I found an interesting website on the differences between the Russian culture and the American culture.

Here's what the author says about bad manners, or "Nyekulturny":

Nyekulturny is the wrong way, uncultured, bad-mannered way of behaviour. Some examples are: wearing coats in public buildings that have a cloakroom, standing with your hands in your pockets, sprawling in chairs, placing feet on tables, crossing legs while seated so as to show the sole of a shoe, sitting with legs spread wide, crossing arms behind the head, draping an arm over the back of a chair, eating lunch on park lawns, whistling at home or... more

Do you ever eat breakfast for supper? It's one of the favorite dinners at my house. Typically we eat eggs or I make a quiche and we have fruit and sauteed mushrooms and I make biscuits for the kids and husband. But if I wanted to mix it up a little I could make waffles or pancakes...or even blini if I wanted to give a little cultural flair to the meal.

I could also try my hand at Olady. Olady are another kind of Russian pancake - thicker and smaller than blini and with a base of kefir or sour cream. Here is a recipe for the "other Russian pancake" from the Russian Foods website:

Ingredients:

4 c... more

This is a pretty nice little book that features the Russian alphabet as well as beautiful illustrations taken from masterpieces from the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. It's out-of-print, but I got my copy used on amazon and when I just checked there were 8 copies...although I wouldn't spend more than $15 on it. It's the kind of book an adult would think was cool, and one which you might want to buy if you collect books for your kids about Russian culture, but it's not an especially kid-friendly book since the illustrations are all fine art and the text is factual.

It... more

The first day of school in Russia is traditionally September 1st, and it's a pretty big day for everyone involved. Except for the teary-eyed parents of kindergartners here in the U.S., or the rejoicing parents of 2nd graders (that would be moi), we don't raise a lot of hoopla about the first day of school.

Not so in Russia. They have much hoopla going on for this special day!

This blog entry gives a good description of a traditional 1st day of school celebration... more

I don't know about the rest of you but here in central NC it is ridiculously hot. So hot. Too hot even to swim. We are just staying inside in the nice air conditioning. Dog days of summer are coming up quick.

I found some cooler-temperature Russian recipes to try on days like these. In weather like this I don't like to cook. Freezing stuff or chopping stuff I can handle.

I found a bunch of recipes for cold borscht and another cold soup called okroshka, which involves boiled eggs, potatoes, and beef, all cold, as well as a recipe for holodets,... more

Continuing in my post about a great article about speech and language acquisition in adoptees... (see part 1 here, and see part 2 here.)

Although, as the article tells us, traditional ESL programs are not particularly useful for kids... more

Continuing in my post about a great article about speech and language acquisition in adoptees... (see part 1 here).

The article recommends early testing of children adopted from Eastern Europe, even though it acknowledges that problems may not show up until children are school-aged. Early testing, the doctors in the article say,... more

I was just sent a link to a wonderful article on speech and language acquisition in children adopted from Eastern Europe. I've read many articles like this and the reason I like this one a lot is twofold: one, it's succinct, and two, it's immensely supportive of the adoptive parent.

It's about time! I'm feeling a little undersupported these days.

Here's the article in a nutshell:

I am on a diet. No desserts for me for the rest of my life...

But that doesn't stop me thinking about them - most specifically ice cream and cake frosting (although not an actual dessert it goes on a dessert, so maybe it counts?)

According to the wonderful website Ruscuisine, "Long time ago Russian desserts were called "zaedkami", that means "after-eaters", for they were served after the principal meal. Native Russian sweet dishes are kissel, compote, levashen (fruit pastila), sweet pirohi, baked apples and... more

черный хлеб Black bread The classic food of life for Russian people. Here's what Ruscuisine says about black bread:

Bread has always been considered as the wealth of the Rus. Give us this day our daily bread… Slavic people mainly grew wheat, barley, oats, and millet. Rye bread became Russia's real "daily bread", even though it had come to Russia from outside.

How did the first bread taste? Sour bread from leaven dough was particularly... more