On Sunday I went to my host grandparent’s house, which is where my sisters have been all week. They live out in the country, in a dacha about an hour from Kazan. They have chickens, geese, and a couple of goats, along with a big garden full of fruits and vegetables.
The dacha is in the middle of the beautiful countryside; there are only a few houses around, and you can see rolling fields in all directions. It would be a really nice place to walk and think. I did go for a walk, actually, twice, and saw a little creek and a field of bright blue wildflowers. That’s the kind of place I could live.
My host grandma cooks delicious food. She made home-made trigolnikis, which are triangle-shaped pastries filled with meat and potatoes, and another dessert pastry, plus some delicious soup with home-made noodles. That was just for lunch – for dinner we had shashlik (grilled meat) with the barbecue sauce I brought from Kansas City. The food was so good – I had some of the trigolnikis for breakfast this morning. Yum!
My host mom is Tatar, so she and her parents and her cousin who came all spoke Tatar to each other. It was very interesting; not at all like Russian. My host mom’s cousin has a son and an 8 month old daughter, who was really adorable.
I spent a lot of the day resting, which was really nice. I watched some random Russian tv and played with the kids. I also went to the Russian banya. It was an interesting experience – essentially taking a shower inside a sauna. A little weird, but it felt really good. Relaxing.
Well, we went to the dacha with a bunch of food, and came back with a bunch of (different) food as gifts. I guess that’s the Russian tradition, trading food when you are a guest. I’m not complaining; I love Russian food!
Culture Shock 