The Proposal

Yesterday, Dec 30th 2007, sliding across Vladivostok's ice-skating rink on one knee, Dan popped the question to Kate. The scene was pure romance! Against the twilight, a light snow fell across the busy ice-skating rink. The temperature was a brisk -10 degrees and all of Vlad was out and about enjoying the festive season.

A magical setting for a magical moment! How could he resist such a momentous opportunity. With all the Olympic style locals flying around the rink anti clock wise, Dan roboticly changed direction and lined Kate up. Building up his courage he began spasmodically skating head on towards Kate with one goal in mind, for her to say YES! As Pluschenko (famous Russian ice-skater) coasted on in, Dan dropped to his knee produced the ring and bowled Kate over before he had a chance to say a word. It could have been a complete disaster, however, with the two of them sprawled out all over the ice and locals flying around at the speed of freight trains, the question was asked and a YES was the result. Congratulations! Pozdravlyau! My little Sis is going to get married.

They're Here!

The Aussies have arrived! Look at what they brought with them.



This photo was taken outside our place, the morning after the arrival. Vlad was hit by a pretty serious blizzard causing chaos throughout the city. Work, functions and general plans for the day were cancelled as commuting became almost impossible.

Interestingly, however, the day before Dan the Brave, believing he was sill in the Sunny Coast stepped from the car to have his first cigarette in Russia, wearing only a t-shirt. You should have seen the looks on the locals faces. The bravado didn't last long though, (1min tops) as -5 reality kicked in.






The conditions lasted a full 24h leaving Vlad transformed into a Winter wonderland.

Ded Moroz and Snegurochka (Father Frost and his Grand Daughter.

Christmas 24th-25th 2007

Christmas Day was like any other day here in Vlad. Russian's don't celebrate
Christmas until the 7th of January. However all of my class were themed appropriately.
For one of my upper intermediate classes we studied Clement Moore's "Twas the Night Before Christmas." Here's my adaptation:

Father Christmas or Father Frost?

Twas Christmas Day throughout the EF village,

not a child was heard rejoicing , no presents to pillage.

The 25th of December 2007,

back home in Oz, it's children's heaven.

However, here in Russia where the conditions seem so right,

we don't see old St Nick until New Years Night.

For it's the 1st of January, when Santa's Russian Brother is in town,

his name - Dyet Moroz, only then can he be found.

No funny looking elves to give the old man a hand,

this guy has a beautiful granddaughter who is famous across Russia's vast land.

And if you thought the old bloke wanted to know who is naughty or nice,

well you'd be mistaken, just read him a poem once or twice.

Nevertheless when all is said and done,

the two of them love children and Christmas fun!

Christmas Day may have been somewhat of a non event, however the few expats around here made the most of it. On Christmas Eve we were lucky enough to be invited around to the American Consulates for dinner. Wow what a feed and what a place. All seven stories of it!
The traditional American Christmas dinner was pretty similar to edifice we ate it in. Enormous!
Christmas Night a group of us headed to Jeff's, where a turkey and all the Christmas trimmings were on offer. A lot of fun was had by all, however it wasn't quite like celebrating at home. The Christmas build up and hype is nowhere near as frenetic here. Maybe because the guys here celebrate it later on the 7th. Don't worry you'll receive a running commentary over the next few weeks.

Banya Bliss

One experience that should be on everyone's must do list. This is no ordinary sauna.The Russian banya is the bigger and stronger brother of the sauna. Defiantly an extremest sport and not for the faint hearted.

Its been a part of Slavic culture for centuries and in ancient writings Herodotus said that "no Hellenic bath from Greece could compare."

Right from my first encounter, the Russian banya cast it's alluring spell over me and started a love affair of unquenchable thirst. I just can't get enough!

The actual banya process is riddled with tradition and involves quite a few steps.

Firstly it must be said that the banya is not just a new age health fad, that many in the west associate with the sauna. This is a social outing, a networking occasion, a place where friends can come together eat, drink and relax. It is well known that many a business deal, (whether legitimate or not doesn't matter), has been accomplished in the confines of the banya.

On entering a banya your first stop is the parilka (steam room), butt naked of course. Here a pechka (oven) heats the rocks on which you throw the water. Now I remember cranking up the temperature to 75 degrees in the sauna at Lennard's Hotel in Brisbane and creating quite the uproar. Well get this, over here anything below 100 degrees is just soft!

The initial procedures are pretty standard. Crank up the temperature, throw water on the rocks (sometimes there is a little bit of eucalyptus or pine scent on them) and then sit for as long as you can tolerate. Then head for the snow, ice covered lake, plunge pool or bucket of icy water and drench yourself. Repeat 4-5 times with regular intervals of sitting around eating and drinking the ever present vodka. Champagne, beer and kvas also complement the experience wonderfully.

