Surprise! Look who came to visit...

That's right, folks!  Mom and Pops graced Ukraine with their wonderful presence.  It was fabulous. Simply fab.

Their trip started off in Germany visiting some friends from our Alabama days.  Those friends now live in the picturesque, mountain town of Garmisch, Germany.

one of the views from their house...not too shabby, eh?

Soooo pretty.

After a few days in Germany, they came  to Ukraine and we were reunited for the first time in just over a year :) I ended up surprising them at the airport, which was a welcomed surprise because they didn't have any grieven {Ukrainian currency} yet and would need some to pay for a taxi.  I am still recovering from pneumonia and maybe mono as well {a whole 'nother story in and of itself}, so most of their trip, I sat around a lot of the time and let them do the exploring.  My energy levels are nowhere near where they used to be, but I'll talk about illnesses in a different post.  I'll let the pictures do the talking today.

One of the entire reasons for them coming--Ukrainian pysanka eggs {click here if you don't know what they are}.  Mom was in heaven when she saw this giant one in K-grad.

Visit to the host fam's home in Oster. 

Mom, Pops, Andrei, Gala, and Christy

Pops was most shocked at the amount of dishes I wash by hand on a daily basis. 

Mom got to go in the root cellar at the host fam's house.  I was never allowed to go down there because it was too cold...guess that rule doesn't apply to moms? :)

Pops was most excited to go to the post office in Oster and mail post cards.  I was less than thrilled on that dreary, cold day.

We didn't take much luggage to Oster.  Important things that were left behind when we needed them: gloves.  Mom and I shared a pair of mittens while walking around Oster on the coldest day of the trip.

One-mittened Lydia, outside of the gymnasia school where I taught during training.

dinner in K-grad with some of my fellow k-gradders.  

Angie, her mom Dorothy {who also happened to be in town for Easter!}, Mom, Lydia, Vicki, Dan, Pops, and Phil

this picture deserves a post in and of itself.  Photo credit goes to mom. See if you can find something that doesn't belong...

doing pysanky eggs at my office

obligatory pic with the map in my office, and counterpart, Olena

the kittens were born while my parents were here too.  

SO SO SO cute.

Easter meal at Olena's

"The Frost's Take Ukraine"--could be a book.

Pops needed a pic of me with my OU wall art.  

This is what I did most of the trip.  Rest.  

on their last night of the trip, Mom trimmed my hair...this was the first time I've had it cut {other than me chopping off my bangs} in over a year.  

good job, Mom!

Obviously, there's lots more to elaborate on, but this gives you a good overview of their stay :)  they arrived back in Oklahoma last night safe and sound.  Gotta get to work now...toodles!

One last thing...we got to watch some of the kids from my work practice in their dance class.  They are amazing.

home sweet home :)

I'm finally back to my apartment in K-grad :)  It is great to be back.  There's not much else to say than I'm very glad to be home again!  Had blood work done this morning at PC and then went to lunch with Phil at a nice Italian restaurant in Kiev (he had to come get some paperwork done for the day). Our marshrutka ride home was one for the books...it started snowing on the way home and practically turned into a blizzard for a little while.  And, the road between K-grad and Kiev has gotten so bad that the pot holes span an entire lane.  This means that the driver is swerving back and forth for minutes on end.  After finally making it home, I was greeted with one of the sweetest care packages...but not from the states!  This care package came from my lovely and sweet site mates--Dan and Vicki :)

homemade cornbread, chili, chicken noodle soup, bread, butter, and a red pepper. 

Some of the food was still WARM (ie, fresh out of the oven) when Dan brought it over.  I could barely wait 5 minutes to dig into the chili and cornbread.  I'm full and tired and ready to curl up in my own bed for the first time in almost a week!  So excited.

Much love,
Lydia

P.S.  My water is off at the moment.  Lovely surprise to come home to.  I think my landlady turned it off...but I don't know how to turn it back on.  Wah wah.  Let's hope she comes and turns it on tomorrow :)  toodles

Sick. Round 2.

A I lay here in bed (which has been my activity for the past 3-4 days), I thought I'd give y'all a quick update on my illness.  My viral infection came back with vengeance last night at 2 am.  I was actually feeling decent all day yesterday, thinking that I was on the up-mend.  I didn't take a nap yesterday (because I started reading Twilight and started watching Desperate Housewives Season 1)...and wasn't really tired in the middle of the day.  But, by 7 or 8 pm, I was spent.  I crawled in bed and passed out until 1 am.  I didn't really have a temp all day yesterday which was a plus.  But, at 1 am I woke up freezing and feeling sooo achy and gross. I ended up taking a bath for 2 hours.  Debated about calling the Peace Corps Medical Office at 3 or 4 am, and decided that I could survive until 6 or 7 am.  Tried to fall back asleep then...and wait until I could call the doc.  

