This morning, Elizabeth taught me how to make syrniki, or sweet cheese fritters, for breakfast. She learned the recipe from her Russian in-laws, and as a fellow cooking lover, she was excited to share it with me.

First, you open a block of soft cheese reminiscent of a cream cheese/cottage cheese combo. Add two eggs to the mixture, and a rough amount of sugar. Add enough flour to form a workable dough (enough so that it doesn't stick too badly to your hands) and form the dough into pancake shapes. Fry in oil. We used olive, but most any will do.

When the bottoms are golden brown, flip them over.

When that side is done, take them out…

…and then eat them right away with sour cream or runny jam or honey! YUM!

After breakfast, Elizabeth had to go to work, and she invited us to come along. So, we all left the apartment together (the photo below shows the pretty pattern of light shining through holes in the top of the elevator) and headed towards the metro.

About a half an hour later, we emerged on the other side of Moscow, and walked to an upscale office building. Elizabeth teaches English to some of the employees working in it.

We met Alyona.

She and Max helped Tyler with some more route planning, giving us the idea to see Russia's Golden Ring, a series of ancient towns northeast of Moscow, all of which played a significant role in the formation of the Russian Orthodox Church.

There was Olga, who taught us about samovars. She's from the town of Tula, which boasts a famous samovar museum.

And then we met Alex, who we were astonished to learn has been reading our posts since we were in Romania!

Everyone was so nice. We had a great time hanging out, having conversations in English, and answering lots of curious questions about our trip!

Thanks so much for a fun class, you guys!

After enjoying cappuccinos in the employee lounge after the official lesson time was over, we took the elevator back to the lobby. On the way, Tyler grabbed the recorder, eager to save a memory of the muzak. This was definitely not our our list of things to do in Russia!