July 1, 2007

E.B., I and Yana at the Botanical Gardens in Vladimir.

Yana putting out the fire in the forest after our Picnic.

Free day for the American teachers!  I actually slept in late – I got up around 10:30 am!  Natalia and Andrei wanted to take me to a Russian Orthodox service at a local monastery in Vladimir.  I didn’t really want to stay for the entire service since you have to stand and the service can last a few hours or longer.  You also have to wear a scarf and skirt to enter the Cathedral.  As we were walking on to the grounds, I was getting ready to get my scarf out and this old lady started yelling at my in Russian!  I asked Yana what the old lady said and basically she was yelling at me for not wearing my scarf!  You don’t have to wear the scard until you enter the Cathedral – we were just walking through the gates of the property!  I guess folks take the scarf thing very serious!  We also met with E.B. (from Texas) and his host Mom and her friend at the Cathedral.  It was also decided that we would go to the Botanical Garden for tea and a dessert (See photo above) that E.B.’s host Mom made – a cake with fresh strawberries and cranberries picked from her dacha! Very yummy! The garden was beautiful!  The botanical garden provided fresh mint tea that was grown right there.  We all sat under a shelter and chatted.

Yana wanted to go on a picnic in the local forest.  She invited her boyfriend Gregory to come along.  He spoke English very well but was a little shy at first around me. 🙂  Once we arrived in the forest, we gathered sticks and wood for the open fire.  It’s not like in American parks where the park supplies the grill.  In Russia, you just build your own fire anywhere.  As Yana and I walked around the forest collecting sticks, I noticed all the litter and trash.  Yana told me that some people don’t pick up after themselves.  I was in such shock that Russians don’t take care of the forest.  Yana and her family are VERY respectful of the forest and we did clean up our mess and trash.  We had yummy sausages cooked on the fire, fresh tomatoes, bread, and chai (tea).  For dessert, we ate the pie that Yana had made the day before – a yummy cake with fresh berries in it.  We decided to take a walk around the forest – it felt good to walk and talk with my host family.  The mosquitoes were horrible and started eating me so we decided to go back to our camp and pack up.  Yana was in charge of putting out the fire (see photo above). We drove back to the flat after a nice relaxing day.

It was mentioned that we may head to the family dacha next Sunday.  I can’t wait to see a dacha! 🙂