Lake Karyer

Today we went to Lake Karyer for a belated Fourth of July celebration since we were rained out yesterday. The lake is a former sand pit, now filled with lovely, clean, clear water and glorious sandy beaches. My nephew would have loved this place.

Russian barbeques don't usually include hamburger, but they always include shashlyk (shishkabob). This was wonderful beef shishkabob prepared at a Turkish place, marvelously seasoned with sometime type of paprika that is much zestier than the boring stuff most people use in the States to add color to the top of a casserole. I was surprised to see the brick arrangement left here by previous picknickers. It fit our skewers perfectly. Apparently skewers are mostly standardized in size here, and since they are reasonably inexpensive, everyone has essentially the same ones.

Below, left to right: Luke (the only one in the group to consistently use sunscreen), Derek, Connor (above), Daniel (below).

Below, from left to right are Gulnaz (a Russian instructor), Aygul (program director), and Ildar (Aygul's husband). In the States men lay claim to the grilling skills. Here there is no exception: Ildar made our shishkebabs, and he cooked them flawlessly.

Below, from left to right: Jim (enthusiastic), Danila (Russian, first friend of our student group), and Leone (whose linguistic skills even I envy).

The guys try the water. Derek's voice rises two octaves and he shrieks, "I suddenly feel like a pre-pubescent male." You can tell Derek was never a dock worker. He expressed the concept with... um... not decorum exactly... but certainly not with a stevedore's vocabulary.