I wondered lonely as a cloud

Hello again,

Do not panic, my dear readers, I have not forgotten about you. I am currently travelling around Europe on my first (shamefully) interrail experience.
I didn't take a gap year before university as I wanted to make the next step, but I feel now like I have much to see in the world and am now brave enough to discover it.

As such then, I have been drafting my first proper "travel" blog posts in my trusty little black book and am planning a few posts on my cultural observations.

I am looking forward to writing these up and sharing them with you all.

But that is for another day when my keyboard is not Italian (I'm currently in Florence) and actually has a working spacebar (this post has taken a disproportionate amount of time to write, you have no idea).

Also, while I am still here

This is my friend Emily's blog. She has been spending her year abroad in the Orion Children's Village in Kitezh. She is fantastically artistic and creative, as well as a fantastic wit. I have had to stop reading her blog in public places as it causes me to erupt into the most raucous laughter so as to disrupt anyone in the near vicinity.

Enjoy!
http://happymollusc.tumblr.com/ - A fantastic blog

Travelling

Good evening everyone,

So I am a nosy parker - but I think we established this a long time ago. I am the sort of person that is utterly fascinated with other people's success stories and how they live their lives - goodness knows this is part of why I do a language degree, so that I can see how other cultures do it too, by speaking their language!

At the moment I am in the process of finding myself, as are the majority of 21 year olds. Perhaps this term is thrown around a bit these days, but I consider my "finding myself" in its most recent manifestation to be reading economics books and Intelligent Life magazine while wearing the heels that I am determined to be able to walk in and thinking about all the possible feminist allegories that may go with it. That, and eating more carbohydrates than could possibly be good for me and considering how to become more pretentious and a self made millionaire by 25 so I can keep my parents well stocked in truffle oil. Busy times, then.

You can consider this to be the reasoning behind why my posts have been much more about myself and my personal development of late. I've noticed that I have been writing far less about French culture than I have about Russian culture, but you can be assured that my cultural posts will resume in a few weeks' time after I have been interrailing. (Again, cliche - but probably the one of the best experiences you can have in life. So I am told, of course).

Translation of the below comment

You should be impressed that I didn't use google translate for any of this ;)
You will notice a different style of writing from my own - which is arguably the beauty of translation. I've tried to keep as much of the Russian syntax as possible, so I hope you will get an insight also of how amazingly musical this language actually is.

Also, for you Russophones who will understand the original comment - I  apologise if this is shoddy, I'm not the best at translation!

"Dear Fliss, Hello,

"In Russia we have different attitudes and you will certainly know this.
Men and women are different, but together they make up one whole. In the meaning of life, there is motion and progress, "the law of unity and the struggle of opposites". In China, this is Yin and Yang.

"If everything was identical, then life and society would stagnate and die. You would like to become a man, but why? Because as a woman, you have the greatest blessing and happiness. You are superior beings and own the world, direct it.

"In Russia there is the saying: "In a family, the man has the head, but the woman has the neck". She not only holds the head up, but directs it where she wants. In Russia this is considered harmony. Many foreigners coming to Russia to work say that the woman becomes more of a woman, and the man more of a man.

"None of this means that the woman should have less of a right, but that they are simply different and the woman makes her own way in life. And men have less biological abilitiy - they cannot give life.

"It seems that nature has given you more abilities than us - so we should have more rights as we are damaged. Just kidding. :-)

"By the way, you may not know that the question of women's equality with men for the first time in the world started during the Soviet Union - studies, work, science, culture, sport, social work. So Russia is the pioneer :-)

"Good luck to you, dear Fliss
Mikhail. "

One of my favourite comments

So it's a silly hour of the night but I just had to post this. One of my favourite comments I've received - an interesting insight in gender roles in Russia. This commenter, Михаил (Mikhail), has commented on a few posts (спасибо большое вам Михаил!) when I have written about or asked about Russian culture. I'll work on a translation on Tuesday (most likely), but here is his original text.  Non Russophones - pop this in google translate for the time being! I'll post some other cultural insights in due course!

Счастье, всем!

Comment:

Уважаемая Fliss. Злравствуйте.

В России другое мнение и Вы наверно это знаете.

Женщина и мужчина разные, но образуют одно целое. В этом смысл жизни, движения и прогресса. "law of the unity and struggle of opposites". В Китае это "Инь и Ян" - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yin_yang.svg?uselang=ru

Если все будут одинаковые, то жизнь и общество остановятся и умрут. Вы же хотите стать мужчиной, а зачем? Ведь то, что Вы женщина есть величайшее благо и счастье. Вы высшие существа и владеете миром, направляете его.

В России есть поговорка: - "В семье мужчина голова, а женщина шея". Она не только держит голову, но и вращает ей куда захочет :-). В России считают, что это гармония. Многие иностранцы приезжающие на работу в Россию говорят, что женщина становится более женщиной, а мужчина более мужчиной.

Всё это не значит, что у женщины должно быть меньше прав, просто они другие и выбирает свой путь она сама. А у мужчины такой возможности по биологии нет - он не может дарить жизнь. 

Получается, что вам природой дано больше возможностей чем нам - это мы ущемлены и нам, мужчинам нужно больше прав. Это шутка :-) 

Кстати Вы возможно не знаете, но уравнение женщин в правах с мужчинами началось впервые в мире именно в СССР и сразу после революции – учеба, работа, наука, культура, спорт, общественная работа. Так что Россия здесь первооткрыватель :-)

Удачи Вам уважаемая Fliss

Михаил

Explanation of previous post

My last post, to my non-Russophone audience, is to thank my Russian audience for their continued support and loyalty. They remain my biggest audience - I've had 250 hits from them this week which is more than double that of my UK readership, who are (less surprisingly) my second biggest audience.

I receive a lot of comments from Russians - usually in Russian - which is fantastic for widening my knowledge of their culture and improving my Russian at the same time. The whole point of my doing this blog is to document my cultural experiences and observations and the support I get from them has opened my eyes in ways I never could have imagined.

I risk sounding like I'm at some cheesy awards ceremony - but unfortunately I am British so compelled to over thank everyone all of the time for the slightest kindness. You can at least take this as a sign of my sincerity!

I have immense respect for Russians and a deep abiding love of their country and cannot wait to spend more time there. Russia taught me so much about how to be myself - a lesson I will keep a tight hold on to.

I think I'll compile a post of my top comments - the ones that have taught me the most about Russia that is - they're too good to keep to myself!  Keep your eyes open, I'll do it when I get a spare hour ;)

Русским!

Здравствуйте еще раз,

Я заметила что вы, мои уважаемые читатели, читали мой блог эту неделью, и я бы хотела вам благодарить. Особенно за мнении в моем статьи о Феминизме - мне очень интересовались!

Спасибо еще раз - ваша поддержка самая сильная из всех моих читателей и вы мне дарите надежду. Здоровья и счастье, всем и вашим семьям.

(Простите, пожалуйста, мой ужасный язык! Я долго уехала из России!)

;-)