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 :)

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 :)

Happy New Year, Ukraine Style!

I can't believe that Christmas, my birthday, and New Years have all come and gone in a week. It was a whirlwind of days with so many different celebrations I had trouble keeping my memory cards empty to document things!! That's a good thing though in my books.  I just got home from Kiev today in the late afternoon after staying up late and welcoming in 2012 with about 15 Peace Corps Volunteers...in addition to all of Kiev. 

The New Years tree in Kiev...they don't have Christmas trees in Ukraine.  I believe they call a New Years tree a "yolka."

Kym!

In true Ukrainian style, Kym and I rocked bright tights for NY2012.  I went with teal, while Kym went with purple. 

Cluster/link-cluster love.  Lydia, Kym, Matt, and Mary-Kathryn.  During this photo session, there was not one picture (on my camera at least) where we were all looking at the camera.  Typical Oster/Kozelets group pic.

I took a marshrutka into Kiev early Saturday morning, only to have my ceremonious McDonald's fries upon arrival :)  After some time at the PC office (where I snagged a full bottle of free hair spray in the volunteers room where people can put things they don't want/need anymore), the big group of us headed to our respective hostels/apartment to get ready for the evenings activities.  A late lunch was found in a cafe with a few brews to match.  I had a lovely veggie sandwich with feta spread, tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers.  After hanging out for a while, we decided it was time to get going.

Kym, Matt, Simon, Lydia, and Chris in the front

I went to Kym's hostel with her to curl her hair in prep for the fun evening ahead of us.  Then it was off to the apartment I was staying at with other PCVs where one of them was preparing a lovely feast of eggplant parmesan with spaghetti.  It was to die for and makes my mouth water now thinking about fixing it again soon!

I am almost a full head taller than Kym.  Especially in heels...

I could not have asked for a better or more memorable New Years celebration.  We headed to the center where they had a giant stage set up for performers and a huge fireworks display.  I have video of the fireworks show, which rivaled Disney's nightly fireworks display, and was definitely one for the books.

Matt, Kym, Lydia

Can't believe how quickly 2011 came and went...with 9 months of it spent in Ukraine!  I will hopefully be updating the blog a lot the next week, trying to play catch-up from things that I have yet to blog about that were 3 or 4 months ago...whoops :(  I am in the process of transferring all of my older pics on my laptop to two external hard-drives (to be double backed up! so OCD, I know) at the moment.  I finished A-D tonight, which included over 5000 pics.  Some are from 5 years ago, which make me very excited to have some fresh material to blog about for Way-Back-Wednesday posts.

Here's to the next year of my life in Ukraine.  Happy New Year America and с Новым годом Украина! I have much to be thankful for now and for the past year.  Can't wait to see what the next year holds :)

Homemade goodies all around

Remember how I spent my Saturday being a domesticated 50's housewife?  I'm thinking about creating a weekly blog title that involves that phrase...any suggestions?

I got to skype with my dad yesterday and hear some of the big thunder that was happening in Norman.  Pretty crappy weather, eh, Oklahoma?  After skyping, I got ready to go out to Winston Churchill's bar/pub--Kirovograd's newest American style eatery.  We went there on opening night (Thursday) and tried the onion rings which were pretty stellar for Ukrainian "bar food!" Last night we tried the Greek salad (not quite as good as the authentic Greek salad I had in Athens) and some mozzarella-ish fried cheese sticks.  I think the onion rings are still my fave.  And BTW, if you had told me a year ago that I would be eating onion rings (and not just the fried batter), I would have laughed in your face.  That's how far my eating habits have come.

Today, I got up and started cleaning...again.  I finally cleaned my fridge as best as I could because it needed to be plugged back in!  I ended up having to throw away a few questionable things that didn't feel cool enough.  No Ukrainian would have thrown them away, but I have enough stomach problems as it is...don't need to contribute to the situation.

After the fridge was on and barely running again, it was time to start cooking.  I was having a few friends over for dinner to celebrate Phil's birthday (which is actually tomorrow).  On the menu included:

Veggie Chili

Homemade Cornbread
Gooey Brownies

If I do say so myself, they all turned out pretty amazing.  I forgot to take a picture of the cornbread, but it's the same cornbread recipe I've made the whole time I've lived in K-grad.  It's a dependable recipe that never fluctuates which I LOVE.  And, the brownies were topped off with some REESE'S PIECES from the good ol' US of A.  {Sidenote: Reese's Pieces are always welcome in care packages...they cannot be found here and will more than likely be devoured in one sitting by yours truly.}

