Summer Travel Plans

May 28, 2018

Dear Family and Friends,

      Once again I am planning a summer filled with adventures which I want to share with you.  I want to inform and enlighten you with my observations of the world outside of my cozy home in southern California.  My less lofty goal is to make you a little envious of my travel adventures.  If, by chance, you would prefer not to receive these wonderful letters, just drop me a note and I will remove you from my huge mailing list.  Of course this will hurt my feelings, but I will probably recover - eventually.

      My wife, Tatyana, and I plan to fly to St. Petersburg, Russia, on June 10 and return home on August 19.  We will stay with Tanya’s son, Svyatoslav, in his apartment in St. Petersburg.  Tanya’s mother, Anastasia, will join us from her home in Belarus.  Alexander (whom we call Sasha) also lives in St. Petersburg with his wife; so we will spend time with him as well.  

     I am also planning to fly to Israel in July to take a two week intensive course in Palestinian Arabic in the beautiful, old seaside city of Akko.

     Part of the fun of travel for me is planning and preparation.  I’m in the process of deciding what to pack in one suitcase (to weigh no more than 50 pounds [23 kg]) and a carry-on.   The challenge is to pack clothing for the cool and capricious weather of St. Petersburg as well as the consistently hot and dry weather of Akko.  

    I may try to attach an occasional photo to my letters, but more likely I will post photos on my Facebook page and perhaps Instagram.  If you are not yet a Facebook friend, just ask me to befriend you and I will.

    As usual I welcome your feedback, questions, comments and rebuttals.  

    My next letter will probably arrive during the week of June 10, 2018,  If you don’t hear from me that week, it will mean that we didn’t make it or that I am suffering so much from ten hours worth of time change (aka jet lag) that I forgot to write.

Grace and Peace,

Bill Goff

Party

The day after the wedding the Paschin's hosted a party in the back yard of their place. Russian speakers may recognize that the word translated "party" here is a bit more specific, as Masha explained. It means something like a drinking party after you have been drinking.

(I am happy to report that on August 7th I received an e-mail from Katya telling me that Masha gave birth to a baby girl with curly hair on that date.)

Tatyana and her mother, Ludmilla.

The long table prepared with snacks and drink

Sisters Julia and Olga

Enjoying the party

Anton and Artoum prepared this special dessert.

Most of the people who had been at the wedding came to the party.

The next day, Ludmilla (Luda), a very successful flower retailer, took us on a tour of the town. Here we saw new houses in the suburbs.

Ludmilla said that the houses were built for directors, that is managers of businesses.

A woman who works in one of Luda's flower shops showed off an icon she had painted. She is an art student.

This is an artist's house in an older neighborhood.

This house is being built with a naval motif.

I like the old houses with the decorative use of wood.

Luda in the basement of her home where she stores some flowers which she buys twice a week in St. Petersburg.

Luda's mother, Tatyana.

After our farewells to the Paschins, one of Luda's drivers drove us about forty minutes away to a train station to take the train back to St. Petersburg. The countryside reminded me of northern Idaho. We ended up standing in the rain waiting for the train.

The Wedding

Katya and Vitalik were married on Saturday, July 14, 2007, in a beautiful wedding. I was honored to be the stand-in-father of the groom (since Vitalik's father had left the family long ago). Part of my duties involved giving a little speech at the wedding office. I did this in English (with Nadia translating) and then in Russian on my own. I think that the best feature of my speech was that it was short: "I love you and we all love you very much and wish the best for you."

The Russian wedding tradition is very similar to American weddings, but there are some unique features. One such feature is that the groom has initially to ransom the bride before he can see her. This is done in a fun and light way. Part of the ransom is answering questions about the bride. Vitalik bravely did this as he went through a series of questions and exercises going up four flights of stairs to his mother's apartment where Katya awaited. I participated in this exercise my asking Vitalik to tell me my name and when I had first met Katya. He gave the correct answer: February, 1996. I had given him the answer the day before.

Here is Katya waiting for Vitalik. (Remember that you can left-click on any photo to view it in larger format.)

