Weekend Update

My mother says I'm not blogging enough. So this one's for her...

Last Friday was February 23, which is celebrated in Russia unofficially as Men's Day, when Russian women are supposed to shower the men in their lives with cards, candy, flowers and other signs of affection. Officially, it's called День защитника Отечества, Defender of the Fatherland Day. As with all Russian holidays, it's a hold-over from Soviet times. I chose to give Matt a terribly tacky card (replete with Russian soldiers and ridiculous nationalist imagery) and an equally tacky present: a banya set! Since neither of us have been to the banya, I thought this just might be the motivation Matt would need to entice him.

Because it was a holiday and everyone had the day off (not including us, of course), EVA organized a Purim celebration for their family club. It was a great event -- hamantashen baking (inspired by my successful foray into challah baking with the kids at camp!), a puppet show, snacks and a slideshow from EVA's winter camp. Matt and I then split up and went our separate ways to celebrate Shabbat with a few elderly Chesed clients around the city through our Malachai Shabbat program. The 90-year-old woman I visited really touched my heart. An engineer by trade, she learned to paint when she was 60 and her apartment is covered floor to ceiling with her amazing artwork. Now that her vision has deteriorated, she can no longer read or paint, leaving her bored and disinterested with life. Our visit was clearly a highlight -- and she repeated over and over that she is so thankful that she hasn't been forgotten. Exhausted, we crossed town and enjoyed a delicious Shabbat meal at the home of two Israeli young women who are doing their national service in St. Petersburg by teaching Hebrew at a number of the Jewish schools here. Playing cards after dinner and swapping stories about being far from home...it was the perfect way to end the week.

Matt and Sasha show off their freshly made hamantashen.

Shabbat morning we went to a Chabad minyan near our apartment on the Vyborgskaya side of town. We've come to adore the young, hip Chabad rabbi who leads the minyan. We came home after a light lunch of cholent (yum!) and salads and took a good, long nap. Last night we went to a joint birthday party for my friend Jen and her husband Vanya at their apartment. First of all, their apartment is so cute! It's decorated like it's been on some HGTV show -- lime green, bright blue, and bright peach. It's totally my style, replete with ultra modern lighting. Ok, enough about the apartment. It was nice to be at a party that was 50% Russian and 50% foreigners. The guy sitting next to me, for example, was from Baku. As the night wore on, we started singing karaoke, both in Russian and in English. Even I sang -- with my terrible voice and all!

On our way home, we had a classically Russian experience. Never mind the puke on the metro. As we left Jen and Vanya's apartment and turned the corner, I noticed a dark heap on the ground. I asked Matt if he thought that was a person on the ground. Mind you, it was probably 3°F outside. Apparently, it was a very, very drunk man who had tried to stop and pee on the side of the street. Instead, he fell over with his fly wide open and his penis hanging out. We didn't know whether to laugh or to feel bad for the guy. Ah, to live in Russia!