Two month mark of being home in 'homa...'

Two months ago, I left Kiev on a very early flight, eventually heading for Oklahoma City {Kiev-->Paris-->Atlanta-->OKC}.  I was being medically evacuated by Peace Corps so that I could recover from having mono.  Because mono can take months {and months} to recover from, I wasn't able to make it back to Ukraine in the 45 day allotment they give you for medical evacuation.  On June 11, 2012, I was medically separated from the Peace Corps and am now a RPCV {Returned Peace Corps Volunteer}. I'm still getting better from having had mono.  Most days now I have a decent amount of energy...but I'm still easily sleeping 10-11 hours at night.  

So, what have I been doing since being home in Oklahoma?  Enjoying a few of these...

Nothing beats an Oklahoma sunset.  

I received my two 50-pound bags from Ukraine.  Surprisingly all in one piece and pretty much unharmed!  Kudos to Dan and Vicki for packing those things...

I am in the process of washing everything that was in those suitcases...mostly winter things that had only gotten one season's use during my first real winter {ever} in Ukraine.  There are days that I'm here and forget about the use of a dryer...and the fact that if something is dirty, I don't have to wait 3 days for it to dry if I wash it. 

Also during my two month span of being home, my parents have purchased a new home here in Norman.  So random and such odd timing...but the perfect one came on the market and we all love it.  That's probably what a lot of blog posts in the future will be aimed towards :)  More about that later.  But, demo work has finally begun this week.  The kitchen is 40 years old...and in need of some major TLC.  

More about kitchen projects soon...and don't worry, I didn't lift a hand in there.  

I got my teeth cleaned for the first time in over a year today.  No cavities!  So, I celebrated with Chick-Fil-A breakfast because I'm usually not up in time to enjoy their breakfast menu...love me some chicken-minis :)  I'm almost done with all of the Peace Corps paperwork for closing out my service...I will be so happy to be done with the mounds of paperwork they send you.  And medical and dental stuff you have to do as well.  

I miss blogging, and hope to start doing it more.  It's really therapeutic for me...but I haven't been in the mood the past few weeks. And, because I never replied to all of the emails and text messages and sweet words people said to me after my last blog post, thank you all :) I plan on responding to them, but it still may take me some time.  

And, because I probably won't end up blogging tomorrow, I need to wish Mr. Matthew Schlegel a very happy birthday :)  We've traveled many a mile together...from Mexico to Canada and beyond.  Hope you have a wonderful day Schlegel!

The Time Has Come, the Walrus Said...

This is the post that I've been dreading for quite some time.  I don't like dealing with confrontations and this is a major one.  But, as the lyrics from Alice in Wonderland state, "The time has come...".  

So, to all of my friends and family scattered from Ukraine to Oklahoma, I have to face the facts and let you know that my Peace Corps service is ending.  Officially, it ended on Monday {June 11, 2012}.  It's been a long time a'coming and when people recently asked me whether I'd be going back or not, I usually tried to skirt around the issue.  

My time in Ukraine was wonderful and something that I will cherish forever.  There were three things I really wanted to accomplish when I joined the Peace Corps: learn a new language, be immersed in a totally different culture, and travel.  I'm fairly happy with the fact that I can basically check those three items off my bucket list {although the travel part will never be done!}.  But it's still bittersweet.  There are days that I've been here in the states and wish I were still in Ukraine.  Those are the bad days, when I miss the more simplistic life of a Peace Corps Volunteer.  But I've had a lot of good days since I've been here in Oklahoma.  

I never could have dreamt that this chain of events would happen.  Getting sick in February...which was really mono but we didn't know it...and then getting pneumonia while recovering from mono.  It wasn't fun, but couldn't be avoided {no matter how much antibacterial hand sanitizer I used!}.  

