Early (6:30am) yesterday morning I was at the bus station to headed off for Bakhchysaray.  Bakhchysaray is a town in Crimea where Genghis Kahn built a palace.  The palace survived the eradication of mosques from Catherine the Great because she thought the building was 'romantic'.

The entrance into the Palace

After walking around the palace I went to find Usta's Workshop.  This is a Crimean Tatar run store where everything that is created and sold is from local artists and then profits go directly to the artists.  They have pottery (see pictures) as well as beautiful jewelry (wayyyy outside of my Peace Corps budget) and some embroidery.  What is really cool about the store is that a Peace Corps volunteer helped found the shop a little over three years ago!  I was able to speak with a man who makes jewelry and another man who made pots.  They showed me all over the store and outside where the fire the pots.  It was a really great experience!

The pots stay inside of the kiln for no longer than 11 hours and  someone has to sit to tend the fire all the time.   

Here is a picture of the pottery room!

I made it home a little before seven Saturday night, it was a trying and long day with several miles walked, 4 buses and 5 marshutkas.  Today has been a wonderful lazy Sunday.  I made apple sauce this morning.  One jar for the librarians to try, a jar for my Russian tutor, a jar for a friend and a jar for my self...  It was the perfect thing to make on this cold morning!
This evening my landlords came over and turned on my heat!!!!! I am so happy and thankful that I will have heat this winter, last night was colddd!  They also were able to shut some of my windows with the help of a few hammers.

yumm 

Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

This past Friday was a Cossack holiday.  For those of you not up to-date on Ukrainian and Russian history- a Cossack is a person from Southern Russia, Ukraine or Siberia and who historically have been noted for their horsemanship and military units.  The group originated in the 15th century mostly by fleeing religious persecution.  Anyways, on Friday I went to two different events celebrating Cossack life.  

Friday morning my counterpart, a rayon administrator, the director of the House of Culture and I went to a village to watch their celebration.    First we were greeted at the village library.  My counterpart and I are currently working on a grant to get internet and computers into our library as well as two village libraries in our Rayon.  This is one of the village libraries.  

The program and concert started as children dressed up in their traditional Ukrainian clothing lit candles  to place in front of the Icon.  Each child had a small paragraph, in Ukrainian, that they recited about Cossack history.  All of these children speak Russian in their homes but education is taught in Ukrainian.

There were many different skits and dances representing different aspect of the harvest time.  My favorite was these three boys who danced with kettle bells! Each KB weighted 20-30lbs, pretty impressive! 

In the afternoon I went to a Cossack competition between two Seventh Form classes at school.  This was very fun to watch and be apart of.  Over the summer I had been to a sports competition between villages, some of the events were the same in this competition (just modified to fit the ages).  These events are competitions only between men and boys.  Although girls can be included in parts of the dances. 

The starting of the competition, reciting historical facts about Cossack life.

Arm wrestling competitions

At the competition this summer the guys used bags of seeds, the boys at school used pillow.

Tug of war

The last event was a group dance.

Both classes with some of the girls.  

Food!

There was another birthday celebration at the library this week! In Ukraine it is customary for the birthday person to bring in treats for everyone to share.  This particular birthday had some tea, a desert that was like jelly, pastries, candy, grapes, pork, salo (animal fat) and the sweetest red wine I have ever tasted.  The celebration started at 8:30am.  Not much was accomplished on Tuesday!! 

Last night I went to my friend Tanya's apartment and she helped me make, what she calls an "everything sauce."  It has tomatoes, red bell peppers, red hot peppers, a white root which is spicy but I don't know what it is called in english and a lot of garlic (4 or 5 bulbs of garlic)!

It was very easy to make, all you need is a crank grinder.  Once everything was grinned we added a little salt, mixed everything together and the sauce was complete! You can put the sauce on pasta, salad, bread or anything you want! Last night for dinner I made a breakfast sandwich: bread and spicy sauce with an over-easy egg!

 The finished product! With a kilo of tomatoes and bell peppers I have four jars which will last me several weeks.  Its is wonderful to have something spicy to add to the bland Ukrainian food!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Fishin'

Last weekend I went with some friends to a lake for some fishing! Although the fishing portion of the trip was not as successful as the guys had hoped for, we had a great day!

Apparently the girls didn't have very much faith in the guys' fishing abilities, and they brought lots of food!  Some of the items were: sausage pizza made with a ketchup and mayonnaise sauce, open faced sandwiches with butter, canned fish and cucumbers and an eggplant dish! The main dish was Shashlik which is Ukrainian BBQ!

