As we come full circle. …of the first of two circles.

I’ve been a bad blogger! But, let’s face it, an awesome summer-vacationer. Let’s do a brief recap of the last few months.

The month started off with 4 days of relaxation. On the first Monday (the 7th) I started my two weeks of summer camp at site. I spent the next 10 days 8am-2pm teaching kids how to play Duck Duck Goose, reading English stories with 4th formers, learning how to play Durak, saving baby owls, touring a fire station (and shooting a fire hose at 40 screaming 5th formers), picnicking, helping 8th formers write letters to American students, and so on.

The Friday that ended (the 18th) I hopped a 3 hour bus, an overnight train, and a 4 hour bus to Ulianovka. The 20th was my birthday, and I spent it with Henry and Heather eating tortillas, drinking grapefruit rum, and watching scary movies during a thunderstorm. A pretty awesome birthday.

PEPFAR for AIDS awareness Camp Express Yourself started the 21st. Heather, Henry, Joyce, and I myself made up the American Squad. I taught a Cultural Studies class twice a day to classes of 15-20 students. Amongst the topics covered were Chinese, Japanese, Native American, African American, Middle Eastern, Greek, and Roman. We danced at discos, played capture the flag, had a cross-dressing day, a fashion show, a scavenger hunt, and a lot of other awesome things.

(photo by Joyce K.)

Sadly, Heather had to go to Kyiv suddenly, so the last weekend in Ulianovka was spent with Henry and Joyce. We took one day and went to the famous Sofievka park. We worked a paddleboat around a lake, watched ducks run on water, and took a scary underground canal in the total darkness. Ballaaaa!

Henry, Joyce, and myself also took a night and made some pretty great varenyky. It only would have been better had Heather been there, so we had to improvise. Oh, the pesky колон! (which I later found out means column, not colon. sad day.)

July, July, July. I got to see MY FAMILY! On July 6th I left Ukraine for the first time in 10 months, the longest time spent away from my family for one stretch.

Going to Scotland was nice. As I’ve said a few times: it was familiar enough having been there every summer for the past 3 summers that it was comforting. Yet, at the same time, it’s not as familiar as going home where it would probably be agonizing to leave. Leaving Edinburgh was hard enough that I can’t imagine leaving home again.

But anyhoo. I spent a marvelous 10 days eating indian food, shopping, seeing castles, speaking english, using a washing machine, taking showers, and…well yeah spending time with my awesome family. I also got to meet my future nephew and spend time with my fiance and his family.

The best quote of the year came from this trip while eating fish and chips at the seaside:
My sister: Did you hear Al Gore and his wife divorced? Tippy Wippy or whatever her name is.

[Photos forthcoming when my sister decides to upload them]

When I returned to Ukraine on the 16th I spent the last 2 weeks of July going to the river, swimming, having picnics, hanging out with my neighbor, discovering parts of Zachepylivka I didn’t know existed (super market!), chasing farm animals, making pastries, going on walks, watching football, getting sunburned, and… feeding goats.

August brought my love back to me. Ed came to Ukraine on the 4th, and, after a comedy of errors, I picked him up at the airport.

We went to my host family’s house and spent 3 days with some of the greatest people on earth. It was really great having Ed meet these people whom I love so much. It was a marvelous 3 days of being cooked for, chasing chickens (can you guess one of my favorite Ukraine hobbies?), walking, swimming, laying in the grass reading and listening to music, karaoke, homemade wine, enormous watermelons, and my host dad’s hilarious/lame jokes-

Him: «Do you know what they call juice in French?»
Me: (translating)
Ed and I having minute long discussion
Us together: “Jus.”
Him: “LA COMPOTE!”
Host mom: “La varenyky.”
believe me it’s really funny.

After the HF’s we flew to Germany. We spent a nice day and a half in Frankfurt. The first day we went to a restaurant near-ish the hotel. It was called Haus Goldenstein, and we ordered a “plate for 2 persons” that was 22 Euro. We figured, “hey 22 Euro for two people is pretty great, right?” WRONG! It wasn’t great. It was amazing. Easily 5 pounds of french fries, bacon, kebabs, spicy rice, tomatoes, onions, hamburger patties, peppers, sausage, and a host of other delights. We drank and ate and laughed until we collapsed. “This weighs as much as a human leg. You may as well put a human leg on a plate. It’s probably why it was so cheap,” remarked Ed, failing to realize the fluent-in-English-waiter had walked up behind him. cue me laughing the hardest I’ve ever laughed in my life.

The next day there was a street fair going on, so we walked around, shopped, ate wurst and fries and took in some sights. There were some shops with sales, and we did some perusing. We stopped at a Greek stall and bought some olives, stuffed peppers and corn nuts for the train ride. Our time in Germany was short, but it was nice.

After Frankfurt we took a nice train ride to Amsterdam. What a city! It’s small and conducive to walking. We did some touristy stuff, but it was great: the Anne Frank house, the Heineken Experience (THE GREATEST!), a candlelit canal tour by night with wine and cheese, the Rijks museum (honestly? not that great /museum snob), VAN GOGH MUSEUM (honestly? amazing), Bols experience! and eh you know, other Amsterdam stuff. We also stumbled upon an outdoor cover band festival and rocked along to a Metallica cover band that kept shooting fireballs from the stage. They were pretty great actually.

We got to spend some time with Heather and Henry which was nice, too. We found pick and mix and saw Inception at an enormous theater. We also did a fair bit of shopping and strolling.

After Amsterdam we took a short train to Bruges, Belgium. While here we ate at an all-you-can-eat ribs joint, drank too much delicious beer (one time out of a coconut), spent 30 Euro on candy, discovered Stoofvlees, almost took a horse-drawn carriage ride, laughed at tourists (we’re never tourists, you see, cause we’re too awesome), tried to get into the backgrounds of tourist photos, walked around winding cobbled streets, sat in medieval squares, explored Palace grounds, had a picnic in an alcove, saw a dancing goth Belgian, discovered how smart our cat was, and yes- had copious amounts of chocolate, waffles, beer, and french fries.

After Belgium, Ed and I flew back to Ukraine. We took an overnight (1st class!!) train back to site. Though our time here was limited, I think we managed to have a really good time. Just being together watching movies in my apartment was a lot of fun. We also discovered tortillas pizzas and slow-danced in my kitchen.

Ed met my neighbor, the director and his wife, some students, and a few of the shop-keepers I like. We walked around a lot, Ed saw the guy-fighting-dragon statue, we had a picnic by the river, and made up a dance routine to the Double Rainbow song.

We also took our fair share of dorky couple photos.

Now the new school year is upon me, and, as much as I do love teaching, I am (not so) secretly dreaming of next summer. Love to my family and friends that I saw this summer! Catch you soon

<3 <3 <3