I am still recovering from mono.  The recovery period can be months {and some people say it takes a full year...fingers crossed that that is not my case}.  The past two weeks-ish have been better.  I was finally given the go-ahead to start working out and jogged for the first time since January.  Granted, I lasted all of seven minutes at a v e r y slow pace, but ya gotta start somewhere :) it also made my body hurt in ways that I had forgotten because I've been so inactive for the past 5 months.  Five months.  Of being sick.  Let that settle in for a minute...

Since COS'ing {Close of Service, in Peace Corps lingo}, I have to make one more minor adjustment.  Upon arriving in Oklahoma, it's been hard for me to say where "home" was.  I really have just avoided saying "home" in general since being in OK {typical Lydia style}.  When I lived in Ukraine, I called Kirovograd my home. I was from Oklahoma, but K-grad was my home.  At one point during my service, I had a few Ukrainians comment to me that I called Ukraine home.  I totally didn't see the weirdness of this.  And I still don't.  I had every intention of spending my two year service in Ukraine...so why wouldn't it be my home?  But now, I have to change that and start calling Oklahoma home. 

I'm not sure what the next few months will hold.  Still resting.  Helping my parents move to a different house in Norman.  Doing design stuff for the new house. 

I'm kind of in a funk right now and don't know what else to post in this entry...so I'm going to go ahead and hit publish.  Perhaps more thoughts will come tomorrow :)  but for today, that's all I've got.

Surprise time...

If you know me in the slightest you know I love surprises.  I love planning them, but love receiving them too.  SO, I've been keeping a pretty big surprise hidden for a few weeks now.  Some have slowly found out, but others have not.  And it's finally time to come clean on the blog/every other social media network out there {although I'm only on facebook.  No twitter/instagram/whatever for me...yet.}.

Back to the surprise.

Are you ready?

drum roll please...

I am back in Oklahoma and actually have been for two-ish weeks.  

Yep.  I'll go ahead and let that settle in for a little bit...

So, why am I here?  Pretty simple answer: my health.  I wasn't recovering as quickly and as easily as we would have liked for me to from mono/pneumonia.  Here's the overall gist of the story:

You might remember that during the months of February and March, I was really sick.  Really, really sick.  I would get better, but not 100% better...and then get sick again.  It was a continuous cycle.  And I was sick about 95% of that time with random illnesses {viral infection/upper respiratory/whatever} that we thought were getting treated.  Well, I never really got better.  And then I got pneumonia.  And then when the docs did my blood work for pneumonia, they saw that I had had mono at some point.

"Mono?!? I've never had mono!!"

That was my exact reaction.  I guess when you have mono, a certain type of blood cell stays in your body and it never really goes away.  So, when they did the pneumonia blood work, they saw that.  We assumed it had been way previous in my life, even though I had never been known to have it.  I got better after getting the correct antibiotics for my pneumonia.  But, my energy levels were still way low. Horribly low.  And they haven't gotten better.  It was at that point that the docs decided that maybe I had actually had mono the entire time I was sick in February/March.  That would explain how my immune system was weak and I got pneumonia.  

So, my PC doc thought it might be a good idea to send me back to the states to recover for a while.  Simply put, it's hard to recover on your own...especially in a foreign country.  It was a continuous cycle of, "Should I stay here and try to recover?  Or go back to the states?"  My mind changed decisions what seemed like every 5.4 seconds.  It wasn't a sure thing that I would be sent back to the states.  We had to get approval from PC headquarters in DC.  They wanted a follow-up chest x-ray.  I obliged...and by 7 pm that night, I knew that I would be stateside in less than a week.

I left Ukraine early Saturday morning, April 28, and made the {incredibly} long journey to the states, arriving in Oklahoma late that night.  I've been in "hiding" since then.  My activities upon arriving in Oklahoma have included: 

*Trying to adjust to this time zone.  

*Resting.  

*Eating more Mexican food and Chick-Fil-A than is probably healthy for a person to consume in a two-week period.  

*Resting.

*Basking in the glory of my giant bed with 15 pillows.

*Resting.

*Slowly surprising random groups of friends.

*Resting after surprising said random groups of friends.  

