I am almost 100% better. Not quite, but almost :) It seems that either my stomach has forgotten how to be hungry (hmmm, I highly doubt it...) or is still a bit queasy because not a whole lot of foods sounds great right now. But, nonetheless, I wanted to begin blogging about the ski trip while it was fresh on my mind.
Like any good trip in Ukraine, traveling to Slavske meant an overnight train ride. Slavske is located in the far west part of Ukraine in the Carpathian mountains. The trip was completely worth it, even if it meant being sick for a week once I got home.
Traveling with me on the train were my new{ish} sitemates (and sweet married couple) Dan and Vicki. I am so, so glad that they got put in Kirovograd with me and will be in Ukraine throughout the rest of my service :) Dan is more OCD about things than I am sometimes (hard to believe, huh?) and one of his OCD habits is baking a perfect chocolate chip cookie. I feel like I'll do a blog post {eventually} dedicated solely to his CCC's, but for now, just know that they're greeeeeeeat! (like Tony the tiger would say). I tease Dan about his CCC's but am secretly jealous because I still have yet to get my CCC's baked to perfection.
Dan, sitting out in the hallway of the train on a jump-seat
It just so happened to be Dan and Vicki's first time on the train...which meant that I wanted them to have a good impression of train travel in Ukraine. We opted for kupe seating (2nd class) which worked out perfectly because there were 4 of us in our little cabin :)
Vicki and myself eating CCC's with milk. Perfection.
Who was the fourth roomie in our little bunk? None other than one of my bffs, Miss Kym Starno.
Kymmy poo and Dan, dunkin' away
Our humble abode{s} while in Slavske were pretty much awesome. Around 40 PCVs met up which meant we needed two mountain cabins to house all of us.
The house that I stayed in, with their big doggie, Rex, outside.
Unpacking in our own room :)
Dan and Vicki's room
That's all for part 1 of our shooping adventure!! More soon :)
It's the little things in Ukraine that bring us (PCVs) big amounts of joy. I already posted an entry today, but I was too excited to share my small (yet large!) success with the blog so that I could read it again later and remember how elated I was.
Do you remember this blog post from a while back? Well, I have tried to make chocolate chip cookies about 4-5 more times since then and every time, they haven't been like home. Maybe it's wishful thinking that they would taste exactly like the break-n-bake cookies that I've made faithfully for the past 5 years. I could get the cookies here to taste good, but they simply don't fluff up like my cookies in the states did.
I found this recipe on pinterest the other day. Since schools are "quarantined" right now (ie, too cold for kids to go to school), I told myself I would try to make these cookies sometime before Monday. Mission accomplished!! And man, was the mission accomplished well!
I present to you, my snickerdoodles :)
I might have eaten three {or four} for dinner...with a giant cup of {almost too cold} milk.
It's a guessing game anytime you cook or bake in Ukraine. Until you master a recipe, there's always room for error. This recipe, I'm proud to say, I mastered on the first attempt: a rarity! I did have to alter the ingredients and oven temp and time in the oven though. I'll explain that in a minute.
First though, I need you to drool a little bit.
Good?
So, Lydia's PCV alterations to snickerdoodles. Cream of tartar was nowhere to be found in K-grad. After googling "substitutes for cream of tartar," I learned that there is not really a substitute. Well, crap. The tartar acts as an acid which activates the baking soda in these cookies...which makes them rise. It suggested adding baking powder instead of baking soda and cream of tartar altogether. There was a formula you had to do for how much...but this is what I ended up putting in:
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
And it worked lovely! I baked these in between 150-175C (closer to 150C) in my toaster oven for about 5 minutes. Then, I rotated the tray and baked them for a few more minutes. When they started puffing up, give 'em a minute more and voila!
I want to take these on the ski trip. We'll see if they last that long... :)
I had to venture out of the house today. I had my usual for breakfast, read a lot, watched the newest episode of the New Girl (hysterical), then had leftover chili and cornbread for lunch (in my new lime green bowl my parents got me for Christmas!):
It's been on my mind lately to try a few new recipes from pinterest. I am currently in the process of making homemade "Lara bars" (recipe here). I wanted these bars to eat as a skiing snack for next weekend when I'm shooping my way down the mountain. But first, I had to get a few ingredients. So, off to the store I went.
