Дурок anyone?

17:30 06 April 2009

I just had a great experience! Some couch-surfing Israeli tourists came to visit and stayed at my apartment for two days! And they couldn’t have come at a better time, it was during Passover and I got to share a very pleasant Shabbat, except for one experience, and it was the first time I really prayed since I was in country. We even made matzoh brie and ate kosher food! It was so exciting. I was surprised and impressed how observant they are staying in spite of the difficulties that come with travelling. They brought a huge bagful of Israeli kosher meat, matzot, and other goodies that they were more than happy to share with me.

In the process of their staying here I learned a lot of cool stuff , my favorite being the Russian card game “Дурок” or “Fool” that is a lot of fun to play. In addition to playing a lot of card games, we also ate even more good food, learned a tiny bit of Hebrew to augment my miniscule knowledge of the language.

In other news, I’ve been slowly but surely making my apartment “my” apartment by putting up stuff, cleaning, and getting all the necessary home items that make it all nice and lived in. I went to a flea market in Karakol and got loads of old Soviet high quality cookware (all the new stuff is poor quality and Chinese made, the good stuff is the old stuff, and it’s also cheaper!). One thing I think is interesting about all the Soviet era products is that the prices were so stable then that they were actually stamped upon the metal products! So I know that my frying pan cost one ruble, my forks were each 15 kolpeks (ruble cents) and my pot was one ruble, 50 kolpeks. All of these are incredibly low prices, and it really makes me understand why, in an economic time of high inflation, high unemployment, and other problems, why so many people here pine for the Soviet Union.