Wednesday

Ok,
It is now 2:30 in the morning and to say the least I am totally beat. We had a great time tonight at our first Rotary club meeting. After our day of sightseeing, I invited the team back to my host family's house to use the wireless internet service, eat lunch and relax.
Darius and Elena (Helen) have been just awesome people to stay with to say the least. Today while the team was here, Darius presented each of us with a very cool Russian bottle of Vodka and some chocolate.
John, Mike and I went with Darius and Elena to the meeting together. It was held at Nadezhda's home where Mike and John are staying. I wrote in my journal while Mike prepared our opening speech and I am not sure what John was up to.
We had dinner outside and enjoyed the warm Srping weather. First we gave our presentation and had several rounds of toasting to celebrate the occasion.
Before we were eating and still setting up, I saw Mike put a number of gifts on a table. We all have brought flags from our sponsoring Rotary clubs as well as gifts to give to our host families, and other important people who do kind things for us while we are here. Anyway, I suddenly see a Marshall's bag pop out from under the table and recognize it as the bag I passed out before we left at the cookout in Quincy. Mike was about to give away all of the medicine and first aid products I asked CVS to donate to each team member! I was totally horrified and explained to Mike that you cannot give antidiarrheal medicine and a CPR facemask away as a gift to our hosts! Mike did not realize that they were for him. I am not sure how that happened, but anyway I grabbed all of it and put it back in the bag. As the "medical expert" of the team, I could not help but laugh during dinner at the thought of someone taking home Tums, or Tylenol as a "gift" from the Americans!
We were invited to go into sauna or "banya" in Russian that the family has at their home. It was certainly an experience. I have used a sauna several times in California and knew a little of what to expect, but as with everything there are exceptions. First, my host family explained how to use the banya because they also have one. So, I told Sarah and Jen that we first had to take a shower and then enter the sauna. The banya is powered by a wood burning stove. The inside has a shower area and then a door for the actual sauna. There are rocks which warm water from the fire and create the steam. The tradition is to also have certain tree branches to give off healthy aromas for the lungs. Well, Sarah, Jen and I used them as a fan and tried to breathe in the aroma. Later, John and the host Alexey came in and joined us. Alexey told us we were doing it all wrong and said that the branches are to be "brushed" all along a person who is laying on their stomach. So much for the aroma idea. Next, I was told by my host family to add water to the heated stones for more steam. I did and it was out of control! We all had to leave to let the room cool down a bit. We tried to open the window, but it did not work. Again, Alexey showed us the proper way to do it. Jen needed to use the bathroom and could not get back to the house, so the shower had to be the substitute. As we have learned from this trip, "all things natural are good". Next we went for a swim in the pool and Alexey taught us dirty words and told John the best spots to pick up a girl. We are all set for St. Petersburg!
Hello to all of my family and Dave... I am having a great time.