This is why I've been pretty absent from the blogging world.  And why I've been slightly not telling the {whole} truth in blog posts.  My biggest apologies for that.  I've needed to stay incognito for as long as possible to get some good rest and really get adjusted to this time zone.  Still working on both of those  parts...

I am currently on what is called "Medical Evacuation" which is also known as "medevac" in PC lingo. This is a time period of up to 45 days where I can return to Ukraine without too many hiccups along the way.  Right now, I'm focusing on getting better.  And it's a slow, slow process.  I feel like I take teeny tiny steps each day, and then have a bad day and go 10 steps back.  It's super frustrating because my brain is telling me it's ready to do things.  Walk around the block.  Go to the store.  Eat a meal out.  But as soon as I get home from that activity, I'm wiped out and usually collapse for a few hours.  I'm an active person who likes doing every opportunity that comes my way...and this has been by far the most frustrating part of this entire recovery process.  

SOOOOOOO, now that this is the longest blog post ever {without any pictures}, I'll show you one other surprise that we found in my parents backyard today.  

little bunny foo foo {approximately the size of a hamster}

there are at least 5 of them in the backyard...

My mom was mowing the lawn...and one darted out of some high grass. They are the most precious thing EVER.  Can't wait to play with them more tomorrow...

Much love, this time from America :)

Lyd

happy happy mother's day :)

Mother's Day 2012: probably one of the biggest Hallmark days of the year. But, I didn't get to support their enterprise this year.  Instead, I'll do a blog post :) It's cheaper and more economically friendly (although my brother did send my mom an e-card yesterday...guess I could have gone that route.).  

My mom, Lena, can do just about anything.  And if she doesn't know how, she's usually willing to try.  She carted me from every dance, piano, baton, gymnastics, acting, singing and cheerleading lesson when I was little {just for the record, the piano lessons were the only one that she chose.  Another day, another blog post...}.  Pops helped some too...but when it came to gluing rhinestones on a yet another dance costume, that job usually went to good ol' Mom.  

"Mom, I need a costume for _______ {the Nutcracker, the King and I, etc.).  Can you make it?"

"Mom, I forgot that I need to have a Spanish inspired dish for language day at school..."

"I reallyyyyy want a toy poodle.  I promise I'll take care of it..."

"Mom, this dress is 8 sizes too big {for my brother's wedding}.  You can fix that, right?" (pictures to boot, scroll down...)

My mom and I are the same person.  To. A. Tee.  If you wonder where my OCD, germaphobia {made up that word}, stubbornness, or sense of creativity comes from, look no further.  We love each other to the core, but we also like to argue with each other.  Sometimes just for fun.  Let me tell you something though, when you're 5500 miles away from home and you've got a temperature of 103.5 {as I did on March 8}, you just want your mommy.  No matter how old you are.

And since no post is complete without a few pics {or a lot, as is usually my case}, let the good times roll...

baby Jeremy and Mom 

Lincoln Logs! A Frost Family favorite.

cool acid-wash jeans

more acid-wash jeans.

the days of Pops' beard and Mom's perm.  

**pretty sure AOL instant messenger is on the screen in the computer in this shot**

At the tree my brother's elementary school class planted on the playground.  Mom is motioning to how tall the tree was when they planted it...{cough cough, some 25+ years ago}.  And now it's a massive pine, still standing after the Tuscaloosa tornado last year.  

costume time...

"Mom, we're going to sell fireworks this summer to help raise money for our Chicago mission trip...but there have to be parents supervising the whole time."

Halloween party--mom in her traditional Ukrainian shirt wayyyyyy before I ever went to Ukraine!

senior prom

OU/Saxet...

What other mom can turn a bridesmaid dress that's 8 sizes too big...

into one that actually fits?

Ukrainian bazaar time.

happy mother's day mom :)  hope it's a wonderfully wonderful day!

A few other shout-outs today too:

Today is confirmation Sunday at McFarlin.  Happy day, 8th graders :) proud of Tino and all of the adults who have contributed to such a wonderful day.  

