Gotta Crawl, Gotta Crawl.

This picture lead to an interesting conversation ... at least I am sure it would have been interesting if I could have understood it?!

The other day as I was coming home from work, I saw these flowers right outside my building. I stopped to take a picture. As I was taking my pictures and admiring the flowers the door man came outside to get some air. He is a nice, older gentleman who always speaks to me. He does not speak any English and he mumbles terribly when he speaks Russian - so I never really know what he is saying. As I got up to head inside, I saw him standing on the front stoop. He had a huge smile on his face as he started talking to me (a mile a minute), pointing to the flowers and then to me. About the only word I caught was flowers ... so I smiled back at him, kinda giggled and said "da da." He kept talking to me for a few more minutes and I added a few more da da's. Finally, I said good day and went in. I have no idea what the conversation was about ... but he still smiles at me and speaks to me when I see him. So at least I know I did not offend him somehow!

When I was putting the pictures on my computer I noticed the cute little bug sitting on the flower petal (left side). Maybe I should go down and tell the door man he has bugs in his flowers! Haha.

Later.

I feel like there is a medly of things I want to write. I have so many thoughts, different things to say and feelings to be expressed; I just cannot seem to put the words together to my satisfication.

Instead ...

I am leaving for Greece in about six hours. I will be there for eight days - the first six are for an annual meeting my company has. I am sure that it will be full of training sessions, meetings and who knows what else! I expect it to be an interesting time and I hope to at least get a glimpse into the possibilities of my continued future with the company (adjustments are having to be made due to fiscal struggles). I will be there with a lot of people I do not know and thankfully, some that I do.

The last two days will be spent in Athens sightseeing and hanging out with my friends. This I anticipate will be a glorious time! Haha.

I will see you when I get back. Hopefully, with some great stories and brilliant photographs.

I Am Beginning To Get It.

I have begun to finally figure out cooking for one. Yeah for me. This has been one of my goals while here ... learn to cook for myself without having to eat the same meal for an entire week because I made to much. I am not a huge left-over fan, so you can guess just how important this has been for me. Cooking, in general is not my strong suite - and living here is extra difficult. I have access to a lot of similar products (some I do not even dream of having), but usually they are in very different packaging. Not to mention all the packaging is in Russian, Ukrainian or whatever language is spoken where the product came from.

But tonight ... tonight, I succeeded. My housemate, M, who does not like fish even stoped by the kitchen just to tell me it actually smelled good. Wow!

Here are some pictures of my fabulous smelling, incredible tasting, not one single left over, deliciously healthy meal.
Salmon fillet pan cooking with ... what?! Is that?! Yep. Fresh garlic, lemon pepper and olive oil. I am posting this in process picture because I know there are some people who will never believe that I cooked with seasonings like these. I told you I was getting good.
The finished product was delicious. I wanted to congratulate myself on a good meal - like it was something I managed all the time - instead I patted myself on the back and said "good, now keep it up." Haha.

Entertainment.

I woke up to a rain shower this morning. I had an agenda for the day and it started with a run, but I did not really want to run in the downpour. So I waited. Finally, it quit raining and I headed out.

Most of the route was spent dodging puddles, tree limbs, and slippery patches. As I hit a long, straight stretch I took a few breaths and looked around. I noticed a motor scooter coming towards me on the sidewalk … I also saw a huge puddle of water ahead stretching across the entire path. As the distance closed between us, I realised that the moto rider was an old man. We were closing the distance; with just a few steps and a pool of water between us – I saw him hunch down, push the little moto as fast as it could go, suck the spit from his dentures and smile with a gleam in his eyes.

You know what happened next …

He drove as close to me as he could get. It was almost slow motion … as my foot touched the water, he turned to look at me with a goofy little grin and then he splashed me with as much water as his little moto could muster! Haha. I cannot say I was soaked (it was a little moto, after all), but I was wetter than I had been a few moments before.

At first, I was stunned. Did that really just happen?! The longer the day has gone on the funnier the whole scene becomes. I have enjoyed thinking of the little old man, riding his moto down the sidewalk just looking for a moment of entertainment – what better way for me to start my Saturday than to be someone’s entertainment!

I hope he went home and had another good laugh or two as he told about splashing the American with his moto. I sure have.

More Rain.

Supposedly, there are never thunderstorms with lightening here ... that is what they keep telling me. Never?! Just for the record, we have had three spectacular thunderstorms in the last week. Thunderstorms, complete with lightening and sideways rain. Today's storm occurred in the evening and I had to go out ...
This is what happens when you have to walk thirty minutes in the humidity and rain (and that is after I waited twenty minutes for the sever lightening and sideways rain to die down) ... you end up with wet pants, socking wet shoes and socks and best of all HUGE, OUT OF CONTROL hair. I love this weather! Haha. Good news is - it has finally started to cool of a bit.

Daily Trips.