Phil with his pan-o-brownies

I followed all of the recipes to a T, minus the veggie chili one.  Green and red peppers are a) expensive right now and b) not very good anyway because it's not their season, so I opted not to put them in.  I also haven't been able to find cumin at stores here.  I had a pack of Williams Chili seasoning from home that made this recipe finger-licking good (in Russian: palchicki-obleejesh).  They have black beans here but I didn't leave enough time to soak them and cook them, etc. etc.  Whoops.  I also got to feed this southern meal to my sweet Ukrainian friend and neighbor, Yana, who promised me it wasn't too spicy for her!  I did add a little Cholula hot sauce to it :)  She loved the cornbread and chili topped with cheese.  And for dessert, I warmed the brownies and served with ice cream (just like my dad would want!).  Ukrainians do not understand the concept of serving something hot (brownie) with something cold (ice cream).  I tried teaching my host family about this concept...or even simply cake and ice cream together.  They didn't understand the goodness that they are missing out on!  But Yana was a trooper and tried it out :)  I sent some brownies and the ice cream home with her to have her parents try it out too.  We'll see if they think the crazy American next door is teaching their daughter silly ways of life :)

I'm going to post this and go read some.  My Kindle is still one of the best things and most used items I have here with me in Ukraine (kudos to Mitchell and fam for knowing that it would be a good investment!).  However, my one major complaint is that I can't ever remember the title of the book I'm reading.  I'm a visual person and normally visualize a book by the cover and can "picture" the title of the book that way.  But, with the Kindle, I may only read the title of the book once when I download it and open it.  Currently, I'm reading a book called Come Back to Me, by Melissa Foster.  Pretty good read thus far, and I got it on the Kindle daily sale for $0.99 I think.

It's been a good weekend.  Shopping, cleaning, cooking, reading, Christmas music listening, defrosting the fridge, etc.  And I'm even more excited for next weekend when friends come visit in K-grad!  And to top it off, mom texted me a little bit ago and informed me that the Target One Section has Silly Putty in it right now. "How many do you want?"  Thanks, mom!  Ukrainian kids are fascinated by Silly Putty.  Pretty sure adults are too come to think of it...

Happy second Sunday of Advent :)  much love.

I have a Russian tutor!!!

Yippeeeeeeee :)  finally!!  I am so so so so so so excited to have a Russian tutor.  After being at different trainings and hearing other PCVs speak in Russian and realizing how much mine has digressed...it made me sad and somewhat frustrated to know that I haven't been doing anything to make my Russian better.  Granted, for the first couple months after training, I didn't want to see any type of Russian class material for a while.  You try learning a language every day, for 4 hours a day, for 3 months straight and let me know if your brain reaches max capacity.  I think it would.  At the end of training...I was done.  Kaput.  Couldn't handle any more new information.  But now, I'm ready to conquer it.

One of the reasons I requested a non-Spanish speaking country for PC was because I wanted to learn a new language...and I mean really learn it.  And I knew that the only way I would ever learn a new language at this point in my life was to be submersed in it.  And boy, let me tell ya, that makes ya learn quick!  I met with my new tutor, Sveta, yesterday and today to decide on how things would work and what we would be doing.  Yesterday, she told me she wanted me to read a book in Russian.  I laughed and said it needed to be the level of a 5 year old.  So...look what she brought me today :) 

The book is actually two books in one: 1) Winnie the Pooh and 2) Malish and Karlson.  I'm going to read Malish and Karlson, which is the top part of the picture featuring a flying man with a little boy on his back.  We will meet twice a week for one hour each time to speak and work on my Russian.  I'm also supposed to read aloud my book at home.  My neighbors will probably think I'm crazy (actually, they probably already do...).  If you want to see a little bit about what the story is about...here's a youtube video on it.  I only watched the first few minutes because I am supposed to try to comprehend from the book and I don't want any help!  But, the first 3 minutes are pretty boring...I'd fast forward through that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93GNqmaToKU

One of my goals while I'm here in Ukraine is to read Harry Potter 1 in Russian.  We'll see if that ever happens...so please please please hold me accountable!! Ask me if I'm getting anywhere close to reading Гарри Поттер и Философский Камень!!  Here's what it looks like in Russian...

Also, if you google "Harry Potter in Russian"...this is one of the things that comes up.  Hysterical :)

Dumbledore, Snape, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and what's the last little guy?!  

On another note, today marks two things:  1) my first English club meeting with adults (14 people!  Not too shabby...) and 2) I haven't had a piece of meat in one month!  That's right...this girl is trying being a vegetarian.  There are a number of reasons for this which I will be happy to explain if someone is so curious...but I doubt everyone really cares.  I may go off on a rant on it someday, but I'll warn you so you can skip that days post if you so desire :)

Okay, going to indulge in one of my guilty pleasures here: The Real Housewives of ________________. It's embarrassing but true.  I'll watch any of the shows but the Atlanta one.  Fare thee well :)