Saturday 23 January 2016

Where is your hat??

I think I might be one of the few people in St. Petersburg thoroughly enjoying and revelling in this Russian winter. Classic first-timer. 

Having left to go home for Christmas when it was still +6˚celsius, coming back to -15˚ was a shock to say the least. However, we are over the worst of the winter and I have also grown to really love the it. I pick sun and cold over dark, tepid and rainy any day. Nothing that a good polo neck and skiing trousers can't fix. On my daily walk (yes, I am turning into a pensioner), I never cease to marvel at how beautiful the city looks with the frozen canals and rivers, and all the dirt and grime of daily life concealed by a fresh coat of snow. While the Russians are experts at getting on with life as planned and not being put off by a few inches of snow (I remember all buses being cancelled the last couple times we had snow in England and everyone using it as a great excuse to have a day off), it does at least slightly slow down the pace of life in the city meaning that my January has been a calm, more agreeable start to the year than the dreary, depressive month I normally have to plod through.

New Year's Eve in Russia is rather a hybrid of Christmas and New Year celebrations we are used to in the UK (and in other countries that celebrate Christmas on 25th December). With Christmas celebrations banned during Soviet Times, New Year was celebrated more in order to compensate. As a result, the hours until 12am tend to be family-time with a big meal and presents, followed by partying and time with friends after the countdown. (Christmas Day itself, officially on 7th January, is a rather more muted affair, if celebrated at all.) Arriving at 7pm on 31st December, I was back just in time to join friends and flatmates for a big meal with secret santa and sparklers before going to see the "salute" of fireworks at 3am (with my friends complaining it didn't feel 'new yearsey' enough because there wasn't enough snow...).

The ten-day holiday that followed (1st-10th January is a national holiday in Russia) was started by two days of watching 'Friends' in Russian (which undeniably counts as studying the language before anyone comments) and was subsequently filled with many cultural activities including a couple of concerts, for which I was lucky enough to blag free tickets. One custom I love about classical music concerts here is for any member of the audience to bring a flowers or a bouquet of flowers for their performer(s) of choice as a token of appreciation. Not leaving it to the concert organisers to present each performer with a standard, flashy bouquet of flowers (that, speaking from experience, was probably bought last-minute in the Waitrose* around the corner), this results in a sweep of various audience members of all ages rushing to the stage at the end of the performance and then the entertainment of watching the performer(s) in question trying to juggle the array of flowers being thrust into their arms while trying to remain as composed and elegant as possible.

I pleased to say that people have stopped constantly asking me why I'm even here in the first place, however, a new question has taken its place: "Where's your hat?" It seems that going outside without a hat during the winter months is one of the most daring things a person can do here during the cold winter months. My new flatmate (from Moscow, 26 years old and first time living away from home) was talking about differences in weather between St. Petersburg and Moscow, and saying how much colder it is in St. Petersburg; "in Moscow I even go out without my hat during the winter!"

Now, I think I will go buy myself a hat.

Lots of love,

Masha (my Russian alter ego) xxx

*a popular, more upmarket supermarket chain in England

He was braver than I was

Life goes on regardless
NYE alla russe



Finally mastered up the courage to try out the ice myself
A contact lens vending machine...
for your contact lens needs, day or night
What happens with a primary school teacher
didn't do that well in english lessons at school...

INSANE water theatre show I went to during my 10 day holiday
Set up for our Friends marathon

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