Oh ZAGRANITZA!

"Zagranitza" (sorry that I can't spell in in Russian) means something like "beyond the boarder" in English. But for many years "zagranitza" has had so many more meanings and connotations for all soviet people that were locked up within the boarders of the Soviet Union. It included all countries that did not belong to the Union or were its allies and therefore visiting them was for one a treason and even before that it was impossible since you couldn't just drop in by a travel agency and ask for a ticket to New York.

Here's what "zagranitza" meant for me when I was a kid:

1. A mysterious place called America where we could never go. I was pretty sure that the place had chewing gum available to buy anytime you felt like it and therefore all the kids were very happy there.
   
2. "Krossovki" aka "running shoes". Oh they were like a revelation: you had to get a pair. Mind it, you couldn't just go to the store and buy them, they were smuggled in and sold at black markets. My best friend got her krossovki before me and that was an object of my continuous torment. When mine finally arrived I was so blissfully happy not knowing that they were cheap fake shoes from China that said "Abidas" instead of "Adidas"(well I did wonder about that for a moment) and the soles came off in about a month. Oh to be a child again!
3. "Coca-Cola" tasted sooooo good. My mom was very suspicious of it in the beginning: there were rumors that someone soaked a cow's kidney (or some other vital organ of the sort) in it overnight and that kidney completely dissolved! We never tried such an experiment since my mom didn't want to waste a kidney thus never found out the truth.   
4. Pop songs, video clips to be exact. There are three songs that I distinctly remember since out TV channel would play them over and over again (for lack of anything else). I found them on you tube the other night:

It's My Life by Dr Alban

Happy Nation by Ace of Base

Do You Remember The Time by Michael Jackson

  I fancied a special liking to the last one and after watching the video with Erik I busted out dancing and singing "do you remember the time". He thought his wife had gone a little crazy.

1.  And of course last but not least: movies! Most of them were illegal copies of   poor quality but even poorer translation. The guys who did the translation did not want to get caught doing it so they would plug their noses to disguise their voices and record translation over the English version. Of course there was one guy doing the whole movie so sometimes it took a bit to figure out who just said what and why does it all sounds like one long sentence spoken by a guy with a plugged nose!