It's bell concert day at St. Stephen's church (mom's church).  Good luck, bell choirs!  And a special surprise will be there too!

Camp HEAL (HIV/AIDS summer camp in Sergiivka, Ukraine) is FULLY FUNDED!!!! Woot woot!  Thanks for y'alls help.

Interesting blog post for tomorrow...stay tuned.  You won't want to miss it, promise!

Pimp My Ride, Ukraine Style.

Had a good and fairly uneventful ride to Kiev today {as opposed to my last ride home from Kiev, described here}.  Not only did I get my favorite seat, the front passenger seat, but this was the most pimped out van/marshrutka I have ever ridden in in Ukraine.  The sliding door on the side where all of the passengers get on/off was automatic and controlled with a button next to the driver {never seen that here in Ukraine!}.  Our driver had a radar detector, a GPS, and a very nice stereo system. 

The view from my seat--the sign reads "KIEV" on the front so that we can pick up people in villages along the way if there are extra seats.

Why yes, that's a giant fake tarantula. This was the one con to the ride.  Remember this story?

The personal video screen in front of me, in addition to a mini-screen on the cd/dvd player.  BTW, it's totally normal for Ukrainian drivers to decorate their dashboards with crap hanging from them, no matter how distracting.  

We lucked out and got to watch a Russian western for over half the ride.  I listened to Glee.  The driver watched the screen in front of me too.  Surprisingly, he was one of the best driver's I've had since I've been in Ukraine.  Driving, texting, talking on the phone, watching a movie, and eating sunflower seeds the entire ride.  Totally normal as well.  

Upon arriving on the outskirts of Kiev, we were greeted with stand still traffic which made us 30 minutes late.  We took a different route than we normally do, and I'm guessing it's because they are doing road construction on a highway for Euro 2012 which is in a short 2 months.  Traffic was brutal.  And then on top of it, our driver randomly got pulled over by a cop for random search/questioning.  On the plus side, because of the random route we took, we happened to pass very close to my hostel and I was able to get out there and not have to take the metro.  Nice surprise :) 

Mary Kathryn {from my link cluster days in Oster} was in Kiev today too.  So, we met at the hostel and headed out to a favorite eatery: Chinese food.  I hated Chinese food in the states but absolutely love getting it here in Kiev.  

Mary Kathryn, with our dominated spread: veggie fried noodles, spicy fried tofu, and a spring roll.

the fried tofu is to die for.  

I'm exhausted now.  And I have to get up early to be at the Peace Corps office for blood work {and it's fasting blood work at that}.  Hopefully last tests to monitor all my blood levels and make sure the pneumonia is gone.  The past few nights I haven't gotten as much sleep because we just had daylight savings time on Sunday.  I still don't have all my energy back from the pneumonia. That thing literally sucked the life out of me...for weeks!  I hope none of you have to experience it!  Night night.  Much love :)

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

out of the hospital... :)

I'm free from the reins of my first {and hopefully only!} Ukrainian hospital experience.  It was incredibly nice overall, and I was very impressed with how everything was run.  So, what's next?  I'll be on antibiotics for a while, in addition to a cough medicine.  I will be in Kiev a few more days...making sure there's no relapse and getting blood work done on Thursday.  Hung out at the office most of the day and came to my hostel a few hours ago.  Plan on lying pretty low tomorrow here at the hostel where the wifi is a bit better than at PC headquarters :)

A new group of PCVs makes the {incredibly long} journey to Ukraine today!! They will arrive sometime tomorrow...which means that my one year anniversary of being in Ukraine is approaching rather quickly.  I joked with someone in the office today that for my one year anniversary present, I got pneumonia.  I definitely am feeling better, and for that I am super thankful.  There were 4 or 5 days there where I wanted to curl up in a ball and not get up.

