Shashlik and THE Disco

I spent a lovely weekend in Morozivka with my host family. Going there is like going back home from college. I eat a ton and get to relax for a couple days.

There were two big hilights from this trip. On Saturday night I went to THE disco with my friend Alie and her host sister. This is a village disco, meaning that it is the equivalent of a townie bar but with blasting techno music, ballin lazer lights and an overactive smoke machine. Needless to say it's a bit hard to describe. When we lived in Morozivka we went to this bar relatively often and people got used to seeing "The Americans" there. At this point we have been gone for about three months and we are super novel again. This time as we were walking in a guy asked if we were from America or Africa (I mean Alie's tall but I don't know where he got Africa from). We ended up talking and dancing with him and his friends for most of the evening. It's a lot more comfortable to be a spectacle when you understand enough of the language to know that people aren't talking trash about you... for the most part. This disco remains my favorite bar in all of Ukraine.

On Sunday my host sisters, Tanya and Galya, Galya's boyfriend and I went to a field and made Shashlik, the best food in all of the world. (We stopped to see the ostrich farm first, a major must see in the region.) Shashlik is pork that has been marinating in spices and onion overnight then put onto skewers and fried over an open fire. It is incredibly tasty and an awesome way to spend the afternoon with friends or family (plus you feel like a cave man when you eat fried meat off a stick around a fire). This is one culinary tradition I am definitely bringing back to America with me. I've said it before and I'll say it again... everything cooked over a fire in Ukraine is delicious.