Wednesday, July 25, 2012
July Update
Mike
- Teaching/co-leading at the 'Kid's Summer English Camp' at the Life English office.This is the 3rd, week-long camp at the school this summer.
- Went on a 3-day camping trip to the mountains with youth from the church and the English school.
- Spoke at the Friday evening Shabat service on the 13th and the 20th. Our friend, Nadia, leads a ministry to assist the elderly, Jewish folks in our area (many of them survived the Holocaust).
- Co-leads the weekly 'Conversational English Class'. This group now meets at our apartment once a month.
- Continues to meet with/mentor several young guys from church.
- Recently began joining his friend for an early morning exercise and prayer time on Fridays.
- Giving Solomiya rides in her bath tub.
- Continuing therapy 2 days a week with Yulianna (2 1/2 year-old girl with Down's syndrome) and seeing progress!
- Evaluated young guy with an old TBI (traumatic brain injury) last week. Planning on a more thorough eval tomorrow and looking at muscle strength, sensation, vision and cognitive issues.
- In the works: meeting the directors of a local 'special needs' school.
- Making yummy 'American' cookies for the 'Conversational English Class' when they meet at our apartment (made peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies- they were a hit!).
- Giving Solomiya baths in her bath tub.
- Crawling around really fast and following us around the apartment.
- Working on 3 more teeth coming through (with 3 already visible).
- Screaming as 3 more teeth come in.
- Strolling around town.
- Being a very adaptable baby with no set routine.
- Eating buckwheat.
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| We had a huge thunderstorm a couple of weeks ago. The wind was so strong, we felt like we were in the midst of a tornado. If you look close- you can see this apartments windows were damaged. The left window has a broken pane of glass and the right window was bent inward. Amazingly, Mike's socks were out on the clothesline and they all survived. |
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| Traditional Ukrainian Folk Band. We were able to see them perform at this outdoor museum. The guy playing the drum is our friend. He also works with the Jewish ministry and attends the Shabat services weekly. |
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| Also watching them perform was a tour bus full of Americans. It was strange to hear people speaking English. Or maybe it was strange that we could understand the conversations of the people around us. |
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| We had our language tutor, Marina, over for brunch. She brought Solomiya some bright, yellow socks! |
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| Solomiya gets very daring sometimes and tries to jump off people's laps. |
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| Tub rides with Tato. |
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| good times. |
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| strollin'. |
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
the woods
In between morning language lessons, Mike preparing for and leading the evening conversational English class, we escaped Uzhhorod for a few hours!
Our friend, Valya, invited us to go to the woods. It was amazing. It was 20 degrees cooler than the city. Seriously. Not to mention beautiful!
You know how in 'Lord of the Rings' (the best novel ever written by man), the elves are always like- "the sea... the sea... (sigh), it calls me"; well that is how the Ukrainians are about the woods- "the woods... the woods... (sigh), i must go to the woods". Well, now I know why.
So when it is 93.7 degrees Fahrenheit in our apartment on a blazing Thursday afternoon, I will dream about going to the woods.
Our friend, Valya, invited us to go to the woods. It was amazing. It was 20 degrees cooler than the city. Seriously. Not to mention beautiful!
You know how in 'Lord of the Rings' (the best novel ever written by man), the elves are always like- "the sea... the sea... (sigh), it calls me"; well that is how the Ukrainians are about the woods- "the woods... the woods... (sigh), i must go to the woods". Well, now I know why.
So when it is 93.7 degrees Fahrenheit in our apartment on a blazing Thursday afternoon, I will dream about going to the woods.
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| The water was SO cold. I dipped Solomiya's feet in it and she screamed. (what?... she was hot!) |
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| Our friends, Valya and Matchik (he is from Poland). |
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| Solomiya strolling. |
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| Yes, the 3rd picture of everyones back- except Solomiya! |
Monday, July 9, 2012
Piecaken II
Had a border-crossing adventure today. Our friends, also NY'ers, had their truck (NY plates and all) shipped over to Ukraine earlier this year. Because it has foreign plates/registration, it must leave the country every 60 days to stay legal. Our friends are in NY for the summer, so they asked Mike if he would drive it over the border for them. They had special documents made up and notarized from the American Embassy in Budapest that stated Mike had permission to do this.
So... we decided to bring the truck over to Hungary today to fulfill its 60 day requirements. No problems getting across- took maybe 1 1/2 hours to get through the Ukraine border/customs and then the Hungarian border/customs.
Once in Hungary, we then drove maybe 10 minutes more to TESCO.
http://www.tesco.com/
"TESCO: everything you can find in the supermarket and much more". Yes, their slogan is quite correct.
