Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The Daily Puppy
Now on Ukraine in the Membrane you can not only get a dose of what's up in Ukraine, but also see an adorable puppy. Check out the right side of the page. A special treat for all of my faithful readers.
Monday, July 26, 2010
How I Fill A Day
1. Taught myself how to cross-stitch with youtube videos. I'm making a mouse jumping rope. Don't know what the hell I'm going to do with it when I'm done, but it's pretty adorable. I always wanted to knit, but could never get past the scarf-turned-pot holder (because I get bored with it too quickly) level. Maybe this is more my crafting speed. It's easy and you get instant gratification, at least with a small project like this.
2. Harvesting and eating sweet peas!! My pea plants are finally producing. Everyday I go out and grab a couple hand fulls of delectible stuff. I give them to my dog as a treat from time to time. As it turns out dogs like vegetables and fruit... who knew?
3. Watching Big Love and True Blood. Neither of these is my favorite show ever, but they're entertaining.
4. Meeting with Ukrainians who want to practice their English. I still have to do something productive. For a while I was giving my colleague's grandson private lessons. I need to start doing that again. He's a smart little guy. Half the time I'll plan a lesson, get there and find out that he already knows everything I was going to teach him.
5. Planning my summer trip! My friend Therese is coming to visit me at the end of August! I can't wait to see her. Trying to figure out some cool but inexpensive things to do around here. We'll definitely see Kyiv and either the Black Sea or the Carpathian Mountains. Maybe we'll even make it to Lviv! I still haven't been there and everyone says great things.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
July July Julyyyyy
As predicted, July has been a much more productive month so far.
1. On the 4th of July Becky (my new site mate, ie other Peace Corps Volunteer who lives in my town) and I had a picnic bash down by the river. We came prepared with such American classics as potato salad, pasta salad, cheeseburger bites (adapted from Ukrainian food), ice cream, the Declaration of Independence, and our bathin suits. About six Ukrainians came to partake of our delights. A good and patriotic time was had by all.
2. I went to Ukrainian camp. Twice a year the Peace Corps puts on a camp for volunteers to brush up their language skills. Heading into the week I was pretty intimidated (not gonna lie), but as it turns out there were more camp games and activities than hard-corps (hehe) language lessons. My camp team was called the Zli Bilochki (that's angry squirrels for those of you who can't read poorly transliterated Ukrainian). There was singing of songs, playing of cards, and eating of exorbitant amounts of free food. The holiday of Ivana Kupala fell during camp. This is one of the most fabulous holidays the world around. You sing a bunch, wear flower wreaths on your head, and hold hands with your beloved while jumping over a fire. The superstition goes that if your grip breaks your love was not meant to be. Sadly, I was not jumping over any fires this time around.
3. Baseball camp! Why Ashley, you may be thinking, I thought you were bad at sports and generally uncoordinated. Yes ma'am or sir you would be correct. Luckily, my job at baseball camp was to walk around being an American, something I am extremely good at (not to toot my own horn). Everyday for a week we played two games. I only struck out once! I was on the green team, aptly named the Mojitos. We ended up tying for 5th place out of 6 teams, but we had a good time doing it. One day we all decided to paint Mexican flags on our arms (do mojitos even come from Mexico?). Flag tattoo plus blazing sun equaled a lovely and quite pronounced white rectangle on all of our arms the next day. It's the price you pay for team spirit I suppose.
1. On the 4th of July Becky (my new site mate, ie other Peace Corps Volunteer who lives in my town) and I had a picnic bash down by the river. We came prepared with such American classics as potato salad, pasta salad, cheeseburger bites (adapted from Ukrainian food), ice cream, the Declaration of Independence, and our bathin suits. About six Ukrainians came to partake of our delights. A good and patriotic time was had by all.
2. I went to Ukrainian camp. Twice a year the Peace Corps puts on a camp for volunteers to brush up their language skills. Heading into the week I was pretty intimidated (not gonna lie), but as it turns out there were more camp games and activities than hard-corps (hehe) language lessons. My camp team was called the Zli Bilochki (that's angry squirrels for those of you who can't read poorly transliterated Ukrainian). There was singing of songs, playing of cards, and eating of exorbitant amounts of free food. The holiday of Ivana Kupala fell during camp. This is one of the most fabulous holidays the world around. You sing a bunch, wear flower wreaths on your head, and hold hands with your beloved while jumping over a fire. The superstition goes that if your grip breaks your love was not meant to be. Sadly, I was not jumping over any fires this time around.
3. Baseball camp! Why Ashley, you may be thinking, I thought you were bad at sports and generally uncoordinated. Yes ma'am or sir you would be correct. Luckily, my job at baseball camp was to walk around being an American, something I am extremely good at (not to toot my own horn). Everyday for a week we played two games. I only struck out once! I was on the green team, aptly named the Mojitos. We ended up tying for 5th place out of 6 teams, but we had a good time doing it. One day we all decided to paint Mexican flags on our arms (do mojitos even come from Mexico?). Flag tattoo plus blazing sun equaled a lovely and quite pronounced white rectangle on all of our arms the next day. It's the price you pay for team spirit I suppose.
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