This morning, I apparently hit "snooze" a couple of times before finally jumping out of bed at the sound of Lena's knocking on the door. I was in a deep sleep and had forgotten what today was set to be: McDonald's Day.
It's always interesting to go someplace away from home and encounter something familiar; comparing and contrasting can offer insights into your culture as well as the local culture, even just from region to region within the same country. But as an American abroad, it's particularly interesting to pay a visit to familiar stuff in another part of the world. I could ramble about this, but simply put: McDonald's is way nicer here than back home, and I've never seen a McDonald's this nice (or clean) anywhere in the US--not to mention the food and menu are different!
This morning, we had our Russian lesson as usual, then tea time, and then our group had a lecture about the Russian holiday of Maslenitsa ("Pancake Week"), given to us by a young woman named Daria, who's really sweet, speaks nearly perfect English, and works as a supervisor at Aeroflot, which is the Russian company whose flight we took from Amsterdam to Moscow earlier this month.
The group then went to lunch at a place called "Ogly" (which means "coals" and is a pizza place where they cook pizzas in a coal oven), where I had the opportunity to introduce my group-mates to the art of eating cheeseless pizza. They had many questions about this practice, so I demonstrated. :)
We then had free time, so I went back home, where Lena was hanging out after having lessons at her institute after tutoring me in Russian. Lena hadn't eaten yet, so we went back out for lunch, to a Chinese place she'd been telling me about for days. We got chicken and noodles to-go, then went back home with the plan of watching The Godfather together in Russian with English subtitles. The food, which was delicious, took a while, though, so by the time we got back we just decided to sit and talk and watch whatever was on TLC. I love The Godfather, and it was Lena's dad's favorite film, too. We plan to have our viewing party next week after I get back from Moscow. :D
At 17:15, my group met back up at the bus stop in the center of town at the Golden Gates, where we took a bus about 30 minutes away to be treated to a traditional Uzbek dinner hosted at the invitation of Timur Atabekov, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer who studies migration to Russia and has been presenting to us on these topics. Timur, his wife Natasha, and their two little boys entertained us to a delightful evening with one of the best dishes I've had here so far--actually a staple food in Uzbekistan--real pilaf ("plov").
Before, during, and after dinner, Timur showed us Uzbek songs, a documentary, and talked to us about the Uzbek culture, Russian culture, intercultural relations, religious/secular differences in Central Asia and Russia, and tolerance as it relates to the topic of migration and cultural differences. It was a really fun time, and the only thing that could've been better was the weather. Just a dreary, rainy night.
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