Pigs and Yeast

{{I wrote this blog during passover, but just got around to posting it now. Don’t be scared. Yes, you are correct, Passover is over. But the story is still relevant and interesting….}}}
So Passover has begun. I reminded Gollum last week, about the rules and regulations. Basically all I eat that is no good for Passover is pasta and bread, so I told her that those were off limits, starting Saturday night. In an effort to get my last fill of pasta, for Thursday and Friday nights I requested pasta, as a last meal of sorts. Happily, Gollum made me the pasta, and I ate happily. Sunday night I get to dinner, and guess what it is, Pasta. Honestly I didn’t understand. I told her every day for a week that I could not eat pasta and bread. She was confused. She began asking why I couldn’t eat bread and pasta. And then telling me that lent was over, and that for lent it is no meat, and fish only at certain times. The confusion lies in this, the Russian word for Passover and Lent are the same thing. But I explained it to her that I was doing a different “lent” and it had different rules. But, to no surprise there was pasta on my plate. She also told me that pasta was not bread, and therefore I could eat it. I then told her that it wasn’t the bread that wasn’t allowed, but rather the yeast. To that her response was that there is no absolutely no yeast in pasta. This is just like last term when my host mother thought that ham was not pork, and did not come from a pig. Silly me, I only told my host mother that I couldn’t eat pork. I didn’t specify all pig products. My bad. But in crazy Russia land, ham doesn’t come from a pig, and pasta does not have yeast. A lot to keep straight.