International Women's Day

I got to experience another typical Russian event last week, Women's Day or know just by its date '8th of March' in Russia. The day has political origins and in Russia is mainly known for the fact that the protests on this day were the start of what was to become the Russian Revolution in 1917. These origins have been long forgotten and nowadays its more or less a mixture of Valentine's Day and Mothers' Day as it is hijacked for commercial purposes. Men are expected to buy flowers, champagne, chocolate and what more. My female colleagues had been subtily reminding me about it weeks in advance. Eventually I managed to get away with buying flowers for them and some champagne and chocolate together with Kirill (the only male colleague around as Jeroen and Denis are both not in the office). Bought some chocolate for my Russian teacher and took my Russian mum out for drinks, so that was that. I was told you don't get off that easily if you happen to have a girlfriend here in Russia: apparently they expect to be taken out for dinner and a proper expensive present at the least (even though it is less than a month after Valentine's day).