The doc on duty this week (there are 5 PC doctors--all trained in Western Medicine and with as good English as I have...if not better.  Every week, a doctor is "on duty" and has the emergency cell phone that must get countless phone calls at all hours of the night...sucky part of the job I'd say.) is Dr. Yuriy. He's been helping me since Monday when I called them and said helppppppp I'm dying.  Not really, but you get the idea.  I might have a tendency to exaggerate things when I'm sick (my mom is probably laughing at that statement), but I guarantee you, I literally thought I needed to go to the hospital this morning.  I even texted Phil at 4 am and told him that I might need his help in the morning.  Being the good friend he is, he responded back within MINUTES.  Pretty sure my sitemates are better than yours... :) moving on.

So, Dr. Yuriy was alert at 6:30 am this morning when I called him.  He told me it sounded like my viral infection was going to make a second go round today.  I've had a fever around 100 for most of the day.  I called my counterpart at 7 am and told her that I was feeling horrible again.  We had agreed the day before that my landlady would be coming to get my rent money today.  Olena said she'd come 15 minutes before my landlady should be here and that I could just lay in bed...which is exactly what I did.  

Phil brought me food and Sprite to drink...because I'm quite tired of drinking unending amounts of water.  Apparently, it was a foreign thing for Olena to hear that Americans drink Sprite to settle an upset stomach.  Apparently, the Ukrainian fix for that is kefir, which Wikipedia defines as "a probiotic fermented milk drink made with kefir grains."  I've accidently bought kefir once in Ukraine and will never buy it again.  I can't imagine drinking that stuff for pleasure, let alone when I feel like crap.  I had to laugh at this cultural difference though because Olena thought I was nuts for requesting she stop and get me a Sprite, and I thought she was equally nuts for telling me to drink the world's nastiest milk concoction.  

I'm over 60% done with Twilight now (purchased on Valentine's Day for the Amazon.com "deal of the day" for $2.99).  Let's just say I feel like a teenage girl as I wonder what will happen next, even though I've seen the movies. I started it yesterday and have yet to watch any movies or tv shows today.  You could say I'm a bit enveloped.  

Let's hope that this viral infection makes it final comeback today. I have barely turned on my comp the past few days, which shows you just how crappy I feel.  Toodles.

Lucky.

It has been raining in K-grad for a few days...and by raining I mean literally some form of precipitation all day long.  Sometimes it's sprinkling.  Sometimes it's misting.  Sometimes it's actually raining.  Whatever form of precip is coming from the sky, it's making me not want to go outside because the roads are giant puddles.  I think today might be the 5th day of rain in a row...and as Phil pointed out to me last night, "If it were colder, do you realize how much snow we would have?"  The thought had crossed my mind too.  It is unseasonably warm here...some days it's even been in the 40's.  But, I just looked at the weather and tomorrow it may get cold enough to snow.  We'll see what happens...but rest assured I'll have my camera ready to capture my first real Ukrainian snow :)

This past weekend was Ukrainian Christmas.  I was invited to go partake in Christmas festivities with my counterpart and her fam, but having been sick for a week and finally having a voice back made me want to stay home.  Since it was a holiday weekend, there is no work today.  That also means my gym was closed today.  I'm actually really excited to go back after having missed it for a week...and no, I'm not only excited for a real shower (although that does sound lovely too...).  

I made homemade pizza today for lunch...with green olives and corn.  I'm laughing out loud right now as I type that because it sounds like the weirdest combination ever...and it kind of is.  However, I really love it.  Ukrainians put corn on their pizza like Americans put pepperoni.  I didn't understand this at first, but I've grown to love it.  And, since it's raining, I didn't want to go to the store just to get a tomato or some other topping.  So, I improvised with what I had at home.  Scrumptious.  

