Mysteries...

The other day, Amiee and I had lunch at the Rowlands'. Page and Amiee ran across to the store and bought a loaf of bread. The bread was really good, but we found this on one of the ends.

That's right: there was a moth baked into the crust. HOW did he get there? Don't worry...we made Robby eat that piece. :)

Another conundrum: pukh. That's what the Russian word for this cotton mess is. When the cottonwood trees bloom here, the air is full of what looks like snow, but it's really cotton-y seeds of allergens floating around. After floating, these little guys land and make it look like the ground is covered in snow again. It's quite a mystery as to how so much can be produced. I took pictures of a small area coated in pukh.

Thus the need for allergy medication.

More belated birthday!

Victoria and Nataly came over Friday night and surprised me with belated birthday wishes! They made a wonderful cake, brought balloons, and a sweet, sweet present. They brought Amiee some chocolate, in honor of her graduation, as well as a little bell- the last (school) bell- which is a Ukrainian tradition.

We visited together (and with Page...she was here, too!), and Amiee showed them pictures from her graduation. Of course, we had to take pictures. Thank you, girls! We LOVED it!

Page took this one- it was before we thought of using self-timer.

Whole gang! (Page, me, Victoria, Amiee, Nataly)

Hello World. I just love your surprises.

Today started with a bang. And sparks. And smoke. And a power outage.

My UKRAINIAN-PURCHASED hairdryer fried itself. And the electricity in the apartment. This was very poor timing because we were supposed to be meeting the Rowlands at the Transport College to teach a couple of classes (yes, I had my big, official farewell a few weeks ago. Little did I know that I'd be back...). My landlord has never shown me where the breaker for the apartment is, and I'm totally sketched out by electricity over here, so I haven't gone exploring.

The electricity going out meant only one thing: I had to call the landlord. Dun dun dun.

I braced myself and called his house. Thankfully, his wife is more adept at understanding my telephone Russian (it's much MUCH more difficult to speak and understand over the phone) and told me he'd be right over. I really like her.

He was here in about 5 minutes, and I contritely explained my situation. I then proceeded to enable him to open the breaker box- with the use of one of my butter knives. The positive outcome of this situation is that I now know where everything is and how to break into it. Victory.

The pesky fiend.

We actually made it to class on time (whew!) and had a very good first class and a mediocre second class. We then got to go upstairs for tea with the director and deputy director of the school. Whilst there, I found a subtle tribute to my alma mater hanging in Igor's office. Yes!

Oh yes. UU.

Teaming up!

Part of the Rowlands are here! That brings our Poltava team up to 5 people (we'll be getting 3 more next week)! We've already gotten to work, too.

Ira had talked to me 3 weeks ago about visiting her classroom and interacting with her students (she teaches classes of 5th, 7th, and 9th graders at a local school. However, because of the change of flights and the jetlag, Amiee and I had to pass on going yesterday. The Rowlands went yesterday, though, and we joined them today. We did 3 classes at Ira's school and one at a school across town. In two of the classes, we did rotating game stations, and in the other two, we played "America Jeopardy." Both went over really well, and we were able to invite dozens of kids to the soccer camp we'll be hosting in a couple of weeks.

Here's a funny from today: One of the "questions" in Jeopardy was to name 3 famous Americans. The answer? George Bush, Barack Obama, and Madonna. Wow. Of all the famous Americans...

Rachel: I saw the girls from Saturday English club at the second school today. Nina came up to me to specifically ask about you and asked me to tell you hello. So...Hello!

We're so glad that the Rowlands are back! It's so great working with them again. :) Tuesdae, we are waiting for you!

Ira asked Amiee to sing, and Amiee did a BEAUTIFUL job of "God Bless America." In fact...

...this was her rapt audience. Boy on the right was videoing her on his phone.

Page, facilitating Guess Who.

Here's one of our friends (Ina- black sweater)! She was SO excited to have us in her class. She was super surprised to see Amiee and me; we were last minute additions, per the Rowlands' invitation.

Team Yellow. They actually won the competition.

Felesha working with Team Fresh Cucumbers. Yes, they named their own teams.

Group shot! Minus me...I'm behind the camera.

