Way-Back-Wednesday #9: Rachel is getting married!! :)

This upcoming weekend is the wedding of one of my dear friends, Rachel Fenn. We met living on the dorm hall of Walker 6 West in the OU dorms our freshman year of college. From football games, to float trips, to OU/SAXET, we experienced a LOT of it together. And, what's even better: her high school sweet heart, Alex, was along for all of the ride as well.

Rachel and Alex went to high school together in a suburb of Dallas...why? Because they were next door neighbors. That's right...she's literally marrying the boy next door :) pretty stinkin' adorable, huh? I forget the details, but it makes for one heck of a story! On the night that Alex proposed, they went for a walk on the golf course behind their houses and if my memory serves me correct, Rachel was being stubborn about which way they went. They ended up coming out a different way and saw the back to the sign that Alex had painted that was mounted in her front yard that said, "Rachel, will you marry me?" Friends and family were hiding in her house watching the entire thing. The picture above sums up their absolutely goofy and loving relationship. It's one of their engagement shots...courtesy of the great Stancy Higley.

{neighbors}

I'm so sad I won't be there for the wedding celebration of these two this weekend...but I can't wait to see pictures from it :) Enjoy this walk down memory lane Rachel and Alex!

Holly Lake Ranch!

Jill, Allison, Alex, Rachel (or weird Al in this pic), Ashley, Lydia

Rachel, Sarah, Jill, Lydia

Allison, Angela, Ashley

Kevin & Mitchell

Rachie and myself

Allison, Lydia, Rachel, Jill, Maddie

After our sophomore year at OU, Rachel transferred to Texas Women's University to continue studying nursing. We had a surprise going away party for her...but the biggest surprise was that Alex drove up from Waco that weekend. Super cute.

surprise!

She is wearing clothes, I promise.

OU/Texas 2007--our first one!

OU/SAXET in the west end...

Ashley, Lydia, Rachel

Kevin, Rachel, Allison, Lydia--Dallas skyline

On my trip down to Dallas before I left for the PC...check out the bling on her finger!!

Concentrating super hard on a game...

the soon to be Mr. and Mrs. :) :)

Catharine's visit!

There is something utterly amazing that all PCVs (at least in Ukraine) share a common understanding of, and that is how wonderful it feels to be able to hang out with someone who simply put, gets it. They understand that sometimes you just need to hang out with another person who speaks English. So, this past weekend, I kind of/sort of asked (whined) if Catharine would come visit me in k-grad. I wanted a girl's weekend where we laugh, stay up late talking, cook, shop, and overall just enjoy the presence of another American...and English. She obliged :) and we had a fun 24 hours of quality hang out time.

Catharine is from New Hampshire but now lives 2 hours to the east of me in Aleksandria. She's 27 years old and I am SO thankful that the big man upstairs was looking out for me when he placed us by each other. I feel like we've known each other way more than...2 months? Catharine is a TEFL (Teaching English as Foreign Language) PCV, so we didn't really have a chance to get to know each other during training.

She arrived in the afternoon on Saturday and after going on a hunt to find shwarma (a tortilla filled chicken goodness that has french fries, ketchup, mayo, cabbage, and maybe cheese?), we met Phil and Donna in the city center for a little down-time and people watching. Donna is another PCV who lives in K-grad, but she has been traveling all summer so I had yet to have the opportunity to meet her.

On our way to the city center, I snagged a few pictures of my city...because for some reason, you feel better taking pictures with someone else by your side. I am still too scared to take pictures at my bazaar...the looks you get from the locals are pretty priceless.

This is Kopilka--one of my grocery stores. Probably my least favorite, although I did find pumpernickel bread there the other day! The building has stores/shops on the second and third floors of the building...the first is the grocery store. Typical in Ukraine.

The back side of Kopilka houses a movie theatre...I have yet to go see a movie there because they're all in Ukrainian...but I will at some point while I'm here!

Awesome marshrutka...most of them are not this nice. In fact, most of them barely run.

After you walk down a hill, you cross the river (that is not clean enough to swim in).

However, that doesn't stop people from fishing! That rottweiler was GIANT.

Right after you cross over the bridge is Cilpo, my favorite grocery store. The second and third floors of this building also house different individual shops/vendors.

That's all the city pictures I took...however, y'all are in for a real treat tomorrow or Wednesday :) Catharine and I made paninis twice while she was here (ha, once for dinner on Saturday night and once for lunch on Sunday)...but she filmed the process on Saturday night. Piecing it together for a funny presentation :) be excited.

