Dinner guests

I usually love Sundays, but this one was exceptional! After meeting up with Nastya, Elya, and some of the study abroad students, we went to Nastya's home. Her parents are so great!!! They are some of the most hospitable people I have ever met! The food was delicious, the company delightful, and the games riveting!

We started off our dinner with a choice of soups: borscht or a summer soup made of white kvas. I had a really bad first experience with the white soup, so took advantage of the options and requested borscht. Unfortunately, Carrie, being overwhelmed with her first day in Russia, somehow ended up with the kvas soup. I should have tried to help avoid this, but in this case, it is every man for himself! So I ended up with delicious borscht, and she got a new experience. After this, I tried to pay a little more attention to make sure she knew what was going on. This didn't prevent Nastya's dad from putting lots of food on her plate however, and we all laughed as he said, "Po bolshe!" over and over (more, more). It was especially exciting when Chandler took up the cheer of po bolshe!! every time he went to give her food. We ended up with quite a meal of soup, potatoes, vegetables, different teas and juices, a meat pie type thing, curd/cottage cheese stuff, and some delicious cakes.

Nastya's family was so fun! They were really great to talk to, and even played games with us. We went in the front room, where Tyler started out the entertainment with Fur Elise on the piano, to be followed by a couple of others playing various classical pieces. Then it was on to a great game of cards--something similar to BS. I was the first out (which is good--you try to get rid of all of your cards) and it was hilarious to sit and watch everyone else play.

The two new study abroad students ended up heading out early because Eric didn't have keys yet and needed to be home early. As they were being walked to the metro, the rest of us stayed and some singing of hymns started up. Only four of us left were members, but they had wanted to hear us sing, and Tyler happened to have a hymn book, so we ended up singing from that at their request. We then watched part of a Russian comedy from what looked like the '70s. Totally great. Plus, we had the commentary from Nastya's dad to make it that much better.

Then it was back to the kitchen for a game of loto, which is like bingo. We were having such a good time that we didn't want to leave. We played round after round, using candies for wagers. We finally decided we'd have to head out or chance missing the metro. With happy goodbyes and promises to meet up again, we left. We've decided we are going to have everyone get together for a picnic, and we will make them Mexican food!