In honor of my leaving the hospital, I wore a NEW shirt.  New clothes are not a common experience for a PCV...and my new clothing items were from the good old США (USA)...which made them extra special :)   Right before Valentine's Day, I received a great package in the mail from one of my sweet youth family's in Oklahoma.  Normally, I would post this as a "way-back-Wednesday" post (with old pictures that is), but since I have tomorrow's way-back-Wednesday post almost ready, I decided to go ahead and post this today.

In my American box-o-goodies, was not one, but TWO t-shirts :)  

from the Passion conference (post about Passion here)--thanks Tino :)

an Oklahoma t-shirt from a new boutique in Norman (called Stash, look at the cute bag on the left...)

and because no care package is complete without a box of yellow goodness :)

Thank you, thank you Louy fam :)  and Tino too!  The Louy's are one of the sweetest and funniest family's I know.  And their last name is great because they can make lOUy specialized shirts.  Get it? 

David, Sarah, Lydia, Missy

I met Sarah when she was a tiny little middle schooler on the Boulder mission trip in 2008 and got to hang out with her at church on a regular basis.  I can't believe that she will be a SENIOR next year... :) And just because I love going through old pics... 

Sarah and Lydia--Boulder, Colorado 2008

Rylie, Sarah, Angie, Lydia--Boulder, Colorado 2008

Sarah and Lydia--before I left for the PC

So, thank you Louy fam and Tino for my lovely shirts.  I wore the Oklahoma shirt today for the first time and had lots of people notice it at the PC office!  And, everyone should be extra ready for a doozy of a post tomorrow.  Fair warning :)

almost done at the hospital...

howdy all :)

Thanks for the sweet words and text messages.  Never having stayed overnight in a hospital before, I see now how boring they can be.  So, thank you thank you for keeping me entertained! :)

Just got off the phone with one of my PC docs who was talking with a Ukrainian doctor in my room.  Looks like I'll be leaving the hospital tomorrow sometime and will go back to the PC office to see what the next few days look like.  Obviously will still be taking antibiotics once I'm gone from the hospital.   This hospital has been incredibly nice and helpful...and for that I'm thankful! But, also glad to be leaving tomorrow :)   I can tell my energy is returning too because I'm tired of being in bed all day.  However, if I have to be in bed all day, a hospital bed that sits up and reclines is definitely the way to do it!

I need to shower before I leave the hospital tomorrow.  My hair is quite a site...and the PC office normally has a shower, but it's broken at the moment.  Wah wah.  Gotta ask the nurse though if I can shower with a needle thing in my arm (no clue what the right name for it is...need one of my nurse friends to help me out there!).  Or maybe she'll finally take it out.

So, that's an update on all I know.  Again, thanks for the thoughtful emails, facebook messages, and texts.  Much appreciated!

Love,
Lyd

from the hospital bed of Lydia...

I'm at a hospital in Kiev currently...I think it's called "Boris," although I'm not quite sure.  I came here yesterday around lunch time and got checked in immediately.  I'm in room 328, which of course I like because my birthday is on Dec. 28.  Love it when it shows up other places :)  I've got a private room and a comfortable bed and my own bathroom too. Quite luxurious!  If you don't think about the fact that you're in a hospital...

I've been bez (without) temperature all day yesterday and today.  That makes a giant improvement for how I feel...because having a temp of 103.5 was absolutely miserable.  You're cold, but sweating, and chilling, and nasty all around.  SO, I'm thankful for no more temp.

The staff and docs here have been quite nice...I've been on a breathing machine for a few times a day which I do for 10 minutes.  I currently have this hooked up to my arm at the moment...not quite sure what it is, but I trust 'em.

My cough is still horrible, and will probably still be bad for a few more days at least.  But, it's not as consistent as it was on Sunday through Tuesday.  Just loud and obnoxious :)

I've got wifi and a flatscreen tv to keep me entertained...although everything except BBC is in Russian/Ukrainian.  So, I started watching Glee from the beginning to pass the time.  And, playing some old games on my phone :)  I've been sleeping every few hours too...but I'm about slept out.  I'm glad there is wifi (brought my laptop), but the wifi makes me incredibly thankful for my uber fast internet at my apartment.  I was going to upload a few pics...but it's taking 5 minutes to do one.  So, that may be all ya get :)

Anywho, know that I'm doing a bit better.  Just glad to finally be getting this pneumonia treated.  I have had very sweet nurses who come at the drop of a pin.  And, I've got the PC docs a phone call away.  We'll evaluate tomorrow and see if I'll still stay here or go somewhere else (not sure where).  Maybe PC office?  No clue.

