A Day in the Russian Countryside

We had a wonderful day today! We both really missed playing with Maya and Tristan though. I guess that is a good sign of our own attachment as well. We met up with the senior missionary couple, the Gregory's, this morning in the metro station. Then we had quite an adventure trying to buy train tickets to Yasana Polyana where Tolstoy's Family Estate is located. We did it though, and as we finished up, the rest of the group gathered. There were 19 total Americans in our group. 12 of them were senior missionary couples and 5 of them were young students from BYU and Harvard doing summer internships in Moscow. All the seniors rode in 1st class and we rode in 3rd class with all the students. The 3 hour trip went by really quickly while we visited and played cards with them.

A couple of the students had served missions in Russia, so they were able to get everything worked out for us once we were there. We had a wonderful English tour of the estate buildings and then wandered around the beautiful grounds. It was wonderful to be away from the city for a bit and breathe in the fresh crisp air. The weather was perfect!

Afterwards we went to a restaurant and we all had a delicious chicken dish with fresh vegetables. It was one of Tolstoy's wife's recipes. I was SO impressed with what we learned about this woman! She not only gave birth to 13 Tolstoy children, 5 of whom died young, she made their bedspreads and clothes, gave dinner parties for 40 at a table that sat-at the most-20, patiently loved a man who was often a bit fanatical, and helped Tolstoy in his work by transcribing his manuscripts for him over and over again. The thing that topped it off was that she died from pneumonia because she caught a cold while washing the home's windows!