: \u00ab\u043b<\/strong><\/em>\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043e <\/em><\/strong>\u0432 <\/em><\/strong>\u0421\u0438\u0431\u0438<\/span>\u0440\u0438\u00bb<\/em><\/strong> [summer in Siberia] and a scene from the \u00ab<\/strong><\/em>\u0440\u0435\u043a\u0430<\/span> <\/em><\/strong>\u0418\u0440\u0442\u044b<\/span>\u0448 <\/em><\/strong>\u043d\u0430 <\/em><\/strong>\u0437\u0430\u043a\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u0435\u00bb<\/em><\/strong> [river Irtysh in sunset]. <\/em><\/p>\n

Many things surprised me during my first summer in Russia. I had arrived in Siberia \u00ab<\/strong>\u0432 <\/strong>\u0444\u0435\u0432\u0440\u0430\u043b\u0435<\/span> <\/strong>\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e<\/span> <\/strong>\u0436\u0435 2005 (<\/strong>\u0434\u0432\u0435 <\/strong>\u0442\u044b<\/span>\u0441\u044f\u0447\u0438 <\/strong>\u043f\u044f<\/span>\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e) <\/strong>\u0433\u043e<\/span>\u0434\u0430\u00bb <\/strong>[in February that same year 2005] by train an early morning when it was \u00ab<\/strong>\u043c\u0438<\/span>\u043d\u0443\u0441 35 (<\/strong>\u0442\u0440\u0438<\/span>\u0434\u0446\u0430\u0442\u044c <\/strong>\u043f\u044f\u0442\u044c)\u00bb <\/strong>[minus 35 C]. For two months it was so very cold; probably the coldest winter in my life \u2013 at least until the winter of 2009\/2010 \u00ab<\/strong>\u043d\u0430 <\/strong>\u0423\u0440\u0430<\/span>\u043b\u0435\u00bb<\/strong> [in the Urals] \u2013 and I could not even picture me how Siberia looked underneath all of the snow. When the snow still hadn\u2019t begun to melt and it was already the middle of March, I started to seriously doubt there would ever be \u00ab<\/strong>\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043e <\/strong>\u0432 <\/strong>\u0421\u0438\u0431\u0438<\/span>\u0440\u0438\u00bb<\/strong> [summer in Siberia]. Then it came \u2013 \u00ab\u0432\u0434\u0440\u0443\u0433!\u00bb<\/strong> [suddenly!], as \u00ab<\/strong>\u0424\u0451<\/span>\u0434\u043e\u0440 <\/strong>\u041c\u0438\u0445\u0430<\/span>\u0439\u043b\u043e\u0432\u0438\u0447\u00bb<\/strong> [Fyodor Mikhailovich (Dostoevsky)<\/em>] would have put it. The snow melted \u2013 \u00ab\u0445\u043b\u043e\u043f!\u00bb<\/strong> [bang!] The heat arrived \u2013 \u00ab<\/strong>\u0445\u043b\u043e\u043f!\u00bb<\/strong> [bang!] The trees bloomed \u2013 \u00ab<\/strong>\u0445\u043b\u043e\u043f!\u00bb<\/strong> [bang!] All of the sudden it was \u00ab<\/strong>\u0432\u044b<\/span>\u0448\u0435 30 (<\/strong>\u0442\u0440\u0438\u0434\u0446\u0430\u0442\u0438<\/span>) <\/strong>\u0433\u0440\u0430<\/span>\u0434\u0443\u0441\u043e\u0432 <\/strong>\u0442\u0435\u043f\u043b\u0430<\/span>\u00bb <\/strong>[more than 30 degrees warm] and it was only the beginning of April… That\u2019s when I realized that \u00ab<\/strong>\u0432 <\/strong>\u0421\u0438\u0431\u0438<\/span>\u0440\u0438 <\/strong>\u043d\u0435 <\/strong>\u0431\u044b\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0435\u0442 <\/strong>\u0432\u0435\u0441\u043d\u044b<\/span>\u00bb<\/strong> [in Siberia there is no spring] \u2013 something that I afterwards tried relentlessly to explain to people living in other places, where the seasons are four. Most of them still can\u2019t seem to fathom that in Siberia there are really only two: \u00ab<\/strong>\u0437\u0438\u043c\u0430<\/span> <\/strong>\u0438 <\/strong>\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043e\u00bb<\/strong> [winter and summer] \u2013 \u00ab<\/strong>\u0437\u0438\u043c\u0430<\/span> <\/strong>\u043b\u0435\u0434\u043e<\/span>\u0432\u0430\u044f <\/strong>\u0438 <\/strong>\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043e <\/strong>\u0436\u0433\u0443<\/span>\u0447\u0435\u0435\u00bb<\/strong> [an ice winter and a burning summer]. The weeks between the two are only \u00ab<\/strong>\u043f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0445\u043e\u0434\u043d\u044b<\/span>\u0435 <\/strong>\u0441\u0442\u0430<\/span>\u0434\u0438\u0438\u00bb<\/strong> [passing stages]. But the spring heat was only the a preview of what the summer had in stored: the temperature rose to \u00ab<\/strong>\u043e<\/span><\/strong>\u043a\u043e\u043b\u043e 40 (<\/strong>\u0441\u043e\u0440\u043e\u043a\u0430<\/span>) <\/strong>\u0432 <\/strong>\u0438\u044e<\/span>\u043d\u0435\u00bb<\/strong> [around 40 C in June], and \u00ab<\/strong>\u0432 <\/strong>\u0441\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0434\u0438<\/span>\u043d\u0435 <\/strong>\u0438\u044e<\/span>\u043b\u044f <\/strong>\u0431\u044b<\/span>\u043b\u043e 45 (<\/strong>\u0441\u043e<\/span>\u0440\u043e\u043a <\/strong>\u043f\u044f\u0442\u044c) <\/strong>\u0433\u0440\u0430<\/span>\u0434\u0443\u0441\u043e\u0432\u00bb<\/strong> [in the middle of July it was 45 C degrees]. The asphalt felt soft underneath my feet when I walked; and after that I\u2019ve never complained seriously about the Russian roads being so outstandingly poor. After all, when they\u2019re frozen half of the year and almost melting the other half \u2013 what do you expect?<\/p>\n

