Rainy-day fun

Last weekend the weather turned against us but we went swimming anyway. Elena and Sasha wanted to take us to a restaurant next to a water ski area, where we could have a private poolside cabana and eat vast amounts of shashleek (sheesh-kebab) and other Belarusian traditional foods. She apparently called them several times trying to reserve a cabana, and finally achieved success when she mentioned that she had an American guest and she wanted him (me) to see the best of the place. It might have helped that the weather suddenly changed from hot to cloudy with occasional rain, but we got our cabana.

The restaurant, prepared for changeable weather, provided us not only with blankets but also with a heater. That was good enough for Sasha and me, so we went swimming right away, trying to splash the water out of the little above-ground pool by jumping into it. (We failed.) After swimming, we ate and ate, and then Sasha swam some more while the rest of us photographed ourselves under fake palm trees.

We’ve had the same changeable weather all week. Alla and I tried to go out for a walk this evening but got distracted by a field hockey game in the park. I’ve never seen field hockey before, and it looks at least as physically demanding as soccer. (I’d say “football,” but my American readers would be completely confused.) I intended to stay until the end, wanting to see the home team beat the guys from Brest, but we chickened out when it started raining. So we went home, stopping for ice cream along the way.