The Russian secrets

It seems that all Russians have a special skill. Yes, I am stereotyping, and no I'm not ashamed to do so. But I do think it's true, there's something about those Russians...I noticed the first time I saw someone deal with a patch of ice on the sidewalk, how they effortlessly glided through. Or those people that can pick their way through the snow, without getting anything wet or dirty. HOW Do they do that???

The trick is to go to a skate park, preferably on a week night, and watch what happens. I did just that, and was amazed to find the answer. THEY CAN SKATE! Well, some of them can, at least. It's a special crowd of people that come to the park at night, when the ice is destroyed, bumpy, and horrible, but the entrance is free and there aren't hundreds of tiny children and other dangerous obstacles. At night you can make your way around the ice as hockey players do stops, spins, and jumps. There's even that girl on one part of the path that practices her figure skating routine, even though there are plenty of people skating by, and the ice is really bad. With so much space, teenagers race each other, laughing across the ice as they glide pass whichever skaters happen to be in their way.

Namely a silly American, bobbing around, trying not to make too much of a fool of myself. As people sped by, making figures and spinning, I was trying to will myself to move just a little bit faster, a little more risky from my usual glacial speed of...well, a little faster than zero. In a distant corner I secretly tried to practice going backwards, with just a tiny bit of improvement with each step. Then I realized it wasn't so secret as some skater "dude" smiled as he skated backwards effortlessly, as if he was born to move in the reverse direction on two blades.

It's such a magical experience to skate outside, and double that by the fact that you're surrounded by Christmas lights, trees, and few people. The best part was watching a gathering of people by the entrance. At first I was trying to figure out where the music was coming from, and for what reason. Then I realized there was a group of elderly people, dancing about, waltzing, hopping, spinning, on, hold your breath....a huge patch of SNOW. They looked so happy, dancing outside, on a snow covered dance floor, swinging their hearts out, thinking of the old days. It's hard to put in words what they were feeling, or what sort of dances they were doing, but it reminded me of some sort of trendy dancing from another decade that wasn't mine.

I slowed down to watch. I watched them as I took off my skates, getting ready to put on my boots and make my way to class, where I would show off my new skates to my students.