We also tried to make homemade brownies late Saturday night...they were a little on the gooey side but still delectable. We proceeded to stay up til 2 am laughing and telling stories. We did that the last time she came here also...it's just fun to have a visitor. Period.

Sunday was filled with shopping...I was on the hunt for buying a drying rack. I had priced them and found the cheapest one for 95 griev ($12)...but they are rather large and obtrusive and I would have felt quite odd carrying it all the way to my house alone. Strength in numbers :)

After Catharine left Sunday afternoon, I proceeded to eat half of the loaf of zucchini bread that she brought me (homemade). Today, I met my counterpart to buy train tickets for our HIV/AIDS training seminar in Kamianets-Podilskyi. Check out the castle in that city!! I'm excited to explore. I think a few PCVs and myself may hang around after the conference is over (in the beginning of September) and see the city.

Tomorrow, I will be entertaining some kids speaking English for an hour...any topics you can think of (American wise) that would be interesting for youth ages 17-20 are more than welcome! Phil is coming to help me out and entertain the kids as well. After tomorrow, it's unknown what I'll be doing with the kids for my hour each day. To be continued.

My tentative schedule for the next few weeks:

Aug. 9-12: summer camp at my Center

Aug. 15-23: maybe going to help at Camp Bereg which is on the Black Sea?

Aug. 24: Ukraine's Independence day (BIGGGGG holiday...we're having a celebration in the park put on by the Center for Creative Youth where I work)

Aug. 25-30: Environmental conference in Kiev

Sept. 1: school starts in Ukraine

Sept. 4: leave for Kamianets-Podilskyi

Sept. 5-9: HIV/AIDS Training in Kamianets-Podilskyi

Sept. 10-11: explore Kamianets-Podilskyi?

Busy next month...but I'm really looking forward to it to actually have things to do :) I'll leave you with one last picture...

This is the other view of the river..at sunset. Pretty, isn't it? :) The sunsets on the river here are pretty gorgeous in K-grad. Hopin' everyone has a glorious Monday!

Goodbye house...

Since I have now been home a week and have little to do (due to the fact that I couldn't stay at Camp Brigantina), I have been trying to keep myself busy. I'm a little over 200 pages into Harry Potter 7 and I find myself not wanting to finish it because I really don't know what happens at the end of it. Then, I will finally be able to watch the last movie. But I am reading this book incredibly slow in comparison to the other ones (which took 1-3 days each), trying to soak it all in.

In other news, the house that I lived in ALL through college and after (until I moved to Ukraine) sold :( During the spring and summer of 2006, my parents and I looked at countless townhouses, condos, houses, and duplexes. The idea was that they would buy a house and I would live in it and have roommates in it during college, which is a pretty typical thing to do in a college town...and I was all for it. It meant not having to move my stuff every year from apartment to apartment and the best part: I GOT TO DECORATE IT :) I checked openhouseok.com every day, hoping to see a house that was semi-updated and had some charm to it. And finally, I found it.

(photo courtesy of Openhouseok.com)--great landscaping courtesy of mom :)

It even looks cute covered in snow :)

the view when you walked in the newly painted red front door (thanks, mom!)

the giant living space...

So bare...

the cute little white and green kitchen...I don't have any pictures of my own with my red appliances. Bummer! Check out the original 70's era olive green sink, stove, and venthood. They all worked and I actually really liked them :)

My bedroom (picture courtesy of openhouseok.com) without any of my stuff...

the drop-leaf table I made in furniture design that no one was ever allowed to put a drink on :)

another view of the living area

There were so many things that I loved and will miss about this house...Christmas parties, FISH gatherings, MUG, friend din, guitar hero, surprise parties, decorating for Christmas (going on the roof and putting up lights for the very first time!), the blue couch, I could go on forever. (pictured above: some of my FISH group from 2 years ago at our Christmas party)

There are also things I will not miss. Jill LOVED to come over to my house and find the set of k'nex magnetic balls and pieces (that I usually had hidden) and then drop them on the tile floor. The balls went bouncing in every direction...I finally gave the set back to my mom. Thank you, Jill Sowers :)

One of the last days I was in my house before I left for PC...goodbye Sunrise house :) I hope that the boys who will live there now will appreciate it as much as I did.

