Our Next Door Neighbor
Our next door neighbor, Allah (who is 70) and her friend, Sveta (a woman who is probably in her late 50's-early 60's) invited us over last Thursday. We were just getting in from walk by the sea around 6 and out they came and insisted we join them. We learned the Russian way to drink a "bloody mary" which involves filling a medium size glass about 1/3 full of tomato juice, then slowly poor down the side of the glass about a eighth to a quarter inch of vodka. The vodka sits on top of the juice and everyone the drinks the entire glass with out putting it down-of course after a toast!
It is impolite to offer vodka with out food; so we had apples, cheese, sausage (several kinds), bread and gave each other Russian and English lessons for a couple of hours. She also played the piano and they sang Russian folks tunes to us. Luckily they didn't ask us to do the same! Then she came bye on Sunday and gave us some just cooked fried fish cakes, tomatoes and olives and invited over for dinner during the week. So, last night we went over for borscht and vareniki (Russian pronunciation), which are classic Ukrainian ravioli-like things. Her's were stuffed with potatoes and mushrooms and others with liver. Very tasty! And, since we brought some good vodka as a gift (etiquette learned from our books), we had some shots (not with tomato juice because it was "good" ("Kharrrah-show") ;-). For dessert we had all kinds of fruit things: fresh fruits, preserves (home made) and a sherbet-like apricots... with cognac. The language lessons were intermittent throughout dinner and we are definitely picking up some words and phrases (we have a long way to go though--we still don't have the alphabet down.) Anyway, it seems that Allah has really taken us under her wing--we think we're going to like her!
Allah and Sveta invited us to go to the symphony with them next Tuesday night. There is an American conductor and Sveta, who works at the Children's Theater, knows him and is planning on introducing us and possibly getting together after the show/performance. We are psyched to do this. BUT, we are soooo uncultured!?! We really don't know anything about this field of music; but I am sure you guys would! I hope you can join us in spirit--Tuesday night!