Holidays (in every sense of the word)

Happy International Women's Day! March 8th is a very important Holiday in Russia (and everywhere around Eastern Europe, in my experience). We were treated to a student concert, with lots of variety:

Women have been hearing wishes of good health, happiness, and love from EVERYONE this weekend. Even strangers in the street will wish us a Happy Women's day when we walk by, it's that well observed here. It seems like we have been wishing everyone a "Happy Holiday" of some sort the whole time we have been in Tambov, because last weekend was (if you remember) MASLENITSA (pancake week!)

Maslenitsa originated as a pagan tradition celebrating the beginning of Spring: The pancakes resemble the sun, and a large doll is burned as a symbol of the end of Winter. The celebration also marks the period before fasting, and the last day of that period is the last day you can have butter (which, along with meat, is off-limits until Easter during fasting time) --- hence the buttery pancake indulgence!

This doll is burned to signify the end of Winter

People of all ages gather to celebrate Maslenitsa in the Park

Standing in line for pancakes (which we never got, because the line was too long)

And besides that, there was also ANOTHER sort of celebration --- the Olympic torch was brought through Tambov on its way to the Paralympic games in Sochi: 

...We stood there for a long time waiting for them to come by. I've never been that into the olympics, but still, how often do you get a chance to see the olympic torch? I snagged a quick vid. (p.s. This really was the most exciting part, it was kind of anti-climactic.)

In other news, we have been visiting so may educational centers, youth groups, universities and NGOs that I can't even keep them straight sometimes. We will have a final team meeting in a few hours to go over all the material we have gathered here and figure out what we can do with it --- and then it's off to Petrozavodsk via train, where we will have a 15-hour layover in...

omgIcan'twaitI'mgonnapeemypantssoHAPPYYYYY

For those of you who don't know anything about me (but perhaps read the first few posts on my time in St. petersburg), I'll tell you right now that most often my unhappiness in St. Petersburg is caused, very simply, by my NOT being in Moscow... because I find it inherently BETTER in almost EVERY way. So yeah, I'm pretty happy about it.

That's all for now, next post will be from Karelia!

Love,

Sarah