The 9 days of change and adjustment

After an hour to try to get photos uploaded--it isn't working, so apologies to the lack of color/pictures in this LONG blog....

I am slowly settling in to this new/ancient town of Kremenets in the Ternopil’ska Oblast.  It is much larger than Kulykivka, but it still has that “small town” feel to it.  Ok, maybe more of that “medium town” feel. 

Let’s rewind a couple days, though.  I know it has been awhile since I have updated this blog, so bear (or is it bare?) with me on this long and adventurous post (yes, it will be long—brace yourself because Morgan is about to do some story telling…)

On the rainy morning of the 13th, I had my bags packed and was ready to leave.  Mamma and Katya sent me off the same way as they welcomed me, only this time, it was so vivid.  The first day arriving to Kulykivka it was snowing.  As I stood in the center of what seemed to be “boom town”, I saw Mamma Inna walking on the other side of the street in high heel and I thought to myself – “ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”.  I also remember Tato pulling up in a TINY car with his friend (although I didn’t know who was who—let alone try to figure it out).  They MADE all of my luggage fit… and again, the same thought popped into my mind— “ARE YOU SERIOUS?!” kind of embarrassing, but at least I remember it.  After that, it was pretty much all a blur except for me thinking that Mamma Inna said she has a one year old daughter, which turned out to be 15 year old Katya.  But leaving was a different story….   I knew exactly where I was going, and I knew exactly who I was leaving behind.  Coming, it was all a mystery, but now I honestly felt like I was leaving home all over again.  That thought of “boom town” turned out to be a very warm, friendly, and upbeat place and the center which didn’t seem like such a “center” at first is a place where a lot of my memories in Kulykivka were held. 

Anyways … I said my “see ya laterz” and was off to Kiev.  After several days of “very interesting and fun” meetings (sarcasm), I swore in to become a Peace Corps Volunteer.  It was a great feeling and it is so nice to finally say that I am a volunteer. My host family came to the swearing in ceremony, but unfortunately I had to scadaddle quickly to get to the bus on time to go to the train station.  Olena, the psychologist at the boarding school I will be teaching at…..    Ooops.   Rewind again.

On the 13^th, when I arrived in Kiev, the first thing that was done was site announcements.  The magical time had finally made it to the present- and I found out that I would be going to Kremenets working at a boarding school.   Boarding schools here are different from what I think a boarding school is, so if you are more interested about it, just let me know. 

Ok, fast forward again.  So Olena, is one of my counterparts.   After talking to some PC staff, I realized that it is possible to have many counterparts, which is what seems to be happening.  Olena and I got on the train—we rode Kupe cart (ya—living large!)  J From 7 pm- 2 am we were on the train and from the train station, her son, Sasha picked us up and drove us an hour and a half to Kremenets.  Of course for all of those who know me, I passed out.  Olena practically yelled at me to wake up so that I could see some things on the road (even though at times I didn’t understand what she was trying to show/tell me).  But, once we drove to почаїв (Pochaiv), she woke me up and there I saw this HUGE Monastery and it was absolutely gorgeous.  It was lit up and everything –I felt like I was part of a fairy tale or something! Short story that was turned into a long story short—made it to the school at 3:30 in the morning, carried my luggage up to the 3^rd floor of the dormitory and saw a first glance at my new home for the next 2 years.  I am living in school, in the dormitory section—but my place is amazing!  I have lime green see-through curtains and 2 comfortable beds (there was originally 4, but I took 2 of them out)—what else can I ask for?!  Plus, there is a перегід—(a hallway that connects 2 buildings together) from my dormitory to the school which means that in the wintertime when it is storming—I don’t even need to walk outside to get to work!!!  HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!

Anyways, I have not even been here a week, but honestly I am lonely.  Ian has been such a blessing (a fellow PCV sitemate) with showing me around and making me feel welcomed.  Even though it was a short time we were sitemates, it was definitely worth it. –So Ian, thank you for everything and the best of luck in the future.

