Rapping in a Wedding Dress and the Banya

The pavement 

View out of bedroom window on the first snowy morning (of many to come)

The weather is at last becoming more Siberian! As the snow falls and melts, the lack of drainage system means roads and pavements become rivers and the verge resembles a marsh. Inappropriate footwear results in the pavements becoming an obstacle course, and unavoidably wet feet. Nevertheless now it is -10 and the snow has settled. The Russians remain certain that “it is not cold”, and when I am dressed in my warm clothes, I must admit I have to agree, except for my nose.

We decided to venture to the banya (Russian sauna complex) to find some warmth and experience an important element of Russian culture. Traditionally, the banya was a place to wash, socialise, drink and get warm. Nowadays, most people have access to washing facilities (but not all), and nonetheless the banya still plays a role in society, though it is probably more favoured by the older generations. You can buy alcohol to take in with you and ordinary banyas have a no clothes policy and there are separate ones for men and women. Since we went with one of our teachers, we were reluctant to go baring all, so we organised a ‘private room’. In our ‘private room’, there was a banya (sauna), a tiny cold pool and a dodgy freezing cold shower.  So for two hours we jumped between the three activities and tried to embrace this important Russian custom. I struggle to see the difference really between a banya and a sauna, but I think next time, when I am feeling brave, I shall go the communal one and I may have a completely different experience if I am surrounded by drinking, unclothed babushkas!

Rapping in a wedding dress

Russians love to perform, and 'it is the taking part that matters'. Last week we went to ‘First Step’, a concert for all the first years of the university. Students played music, sung, rapped, and danced in every style you could imagination. In Britain, a fair amount of the acts would have been mocked because the quality was so varied. The highlight was a girl dressed in a wedding dress and veil, who rapped with a boy dressed in a suit, and together they acted out a whole argument. At the end, there was no clear winner, since the ten judges each chose their own favourite and so the majority of the acts got to take an enormous trophy home. The enthusiasm and pride in both the audience and the participants was very impressive! This week it is the International Tomsk University Language conference and professors have flown in from places as far as Scotland to talk about their specialist subjects. Half of the first day was spent glorifying the Dean and giving her bunches of flowers (one poor boy had been given the job of collecting the series of bunches of flowers every time that they were presented-  he was busy!). The whole thing started an hour late and the Dean announced that the professors need to reduce their speeches dramatically since they had bought theatre tickets. The programme for the conference was totally wrong and most speakers were asked to speak at completely the wrong time. I cannot deny the whole thing appeared to be a bit of a waste of energy too since seats became emptier and emptier as time passed and even a professor on stage fell asleep (as did I!).

Finally, Zoe and I dared to go to an exercise class, «стрип пластика». The fierce instructor used brute force to make us do the splits and despite evidently being in pain, she would not let go! It still hurts. But I now realise why Russians make such good gymnasts. 

Swan Lake and Freezing Temperatures

Autumnal Lagernii Sad (A World War Two Memorial Garden)

As the temperature dropped from +14 degrees to -4 in three days last week, it dawned on me why Siberia winter is so famous. This is early autumn and I would consider our current weather to be a cold English winter. Nevertheless my heavy-duty coat, hat, scarf and gloves have all been put into action and are so far proving to be most effective. I feel reasonably prepared for what is to come despite the winter horror stories that we have been told, such as your tears turning to ice and your earrings freezing to your ears. The thing that I am most worried about is what we are going to do every day when going outside and walking places is not an option, but I shall keep you updated on that as time passes.

I have decided that lunch is the most awkward of meals. Whilst at university, the most convenient option is the staff ‘столовая’ (dining room), which is cheap and close. This is a very hit and miss affair, as either you order something vaguely edible such as buckwheat and cabbage (a personal favourite, which gets very boring after the second mouthful)or you try to spice things up by ordering ‘щи’ (shchi), the traditional cabbage soup. The last time I tried this I discovered that, despite being a cabbage soup, the cabbage was not actually a necessary ingredient and it could be replaced with the equivalent quantity of oil. The coffee is alright, though the presence of milk cannot be relied on and as a result, we have found ourselves searching for a more reliable lunch experience. And as a result, we discovered the Uzbek restaurant/ ‘столовая’. The idea of these dining rooms comes from the Soviet era and they are very similar to a canteen. You have a tray, and choose from the vats of food in front of you and pay the small price at the end. The Uzbek food includes plov (a rice dish with vegetables and meat), noodles, soups such as lagman, dimlama (a meat and vegetable stew) and mutton. It may not sound delicious but it has flavour, its filling and it is more cultural than a banana, yogurt and bag of crisps!