Once the body has attained a very crimson tone with unusual white spots, only achieved by going to hell and back, out comes the venik, a bunch of birch branch's used for whipping.One then lies prostrated out on the insanely hot banya benches, where you are beaten for as long as you can stand. You may think this is bizarre, but in fact it is surprisingly pleasant. Russians firmly believe in the many advantages of receiving a good beating with a venik: from enhancing blood circulation and killing bacteria to inhibiting premature ageing of the skin.

The running outside and rolling in snow, followed by a feed and a drink process is repeated over and over again.Last Saturday a group of us hit the banya. They feeling during and after is completely addictive.

I can't wait for the next outing! Check out some of the pics.

Work Christmas Party

Cultural differences aside, one commonality is the festive or silly season. Work Christmas parties whether here in Vlad or back in Bris Vagas, are pretty much the same. A chance to relax, unwind and get completely blotto (very drunk for the rest of the world).
Last night's EF party was no exception. Actually, it reminded me of some of the monstrous gym parties back home. Right now I am feeling very fragile and regretting that last shot of Absent.

The cab ride back home was one pit stop after another. No jogging next to the cab this time, however, after about the 4th stop the cabbie decided enough was enough and dropped us in the middle of nowhere. So there we were -10 degrees, stranded and feeling a "little" worse for wear.
After about an hour the alcohol started to wear off and the cold reality began to bite. It was time to get home before we froze to death. Luckily cabbies over here can posse as any old Joe and finding a willing driver is never a problem. After hailing the next car and a quick negotiation over the fare, we were on our way home for the second time that night.

EF teachers before the party.

Nastya Jeff and I at the party.

New Year Preparations

OK it's getting close now, New Year's Eve that is. The biggest holiday for Russians and for that the public receive 10 days off. Can you imagine 10 consecutive public holidays! The guys here don't celebrate Christmas on the 25th and so New Year's kick starts the holiday season off.
It's just one excuse to party after the next.

• 31st New Year's Eve party (saying goodbye to 2007)
• 1st of Jan party (celebrating the first night of 2008)
• 7th Russian Christmas
• 13th Old New Year's party

We intend celebrating New Year's in a quaint little village two hours outside of Vlad. There is quite a group of us going: Sasha, Marianne, Oleg, Olya, Nas, myself and, of course, the two ring ins all the way from Australia, my sister Kate and Dan. (I cannot wait for the 28th, when I'll pick them up from the airport.) All couples will be lodged in Marianne's parent's cottage, and now that the banya has been competed, we are expecting to do a lot of saunering.

The New Year's Eve preparations are pretty serious. Marianne and Olya have already organised games and entertainment for the evening, and I have been told that I must wear something yellow to seethe New Year in. Something to do with next year being the year of the rat. So today we spent 3 hours shopping for Anastasia's yellow outfit. Fun, Fun, Fun!

Guess what we didn't find anything!

Neighbours

Zzzzzz, Eehhhh chocolate river, ehh chocolate trees, ehh chocolate world, zzzzz!
Bang, bang, bang, -"is that someone at the door, no let me get back to my dream." Chocolate everywhe... Bang, bang, bang-, "damn what the hell is the time?! 1am! What the hell is going on?"
Nastya was off like a shot, I was still a little groggy, still intoxicated with remnants of my dream. It didn't take long before reality kicked in: some was trying to break down our door!
Thieves wanting my irreplaceable i-pod; no thieves wanting our laptop; no I know, thieves wanting my unique Australian bennie. Come on Nico get real. This is no time for jokes.
Someone wanted to either murder us or for some reason desperately needed to talk to us.
Once out of bed I peered through the peep hole in the front door to see two strange looking fellows. The younger of the two was shirtless in -15 degree weather, while the older carried a big stick and sported a beard that ZZ Top would have been proud of. Alright this is one of those points in your life where all that training is going to have to come in handy. Nastya yelled "chto nado?" Now my Russian is improving, however, at that moment my comprehension of what was said was useless. "OK mate it's on, get ready", and at that point off came my Peter Alexander monkey pajama top. I was ready to rumble!
"Voda, voda topit" came the hasty reply from outside. Apparently, the guys outside were our neighbours below on level four and we were flooding them. Quickly checking the bathroom, we found sure enough, that our boiler was leaking profusely causing quite a deluge.
The problem was solved easily enough however, the rants from Mr ZZ continued as we let our neighbours in to observe that there was no longer a problem. Mr ZZ turned out to be an old dedushka who needed a stick to walk. Along with is shirtless grandson the two were harmless enough. So much for the rumble. However, Mr ZZ was one grumpy grandpa as he began to incessantly rant and rave at us. His tirade then woke another neighbour, a nosey babushka. Oh my god what a fuss. We had to push the oldies out of our door as they continued to reprimand and wave their fingers at us disapprovingly. What a night! If only that was it; but no, the dedushka downstairs could be heard going off for the next hour. Finally after a very bazaar 2 hour ordeal peace was restored and dreams of a chocolate universe continued.