It is really hard to live on your own in a different country not knowing anyone, and I know it will get easier and I am sure I will make friends in no time, but man—these last couple days are going by a little too slow.   And, it doesn’t help to not have internet (but, by the time anybody reads this, I would have gotten internet by now).  So this is a little ad:  Anyone who wants to come visit—you have a free place to stay in a very comfortable bed right next to me +  I will even cook you some delicious Ukrainian food (or anything else). 

Just to wrap this up, because I can go on for quite some time, Kremenets is a really cool town.  There is so much history here and I have been enjoying my time learning about it all.   I am still interested to know if there is a Wikipedia thing on it (thanks for getting me hooked Carly and Ryan) because it is really fascinating.  I will make another post sometime soon on the history behind the town if you are interested—or you can check out Wikipedia and see if you find anything.

I guess I am going to wrap this baby up!

Until next time,

Try buying a baguette and a doughnut for under a dollar…

Ya, I did that today!

Love, Mo

Say Farewell... For Now.

The countdown is a whole WHOPPIN 2 days!

In 2 days I say goodbye to my host family of the last 3 months.

In 2 days I need to pack all my stuff and wait to find out the mysterious oblast, region, city/village that awaits my residence for the next 2 years of my life

In 2 days I leave the great town of Kulykivka that has really felt like home.

In 2 days I get to start all over again

In 2 days I am reunited with all the fellow PCTs



All in all, the time flew by so fast and I have NO idea where it went.    Not only is time flying by fast here, but back home as well.   So many friends graduating, getting ready for babies!!, marriages right around the corner, and especially my siblings getting older....   (weird!)

This is a big week for many people, and I know next month will be an even bigger month for some.   Congratulations everyone on their success, completions, and new additions to family.

This Ukrainian sunshine is amazing, and I don't want it to leave as quickly as it came.... but boy do Ukrainians tan nice!!!

Until Next time,
Happy Summer and enjoy the sunshine!

Love Mo.



Please, don't forget to watch this slideshow!   If you have time, it is the summary of some of the things I have done here in Kulykivka in the past 3 months.  (It is in 2 parts until I can find a way to upload it as 1 part)
PST video Pt. 1
PST video Pt. 2

Final Countdown

As I have less than a week until I find out where I will be living for the next two years, and the excitement is starting to kick in!

I will officially be a Peace Corps Volunteer in 9 days!

I just want to give everyone the heads up that I am planning on posting a PST summary slideshow/video before I leave for Kiev, so stay posted!

Until then,

I hope you Nor Cal friends get some nice weather soon!

Love  Mo.

Short and Sweet

The countdown begins.  It is officially 22 days until I find out where I will be placed in Ukraine for my 2 year service, and 25 days when I swear in to become a Peace Corps Volunteer.

I feel like this past week is the week where relationships are finally started to be created.  The first 7 weeks was filled with lesson planning, classes, homework, meeting, etc.  and now that school is coming to an end with no more classes to teach, I have had some time to actually go out in the community and hang out with the kids playing a friendly game of football.

some of the boys I play football with- watching the adults play

I am the person who strongly believes that everything happens for a reason.  I am so thankful for all those years I devoted to soccer.  I have had several people ask me hear as to whether or not I missed playing.  It always caught me by surprise too because I have not really thought about it. But I guess when I first stopped playing competitively, I sometimes felt like I wasted all those years of hard work or that I quit too soon, but really I just started playing a different kind of game, and everyone around the world calls it football. These past couple years I have had the opportunity to connect with kids from around the world by the simple action of kicking a ball.  The nice plus about all those years spent playing soccer is that I am actually half decent (although I am Really REALLY rusty) and the kids enjoy playing with me.  In the town of Kulykivka, there is not one single girls' football team, and it is really weird to see a girl play.  So when I go out on to the field and I am playing with new people, they literally give me a straight up confused look, and even that doesn't describe how funny their faces look.  For all those who know me on the field, all it takes is that one little dance step fake that gets them all to go "OOOOOOOOO" and start actually play.  Anyways, to give everyone the answer to "Do you miss playing?"  The answer is HECK NO.  I am still to this day playing the game I love but am working with kids while I am doing it, and I would not change that in a million years to play competitively.


