Welcome Home Elder Russell!

We've been having a semi-eventful week with the return of my brother, Sam. He is now an RM. I don't know if it's scarier that he's an RM, or the fact that RM is synonymous with "on the prowl for a wife." As I mentioned, I'm ready for the RM thing, but the sister-in-law possibility is frightening. Now, don't get me wrong, Sam is neither engaged nor has a girlfriend at the moment, but it's a little scary. So, in celebration of this whole returning deal, on Friday, we watched a Soviet movie. Not just any Soviet movie. It's some sort of Russian-cult movie. Sam says that it's a bit like "An Affair to Remember." It's horrible, but everyone's seen it and claims to like. It was called "The Irony of Fate." I'm glad that my brother speaks fluent Russian now, because he had to translate the movie for us the whole way through. And it was painfully long. Then on Saturday for lunch, he cooked us pelmeni for lunch. They are very similar to wontons. And along with the terrible Russian movie, Sam brought home some bizarre other stuff. Such as the 7th Harry Potter book in Russian (he got permission from his mission president to read it on the plane, so he can now say that he has never read the 7th book in English--just Russian), Star Wars in Russian (don't even ask), some other Russian movie, and a collection of the 200 most popular songs in Russia for either 2007 or 2008. Don't remember which. They sound just like American pop songs, except that they're singing in Russian.

He also has a large collection of ties. Apparently, ties in Russia cost approximately $5 a piece or less, so the missionaries have a tendency to just stock up. They're thicker than American ties, but they're okay, I guess. He also bought two Russian suits. He says that the quality of Russian suits is better than American suits, they cost about $100-$200 (significantly less than an American suit), the only downside being that they are mass produced and bought off the rack. You don't have them fitted. But usually, it's apparently not a problem.

He told us a lot of fun stories about Russia, and we've been having a grand time just catching up with one another.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Over-analyzing Disney Movies: The Little Mermaid--Why Eric is White.

Image
I have recently noticed a trend of just purely over-analyzing Disney movies.  In this category, I also include the fascination with photoshopping Disney characters to swap genders, races, or eras, as well as making princesses have "realistic" body shapes (which is something I could write a whole other post about, and it wouldn't be pretty.  Spoiler alert:  I find it to be one of the most unempowering trends of recent years).  However, I sometimes wonder at how much people are reading into Disney movies.  Today, I'm going to over-analyze their over-analysis. I recently read that the fact that Eric is a white prince is a representation of how we white-wash racial expectations for our children.  I'm not even sure what that sentence means.  It seems to have a lot of buzz words.  But I'm going to show you today, using evidence from the film, why Prince Eric is, in fact, the correct color. (I will, however, say that Eric is the only Disney prince who legitimatel
Read more

Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!

James Joyce is my kind of guy. He made puzzles that I like to think are just for me. He was a great lover of languages, and he is sometimes called the father of a literary technique called polyglotism. This is when you insert other languages in there. Just 'cuz. So, in James Joyce's wonderful story, "Eveline" there is a phrase that nobody knows what it is. Even to this day. "Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!" Many people believe it to be corrupted Irish Gaelic. Needing a break from homework, I have approached this by taking the words and then transliterating them into Irish Gaelic, trying to create Irish Gaelic that would be spoken by someone of this status in this time in Ireland. Nationalist, but not educated enough to actually understand all the ins and outs of the language. I came up with two possible phrases that I find very probable. And I'm not pretending to solve the mystery. If Joyce experts over the years have not discovered the mean
Read more

What does it mean to be a Russell?

Image
As many know, most European families (not all, but most) have a coat of arms, a crest, a motto, all that good stuff. So, I decided to look a bit into what being a Russell means. And maybe I'll do the same for Hatches, because I am a Hatch too. The last name Russell is Scottish and means "Red-headed" and derives from the Norman name of Roussel. The Russells are a well-respected Highland Scot clan, complete with Scottish crest and tartan: The motto on the crest "virtus sine macula" means "Virtue without blemish." As Scotland incorporated more and more into England, the Russells became nobility in that world as well, and were thus presented with a coat of arms: And yes, the motto written on that one is "che sara sara." You've got to admit, that's pretty gosh-darn cool. It really does mean "Whatever will be, will be." And in honor of that:
Read more