Romantic, eh? One of the many charming attractions of Kyiv--just the three of us sitting around our kitchen table sharing a scrumptious meal while gazing into each others' eyes. That's how I'm choosing to view it at least. We're all in the process of trying to adjust to the ten hour time change, so in hopes of regulating Rawly's system, we opted to try for a late bedtime tonight. We were just sitting down around 8:30 to eat dinner when the power went out (luckily we had finished cooking!) about about two hours later and it was back on. One thing I do not recommend is trying to entertain a tired toddler and stay awake yourselves without the use of the electric light bulb.
Yesterday was the end of our 20 some-odd hour journey across the Atlantic. Amsterdam handed us two trips through customs and an 1 1/2 hour delay; we arrived at last to our home sweet home. We were greeted at the gate by one of the friendly bus drivers and then again at the door with the all too familiar cloud of cigarette smoke (oh where are the joys of clean Camp Creek air???) Traffic jams aided to our final homecoming two hours later. Our constant fear since last October break--the stench of humid mold filled our lungs as we opened the door. Next the washer overflowed, and then the breaker kept breaking from our new AC unit. Welcome home:) We're back for year three--third time's always a charm--so let's see what the future holds!
It was so good to visit with many of you over the summer. We always hope to spend more time with more people, but the reality is that summer vacation is not so much of a holiday as we generally hope. We were able to relax and watch Rawly enjoy discovering the world in which we live; what more could we have asked for?
Dial up internet prevented us from being "connected and we did also have a little snafu with pictures on our digital camera, so I'll try to update our summer adventures as best I can in the upcoming weeks.
May the romance continue!
Ta-ta for now, ARK
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Carpe Diem
June 21st has always been a date that I liked, first it's my cousin's and grandpa's birthday, secondly it marks the longest day of the year, and thirdly it generally means summer is in full swing. I'm sure that most of you are dreaming that today summer will actually begin behaving like it ought and say good bye to the dreaded cold and rain--all I'm wishing for are shorter days ahead. How contrary to the dreary darkness of winter. (And Ken, he's simply baffled as to why hockey is still on TV.)
Light starts shining around 3:45 am here and lasts until well after 10 pm. I'm sure that my attitude should be one of seizing the day, I'm just not sure how much seizing one can do with inducing a seizure (interestingly enough, the act of which is also called seizing.) Anyhow, each night we make Rawly's room into a little cacoon, covering the blinds with two blankets, placing a folded sheet on top of the window in his door, shutting out the light from our windowed door also--hoping that our feeble attempts will be able to fight the light for one more night of slumber. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.
For some reason this last week he has not wanted to fall asleep for anything. Tonight, however, we were coming home from dinner with some friends and he practically feel asleep in the stroller and was asleep on the changing table. Let's hope it lasts 'til (late) morning. *Late for us is around seven.
So here's to carpe diem--what are you going to do with all the light on this day?
Happy birthday Kathryn!
Light starts shining around 3:45 am here and lasts until well after 10 pm. I'm sure that my attitude should be one of seizing the day, I'm just not sure how much seizing one can do with inducing a seizure (interestingly enough, the act of which is also called seizing.) Anyhow, each night we make Rawly's room into a little cacoon, covering the blinds with two blankets, placing a folded sheet on top of the window in his door, shutting out the light from our windowed door also--hoping that our feeble attempts will be able to fight the light for one more night of slumber. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.
For some reason this last week he has not wanted to fall asleep for anything. Tonight, however, we were coming home from dinner with some friends and he practically feel asleep in the stroller and was asleep on the changing table. Let's hope it lasts 'til (late) morning. *Late for us is around seven.
So here's to carpe diem--what are you going to do with all the light on this day?
Happy birthday Kathryn!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
The sights, sounds, and smells of Spring!
Easter break has been the turning point of spring for the past two years. We came back from break and the cherries were in bloom, then it was the lilacs and chestnuts, next (my favorite) something which I believe might be black locust--it has the most intoxicating smell. Along with spring comes a million and one events. People seem to want to break out of winter hibernation with a bang, so we've kept ourselves quite busy most evenings and every weekend. Needless to say, we're looking forward to a (hopefully) more relaxing summer! Though our road trip though BC last summer is one our all time favorites, this pregnant mum is hoping to do a little less traveling back and forth.
