Na Zdrovia!

Ulia, her mom and dad, Slava the birthday boy and me!

Our translator warned us: "Oh, a Korean party? You will definitely eat and drink A LOT."

The anniversary party turned out to be a birthday party for another Korean fellow also named Slava (no relation to Natalia's uncle's cousin). It was the best party we've ever been to and we sat at the best table in the place. Part banquet, part disco, part circus, and part variety show, they left little undone from an entertainment perspective. The Russian MC could easily pass for a morning show DJ in the U.S. He joked, cajoled, and generally got everyone to loosen up. He opened with, "We're not going to make this a boring Korean party, are we??" and kept the festivities rolling. There were tons and tons of speeches. One guy in particular had a voice that could rival Sominex for its numbing power. They had everything: traditional national dances, a Cirque de Soleil type Chinese contortionist, dances with birds, a kid who won the Kazakh version of American idol (amazing voice), ballroom dances, and two professional singers belting out tunes full blast.

We sat with Ulia, her mother & father Slava, her uncle Marlin & his wife Natasha, and friends of theirs. The table was creaking under the weight of the food and they refused to see our plates empty. We enjoyed dish after dish of Korean, Russian, and Kazakh food. After about an hour, they told us the FIRST main course was about to come out. But, the real killer is the vodka. Raising our glasses in a toast every five minutes didn't seem to have much of an effect on us... initially. When Natasha started encouraging even more toasts, it caught up pretty quickly.

We were asked to get up in front of the guests to make a toast to the 'birthday boy' whom we'd met just minutes before. I said what I could in Russian but then switched to English with Ulia translating for me. Ours was by far the shortest speech of the evening. We also found out that it's customary for a man to sing or dance to show his appreciation/respect to the person whose birthday it is. So, before we knew it, the Russian MC was booming through the mike that now these two are gonna show us how
they dance in America. Thank God for our swing dancing lessons. Later they had people do skits, so I lip synched a duet in Russian with a Korean woman. Another fellow in our skit, a sweet older guy who could totally boogie, had been given a natty wig to cover his bald scalp so he could impersonate one of the current heartthrobs. Man, did he ever get down! Later in the evening, he twice gave me big bear hugs and proclaimed "You are my brother!" At these parties, everyone dances and there is no inhibition. You only look odd if you don't dance.

As it was getting late, we were ready to leave and Slava was happy to take us home whenever we were ready. However, we thought we wouldn't be able to leave, because at one point a woman joined our table and we found out she had been trying to leave but Natasha had made her stay. Additionally, we started scanning the house to figure out who we did not want driving us home. The Russian MC would have been a good candidate since he'd refused encouragements to drink since he had to drive. When we said we had to go the entire table came down with us to see us off. Slava hailed a cab, so he and Ulia could accompany us back to our hotel. It was approaching midnight, but Ulia asked us a few times: "Do you always go to bed so early??" (Everyone here, children included, tend to stay up til midnight or later and don't wake up until 7-8am.) Then they took the cab back to the party to pick up Ulia's mother.

All in all, it was a fantastic time. Natalia - your family is very, very sweet and considerate. And they're fire on the dance floor! Na Zdrovia!!

More photos later--they take forever to upload at 26.4 kbps!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANNY!!!!!!