21/11: Experience and observation
This old house is has been giving a full variety show of utility shut-offs this week. We've had a notice on the front door telling us that the electricity could be turned off at any time; it hasn't happened. However, standing in the shower, I've almost got boiled as they've turned the cold water off. Sometimes, the hot water has been turned off. Now my working week is over - it's Saturday morning - I've woken up to find that both the hot and cold water are off. A far cry from that ever so occasional day without a utility seen in England.
These days, I have a bowl of water sitting in the bath so that I can have a strip wash when required. This is very Russian. Other Russian habits include eating ice cream all year round. In the daytime, not only can you buy the stuff in a supermarket, but dedicated ice cream kiosks are open here in Berdsk, in minus temperatures. I ate a choc ice in minus 15 recently. Ok, but I still prefer it in the summer; I guess you can't take the Brit out of me that quickly.
I did a straw poll in a few classes of attitudes to caviar, known there as ikrah (emphasis on the second syllable). Everybody prefers red caviar, that rather fishier alternative to black, usually made from salmon or lumpfish or pike-perch. I think black ikrah may be eaten in the west more as a status symbol than anything else; I've always considered it to be rather salty, although I've never eaten the more expensive variants.
Most Russians may exercise thrift, but this does not extend to the environment. There is no recycling, although if you leave items outside the house, they will be picked by other people for re-use or resale. One of my students heard about protests against a third runway or whatever it is they're thinking of building at Heathrow and thinks Brits are the only people in Europe who worry about environmental problems. He's coming out with variations in the sun's rays when considering global warming and in common with many Russians is not at all perturbed by problems relating to waste or to the depletion of raw materials. In the latter case, it is because Russia has rather more than most, even if much of it is buried in the permafrost, although global warming and commodity prices are making these more accessible. The answer to most environmental questions is, 'Russia is a big country'.
These days, I have a bowl of water sitting in the bath so that I can have a strip wash when required. This is very Russian. Other Russian habits include eating ice cream all year round. In the daytime, not only can you buy the stuff in a supermarket, but dedicated ice cream kiosks are open here in Berdsk, in minus temperatures. I ate a choc ice in minus 15 recently. Ok, but I still prefer it in the summer; I guess you can't take the Brit out of me that quickly.
I did a straw poll in a few classes of attitudes to caviar, known there as ikrah (emphasis on the second syllable). Everybody prefers red caviar, that rather fishier alternative to black, usually made from salmon or lumpfish or pike-perch. I think black ikrah may be eaten in the west more as a status symbol than anything else; I've always considered it to be rather salty, although I've never eaten the more expensive variants.
Most Russians may exercise thrift, but this does not extend to the environment. There is no recycling, although if you leave items outside the house, they will be picked by other people for re-use or resale. One of my students heard about protests against a third runway or whatever it is they're thinking of building at Heathrow and thinks Brits are the only people in Europe who worry about environmental problems. He's coming out with variations in the sun's rays when considering global warming and in common with many Russians is not at all perturbed by problems relating to waste or to the depletion of raw materials. In the latter case, it is because Russia has rather more than most, even if much of it is buried in the permafrost, although global warming and commodity prices are making these more accessible. The answer to most environmental questions is, 'Russia is a big country'.