My first Russian summer was special in many ways. For example, I had never before been anywhere that warm where there was no air-condition \u2013 let alone live for months in such a place! Luckily, my room \u00ab<\/strong>\u0432 <\/strong>\u043e\u0431\u0449\u0430<\/span>\u0433\u0435\u00bb<\/strong> [in the dorm (colloquial for \u00ab<\/strong><\/em>\u043e\u0431\u0449\u0435\u0436\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u0438\u0435\u00bb<\/em><\/strong> [dormitory])<\/em>] in Omsk didn\u2019t have sunshine in the morning (that adventure was waiting for me in the Urals, where I lived for four years in a room with morning sun; why go to the beach when you can get a tan from the comfort of your own bed in Russia?!)<\/em>. The buses turned to saunas and everyone who could tried to hide in old buildings from the 19th<\/sup> century \u2013 which had thick enough walls to keep the heat out. But Siberia was not only smelly during the summer of 2005, she (once again, a feminine noun)<\/em> was also beautiful. Summer wasn\u2019t short \u2013 Omsk is after all located in SOUTHERN Siberia \u2013 but nature still did the best it could to make the most of it. 2005 was also the last year before it became \u00ab<\/strong>\u0437\u0430\u043f\u0440\u0435\u0449\u0435\u043d\u043e<\/span> <\/strong>\u043a\u0443\u043f\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c\u0441\u044f\u00bb <\/strong>[forbidden to swim (or bathe)<\/em>] in the river \u00ab<\/strong>\u0418\u0440\u0442\u044b<\/span>\u0448\u00bb<\/strong> [Irtysh], so we still had the opportunity to cool off that way every once in a while. Not that the Russians stopped swimming in the river in the summer of 2006 because it was suddenly forbidden\u2026<\/p>\n

