Banquet

Yesterday was the last day of classes, so to celebrate we had a banquet dinner with our professors and program directors. I heard the restaurant was nice, but I was blown away by our arrangements. First, the restaurant itself had great atmosphere, a lot of wood, and art designed by the artist who we visited a few weeks ago. We had a ton of food, too. The table was completely covered with appetizers like fish, meats, fruits and vegetables before we arrived, and I was so full that I forgot that I also ordered a main dish. Plenty of bottles of Soviet Champagne, red wine, and vodka certainly helped maintain the lively mood. Making toasts is a big part of Russian culture, so needless to say, there was a lot of toasting and gift-giving going on. Everyone was in such a great mood, and I realized how I'm definitely going to miss everyone, Americans and Russians alike, after the program ends. Of course, we had music too. A tradition in Russian restaurants is to hire a singer to sing cheesy love songs for the 80s, and we had that going on, although once we all decided to hit the dance floor we got a nice change of pace going. I'd have to say the highlight of the night was dancing with two of my professors, Tatyana Borisovna and Natalya Giorgevna. All in all a fantastic time, but it's not over yet, since this evening we're leaving on a 12 hour bus ride to the Altai Mountains.