Yesterday, one of my students invited another teacher and me to his dacha outside of town. We were lucky enough to get a warm, sunny day (around 70F yesterday), and so we hung out outside and grilled. My student has a gorgeous, large property, and he has built several log-cabin-style buildings. He's got a big garden, chickens, and beehives--it's a regular country estate. In the evening, we went to the banya, where we got the full--or, as my student called it, the textbook--banya experience, complete with whipping with branches and lots of aromatic herbs. Russians take the banya very seriously, and it is believed that steaming regularly in a banya is a cure for allsorts of ailments. I can't attest to the banya's long-term health benefits, but I sure felt great afterward. Here are a few pictures:

The chicken coop

They're building a new banya using some very old-school techniques. This is flax and moss used as chinking between the logs. 

The new banya will be really nice. 

Lunchtime 

That's a bottle of homemade vodka--it tasted a lot better than the stuff they sell in stores.

 A very Russian scene 

Having some tea from a wood-fired samovar 

Getting my banya on