Баня
The Bathhouse
B1 · Intermediate · fiction · 10 scenes · Premium story
An intermediate story about the Russian bathhouse, and about a grandfather who would rather show you a thing twice than explain it once. A grandson arrives from Moscow for a week, is handed an axe he cannot use, and is then taught what the felt hat is for, why the stones matter more than the fire, why you come out before you want to, and why the besom is not for hitting anybody with. The whole procedure is real, down to the order of it. So is the reason it works on him: the steam room is the one place a phone cannot follow you into, and three hours is long enough for a conversation twenty-four years overdue.
Characters
- Kirill (Кирилл) — The grandson, 24
- Pyotr Ilyich (Пётр Ильич) — The grandfather, 78
- Nina Vasilyevna (Нина Васильевна) — The grandmother, 75
- Uncle Slava (Дядя Слава) — The neighbour
Vocabulary from this story
- баня — bathhouse
- парилка — steam room
- предбанник — changing room
- полок — steam bench
- печь — stove
- дрова — firewood
- пар — steam
- веник — birch besom
- шапка — felt hat
- ковш — ladle, dipper
- камни — stones
- таз — basin