The Shashlik is prepared the night before so it has plenty of time to marinate.  Last weekend the Shashlik was assembled with lots of onions, parsley, apples, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Yum!

To me, shashlik is a lot like giant shish-kabobs!

For fishing in a "stocked" lake the fishing was a little disappointing.  The guys ended up catching 5 little fish that they took back to feed to cats!  At least the cats had a good dinner!   

A Random Assortment!

Hello!

I know, I am awful at keeping my blog updated! So, I have uploaded some pictures from the last two or three weeks with some captions!

I spent a Sunday on the beach with some friends, the lady in the back left is Natasha, an English teacher who is currently on maternity leave (maternity leave in Ukraine is 3 years!).  She has become a good friend and is also my Russian tutor. Her husband is to her left and the rest of the group are their neighbors.

Last night Natasha and I made tacos with some seasoning that my Mom and Grandma sent in a box.  It was the first Mexican food that they have ever tasted- they loved it!  We also made homemade tortillas which were delicious! (pictures to come :))

One Sunday afternoon I went with some friends to watch our local soccer team play another village's team.   

 A trip to see the Settlement's fire department and fire truck!

I had an amazing day when I went to the Post Office and found out that I had received TWO care packages on the same day! Check out this loot!  Little bits and treats from home are amazing and really can transform a lousy day (the librarians also really enjoy trying American candy)! Thank you to Drew and Mom and Dad! 

 Thursday's are the big bazar days when people selling clothes and household goods come in.  Here is a snapshot from last Thursday! 

I helped Tonya and her mom prepare for some canning.  To me it seems like Ukrainian's can tomatoes every day!  This particular day Tonya was canning tomatoes and peppers.  In the winter, fresh produce is very expensive in Ukraine, so people rely on the food that they grow in their gardens and can in the spring and summer for the rest of the year.  Pickled tomatoes are the most common variety of canned vegetables (yes, I know that a tomato is a fruit).

August 24th marks Ukrainian Independence Day.  The town celebrated with a performance in the center by the Lenin statue which is in front of the Rayon (district) administration building.  There was singing, dancing and speeches to celebrate and commemorate Ukraine's 20 years of independence. Go Ukraine! 

Friday is always a good day!

I just bought my first chicken.  This morning it was enjoying its free-range village life and now, at 10am, it is waiting in the refrigerator for me to cook it into soup.  I am not sure how I feel about that short process I just know that I am very relieved that the feathers and head did not come with it.  

Yesterday I bought three kilos (6.6lbs) of tomatoes from the bazar (for a 1USD).  This weekend I am planning to make tomato soup for some ladies who will be coming over to my apartment on Monday- the first dinner get-together at my apartment! With the left over tomatoes and other vegetables that I have purchased I am going to make vegetable stock (also needed for the tomato soup).  

Later this weekend I will post the results of my cooking endeavors with some pictures of of the food and possibly the bazar and different areas around town! For now, I will post a picture of my new washing machine! I love it and it has made my life so much easier and comfortable here in Ukraine.  Unfortunately the only place where it could work is about a foot in front of my kitchen sink. Yes, I can still wash dishes, its just a tight squeeze!  The gray tube in the sink is the drainage tube and I am sad to admit that one time I forgot to put the tube into the sink so the floor got an unexpected cleaning! 

Happy Friday morning to those of you who are in America! I hope you have a fun and nice weekend! 

Entertaining walk-

I've already posted about my workday today, I but really enjoyed my evening walk and thought it was also worth sharing....

After work, I set out on a walk - not a run, because I do not have water today, so showering is out of the question this evening!

1.  And on this walk, I was stopped by a mother goose leading her 4 cute goslings across the road.
2.  Then, I was stopped by a herd of cattle passing on the road.
3.  The cattle were followed a few minutes later by a herd of sheep.
4.  The next animal I encountered was a huge all-white turkey with a floppy waddle and bright blue beak.
5. The last bit of evening entertainment was coming across a cat vs. snake fight.  It looked vicious, and I did not stay to see who the victor was!
6. My walk was made complete when I got an all thumbs up from the babushka bench.

Simple Pleasures!

Today has been a great day; it has reinforced just how happy I am right now living in Ukraine.

I live on the second floor, and this is the entrance door to my apartment.