This weekend we had treated ourselves with tickets for the ballet, Swan Lake. The Russian National Ballet was in Tomsk for one night only so we seized the opportunity. Unfortunately there was not an orchestra but just some enormous speakers, but the music was brilliant nonetheless. I am no expert on ballet, but I really enjoyed the show. The weirdest element (it seems there are weird elements to everything out here) was the applause. Throughout the performance, everyone clapped in time. At the end, the applause started off with this rhythmic clap, and was then followed by a standing ovation and then, what we would consider, a normal sporadic applause.  The rhythmic clap was something I have never heard before and I can only assume that it is linked to the Soviet times and a desire for everything to be ordered. If anyone knows any more, please enlighten me!

Swan Lake

Swan Lake

Ridiculous clothing - combining the ballet and minus temperatures

Lady D and the Circus

Riding a Circus Pony

The Travelling Siberian Circus

The circus has arrived in Tomsk! And not only is it in Tomsk, but it is just by my road and therefore I am living about 50 metres away from two large Siberian bears, monkeys (who tend to be dressed up), some kind of huge snake, a hilarious clown and most importantly, some ponies! I persuaded someone to come with me to see the spectacular travelling circus, and we joined the audience of parents and small children, munching on popcorn and eager for the show. Wow, it was brilliant. Yes it was a very provincial circus, and far from the ‘Cirque de Soleil’, but this made it even more special, and the lack of ridiculous health and safety rules and political correctness was very refreshing. The clown stole someone’s popcorn, snogged someone’s wife and jumped on a man. The ‘strong man’ juggled three chainsaws (after demonstrating how efficiently they could saw logs) and rolled up a frying pan just using his hands. Three dogs rode a horse, and later male members (oh so sexist) of the audience were asked to try and vault onto the horse as it sped around the ring. One of these lucky men unfortunately had not realised how tight his trousers were which resulted in a large split on his bum to the audience's amusement. This was followed by a man flipping backwards from one horse to another as they were cantering (Biddy- this would have been your highlight). Then came the bears. Two magnificent looking bears caught balls thrown from the audience and danced with poodles in their arms. (And for anyone concerned for the health of the poor bears, I can assure you that they looked cheerful and very loved, and at least they were not in a cage like the ones I saw when I first got here.) Overall, the performers were brilliant I got so keen that I asked to ride the horse around the ring in the break. I could not resist.

A sneaky shot of a bear

Apart from my wild Saturday afternoon’s entertainment, we have been busy socialising with the Russian students and teachers that we have met, and I have landed myself some tutoring work. It seems that being a native English speaker has some great advantages! I am getting more and more settled in though some things I doubt I will ever get used to. The staring on the street continues, and Zoe’s host has declared that I look like Lady Diana, or as he says ‘Lady D’ for short. Another thing is pedestrian crossings. Frequently my life flashes before my eyes as I consistently fail to notice the difference between a zebra crossing and a pedestrian crossing. If a driver sees someone crossing the road, you would expect them to slow down. Here, they speed up and beep their horn. If you are really lucky, they will swear at you (even if you are on the supposed zebra crossing). I recently found out that ‘jay-walking’ is illegal, and can cause you to be deported from the country. So I may be coming home a lot earlier than intended!

Last week we went to visit the beer factory and the sweet factory. The beer factory was actually really quite impressive though sadly the guide honestly informed us that the beer is not actually good enough to sell further afield. The sweet factory was very interesting. It felt like we had gone into a time machine as we watched a team of women quite literally making sweets and stirring great caldrons of caramel. The investment into new machinery had evidently been kept to a minimum since the Soviet years and I must admit the quality of «Красная Звезда»'s confectionary reflected it.

To finish off this post, here is a Russian joke. 

(The humour is different here too, so do not expect to find it funny.)

The Sweet Factory

Идёт медведь в лесу, (A bear was walking in the forest)

Видит трактор горит, (He saw a tractor on fire)

Сел в трактор, (He sat in the tractor)

И сгорел. (And he burnt)