Comrades

I realized something interesting in a very direct way on the trip to Kazantip.  The ultimate fun for a Russian young man is to get drunk with his buddies.  When it's time to have fun, there is only one thing to do: get super wasted with your boys.  They would roam the party in groups of 5 or so, singing songs, doing shots, and being WAY touchier with each other than I'm accustomed to seeing. 

This, in and of itself, is not so strange, as in many cultures it's fun to get wasted with your boys, but the unique thing is the extent to which it is the objective.  I was running around one night with Josh (an American I met there) and Ira trying to find a girl for Josh.  The details are a bit hazy, but it seems like we started talking to some girls, then they were shortly joined by two big Russian guys.  I was a bit nervous about the situation, but did what I could to be friendly to the guys, and they were SO excited to meet some new boys to party with.  The girls wound up wandering off, and I think the guys had been just starting talking to the girls, and we apologized and they were like.  "No, listen.  Girls are everywhere here, it's not that often we get to meet new comrades."  They were INSISTENT that we come the next morning and find them on the beach and they would help Josh meet girls, and they were true to it. 

We showed up the next morning, but not Josh, and the guys were SO excited to see me.  They RUSHED to buy me a beer.  It's such a different mindset, though I don't feel I can do it justice.

Also, I saw, for the first time since I was probably 10 years old, more than one man using the same toilet.  I was waiting in a line of 3 guys for a toilet at the best-kept restroom there, and I was shocked when the occupant of the stall left and the group of three guys went in together.  They stood there with the door open and all used the toilet at the same time.  I couldn't quite bring myself to either pull out my camera and take a picture, or join them when one of them finished.