In other news, I need to get ready for my guest to come today! Catharine (who lives in Aleksandria--2 hours to the east of me) is coming to k-grad for the weekend. I didn't get a picture of us the last time that she was here, so I will do my best to do so this weekend.

Oh! Last news. I updated the contact info again with information regarding shipping and packages and sending mail in general. Check it out!

Lydia's Cooking Adventures--CHICKEN

So, where to begin on this blog post? I have always been a picky eater. Anyone who remotely knows me and has eaten more than 5 meals with me can tell you that. When I was younger, I thought all meat was chicken. My brother and parents would ask me what kind of meat we were eating...the answer was always chicken. So where did my weird meat handling problems come from? Who knows...but maybe one of the following stories had something to do with it. If you're squeamish, I would suggest skipping down 4 paragraphs where I actually get to talking about my cooking adventures here in Ukraine :)

In 7th grade, I went with one of my best friends from Alabama, Caitlin, to the Mississippi State Veterinary clinic program. My parents took us...and there is not much that I remember from that weekend except 1) walking away with a t-shirt that I loved, 2) eating at a podunk restaurant, and 3) seeing inside a live cow. I don't remember how the cow part worked, but I remember you could stick your hand inside a giant hole on the side of it. I chose not to.

Caitlin, Lydia, Rajini--I'm actually WEARING the shirt that I got that weekend at Mississippi State...even though this picture is maybe 3 or 4 years later.

In 9th grade, I went to Global Village which is a part of Heifer International--an organization my family has always loved and supported. Scott Meier took about 25 high schoolers to this weekend retreat in the middle of Arkansas where we were to live like a third world country for a night. The people (adults) who got to stay in "Guatamala" (the fanciest housing for the night with actual beds) had the option of killing a rabbit for their meal. The only catch was, if you wanted to eat it, you had to watch it be killed. So, the cute, white, little bunny foo foo that we had passed upon entering the camp was actually going to be our dinner that night. I watched. It squealed. I cried. It died. It was horrible...and I'm pretty sure I didn't eat meat for a good month after going home.

I was by no means an avid watcher of Oprah, but if I happened to catch an episode that I thought looked interesting, I usually watched it. One day, I happened to be flipping through the channels and caught an episode on organic food and how the United States has it pretty messed up. They showed parts of this documentary, Food, Inc., which I never got around to watching. Maybe I can find it to watch now with all of my free time :) Here's a link to the trailer of the video...be prepared for it to get your mind thinking!

So, the episode on Oprah showed a few chicken farms in America...if my memory serves me correct, only one or two of the TWELVE they interviewed would let them film. If that doesn't tell you something, I don't know what does. I won't go into detail, but the episode made me realize how America is driven on having everything faster, faster, faster. Alicia Silverstone was also a guest on the show, talking about her book The Kind Diet. She discussed on the show that you don't have to jump into being a complete health nut overnight...start small. Like changing regular, everyday items to organic items: milk, pasta, chicken, etc. From that day on, I got organic milk. I would get other organic products when I could find them, but it definitely presented a problem when you are a college-age girl who still can't cook worth a flip. Animals are treated better on organic farms and given the proper amount of time to grow...which made all the difference in the world to me (at least in my crazy head!). So, there's my little rant about organic products...which brings me to my time in Ukraine!

Organic products in Ukraine...pretty easy to come by considering half of the food at the bazaar is fresh from someone's back yard. I'm still getting used to the idea of all of this...and sometimes it would be beneficial if I truly understood what I was buying at the grocery store (at least I have a grocery store in my city! A lot of them actually...), but I am trying to eat healthier here in Ukraine. Our PC monthly stipend doesn't allow us to eat out for every meal, and I'm not sure where i would eat out even if I could (it'd be a lot of pizza places no doubt). So, a few days ago, I actually bought chicken at the supermarket and decided I needed to conquer one of my life's fears: handling raw chicken. Enjoy the process :)

The "chicken-in-a-bag" that my host mom always made...it's absolutely delish. There are two different kinds I've been able to find, one that has peppers on the front and one that has onions. Neither taste like the chicken my host mom made, although they're both good. The peppers one has more kick to it...definitely better flavoring.

Mom suggested I cut up some potatoes and carrots to go in the chicken-in-a-bag as well. Pretty smart lady she is...because they were fantastic!

Minor mishap while cutting the carrots.

The chicken that I purchased. Thought I was buying chicken breats...turned out to be thighs. Whoops.

