Traditional Ukrainian stoves, and children's songs

It's been raining yesterday and today, so I haven't done much. Yesterday, Klara, Misha, and Marta picked mushrooms in the rain, and in the evening I went to Misha's neighbor Vasyl's house for fried mushrooms. First, I went to Misha's, and had some homemade cherry vodka. I was surprised that it was so mild.

Also, salo, homemade pickles, homemade pickled tomatoes, 

...and a paste made out of ground "shvarki", (pork rinds???)

....and these peppers. These peppers were cured in honey and I can't remember what else. But if you think that you've had hot peppers before, you haven't had hot peppers till you've tried these. I like spicy food, and I WILL NOT EAT THESE!!!!NO WAY!!! Once was enough!

Here are the mushrooms:

At Vasyl's house, he has several rooms off of the main house, set aside for entertaining guests, in both summer and winter. We first met in one room, where Vasyl had started a fire. 

I asked about the different doors; The lower door, which Vasya is stoking, is for small fires. For more heat and larger fires, the upper door is used. Vasyl said that he uses this fireplace to smoke salo. But because we wanted to fry mushrooms, we went to another entertainment room. Here there was a wood burning stove similar to the old traditional stoves:

                                          

                                           

                                               

Vasyl's stove was a modern version of the traditional stove. Vasyl told me that the traditional stove was much larger, and even had a place for a person to sleep!!                 

I've known about these stoves/ovens, but I didn't know that they still exist! Vasyl has one for cultural and aesthetic reasons, but he told me that until 20-30 years ago, EVERYONE had a stove like this!! And that in the mountains and rural areas, people still cook and heat with these wood burning stoves. Vasyl said that he doesn't care if Putin shuts off the gas; he'll still keep warm the old fashioned way!

Today, Thursday, I got up earlier than I wanted, to visit Katya and Misha's schools. It was earlier than I wanted, but worth it. 

Two things stand out for me.....after reading this post, and watching my videos, see if you can see the two things which are different about Ukrainian children and American children.

First, I went to Katya's school. Katya just turned 8, and is in the third grade. It's been a long time since I was in school, but I don't remember "algebra" in third grade.

Katya's class:

There's an aquarium in Katya's school; I don't know what kind of fish these are.

We left Katya's school to go to Misha's kindergarden.

I wish I had gone to a kindergarden like this!! They have a swimming pool!

Miroslava and I went back to Katya's school, for her music class. 

I recorded some singing to YouTube:

Zakarpattian children singing

Zakarpattian children singing!

Ayy, yai yai! Oy, yoi yoi!!

Zakarpattian children children singing#2

If You've listened this far, you remember I asked about 2 things which should have made an impression on you about Ukrainian children. Here are the answers:

1. There are NO OBESE Ukrainian children! Ukrainians always ask me why American children are so fat!

2.  Ukrainians take pride in their appearance! The average Ukrainian kid is much better dressed than an American school student. I actually felt like a slob, coming to the school the way I was dressed!