After my dad posed the question, "What are you walking on most of the time now?" I decided to document it today. The answer is ice or black ice, 98% of the time. The main roads are cleared. Sidewalks? That's a negative. So, for the first time ever, I decided to bust out my YakTrax (care of the Carruth fam!). Talk about inventive!
I didn't slip or slide once on my 20 minute walk. I watched other people slip and slide, but not yours truly. I did get a few funny looks (as always) because of my attire, but that could have been because I was wearing light brown boots, which are NOT labeled as "winter boots" in Ukraine. Or because I had on a white and teal ski hat, a pink scarf, and a red purse. I kind of looked like a rainbow exploded on me. And my mittens (these babies) always get stares. However, I was toasty and that's all that mattered.
Along the way, I stopped and took a few pics. You're welcome :)
The frozen river...I've seen men ice-fishing on this all week but I guess these temps have made them go inside...
This is one of the icy paths. Sometimes the sidewalks are covered in a layer of sand or dirt, as I think they've done here. However, it doesn't alleviate the fact that there is still an inch+ of ice...
A close-up of the ice. Every one of the divots you see in the ground is from a Ukrainian ladies high heeled boot. My YakTrax made quite an interesting impression in the ice as well but I forgot to take a picture...
I couldn't find cream of tartar sauce on my excursion today :( hope that I can make snickerdoodle cookies without it! I also managed to buy prunes instead of dates to make my Lara bars. BUT, I'm still making them with the prunes. Fingers crossed the turn out decent... :)
And if you are interested in another article/video about the weather here, BBC did a story on it today. Watch here. Happy Friday! And good luck, Team Hobart! Missy is ready to greet everyone at the Frost household tonight :)
I'm a lover of traditions...and McFarlin has a lot of them. This post is for every McFarlinite...be it a youth, parent, grandparent, former youth, etc. Chances are that at some point in their time of going to McFarlin, they were either in the bell program or knew someone in bells. This post is dedicated to one of the bell programs most fun events of the year: Bell Retreat at Quartz Mountain.
When I moved to Oklahoma right before 9th grade, I don't think I even knew what "bells" were. And as soon as I walked in the doors of McFarlin, I can remember telling my mom that I had to join bells because all of my friends were in it. The rest, as they say, is history.
For as long as I can remember, there has been a bell retreat around the weekend of MLK day because the kids have the school day off. We pack up all the bells and about 50 high school and middle schoolers on a charter bus and head to Quartz Mountain Resort in good ol' Oklahoma.
Quartz Mountain Resort, from one of the peaks
the lake that surrounds the area...
The point of the retreat is to introduce new music to the kids, create some great fellowship time, have a little fun around the mountains and the lake (yes, Oklahoma has some mountains...baby ones, but mountains!), and stay up way to late with your friends.
There are so many memories that come to my mind when I think of bell retreats. I only wish I had more pictures scanned from my high school bell retreats. There was the year (maybe junior year?) that Amy had her wisdom teeth taken out...so we got to be special and stay in the lodge. That year, one of the boys had a broken foot or something like that...so they got to stay next door to us. That led to a constant battle of boys vs. girls. Not sure Perry or Venita knew about that though...
My senior year of high school (2005)
front row: Perry (our bell director), Lydia, Darren
Or our senior year when we stayed out in the special cabins away from everyone else. Quincee cut my hair that year in the cabin. If only I had those pictures scanned! Sorry to disappoint...
However, I do have some pictures and a video from bell retreats in 2009 and 2010. After I graduated from high school and went on to OU, I would travel on the bell retreat as a chaperone and as a sub...to fill in blank spots in the bell choir. It was time I got to spend with my kiddos...and laugh and love on them like no one's business. Without further ado...
Gracie, Alecia, Lydia, Melissa--2009
bell cases open and ready for the polishing party...
polishing party...
Sarah, Pirtle, Angie, Maddie, Nathan
(every one of those kids is a junior or senior in high school now...wow!)
Kira, Gracie, Kayla, Hayley
(and most of these girls are in COLLEGE now)
Sam, Katey, Alexa, Meg
(middle school then...all in high school now!)
Shannon (I think??), Lydia, Sydney
And the lone pic from 2010--on top of the very windy mountain!
Nathan, Bennett, Gracie, Lydia, Stephanie and Pirtle peaking in from the back.