It has snowed on and off all day today.  Pretty from my window, but a slushy/rainy mess on the street.  Toodles :)

from the {very} sick bed of Lydia...

Thought I'd write a quick update since I don't know what my internet sitch will be like the next few days. After a few days of being quite sick and my antibiotics not helping, I talked to the PC doc today and he instructed me I needed to go to a hospital here in k-grad to get a chest x-ray.  

The verdict?  Pneumonia.  

That was a word I didn't think I would add to my Russian vocabulary...

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty crappy days all around with my temperature being anywhere from 100-103.5 degrees. My fever finally broke sometime in the night last night and I felt a bit better today.  Still not great by any means, but definitely an improvement from Wednesday where I had just about reached my breaking point.  

Went to a private clinic here in K-grad with my counterpart today.  Got a chest x-ray and waited for a doctor to come read it. When the doc shows up, I call the PC doc and they discuss things via telephone, and then I hear what sounded like "new-mahn-ee-uh"...pretty much a cognate.  I looked at Olena (my counterpart) and said, "pneumonia?" Yep.  

Got an ultra-sound done on my lungs then to see if there is fluid in them...not sure what the verdict of that was.  But, it was decided that I'll be going to Kiev early in the morning so that the PC docs can see me and decide the course of treatment.  I'm just glad I finally know what I have.  

I have great sitemates who brought me food and flowers for Women's day (thank you Phil) and cleaned my apartment/made me eat something/packed my bag (thanks Dan and Vicki).  And my parents thank you too :)

Gotta go shower and rest for a while.  Taking a 4 am marshrutka to Kiev, so when all of you in America are going to sleep tonight, I'll be arriving in Kiev and finally on the road to recovery.  

Much love,

Lyd

Recipe time...

What do I eat every day in Ukraine?  This is a question I find that I am asked a lot more since I've become a vegetarian here in Ukraine.  However, I feel like I have plenty of options.  Maybe that's because I don't mind eating the same thing over {and over} again.  I did this in the states too...eating a sandwich (with chips on it!) for at least one meal a day probably since I was 6 years old.  Since sandwiches in Ukraine are not the same as the ones in the states, that idea has kinda gone out the window, especially because a veggie sandwich is a bit hard in the dead of winter here.  

My favorite go-to meal this winter has been veggie chili and homemade cornbread.  I usually cook on the weekend (normally on Sunday evening) so that I have whatever food prepared to last me throughout the week.  One of my fellow PCV friends Kristen (link to her funny blog here) told me that she looked for my recipe for veggie chili.  I kind of posted it here, but I'll do a quick run through now because I really don't follow that recipe at all.  

Lydia's Homemade Veggie Chili {adapted from this recipe}:

1 medium onion (chopped as fine as you can get it)

2 small carrots or 1 large carrot (cut however you want them...I do mine in quarters--aka bite size)

1 can of kidney beans

1 can of pinto beans

1 can of diced tomatoes

1/2 can of corn

1/2 packet of Williams Chili seasoning (from America...thanks mom and pops!)

the canned ingredients...I use half the can of corn pictured

I let the onion and carrot sizzle in the skillet for a while (10 minutes) with a little oil.  Then, I add everything else.  I usually end up adding about 1 cup of water...just depends on how soupy I want it.  I usually taste the mixture after it's been brewing for a while, adding salt, pepper, and garlic salt to taste. OH, and a little bit of hot sauce.  The carrots take the longest to cook--probably an hour.  Once the chili is going, I get the cornbread started.  My fave homemade cornbread recipe is this one from allrecipes.com here.  

it's sweet cornbread, just the way I like it!

