This week in Russia: Banyas and Ballets

It seems that the time has come for me to make the requisite баня (“banya”) entry. For those of you who didn’t take the first quarter of Valentina’s Third-Year Russian class, I want to devote a few lines to the banya itself. The banya is, fundamentally, a bathhouse or a sauna. While many cultures have their own versions of the bathhouse, in Russia, the banya is much more than a place to bathe or to relax. A whole mythology has evolved around the banya, and it has consequently become an integral part of Russian life and culture. The space of the banya is multilayered: it is a social space, a spiritual space, a philosophical space. You go there with your friends to relax, eat, and drink (beer or tea, whichever is your pleasure). Traditionally, you can go there to engage in divination—to try to see your future. You want to be sure to avoid the little spirit, or bannik, who lives there (when you bathe, he takes all of your dirt, so to speak, onto his back, so he’s not a very happy little man; he is, however, sometimes willing to help you out with your divinations). You go to meditate, to think about life. You go there for your health. In short, you go there a lot—many Russians have banyas in their own homes (though we went to a public banya).

The actual process of bathing at the banya is also rooted in tradition. You sit in the steam, then jump either into the snow (in an ideal situation) or a very cold pool (as we did), then eat and drink tea (or beer). Then you go back into the steam, jump in the snow/pool, and eat/drink again. Then you sit in the steam, beat each other with birch branches, jump into the snow/pool one last time, and head home.

So that, in short, is what we did.

Last Saturday, Katya sent me a text asking me if I wanted to go to the banya with her and the younger colleagues in our department. I was a little hesitant, as anyone who knows me can probably imagine (I should mention: the banya experience is usually a naked experience), but, loathe to miss out on such a key cultural experience, I agreed. To my great relief, when I asked Katya what I should bring, “bathing suit” was the first thing on the list.

Walking past the run-down houses and fields where babushkas could be seen herding their cows on the way to the banya, I truly felt as if I were entering another, much older, world. The banya we went to was located in a part of Slavyansk I hadn’t been to before. While the center of town is by no means a wealthy area, the decrepitude of the streets and buildings in this neighborhood was a little shocking. It really looked and felt like old peasant Russia—and only a half hour walk from my dorm. I began to understand Chekhov a little better. But I’ll devote more time to this theme later…

Anyway. We arrived at the banya, changed into our bathing suits, and headed in for our first steam. Vika, our banya expert, poured some scent (pomegranate, I think) over the stones, giving the steamy air in the small room a pleasant aroma. As a first-time banya attendee, I was invited to make a wish (another divining tradition). When the heat became too much to stand, we jumped into the pool, and then went into the adjoining room for a snack of tea, fruit, and cheese. After resting for a little while, we went back in for our second steam. This time, we rubbed ourselves with a natural scrub apparently made of honey and salt. It sounds icky, but I have to say, my skin felt really soft afterwards. Again the water and tea, and then back for our third steam. This was the birch branch steam. Since it was my first time, I was volunteered to go first. I have to admit, when I was learning about the banya, this is the practice that sketched me out the most. Who gets enjoyment out of being beaten by a switch? But I dutifully lay down on the bench and awaited my fate. As it turns out, it wasn’t half-bad. I still can’t say that I see the appeal, but I’m not wholly against it.

The whole experience took about two hours, after which we headed back to Katya and Lena’s apartment for tea. Walking outside, the girls were all very concerned about my wet head (they had dried their hair, but I didn’t bother)—“You’ll freeze!” they said. I looked at them, confused. It was maybe in the upper fifties or low sixties outside, and we only had to walk ten feet or so to Lena’s (the other Lena) car. As it turns out though, Sunday was the first hint of the cold that was to come. By Monday, I had traded in my flip-flops and t-shirts (which I had been wearing all through last week) for boots and coats. We went from summer to winter basically overnight, it seems. But I digress again!