Belated birthday wishes

My friend, Nastia, was out of town on the day that the rest of the youth celebrated my birthday, and I didn't get to see her before I left for America (because my travel plans to Kiev were changed at the last minute...sheesh). So, today, she came by for a few minutes to give me a gift. She brought me some beautiful flowers, some cake made by her aunt (I love her aunt's cake!), and a set of tea cups. Not just any teacups; teacups that I've been borderline coveting since I first saw them. Apparently, this particular set was ubiquitous during the Soviet Union and EVERYBODY had them.

Flowers. So pretty.

Well, there is a set in my apartment that belongs to my landlord, and I think it is just so cute. Nastia has heard me talk about how much I like that set forever, and on my birthday, she gave me a set.

This is the set that lives in my living room. I just think it's so cute. Mine looks just like this (only, Nastia already had it wrapped in bubble wrap, and since I'm leaving in the next few weeks, I thought I'd just leave them wrapped)/

She's so super. Many thanks to Nastia!

Favorites

Some favorite things from my time at home:

1. Casa Blanca Mexican Cantina!

So, this isn't a great picture of me, but it was the day after I got home...which was after 30 straight hours being awake. I don't do well with a lack of sleep. It was a fantastic Burrito Casa Blanca, by the way.

2. Driving my car! So liberating...

3. Hanging out at my house with my family.

4. Being there for Amiee's graduation.

Amiee pinning on Mom's corsage before graduation.

5. Seeing so many of my family and friends.

6. Wal-Mart.

7. Being in on news as it happens! Amiee's friend, Hayley, got engaged the night I arrived.

Hanging out with Hayley at a local bridal gown boutique.

8. Worshiping in English at church.

9. Eating Mom's roast, lasagna, and taco soup.

10. Sleeping in my bed. :)

So much fun was had! I loved being home with my family.

Congratulations to Amiee!

The reason for my trip back to America was my sister's graduation. It was so great to be there for her graduation and graduation festivities! I got to see all of my family and extended family plus tons of friends. SO much fun!

Amiee and I both graduated from a home school cover, and yes, it is a real graduation (all of you naysayers stop rolling your eyes- it's legit). It's done very tastefully. Amiee gave a beautiful graduation speech that made everyone cry. She also chose to have graduation dinner at Rosie's, which totally made life complete (for those of you not from the Huntsville area, Rosie's is a Mexican Cantina that makes all of your Tex-Mex dreams come true). Here are some pictures from the event. Enjoy!

Amiee giving her speech.

Amiee and some friends from church at Senior Sunday.

Katie and Amiee: friends since 2nd grade. Presh.

Public Service Announcement: Don't travel with Erin and Amiee

Ok, I have quite a few updates to post, but I'd like to write a little about the ridiculous travels that Amiee and I had over the past few days.

Originally, Amiee and I were supposed to leave the US on Friday, fly through Munich, and arrive in Kiev on Saturday. Simple, yes? Not so much.

We got all checked in and were comfortably waiting at our gate in the Huntsville airport, with the monitors telling us that our plane was on time when I went to the bathroom for just a couple minutes. Upon returning, I found that the monitor had been changed and was informing us that our flight had been delayed by an hour and a half. That wouldn't work because our connection time in Chicago was only going to be 45 minutes. This little incident resulted in our being reticketed for Saturday flights instead. Spending an extra day at home was, by no means, a bad situation. Apparently, all flights in and out of O'Hare were on hold because of terrible thunderstorms. Yikes!

On Saturday, our flight was delayed, yet again. This put us in a very similar situation as the previous day. We did make our flight, though. Mom helped us work out the kinks...it was a little hairy. When we arrived in Chicago, though, we literally had to run- "Home Alone" style (did you like that, Bradford?)- to make our flight. We ran up panting and gasping, just in time to board.

The flight itself was ok; we got to watch a great movie (Extraordinary Measures) and got about 4 hours of frequently-interrupted sleep. When we arrived in Frankfurt, however, we weren't allowed to deplane. Why? Because there had been a medical emergency mid-flight, and the paramedics were coming to retrieve the sick person. It took 20 minutes before we even started to deplane. When we landed in Frankfurt, Amiee and I had about an hour and 20 minutes before our next flight (remember that). However, we really needed to hustle because we hadn't been issued our boarding passes for the last leg of the flight and needed to go check in.

