Liankacreations

  Faith, Memory, and the Small Habits We Carry Across Borders I never thought I would miss church. But somehow I got into the habit of going to church at Christmas—Catholic Christmas—and also to the Episcopal church, whatever that means. Churches here are different from Russian ones. Of course, they belong to different religions to begin with. But to me, God is one. And although I was never a religious person, there are moments when I feel the need to go to church. I was never religious because I couldn’t be. The Soviet government and the Communist Party were our ideology and our faith. There was no room for belief beyond that. After the fall of the Soviet Union, churches reopened. Happy citizens rushed inside to baptize their children, to marry, to celebrate Easter and Christmas, and so on. Suddenly, people found faith in God, and the churches filled with parishioners. Russian churches are not very humane. You can hardly find benches to sit on during the service— if nothing has ch...

  If you think it’s cold here, you’re wrong — it’s –35°C in Tomsk. More than 10 scheduled buses did not depart from Tomsk to Tolmachevo, Asino, Kozhevnikovo, Teguldet, and other settlements on Tuesday due to the extreme frost.   Earlier, it was reported that temperatures in the Tomsk region could drop from –30°C (–22°F) to –43°C (–45.5°F). Tomsk itself is in the southern part of the region, but it is still around –35°C there. It’s going to get warmer on Thursday, only -11°C (12.2° F ) -13°C (8.6° F). Mayor Dmitry Makhinya urged drivers to give rides to people waiting at bus stops during severe frosts and help take them to a warm place. In Russia, it’s generally normal to give rides to strangers (this is how I got married for the first time, LOL). I haven’t seen a similar practice here. Maybe it is just me.  One news caught my attention: On December 8, a group of Russians was deported from the United States for the third time. The third time? I didn’t hear anyone tal...

  Journaling 7* When you’ve worked in the same library branch long enough, you start recognizing patrons as soon as they walk in. Since I don’t see well from far away, I often recognize people by their figure, posture, or even their smell. You might not believe it—or maybe you would—but some people come in with a very strong smell of alcohol. There was one pair in particular, a mother and her son, who always carried that strong scent. I especially remember the son. He visited the library for several days in a row about a year ago . I remembered him because once he said, “Every time I get out of prison, I go to the library.” I couldn’t stop smiling that day; he just made my day. So here he was again, this time with his mother. She checked out a book, and then they left, leaving the strong smell of alcohol lingering in the building.

  Journaling 5* It is getting colder but somehow it doesn’t bother me.  Russians say there is no bad weather but lack of right clothes*.   On my lunch break I watch videos of making simple crunchy cookies Khvorost.  I made them numerous times in Russia for kids.  Here, when I need to bring something to a family party, I like to introduce the Russian dishes.  Quite often it can be a dessert. One day I found out that Daniel's brother-in-law loves Khvorost! He called it “crust” or “frost” ….I don’t remember. In Russia, we call these cookies Khvorost** (“Brushwood”). But anyway, he said that his grandmother baked just such cookies. LOL. I am not a Polish grandma but I am familiar with these cookies. Unfortunately, I lost my Russian recipe. So I had to look for a new one, preferably simple and tasty. After a few tries I found the perfect one. Here is a YouTube video of the recipe I used. It is in Russian, but even by watching I believe you can  understand....

  It seems winter has come. It's not about the calendar, but about the temperature. Now I start my car from home to warm up before leaving and keep a shovel in the car in case of an unexpected snowfall. I want to watch “Home Alone” and “Die Hard". But I dress up as cabbage and go to work. It's good that the Scandinavians came up with Hygge. Lately we can hear this  word quite often.  A good samaritan  donated the book The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking to our library.  The author says that learning to pronounce Hygge is easier than explaining what it is*.  There are some interesting things that I learned from the book. For example, Denmark and Norway were once (before 1814) one kingdom. I probably didn't study history well at school, or maybe I didn't see anything useful in memorizing this information and quickly forgot. And yet, the author claims that the expression “there is no bad weather, only bad  clothing” is Danish. Whereas I translated it ...

   The 29th of December, cloudy and raw, not festive looking weather at all. Not holiday’s feelings either.  The Ukrainian military said Russia launched the biggest air attack on Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Drones and missiles fired at targets across the country — from Kyiv to Lviv and Odessa to Kharkiv — killing at least 31 people and injuring more than 150 others, according to officials. I think Putin's goal was to make Ukrainians feel miserable before the New Year celebration. He didn't reach his goal last year, he will not get it this year either. It’s not like he really cares about Russians.  The same I can tell about Russians themselves.  Many of them don’t care about Putin and his war. They simply don’t watch the news and recommend that I do the same. Right now all their thoughts are about New Years parties (work and home), making salads and getting gifts (if they can afford to buy them). But I do watch the new...