Perhaps you have all been wondering why my blog address in blincake. There there is a good reason and here it is. Several months ago during one of my many academic misfortunes, a Russian friend of mine taught me the word 'blin'. Not only is it a scrumptious pancake but apparently it's also slang for darn it. Don't worry, I did my research and found that it's just as mild as darn it.
Some History:
At that time I had mentioned that I felt I was being buried under huge pile of blin frantically trying to dig myself out of it but the blini seemed to just rain down from the sky. It was like Jack and the Blin Stack. While discussing this with my Russian friend who takes every opportunity to feed me, I was made aware that it's possible to take all those piles of blini and make them into a cake. That is exactly what we did and when we were finished, we had 17 layers of chocolaty goodness!
Last week, my computer and my thesis were stolen. Conveniently, I learned that last week was also Russian pancake week! Hurray for Maslenitsa! Maslenitsa is a week of grand celebration in Russia much like Marti Gras (which I know nothing about) happening just before Easter and also welcoming in the Spring. Everyone cooks and eats copious amounts of blini, plays obnoxious games, burns a scarecrow (bidding goodbye to winter) and somehow a trained bear is involved. Here I was once again with Marina making 17 layers of chocolaty goodness out of my blin stack.
So what does all this mean? Here's the good part. I called some friends who work for Microsoft to ask if they knew of anyone who might be selling a decent used laptop. After my friends heard about the "thesis incident" I was invited to breakfast to discuss what could be done. After having a lovely breakfast (of course any breakfast is lovely to me) we went to a computer store where my adopted family chose a wonderful new laptop, purchased it and handed it off to me. "Your work is too important to lose any time on, we want to help." For once in my life I was speechless. What a blessing! Though the road has been rough, I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that this is the project I should be doing.
So... Here I sit with a new computer working on a project that is so much bigger and better than anything I could have done alone. It's 17 layers of chocolaty goodness!
Some History:
At that time I had mentioned that I felt I was being buried under huge pile of blin frantically trying to dig myself out of it but the blini seemed to just rain down from the sky. It was like Jack and the Blin Stack. While discussing this with my Russian friend who takes every opportunity to feed me, I was made aware that it's possible to take all those piles of blini and make them into a cake. That is exactly what we did and when we were finished, we had 17 layers of chocolaty goodness!
Last week, my computer and my thesis were stolen. Conveniently, I learned that last week was also Russian pancake week! Hurray for Maslenitsa! Maslenitsa is a week of grand celebration in Russia much like Marti Gras (which I know nothing about) happening just before Easter and also welcoming in the Spring. Everyone cooks and eats copious amounts of blini, plays obnoxious games, burns a scarecrow (bidding goodbye to winter) and somehow a trained bear is involved. Here I was once again with Marina making 17 layers of chocolaty goodness out of my blin stack.
So what does all this mean? Here's the good part. I called some friends who work for Microsoft to ask if they knew of anyone who might be selling a decent used laptop. After my friends heard about the "thesis incident" I was invited to breakfast to discuss what could be done. After having a lovely breakfast (of course any breakfast is lovely to me) we went to a computer store where my adopted family chose a wonderful new laptop, purchased it and handed it off to me. "Your work is too important to lose any time on, we want to help." For once in my life I was speechless. What a blessing! Though the road has been rough, I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that this is the project I should be doing.
So... Here I sit with a new computer working on a project that is so much bigger and better than anything I could have done alone. It's 17 layers of chocolaty goodness!
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