Over the River and Through the Woods, to Grandmother's House We Go!

Every day I spend approximately an hour traveling to and from the university. With Kazan currently preparing for the 2013 Universiade (a youth Olympics, of sorts), traffic is abundant and unpredictable. My trek to class every morning and home at night is worsened by the fact that I live on the opposite side of the Kazanka river from the university and the town center.

I know that's not really very exciting, but it's all I could think of for the "over the river" portion of this post. The past two weekends have been occupied with the "through the woods" part. While I now feel very at home in Kazan, visiting the small Tatar village of Rybnaya Sloboda was absolutely one of the highlights of my time in Russia so far. After class last Friday, we settled in for a two hour bus ride through the countryside to the town. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a group of teenagers and served the traditional welcoming tea, chak-chak, and bread with salt. To our surprise, they had turned their gymnasium into a "discotheque" and, after we introduced ourselves, we danced the night away. As it turns out, Russian boys aren't half bad at dancing! We were graced with a performance by the town's Tatar dance troupe which has won national competitions in Moscow. After the party, my host sister for the night took me home where a feast awaited us. Everything was delicious, but it brought me to the realization that perhaps competitive eating is the wrong career path for me. When I commented on a particularly flavorful sausage, my host family tried to explain to me that it was horse meat. I thought that they were mistaken and meant cow, but the only way I could think of to communicate that was to moo repeatedly. The response I received was "No! Giddyup!" Much to the chagrin of my staunchly vegan sister (love you, Kat!), I have indeed snacked on pony meat...and it was kind of delicious. After dinner number one, my host sister took me out to meet some of her friends. Most of them had never met an American before and took interest in everything from my education to McDonalds. My visit to Rybnaya Sloboda was my first exposure to the time-tried tradition of the Russian banya. The banya is a delightful combination of a bath and a sauna, but there is a distinctly Russian twist. Russians take turns whacking each other up and down their backs with a bunch of hot birch branches which is thought to open the pores in order to further the detoxifying benefits of the steam room. In winter time, a brisk roll-around in the snow is also common.

The next morning I was up early for a delicious breakfast of homemade ish pish mach and a short drive to the region's agricultural school where we spent most of the day meeting more students and learning about the school. The school was founded on the principles of independence and connection to the land that are so central to Russian culture. Of course, we were pleased to mingle with the students and answer more questions about America. Rybnaya Sloboda will forever remain in my heart as one of the most friendly, welcoming, and interesting places in the world.

While I should really be getting to the enormous mountain of homework that I have neglected all weekend, I will take a moment to write about the "to grandmother's house we go" part of all this. My Kazan host family took me this weekend to visit their babushka in the village. We spent a lot of time helping her in the garden, harvesting carrots and cabbage. I also had the unique opportunity to go mushroom hunting in the forest! Don't try this at home folks! Most of the ones we found were poisonous, but babushka got some good ones to preserve for winter.

Much love to my friends and family!
до свидания!
~abby~