But to make the title of this blog true to it's name, I will let you all know (which is probably just my grandmother and mom) what are the highlights to my day and the highlights to the past 2 weeks here in Ukraine.

Highlights of a typical day here

our stick figured bodies acting out our Ukrainian dance

• Everyday I walk down my street, there is a dog I named Spot who sprints towards me and then rolls over right by my feet wanting a belly rub.  Apparently the 20 seconds of a belly rub is totally worth it to him to spring a 50 yard dash.  
• Saying Hello to all the Babusyas and Deduces on my street as the respond with something I don't understand or an offer of a shot of vodka.
• My Mamma's home cooked meals every night
• language class being over
• being able to have a 20 minute conversation with my host Mamma without Katya having to "paracladeet" (translate)
• saying hello to the kids/ playing football or some kind of tag/hide and seek game (I still have not fully understood all the rules that they tried explaining to me a million times).
• Ukrainian dance lessons

The "Cool" things I have done in the past 2 weeks

This is Matt Brady in the catacombs everyone!

• 2 weeks ago was Victory Day where we celebrated the victory of WWII and gave our respects and thanks to the veterans. I went to the parade in Kulykivka, and though it wasn't as big as the big cities, it was really neat to see how patriotic this country is.
• I taught my last class (first class by myself, here) to 6th grade.  Taught them environment/ littering/ the 3 Rs/ decomposition.  Though in the beginning I was hoping that the class would be cancelled and I was afraid the whole lesson would go terribly wrong because I didn't have any Ukrainian translations except for the definitions of the material I was teaching.  But, it turned out to be my best lesson, the most fun, and most comfortable.  My Ukrainian language is also well enough where I can make simple commands and get my point across, so it was perfect!  They even LOVED making litter art!!!
• I went clubbing with my host Mamma, and 2 other clustermates and their host moms in Chernihiv.... It was an interesting experience, but NEVER AGAIN.
• English club, I think, is overall successful.  Simon and I are working with 7th grade and the other 3 clustermates are working with 10th grade.  Our 7th grade kids are so into baseball, and Simon and I have been really enjoyed teaching them the game.   It was really neat to see how big of a mess it was the first week, and this past Friday, we actually somewhat played a game.... (making progress= GREAT!)
• After PST University for Youth Development Trainees, I went with the "Kozelets Cluster" to the catacombs.  It was super neat!!  I was also fooled into a joke, which was really funny.  There is a circular part of the catacombs that has a really good acoustic sound, and as we were walking out, I was staring at these 2 girls standing around the circle. She then told us to stand around to fill the circle. This is how the dialog went once we completed the circle:
• Girl:  Do you see?
• Kym (Kozelets girl):  No I don't...
• 2 Girls:  hhhhmmmmmmm (they started to hum--which actually sounded pretty cool)
• Matt Brady:  starts humming too!!
• Me:  Attempted to humm and burst out into laughter.  (I tried keeping my cool so I literally shove my sweatshirt in my mouth, try to refrain from peeing my pants, as well as, figuring out a way to breathe.  Seriously, it was dark, I had no idea what was going on, and I felt soo disrespectful and my laughter was out of control.... I blame it on Matt's humming.
• Me:  I walk away and say "vbachte"- Sorry
• Girl:  It is ok........  *10 seconds pass after me feeling like a terribly rude person*   In a no accent way: It is a joke.
  
  So I know this doesn't really seem like a great story, but if you were there, you would have understood.  it was really neat to get fooled, in such a cool way! 

Anywho,  I have a lot more, but I can't think right now.  

So until next day, 

Put a smile on and enjoy the day!

weekly update

I am back in action on trying to give a blog update once a week with PST.    Though the weeks fly by in a blink of an eye, a lot happens (The actual week flies by, but language class on the other hand, does not).

A lot has been happening at home both good and bad, but I just wanted to let 3 of my great friends Briana, Katelin, and Kirsten know that I am SUPER bummed I missed (Briana)/ missing (Kate and Kirt) your big 2-1, but don’t you worry—I have been practicing a traditional Ukrainian dance to perform for you via youtube (shall be released in about 4 weeks, so stay tuned). 