As I was standing in the kitchen cooking, I looked out my window and saw my fave dog crossing through my courtyard.  I quickly opened the window and called for it to come over so that I could feed it. This is the tricky part though.  I now keep hot dogs in my fridge to feed to the dogs that I like that come through my apartment complex.  But, if I see them through my kitchen window, I have to run through the hall, to my living room/bedroom, open the sliding door (which isn't always easy), run through the living room/bedroom, open the balcony door, open the refrigerator door (yes, it's outside on my balcony), grab the hot dogs, run all the way back through the apartment hoping that the dog is still sitting there.  I can't tell you how many times I've done this when the dog doesn't understand what "hold on a sec!" means, and I come back to my kitchen window, only to find the dog halfway across the yard again, not coming back.  But, the doggie today stayed around.  I've named him/her Lucky.  She's black with a little white fur on her chest and a little white on her paws.  The first time I saw this dog was when Mitchell was here and we were taking a train to Kiev.  She was in the train station (yes, in the station) and was so sweet looking that I ended up giving her a granola bar (that she didn't eat).  Her fur is kinda longish but looks super clean and feels freshly brushed.  Maybe she belongs to someone.  I see her around town about every week.  When Maria was in town a few months ago, we saw her downtown one night, so we ran into the supermarket a bought some hot dogs to give to her.  Today, her fur was completely soaked and she looked pitiful as I fed her from my window.  Oh, how I wanted to bring her into my apartment.  Don't worry mom and pops, I didn't.  

Probably going to venture across the street to get a few staples for the week.  I think I might make split pea burgers again this week...toodles :)

PS--the best part of feeding Lucky hot dogs?  Ukraine sells hot dogs individually wrapped in a slick package...aka, they are very hard to open.  This vegetarian girl gets hot dog juice and guts under my fingernails every time I open one of the packages.  The things I do for a dog...

Auntie Anne's.

For as long as I can remember, I've loved soft pretzels.  The best kind were usually from Auntie Anne's in the mall as they tempt you with the smell of gooey butter and salt.  However, I often got pretzels at OU football games (not very good) or at the softball field when I watched the McFarlin boys play during the summer months.  Or, I would eat the soft pretzel brand found in the frozen section at Target or Wal-Mart.  Regardless of where I ate them in the states, I can't buy them here in Ukraine.  Ukraine has lots of good breads that I indulge in, but pretzels are not one of them.  So...to google and pinterest I went.

I pinned this recipe the other day.  However, upon further inspection, I do not have a bread maker here in K-grad.  Back to the drawing boards (or google).

I finally found this recipe which looked promising.  And, bonus, I had all of the ingredients in my kitchen.  Winner winner, chicken dinner (can anybody name that movie quote?).

As I made the pretzels (overall, a very easy and simple recipe), I even documented the process...just for the blog :)

dough waiting to rise...

After I got the dough finished and ready to rise, I headed to the store across the street to try and get the ingredients for nacho cheese, which eventually turned into an epic fail.  They didn't have cornstarch (to my knowledge, and I even had the Russian and Ukrainian words for it).  The recipe I had for nacho cheese required condensed milk (recipe here), and when I thought I was buying regular condensed milk, it was in fact chocolate condensed milk.  Cultural moment for Lydia.  I still tried to make the recipe...not with the chocolate condensed milk.  With regular milk.   You'll see in a bit...continuing on with the photo story:

after an hour...

starting to make the pretzel bites...

You drop the bites into simmering water for 30 seconds, then transfer to the cookie sheet.  I dropped mine in a bowl of melted butter after the simmer time, then dusted with salt.  HIGHLY recommend this part of the process :)

the first two bites!  success!

minus the bottoms sticking...

Cooking in a toaster oven is a tricky business the first time you try a recipe.  The heat is SO much more concentrated in such a small area, that things can burn very quickly.  See pictures above.

I think I eventually cooked these at around 150 C for 5-6 minutes.  The butter definitely helps this part of the process because they won't stick to the bottom...

Voila!  :)

I froze the rest of the dough (thanks for the suggestion, Mom!) so that I wouldn't eat all of them during this one sitting.  However, I wanted some for dessert tonight.  But, I didn't want to wait for them to defrost.  Gonna have to plan ahead better tomorrow...

And in case you're interested in what my failed attempt of nacho cheese looked like...

It actually tasted decent, but looked disgusting.  Ukraine does not have the right kinds of cheddar cheese for this...

It rained most of the day today, which meant that when I went to dinner tonight with Phil, Dan, Vicki, and Angie (who lives in a village about an hour and a half away), I got to wear my PINK RAIN BOOTS :)  Any excuse to wear those things that scream, "I'm an American!" makes me laugh.  People literally start at my feet and scan my whole body trying to figure out what the heck I'm wearing.  

I'm about to start the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tonight. Who's read this?  I don't even know what it's about, but it's a phenomenon I'm jumping into.  Toodles :)  enjoy your Friday night!

