When drinking vodka with family, you can’t leave more than 60 seconds between taking the first and second shot.
Amina says that her family and friends followed this tradition for fun, without acknowledging symbolism.
Russian Ghost Story
A man was walking to the woods one day with his dog to collect potatoes. They waited all day but found nothing. At midnight, the two began walking back. But just as they were passing the cemetery, the man spots a figure in the distance wearing white rags. It stumbles towards him at first but quickly breaks into a sprint. As it gets closer the man can see that it is a corpse. He becomes terrified and freezes in place. Luckily, the dog jumps on the corpse just before it reaches the man and the two wrestle. The man, however, abandons his dog and runs home. He never hears from the dog again, except when he goes hunting in those same woods, he can hear the howl/bark of the dog in the distance. It sounds like it is in pain.
Amina’s father told her this story when she was a child, to scare her. He thought it was funny, but Amina remembers being frightened at the time. Many of her friends heard this story growing up as well.
Russian Proverb
“The thief who stole 4 kopecks is hung but the thief who stole 400 kopecks is praised.” Amina and her family are from Moscow. When she was growing up, her father used to say this to her often. She describes him as a funny man who does not take life too seriously. He would say this to Amina as comic advice in different situations. Mostly, when Amina was stressed in school, he would say this to encourage her to cheat.
Elbow Grease- Military Practical Joke
When Chuck was in the military, the higher-ups would tell the lower-ranking or newer soldiers to go somewhere and get them a tube of elbow grease. Elbow grease, of course, is not an actual thing. The more experienced, older soldiers and members of the military were in on this joke, it was a sort of initiation.
Fijian Kava
Chuck spends a lot of time in Fiji, where he owns property. He lives around villages and considers the locals his family. Every Thursday he goes to the village and drinks Kava, a Fijian ritual drink that the locals often consume to “destress after a long day in a social environment”. He sits in a circle with whoever else in the village decides to join (around 6-20 people depending on the night) on the bamboo floor of a bungalow. They take positively about each other and their lives.