Alright, I should really be napping, but I can't sleep since I'm cafinated. So I'm going to finish the telling of my Ukrainian adventure.
On our last day of mission work, we had a picnic for lunch with the Pastors from both Methodist churches, and their families. It was really nice, and we had really good food. We got salad, vegetables, some kind of ethnic food, I don't remember the name, but they were seasoned rice rolled in cabbage leaves, and cooked in something. They were really good. And to finish, they made traditional Ukrainian barbeque. It was all really good. And we had a beautiful spot, right next to the river (well it was a stream). At this spot, we were less than a mile from the Slovakian border, so I could have visited another country, except for the armed gaurds. During the picnic I taught Ira how to use my camera, and she had alot of fun with it. I got my pictures back today, and she did a really good job. I think she could have potential as a photographer.
So one thing in the Ukraine that really bothered me was that I was dehydrated the whole time I was there. You can't drink the tap water, because it has bacteria in it that Ukrainians are immune to, but we feble Americans get very sick from. To solve this dilema you buy bottled water right? The only problem with this is that a lot of bottled water in Europe is carbonated, and alot like seltzer. So in otherwords, undrinkable. It's so disgusting. No matter how hard you try, since you can't read the bottles, you inevitably pick one out that has been carbonated.
On the flip side, their chocolate is amazing. We learned that when they are shipping the cocoa beans from South America, they send the highest quality ones to Europe, and send the next best to America. And you really don't realize how good thier chocolate is until you have ours again. I ate a kit kat bar on the plane on the way home and I couldn't belive how bad our chocolate is.
And for my last story from the Ukraine. On the way to Budapest our van driver Ivan decided to take us to a winery for lunch. I was a little wary of the idea, seeing as I'm not of age to drink, and I don't like wine. But I thought it would be fun to see nonetheless. So we get there, and the outside looks quiant enough. It's a little cottage, we walk in, and they hand us each a glass, and then take us down into the wine cellars. I don't know what wineries are like in the US, but this one was way cool. If you've ever read the story A Cask of Amontillado by E.A.Poe you will kind of understand how the cellars looked. If you haven't they we remeniscent of a medival dungeon. Way cool. The walls were covered in about 2 inches of mold, which was a little frightening with my mold allergy, but I did take my zyrtec that morning, so I didn't come out too badly. While we were there, they brought us tons of different kinds of wines to try. Overall I think I have less than half a glass. I couldn't drink it. I really don't like wine. It think my aunt had about four glasses, and Christine had possibly seven. Those two were pretty darn funny as we were leaving. My aunt was having trouble walking straight, and as she was having a conversation with Ivan her hand gestures were pretty wild. Christine on the other hand was pretty far gone, and she was walking funny, speaking really slowly (FYI when speech slows, volume increases), and developed a definite slur. She was explaining Mormanism to me in the car and I had such a hard time not laughing at her as she slurred the explanation.
Well this is really long. so I'm out for now. I'll talk more later. Miss you all.