I had a most unusual Christmas this year. The Russian Orthodox Church continues to use the Julian calendar (an older calendar not frequently used today), which does not line up exactly with the Gregorian calendar (the newer calendar used today in much of the world), to determine the dates of religious holidays, so Christmas is celebrated on the seventh of January instead of the usual December twenty-fifth. Because of that, Christmas Day (December 25) was just like any other regular day here, with classes in the morning and afternoon and rehearsals in the evening. I celebrated by eating some (OK... a lot) of my favorite Russian sweets, handing out little packages of candy to friends and classmates, and opening the gifts that I received. Some friends gave me chocolate, gingerbread, cookies, Christmas socks, a candle, and beautiful hairpins. I also had two presents from my family that my mom wrapped up and gave me before I came here in September, instructing me to save them until Christmas. I was a good child and they remained unopened, stored in a drawer (behind my basket of socks), for the all of the (almost) four months before Christmas.
Here is my little Christmas tree and some of my gifts. (And tissue box and fruit basket... Those weren't presents, they just made it into the picture because they were also on my dresser at the time...).
I was able to FaceTime with my family while they were opening up some of their Christmas gifts. It was almost like being at home for an hour and made my Christmas feel complete. So, though very different than my usual Christmas, this year's definitely wasn't bad at all.
A week later, I got to celebrate the new year eleven hours earlier than I would have if I had been at home (thanks to the time difference). Roosa (Finland), Juli (Hungary), and I awaited the coming of 2014 in the TV room on our floor of the dormitory, eating an assortment of snacks and watching the nationally broadcasted New Year's Eve television programming. Just before midnight, Vladimir Putin gave a speech. When it ended, just at the new year began, the program began showing various celebreties singing and dancing to festive music.
(It's really hard to see because the TV screen doesn't show up well in photographs, but this photo was taken during Putin's speech).
We had a lot of mandarin oranges, and Roosa decided to turn them into some celebratory (and edible) decorations.
Just after midnight, we heard the telltale pops and cracks of fireworks coming from nearby and ran to the window to find out if we could see them. Our view was partially blocked by the roofs of the surrounding buildings (all of our windows look out over various courtyards), but we live on one of the uppermost floors, so we still got to see quite a bit. It was really beautiful.
The New Year's celebration on our floor was small in part because several people went out for the evening, but also because two of the eight trainees who live on the fourth floor had already headed home for the holidays. The people who were cast in the Nutcracker are required to stay until all of the shows are complete (on January 12th), but the other trainees could choose to go home earlier if they liked. Some have chosen to stay until the shows are finished (regular classes and rehearsals are still going on when they don't conflict with the performances), but quite a few decided to head home so that they'd have more time to spend with their family.
Even with just a few people gone, everything has started feeling sort of empty. The two girls who are missing from my floor love to bake and do so almost every week; I'm missing the warmth, sweet smells, and bits of music that come drifting down the hall from the kitchen to my room whenever they're baking.
I'm glad that my roommate and both of our suitemates are still here. I'm not a particularly social person and don't mind spending time by myself, but I'd really miss having people in my suite if they weren't here. Whenever we're in the dorms, the doors to both rooms of the suite are almost always open; it gives the suite a feeling and atmosphere that I really like.
My ballet class, on the other hand, is pretty empty. We usually have ten girls, but my three fellow international trainees have all gone home and another girl has been having some problems with her back, so we're now down to a maximum of six people. Though it feels odd to be missing so many classmates, it is nice to have a few small classes every once in a while.
My friend Jane (Finland), headed home the weekend before Christmas (and by that I mean December 25th). Before she left, we celebrated the semester with some frozen yogurt. It was a fun and delicious way to say, "we did it!" but it was also a goodbye because we won't be seeing each other until the start of second semester in February.
I adore frozen yogurt. It had been more than three months since I'd last had any, so I was really looking forwards to this. (Frozen yogurt shops aren't quite as popular here as in the United States, and the only two that I know about here aren't very conveniently located, so I just hadn't had time yet).
Though lacking the fun of getting to assemble your own masterpiece like in the self-serve shops in the United States, my frozen yogurt experience was still very satisfactory. They had only plain yogurt, ready to be adorned with the toppings of your choice, which was completely fine with me (that's usually my favorite one, anyway). Frozen Yogurt Number One was gone much too quickly, so of course it had to be followed by Frozen Yogurt Number Two.
Christmas happened on the 7th of January, but it was much less celebrated than I had expected. It seems to be that the general traditions here are to send New Year's cards, exchange gifts on New Year's Eve, and to wish everyone a "Happy New Year!" («С Новым Годом!»), so there is much less frenzy and fanfare surrounding Christmas. We had a performance of the Nutcracker on Christmas Day (and this time I mean January 7th), which I think was the perfect way to celebrate the holiday.
To all - Happy New Year!
С Новым Годом!
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