Ultra Slavonic

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May 04, 2005

holiday greetings, Return of the Dzhedai

Sorry for the long gap in updates. Our copy of Windows crashed on Saturday, so I couldn't get to Internet till my host family's son came over Tuesday evening and resurrected our computer. He's a fulltime techie, so he put me to shame by resurrecting the system without wiping everything out and starting over. He then proceeded to walk on water and feed the multitudes with a single loaf of bread. Fix a man's operating system and he can keep working for a year or two; teach him to fix his own computer, and he'll keep working until Microsoft coerces you into upgrading, in which case you'll need to bring back the techie anyway.

Anyway, Sunday was two holidays in one: first of all, it's the First of May, or the Day of Labor and Spring (formerly something like the "Day of Worldwide Solidarity of Workers"). Like the Eighth of May (International Women's Day), the choice of dates is based on events in the US but reached its celebratory apex in the Soviet Union. This year, it was also Orthodox Easter. We had beautiful weather for both occasions.

After an unsuccesful attempt to visit Abramtsevo (which closed early for the day), so instead Аня and I went to Sergiev-Posad, home of the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra (sorry for ugly, inconsistent transliterations), where we had the opportunity to see Easter celebrations. Quite a neat experience—much better than a visit to Abramtsevo any day. The bells were ringing the whole time we were there. See a few pictures below.

The large cathedral with blue onion domes is where a service was taking place when we stopped by. The mint green thing is just an entranceway to the cathdral. The red chapel has a fountain inside with local water. The darker green structure to the left of the entrance also has a fountain with water. We asked the priest inside the red chapel what the difference is between the water. He said, "Nothing—you just don't have to deal with the wind in here when collecting the water." Well, those weren't his exact words, even when translated, but you get the idea.

My traveling companion.

The archway entrance to the lavra.

On Monday, I caught the beginning of "Return of the Jedi" on television. Just when you thought you knew everything about how to use the two forms of "you" in Russian (corresponding to the two in French), you see a Star Wars movie dubbed into Russian and you get all confused. There was broader use of "ты" than I expected at Jabba's place. Speaking of Jabba, they didn't put in subtitles for him. You just have to infer what he's saying. I noticed missing subtitles before in some other movie—it seems the extra expense of putting in a replacement subtitle track just isn't worth it to those who do dubbing.

Posted by kshawkin at May 4, 2005 08:43 PM

Comments

Posted by: Anonymous at May 11, 2005 10:46 PM

Posted by: Aunt Tracy at May 11, 2005 10:49 PM