fiesta!

Today was the much anticipated Mexican Fiesta!!

It was quite the undertaking - yesterday afternoon, Jack, Jeff and I spent several hours (they more than I) completely cleaning out an old Soviet apartment belonging to Ilias, an awesome physics/engineering professor. We donned masks because we were stirring up so much dust. New windows had recently been installed, thus making the dust even worse. My job was basically to wipe stuff down with damp rags, and then I helped rearrange furniture and do chair traige.

Today, Jill managed to acquire a bunch of Mexican food from the US embassy, and some of our group spent a fair chunk of the afternoon cooking at the newly cleaned apartment! Around 6-7, everyone showed up. Whereby "everyone" I mean at least 20-30 people: the majority of our group from the US, a few Russians we've met while being here, Irina and her friends including someone from Germany, and a guy from Iran we met in the old dorm whose parents tagged along since they were here visiting, and of course Ilias. Quite the diverse group!

The food was terrific, though by US standards it was probably nothing special. Still, finally getting some Mexican after TWO MONTHS was excellent!! We had corn chips, guacamole(ish), salsa, refried beans, corn tortillas, ground beef, chicken which I think was actually turkey, shredded lettuce, tomatoes/onions, grated cheddar cheese, normal sour cream, and of course tequila. Then we had cake, because it was Alex's birthday (27) and Jake's birthday is Monday (23).

But the best was yet to come - a pinata of sorts. Jessica took it upon herself to create a pinata from a 5L plastic water jug filled with candy. She put a cardboard box and a bunch of torn up newspaper around it and decorated it with blue and silver holographic wrapping paper that Jeff happened to have. To get it to the party, she and Nick attached the contraption to a skateboard and essentially "walked the pinata" all the way via an ethernet cable leash.

At the party, after we'd eaten and had cake and taken a group photo, everyone headed outside to an old Soviet playground that served as a kind of courtyard for the apartments. They hung the pinata from a tree and Jeff controlled its height at a distance via the length of ethernet cable. Jack swung first, then Alex, who managed to knock the cardboard and newspaper off leaving just the plastic jug hanging. A few others took a swing at the plastic jug, but the only thing that broke was...the stick. :) So finally we took it down and passed out candy.

Something about the whole pinata experience was just fantastic! And I don't know, but I loved having people from at least four different countries in a random old apartment in a corner of Moscow come together for (of all things) a Fiesta.

(pictures to come, for now I'm going to bed.)