On Monday, I began my second unit with the fourth-years, this time on “The Crucible.” Unfortunately, since I don’t have all that much time with them, I don’t want to spend more than one lecture class and one practice section on any single unit, so we had a lot to get through that day. I tried to mix the lecture up, including some poetry and a conveniently appropriate short story recording that I found on voa.org (an invaluable site for any teacher of English as a second or foreign language), pictures, and discussions about witch-related traditions as well as basic history and contextual information, but I think it was a lot for the students to take in at once. I’m going to try to find some way to actually give my lectures to them for study purposes, because I’ve also noticed that they never take notes unless I specifically tell them what to write down, and honestly, they’re too old for that.

In the practice sections, however, we actually acted out the scenes that we read. The students seemed a little hesitant at first, but then they all really got into it—even quiet Igor, who usually sits silently at the back of the room, really put on a good show. Some students even managed to memorize a few lines in the 40 minutes I gave them to practice. It ended up being a lot of fun! After class, a few of the girls in the second section even invited me to hang out with them that night. We spent three hours chatting at a pizzeria (all in Russian, and I only asked for translations twice all night), after which they walked me back to the dorm (more evidence of Russian hospitality/protectiveness).

The rest of the week went very well, I think. The change to actual fall weather really improved my mood, and I’ve had more work of late to keep me busy. On Wednesday, I helped Masha 2 paint a poster for “First-Year Day.” That evening, I got a call from A. A. He asked me to help a teacher out with a translation project, which I happily agreed to do. They were actually translating a parent/teacher survey given by the Chicago Public School System, so it made me a little nostalgic. I met with the teacher on Thursday morning before class and again on Friday morning. She is an incredibly nice woman, and we were able to work together to get a pretty decent translation completed. When we finished on Friday, I headed to the library to do some work, but she came to find me a few minutes later to invite me to tea with her and her assistant. It was quite nice to sit around and chat with tea and sweets (which they kept piling onto my plate—“You need something sweet with your tea!”). This is definitely a tradition that needs to make its way back to the States. They also invited me to a celebration (I’m not sure what kind of celebration it will be—the Russians are a very celebration-happy people) on Tuesday, which I plan on going to, if my classes don’t interfere.

On Friday night, I went to the Дом Културы (House of Culture) to see the ballet. That’s right, the ballet—in Slavyansk! The Krasnodar ballet is beginning a tour of the region, and we were the first stop. It was wonderful to be able to attend a performance again. Parts of the show were really fantastic. There were scenes from Swan Lake, as well as dances put to music by Shostakovich and Rachmoninoff, two of my favorite composers. I have to say though, small-city ballet is small-city ballet. Slavyansk—and Krasnodar, for that matter—is not St. Petersburg, or even Chicago, and you can see that in the quality of the theater… and the fact that this is the first time the theater here has hosted any such performance since I’ve been here. It was nice, at least, to have the opportunity to see it, and I did enjoy myself. Slavyansk actually has a nice little theater—small and rather quaint, but tasteful and kept up better than any other building I’ve seen here.

I got a text from Masha 1 on my way back to the dorm to confirm our plans to go to Krasnodar tomorrow. She invited me to stop by their room when I got back to the dorm, so I did, though I was rather tired and hungry. As it turned out, they were just about to have dinner and greeted me with shouts of “Ura!” and a big plate of pelmeni and salad. I really like these girls. They’re pretty fantastic.

Further evidence to support the awesomeness of these girls: I had mentioned a few weeks ago that I needed a winter coat. Masha, hearing this, said that I needed to go to Krasnodar to get a good one, and offered to go with me. So on Saturday afternoon, we boarded the bus for the two hour ride to Krasnodar. Masha had arranged for a friend of hers, who lives in the city, to be our guide, since neither of us knew our way around. Her friend, Lena, met us at the bus station with a big smile and two very helpful hands. She whisked us around town from one store to another until we managed to find just what we were looking for, and Masha and I both ended the day with some very successful purchases. I was glad to get a chance to walk through Krasnodar, above all. It’s about a quarter of the size of Chicago, half the size of Philadelphia, and as such, to my mind, seems to be a pretty manageable city. I’d really like to look into events there and to get back as often as possible.

We got home around ten, at which point I happily made my way back up to my room, prepared a quick dinner, changed into my pajamas, and curled up in front of a play by Gogol that was playing on the “Kultura” channel. All in all, a good week! Things are definitely improving here.