I bought 2 zucchinis the other day at the store (should have bought them at the bazaar but the bazaar was closed by the time I got to go to the store). I have been looking at different vegetarian/vegan recipes lately (that still sound weird to say...) and stumbled across this one: Zucchini patties. I purchased the other ingredients I needed (I'm embarrassed to say it was the first time I've actually ever bought an onion. In my life. Not just in Ukraine. My mom is probably about to faint reading that.) and have been putting off making it...probably because I was a little scared. I decided to add carrots to the recipe but skip the mushrooms. Still can't eat those very well (texture thing). So, this morning, I decided I was going to make them for lunch. No way out of it. And I did...and they were fantastic. I was too lazy to take pictures of the process but believe me, it was one! I planned on documenting the whole thing until I started cutting up the onion which made me start crying and at that point I was mad and didn't want to document it anymore. So, I made little zucchini meatballs and zucchini patties...and for lunch I had a zucchini patty with tomato sauce on a piece of lavash (think tortilla) and a little feta cheese. The feta cheese is not vegan but I bought it before and it needs using up. The entire process of prepping, cooking, and cleaning up took at least an hour which meant I had to rush for work and ended up taking a marshrutka to work as opposed to walking. This is where the weird Ukraine story number 1 takes place.
I got on, following a lady, and the only two seats open are at the back of the marshrutka. I debated about even going back to sit down because it's a giant hassle to get out from the very corner seat and make your way up to the front of the marshrutka when 10+ people are standing in the aisle. That's why the PCVs here call it marshrutka dancing. So, I sat down. And the lady next to me asked where I was getting off. I told her at school #4 (in Russian). She didn't know where that was...and when I couldn't think fast enough (in Russian) to think of another landmark by my work, she took that to mean that I had no idea where I was going at all. She nudged the guy sitting on the other side of me and instructed him to alert the driver when school #4 was. It was all incredibly embarrassing and I just wanted to blend in and not be the American. It was very nice of the lady to make sure I knew where I was going, but when the ENTIRE marshrutka is staring at you...it can be a little stressful.
So, my other odd Ukraine story happened when I was waiting for my counterpart this afternoon. I was sitting on a park bench in a town square waiting for Olena under a tree. The tree is a typical one here in Ukraine that has these little balls with spikes all over them. I was people watching with my sunglasses on...when one of these little balls (see picture below) fell on me and busted open.
I squealed because my first reaction was that it was a bug, but then I realized that it actually hurt a little bit. After texting my friend Catharine and telling her this story, she said, "I don't know what is funnier--that one hit you and you screamed or that you didn't know it was a chestnut. Guess they don't have them OK? :)" Ha. We may have them in Oklahoma but I sure never noticed them before. At that point I was laughing pretty hard. But, this wasn't even my weird Ukraine story. The second part of the story is that as I'm sitting there waiting for Olena, a group of girls (around my age) came over and decided to take over the bench that I was sitting on...while they all were on their smoke break. Only in Ukraine would this happen where it's regarded as strange not to smoke. I eventually got up and moved, but waited a couple of minutes so that it wouldn't seem like I was moving just because of them.
These are typical days for me now :) getting hit on the head with spiky plants and being constantly surrounded by a could of smoke! I'm off to Kiev this weekend for my first Healthy Lifestyles Working Group meeting. A lot of my friends are also running in the Kiev marathon...so it should be a big PCV get-together all weekend long!
1 comment:
Never saw a chestnut tree until I got to Ukraine, even though it seems that every town in Alabama has a "chestnut" street. Someone told me that the chestnut or "kashtan" trees in the states were mostly wiped out by blight years ago. That's too bad, because they are truly beautiful in autumn. Take care,
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