souvenir hunting

I can't even remember what I did Saturday. Time is flying by waaaaay too fast. When I was planning this trip, I just picked staying for a month because I'm cheap, and wanted to get the most out of the airfare (the most expensive cost of the trip). Later, I began to wonder what I would do for an entire month. Glad I have so many friendly relatives. They took me places I never would have found on my own. There's nothing on the internet to let anyone know there are such treasures as Radvanka, Voevodino, the Thermal Spas, the bazaar. I was worried I'd get bored and planned on taking a lot of side trips to Kiev, the Black Sea, maybe even some other countries. But I've been in Dravtsi a month, and every day has brought something new. My cousins have told me I haven't even seen half of what they have to offer. Never bored. If the people here spoke French, you might think you were in some quaint village in Normandy, and be willing to pay a fortune to stay here because it's chic. The scenery is unbelievable, the people are friendly, there's historic buildings and sites, castles, pleasant climate. And the food! The food, and wine, here can easily compete against Italian or French cuisine.

I'm sure I ate something, but can't remember; it's all a blur. Then I caught the bus to Uzhgorod myself. Wandered around town, looking for souvenirs. Got caught in rainstorm and had to run into little shop for umbrella. Found a bookstore, and picked up a stack of Ukrainian children's books. (I found out from helping Katya that children's books are a pretty good way of learning the language). Picked up a few rushniki (embroidered Ukrainian towels) for gifts. There were street vendors selling all sorts of fruit, vegetables, and mushrooms. I saw an old woman selling huge black berries, which I later learned were the largest elderberries I'd ever seen. I bought a bag as gift for Klara. Caught the bus back to Dravtsi.

When I got back home, I must have eaten something, because that's what I'm doing when not doing anything else. Escaped from the kitchen, and went to the bazaar; found some good deals on icons. Then I probably ate a few more times. Rode bicycles with Klara to Misha's house to take care of dog while he's at Black Sea. I don't know what religious Holy Day is coming up, but here everyone decorates their fences and gates with branches of green "Lipa" leaves. It's called the "Green Holy Day". While Klara was decorating, I picked a bucket full of molina (raspberries).

Sunday morning - Misha Vasko picked me up in his car, took me to his mother and father's house in Dovhe Pole. Went to church with mother Etela. Now I get this "Green Holy Day" thing.The church is trimmed in green, the priest wears green vestments. I think I got some good audio of the Liturgy. My command of Ukrainian is becoming good enough that when the priest was reading announcements at end of service, I was able to understand that he was talking about me, that I was from America, and had made (to them) a size able donation to the church. In thanks, the priest had everyone sing "Mnohaja Lita" to me!

Back at Etela's, Etela made me eat. Among other things, I had "Hurka" (?). It was great! Smachno! My first impression was that it was kind of like stuffed cabbage, except instead of cabbage, everything was stuffed into a sausage casing. There was rice, and some ground meat. Etela told me she made it herself, it wasn't from the store. She told me what was in it; I understood the words for "rice", "blood", "heart", and there were a few other words I didn't know. I don't want to know. I'm glad I ate it before I knew what was in it. It really was smachno! But if I had known it was offal, I wouldn't have tried it. And for desert, a big piece of cake.

It was 11 AM when Etela was feeding me "Hurka", salads, bread, cake. At 12, Nikoletta and her husband Rob came over for the real meal - lunch. Only one hour before I had eaten more than I would eat at home in an entire day; now I was expected to eat soup, salads, bread, fried chicken, more cakes, and wine. And beer. I can't have just wine, or just beer. I have to have wine and beer.

Spent some time walking and talking to people in Dovhe Pole; Etela's piana neighbor who speaks a little English stopped to say "Hello, how are you? What's your name?" in English. Another neighbor stopped to talk to us; learned she rides her bicycle to work in Uzhgorod every day - summer, winter, sun, rain, or snow. It must be 15 miles!!! Nikoletta's husband Rob invited me to a picnic being held in the mountains tomorrow by the Collective Farm he works at (I didn't know they still had Collectives). I would really like to go, but had to turn down because have other plans with Silvasi family. As farewell, Etela showered me with gifts to take back to America - liquor, candy, embroidery. Such generosity!!! I don't even know how I'll get all this on the plane!

Copied all my photo's, video, and audio onto flash drive for Martuchka, and rode bicycle over to give to her. Was introduced to her boyfriend, a seminarian in his 4th year, who spoke pretty good English. Back at Klara's, spent a couple of hours on Skype with Mom, Susan, Marty, Elaine, Anoria and Brian in Florida, and Melanie and Gregory in North Carolina. Something like Skype was science fiction when I was growing up - now it's a reality. But where are the flying cars??? They promised me flying cars!!!!

Big day planned for tomorrow: Holiday for entire town, everything closed. Liturgy at 8:30, dinner at noon, then huge party at 6pm. I'll let you know if I survive.

I really hate Windows 8. What a piece of Huvno. Every time my cursor is on one spot more than a nanosecond, my computer takes actions on its own. If you had a car that changed gears or turned left or right whenever it felt like it, you'd junk it. Nice job, Microsoft, you durocks. What are you going to make us buy next? Hats made of huvno??? What, Windows 7 worked too well, so you thought you'd see had bad you could screw it up??????DUROCKS!!!!!!!