Kyiv in non-winter months is a very social place. In the evenings as we walk to our friends' places, the parks are full of people of all ages. Kids playing on the playgrounds, groups of older men or women, gaggles of youth. There are a couple of makeshift stools and table outside of an apartment building where people sit and play some type of board game, other times you'll see a babushka and younger children sitting spitting sunflower seeds. When you stop and think about it, it's pretty cool. I love all the walking that we do here (again, this is when the weather is nice and we're not trudging through un-plowed streets.) I enjoy hearing people laugh and sing. But it's what we haven't heard the past two nights that's been truly great...Saturday our landlord had an AC unit installed for us. Living on the south western side of the 10th floor can get quite hot which has forced us to sleep with our windows open at night. But since Saturday, we've had three rest-filled nights without waking up to the pack of wild dogs who inhabit the forest, no more drunkards shouting at one am, and no blaring neighbors' TVs. What peace!
As for interesting things that I've seen this spring...there have been so many times when I've wished that I had my camera with me. But there was one that needed no photo, a surprise that I knew would come one day while living here, but that still only made it mildly less shocking. Coming home one afternoon, I rounded the corner to find a mom dangling her sprawled bare-bottomed girl. Potty training here can begin as young as one and I've heard that it's quite common (and socially acceptable) for kids to take a squat whenever and wherever they need.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
A Ukrainian Easter weekend
In fourth and fifth grade, we'd occasionally get to visit an assisted living home; I vividly remember how one of the ladies there would decorate beautiful eggs. Try as I might, I could never replicate their splendor (granted I was using Mr. Sketch Scented markers.)
One of the first things we discovered about Ukraine is that it (like many European countries) is famous for its decorated eggs. Any time of year you can find them being sold along Andrivsky (the main tourist/art street that is held everyday of the week all year long except holidays.) They come in all colors and materials: wooden, stone, carved goose egg, or your traditional hen's egg.
The picture on the right is a mosaic of the virgin Mary in one of the orthodox churches here in Kyiv. All of the eggs were individually painted by a realm of people from famous Ukrainian artist to children from orphanages. But this Easter it wasn't the Easter eggs that stood out. As the picture shows there were mass arrivals of people from all around to every orthodox church that we passed. All were carrying their embroidery covered Easter baskets (to be blessed I believe.)
Ken, Rawly, a couple friends and I rented a car for a long weekend getaway to Lviv, located in western Ukraine. Along the way we remarked at what a change we saw from our normal city lives. Our blog is called the Ukrainian Adventure (though I won't be changing it) I guess the Kyiv Adventure would be more appropriate. I'm not too sure that we've truly experienced the true heart of Ukraine prior to this
trip. Driving along we saw mile after mile of fertile farmland primarily being plowed by horse, hand, or rototiller. Oh, there were tractors too--ancient ones. The kind of machinery that you might be accustomed to seeing next to the barn trying to uphold it'd dignity of the good ol' days from the blackberries threatening to diminish its glory. Perhaps I'm too sentimental. But honestly Ken and I couldn't get over that it's 2011 and all this farming is done with just a little more than you or I would use in a backyard garden.
Easter Sunday was a unique experience for us. Our friends were also in Lviv for the weekend staying at a Baptist church, so we decided to join them for the Easter Sunday service--in Ukrainian. Little did we know that it's common practice to have multiple sermons, our count was three, I hear we got off lucky. Fortunately Rawly slept most of the two and a half hour service and then was a ball of energy for the rest of the day. The only restaurant that we found open turned out to be a Jewish one where we had to barter for the price at the end of the meal. Rawly was a little fire tickler who at one point not only stuck his finger through the flame of the lit menorah, but also in the wax and came out unscathed, without so much as a yelp or a tear--the Ken-factor appears to have passed down the lineage.
