Thursday July 22, 2010

We had a great day yesterday (Thursday).  We met Anastasia at the Center and went to a salon that Vera our translator recommended and had a Ukrainian pedicure.  It cost about $14 and I can't help but smile every time I look at my toes.

Cheryl getting her toes done.  Anastasia also got her's done - forgot to take a picture of her.

On the way home - Calvin and Anastasia "throwin' up the U" Ukranian style.

Afterwards we picked up some fresh vegetables and came home to the apartment with Vera and Anastasia.  Calvin and Anastasia made a delicious pasta primavera.  We were so fortunate to find some beautiful fresh basil in the market on our way home.  After cooking the pasta, he sauteed eggplant, onions, garlic, summer squash and peppers together in olive oil, tossed them in the pasta and added lots of fresh tomatoes and basil.  Yum!  We found some delicious ham and added it on the side along with grated cheese for the pasta. (Anastasia doesn't like cheese).  What made Calvin the happiest was discovering hot peppers!  After mincing them up he brought them to the table and was delighted when both Anastasia and Vera garnished their dish liberally with them. He knew he'd found two kindred spirits! 

Enjoying our pasta salad dinner.

Calvin also made another discovery that made him very happy yesterday.  There is a drink made from fermented dark bread and fruit that he loves (Kvas)!  Anastasia and Vera laughed their heads off when they saw him drink it down with a gusto and enthusiasm that only Calvin can show!  He proclaimed it was the best thing he'd found in Ukraine yet!  I couldn't get it past my nose because it smelled exactly like beer.  I'm sure we'll find out it has alcohol in it, (I mean, doesn't the fact that it bubbles and it's fermented automatically make it alcoholic?) although Vera assured us again and again that it doesn't and it's what they give to children.  However, I have discovered that Ukrainians have a very high threshold for alcohol and probably something like beer would be considered mother's milk to them.  I hope someone out there will research it and burst my husband's bubble (or foam) about his drink so I don't have to.  If his propensity for alcohol is anything like it is for diet coke, I fear he will be an alcoholic before our trip is over!

While Calvin and Anastasia were cooking dinner, I was in the living room helping Vera edit an art album that she is translating that will soon be printed for the anniversary of Feodocia.  Feodocia has long been an oasis of mariner artists and the like and they have gathered the photos to create a coffee table type book.  It looks like it will be a beautiful book and we plan on getting a copy.  I enjoy editing and this is giving me something to help fill my time.  Apparently the committee who is putting this together are very grateful for our help and are giving us a personal tour of the art museum.  Vera who is graciously thankful  told me that if I like, she will put my name in the "credits"  for the book.  What I really hope to do is build some goodwill between some of the more influential people of the city and Americans in general.  We'll see....

Time is now creeping to an interminably slow pace.  We find ourselves stretching out any activites to fill the days, rather than cramming them all into a single day.  It's 11:00 and Calvin is already snoring in the other room, enjoying the luxury of naps whenever he feels so inclined.  I brought a volume of the trilogy of Anne of Green Gables with me.  There's no one quite as positive as Anne and I find that reading about an orphan who turned out so marvelously, albeit a fictional one, has had a cheering effect on me.  I also find that the luxury of slower days opens my mind to more planning and dreaming.  It's a good thing occasionally to not fill every moment of our days.