I told the dance choreographer that I wanted to do something “cool”, other than what were already doing so, I mimicked the hand/leg slapping “stomp the yard” Ukrainian style dance moves.   Apparently it is STRICTLY for men (and I was informed that the gypsies dance like that…—HELLO?!?!  That is what I am talking about! For all of you who thought I was “gypsie-esk”, you are now correct!  I love to dance like a gypsie!!

Dance classes are for sure the highlight of my week.  It is a great stress reliever, culture experience, and just all around FUN!  I am not the lightest person on my feet, but I am working on it. J 

Anyways….

caviar, and delicious food!

Last Monday was the Ukrainian holiday “Heropki”.   I got the pleasure to join my whole host family at the cemetery.  This holiday happens about a week after Easter and it is meant to celebrate ancestors.  At first when I understood that I was going to the cemetery to have a picnic, I was confused, but it was a really cool thing to experience!  The whole town was practically there and everyone brought out their delicious foods: cutlets, pasca bread, delicious veggies, caviar, vodka, wine, and more!  I spent it by “deduyce’s” grave and 2 other people in the family.  The family would lay brightly colored flowers with some Easter eggs, chocolates, and a shot of vodka on the tombstone.  Now that is what I call “pour one out for the homies!”  It was a celebration with everyone and the whole time I had a great warm fuzzy feeling thinking about Grandpa Roth.  This day is not to grieve of them being gone but to celebrate the time that you got to spend with them and to pay your respects, and even though Grandpa Roth’s grave wasn’t there, I sure dedicated this experience to him.  

Celebrating Haropki at the cemetery 

This week I have also dedicated every night to learning how to cook Ukrainian dishes with my host mom.  I have learned how to make Ukrainian “Mamma Inna Style” Borsch, Zapinka, and Plov (pilaf) this week.  The cool thing is, when I realized it was Cinco de Mayo, I was bummin’ out about not being able to eat Mexican food.  I have already been dreaming about food for the past 6 nights, I didn’t want it to be another dream filled with a Mexican buffet with all the hot sauce you can imagine!  I was determined to make some kind of “Mexican” dish.  Going grocery shopping here is way different than in the U.S.   You need to know what store has what, and if you don’t know how to say exactly what you want, good luck because they get everything for you ANNND  they don’t even have everything out on display for you to see.  I came up with the idea to attempt to make enchiladas.  Because of my lack of knowledge on how to cook “Ukrainian” meat (yes it is WAAAAYYY different than buying meat in the store back home), I decided to make vegetarian enchiladas—This was risky especially since my Tato was home and he LOVES meat!  Anyways, to make this short story—well, short,   I went to the bazaar spent 5 minutes trying to direct the lady’s finger to the can of beans that I wanted saying I want the “red can” while everything around it is red as well was not very helpful.  After making a full circle trying to find  “LaVash” which is pretty freakin close to flour tortillas, I was unsuccessful and left the bazaar with all the ladies in the corner laughing at me… (and I have no idea why).  Luckily, my “friend” Sasha was “following” me and once I got out of the store he told me that I could go to the meat shop and find “LaVash” there.  So I said SCORE!

  I went to the meat shop got all the rest of my ingredients and headed home.  I have never actually made enchiladas myself, and cooking in a Ukrainian kitchen is a tad bit different than cooking in my kitchen back home.  Luckily my mamma wanted to learn how to make Enchiladas, so I explained to her in my butchered Ukrainian, how Enchiladas are supposed to taste and how they look along with the general concept of how to make them.  She is a BOMB-ARSE cook, and it was SO cool to make enchiladas with her because she gave me tons of cooking tips while I gave her a new dish.  They turned out Freakin’ amazing and I whooped out my Tapitio sauce and explained to them that they needed to put it on their enchiladas.  It was bomb diggidy, and bean-plentiful.   We are planning on making it again before I leave (but with meat for Tato—and I specified chicken).

As for everything else, all is the same.  

