Pancake Week!

Morning :)

Yep, pancake WEEK is here, it is an actual thing - called Maslenitsa - and I am very much enjoying it. Maslenitsa is an Orthodox festival, which as far as I can understand (not very far) signifies the start of fasting (so same as pancake day, just different dates). Each day of the week has a different theme, for example "Eating too much" or "Being young again". It is also supposed to include sleigh rides and snowball fights but alas, it is practically tropical weather here at the moment so that won't be happening. On Saturday there will be a big celebration near the fortress including many more blini (pancakes) and a bonfire. I have also learned a new Russian phrase which literally translates as "the first blini comes out a blob" which is used in all new situations which don't turn out as planned.

Tutoring, due to this, has been great this week (as if they don't normally feed me enough) I was given a  giant bowl of yummy borsch, a big slice of cake and some blini, I would quite happily take this as pay but don't tell them that. Was a teeny bit embarrassing when the girl's mum asked me how she was getting on and I said "yes, her Russian really is coming along…Oh... and her English too!" but hey, I like to think that, aside from these little errors, my Russian is improving.

Speaking of food, I will now tell you about breakfast here. So we haven't had another stir fry thankfully, I politely told the babushka that I'd much rather have a light breakfast. The next day I discovered she'd found BACON(!!!), so asked for a bacon sandwich, I was a bit confused and assumed she'd misunderstood as I was given porridge, but went with it, then she gave us a little salad, some blini, and then came the bacon. Which was amazing. But I had to save it for later to avoid exploding. She's also tried to feed us fried potatoes, cabbage and meat wobbling in jelly (called holodetz) for breakfast… interesting.

We're getting to know the babushka now and learn her little ways - there are some things that we have to do like leaving certain doors open/closed or putting stuff in certain places, but hey, we can deal with that, especially since she buys Twinings tea and feeds us at all times of day.  However, I do think she has a fear of mushrooms as she told me I had to eat the whole packet I'd bought in a day otherwise I'd be very very ill.. quite confused, and after sneakily eating them for the rest of the week I can safely say I'm feeling fine. I have heard that this may be a superstition as a friend's babushka said a similar thing. Ooh and on that note, I'll share a few other Russian superstitions that I've learned with you - this post is becoming quite educational!

So, one of the main ones that is very very important to know is that you should only give someone flowers if there is an odd number of them, if you gave someone, say, six flowers in a bunch this would be very very offensive as even numbers are only ever used at funerals.

2) -  never whistle indoors as this could bring misfortune to your family. Thankfully I can't whistle so haven't had any awkward situations regarding this.

3) Before going on a trip you should sit down for a few seconds once all of your stuff is ready as this brings safe travels. Our old babushka definitely made us do this before going to Moscow and we were very very confused, especially since we were in a massive rush and didn't quite fancy "having a little rest".

4) If you leave the house and forget something you really shouldn't go back for it. (pretty much a daily occurrence for me) If you absolutely must return, then you should look in a mirror before you step out again.

5) If you aren't married you shouldn't sit at the corner of tables - if you do then you won't marry for something like seven years.

6) Don't say 'happy birthday' to a person before their birthday (have done this twice now, both times received very odd looks, whoops)


I'm sure there are many more but I can't remember them at this moment!

Also, big news.. went to Riga last weekend!! It was quite spontaneous but a lot of fun and I will tell you all about it in the next post as I don't have much time now.

Happy Maslenitsa!
Лиза xx