Dichotomy

Yet again I apologize for the long absence. Maybe I should just write a disclaimer at the top of my blog. But now classes are over and I'm at home, back to the more recent pressure of "why-can't-you-find-a-job?"
Anyhow, I haven't been able to think of too much exciting that has happened lately; my life has pretty much been schoolwork and hanging out with Lukas and my friends. But one wacky thing did happen to me two weeks ago . . . (swirling camera, flashback, --oh never mind)

I was home for the weekend, even though I had less than one week of school left, because I realized there was no way Lukas and I would be able to fit all the crap from our dorm rooms into one car trip. It was a typical weekend, except when I went to Clara's Poms performance. Poms is. . .I don't really know how to describe it. Dancing mixed with cheerleading? It's mostly just dance, except that they are supposed to have pom poms, which they didn't. Go figure that one out.

The majority of girls in Clara's Poms class (this is made up of girls from her school) are Jewish, so it makes sense that a lot of their performances would be at Jewish Community Centers. In any case, this performance was at a JCC for a Russian festival, or some such thing. Well, we get there, and when we head into the auditorium the only people there are elderly people dressed nicely, and (elderly) men in military uniforms with tons of medals on their chests. As the auditorium fills up, the first two thirds of people follow the same pattern, with the last bit made up of informally dressed west county parents and young kids, aka the families of the Poms girls. Just wait. The weirdness hasn't even started yet.

Well, the program starts, and all the speaking is in--Russian. As in, all of it. Not a smidgen of English translation hovering on the air anywhere. The lady introducing someone (in Russian, remember), and thus starts a sequence of clapping, person shuffling to the microphone (50/50 chance they won't actually speak into it), person reading serious speech or letter, more solemn clapping, repeat. Occasionally this was interspersed with a song performed (in Russian, remember), etc. Eventually we came to the conclusion that the military men had fought in Russia in WWII against the Nazis, and one man was even turning 100 that day!

So every few speeches, the announcer would come up, make another introduction in Russian, but one in which we were at least able to catch the English word "Poms." Then all these cute little very Americanized girls would prance onstage in their leotards and costumes, and dance to songs like "I'm a Material Girl" and "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." I cannot communicate how utterly ridiculous this was. It was like any dance recital, but interspersed with this serious occasion made the contrast beyond crazy. I reflected that if someone were trying to make a point about the frivolousness of Americans they couldn't have hit on a better example.

So back and forth it went: first person accounts about war and living in a time of atrocities, then paeans to American consumerism. Maybe we can hope that, just like we missed the Russian words, maybe they didn't catch the lyrics of the songs. Still, I'm afraid, the message was all too clear.