a lovely Sunday

We didn't go to church today, as the apartment kitchen is being remodeled. However, I felt a bit of cabin fever after reading Revelations and Chaim Potok's In the Beginning in my room all morning and took a walk through the park, which is big and full of trees and part of a 19th century estate that was taken over by the Communists. It's a wonderful park, and I walked until I decided that turning around and going back was a good idea, as I wasn't sure where I would end up nor how far away from home I would be. Then I sat by the lake in the middle of the park and sang hymns, and that was church for me today. Very nice.

And then I found a swing near one of the apartment buildings (for the record, I live in a dilapidated Soviet-era apartment building that's really quite cozy), and while it wasn't quite an East Lansing playground, it was close enough. On my way back home, some little kids called out "Hello! What's your name?" to me (I think it was pretty much all the English they knew), and we had a (very) short conversation. It was fun. I've been missing little kids, and these are the first I've had the chance to interact with since getting here.

Tonight my cluster (Erin, Celeste, Chris, and Mike, my fellow-sufferers in learning Ukrainian) is planning to hang out at Celeste's host family's apartment. I had dreams of being able to wash my hair tonight, but due to the aforementioned remodeling of the kitchen (there's a grate on the stove that connects to the kitchen sink and a hose that runs to the bathroom to provide hot water), I think that will have to wait until tomorrow night. At least I'm not hauling water half a mile to a hut like one of Celeste's friends who's a PCV in either South America or Africa!