But what perplexed me the most during \u00ab<\/strong>\u043c\u043e\u0451<\/span> <\/strong>\u043f\u0435<\/span>\u0440\u0432\u043e\u0435 <\/strong>\u0440\u0443<\/span>\u0441\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0435 <\/strong>\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043e\u00bb <\/strong>[my first Russian summer] was something completely else: a sign saying \u00ab<\/strong>\u0442\u0435\u0445\u043d\u0438<\/span>\u0447\u0435\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 <\/strong>\u043f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0440\u044b<\/span>\u0432\u00bb<\/strong> [technical break] on the door of a tiny kiosk selling \u00ab<\/strong>\u043c\u043e\u0440\u043e<\/span>\u0436\u0435\u043d\u043e\u0435\u00bb<\/strong> [ice-cream]. What do they mean?<\/a> I wondered. Do they turn off the freezers during this \u2018technical break\u2019<\/em>? But then the ice-cream will melt? What do they do during this break? What kind of complex technical equipment do they have in there, which is in need of breaks at least twice a day? Russia in the summer seemed increasingly mysterious to me. I didn\u2019t find out the secret behind this sign \u2013 and many signs just like it – until one of my co-workers at the Dostoevsky Museum in Omsk had her birthday in August. The museum closed for the entire day, and a sign was placed on the door: \u00ab<\/strong>\u0441\u0430\u043d\u0438\u0442\u0430<\/span>\u0440\u043d\u044b\u0439 <\/strong>\u0434\u0435\u043d\u044c\u00bb<\/strong> [sanitary day]. Yet nobody left work or cleaned anything<\/a> \u2013 instead everyone stayed and enjoyed lots of food, vodka, cake and even dancing until late in the evening!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another photograph from the summer of 2005: taken \u00ab<\/strong><\/em>\u043d\u0430 <\/em><\/strong>\u0410\u043b\u0442\u0430<\/span>\u0435<\/a>\u00bb<\/em><\/strong> [in the Altay Mountains<\/a>], but only in the very \u2018beginning\u2019 of them, so don\u2019t let the lack of hills confuse you\u2026 It is one of the most beautiful places in Siberia.<\/em><\/p>\n

I think that during my first Russian summer \u2013 though I did many other things, too: I traveled to \u00ab<\/strong>\u041d\u043e\u0432\u043e\u0441\u0438\u0431\u0438<\/span>\u0440\u0441\u043a\u00bb<\/strong> [Novosibirsk], \u00ab<\/strong>\u041a\u0440\u0430\u0441\u043d\u043e\u044f<\/span>\u0440\u0441\u043a\u00bb<\/strong> [Krasnoyarsk] and even went on \u00ab<\/strong>\u043f\u043e\u0445\u043e<\/span>\u0434 <\/strong>\u043d\u0430 <\/strong>\u0410\u043b\u0442\u0430<\/span>\u0435\u00bb<\/strong> [a hike in the Altay Mountains] \u2013 cemented in me a strong love not only for this country, but for also for the Russian people. Without them, Siberia would only be a huge piece of land, a geological reality, so to speak. But with the Russians inhabiting it, this land is legendary to many \u2013 in history, culture as well as modern mythology \u2013 it\u2019s a little bit absurd and absolutely lovely. If anyone asked me to go live the rest of my life in Siberia, I wouldn\u2019t hesitate. I\u2019d just go. Even if I wasn\u2019t offered to live in \u00ab<\/strong>\u0418\u0440\u043a\u0443<\/span>\u0442\u0441\u043a\u00bb<\/strong> [Irkutsk], but had to settled for some tiny town like \u00ab<\/strong>\u0422\u0430<\/span>\u0440\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> [Tara] instead. That\u2019s how romantic a person I am\u2026<\/p>\n

Where in Russia would you go to live the rest of your life without hesitating? Or am I mad for even asking?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Russia is white not only in winter: during summer she\u2019s (\u00ab\u0420\u043e\u0441\u0441\u0438\u044f\u00bb is after all a feminine noun!) covered in what I like to call \u00ab\u043b\u0435\u0442\u043d\u0438\u0439 \u0441\u043d\u0435\u0433\u00bb [summer snow]. Other people call it simply \u00ab\u0431\u0435\u043b\u044b\u0439 \u043f\u0443\u0445\u00bb [white down; fluff; fuzz]. The real name for it is \u00ab\u0442\u043e\u043f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u043d\u044b\u0439 \u043f\u0443\u0445\u00bb [poplar fuzz] \u2013 and no Russian summer is…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":1079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[178,7828,7827,7826],"tags":[9955,9954,1174,9952,1284,1304,1328,9953,9963,9957,9964,9958,9959,9960,9961,1670,9962,9956],"class_list":["post-1076","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-russian-for-beginners","category-russian-life","category-when-in-russia","tag-altay-mountains","tag-irtysh","tag-omsk","tag-poplar","tag-russian-summer","tag-siberia","tag-summer-in-russia","tag-summer-snow","tag-9963","tag-9957","tag-9964","tag-9958","tag-9959","tag-9960","tag-9961","tag-1670","tag-9962","tag-9956"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1076"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1097,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions\/1097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}