Here is Vitalik coming to ransom his bride.
The bridal couple together at last.

Although they did not have a church wedding (which they may have at a later date), the wedding did have a religious elememt. The mothers of the bride and groom gave them icons with a Christian blessing.

Family and friends ready to go the the wedding office.

The older lady is Katya's great aunt, Tonia.

The girl in the foreground is Julia, seventeen-year-old cousin of Katya.

More relatives: Vladimir is Katya's uncle (her mother's brother). His wife is Ludmila. Her father was Korean. Their daughter, Tatyana, on the left, is a 23-year old university student. I have a balalaika given to me by Vladimir in 1997 when I visited the family in Novgorod.

Entering the wedding office. It is more like a wedding hall and the ceremony is like our church weddings rather than our civil ceremonies. The recorded music playing as they entered was the familiar tune, "Here comes the bride..."

Here is the government official presiding over the wedding ceremony which consisted of her making a short speech, asking obligatory questions. "Will you have this man? Will you have this woman?" The couple signed a wedding registry in four places, had a ring exchange (to piped in music of Stevie Wonder "I love you just the way you are.") Later someone told me that the wedding office officials had understood that half the wedding party would be Americans so they provided their best wedding person for the ceremony. Perhaps they were disappointed to discover that there was only one American.

The entire wedding party

Immediate relatives and friends

After the ceremony there is the tradition of going through the city visiting verious historic sites. They visited the eternal flame, strolled across the pedestrian bridge with Vitalik carrying Katya the entire way, drove out of town about 20 miles to the General Suvorov museum (where we got to ring some old bells), and finally about 5 p.m. back to the restaurant at the Sports Complex. Here is Katya riding a horse to the bridge. The sign in back is a picture of the bridge. It says, "I love Borovichi."

Here is one of two long tables of people enjoying the wedding feast.

Katya's sister Masha with husband Dima (Dimitri). The sisters treated me by singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" which I had taught them when they were still young girls.

they sing beautifully together.

Tanya and Masha

The youngest and oldest of Katya's relatives: little Olga and aunt Tonia. I danced with both.

Aunt Tonia and three of her grandaughters

We danced and danced and danced some more until about 1:30 a.m.

More wedding guests. I didn't know these people, but they asked me to take their photo so I obliged.

There were lots of merry games and fun events. Here is a stand-in bridal party. There was a master of ceremonies, a very energetic woman. One game was questions to selected guests. I was asked, "How often do you need love?" The only phrase I could think of in Russian was "Every day". That brought approving laughter.

Another game I participated in was playing the role of a baby while a succession of young women put a bib on me, a bonnet, had me drink most of a baby bottle of water, and rock one of them on my lap. Here I am in a hat they put on me. I think everyone was happy to have an American participating in these fun games. Many people told me, "We love the American people."

Late at night we went outside for a fireworks display. I had seen one of the boxes of fireworks earlier. In large letters it was marked KGB.

I think this photo was taken about 1:00 a.m. I still felt good, but I look a little tired.

Nadia with some young friends at the conclusion of the day.

In my next blog entry I will show you photos of the big reception on the following day. As always, I apprciate your comments. Rather going through the cumbersom process of leaving a comment on the blog, you can e-mail me directly at wmgoff@cox.net.

