A summer series pt 3

Lazy - (Wahzy)

The first thing you notice when you see polish - are all the w's and consonants all crammed together. While everyone assures me it is easier than Russian - as Alister put it - when he sees polish he doesn't know where to begin in trying to pronounce it. I have no idea what the s's and c's do - but the l's definitely make a w sound - and most vowels seem to have a w sound before them too. W's actually are v's - so it can be a little confusing.

Lazy is located up on the Baltic Sea. It was sunny the first day we arrived and the day we left - the rest of the time it was rainy and cold - more like the Oregon coast. But people (not me) still swam (without wet suits). We arrived by night train - 10 hours in a 6 couchette wagon - which means there is no hope of sitting down - you have to lay on your bunk for the duration of the trip. The 6 couchettes also make it a bit tricky with finding a place for all of the passenger's luggage. The Ukrainian wagons are much more comfortable.

Lazy is a tourist town. For three months out of the year - the hotels and campsites are full- bursting with people. The rest of the time - the city lies deserted and open to the weather. Our camp took place at http://www.fala1.pl It was nice - and had rooms for the camp meetings and stiff like that - but it was weird that all the "campers" weren't together in one place/ building - but still there were fun get together times.

The camp was great. It was the first time Alister had ever attended a camp - and he loved it and is already volunteering us to go to every camp the church puts on. He preached and I looked after a couple of toddlers. Wiktor - the 3 year old was teaching me polish. It is not a good idea to try to learn polish from a three year old. Luckily - with Russian and Croatian I was able to communicate the words that mattered. - not good, good, you can, and then I learned the word come. The rest of our time together basically consisted of me repeating what he said and inserting "yes", "no", and "really" at random throughout the conversation. For the most part we got on well.

A summer Series pt 2

Warsaw

In Warsaw we stayed with the deacon of the church whose camp we were helping with. He lived in a lovely house on the outskirts near Willa Now (Villa Nov). It was a beautiful summer/ vacation castle that had just been restored - there were lovely parks and walk ways and even WiFi
The next day we explored the center. Sleepy, quiet, lovely, but expensive. Not only has the dollar declined in value - but the zloty has strengthened . . . a lot One dollar gets you 2 zloty - but it will cost you six zloty if you want an ice cream and 10 if you want coffee. Craziness.
Despite being a capital city - Warsaw apparently doesn't have too much going on. Alister Says that it and Brussels are reputed to be the most boring cities in Europe. Later when we saw Krakow - a club or concert on every corner - we understood how Warsaw could be so easily outshone.

A Summer Series pt 1

Leaving Kiev
The last couple of weeks Alister and left Kiev and went to Poland. Alister was lecturing at a camp and I got to tag along to help out.
We traveled by train (20 hours) to Warsaw. Polish trains are differnt from Ukrainian/ Russian trains. Rather than a coupe with 4 beds - the international coupe had three beds stacked on top of each other, a small sink, covered by a table, a medicine cabinet and a fold down seat. The three passengers in the coach could sit on the bottom bunk - but as soon as the middle bunk was made up for sleeping - no more sitting was possible - unless you wanted to end up looking like Quasimodo. Another perk to the ride was free coffee and a free chocolate crosant (the prepackage kind.) The border was surprising fast - considering they hand to change all the wheels to a differnt size - we were across in 2 hours. (versus the bus which later took us 5). All in all the ride was pleasant. We arrived in Warsaw at 7:30 am, had a short nap and then headed out to see the city.

Dying to dine

This last semester of Russian classes - I was translating texts into Russian. While the quality of translation was awful - I tried at least to pick interesting subjects - there was the Swiss flying man, the aquarium toilet , strange baby names, and the Harbin Ice Festival (if you're going to invest 2-3 hours of your life translating - the subjects should at least be a fun conversation starter) My fellow classmate caught the the bizarre trend and added her own article about a Restaurant in Germany that had no waiters - but rather your food was delivered to you on an automated system of tracks, like a roller coaster for food.