From the sick bed of Lydia...

I slept for over 10 hours last night, which tells you how good I was not feeling.  I called the PCMO (Peace Corps Med. Office) to find out what I should start taking because I had a feeling my lack of a voice was not going to cure itself.  I also have a pesky cough that I am trying to keep under control too.  I feel pretty good except for the fact that my voice comes and goes every hour...and the annoying cough.

Dan and Vicki (the married couple that now lives in K-grad, part of the newest group of volunteers) came by to pick something up at my apartment, and also brought me some great homemade pasta salad :)  I needed to get out of the apartment though, so I made the trek down to the post office and to pay my internet bill (all $10 USD!).  I am still waiting on Christmas/birthday packages to arrive, so every day I hold my breath that one of them will arrive.  None were there today, but I got an unexpected envelope, complete with handwriting I instantly recognized!

That, my friends, is the handwriting of one of my sweet interior design friends who was brave enough to try Russian cyrillic letters!  Out of all of my friends and family back home (besides my parents who can write in Russian cursive), Kristen would be the one person whom I would guess would try her hand at the handwriting!  All of the hours and hours we spent working on our handwriting in college finally paid off.  

Side-story: In our freshman year of college, we would get graded on our handwriting.  No joke.  I can remember hovering over my drawing board with a 60 degree triangle, practicing my slant of letters.  If you got a C on the weekly writing assignment, you had to re-do it to make you practice more.  Let's just say that I got to practice mine a LOT.  I would spend a few hours writing an excerpt from Harry Potter, only to get it back the next day with a note to re-do it.  You eventually develop your own style of architectural handwriting, but man does it take some practice.  I love my architectural handwriting now...and when people over here learn the story that I got GRADED on it, they think I'm nuts.  Thanks, Dave and Janet...for making me keep practicing :)  

Moving on, inside Kristen's wonderfully written envelope was her and Grant's (always adorable) Christmas card.  This years design did not disappoint!

Their adorable pup, Dexter

Sorry for the grainy pic...I was lazy with my iphone :)

I'm 99% sure Kristen designed the whole thing.  That's one of her talents :) and Grant is a pretty mean photo-shopper too!  He might have helped with the process!

After my walk downtown, I took a marshrutka up to Phil's apartment to give him a receipt I need turned in for reimbursement.  Then, it was time to curl up in bed again and watch a movie.  I treated myself to Something Borrowed earlier today. Now, I'm about to finish up Crazy, Stupid, Love.  That's a record for the number of movies I've watched in a good while...especially in one day!  Both movies were recommendations from my number one movie go-to advisor: Miss Kendall Haney.  She never disappoints me with things that I'll like.  After all, she's the person who introduced me to Glee.  Enough said. I've also been watching Passion conference stuff live...which you can do here.  Pretty amazing stuff.  Stay tuned for a special post tomorrow about Passion...

So, I'm still lacking motivation on doing a giant entourage of pics from vacation and celebrations.  But, I'm slowly getting them uploaded to my laptop.  Which means, you'll get little teasers here and there until I finally bite the bullet and just start uploading like crazy!  Without further ado, I give you a performance from my work.  This performance was last Tuesday, December 27, 2011.  This is in our performance hall at work and features dancers from our studio.  I have tons more video footage...so get ready.  They definitely liked rockin' out to old America tunes.  Enjoy!!

My Christmas Poem :)

Every year, my good ol' Pops writes my mom, my brother, myself, and now my sister-in-law a Christmas poem.  This has been going on for at least 35 years...maybe longer?  It's a Frost Family tradition to have it read on Christmas Eve or Christmas day, no matter how far away you are.  So, although my Christmas yesterday was one of the books, I ended up being able to skype with the fam (at 2 am my time nonetheless) and hear my Christmas poem!  Pops outdid himself this year.  Every Frost Family poem usually requires a lot of time on Pops' behalf, but also a lot of thinking about important/funny/random things that happened that year.  This years poem has to do with the Peace Corps (of course), so without further ado...

One Surprise After Another 

Your mom thought Africa was where you’d have to go;

She didn’t know you’d end up where they have a lot of snow.

You took a hush-hush trip to Dallas, driven there by Scott,

But afterwards, what you could tell us was really not a lot.

“What’s Lydia gonna do?” folks asked 10 times a day,

And all 10 times we’d shrug and simply not know what to say.

We’d say, “She’s working here for Cathy…now and then”—

“We’ll know more later on…but we’re just not quite sure when.”