So until next time,

I hope the sun keep sunshinin’ and your face smilin’

Love, Mo

I apologize for all typos in here, I know I should look over what I write, but there is just not enough time right now to do so. I am hoping the internet doesn't shut down in the next 30 seconds!

The bittersweetness of life

Grandpa and Halia on our birthday in 2008

It has been a very sad and tough couple of weeks.  Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to Grandpa Roth (even though it is comforting to know he is no longer in pain).  I am so lucky to have so many good memories with him as well as having such a good relationship with him.  Fortunately, I was able to talk to him while I was out here to fill him in on all my wonderful stories.  Before I came out here, I was able to spend a lot of time with both him and Grandma.  After watching him work on his stamp collection several times, I have decided to officially start collecting stamps myself!  Don’t really know how he did it, but it has already been an interesting adventure trying to find stamps here. 

(Bear with me-- I am taking you on a wild ride of tangents and very poor English)  The Thursday before Easter, I attended the Russian Orthodox Church in town for “Clean Thursday”.  After cleaning myself I put on a nice outfit, a scarf on my head, and was on my way!  I was uninformed that I would be standing for a 2+ hours for the whole service, the choice of trying to “fit in” and wear heels was rather a very uncomforting choice, but nevertheless, church was very interesting and a great cultural experience.  Easter Sunday, Kate (my host sister) woke me up at 3 in the morning so that we could get ready to go to church to bless the food. 

"Pasca" bread (easter bread)

The tradition here is to take a basket filled with: Pasca bread (Easter bread), meat, eggs, and other goods to take to the church in order to get it blessed.  After the church service/blessing is over, everyone goes back home with their baskets and candles lit where they then eat the food that was blessed before returning to bed. Once I woke up, I ate some more and then relaxed a bit.  It wasn’t long after that my host mom told me to grab my soccer ball (yes I already bought a ball) and to get ready to go into the “woods” for a picnic!  The Easter celebration picnic was wonderful!  It was spent with friends and their families and all in all it was great company.  We played a lot of games, ate tons of food, and took just as many pictures.  After the sun started to set, I quickly rushed home so that I could skype my family.  Though it has been a really hard/sad time for everyone in the family, it was nice to talk with them and be somewhat of a part in the Easter celebration.  Thanks to technology I was able to watch them as they sat and ate brunch, while I sat and typed up a lesson plan for my healthy lifestyles class. 

Easter Picnic!

Also, in the past 2 weeks, I have had the best classes and the worst.  Fortunately, I know that even when the whole lesson fails, it isn’t the end of the world simply because all the kids love the fact that they are being taught by Americans.  Teaching in Ukrainian to me is very silly.  I don’t know if they understand the information that I am trying to teach them but no matter what they say I just kind of nod my head and say “Mulidets!”  

Kate and I "doing" HW

It is crazy to think how PST is already becoming crunch time.  In the next 4 weeks we need to successfully put on a Benefit concert for the abused kids in town so that they can attend the rockin’ summer camp that is held in Kulykivka.   As part of training we are required to put on a summer camp in town.  The funny thing is Kulykivka already has a kickin’ summer camp full of fun, games, competitions, and trophies.  We still don’t know what we are going to do with our summer camp, but we are keeping all options open.

We have successfully got the Benefit started.  June 4 will be a wonderful community concert full of Americans doing a traditional Ukrainian dance (yes, us Americans), Americans performing along side with all the Ukrainian talent that is in this town.  We have got the go-ahead by Culture Palace (where it will be held), administration, school, and we are still trying to figure out all the logistics with where exactly the money will go/ how it will be distributed before we talk to Social Services and Department of Youth. 

We actually had out first dance class today and it was rather entertaining watching all my clustermates on the dance floor.  Once we arrived to dance class, I was visioning us in the small dance room that I saw when we went to tour the place, but we were treated like stars again and were rehearsing on stage!  I now understand why Halia loves to perform on stage—it was quite fun!

