The Makin Year (With Abject Apologies)

at our house. We and our friends Zhenya and Lena Not without reluctance I sit down, finally, in mid- Poplavsky hosted the New Year’s party which December, to compose this document (I don’t even Alina and Lena insisted had to be appropriately know what to call it), since I am all too well aware formal. Hence all the men were “encouraged” to that what I should really do – and what I always wear dinner jackets — a rarity in the US, and re- intend to do – is write “proper letters” to everyone. sisted by most of us, but, I have to admit, a good However, the truth is that I never manage to write way of making the girls feel that all their efforts to even half the letters I intend, and those comprising dress up were not entirely undermined by husbands the fifty-percent of the intended total are always and the like in their usual inappropriate garb. All written at the last moment, with much of the con- the same, when I sent copies of the photographs to tents of each new letter culled from the “.doc file” of the last. So, with apologies (but also fully aware that I shall receive a number of similar documents from friends this year), I sit down to write a little general epistle on our year…

As I write, the second stage of the first major snow storm of our winter is blanketing not only our own Washtenaw County, but the entire Mid-West. Snow storms have their disadvantages, but at least if feels like the approach of Christmas. Of course, I could have done without clearing our entire drive way yesterday afternoon and again this morning, and Alina could have done without hav- everyone who came, I appended a friend’s com- ing to leave her car on our road, for fear of being mentary that the male side was, after all, repre- stuck in the garage tomorrow by a new snow fall, sented by гопники в смокингах… but it does look pretty outside, I must say. And, of course, the boys find snow and snow suits just per- I can’t think of anything much that hap- fect (especially when the day care centre they at- pened in the Winter Semester here – not too much tend joins every school for fifty miles around in snow, plenty of teaching, Alina returning to work closing because of the weather – and forcing one of after her maternity leave, and Neil starting day care us to stay home with them…). Most of our seem to be the main features of the first months of neighbours, of course, have snow ploughs on their the year. We had already learned that the differ- trucks or garden tractors, so all the other Mountain ence between one boy and two boys is an order of Ridge residents have already cleared their drive- magnitude, not a single digit, and there is no point ways mechanically, and the road itself has been in amplifying that point. We had also learned that ploughed twice by a neighbour. Rural life. the boys have lots in common (noisy, active, unbe- lievably sporty, notwithstanding our athletic in- We are spending Christmas and New Year competence), as well as having very distinct char- here this year, modestly and quietly (two friends acters – Gordon is both shy and gregarious, Neil will join us for Western Christmas, New Year will seems a bit more even-tempered, although every be met in our house or at friends’, and Orthodox bit as demanding. Sometimes I wish that they did- Christmas will be even quieter), since the last n’t play quite so much ice hockey on the echoing twelve months have been very busy and demand- floor of our dining room, and that “Goal!” and ing, and the next semester, which starts on 4 Janu- “Score!” had not been among Neil’s first words ary, will also be very demanding. (along with “bow-wow” and “cat-tie” – Tikhon, Stasik, and Friendsie have been remarkably toler- A year ago we were preparing for a very ant, by the way), but we have coped – just about… active Christmas and New Year, the latter met with large numbers of friends, mostly from out-of-town,