Voila.  

The cornbread and chili last me a week...probably 5-7 meals, depending on how I ration it.  I usually eat it once a day.  My other go-to meals for variety {aka when I get sick of my meal of the week} include pasta of some kind and pizza.  Last night, I decided to try a new recipe for homemade pizza crust.  I was feeling spontaneous {aka bored} and decided to make a calzone instead of a regular pizza.  

I've been using this recipe for pizza crust.  It's good, reliable, and pretty easy.  But, you do have to wait for the dough to rise.  So, when I saw this recipe on pinterest, I thought I'd give it a whirl.  It is for thin crust pizza, and I think I can understand why.  It's pretty dense...but very easy to work with.  I'll try it for a thin crust pizza soon.  

Thin Crust Pizza {recipe here}:

3/4 cups (6 ounces) of hot water (not boiling)
1/2 teaspoon of dry yeast
2 cups (10 ounces) flour
1/2 tsp salt

The instructions, I adjusted to Ukraine :) and for my calzone! 

Preheat oven to 150 Celsius.  Spread a thin layer of olive oil on the bottom of a pan.  Combine hot water and yeast in bowl.  Yeast should dissolve and make a thin soup-like consistency.  Combine dry ingredients in large bowl.  After yeast is dissolved in hot water, combine wet and dry ingredients.  Mix with a spoon or your hands until all of the flour is thoroughly incorporated.  It will eventually form an elastic-y ball of dough (probably 3-5 minutes of kneading).  

Split dough in half (for calzone).  At this point, I got a little more olive oil on my hands so that the dough would not stick to me.  Begin spreading dough to make bottom of calzone. Add sauce and whatever toppings you want (for Lydia: green and black olives, corn, and cheese).  For top of calzone, stretch to make a similar shape (like the bottom).  I ended up doing this in the air--and this dough was great for that.  Very elastic-y and malleable.  I placed it on top of the calzone and pressed the edges together.  Brushed a little olive oil on top of the calzone (thanks for the tip, Vicki!) and sprinkled a little garlic salt on the top.  

Very first homemade calzone--ever!

It ended up being very good!  I made some marinara sauce that I dipped the crust in. The dough was dense, but good.  I had the leftovers today (leftover cold pizza is one of my favorite things ever...) and it was still tasty!  My original pizza crust recipe would definitely not work for a calzone...it's too flimsy.  Might try a different dough recipe for the next calzone I try to make, but overall this one was incredibly easy and pretty scrumptious.

Finally feeling a little bit better the past two days.  I kept myself up most of last night coughing.  But, my head hasn't felt like it was going to explode the past two days which is a plus!  May finally venture out of the house tomorrow for the first time since Sunday.  Whatever illness this was had better be about done.  I'm tired of being cooped up in the house...and I'm actually itching to go back to the gym (which I haven't been to since mid-January when my membership expired...).  Hopefully can start going again next week.  Toodles :)

The.Hunger.Games.

I finished.  I read all three books cover to cover {hmm, digital page to digital page?  That definitely doesn't have a ring to it...}.   If you don't know what the phenomenon of the Hunger Games trilogy is, you can read the wiki page here.  Or, if you're more of a movie trailer person, this gives you a glimpse of what the first book is about.

After finishing this trilogy, I realized that I don't like series to end.  I have a problem actually finishing the last book (this happened when I read Harry Potter too).  On Sunday morning, I woke up and finished reading Catching Fire {book 2} in an hour.  As soon as I finished the second book, I picked up Mockingjay {book 3} and couldn't put it down until I was 50% of the way done {or 3 hours later}.  

Then, I stopped reading it cold turkey. 

I picked the final book up again last night (Monday night) and read until one am when I was 87% done.  One of the meds I took yesterday must have made me not sleepy because I couldn't fall asleep even though I was quite tired.  I feel like most people would have picked up the book and finished it then and there.  But, I didn't want it to end!  Maybe I was scared to know who Katniss would pick in the end.  Whatever my reasoning, I lay in bed, determined to finish the book this morning.