We scurried to get on the shuttle buses that transport passengers from the plane to the airport (European airports do that a lot more frequently than American airports). The ride to the airport was SUPPOSED to take about 2 minutes.

It didn't.

About 45 seconds into the ride, we had an accident! Our driver had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a luggage truck that tried to zip in front of us, and everyone in there (about 100 people- it was a 2-part bus) went flying. We fell into each other, onto the floor, into windows...I slammed into Amiee, she fell into the guy behind her, dominoes-style. Several people were injured, and the ambulance came so that more paramedics could check on things. We were on the bus for another 20 minutes before they put us on a different bus. They didn't immediately move us, however, because quite a few people had to fill out damaged luggage reports because their rolling carry-ons were damaged during the accident. Amiee and I were starting to sweat because we only had 30 minutes to make our next flight.

When we finally reached the building, we discovered that we only had about 25 minutes to change terminals, go through security, find our gate, get our boarding passes, and get on the plane. We started sprinting. Literally sprinting. Our backpacks were weighing us down, but we made time. Frankfurt has the looooongest hallways and many non-functioning escalators. Thankfully, we hit security during a lull and made it through in record time. Seriously? We had to run to catch 2 out of 3 flights.

When we were checking in to get our boarding passes, the gate agent had to call the plane to have them wait on us. Yikes! In a stroke of good fortune, the plane was overbooked, and we got bumped to business class. Make that "business class"- it wasn't incredibly fancy, but we got a tad more space, slightly better food, and the nice flight attendant.

To end our travels, we had some positive things happen like getting through immigration in 5 minutes, having Amiee's bag arrive in about 15, and getting on an earlier-than-expected bus to Poltava. By the time we got home 5 hours later, we were ex-hausted. It was nice to see Nastia and to get home and not be cramped up in a small space or running everywhere. Also, it was nice to finally be able to hydrate; because of all the running and close calls on the flights, we never had time to buy water- and you know how they serve you the tiniest cups of water on flights.

Whew. Glad to be home.

Birthday Eve

I love birthdays. I've had fantastic birthdays over the years, thanks to my mother, friends, or roommates. I've celebrated on at least 4 different continents and have super memories of each- the 4th grade limo ride, the Yemeni hefla, the surprise Senegalese movie, the kidnapping and trip to Lambert's, last year's surprise party with 30+ people crammed into my bedroom. Such good times.

This year, I'll spend my birthday on a bus, traveling to Kiev. I'm heading home this week to be at my sister's graduation (I'm not moving home this week- just visiting). I was kind of bummed about spending the day traveling and figured that I probably wouldn't be able to celebrate at all with my Ukrainian friends. Why, you may ask? Well, in general, Ukrainians have a superstition about celebrating birthdays before the actual day. I think I heard that it shortens your life or something. The point is that they usually don't.

Today, the youth from our church had a picnic (yesterday was Victory Day- sort of like Memorial or Veterans' Day- so most people had today off). I'm not at all outdoorsy, so trekking out into the woods was kind of a sign of how much I love my Ukrainians. I had a good time hanging out, visiting, watching the athletic ones play soccer. Near the end, though, we were about to eat, and I started to notice little subgroups forming. They were looking sneaky and suspicious, but I didn't give it much thought until Vova had the crowd gather round. I thought we were going to pray over the food, but Vova actually gave a little birthday speech, gave me a card from the group, and a bunch of the girls sang a song that they wrote for my birthday! It was so sweet and unexpected. I also got a bag of some of my favorite snack-y foods. It was super. I love my friends.

On the trek to the woods. It was a pretty good hike out there.

This dog followed us for a couple of miles and then hung out at the picnic with us. We named it Rex...only to discover that it's actually a Roxy.

Girls playing volleyball.

In the distance: boys playing soccer.

Where I spent most of my time...

My birthday postcard.

The message. Trust me- it's presh.

The words to my song.

Yes! Bag o' treats.

