Rest in Rostov - Apr 7-8

After the events of my first day in Rostov, I was ready to see this city that Sergey had come to call home and have some rest!

Rostov-On-Don is a city of 1,012,300 people on the river Don through the center of the city. Rostov-on-Don was established in 1749. The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since ancient times. It was the site of the ancient Greek colony Tanais occupied around 700 BC. More recently, in WWII much of the city was reduced to rubble by the German forces who occupied it three times in 1941, 1942 and 1943. I was impressed with this city as it seemed to have a quiet peaceful spirit. It’s also a major summer tourist spot for “Peterburgers” (folks from St. Petersburg) who want to rest in the sun on the beaches of the Black Sea.

Sergey and I travelled to his University that he is attending. This is a major private university called the Institute of Management, Business and Law. Sergey is majoring in Management along with his girlfriend Tanya. He is concurrently enrolled in the 11th grade (the senior year for the Russian school system) and this university that he attends three days a week (Thursday – Saturday).

Later that afternoon we went bowling, had dinner, and then made it back near his apartment to have tea with the great-grandparents of his girlfriend Tanya. Tea in Russia is a special occasion and something that is often done for social gatherings. The great-grandparents wanted to meet me. I found them to be humble and “down to earth”. They were both in their eighties. The great-grandfather told the story how he was captured by the Germans when he was 14 years old and spent the next 4 years in a German prison camp. He even tried to escape once, and could have been shot, but was spared and he was used for labor later on.

The next evening we had tea together with the grandparents who also lived close by. I found them to be equally pleasant and hospitable. We told stories, laughed and I teased Tanya and Sergey and had fun getting to know them all. Both the grandparents and great-grandparents have taken in Sergey as one of their own and they have helped out each other. I thanked them for their support and encouragement of my son as he studied there in Rostov.

Each of these evening after tea, we went home and had a late dinner. Sergey cooked one night and fixed “Rok”, which appear to be a large species of a crab or crawdad. He loves them and they were good!

The second evening as we were shopping for groceries he told me I was cooking him something tonight. So I ended up making meatloaf with baked potatoes and corn. Sergey didn’t eat the corn, but he liked the meatloaf. It was something easy, although I had to figure out what ingredients would work with what was available in the store. The spices were the hard part, but it worked out just fine!