Kazan — summer 2014

This evening I had dinner with Cleo and Teo at Граждански клуб ‘Citizen’s Club.’ We ended up sitting at an outside table for a few minutes, but then a thunderstorm set in, and we were driven inside.

We arrived there about eight in the evening, and the conversation and eating was non-stop till after eleven. It was marvelous. Maria’s degree is in applied linguistics. Her English is decent, and she also has Greek and German down. I have to say that Cleo and Teo have done a good job raising her. Her she was having dinner with a man she hadn't seen since she was two years old — I suspect she did not want to be there — but she participated in the conversation in an engaging and lovely way, and she always had interesting things to say. I was grateful for her kindness and hospitality. Cleo speaks English and Greek and is a professor of comparative literature and ancient literature, so she has a world of interesting things to say. Teo teaches at a technical college and speaks English and German. So we had the most marvelous type of conversation that happens with the multilingual and multicultural.

This was our third get together, and I really wanted to pay for dinner since they had paid for the other two events, but they absolutely refused. It was very American on my part to want to instill some parity of hospitality, and it was very Slavic of them to be generous without counting the cost. That's the essence of gift-giving and hospitality among Slavs (and many other ethnic groups). One gives because one is generous and kind, not because you are trying to achieve a financial balance. Hopefully next time I am in Plovdiv they will let me bear some of the expense.

For me dinner began with a салат «Елада» ‘Greek Salad,’ tomatoes, onions, marinated feta, ground olives. I've eaten an awful lot of chicken since I've been here, and my main course was chicken in a spicy sauce.

Cleo and Teo each ordered a шопски салат, which pretty well is like a standard American green salad but with the pieces diced up more thoroughly. Maria had something similar but with a bit of cheese and pasta added. Cleo's main dish was a large hamburger steak, and Teo's was three kufta patties, something my own brother-law from Lebanon would have made. They insisted on the typical Bulgarian rakiya at the beginning of dinner, which I'm afraid to say went right to my head.

After the meal we all walked down toward my part of town. In Russia and eastern Europe people walk together as part of their socializing much more than in the States. All three would point out various places of note. For instance, Teo pointed out this hardware store, and mentioned that it had been the *only* hardware store in Plovdiv after the communists took power in 1946. Mind you, it was a city of 300,000 people, so a single hardware store is ridiculous indeed. Such are the vicissitudes of a planned economy.

I showed them my hotel, which they generally thought was very nice — it is kept spotlessly clean and bright — but were dismayed by the wet bathroom, which they thought very odd in a modern hotel. We then looked over the public mirror installation. We headed back southward, and as we walked through the city, Cleo and Teo and Maria all stopped and talked with people the knew. It was lovely to see them in their happy, native element. We parted ways on Stefan Stambulov Square, where there home is.

So all in all it was a most excellent evening. Excellent company, good food, and an enchanting old town in good weather. I am deeply content.