Banya Initiation, Russian music, Tima, and discovering my own Bravery

Hello. If any of you are like Emily, Connor, or my parents, you've seemed a bit worried about my whereabouts this weekend. I had a very Russian weekend, to say the least. And I will tell you more about it... now. :)

On Friday I got home from school and napped. When I woke up, my host dad and I ate dinner, then he explained to me very slowly ( I was still tired) that we were going to his friend's house to eat and drink. I was really nervous. But it was great! We ate and drank and chatted (me in broken Russian) about all sorts of things. There was a man there named Mischa that reminded me of a big Russian dancing bear. He was really goofy and loved teasing his girlfriend. At the end of the night he got out a guitar and everyone (except me) sang while he played with all the lights out and candles lit until his neighbor came down from the 8th floor and said that he had work in the morning and told us to shut up, basically. It was like, 1 am, at that point. It was really amazing.  I wish I knew Russian songs to sing!

Mischa's apartment is newly constructed and the public areas are still mainly unfinished. We took a cab to it and when we got in the elevator, which was still clearly under construction, Andre said to me that the elevator wasn't finished being built yet, so that's why it was still covered in wood. Then he said in English but with a strong Russian accent, "I can see you going to America and saying, 'In Russia they have wooden lifts.'" Then we all cracked up.

View of the Yensei and Komunalni Bridge from Mischa's apartment.

New apartment complex and dormitories.

This was on the back of Mischa's toilet. It made me laugh. He spoke really broken English on and off, and his place was covered with stuff from the soccer team Manchester United. He said to me, "Manchester United is my favorite team!!!" (imagine a thick accent here :))

Saturday (which was last night but feels like forever ago) I went to the dacha with my family. Arina and I picked these really really tart berries. When I ate one I said, "So sour!" and my host dad explained in Russian that they aren't actually that sour, home grown ones are much sweeter than ones in the forest.  I just looked at him like a crazy person. I bet he's getting used to it. :)

This is my new best friend, Tima! He's a big orange cat without a tail and the object of every family member's affection, even granny loves him. He, however, likes to try and escape the dacha and chase butterflies. He doesn't hurt them, he just plays with them. He's a sneaky cat, too. Last night when I was trying to sleep on the pull-out sofa, he scared the hell out of me by jumping on me and trying to give me a surprise bath. He's not Chicken, but he's a pretty good bed-mate. 

Tart berries.

Construction stuff, Andre worked on the house most of the weekend.

This is the banya from the front porch. My host dad says I am almost a real Russian now because I went into a Russian banya. As I didn't my swimsuit to the dacha, I had to wear this toga thing that Natasha gave me. So, I learned that Russians aren't afraid of being half naked. I, an American, am, so I stayed in my toga during the whole process. 

  The first part of the banya is the dry heat part. I'm talking 80 degrees CELSIUS or so in a sauna like room. It's made of special wood, and after a few minutes you throw cold water with scented oil on the stones to cool the room off a bit, though it tends to feel like it's getting hotter. Andre said, "The first rule of banya is if you are sick, run. That's all the rules of banya." It felt a bit like fight club.  So we stayed in a sweltering room for about 5 minutes, then went and dumped cold water on ourselves in the second part of it, and went outside and cooled off more. Although shocking, it was also quite enjoyable. 

  In my first round Andre explained that all good business transactions and political talks happen in banyas, so if I wanted to have a good business relationship with someone, I must go into the banya with him. Natasha then interrupted and said, "yes, but sometimes not." and we laughed. 

  So after two rounds of dry heat and dumping cold water on ourselves, Andre said, "Now you will go into the banya with Natasha and she will beat you with wet branches." Remember that, "you're-a-crazy-Russian" look that I said I was really good at giving Andre? I used it here as well. It's really quite endearing. 

  So, it's a form of massage and it's not really so much of a beating as more of swatting. It relaxes the muscles a lot. It felt nice, but while I was lying there I kept thinking it was the weirdest thing I'd ever done: lie naked in a toga in an extremely hot room while a Russian woman hit me with wet branches, willingly.  When we were done we had wine and chai (that means tea) and I was really really sleepy and ready for bed. I also had real kvas while I was doing the banya thing. It is a carbonated drink that is made with bread and yeast basically. It's god-awful in the US (I had it at a Russian club activity), but not so terrible here. Still not a huge fan of it, but it didn't make my gag reflex go into effect.

  But I didn't get to go to sleep quite yet. Arina, Andre and I went to a concert in a bar that was an old band, "Pep-see". It was really great and hilarious in parts. The three women in the group were in these giant dresses that had carrots printed on them. One dress was pink, another blue, another green. It was really enjoyable. 

  I discovered on Friday that hipsters have invaded Russia. Andre likes to make fun of them and I even told him a joke that translated alright into Russian. "How much does a hipster weigh? An instagram." He thought it was great and I could tell he was logging it away for his friend Olya. After the concert we went to the dacha and went to bed, and around 4 am I discovered that I am braver than I know. The bathroom is quite far from the house, and is in outhouse form. I woke up and had to pee BADLY, something about all that tea I drank. So, I put on my shoes, confused Tima by throwing all my blankets on him so he couldn't escape like he wanted to and went and peed in the dark. It took a lot of courage on my part because I hate outhouses/am afraid of them and I had to leave the safety of the dacha to do so. Almost the best pee I've ever had. 

Part of the garden. 

Tima, hunting butterflies.

View from the Dacha. 

The dacha itself. It has 2 floors, with a mini kitchen and I suspect a bedroom upstairs. I learned that Andre LOVES pirates. The whole dacha is pirate themed and there are a bunch of empty bottles of Captain Morgan Rum everywhere. He hung a sign on the door that says "Pirates Only, All others will walk the plank." and was trying to rig it so that the eye of the skull was the peep hole. There's a stuffed monkey dressed as a pirate, and it's all themed with pirate stuff, even the banya. It made me wish I'd known this beforehand so that I could have gotten them a pirate themed gift! 

To end this post, I found a mushroom that I like. (See photo. It's a little cookie with a mushroom cap made of chocolate. It totally counts as a mushroom in my opinion.)

I miss you all. Especially my family and close friends. Tomorrow, I have school. We are going to Lake Baikal soon, I will post the exact dates when I know them so none of you worry.