Ready to touch the chicken. Thank you, self-timer.

Didn't take any pictures of the chicken fat free after I cleaned them. Pretty sure I threw away parts of the chicken that were not actually fat, but I didn't care at the time.

I had too many potatoes to fit in the chicken-in-a-bag, so I put some oil in the pan (Ukrainians favorite way of fixing any type of meal) and browned the extra potato in the skillet. They were amazing.

Waiting...cooked it for almost an hour!

The goodness that would be my meals for the next few days.

Making sure the chicken was done...

Ta-da! What movie am I watching? :)

One of my other meals that I had with my leftover chicken...Chicken caesar salad with sunflower kernels, cheese, caesar dressing, and crouton-esque snacks. The crouton things come in two flavors...white and wheat bread. The wheat bread ones taste like the brown pumpernickel things in Gardettos. To. Die. For.

This might be my favorite thing yet. It tasted like something straight off the Panera menu. Chicken panini with caesar dressing and gouda cheese (splurged on at the store). Buttered the bread and toasted it in the toaster oven.

My other favorite thing as of lately.

The end :) I'm impressed if you read all of that! Happy Thursday!

Way-Back-Wednesday #8: Mission Trip to Camden, New Jersey!

Every time I think about doing a "way-back-Wednesday" post, it's not Wednesday! But today, I finally remembered on a Wednesday and I have been meaning to post this entry for 2 weeks now. So...enjoy!

A small group of McFarlin high school youth, college kids, and adults traveled to Camden, New Jersey (the poorest city in the U.S.) during the summer of 2008 to work with Urban Promise. Scott took a group of youth there before (I think summer of 2000?) and I had heard for many years about what a great organization Urban Promise was. Well, the rumors were true. It truly is a remarkable organization that helps gets kids off the streets and gives them a hope for their future. We worked with Urban Promise Toronto during the summer of 2009, and this summer, the McFarlin youth went back to Urban Promise Camden. So, I thought it only appropriate to take a trip down memory lane and revisit some of the great memories from the mission trip to Camden--summer 2008!

The trip started with a day of shopping and sightseeing in NYC. The best part of the day? Besides the TGIFridays for dinner, MY BROTHER got to come hang out for the day. It was a blistering hot day, but he was a good big brother and went to every store that the girls (and Pirtle) and I wanted to go to.

Kendall, Lydia, Creepy Elmo, Pirtle, Gracie

I think we must have been getting to ride the 6 or 7 line: "STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS PLEASE!"

Tayler, Nora, Lydia, Pirtle, Kendall, Gracie, Scott

Grace, Lydia, & Jeremy (waiting for an hour to eat at TGIFriday's in Times Square.)

Jeremy, Mark, Schlegel (The best part of dinner was the fact that we had a view of the staircase and watched at least 17 people trip going UP the stairs. Yes, we counted.)

Grace, Lydia, & Pirtle (with out cherry limeade slushes that got refilled once? maybe twice?during our 2+ hour adventure at TGIFriday's)

Lydia, Jeremy, & Stephen (who is now engaged! can't believe it still!)

The Gangster! In addition to working with kids in the morning, we helped paint the Urban Promise Academy where kids go to high school.

Stephen, Schlegel, and Mark. Nice shorts! Those would fit right in in Ukraine :)

Gracie...painting behind the toilet :)

Stephen, just a tad bit frustrated with the blinds...

Hanging out at the Camden RiverSharks baseball game (Tayler, Grace, Lydia, Nora)

One of my little kiddos...Sammy :)

Of course, I could post a bajillion more pictures, but I will spare you :) I know that the group of youth, adults, and college students that went on the Camden trip 2 weeks ago had an amazing and life-changing experience. And for the first time ever, a group of 15 high school kids and sponsors stayed behind to help out an additional week. At Friday (when the group was supposed to head home on Saturday) morning worship, the Urban Promise director jokingly told the McFarlin kids that they should stay another week because the group that was supposed to be coming for the next week's help had to cancel. You don't put an opportunity in front of McFarlin kids and let it linger for very long though...before the end of that day, everything had been arranged for a parent to fly out and meet the correct adult/kid ratio, and there were actually kids who wanted to stay who didn't end up being able to because the 15 spots filled so quickly. Pretty amazing God story I'd say :) I got to skype with some of the kids that week which made me so unbelievably happy words can't even explain. And that, is today's way-back-Wednesday post!