So all in all, everything here is going well.  It is now high speed and I am sure before I know it training will be over.  I have 2 more lessons to teach, summer camp, 3 English club meetings, and a benefit concert to put on (on top of all the language classes of course.  The sunshine is now out, and everything here is turning green and absolutely gorgeous!  Though it has been tough to be away from family with Grandpa passing away, I am extremely happy to be utilizing his “wanderlust” gene that he has passed down to me.  But family, I hope you enjoy the bitter sweet time together.  Wish I could be there with everyone!

Until next time,

God bless America

thank you for the wonderful words friends.  I have posted them on my wall

These are my cluster mates, everyday for about 6 hours...  They are special...

Time is going by so fast, yet so slow at the same time.  I am about to throw up the language.  It is like the feeling of stuffing your face so fast with food that the food actually never makes it down to your stomach so you throw it up.  I am getting some of the language stuff down to the stomach area of the brain, but there is so much information in a traffic jam pretty much stuck between my eyeballs.  I was given the advice to take everything a day at a time and that is exactly what I am trying to do. 

Each day there has either been an interesting encounter, a lesson learnt, a big laugh, some GOOD food (or sweets), or just language class(it is VERY rare to have only a 4 hour day of just lesson class….- it has happened once).

Here are a little bit of some memorable moments…

 mom's friend, mom, me, kate, luda, robin, and simon

Got meat? 

The day I went on a picnic…  My one day off Kate told me that we would be going on a picnic!  I was so excited to go do something outside, that didn’t require me to dress up, study Ukrainian, or try to figure out where the heck I was.  After watching Titanic in Russian,  Kate, me, my host mom and her friend grabbed all the “supplies” for our picnic and we were on our way.  When Kate told me picnic, I thought “delicious sandwiches, maybe some cookies, juice, and some fruit!”  We walked down the street, past the stadium, and into the trees we went!  After about 10 minutes of walking around to find the perfect spot, we set our stuff down. Robin, another PCT, and her host mom met up with us shortly after we got there. My host mom told me to start gathering sticks.  I never know what is going on EVER, so this feeling of confusion didn’t surprise me. .. I am going to get straight to the point so you are not reading for days.  We went on a picnic, built a fire, and my mom cooked shish cob abs (sp?) over the fire that she built from scratch (ya, no big deal or anything!).  This meat was PHENOMENAL!!  It tasted kind of like the duck poppers my uncle makes.  I don’t know what kind of meat it was because I told my family that it would be best if they not tell me what kind of meat I am eating.  Along with our delicious shishcobabbed (I really have no idea how to spell this word) meat, we had some nice greasy sausage, compote (like juice made from fruits sitting in boiled water, I think), pickles, and of course you can’t forget the bread!!  I whooped out my hacky sac and Kate, Luda, Robin, Simon and I started playing.  Kate sucks at it, but that it ok, she just reminds me more and more of my sister J.

The day I left without a “jacket” …  After a Sunday of great “fall” weather and a pleasant picnic, I had a presumption that the next day would be the same!  As I was getting ready to walk out the door I was debating whether or not to put on my winter jacket.  I decided I would check outside to see what the temperature was—I thought “warm enough, a sweatshirt will suffice!”   2 hours pass after language class where we then started walking to the school to grab some lunch, when I walk outside I found it to be easily 10 degrees colder than it was earlier that morning.  Stupid me…  I wasn’t “freezing” but I was a little uncomfortable.  Once I got home that evening, the first thing my host mom asked me was “did you have a jacket today?”….   that is what I get for living in a small town.  I was then told that I can never leave the house without zipping up my jacket so that I don’t get sick.   Lesson learnt: don’t leave the house without a winter jacket even if it seems like it will be nice and living in a small town—world travels faster than you can walk.

The day I found something BETTER than ketchup…  I thought I was growing apart from ketchup, being able to go without it for long periods of time, but I was wrong.  After 2 long weeks of eating a whole lot of potatoes without my best friend Ketchup at my side has been difficult.  When I eat those plain potatoes in the school cafeteria, I imagined what it would taste like with some ketchup on it or at least some spice.  Well, I never thought I would say this, but I found something better than Heinz ketchup.   It is called “Torchin” Chili sauce and it is DA BOMB!  It is spicy and ketchup put into 1 successfully!   I have had spicy ketchup before and it has never been better from the original ketchup, but this I tell you, it absolutely delicious!  I told Kate that I was going to buy a whole entire box filled with this stuff! (I don’t think she took me seriously).  All I can say is, bring on the potatoes as long as I get to bring my friend Torchin Chili Sauce with me.