I don't think I've picked up a book in quite some time that had me hooked from the first or second page like Suzanne Collins does with The Hunger Games.  I didn't even know what the trilogy was about, other than it was set in the future.  This genre of books {futuristic} doesn't usually fall in my go-to pile of 'chick lit,' but I kept hearing talk of the books and decided I wanted to see what it was all about.  

Overall, I think my favorite books were the first and last.  However, I'd like to go back and reread the books at a slower pace now that I know how they all end.  Collins knows how to create a page-turner, and I found myself skipping details to read the next paragraph because I knew she would give away important info.  Then, I had to go back and reread the paragraph{s} I skimmed because I wanted to soak it all in.  

I have been wanting to see a movie in the Ukrainian theater, but all movies in Ukraine are shown in Ukrainian...and since I learned Russian, I probably wouldn't be able to understand most of it.  When Harry Potter 7, part 2, came out last summer, I wanted to see it at the theaters here but never got a chance to.  My thought process of seeing a movie in Ukrainian: preferably see an action-packed movie with minimal {important} speaking lines.  Extra bonus if I've read the book.  So, I think The Hunger Games will be perfect.  Just gotta wait now... :)

I feel pretty crappy today.  My head feels so fuzzy and heavy that I may give in to a nap right now.  I did enjoy some Cheez Its from home though for a treat for feeling so lousy.  Glad I can still eat with this bout of sickness :)  Off to zzz land now...night night.

Ski Trip to Slavske {part 5, the final one!}

This is the last post for ski trip entries.  Sad day, I know.  These are random pics that I forgot to post in other entries because they were taken on my small camera and in a different folder on the computer.  

Today's update on the medical front of Lydia: sick with round 3 of this viral infection.  Last night I started having horribly watery eyes (literally, just gushing tears for no reason) and a deep chest cough.  I rested my voice like the doc told me to all weekend (including missing a trip to Kiev and a working group meeting!)...but to no avail, this is all part of the original virus.  When I woke up today, my head felt like it was going to explode.  After taking some migraine medicine and my headache subsiding a little, I thought I could go into work.  I called the PC doc to see if there was anything I could take.  Good ol' Dr. Valeriy informed me of three things I could go purchase at the pharmacy: a pill that will help my chest cough, thera-flu for the other symptoms, and nasal spray.  

"Nasal spray?" I questioned.

"Yes, it will help you be able to breathe through your nose."

I then began laughing uncontrollably.  Poor Dr. Valeriy couldn't begin to understand my fear and loathing of nasal spray that stemmed from my childhood pediatrician wanting me to squirt liquid up my nose. 

After explaining to Dr. Valeriy that I hate nasal spray, he still didn't understand why a 25 year old volunteer couldn't give it a try.  I mean...I couldn't exactly explain to this very smart doctor that I haven't tried using nasal spray since I was probably 6 or 7 years old when my pediatrician wanted me to use it for allergies.  

Since nothing that I could say to this man would make my case any more valid, I assured him that I would consider trying it, all the while still laughing uncontrollably at how absurd I was being. 

But, I did buy it.  And I do have it to hand it to Dr. Valeriy: the man was right.  It did help.  I've been able to breathe out of my nose for 7 hours.  But, I'm definitely not switching to it for the long haul.  Enough about being sick...onto the pics!

Bennett and I on the {loan} chair lift

one of the ski doggies, waiting for a skier to drop a piece of meat on the ground...

tourist trap of having your picture taken with big birds...while you ski?

dance party after dinner...wish this weren't blurry!

Meet Morgan.  She has a pretty awesome wolf hat.  

Michael, about to show us some of his cossack moves

more mad dance moves...

most times when PCVs get together, a dance party oddly ends up happening.

see the wolf hat?

Lydia, Kym, Christina

sweet homegirl Jeramie 

Michael, and the wolf.

El Fin!