Typical Russian Summer Part 1: The Best Childhood Memories

June 1

The children’s room is silent and the whole apartment is, too. Awakened only by the ray of sun tickling your face, you open your eyes and look at the alarm clock – it’s already 11 am! Your parents went to work and you’re late for class... Oh wait, who cares, it's the summer holidays! After nine months of homework and tests, you're finally rewarded with 92 days of freedom and adventure. You rightfully decide that such a unique occasion is worth celebrating with an extra hour of sleep.

What else? No great plans for today – just you and total idleness, accompanied by good old cartoons and your favorite chocolate cookies. You wish episodes of Scooby-Doo lasted all day, but the TV has to be turned off before mom is back, as you don’t want to hear how bad it is for your eyes (needless to say, you’ve already learned that lecture by heart). 

June 8

A warm summer day is not complete without cycling and today is no exception – your friends are already waiting for you in the courtyard with their colorful vehicles up and ready. You go as fast as you can, but taking the bike down from the fifth floor is still a challenge.

Having explored the town and its outskirts inside and out, this time the gang decides to have a ride to the river. Of course, such trips are not encouraged by parents, but you’re experienced travelers, working as a team and looking after each other. You even took care of the food in advance and bought some bags of crisps and fizzy water at the nearest kiosk! Upon arrival, it turns out the river is too cold to swim in, so you dip a toe in the water and splash, devoting the rest of the day to playing hide-and-seek in the bushes. You come back only at sunset, watching your town turn pink like the sky.

June 19

Although days blend into each other during summer holidays, this weekend is going to be special – it’s been ages since your parents promised to take you to an amusement park. What a place it is: here, you get two ice-creams in a row when usually you’re allowed to have only one! You ride the Ferris wheel for the first time: it’s a bit scary to go so high, but you finally see your small pretty town from a bird's eye view. On the bumper cars, you crash into another car at high speed, and that’s how you make a new friend! In a couple of hours, not a single rollercoaster is left untried. 

Happy and a bit tired, on your way home you walk by the shop and your mom buys you a CD of the brand new game called Sims 2. Later it’ll become one of your gaming passions, especially for summer nights.

June 30 

One of the most anticipated events of the summer is for sure visiting your grandparents at their beloved dacha. Here, in this mysterious world hidden from civilization, you’ll spend a month and you’re well prepared for it – snacks, books, and a pocket flashlight. You’ll miss your friends back home, but you know that you’ll meet someone here as well. The day is extremely hot, so, just as you arrive, granny sets the table on the terrace. For lunch, you are treated to a life-saving, fresh okroshka. You leave the table in the middle of the argument on what’s better to have okroshka with – kefir or kvass – and head to explore the garden to pick some cherries and pet the old red cat. Before you go to bed, they smear your nose with sour cream – it's burned in the merciless dacha sun.

July 10

Having had granny’s delicious pancakes for breakfast, you grab your gear and set off for the garden to a fierce battle – it’s time to weed the beds! Although it’s not the most exciting thing to do, it is your only choice, so the power of imagination saves the day.

In the evening, your grandparents and you go berry picking to the nearest hill. The work is in full swing, but you still can't fill a bucket with strawberries because you eat half of your harvest. Finally, you make a willful decision to stop because you remember that you love homemade strawberry jam much more than the berries themselves.

July 14

Unfortunately, not all frolics have happy endings. The tree-climbing championship that you and your friend organized, being its only participants, ended due to a player’s injury. It’s okay, you just fell and hurt your knees a bit – such a routine summer thing – and 15 minutes later the knees are carefully treated with zelenka by your grandmother. It stings a little, but in general, you are still a runner.

At night, granddad teaches you how to play chess and that’s when you win for the first time. He has also just promised to take you fishing tomorrow. You feel excited until you find out that you’ll need to wake up at 6 am...

There's more than half of summer left and even more adventures to come. There’ll be mushroom picking, boat rafting, more bike-riding, and sleepovers. So much to look forward to!