All that was in 2010—the PC takes its good time choosing

While candidates spend theirs just wondering and musing.

But then, word comes that thrills your very being—

You’re in!  Eastern Europe!  So you go…skiing.

You’ll take your brother and good friend Jill,

Hoping they won’t have a spill.

Ol’ Pops can send you Peace Corps papers

While you’re up north pulling skiing capers.

You’re skiing, but you want to know—

Where is it that you’re gonna go?

Mom’s in the car—I’m in the house,

And you’re as quiet as a mouse.

The FedEx man has brought the news,

Which means that soon you have to choose:

Have me send it…the question’s how…

Or have me open it and find out now.

Up in New Hampshire, you think a minute

About the packet and what is in it—

It isn’t long…the die is cast.

You vote to learn your fate at last…

My knife cuts through the envelope

While all that you can do is hope—

I rush to ease your aching brain…

And tell you…it will be Ukraine!

  

Before we know it, you’re in Oster,

A faraway place on a distant shore,

Learning Russian in a hurry,

With new words coming in a flurry.

For forty years I taught that tongue,

But you were bored when you were young.

I failed your appetite to whet—

You knew no more than да and нет.

You used to ask me…”An adjective’s what?”

You really didn’t know diddly-squat

When it came to English grammar and such

And didn’t want to discuss them much.

Somebody asks, “Is that the dative?”

“No clue,” you say, “I’m just a native.”

Participles, verbs, or nouns

To you are terms that just cause frowns.

But you can get around по-русски

And hang with Phil and have a brewski.

You buy your tickets at the station,

And you can navigate that nation.

It’s not your most important care

Whether you have to wash your hair.

You’ve learned to cook, but here’s the catch—

Most things you have to make from scratch…

Without an oven or a range!

To live abroad, you have to change.

The бабушки know how to push in line,

But so do you, so you’ll be fine.

With e-mail, Kindle, and such stuff

You’ve somehow managed to write enough.

The techno-world can keep me puzzled,

But no way does it keep you muzzled!

This is my yearly, silly poem—

You’ve heard ‘em before, and so you know ‘em.

But from the heart, though far away,

It means have a wonderful Christmas Day!

Circa Christmas-ish 1991?

Cool acid wash jeans Pops :) Loved this years poem, even from 5500 miles away!  Hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas day, remembering what the day is truly supposed to be about.  Love love, from Ukraine :)

Merry Christmas Eve, from Kirovograd :)

What started out as normal Ukrainian adventure, quickly became a day for the books.  Not only was it freezing outside with a dusting of snow on the ground, but the entire reason of today's adventure ended up being put on the back burner due to how cold we were!  Let me explain a little more...

This is the New Year tree in the center of K-grad.  Today was the lighting festival, complete with performances, street vendors, and too many Father Frost (Ukrainian Santa) outfits to know what to do with.  

eskimo Lydia

I'm not sure how cold it was today, but it was honestly the first time I've been cold since being here.  Definitely below freezing...but not by very much.  This makes me incredibly nervous for actual winter...but we won't think about that now!

Winnie the Pooh and Piglet (the Ukrainian/Russian versions)

Perhaps one of the funniest parts of today's adventure occurred when Julia (one of my K-grad oblast friends) and I spotted what we thought was a baby panda bear.

Turns out it is actually a dog, with a very creative fur coat cut to look like a panda bear...and somehow dyed fur as well?  It was so bizarre.  

Then the same guy who charged 20 grieven for a picture with the "panda bear" pulled a monkey out from underneath the table.  It was SO tiny and so adorable, and was incredibly bashful for the camera.

Phil purchased one of the most ridiculous hats available from a street vendor, complete with light up stars going across the front of it :)  

One of my post entries soon will feature Phil with numerous Father Frost impersonators, but it's so good it deserves a post of its own.

We got too cold to watch the tree lights be turned on...so we eventually headed to a local favorite, Churchill's, to enjoy some American-ish onion rings (which are currently making my stomach hurt).

The best part of the day though came while waiting for the dadgum lights to be turned on for the city tree.  Phil has been working on this present for my parents for a while now...but it can also be applicable for most of my Oklahoma friends :)    

Merry Christmas Eve, from halfway across the world!

ТАК НОРМАЛЬНО...