Village Life Old and New

When I first met the Paschin family in February, 1996, in St. Petersburg, Nadia Paschin told me of the "village" where she and her husband, Sasha, were born and where they live each summer with their twin daughters, Masha and Katya. Since Sasha and Nadia are both school teachers they have the summer free. She was very enthusiastic telling me about how wonderful it was there with a nearby river, forests where one can pick edible mushrooms, many sorts of wild berries, old houses, and lots of fresh air. She made it sound so good that I asked if I might visit them in the village. They were happy to offer me hospitality. So in the summer of 1997 I made my first visit to Borovichi. I fell in love with the serenity of the place, the rustic homes, the nearby meandering river Msta (pronounced just like it looks), the friendliness of the people. I also enjoyed the semi-celebrity status of being the only American in town. This was the real Russia. I have been back to Borovichi many times and always enjoy my visit.
Borovichi (which means something like "piney") was officially designated as a city in 1770, but Sasha who is an historian and archaeologist tells me that there is evidence it has been continuously inhabited since Neolithic times. I got various replies when I asked about the size of the population: 60,000 - 75,000. So it is really a town, not difficult to find on the map about halfway between St. Petersburg and Moscow. I've seen many positive changes since my first visit - churches being restored, a new supermarket. But this year I was really impressed with the acceleration of change that has happened since my last visit two years ago. There is a sturdy new bridge linking the two sides of the town, there is a popular new Sports Complex which opened last January, and new buildings anb homes going up everywhere. The residents are clearly enjoying a new level of prosperity. Borovichi now attracts Russian visitors both winter and summer who enjoy escaping the stressful pace of city life and relaxing in "the village".
Here are some photos showing both the old and new in Borovichi. Since I am using my own computer at home, I have not reduced the size of the photos. If you left-click on them, they will be shown large. To return to the blog, click on the back arrow.
I traveled there by train on July 11th. Tanya decided to arrive on the 13th. Wanting to avoid the crowded "platzcard" class of travel, I purchased a ticket for a "kupe", a cabin seating four with four beds. I was alone in my cabin which gave me time to read and rest during the six and a half hour trip. I was told it is about a four hour drive by car. So here I am sitting alone and happy in my cabin.
My shirt says "Russia".

The train station in Borovichi. Notice the sign.

Nadia in her kitchen preparing Russian pancakes, "blini". She had a lot to do to get ready for the wedding, but took time to be an attentative hostess to me and made sure that I was well fed.

A stack hot blini

Masha and her husband, Dima (Dimitri). The baby (twice predicted by doctors to be a girl)

is due in early August.

A colorful old wooden house framed by birch trees. I prefer the old wooden houses
to the modern brick structures.

Nadia, Katya, Vitalik (the groom), and Vitalik's mother, Tatyana,

doing some last minute bridal shopping.

This is one of the supermarkets in town - very clean and well-stocked.

This is a photo inside the supermarket

showing the location of the market in the horse and buggy days.

Tatyana and Nadia shopping.

The new "Sportivni Komplex" called "OLIMP".

The adult pool and Jacuzzi. The lap pool is off to the right. I thought I might swim a few laps, but changed my mind when I discovered how cold the water was. There are also separate men's and women's saunas on the same floor. For about $8 you can enjoy the pools for an hour and a half. For $40 you can come to the pools for an hour and a half every day all summer.

The children's pool.

We arrived an hour too early for bowling. To pass the time, we first had a coffee and snack in the cafe and then took a stroll around the neighborhood. Sasha told me that this is his favorite shirt. I gave it to him several years ago.

An outdoor market close to the Sports Complex. Notice the yellow mushrooms at the right. One vender was using an abacus, but I didn't get a photo.

Old and new buildings stand side by side.

Old wooden houses like this were torn down to make room for the new Sports Complex and adjoining hotel still under construction.

The old bridge is for pedestrians only.

The new bridge over the River Msta.

Behind the bridge is the golden cupola of an old church being restored.

Sasha bowling. It was the first time either of had bowled in Russia.

Identical twins Anton and Artium are schoolmates of Masha and Katya. They came for Katya's wedding, but also were serious about fishing every day.

A little success.

Red faced American tourist emerges from steam room in a banya (bath) in Borovichi. Banyas are one of the things I most love in Russia and cannot find in America. In my left hand I'm holding "venik", a bouquet of birch tree leaves. In my right hand I am holding a sign that says, "Slokum parim" which in English would be "With light steam". It is a popular idiom said to people emerging from a banya or even a shower. It is really not translatable, but means something like, "I hope you had a good bath, or enjoyed the steam". The steam room of the banya (which is off to the left) can get very hot. This round felt pad is useful to place on the hot wood before lying face down. The wooden spoon I am holding is used to scoop water to pour on hot stones to make steam. The fragrance of birch leaves and water or steam is something wonderful. Yes, I know, I need to loose weight. A regular banya would help.