Michael's Birthday, Part 2 - the office party in Novomoskovsk

One of the Russian traditions is the importance of celebrating a birthday... a key component of this is celebrating at your workplace. What is a bit unusal though is that the person celebrating the birthday brings in all the food for the party. Traditionally, this is done within your team or core workgroup, and the food selection is pretty consistent - tea, instant coffee, juice, fruits (whatever is available and in-season - but typically oranges & bananas). Often there is assorted dried meats, sometimes cheese, sometimes fish (salmon, cavier), bread, chocolates (ofen with liquor centers). I decided I would do something a bit different...

I figured I should do foods that are a bit more American... so I brought Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies, a more elaborate fruit selection (apples, plums, gooseberries, grapes), tortilla chips, salsa, Skyline Chili dip (which is a Cincinnati-specific dish... cream cheese + Skyline chili + cheddar cheese - heat in the microwave and dunk tortilla chips into it - it's very easy and very tasty - if you like Cincinnati chili that is).

I had to explain to the those that were partaking with me what each dish was... much of the fruit they had never seen (they took pictures of the gooseberries)... and had never seen a tortilla chip. They were very relunctant at first to eat - since most things were very different for them... but they did eventually enjoy the feast. Since we do much of our shopping in Moscow, they were very surprised to see the different brands and different types of things available in Moscow vs. in Novomoskovsk. Oh yeah - and the concept of "dipping a chip" was completely new, and unnatural, for my team.

As is customary, my team bought gifts for me... a picture with a world map and a very nice tea mug with a ceramic tea diffuser. It was a nice day, as several others stopped by the "wish me congratulations" on my birthday.