A Russian Picnic

The last week in Elektrostal has been full. Right now, I'm sitting at a table in Liz's apartment as Brook cleans up some water she dropped on the floor and Bethany takes a bit of orange juice while Lisby snacks on thin ginger snaps. She and Bethany are making plans to stop at a little doughnut stand that Patrick and I visited this morning. The doughnuts come out so hot that they're painful to the touch, dusted with powdered sugar, and they cost 5 rubles each, which comes to about 20 cents. Later tonight, Liz, Brook, Adam, and I are going over to Della's host home for dinner. The youth with whom Della is staying (pronounced eera [roll the R]) is originally from Azerbaijan, and her aunt (the city's AIDS prevention/treatment director) is a fantastic cook.

Earlier this afternoon, we hosted a picnic at the lake (just outside of the city) for the host home families. Because today is a work day, many of the youth joined us, but most of the parents were unable to come. JJ's host, Sergei, brought layered pastries with poppy seeds as well as Russian tea cakes. They call them "pryaneki." We also had hot dogs (actually a kind of pork sausage that two of the Russians told us not to eat [because of the poor quality]). We also grilled chicken and had fresh sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and apples, with thick slices of rye bread. For dessert, Adam and Lisby directed us in making banana boats. We sliced open bananas and inserted squares of chocolate, wrapped the concoctions in aluminum foil, and cooked them on the grill. Sergei and Dima (Garret's host) each had just one bite, declaring the food edible but making it clear that they preferred their bananas and chocolate separately. Anya (Amanda and Shelby's host) declared them delicious.

We also tossed a football, sat around a campfire, huddled under the four umbrellas we'd brought (when it started raining), and had long discussions about the differences in Russian and American wordplay (Sergei and I).