Someday, I aspire to be a photojournalist or at least a photographer; I really wish that I could capture the essence of roadside Ukraine. Unfortunately I have the eye, but not the talent and there are quite a few stories that I can't tell through photo...the two boys sitting on the hood of an old Lada, the family picnicking in the forest and picking wildflowers, the station after station of honey, twig broomsticks, and bay leaves, or the lonely bucket of potatoes waiting for someone to buy them and take them home, or lastly the beautiful bus stop mosaics--who created those, and why aren't they everywhere (aka drab Kyiv)? But our absolute favorite encounter belongs to this Babushka. We were meeting a group of friends to tour old Ukrainian castle/mansions but Rawly was sleeping, so we dropped off Holly and Rachel and continued driving. Apparently Easter Monday is also a holiday. It was crazy, people seemed to come from everywhere heading to the churches and graveyards. At one point we saw all of these people walking over a hillside down little earthen paths. Ken and I just kept driving until we were in the middle of nowhere on an unpaved road, I had just suggested turning around when the woman pictured flagged us down. We were a little startled at first as she rattled off in Ukrainian and proceeded to try to get in the back seat. The door was locked.
She rattled some more and we opened the door. Up until this point Rawly had still been off in his car-induced comma of dreamland, his face upon waking was priceless. It turns out that she had blown out the sole of her shoe walking home from the cemetery so the lift saved her about a mile's walk uphill. It took her a few minutes to realize that we didn't understand her, but she continued to jabber the whole way. She wouldn't let us take her all the way down her lane, but we managed to get a "fotka" (which was the only word I was able to communicate with her besides "Anglisky" and "America") with her before she hopped out!
The picture on the right is a mosaic of the virgin Mary in one of the orthodox churches here in Kyiv. All of the eggs were individually painted by a realm of people from famous Ukrainian artist to children from orphanages. But this Easter it wasn't the Easter eggs that stood out. As the picture shows there were mass arrivals of people from all around to every orthodox church that we passed. All were carrying their embroidery covered Easter baskets (to be blessed I believe.)
Ken, Rawly, a couple friends and I rented a car for a long weekend getaway to Lviv, located in western Ukraine. Along the way we remarked at what a change we saw from our normal city lives. Our blog is called the Ukrainian Adventure (though I won't be changing it) I guess the Kyiv Adventure would be more appropriate. I'm not too sure that we've truly experienced the true heart of Ukraine prior to this
trip. Driving along we saw mile after mile of fertile farmland primarily being plowed by horse, hand, or rototiller. Oh, there were tractors too--ancient ones. The kind of machinery that you might be accustomed to seeing next to the barn trying to uphold it'd dignity of the good ol' days from the blackberries threatening to diminish its glory. Perhaps I'm too sentimental. But honestly Ken and I couldn't get over that it's 2011 and all this farming is done with just a little more than you or I would use in a backyard garden.
Easter Sunday was a unique experience for us. Our friends were also in Lviv for the weekend staying at a Baptist church, so we decided to join them for the Easter Sunday service--in Ukrainian. Little did we know that it's common practice to have multiple sermons, our count was three, I hear we got off lucky. Fortunately Rawly slept most of the two and a half hour service and then was a ball of energy for the rest of the day. The only restaurant that we found open turned out to be a Jewish one where we had to barter for the price at the end of the meal. Rawly was a little fire tickler who at one point not only stuck his finger through the flame of the lit menorah, but also in the wax and came out unscathed, without so much as a yelp or a tear--the Ken-factor appears to have passed down the lineage.
Someday, I aspire to be a photojournalist or at least a photographer; I really wish that I could capture the essence of roadside Ukraine. Unfortunately I have the eye, but not the talent and there are quite a few stories that I can't tell through photo...the two boys sitting on the hood of an old Lada, the family picnicking in the forest and picking wildflowers, the station after station of honey, twig broomsticks, and bay leaves, or the lonely bucket of potatoes waiting for someone to buy them and take them home, or lastly the beautiful bus stop mosaics--who created those, and why aren't they everywhere (aka drab Kyiv)? But our absolute favorite encounter belongs to this Babushka. We were meeting a group of friends to tour old Ukrainian castle/mansions but Rawly was sleeping, so we dropped off Holly and Rachel and continued driving. Apparently Easter Monday is also a holiday. It was crazy, people seemed to come from everywhere heading to the churches and graveyards. At one point we saw all of these people walking over a hillside down little earthen paths. Ken and I just kept driving until we were in the middle of nowhere on an unpaved road, I had just suggested turning around when the woman pictured flagged us down. We were a little startled at first as she rattled off in Ukrainian and proceeded to try to get in the back seat. The door was locked.