Bell Choir 2009--a mess-up... :)
Trey Pirtle (to the right of Bennett in the yellow shirt) is totally not paying attention. Venita has to stop the whole choir during the mini-concert. I'm pretty sure she says, "Okay, stop. Trey, are you playing two in hand?" which makes no sense whatsoever. The choir erupts in laughter...since Pirtle is one of the biggest jokesters there is :)
Bell Choir 2009--the full song!
Everyone is still laughing from the mishap earlier (see first video). Around 18 seconds in this video...Pirtle turns to Bennett and asks him, "Where are we?!" with a completely dazed look on his face. Oh, Pirtle :)
Bell Choir 2010
Hope everyone has a lovely bell retreat 2012 :) enjoy all the junk food!
Lots of love,
Lyd
P.S. I'm really craving a Goodcents sandwich and giant chocolate chip cookie. If someone could send me that, I'd really appreciate it :)
Just finished our gingerbread house competition at my apartment, and the results were quite creative! I need your help picking a winner though :) I have a few small American prizes to give the women who participated (I'll post about all of that later...). But, for now, just vote please! The ladies were encouraged to be creative...and most of the houses were falling down the entire time, so they had to get really creative in order to get them to stay put!
#1--note the attention to detail
#1 close-up: I liked the addition of the fence...
#2--creative roof line!
#2- close-up: the bears sun-bathing next to the pool (the green circular candy is "in the pool")
#3--the gingerBEAR house, complete with heli-pad on top
#3 close-up: heli-pad...
#4--gingerbread tent!
#4 close-up: they've got pillows inside their tent...
Left to right: 1, 2, 3, 4 (in the back right)
Please please please tell me which is your favorite :) email me at lydfrost@gmail.com or leave a comment below. Thank you!!!!
I love old pictures and videos. Anyone who remotely knows me knows that...and if you've read my blog for more than 10 posts, you've probably figured that out too.
Tomorrow, I have my first real English club meetings. So, on a whim tonight, I ran over to Phil's apartment (read took marshrutka #50 all the way across town) to get some beginner alphabet songs off of one of his hard drives. His poor computer is on the fritz...so he let me bring his flash drive home with the songs/videos on it. I took marshrutka #9a home (which runs the same route as 50 as far as I can tell...so why do they have two? Who knows.) and popped in his flash drive. As I'm going through some of the songs, a title catches my eye:
C is for Cookie
I had a flashback to this moment that is luckily captured on film (sorry it's kinda fuzzy...iphone vid):
"Singing" the song is the one and only Trey Pirtle. We were on choir tour two years, waiting to leave from a concert. Anyone who's been on choir tour can tell you, funny times are often had on the charter bus. Things like that happen...pretty regularly. And I usually have my camera ready. I'll post one more example, just because it makes me smile and reminisce, and then I'll get back to the point of the post...
sidenote: you might want to turn down your volume on this next video...fair warning. Also, click in the middle of the video to start playing.
Believe it or not, everyone on that bus can sing pretty dang well. Maybe not when it's Backstreet Boys though. Continuing...
So, where were we? Let's recap: I plugged in Phil's jump drive, started looking through the files, found C is for Cookie, went off on a tangent, and we're back. Turns out, C is for Cookie is not just a song that the Cookie Monster sings! In fact, it's an educational video that is supposed to help kids with the alphabet. Maybe everyone knew that but me. I must have missed that episode of Sesame Street as a child...or maybe it was on while I watched Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.
Whatever the reason, I'm thankful to have an excuse to laugh hysterically at good times from choir tours of past years. And, to learn a new song to show my Ukrainian kiddos (and adults) who will be studying English for the first time tomorrow! Don't worry, I'll save this song for a bit on down the road...
If you want to watch the original Cookie Monster version, here it is:
That video has over TEN MILLION views. Pretty impressive, huh?
Happy Monday :) I hope this blog made you laugh at some point during your reading.
So, technically this post isn't very far back. However, I had been meaning to write about this topic for a couple weeks...and I didn't have any other way-back-Wednesdays to post about! Let's see...where do I begin this post? We'll go with chronological order :)
Sooner football season has officially begun! And with that, a slew of pictures sent to me from my mom's phone involving football season and all that it entails!
Guess who is using my season football ticket? You're welcome, Mitchy!
The "family" that sits in front of us at home games. We've watched the little boys grow up for 10 years. They have a feisty grandmother that also sits with them who gets very into the games. Adorable.
