I don’t even remember yesterday. We had a wonderful lupper — or linner — with Leonid, Natasha, Igor and Katerina on Sunday at a really nice restaurant. Leonid and I had gins and tonic and Long Island Iced Tea (he’s pretty sure there was no liquor, just coke with lemon), which made me happy. I just adore Leonid! He laughs so big and happily and everything seems to delight him.
Yesterday we only had one class, but after a few days of lovely weather it turned bitterly cold walking to and from the university — snow blowing in our faces coming home. We stopped at a neighborhood restaurant for lunch — I haven’t a CLUE what I had for lunch. Maybe it was ham, but it was fairly unidentifiable — but it had tomato, mayonnaise and maybe some cheese melted on top. Then trudged home. We had expected to go shopping for souvenirs after our one class, but it was so cold we gave that idea up pretty quickly. We came home, read and then all of a sudden it was 10:00 p.m. I REALLY have to go to bed early tonight, we have to get up EARLY tomorrow for exams.
The conference we went to today was quite swell — professional papers in English, French and German (we judged the English ones) and winners got one of our grammar t-shirts we had sent ahead of us. Since they weren’t linguists, they may not have gotten the jokes, but oh well. After class, luckily, we remembered we had been invited to Armenian Day, so before we got too far out the door, we went back and listened to the concert — everything was either in Russian or Armenian, but it was fun to watch the folk dancing and the singing WOULD HAVE been good if they had not cranked the dial on the stereo AND the microphone to 12 plus. OMG, it was so loud. I had one ear closed and it was painful, I don’t have any idea how Laird stood it with his hearing aids in — I would have yanked them out of my ears so fast if they were mine! Afterwards, we met Ike, our Armenian student who was the main “puter oner” of the event — he made sure we got to cut in line at the food table. Delicious! The pictures of Armenia have us lusting after a visit there — I wonder if they want English teachers?!? We’ll have to remember to ask Ike.
Our students are just so wonderful — all of you would like them so much! I helped one, Maria, work on her paper for presentation today, and she brought me a Easter bread/cake that her mother made — there is no English word and I can’t remember the Russian word. I think it is made only around Easter. Dona, don’t the Greeks make a special bread at Easter? Daniel, you’re our international food expert — do you know?
I have my voice back finally, but I CANNOT get my nose to stop running — very annoying. So now I will go blow it on tissues that feel like the toilet paper, not so soft. Poor nose. Drippingly yours, jm
lairdandjonelle 
Jonelle….you guys are having way fun… I love reading these…the Russian Easter bread is Kulich..usually made as a tall loaf…with nuts and raisins..is that how it was done? I would love to know…the Greek Easter bread is Tsoureki…and it is braided like challah…and has a hard boiled egg, dyed red, inside one end….xxxxxxxxxxxj
Jonelle, I don’t know if there is a name in English for Russian Easter Bread, other than Russian Easter Bread. But the name for this bread in Russian is, Paskha Kulich. You didn’t describe what the bread looked like or tasted like in your writing, but, the Paskha Kulich I’ve had was baked in a soup, or coffee can so that the bread rose up out of the can to make a “mushroom-shaped” loaf, which had white icing on top with some multicolored nonpareils sprinkled onto the icing. The whole thing reminded me of a snow-capped Russian onion-domed church steeple. The bread tasted more like our pound cake than plain bread. Does this sound anything like the Paskha Kulich Maria’s Mom made for you???
I’m sure Dona knows more about how the Greek-style Easter bread, call Tsoureki is made than I do. But I believe it is usually made into a round (sometimes braided) loaf with BRIGHT RED-colored Easter egg(s) placed into the top of the bread before the second rising. Greek Easter bread is a sweetened with sugar and usually flavored with things like: cinnamon, anise seeds, orange peel, and sometimes some mahaleb too. The top of the bread is usually made shinny with an egg-wash and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
We have been having temps in the 20C to 27C range here in Albuquerque these days, so I’m planting my tomato plants today. I know you always talk about how WONDERFUL the tomatoes taste in Russia. Any chance y’all could mail some of their (heirloom?) tomato seeds home, or get some through customs, so we can all grow them HERE?