Day #10-Easter

Wow, it's Easter. It's a much different Easter than I am used to. I missed seeing my kids wake up and look for their Easter baskets and have our "Easter talk." Instead, I spent several hours with people talking at me that I can't understand a thing they're trying to say! It was a lovely day...:).

The plan, I thought, was for me to get to Babushka's by about 1:00 because her son was coming to have Easter dinner. She wanted me to meet him, his wife and son. I told her, "sure, I'll be here." I got a call at 10:30 from Masha asking if I was on my way. "Um, no...I just got out of the shower." I told her I would get there as soon as I could. So I hurry and finish getting ready and head out the door. I walked the first part and then waited for 40 minutes for the tram to get there to take me the rest of the way. 40 minutes!!!

By the time I get there, they have already made most of the Varineke, which is the pasta dish that is similar to stuffed manicotti, except they stuff theirs with sausage, cabbage and potatoes. I helped them finish making them, unfortunately, I didn't see what went into the pasta part. Masha assured me she knew what to use to make it though. So we'll figure out a recipe when we get back to the states.

We had the borscht from yesterday, varineke, cucumber, radish, cheese, bread and poska (the Easter cake.) The poska is really dry, not moist like our cakes are in the United States. It reminds me of dough for a cinnamon roll, except for drier. They bake it tall and put white icing and sprinkles on top. It's interesting. The one I had today wasn't too bad. Oxana, Sasha's wife (who is Babushka's son) made it. She did a good job. It is made with a sweet dough. The dinner was yummy and I appreciated that very much, but once we were done eating, I just wanted to go home. I can handle trying to talk to people that don't speak your language for a little while, four hours is too much. Especially when I did it for 8 yesterday. Masha got my quiet hints and she got herself dressed and ready to go.

So we're back at the apartment now. I'll post some pictures from yesterday and today. Happy Easter to everyone. Happy Easter to my kids. I miss you all very much.