Tonight I was out with the friends at the internet café and got home around 8pm. As I was walking in, Sasha and Pavil were heading out. They returned soon with a bag. Inside was a big bag of sizable sausages (think hot dogs the size of a clenched fist) and a bottle that said “коньяк” (cognac). They built a fire in the back yard and pulled out the heavy duty skewers. About 20 minutes later the whole family came back into the house with a giant bowl of cooked sausages and sat down to a feast at the table. The horseradish (which is pink here for some reason, and does not have beets in it) and some homemade onion/carrot/red pepper salsa were pulled from the fridge. They offered me a link, and who could turn down a fresh grilled giant weenie? I grabbed some mustard that I saw in the fridge too. As we started to eat, someone broke out some shot glasses and so was my introduction to hard liquor in Ukraine. A shot was poured for each of us (me, Tanya, husband Sasha, son Pavil, and Pavil’s wife, Vera). I gave the first toast of “thank you to this family for having me in your home”, and then the second round toast of “Lastrovia”. Now, the bottle said “cognac”, but this was some wicked rotgut whiskey! These were shot glasses, not snifters! After the two shots, I politely turned my glass upside down to prevent a refill. It was a fun moment for me though as the first feeling like I was really becoming part of this family. It is pretty difficult sometimes with the language barrier, but this showed me that some actions speak louder than words.
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