Hot Days of Summer

The last few weeks have been HOT. The weather has finally cooled off, but for awhile, it was really, ridiculously hot. There were some days that were so hot that literally everybody stayed inside. Bar was a ghost town. Today the weather isn't so bad. In fact, it's rather nice out.

This past weekend our friends Mariana and Serioga got married. The wedding was a two day affair full of eating, drinking, and dancing. Weddings here are very different than weddings in America and it was, to the say the least, an educational experience. Among the differences:

1. In the morning, the groom and his family go to the bride's house because the groom must buy the bride from her parents. (Roma best be saving his Benjamin’s!)

2. The two then get into separate cars. Family and friends pile into other cars, all of which are decorated with balloons and streamers. They then drive in a procession to [the equivalent of] city hall. This is a noisy honk-fest. (Except if you're stuck in a car that doesn't have a working horn, like I was. In that case, loud techno music blasting from the speakers substitutes for the horn)

3. After the civil ceremony, everyone went to the park. It doesn't have to be the park though, just someplace outdoors and "in nature". There we drank two bottles of champagne and ate some chocolate. The bottles were then tied together and thrown into a tree, where they hang from a branch symbolizing...something. Well, that's what’s supposed to happen at least. In this case, the best man missed the tree branch and shattered the bottles on the cement.

Highlights from the reception include:

1. The bride being stolen mid-way through the afternoon by the grooms friends. She is taken someplace, by car, and the groom must find her.

2. The bride's shoes are stolen by the best man. Later, he must drink a large glass of vodka from the each shoe. (The glass is placed in the heal of the shoe. The vodka is not, as I initially thought, poured directly into the shoe)

3. The groom's mom takes off the bride's veil. She then puts a white scarf on the brides head to symbolize that she is now a woman. The bride then dances with every single girl at the wedding holding the veil upon their heads.

4. From time to time, everyone starts chanting 'horka! horka!' This means that the bride and groom have to kiss. Not just a peck mind you. They have to kiss while everyone counts and if the total is less than a count to ten, they get heckled.

Weddings are a two day affair. The second day there was a ceremony at the Orthodox church followed by a smaller reception at the bride's house. The second day was more fun, in my opinion, than the first.

Among the traditions from the second day:

1. A guy and a girl are snatched away. They return cross-dressed as an old married couple. It's very comical. Roma, because he is such a good sport, came out dressed like an grandmother. He was wearing slippers, an old black dress stuffed with sweaters, and a white veil that was his 'wig'. His face was made-up with badly smeared purple and pink makeup. His counterpart had a drawn on beird. She too had her shirt stuffed so that her stomach appeared large. Hanging from her pants was a carrot and two onions. I'm not sure why they do this, but it was really funny, especially because the groom's 50 year old aunt kept grabbing the carrot and squeezing Roma's sweaters.

2. The parents of the bride, followed by the parents of the groom, followed by the bride and groom themselves sit on a bench. Friends and family then thrust the bench into the air over and over until the parties agree to pay some sort of ransom.

In all, the wedding was interesting and fun. Unfortunately, it also gave me, Roma, and our friends food poisoning, but I'm told that it's an anomaly. Wedding don't always equal food poisoning-- only when they happen during the hottest days of summer.

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Speaking of the hottest days of summer, A few weeks ago, when the heat wave was at its strongest, my friends and I decided to go camping. We went to Sasha's grandmother's village about 30 minutes from Bar. Just outside the village was a large lake with many small islands. We set up our camp on one of the islands.

The first day was fun. We got there in the late afternoon and the weather was cooling down. The boys fished, the girls swam and, as the sun sank lower into the horizon, the mosquitoes feasted. The next day was really hot, probably around 115 in the sun, and we found ourselves in a bit of a pickle as we hadn't brought enough water. The guys went into the village to buy some bottles, but were turned about from the ONE store because there was a wedding in the village the next day and all resources -- including mineral water -- were being saved for the wedding.

When the guys came back without water, we figured we probably were going to have to pack in up and head back to Bar. Then Sasha got an angry phone call from his mother. Apparently there was rumor flying around the village that we'd come to the lake to kill geese. Funny, since there were no geese at the lake.

Anyhow, at that point, we figured enough was enough: it was hot, we were low on water, and the village had turned against us. We packed it up and went home. As it turned out, it was a good thing we did. Sunday was the hottest day on record. Roma and I spent the whole day limp on the couch in front of the TV. I took three cold showers and I still was miserable.

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Darcy and Matt are coming to visit me. They get in on Monday. We're spending the night and Kiev and then we'll head to Bar. I'm so excited to see them I can hardly contain myself. I'm also excited for them to meet Roma. It’s going to be a lot of fun.