Собачье сердце

"The Heart of a Dog"

This last week, I spent the night at Ira's and Tanya's. I've done this several times over the past couple years, and it's always fun. This time, Tanya pulled out a Soviet-made movie that she'd found that included English subtitles. The movie is called Собачье сердце, which means "The Heart of a Dog." It is an adaptation of Bulgakov's book with the same name. I'd never read it, but now I'd kind of like to. For some background on the story, click here.

The story is a satire on the Soviet/Communist lifestyle. It was really interesting for me to compare things from that movie with things that I still run across today. The story, though, is about a brilliant doctor/scientist who has been experimenting with transplants among humans. He then decides to attempt a new project wherein he will transplant human organs (from a recently deceased person) into a dog (I am extremely squeamish and had to avert my eyes for this part...). Weird side effects begin to take place, and shockingly, the dog begins a transformation process into a person. He becomes uncontrollable and slovenly and crude and is an embarrassment and burden to the doctor and his assistants. Unfortunately, though, the doctor begins to have his tenuous control over his creation taken away from him by the government and is left with a big mess. In the end, however, he and his assistants resolve the issue, and things end well.

If you have a chance, read a little about this book. It was really rather illuminating for me. Weird, but illuminating nonetheless.

Basically, if it could go wrong...

...it did.

I just had one of those nights. And, it HAD to be my last Intermediate English club. My lesson plan revolved around watching an episode of 'Burn Notice' and following it with carefully chosen discussion topics. I should have know: technology and I are not very often friends.

The first hurdle to overcome was the fact that the room we always meet in had been taken over by another group for some kind of meeting. We then relocated to a secondary room...which was also housing a meeting. Really? Yes. Vova and Tanya graciously agreed to move their meeting into the computer room so that we could use Room #2. While Stas was setting up the projector, however, we encountered our series of issues.

From previous experience, I knew that my laptop and the projector at the Christian Center were not compatible, so I planned on using the church's computer. Stas set everything up and turned to me for the movie, which I had in DVD format. He informed me that the disc drive on the computer wouldn't work but that he'd check for another laptop in the building that might work. I pulled out an old standby activity to use with the class until Stas returned...to say that no other laptops were available.

So, we decided to move to the computer room (kicking out Vova and Tanya yet again) to watch the movie of one of the larger screen computers. Surprise! The computer won't read the disc. Of course.

At this point, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with something to do to keep us going, because did I mention that half of those present spoke pretty good English and the other half almost none at all? Always a challenge.

Well, Nastia came to the rescue with a program that, when downloaded, will allow Ukrainian computers to play American discs. Whew! So, with 15 minutes of English club time left, they say that they do, in fact, want to watch the episode. We do. We go over time, and I had to rush the discussion part.

However, I was able to give some gifts from my heart before we left. This was my last English club teaching by myself, so I gave copies of the New Testament to my students, as a way of expressing to them how much I want them to have the same hope that I have. I don't know how many of them will read it, but I pray they do. It's so important to me, I want them to know the same peace that I do.

So, maybe the evening was salvaged after all. :)

Sunday afternoon

The church I attend here meets on Sunday afternoons; I don't even have to be there until 1:00 pm. I'm getting quite used to it and will probably have a bit of a shock when I get back to the States. After church today, Ira and I played with Radik's and Sofia's daughters (Vlada and Yehva) for a little while, which was so fun! I haven't blown dandelion fuzz in ages! The best part is that neither of them care how wretched my Russian skills are.

Vlada

Yehva and Vlada frolicking.

I found these outside the Christian Center.

Later this evening, I went with a bunch of friends out to a nearby village. We walked for probably a solid hour, but the sights were so cool that I hardly noticed. Come morning, I'll probably really wish that I'd stretched beforehand. We walked out to a dam/beach/area where people camp. Some of us needed to return a little early, and we just barely made the bus! We ran the last little bit and jumped on right as the bus was pulling away. I caught a look at the driver's face, and I promise you- he was laughing! I'm pretty sure that he started pulling away just to watch us run.

The beginning of our trek.

Getting out towards the village.

One thing I love about houses here: they're painted in really fun colors. On this particular outing, I also saw 2 purple houses, 1 pink house, a fire engine red house, and several hunter green houses.

Village church. It's fancy.

The dam. The safety bars are SO not safe. Those things are WOBBLY! Yikes!