Trip home: once again- no prob getting through Hungarian border, but a bit of an issue getting through Ukraine's border. Remember those temporary-residency permits that we got just a couple of months ago? Apparently, having these permits makes us temporary Ukrainian citizens. Ukrainian citizens cannot drive foreign vehicles over the border (unless they are your own). So technically, Mike was not allowed to drive the truck back into Ukraine. Why did they let us leave the country with the truck in the first place? God only knows. Seriously, only He does.
We did get home though. Thanks to God and Solomiya. Yes, having a baby with you generally works in your favor. Mike said that as 3 custom officials were discussing this case with him, one of them said- Look, they have a baby, let them go through- (Solomiya and I had gotten out of the truck because it was too dang hot and she was quite fed up with being hot, tired and hot and she was letting everyone know).
Thank God, customs allowed us to pass through. They said that if Mike has to drive the truck over the border again, to only give the customs agents his passport- not the residency permit- and they will allow him through with no problems. Hmmm...
Had an awesome thunderstorm this evening and it was followed by a drop in temperature (maybe about 20 degrees- every window is open) and a kickass rainbow. Many rainbow pictures will follow, I warn you. It's not that I have never seen one before, but it kept getting brighter and brighter, so I kept taking pictures.
So... we decided to bring the truck over to Hungary today to fulfill its 60 day requirements. No problems getting across- took maybe 1 1/2 hours to get through the Ukraine border/customs and then the Hungarian border/customs.
Once in Hungary, we then drove maybe 10 minutes more to TESCO.
http://www.tesco.com/
"TESCO: everything you can find in the supermarket and much more". Yes, their slogan is quite correct.
Trip home: once again- no prob getting through Hungarian border, but a bit of an issue getting through Ukraine's border. Remember those temporary-residency permits that we got just a couple of months ago? Apparently, having these permits makes us temporary Ukrainian citizens. Ukrainian citizens cannot drive foreign vehicles over the border (unless they are your own). So technically, Mike was not allowed to drive the truck back into Ukraine. Why did they let us leave the country with the truck in the first place? God only knows. Seriously, only He does.
We did get home though. Thanks to God and Solomiya. Yes, having a baby with you generally works in your favor. Mike said that as 3 custom officials were discussing this case with him, one of them said- Look, they have a baby, let them go through- (Solomiya and I had gotten out of the truck because it was too dang hot and she was quite fed up with being hot, tired and hot and she was letting everyone know).
Thank God, customs allowed us to pass through. They said that if Mike has to drive the truck over the border again, to only give the customs agents his passport- not the residency permit- and they will allow him through with no problems. Hmmm...
Had an awesome thunderstorm this evening and it was followed by a drop in temperature (maybe about 20 degrees- every window is open) and a kickass rainbow. Many rainbow pictures will follow, I warn you. It's not that I have never seen one before, but it kept getting brighter and brighter, so I kept taking pictures.
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| Peaches from our friend's tree. They tasted just like peach. Awesome. |
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| silly. |
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| so many rainbow pictures starting here. |
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| double rainbow. |
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| looks cool with the Soviet-era buildings. |
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Piecaken
Our friend made us this bookcase!
We have definitely had a change in the weather the last few weeks and summer is here! It is HOT, but not humid (we are very thankful for that). It has been in the 90's and higher and there has been bright sunshine and cloudless days for about 2 weeks (very nice). We are looking forward to some thunderstorms that may start tomorrow and a reprieve from sweating out of every pore of our body.
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| Top shelf down: bibles/study material, Ukrainian history, music, occupational therapy books. To the right, a television (just for show- it doesn't play anything- the tv, along with all the furniture, came with the apartment). |
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| I caught Solomiya vacuuming. In this photo, you can also almost tell that our wallpaper has sparkles in it. |
We have definitely had a change in the weather the last few weeks and summer is here! It is HOT, but not humid (we are very thankful for that). It has been in the 90's and higher and there has been bright sunshine and cloudless days for about 2 weeks (very nice). We are looking forward to some thunderstorms that may start tomorrow and a reprieve from sweating out of every pore of our body.
Weather for Uzhgorod, Zakarpats'ka, Ukraine
 | 32°C | °F | Sat | Sun | Mon | Tue | |||||
 |  | | | |||||||
| Clear | ||||||||||
| Wind: N at 6 km/h | ||||||||||
| Humidity: 36% | 34° | 20° | 33° | 20° | 32° | 19° | 29° | 18 | ||
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