Student section and the band...this was at the first game versus Tulsa.
What can you spot in this picture?
So, after OU's victory over Tulsa a couple weekends ago, my parents headed south to Bama to see friends and family, but also to see the Sooners (ranked #1) take on Florida State University (ranked #5).
Mom and Pops at FSU
SOOO many OU fans at the game.
Since the OU vs. FSU game was on at 8 pm eastern time, which meant it was in the wee early hours of the morning for me, I went on to bed. I was also sick then...so I was anxious to get up the next morning to see what the results were! I quickly logged onto Facebook knowing that everyone in OK would have posted something about the game, regardless of whether we won or lost! My friends didn't let me down :) There were "boomer sooners" left and right, and then I spotted this picture that Jill was tagged in from the "OU Boston Group."
I knew that on OU game days, there is a bar about a block away from Fenway that houses the "OU Boston Group" and that Jill usually goes to it. So, I was looking for Jill in this picture (in the middle--blonde hair, white t-shirt)...finally found her...and then I started looking for Ashley or Kathryn who also live in Boston (remember my road trip with Jill and Ash?). THAT was when I discovered my sister-in-law standing to the left of Jill (the other blonde). And THEN, I discovered my sister-in-law's sister standing to the left of her (another blonde with a baseball hat on). At this point I knew that my brother had to be in the picture somewhere too. Sure enough, he's in the back left (super tall) second from the left. When I skyped with my brother on Monday, he informed me that sure enough he and Tina (my sister-in-law) got a table at the bar early...then Jill and Kathryn showed up...and more Normanites...and then Tina's sister and her fiance...and then Tina's parents too! My favorite part of the story is that neither Jeremy nor Tina went to OU but are both die-hard Sooners fans. So, when somebody new would come to the table, they would ask them what year they graduated from OU, or where they used to live in Norman, etc.
My brother's answer to his affiliation with OU?
"I'm the only one in my family who didn't go there for college." ha :) We'll forgive you Jeremy.
You're also the only one in the family who doesn't know what Здравствуйте means. :)
excited to be using his new HD webcam (see the wood-burning stove in the background? I helped chop wood for that with an ax!)
I don't think your headphones are big enough...
That, my friends, is my update about OU football. In other news, I will teach a lesson on HIV/AIDS next week to a group of Ukrainian English teachers. I'm also finally getting some good response to English clubs at my site. My last news: I tried to make chocolate no-bake cookies tonight without peanut butter. I used this recipe online but ended up adding more oats at the end because the mixture was way too soupy. They're not too shabby for no peanut butter!! I have to save my precious PB for emergency use only :) I have gone through 2 jars in the 3 months I've been at site and have one left. If you feel like sending a care package, peanut butter is always welcome :) Until tomorrow...night night!
We had to do some of the touristy things while in Odessa too. Enjoy the pictures!
Potempkin Stairs
Only in Ukraine...
Since Odessa is such a giant tourist attraction in the summer, they have all sorts of tourist picture traps available. This was one of them...why yes, I'd love to have a picture of my child with a chinchilla on their head?!
Phil sported the other tourist photo opp. outside of the Opera house. He got that tattoo (his first tattoo!) just a few days before we left for Odessa. It says Phil in Russian cursive (a cooler version of this...Фил)
The Opera Theater at night--with LED lights that change color
The Opera Theater
Outside the Opera Theater during the day...Phil reminds me a lot of Scott Meier :)
The Opera Theater by day
Why yes, I wouldn't mind living in these darling apartments!
This had all sorts of giant cities all around the world...pointing in the direction they are and showing how many miles away (or probably kilometers...).
Near the hostel is one of the most popular streets in Odessa--Deribasovskaya Street. It is a pedestrian only street with restaurants lining both sides of the street. Horse-drawn carriages, charicature artists, gelato, and other fun things (including a McDonalds) can be found on this street.
Deribasovskaya Street
Kym and I on Deribasovskaya Street one night
That about sums up my trip to Odessa. It is a great city with tons to do and I can't wait to go back sometime! I think I'm going to try to bake another batch of chocolate chippers (as my dad calls them). This time, with more baking soda and less baking powder. Wish me luck! :)
P.S. Today is the first time in my 24 years of life that I touched and cooked raw chicken. Shocking, I know. Let's just say I've always had a meat phobia...but I overcame it today! And it didn't come out too shabby.
