Life began to settle down. We began to study language more seriously. December was a bit rough. A neighbor had said that she would meet with me everyday to study together. She didn't work and in the winter, there's not much to do. So, it seemed really possible. But days would pass where she wouldn't answer my phone calls. There's only so much talking you can do in the local shop when you don't speak very much. We didn't really want to get involved with A's dad's family and only knew one other family in town, whom I visited once a week. Days started to drag into weeks as we struggled to learn from the one small dictionary we had.
We prayed. "Lord, I don't know how to meet other people. You can't just walk up to people's doors. But I have no one to study with and language will not just come to me!".
Christmas arrived and with it a few boxes from home. I planned a special meal and we planned to spend the day inside, opening a few things from the boxes at a time and watching movies. However, the people we knew found out that it was a special holiday for us in America and, not wanting us to be alone, came over. For most of the day, we had guests. The special meal got split up, the gifts were opened with others around and shared (or stared at) and finally the house was quiet by 9. Alas...
But then the New Year rolled around and after months of feeling like no one cared whether we were around or not, life shifted. We were invited to 3 families' homes for New Years. New Years is the biggest holiday in Russia and is usually celebrated by a very special meal at midnight. Everyone spends the whole week preparing. They wash all their clothes and bedding, things that don't get washed the rest of the year! Rugs get put outside, homes get scoured and eventually a meal fit for a king is laid out. And they will eat off this meal for the rest of the week. Usually, only family will gather together for the celebration, they will watch "the ball drop" on tv (which is usually just some party in Moscow, even though Moscow is 3 hours ahead of us) and eat. Our neighbor, A's dad's family and A's aunt all invited us over that night. We were thrilled.
At 9, we went off to the "club" where everyone gathers, which is basically just a big room. There's usually someone from the village who volunteers to dj and no one dances but everyone just sits around and talks. There's no heat so it's awfully cold. It was so awkward as all the drunk people kept coming up to us wanting to talk and A's dad was drunk and kept telling us to get up and dance. We left at 10.
So, off we went to the neighbor at 11 and we ate a little early because she knew we had to be somewhere else. At 12:30 we went off to A's aunt's house, where everyone was already drunk but ate and talked with them. At 2, we headed off to A's dad's family's house where we assumed they were all already asleep so we headed home. Turns out they were waiting for us to come over until about 4. We felt horrible and spent much of the next day with them. But we had our fill of good food and what we were starting to consider friends!