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The day I felt like a celebrity…  Last week we went to the school to see a performance they were putting on for us PCTs.   Once we got there, I felt like a celebrity.  I walk in the doors only to see many people in traditional Ukrainian outfits greet me along with giving me bread dipped in salt (a Ukrainian tradition). This entire school performance was dedicated to us Americans.  It was awesome.  Listened to live traditional Ukrainian music, listened to multiple singers, got a brief educational lesson on the school’s history ( I didn’t understand much of it though), and then after all the performances, I got to stand up in front of everyone and introduce myself in Ukrainian.  The introduction was the notecard pictured in my previous blog.  After the performance, we got interviewed for the Kulykivka newspaper—which made it to the front page apparently (I have no actually seen it).

The day I cooked my first meal in Ukraine… After finding out that my mom does not like to cook, I asked Kate if she would want to make dinner with me.  After agreeing, the two of us opened up the Babusia cookbook PC gave us.  After trying to figure out what to make, we came to the realization we had no food except potatoes and meat (what kind, I don’t know but it was really bloody looking…) we decided to make Gnochi with a white sauce.  It turned out alright for first time cooks, and our mom “loved” it!  Kate and I made a good team.  I somewhat knew what I was doing, and she was pro at cutting potatoes in her hand.  She had finished cutting (peeling) 10 potatoes right as I finished cutting 1.  It is scary cutting stuff right in your hands!!!

The day I was “ill”… I have been having some stomach issues the past couple days which have not been horrible, but just a little uncomforting.  On top of stomach issues, the weather has not made me feel any better.  Plus, I am still not the greatest in terms of “dress”.  I always seem to wear the wrong thing on the wrong day, and it is getting really frustrating.  When I went into town (Chernihiv), I had 4 layers on.  Definitely thought I would be OK.  My host mom told me that it was going to snow and it is windy and that I should put more clothes on.  After 5 minutes of insisting that I would be fine I embarked on my super journey of “I told you so”.  Once we arrived in town, it was cold.  I mean COLD! As my cluster group was browsing around in the wonderful Outdoor market, all I was thinking about was how cold I was and I should have listened to my mom (it gets better).  After our errands and lunch we headed to the bus stop to catch the bus.  Hmmm… funny thing—It never came!  After over an hour of standing/sitting in the cold, we decided to take the train back home.  I got home and my mom kind of chuckled and did the “I told you so” look.  I had 5 minutes to eat before I had to go outside again to walk to the concert that we got to go to for free (that is a story in itself).  Once I got home around 9, my sister kept asking me why my eyes were red.  I was trying to say that they were my contacts but, my mom and sister SWORE that I was ill.  Well, lucky for me, I got to do a cultural activity.  My mom put hot boiling water in a bucket along with some delicious fruity smelling bath salts.  My sister then went on to explain to me that I will be sticking my feet in the bucket of hot boiling water to get rid of my “illness”.  What I did was tap my feet on the water until it finally got used to the temperature.  Once after about 5 minutes, my feet hit the bottom of the bucket and I was able to keep them there without screeching from pain of it being too hot.  Lucky for me, my mom brought the whole entire tea kettle into the family room so that once I got used to the water, I could add more boiling hot water.  Yay me!!!  After about 15 minutes total of this, I was told that my feet were  gooood and that I could be done.  As I said goodnight, Kate sternly told me that I need to keep my feet inside my blankets tonight and pull the covers up all the way.  Lesson learnt: seriously listen to the mamma.  She always knows best.  New Cultural experience: the boiling bucket of water to cure illness activity!

Anyways, to wrap things up, everything is going well with me on this side of the country and each day has been very memorable.  I will save the good story for a post of its own.

Macar loves Rusty!!

Well….

Until next time,

Я хочу чилі соус з мої картопли будь ласка

Love, Mo