She rattled some more and we opened the door. Up until this point Rawly had still been off in his car-induced comma of dreamland, his face upon waking was priceless. It turns out that she had blown out the sole of her shoe walking home from the cemetery so the lift saved her about a mile's walk uphill. It took her a few minutes to realize that we didn't understand her, but she continued to jabber the whole way. She wouldn't let us take her all the way down her lane, but we managed to get a "fotka" (which was the only word I was able to communicate with her besides "Anglisky" and "America") with her before she hopped out! Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Trying to talk
The other day I was reflecting on how my Russian vocabulary is about as advanced as Rawly's English. A year and a half in and we can both say about twenty words. I like like that we have so many similarities--let's just hope that his language skills continue to grow exponentially, as I know that mine won't. Now many of our colleagues who came at the same time have been a little more diligent in their studies...but, no reason to tear myself down by comparing.
Though my language is lacking, communication sure makes perspective a lot different. Lately, I've been fortunate to see the "sweeter" side of a few Ukrainians. My favorites have been with the lady who weighs the fruit at Silpo (a local supermarket), we exchanged a formal greeting, then I asked her how she was and she looked up, startled, and stammered..."Normalnya" and then very quietly "Spaciba (thank you)." I almost cried with joy--ok, so I'm a tad bit on the emotional side anyway.
Friday my cleaning lady had the longest conversation with me. She speaks a little English, so we usually go through the motions of me attempting to understand and then me asking, "Como se dice____?" to the Spanish teacher who's room is connected to mine and she usually comes and translates a bit for us. But this time I just listened and tried to decipher what I could. What I got was that Ukrainians also have a phrase for TGIF and that Friday is similar to the number five in Russian.
But for every conversation where I don't know what's going on and I just smile and nod my head--there are the more interpretable ones like with Galeena. I've written about her before, she's a Russian teacher and the language department's matriarch who reminds me a bit of my grandmother and is full of cultural superstitions. Well a few weeks ago I held (not just understood) a complete three minute conversation where she asked how the baby was (as she rubbed my belly) and started talking in Russian baby talk, then went on to ask if I needed a key to my classroom, to which I replied yes please.
Grandmotherly reminders must be everywhere. In our new(er) apartment building we now have "Babushkas" (technically grandmother, but applied to all older women.) Well, the friendliest of the four was pretty excited when I upped the game and asked her how she was doing. (This phrase really seems to be getting me places!) She started rattling on and asked me if I understood Ukrainian, to which I replied, "No, only a little Russian (chu choot Ruski)." She recently had her hair cut (she was bashful when I said that it looked nice) and now looks similar to Grammy J in Idaho. She loves seeing Rawly and always talks a mile a minute to him.
I sure like this speaking business, I wish I had time to learn chu choot more!
Though my language is lacking, communication sure makes perspective a lot different. Lately, I've been fortunate to see the "sweeter" side of a few Ukrainians. My favorites have been with the lady who weighs the fruit at Silpo (a local supermarket), we exchanged a formal greeting, then I asked her how she was and she looked up, startled, and stammered..."Normalnya" and then very quietly "Spaciba (thank you)." I almost cried with joy--ok, so I'm a tad bit on the emotional side anyway.
Friday my cleaning lady had the longest conversation with me. She speaks a little English, so we usually go through the motions of me attempting to understand and then me asking, "Como se dice____?" to the Spanish teacher who's room is connected to mine and she usually comes and translates a bit for us. But this time I just listened and tried to decipher what I could. What I got was that Ukrainians also have a phrase for TGIF and that Friday is similar to the number five in Russian.
But for every conversation where I don't know what's going on and I just smile and nod my head--there are the more interpretable ones like with Galeena. I've written about her before, she's a Russian teacher and the language department's matriarch who reminds me a bit of my grandmother and is full of cultural superstitions. Well a few weeks ago I held (not just understood) a complete three minute conversation where she asked how the baby was (as she rubbed my belly) and started talking in Russian baby talk, then went on to ask if I needed a key to my classroom, to which I replied yes please.