Literal translation: like normal.  The way Ukrainians use it?  Something along the lines of, "Just normal."  {at least that's how I translate it in my head...}

My normal Monday started off at 9 am at the Prilosek Gymnasium (the boarding school I got a special tour of, complete with video...remember?).  Some of my English club girls were in a few dance numbers of this mornings performance.  They invited me to come to the performance (in honor of St. Nicholas day) and I of course was excited to see them dance.  St. Nicholas day is a holiday celebrated here which involves St. Nick leaving chocolates/small gifts under kids pillows...and in my translation, kind of symbolizes that St. Nick is on his way (soon--most Ukrainians celebrate Christmas on Jan. 6/7).  

Olena (counterpart) and I met outside of the building to walk in together.  We were greeted by another teacher that we know (Olga), who quickly handed me off to two of my favorite boys who speak superb English.  They were two of the boys in the video from my tour of Prilosek...so it was fun to get to see them. The students that study at this school are so studious, it puts my college days to shame.  But, that's not what the post is about today!

I'm trying to get a few of the videos to upload right now.  We'll see if they work (I have a million other things that I should be doing right now, like figuring out what I'm doing tomorrow in English clubs...) in time for me to post on the blog.  But for now, a picture will suffice!

Olena, Lydia, Vitalik (from video), Olga, and a random performer who happened to cross by our picture just in time...

After the performance this morning, I learned that Olena was going to meet Lyuda (one of my Ukrainian friends--she went on the EuroTrip with work!  And she does my manicures for me :)) for some beauty school time.  Lyuda is a teacher at the cosmetology school here in K-grad, teaching hair and nails in particular.  She's awesome at both, although I have yet to actually get a haircut since I've been in Ukraine. Shh...

On another note, I gave myself bangs on Saturday night while I was doing my three loads of laundry.

Carrying on...Lyuda starts doing Olena's hair, and eventually it needs to sit for a while, so she starts on my manicure.  But first I snagged a picture of them...

Olena and Lyuda (they will both probably kill me for taking this picture...)

 While Olena's hair was sitting, I got to start mani time.  It's days like this where I wonder if I really am in the PC.  However, I will say that keeping up with your nails over here is definitely like keeping up with the Jones' in the US.  Some ladies and girls change their nail color every day.  I'm lucky if my nails don't have dirt underneath them, let alone have a color on them.  It is one of my goals to learn how to do an actual manicure while I'm over here...and I have a lovely new manicure set from my sister-in-law that I try to fiddle with from my time to time.  I still love it though, Tina :)

getting my nails did.

 Lyuda is in my adult beginner English club...which means I get to practice my Russian a lot when we talk.  I usually learn one new word a day when I hang out with Lyuda...at least that I can remember :)

I wanted one with Lyuda smiling.  Isn't she precious :)

As soon as Lyuda put the base coat on, Olena's hair was ready. Luckily, Lyuda's friend had just showed up who also happens to be a nail guru.  I have yet to take a good picture of the design she did, but it was the most intricate design I've ever seen, done with the TINIEST brush in the world.  I asked for something Christmasy/wintery...and got...

SNOWFLAKES :)  They're hard to see, but I will post better pictures soon...

 So, as I'm waiting for my nails to dry, Lyuda is now done with Olena's hair.  I mentioned that I was going to the gym after this and then would go to work.  When Lyuda heard I was going to the gym, she said, "Oh! I'll braid your hair Lydia!"

Hmm...you mean my messy ponytail at the gym is not kosher?  I had kind of figured that out from mere observation (the Ukrainian women that go to the gym a) don't sweat and b) leave their hair down), but what's the point in fixing my hair for the gym, especially when it's going to get washed an hour later anyway? I didn't want to break Lyuda's heart though, so I obliged and sat while she did the following to my hair. I can now say I have had my first official Ukrainian braid :)

Let's forget about the fact that my hair is on day 2 or 3 of no washing...which translates to lots of hairspray and teasing. Lyuda had to comb through it first, which made the grease show through.  Fail.

After Lyuda finished the braid, she wanted to have a фотосессия, aka: photo-session.   

Lyuda having fun with my camera

End photo-session.

And that, ladies and gents, was my just so average Monday. Work was filled with 2+ hours of making corrections to a translation for an Earth Day festival we have in April.  Google translate only helps so much in situations like that...

And now, it's almost 11 pm and I have to finish cleaning my apartment because tomorrow is our gingerbread house competition at mi casa :) all of the fixings are bought, chili is made, cornbread will be easy to do tomorrow, and I'm ready to laugh with my Ukrainian friends.  They don't know who our secret judge is...but I'll give you a hint.  

Glad I've still got my Photoshop skills.  I expect this to be somebody's new profile pic...and just for the pic, I'll give you a tab.