1 The boys celebrated birthdays in April Mrs M., especially if we lose and my mood is (Gordon – his fourth) and May (Neil – his first). ruined for the entire weekend. Even more excit- It hardly seems possible that so much time has ing was the granting of conjugal permission for gone by since Gordon appeared, and it seems like the installation of satellite TV. Permission came yesterday that Neil swam into this world. because of the then forthcoming European Cham- pionship, Ipswich’s recent promotion, and satis- Just after the end of classes, in early fied viewing of BBC America and the Food May, we rented a house in northern lower Michi- Channel on the satellite system in the cottage up gan, a few miles north of Harbor Springs, and north. Before the authorities had always said had a very pleasant week of pretty good weather. “no”, claiming that there would be nothing but The house overlooked Lake Michigan, and had football, rugby, and cricket on TV from morning its own beach, to which you could descend in til night. In fact, this fear has been proved quite some grandeur on a special chair lift. Friends groundless. There has been no cricket whatso- joined us for the weekend, and much fun was ever — it seems not to be available on our satel- lite system. I have enjoyed Sky Sports News most nights though, as well as several English football matches a week, and all the major rugby matches… The least said about the European Championships (and the World Cup qualifiers) the better, however… It should also be admitted that live European football always reaches us in the middle of the working day or on Saturday and Sunday mornings — thereby creating certain problems in terms of professional productivity and/or domestic family happiness, depending on results. had. Quite how we caused the chair lift to mal- The boys spent the summer with us – the function at the end of our little beach party was previous day-care centre had become unsatisfac- never explained, although it was eventually tory, and was always horrendously expensive. fixed… Alina took them for four days a week, and I for one (spending the other four days of the working This was also a period of anxious week in my office struggling with research and crouching over computers and short-wave radios writing — at least, that was my excuse). Our as the football season in England wound down. plans to produce a fully literate four-year-old by The agony of Ipswich just missing out on auto- the end of the summer did not quite work out, but matic promotion was lived through in full by at they seemed to enjoy being with us. My expedi- least one member of the family. And so was the tions to museums and the like were also, I must glory of triumph in the at Wembley, the add, less popular than the trying journeys to local broadcast duly followed on the World Wide Web lakes with fishing tackle, worms, and a dread that in my office, early that (work) day. I had to Gordon would fall in to the water or Neil climb smuggle the necessary bottles of English beer out of his push chair and eat a worm. into the Modern Languages Building, and then drink them at a rather un-beer-drinking hour, on a The major adventure of our year came in week day. It was a dirty job, but someone had to July and August, when we were in , com- do it... Since then, of course, there has been bining professional and "leisure" activities, as much trepidation, and much excitement, not least they say here. It was Neil’s first major trip because all of the radio commentaries are now (unless we count the two weeks in Maine in sum- “web-cast”, so I can sit with the computer listen- mer 1999), and the first time any of us had been ing to Radio Suffolk’s commentators every Sat- to Europe for almost two years. We started off in urday morning, somewhat to the annoyance of , staying with our very hospitable

2 friends the Espinals, and falling in love with flew to Helsinki, where we spent a day before . taking the train to . There we spent a week attending an international conference (which was rather dull, perhaps a bit like my paper…). After the gastronomic glories of and France, Finland seemed rather unin- teresting, but at least our accommodation was good – a lovely spa ho- tel, with pools which the boys loved, and a great location on a huge lake (). We persuaded the con- ference organizers to give us a two-bedroom suite with a full kitchen, great balcony, and even a sauna, so we lived in some comfort, and, tiring of the restau- rants, but loving the local produce, entertained friends in our hotel room. Our best day in Finland, though, was when friends from Mos- cow arrived in Tampere and kidnapped us all, taking us to the cottage they were renting in “the real Finland”, as they put it – the cottage was on a quiet, mirror-surfaced lake, sur- rounded by forest, with wild mushrooms and We also spent a few days in southern berries growing right up to the door. France, at a great hotel in Perpignan (you can see it on the web at ). Perpignan itself venture – we took the train to Moscow, and turned out to be a lot more interesting than we Alina returned home for the first time in eight had expected too, years. We stayed with her sister and husband in and we ate well, of course.

their brand-new apartment, visited her parents We then at their country cottage, introduced the boys to

3 their second “historical homeland”, worked, and some- times played. Alina caught up with old friends, the boys got to see some of the sites (although Gordon’s best mo- ment was not seeing Red Square, nor even saluting Rus-

