So, last time we met (see previous entry) we explored the town and I gave you a brief description of the kinds of buildings which line our pretty yet dusty streets, and what our inhabitants like to do in their free time. I think I need to elaborate on this topic for I merely touched upon the superficialities. Like I mentioned, the Russians like to escape from this hum-drum life of cars and dust, maybe it reminds them too much of work or perhaps they feel suffocated by the capitalist trappings of their modern big city so they retreat to the country, which is actually very close to the city, and consists of forests, lakes and flat land for as far as the eye can see. It's dotted with small villages where you find Dachas, although some villages are where people live all year round, but they're different types of villages. Ok so a dacha is a wooden hut, or sometimes it's made of stone, I guess depending on how much dingy you gots. (Er, dingy is like, Russian for money). What they do is buy the land and then build whatever they like on it, so some folks have a wooden house like a shed and some richer folks have got a house similar to one found in British suburbia, complete with servants quarters and a special house for the dog.
If you don't have a dacha or any friends with a dacha, or if, more likely, it's raining, then what do you do at the weekends? You spend money in shopping centres and cinemas and restaurants. Or if you're like me and are scared to shop for fear of having to speak Russian you go to a summer tent to witness real Russians getting drunk on beer and vodka. Actually, I haven't been to the summer tents for a while what with the rain and the departure of my international friends. So, I've been lacking in the culture recently, preferring instead my own company or perhaps an evening with the dog chasing my feet.
So that's what people do at the weekend.... but like I said, there's more to do in winter because of the snow when you can go and do winter sports in the forest.

The thing that the girls here are always interested in is the family life of the British and Americans. People in Russia get married young, in fact, if you're a girl and you're not married by the time you're 30 that's it, forget it. Every woman wants a baby and it's not just because the government tell them to and offer monetary incentives for having them, but they really do think there's something wrong in the head of a woman who doesn't want to be a mother. They think it's the most wonderful thing for a woman to do the housework; cooking and cleaning for her husband. Whereas we 'feminists' as they like to call us in the West see it as a chore and would rather be doing something else, they see it as their way of dominating the men.... like – 'you know, you couldn't survive on your own, you'd starve and you'd run out of clean socks'. It's a completely different way of thinking, perhaps better or perhaps worse, but I see a lot of women who are supported by their rich husbands who give them money in return for doing the housework, and even give them a large sum of money to play with in a game called 'starting your own business', and I think 'that would be fun'!

I must share with you my pain, my suffering.... or should I in fact be pleased that the Russian insects have really taken a delight in my blood and I seem to have been offering an all you can eat buffet which has attracted some of your most greedy and obese insects. I was even lucky enough to have the company of one very fine midge in my bedroom for about two days until we fell out, he was taking liberties, keeping me awake, and after many failed attempts I finally succeeded in killing him, accidentally it seems, by squashing him in my sleep.