Women’s Day is past and now we march on to the next upcoming major day in Russian culture, the observation of Easter. I’ll describe more about Easter and it’s importance to Russian people in another post as we get closer to the day. I just mention it here because it’s good to stay up with these holidays if you have or want to have a Russian woman in your life. Look at it this way men. If you marry a Russian woman, because some of their holidays are identical to ours, you get to double-dip.  

Russian people love to celebrate. They love parties and to check in with and congratulate each other on the occasion of each holiday. This is more than just a mechanism to have a good time. It’s a way for them to maintain close connections with family and friends. They do this, in my opinion, much more so than do we in the west. I don’t fully understand this, but it’s my observation that in the west the act of maintaining connection is performed somewhat as an “obligation”. In Russian culture, it’s performed as an “opportunity”.

It’s also my observation that the process of connection in Russian culture is primarily accomplished by women and in that capacity they act as the glue that keeps family and community bound closely together.

So at our home on Women’s Day, the telephone was extremely busy. There were many calls to and from people located literally across the globe - - here in America and as well in Ukraine and far into Siberia. Time zone differences (15 hours to Siberia, 10 hours to Ukraine) emphasized the duration of this connection celebration.

Between telephone sessions, Alla shopped. I took her to her 2 favorite ethnic foods stores in San Francisco, after which we had a late lunch at her favorite sushi restaurant. Then we headed back to San Rafael where I treated her to a shopping trip at a very “hoity-toity” market. It was fascinating to watch her check out this store. She compared all of the prices and identified everything as “way to expensive” or “not bad - same as our regular store”. She was impressed by the much broader range of selections to choose from as well as the higher quality of produce and overall better organization. Bottom line, we’ll shop there again (surprise, surprise).

Into the evening she continued shopping, this time online. I had given her a gift certificate from NOVICA (see our “Gifts For Her” page). She enjoyed this very much once she got used to the idea. I’m very comfortable shopping online. But Alla likes to shop by “touch and try”. I convinced her to “trust the merchant” (which I do for this one since I’ve shopped with them before). Then she got into it and made some selections. She’ll remain skeptical until the articles arrive, but I’m sure she’ll be pleased.

I had planned on dinner out, but sushi sticks with you and we thus had no more appetite except for light snacks in the evening. Overall it was a great day for her, and for me too since I had the treat of watching her excitement and enjoyment as the day evolved.

Elsewhere around the world for Women’s Day - - I was amazed at the lack of press for the day here in America. Though there were many political happenings here and elsewhere, it was a low-key day. Not so in Russian countries though. I understand that there were huge shopping crowds preceding the day, much like Christmas Eve in the west. And on March 8, restaurants were extremely busy while other businesses were closed. Interesting, huh? Same day but different emphasis yields different attitudes and results.

So I close for now, armed with happiness and satisfaction that my bride had a great day. I hope that you and yours had a great day as well.

Until next time,

Gary.

P.S. I’ve updated our links page with the URL for a great Russian women forum site.

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