Russian Wedding Part 3

Finally after the bride and groom have trekked all around the city, taking photos at every monument, they arrive at the reception. All the guests are waiting in anticipation at the entrance of the reception hall/restaurant, etc.. Here the couple must break off a piece off bread to see who will be the head of the family - the biggest piece being the winner. I our case, Nastya had told me of this Russian tradition so I went for it and ripped off a massive chunk. What she hadn't told me, was that following is process, you were then to salt each others pieces bread, (symbolizing the last time you can rub salt into your partners wounds). Your piece of bread now covered in salt from your partner is then feed back to your beloved. The moral being that if you salt each other during marriage it will come back to bite you. A toast proceeds and champagne flutes are thrown over one's shoulder, smashing on the ground. (It's bad luck if they don't break).
Once in side the first thing to start the reception is, what a surprise, another toast. The first toast is of course for the new couple. One of the witnesses announces the first toast, and then the parents have their say. Witnesses also add some greetings, usually in the form of a poem, and eventually announce the toast itself: "Za molodykh!" ("For the newlywed!") Here we come close to the most popular and prominent Russian wedding tradition. For the first toast people usually drink Champagne, and after the first sip somebody says "Gor'ko!" ("Bitter!"); it means the vine is bitter. All guests together start to shout "Gor'ko! Gor'ko!" To make the vine sweet, the newlywed couple must kiss each other. They must stand up and kiss each other for as long as possible, and all the guests start counting "1, 2, 3, 4, 5..." while they are kissing. If the couple was not kissing long enough, the guests can insist that the vine is still bitter, and request another kiss. This happens after almost every following toast, so the couple has lots of kissing during the wedding. My lips were red raw after about the 10th Gor'ko.
Impromptu toast after toast follow with the occasional poem or joke thrown in. At this point the MC often takes over and the party really starts to fire up. Games of all description are played with the sole purpose of embarrassing everyone in the room. Ksusha's wedding had Anton and his best man dress up as gypsy women and dance around on stage. Our wedding went even further and had many of the guests disrobe with my father-in-law left in nothing but is jocks.
For many of you this sounds quite out of control and you are quite right. Many of you would probably be very relieved when the night finally comes to an end. Well there is no such easy escape, because Russian weddings are two day affairs and the party continues on through the next day!

Wedding Photos

The groom going to the extreme to get his bride.

What one might expect at a Russian wedding - the unexpected!

Russian wedding part 2.

Once the gauntlet has been run and the barrage of questions answered, the groom finally is allowed passage to his bride. Then it's off to ZAGS, the marriage registry office, to make it official. Some couples do have their ceremonies in church, however a trip to ZAGS is obligatory, as the state doesn't recognise the marriage unless the couple have the correct paper work, which can only be obtained at the registry office.
The wedding's motorcade to ZAGS normally includes 6 to 10 or more cars, decorated with flowers, small balls and ribbons. The car with newly weds and their witnesses - the bride's female friend and the fiance's friend - head the procession.
The official part to the day is the quickest. I remember at my own wedding thinking how very efficient the registry office was. Pumping out thousands of weddings a day, I was astonished at how well the ceremony timetable was kept. As one wedding was completed and whisked through the back door, the next scheduled was brought in through the front to the tune of Mendelson's march, just like clock work. Not a minute was spared.
Once the couple have exchanged rings and said their vows the groom physically picks up the bride and carries her to the first of many champagne drink stops. In my case I remember carrying Nastya with great trepidation, not because she was heavy (she's defiantly not) but because the steps leading out of ZAGS were saturated due to the heavy rain. The drink stop was familiar however, just like the Gold Coast Marathon, small tables set out in the open with dozens on plastic cups filled with a refreshing beverage.
After ZAGS the wedding cortege proceeds on visiting many of the different monuments around the city and to lay flowers at the Eternal Fire, this is obligatory. Drinking champagne and taking photos all the way.
Finally it is time for the reception, were the couples family and friends congregate in front of the designated restaurant or resort in order to meet the newly-weds with bread and salt. There is a tradition for the newly weds to break-off a piece of bread simultaneously - and the person, whose piece is bigger, becomes the head of the family.
Stay tuned for the final instalment where the celebrations run completely out of control.