Well - if I was still in Russian Class - this next article would be what I would bring - here in Ukraine you can dine in a Giant coffin. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/2179867/Restaurant-built-inside-coffin-opens-in-Ukraine.html Flip through the pictures - Maybe they will start catering wakes as well.

Wattle and Daub: Surveying our hut

After a very long absence - Alister and I finally got out to the village to visit our Hut.

Winter was not kind to it and we found a bit more dilapidated than we left it - but still it was great to go out. The current owner has made all sorts of promises to help us fix it up, trim dead trees, and all that other stuff that needs to be done.

Actually - Alister and I have mixed versions of what he actually said and promised- The owner speaks a village mix of Ukrainian and Russian and we have problems understanding him - still the Ukrainians who came with us also had difficulties - so we don't feel too out of the loop.

What we discovered:

Wooden beams and wattle that has been left exposed due to deteriorating daub has rotted. Suggestion - Jack up house and replaces rotted portions while laying a concrete foundation.

Cracked and missing Daub - suggestion. Reapply daub using a dirt, straw and horse manure mixture. Must find horse manure - cow will apparently NOT do - not enough texture - the house will go splat.

The house needs to be whitewashed to protect the daub

We need to do some sort of temporary fix with the roof as next year we'll have even more repairs if we don't do something now.

We need to lay poison for the hundreds of ant colonies that have taken up residence on our property and might find our mud walls a cozy new home

we need to get rid of the (shudder) snakes that are slithering about in our house somewhere ( found evidence of two shed skins - quite bad manners I think to strip down is someones Else's house and leave your clothes hanging from a crack in the ceiling)

July 28 Is R-Day (R for REMONT!!) Alister's friend Pete is coming and so we are figuring out how and what to do with him. And how long we actually can stay in the village without water, and without electricity while up to our ears in mud and manure (not to mention the question as to whether we will be allowed on the bus back to Kiev)

Meanwhile - I've been e-mail every wattle and daub Specialist I can find in the UK and America to find out "What are we supposed to do and How do we start" I even called the ministry of culture here in Ukraine - I mean - In England they have an interest in the historical preservation of buildings - sure there should be something here - they have a whole outdoor archaeological museum of mud huts - so there ought to be some experts somewhere. I finally got through to someone who was very nice - but didn't understand what I wanted - but instead of getting upset and crabby he told me to come to his office next Tuesday - which is exciting and will hopefully produce some other people we can look to for help and advice.

Cherries

As mentioned earlier - fruit has flooded the market and there are cherries galore! I bought a kilo and we just ate it - but with so many cherries I figured that something should actually be done with them - but there was the obstacle of the pits.

I spent several days wandering around different markets - the tables crowded with the multipurpose things - clothes lines, batteries, fingernail brushes - hoping I might find "something to take the stones out of cherries." No one knew what the actual instrument was called - but they all seemed to know about that sort of "thing"
Eventually a helpful person informed me that those things are "rare".
A few more inquiries and someone finally told me that cherries don't have "stones" but rather "little bones". This knowledge greatly aided my inquiries and I soon found a man - who not only knew what I wanted - but actually escorted me to a store where I could buy a cherry pitter.

On the subject of kitchen gadgets - I should mention that growing up - we never owned a cherry pitter. My mom considered it a silly kitchen gadget and that a knife works just as well. Well, my efforts with a knife were far from quick and I decided that if I ever wanted to get a pie, jam, or even ice cream sauce out of the cherries - I would need a Cherry Pitter.

Not only did I get a cherry pitter - but the lovely apparatus includes a garlic press and a nut cracker! Three silly gadgets in one but taking up a 1/3 of the space - well worth it wouldn't you say?

I soon put the pitter to the test - pitting 770 grams of cherries. out of curiosity - I then weighed the pits and the stones - 120 grams! Meaning that cherries are 15% garbage. I'm sure glad i didn't have to pick them - between the picking and the pitting - cherries would take a huge amount of time - sure make me appreciate cherry pie more.