A Puerto Rican in Belarus - Part 2

Once we decided to stay in Grodno, the fun began! We started the week off by throwing a party for my friends from the American Corner. Néstor and I spent all day Sunday preparing and our guests arrived at 6pm. Everyone seemed to enjoy the pasta with tomato and meat sauce that we prepared, and of course we had plenty of champagne and sweets, so everyone was happy. It was really nice to discuss life from three different cultural perspectives: Belarusian, Puerto Rican, and American. Highlights of the night included Néstor and me each singing a solo with the videotape rolling! We had no choice as the girls sang a nice Russian song for us and then promptly told us it was our turn! We tried to get out of it, but they wouldn’t have it. In case you are wondering, I sang "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer." And Néstor sang "He Renuciado a Ti" ("I Have Renounced You") by Jose Jose, to the delight of all the ladies! Around 10pm, everyone got bundled up to go outside. The snow was really coming down and we had a nice snowball fight: boys versus girls. Then Néstor and I made snow angels; this was another first for him. We were surprised that no one joined us, I guess it’s an American thing?

The rest of the week we spent visiting local cafes and restaurants, sightseeing, and hanging out with my friends. We slept in and stayed up late, after all we were on vacation! On Monday night, we visited a café called Несцерка (Nyé-stir-ka), which means little Néstor. Russian speakers love to use the diminutive forms of nouns, just like the Spanish ita and ito. How cool that Néstor’s name has a Russian equivalent. As far as we know it's a Greek name, so it must have migrated both East and West! Tuesday afternoon Néstor managed to get a photo of some local military men. We were walking down Lenin Street and we saw some young Belarusian soldiers. He asked Света to ask them for a photo, as fellow military men, and they agreed. BTW, all men, with very few exceptions, are required to serve for a short time (approximately 1 year). On Wednesday night, Néstor and I had a pizza at Ретро (Re-tro) and then went to my favorite disco and danced for several hours. It’s hard to find good house music in the States, so we soaked up all we could. On Thursday night we hung out with Irina, my Russian teacher, and visited two cafes. Our favorite place was Кронон (Kro-non). It only has 8 small tables, but it's cozy and the food is tasty, not to mention they have a nice selection of beer and wine. We fell in love with the sign hanging over the bar that says in Latin, “Truth in Wine.” On Friday night, we had a fabulous dinner with Света and her family, and Néstor really connected with her dad, Vladimir. Too bad his trip was so short, or the two of them would've gone ice fishing together. Maybe next time? On Saturday night, Néstor and I treated my friends to a night at the disco. We went the whole nine yards and reserved a table and ordered a nice dinner and drinks too. On Sunday evening my boss, Lyudmila, treated us to a home-cooked meal. It was fantastic! Monday night we had one last meal at Карчма (Karch-ma), and ate our favorite stuffed pork rolls with roasted potatoes, вкусный (f-koos-nih) yummy!

Time flew by and before we knew it Tuesday morning had arrived; time to head back to Minsk so Néstor could catch his flight back to Texas. Everyone was so warm and welcoming, so much so that Néstor wanted to say with me. He fell in love with all the Russian salads (I’m currently learning how to make them) and the Belarusian hospitality, or maybe it was that fur hat? ;-) If it wasn’t for his job with the U. S. Air Force, he’d still be here with me today…

(For more photos, go to "A Puerto Rican in Belarus - Part 2" under My Photos)