Jake in St. Petersburg: St. Pete: Day 20 (Dinner with Keith's Family)

Let me take a moment to talk a little about Keith. Keith is a Junior at Mercyhurst College in Meadville, PA. He lives in Erie, PA and has an interest in International Intelligence, which I believe is the name of his major, too (Mercyhurst is popular for having this unusual major). Keith has been my roommate for almost three weeks now, but soon he will leave the beautiful halls of IMOP to reside with a family in the homestay program. This is sad, because, other than his heroin addiction and his constant desire to snuggle, Keith has been a great roommate.

On Thursday, Keith, Jesica, and I were invited to dinner with Keith's homestay family. At 7:00pm, Katya, the 19 year old daughter of the family, met us in the IMOP lobby and walked with us 15 minutes through the snow to their apartment. Katya studies at another University in St. Petersburg, and I think lives mostly at her Grandmother's apartment, but regularly visits her Mom and brother. The mother's name is Tatyana, but goes by Tanya (Russians, even more so than Americans, often go by diminutive names like Chris for Christopher, Charlie for Charles, Alex for Alexander and Jake for Jacob). The son's name is Kiril, perhaps after St. Cyril, the Greek monk who first designed the first Russian alphabet (by the way,although we pronounce the name See-rul, the Russian spelling and pronunciation is Kee-rel). We entered the house, sparing no time to linger over the doorstep (which is traditionally considered bad-luck), and removed our shoes. Katya and Tanya then offered us slippers to wear over our socks, to wear inside the house. Before dinner, we discussed, in broken Russian and English, our studies and our trip experiences, and learned about the previous students they have hosted.
One of Tanya's friends joined us for our Lasagna dinner. One unique thing about Russian dinners is that you will eat your food with no drink, then, post-meal, drink tea. I suppose your stomach ends up with a similar food:beverage ratio, but the 'bite, bite, sip' habit. Also, Russians prefer their drinks served hot. As you probably know, Europeans in general don't enjoy beverages with ice (nor do they enjoy free refills). In fact, while I was in Kirov, a woman told me that drinking cold drinks was bad for your throat. Afterwards we enjoyed a delicious and traditional dish (which a rare combination): Blini.
A blin (blīn, blīnī [m] / блин, блины ) is a thin pancake, like a crepe. Usually blini are served with jam, syrup, butter, or sweetened condensed milk. Often blini are eaten with fruit, chocolate syrup, whip cream, even ice cream. You can put almost anything on a blini. One time, when I was in Moscow, I ordered a blini with a shower curtain on it--they brought it. Our dinner with the family fell right in the middle of Blini Week (which culminates with Blini Day, on Friday). More on this holiday in the next entry.
After dinner, we returned to the living room to watch the news (it's been weeks since we watched television), and continue our discussion in broken Russian. Katya is very interested in studying Spanish, but hasn't gotten the chance yet. So for a while we listed some boilerplate Spanish phrases that every American knows:

¡Hola!
¿Cómo estás?
Muy bien
Donde esta la biblioteka, Pedro?

Funny enough, none of us had actually taken any Spanish, but she loved even the most basic phrases. I guess we don't realize the linguistic benefits associated with our proximity to Mexico. Spanish generally isn't offered in Russian schools, so most of the population has zero exposure.
Tatyana and Katya were excellent hosts, so when they time came to leave, I wished I had participated in a home stay. However, home stay is a bit of a roll of the dice, and I dig the international dorm, so no regrets. Katya walked us out to the bus stop, where we caught the bus back to IMOP. Since our dinner, we've made plans to go back to visit. Also, Tatyana and Katya love going to the monthly Marine Party at the US Consulate, so once we figure out the logistics, hopefully they'll join us for that.