Grandmotherly reminders must be everywhere. In our new(er) apartment building we now have "Babushkas" (technically grandmother, but applied to all older women.) Well, the friendliest of the four was pretty excited when I upped the game and asked her how she was doing. (This phrase really seems to be getting me places!) She started rattling on and asked me if I understood Ukrainian, to which I replied, "No, only a little Russian (chu choot Ruski)." She recently had her hair cut (she was bashful when I said that it looked nice) and now looks similar to Grammy J in Idaho. She loves seeing Rawly and always talks a mile a minute to him.
I sure like this speaking business, I wish I had time to learn chu choot more!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Crazy Fun
That's how Ken's described Rawly these last few days. To be quite honest, he's been a bit of a show off right before bedtime. With the time difference, we usually are able to catch people on Skype just before he goes off into dreamland--which means one of two things, A) he's sleepy and a bit grouchy or B) he's giddy with having an audience. The other night he was playing a game with Mimi and Papa (Ken's parents) where he'd run up four steps and then back up to the wall as if he were saying, "Ha! I gotcha, you thought that I was going to run all the way to you..." This game could have gone on and on if Momma Bear hadn't made her darling cub brush his teeth. Let's just say the giddiness ended.
Sunday, our friend Holly came up with a new word. "inqusiosity" the combination you can guess comes from Rawly's inquisitive and curious nature, hence the definition: Rawly.
He's also taken to being very helpful around the house...he LOVES taking the trash out, helping with cooking and doing dishes, Sunday he followed Ken around dusting with his own rag, and even more than he enjoys putting shoes away, is his love for giving you your shoes so that you can go outside to play.
Tonight Rawls caught one of his first ball games (on TV,) well at least the first that he was conscience of. He threw his hands up in the air and yelled--you guessed it again--"BALL!" But my favorite was when there was "snow" on TV and he kept grabbing at it and throwing it off of the TV over and over again.
I was scolded again for not having more pictures of Rawly on Facebook. I apologize. In truth, I enjoy reading blogs more than seeing pictures, but here's an attempt to catch you up on the last two months and appease both kinds of people...
March and April:
Sunday, our friend Holly came up with a new word. "inqusiosity" the combination you can guess comes from Rawly's inquisitive and curious nature, hence the definition: Rawly.
He's also taken to being very helpful around the house...he LOVES taking the trash out, helping with cooking and doing dishes, Sunday he followed Ken around dusting with his own rag, and even more than he enjoys putting shoes away, is his love for giving you your shoes so that you can go outside to play.
Tonight Rawls caught one of his first ball games (on TV,) well at least the first that he was conscience of. He threw his hands up in the air and yelled--you guessed it again--"BALL!" But my favorite was when there was "snow" on TV and he kept grabbing at it and throwing it off of the TV over and over again.
I was scolded again for not having more pictures of Rawly on Facebook. I apologize. In truth, I enjoy reading blogs more than seeing pictures, but here's an attempt to catch you up on the last two months and appease both kinds of people...
March and April:
 |
| "This is how sad I am." |
 |
| Two minutes later..."Now I'm fine, I have my boots" |
 |
| Big boy bathtime |
 |
| "Why would you put me in this ridiculous looking toy?" |
 |
| ANTM and Tyra would be proud of this face |
 |
| Chillin' with Chris and Cassie |
 |
| A girl after Rawly's own heart--Arden, baseball in hand |
 |
| Yep, here's my stash |
 |
| So serious |
 | |||
| Helping Dad make eggs |
 |
| Not so sure about the haircut |
 |
| Not so bad, but Mom's exhausted |
 |
| "This is what I do, right?" |
 |
| Hanging out with Nyellie...soon this is going to be my little bro or sis! |
 |
| Baseball, glove, oh camera! |
 |
| The Three Amigos all born at the same clinic here in Kyiv |
 |
| Seeing baby Kynslee on her first day |
Saturday, March 5, 2011
sending mixed signals
There are those moments when the world just seems to freeze around you, eternal nows like I was just fortunate enough to experience. Sitting at the table, Rawly came up to me and said "up". He handed me a water bottle that he had taken out of my purse. Then sitting on my lap he signed "more", "thank you" and said "love you".
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