At Russian Tea, students might find themselves engaged in a discussion about Stalin's son or Krasnodar's Kooperativni Rinok, or playing a Russian-language version of the board game Monopoly with a cassette tape of Bulat Okudzhava playing softly in the background. Occasionally, games are played at Tea Hour to practice vocabulary and introduce new words. But whatever is planned for the night, there is always a heaping plate of cookies and some fresh Russian tea. Every other week, the Russian House turns into a movie theater for the screening of a Russian film. Students in the past have laughed and cried along with such classics as A Cruel Romance , Aleksandr Nevsky , Burnt by the Sun , Little Vera , Window to Paris , The Girl with the Hatbox , Autumn Marathon , Adam's Rib , Battleship Potemkin , Chapayev , and others.
Most films have English subtitles to ensure everyone understands what's happening.
Videos shown in Russian House can provide interested students with another perspective on the film technique or cultural period under study in that week's Russian Culture Through Film class. Any student enrolled in a Russian-language class, or students who simply wish to sharpen their language skills, can receive free tutoring and help with homework from the language assistant. The language assistant, a graduate of Krasnodar's Kuban State University, is specially trained as a teacher and can provide useful help with reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. The language assistant also lives in the campus Russian House where she acts as Resident Assistant, simultaneously tutoring students, buying cookies for Russian tea, settling roommate disputes, and coordinating the suite's recycling efforts. Dinner at Iurii and Elena's house has become a yearly tradition and a way for the professor to invite her students into her own home, just as she has been a guest so often during the year in the campus Russian House.