Row around the world

Today on the bus I met Sergei Morozov, a Russian navigator who currently lives in Halifax, who wants to row around the world. Now, that's inspirational!

He sat across from me. Sometimes we, "Russians" (i.e. former Soviet citizens), sense each other. There's something unidentifiable, ephemeral--in the eyes, or in the posture. I sensed he was one of "us," but wasn't certain until I heard him speak on his cellphone. I said hello, we talked for a few minutes. Just before I got off he gave me his card with a link to his web site.

A young man next to us asked if we were speaking German or Russian. Russian, I replied. He was close. I'm surprised how many people here think I speak French after hearing me speak Russian.

In conversation I got disoriented and almost missed my stop.

I'm humbled and inspired by this project. A writer can't afford much, but half of my Descant honorarium is going towards Sergei's project.

Now Halifax has everything I need

The store Olha's Ukrainian Foods offers less selection than the stores in Toronto, but satisfies my cravings just fine. I still call this "Russian food," out of habit, but the point is the same--this is the food of childhood celebrations. Food available (sometimes, if we were lucky) for New Year's Eve, or someone's birthday. Pickled red tomatoes, vegetable spreads, "syrki" (I introduce them as mini chocolate covered cheesecakes, only better, to my Canadian friends), zefir (like marshmallows, only better, way better)...Ah...I just ate way too much of good stuff.

russian mat

ever wonder what iqaluit writers talk about?

yesterday's writing group discussion motivated me to look up origins of russian mat. i still didn't find anything definitive but the above wiki article is very informative. i have to admit that my understanding of mat's nuances is rather rudimentary; i've never uttered a mat word out loud, though boiling oil splashing on my hand will elicit a mighty array of fucks and shits. english profanity feels very tame to me.

this article was also very interesting, as well as the discussion after it. and this one.

points of interest, at least to me:

- the term mat comes from a word meaning "loud yell"

- The mat belongs to the ancient layers of the Russian language (the first written mat words date to Middle Ages)

- "All the basic elements of mat relate to sexual activity, which, in Russia, is considered far dirtier than defecation...." (from Erofeyev's article)

- The German and Finnish interjection for surprise or admiration—Hui!—sounds identical to the Russian and Polish swear word literally meaning "penis" (Polish chuj, Russian and Bulgarian xyй)--there's an entire article on Wiki devoted to profanities in general.

- The appeal of mat has to do with the synthetic character of Russian: using only five roots, one can form a multitude of terms to use in any real-life situation

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i still haven't googled the OTHER topic we discussed. more to come. maybe.