I am developing a new rational when it comes to buying things – mostly dealing with the problems of getting purchases home. If it were not so frustrating, it might be kind of funny (okay, it is funny a few hours after struggling to walk miles in the rain and wind or the heat and wind with more things that I can carry!).

Today is a prime example (hang on to your brains … it might get a little complicated).

It is hot here, my housemate M is moving and taking a lot of our kitchen stuff with her and my iron jumped off the shelf and committed suicide last week – so my list of necessary appliances and my list of things I would like to have seems to have gotten out of control overnight. I needed to see about an iron, a fan, a hand mixer, kitchen knives, a toaster, a baking dish and I have been wanting to look at plants for my balcony and kitchen window.

We have a store here called EpiCenter that is kind of like HomeDepot and Target rolled into one (it even has a huge outdoor café). Off I went.

It is very unusual to find everything you might be looking for in one trip so I did not expect to find much … mostly I just wanted to look at some prices and get an idea of where I was headed. Shock of the century when they had several options of everything on my list! I walked around the store for about the next forty-five minutes trying to put my list into order of priority (iron … fan … toaster … plants … etc.); then I had to evaluate price and decide if I could get some of the stuff cheaper somewhere else (I decided a $60 toaster could wait)! It is at this point that the real rationalization starts happening – what in reality can I carry home!?!

I bought the iron first; after all it is a super priority. I knew I could not get a fan home by myself having bought the iron (never mind I was wearing a skirt and dress shoes), so I went down to look at the plants. I found one that I really liked, but in the end I decided I would not buy it right now because it would require a bigger pot and more potting soil than I already had a home, which means I would have to carry an iron, a pot, potting soil and a plant home. And, ideally it would be nice if the plant made it home in one piece.

Two and a half hours later, I came home hot and tired … with only an iron to show for my efforts!

Rain.

Around here ... May and June showers bring more flowers.

A History Lesson.

Legend says that Apostle Andrew, while preaching the Word of God in the Scythian Land, blessed the hilly bank of the Dnieper River and said to his disciples “On these hills great city and many churches in glorification of Holy God will be.”

For almost a thousand years, the golden domes of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery have been shining down over the Dnieper banks. As one of the major sacred places of Orthodox Christianity, the Old Rus chronicle The Tale of Bygone Years mentions its foundation by monks in caves near Kyiv in the year 1051. The first inhabitant of the Cloister was Anthony from the town of Liubech. Having arrived in Kyiv, Anthony settled in a cave dug out by Presbyter Hilarion. People learned of Anthony’s pious ascetic life and came to seek his blessing, brought him the necessities of life, and some of them even asked to live with him in his cave. When their number reached twelve they enlarged the cave, dug several others, built cells and a church.Later, when the monastic life was transferred from the caves to ground level, the underground labyrinths became a burial place for monks. Burials in the caves continued for over seven centuries. The caves (pechery in Ukrainian) gave the Monastery its name of Pechersky. As a major and most influential Orthodox monastery, it received the status of Lavra in the pre-Mongol times.

During the October Revolution of 1917 the property of the Lavra was nationalized; many monks were shot, imprisoned or exiled. During World War II the buildings of the Lavara were badly damaged. In June 1988 in commemoration of the 1,000 anniversary of Kievan Rus Baptism the territory of the Far Caves and all the monastery buildings were transferred to the possession of the newly created Pechersk community. Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra still remains the sacred place and the center of pilgrimage of Orthodox Christians from all over the world. Thanks to Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra, Kiev is known as the "Russian Jerusalem".

One of the language classes took a field trip to the Lavra and I got to tag along. I enjoyed learning some more history of Kyiv and as always, I had a couple interesting experiences.

Within the Orthodox religion it is tradition and practice to kiss the icons and pray to the people they represent. I had seen this done mostly with pictures and a few statues. However, when we were down in the caves at the Lavra, I witnessed this on a whole new level. See, the monks that are buried down there are not actually buried in the ground or even entombed in the walls … they are basically sitting on shelves in glass coffins. As they were walking through the caves, people were lining up to participate in this ritual of kissing the glass of the coffin and saying a short prayer to whichever monk was there. One woman in particular was completely engrossed in this act. Over and over, she would kiss the coffin, mumble some prayer and then begin again as if her life depended on her success. It was so sad to me; she was kissing a mummified corpse in an effort to find a solution to her problem and even to have a chance at saving her herself.

Graduation.

I figured I would be missing graduation season when I moved here - what I did not count on was working at Kyiv Theological Seminary. It is a seminary, you know, a school and they have graduation once a year just like normal places?! Haha. It looks like graduation will be an even bigger part of my life while I am here ...

This is the third group of graduates since the department was started. All of these men have worked two jobs and cared for their families and sacrificed a lot of things to attend seminary. It takes a lot of dedication, heart and a huge amount of drive and commitment to a calling for them to make it to graduation day. It certainly is my honour and privilege to serve these men.