Epiphany and Driving

Today we learned that it is a special day in Russia called Epiphany. From Wikapedia, “The Epiphany, celebrated in Russia on January 19, marks the baptism of Jesus in the (Jordan River). Believing that on this day water becomes holy and is imbued with special powers, Russians all over the country cut holes in the ice of lakes and rivers, often in the shape of the cross, to bathe in the freezing water. Participants in the ritual may dip themselves three times under the water, honoring the Holy Trinity, to symbolically wash away their sins from the past year, and to experience a sense of spiritual rebirth. Orthodox priests are on hand to bless the water, and rescuers are on hand to monitor the safety of the swimmers in the ice-cold water.” The way it was explained to us is that many people are ‘christened’ on this day with the belief that doing so will result in not getting sick. (I understood this as not getting sick ever, but Aaron understood it as not getting sick this day even though they are dipping themselves in freezing water. We’ll ask tomorrow.)


I also thought that I’d attempt to adequately describe what the driving we endure daily is like :). Aaron figures that this will be a hard task because in so many ways it is indescribable. Our daily trips have really went from scary to amusing though (once you get over the nauseousness of it all). It is like we are in a constant race – accelerate hard, break hard, accelerate hard, break hard – on a road with little or no marked lanes (not that people would follow the markers), and you get extra points for clipping other car mirrors or pedestrians! All cars start to accelerate (hard) at a red light moments before it turns green. The common car of choice is a Lada, which are adequate for medium-sized women, and quite narrow (needed in order to squeeze in a third lane to a two-laned street). So, picture Aaron squished in there every day. I have also learnt to keep my head pressed firmly against the back of my seat after having it hit the side window a couple times due to the bumps in the road excentuated by ice rutts on all the side streets. We also go through a high speed traffic circle every day, again with no lane markers-lights-or signage, that I think defies all logic in that we have yet to see an accident scene there (I seriously can not figure out how many lanes it is suppose to be). And to top it all off we get to listen to dirty dance music! I am not sure if Russian’s actually like that radio station or if our drivers have graciously choosen it because many of the songs are in English. But really, it is better that they don’t speak English because the words are very crude and embarrassing… althought it has been many years since I have had the ‘pleasure’ of listening to secular music so maybe that is what it is all like these days? Anyways, the whole driving ‘adventure’ is so absurd that it is quite entertaining!