What's Goin' On

On the joyous occasion of my internet acquisition I think I'll do a full update. It's been a while. First of all, I'm sure you're all wondering what this glorious photo looming above the text is. Ponder no more... yesterday, after getting some counsel from my dad, I decided that my sweet peas needed something to do. So I built them a playground... or really some sticks and string to climb up. Garden projects are always so satisfying. Especially ones which involve instant gratification. Speaking of the garden, strawberries are going nuts. Here there are two varieties of fabulous strawberries, clubnike, your average berrie, and sunitsu, a tiny wild strawberry that tastes more like artificial, starburst flavor. Needless to say they taste like heaven. The cherrie tree is also coming into season.

Freddy is growing up into a fine young dog. He bites a lot less now, probably because he's too hot to do that much activity. We go swimming in the river from time to time, and the kids from school love to play with him. The two most adorable kittens in the world are also getting bigger. They lived in the house for about a week, but are banished out of doors again. Our ducklings have transformed into ducks. In no time flat we'll be eating duck al' orange (I probably spelled that wrong, eh). An endless stream of chicks continues to flow through the farm. Now we have two mamma hens sitting on eggs (as opposed to the others that we got at the bazaar). Gotta love fuzzy babies running around.

School is done for the year. (Technically we're feeding the students breakfast on Monday, but basically it's over). To celebrate, I'm taking the overnight train to Kyiv tonight to meet up with the four people that I trained with. Emily, Thomas, and I are going to an exhibit called Miniature Kyiv and then something called Transcendent Sexuality (I think it's an art instillation). Considering the source (Ukraine) this should be interesting. During the soviet years a very popular phrase was "there's no sex in the USSR." Basically it was taboo, probably even dangerous to acknowledge that sex even existed during that time period. Needless to say there are some subsequent sexual hang-ups.

I'm very happy to report that I am 24 now and still tickin. Anya (the lady that I live with) threw me an awesome birthday party, and four of my friends, and my Ukrainian family came over for a huge Ukrainian feast. I learned to make cabbage rolls, we drank moonshine (typical), and danced at the outdoor disco until the wee hours of the morning. It was a fabulous way to get older.

That's life... I'm a happy girl. The sun is shining (I can prove it with my first, and hopefully last, wicked sunburn of the season), the strawberries are tasty, and I'm having an adventure.