sian soldiers, but catching Russia was exhaust- three huge trout at the ing, but, all-in-all, “Fisherman’s Village”, very rewarding, and , on the general wonderful. territory of the old It has sustained us VDNKh – that made up for fishing failures in in the doldrums of Finland…), and I made research trips to Tomsk – my teaching and the first time in Siberia, Kirov-Vyatka, Petrozavodsk, St Pe- onset of the mid- tersburg, and, of course, Vytegra, the home town of N. western winter. A. Klyuev, on whom I continue to write that elusive book… All of Alina’s family got to see the boys (and, I went to Russia alas, to see that Gordon still refuses to speak Russian), again for a week and Gordon got to meet his grandfather at long last (they this October (I gave fished together, watched cartoons together, and Gordon a paper at the an- was allowed to wear his grandfather’s army fatigues at nual Klyuev sympo- the cottage – what more could a boy ask for?). Neil got sium), and Alina to be spoiled by his grandmother, and by every other went to Chicago for two days last month – she escaped available relative. from the rest of us to see a production of Janaček’s Jenufa and to visit a friend. Other than that, we have been solidly anchored to home, hearth, and campus for the autumn and early winter.

When asked for her highlights of the year, Alina listed (in no particular order): dinner at Le Mas vermeil, just outside of Perpignan (); dinner at Kavkazskaya plen-

4 nitsa in Moscow; going to Chicago (her favourite US city) twice this year; seeing old friends in Moscow; eat- ing al fresco at the Espinals’ home in the hills outside of Barcelona, at ten in the evening, without getting bitten by mosquitoes (contrast Dexter); the week up north in May; Spain and France in general.

Gordon listed: football classes (he played with great enthusiasm in two classes – spring in Dexter, au- tumn in Ann Neil Ar- might bor – have listed: beginning to walk; football; ice hockey; and building vo- cabulary; try- my ing vodka at Baba Masha’s com- in Moscow (he grabbed ments Alina’s almost full shot glass “It’s a and tried to down it); man’s food; the new day-care cen- game”, tre (which has been a big im- “Great provement for both of them) tackle!”, “Get stuck in!” and the like seemed to make me and his fa- vourite very unpopular with other parents, for whom “soccer” is teacher there, Robyn; pick- the most charming, contact-free, middle-class activity for led cucumbers at Baba little boys and girls who don’t know the rules, or even Tanya’s cot- tage outside of want to play the game…); Europe; Lucy and Ana Espi- Moscow (despite the nal (whom he loves, and frequently mentions); football subsequent effects on his stuff (that probably means the kit and other bits and digestion). pieces bought on a visit to the Camp Nou in Barcelona, and the Zenit Peterburg souvenirs he has received from Vasya Morozov); fishing (Pickerel Lake, Michigan; Tampere rapids, Finland; Fisherman’s Village, Moscow, etc); digging for worms with his “special friend” in Rus- sia (his grandfather). Rumours that he has been offered the role of a sheep in the Christmas Pageant at First Con- gregational Church, Ann Arbor (after failing to negotiate his preferred roles of Wise Man or donkey) have yet to be confirmed, and, if they are, might be on next year’s list of highlights.

I list: watching the boys play football, playing football with them, and seeing Gordon lead his Dexter and Ann Arbor teams in scoring (how my father would have enjoyed the goals Gordon scored after dribbling the length of the field…); Ipswich; sports on satellite TV; going to Siberia, making new friends in Kirov-Vyatka, my trips to the countryside around Kirov and around Vytegra, my two visits to Vytegra itself; seeing the Espi- nals in Barcelona and the Morozovs in Petersburg; fish- ing with the boys in Dexter, Finland, and Moscow; the

5 times when writing and research went well; dinner the very best for Christmas and for 2001. at Le Mas vermeil. With lots of love,

Michael, Alina, Gordon, and Neil Makin 7200 Mountain Ridge, Dexter, Michigan 48130, USA

+1-734-426-6984

We are all, of course, very glad for one another (at least, most of the time) and for all of our friends and relatives, wherever they are. We apologize again for failing to write a proper letter to each of you individually, and wish you all the very best for Christmas and the New Year. We will keep you all in our hearts and minds over the “holidays”, as this period is insistently called here, and look forward to seeing you as soon as we pos- sibly can.

Alina will be in France for ten days in February and March, and Gordon and I hope to be in England for a week or so immediately after Western Easter, so perhaps we will have a chance to catch up on news personally with some of our friends before the New Year has got too old.

In the meantime, we wish you again all

6