Part 2 on Russians (Sharon)

This excerpt from Lonely Planet guidebook (LP) seems very true and made me rethink my impressions: “On a personal level, Russians have a reputation of being dour, depressed and unfriendly. In fact, most Russians are anything but, yet find constant smiling indicative of idiocy, and ridicule pointless displays of happiness commonly seen in western culture. Even though Russians can be unfriendly and downright rude when you first meet them (especially those working behind glass windows of any kind), their warmth as soon as the ice is broken can be astounding. Just keep working at it.”

We met people on the second leg of the train (Irkutsk to Moscow) who were completely friendly, generous and inquisitive – and patient enough to keep working on mutual comprehension in spite of a tremendous language ignorance on both sides. Never come to Russia without a dictionary or a phrasebook!! Our LP’s sad 4 pages covering numbers, food and train vocabulary ran old really fast. Met a lovely young lady (Mariana, 22) with whom we managed to get past the boring superficialities and had some sort of conversation about babies (that we should be getting to work on it), whether or not our parents are important government officials (don’t know how they got that idea!), how to eat a crayfish, potato, and mayonnaise (in separate sessions) and a host of other fascinating subjects. I should add that she really couldn’t speak much English, but our conversations rode on her animated gestures and persistence.

We had a cold on the second day of the train and learnt that Russians are almost as hypochondriac as the average Singaporean. One gave me a eucalyptus nasal spray and offered antibiotics. The older couple fed Willy some cough stopping medicine and tried to force a raw garlic clove on him while he was coughing. (not sure what he was supposed to do with it anyway). We appreciated the gesture.
No one in Russia likes haw flakes (San Zha)!

We are also getting an impression of the role of women in Russian society. Mar 8 is International Women’s Day and we’ve been seeing every woman carrying flowers!! The flower shops are going crazy and you can buy tulips at every metro station. We would say our impression of Russian women so far are – very much a woman and very much in charge. Men open doors, carry bags, fill water and generally do as they’re told. :) Google ‘Babushka’ to read more.