bits and pieces, odds and ends

Tanya and I had a lovely time Friday night: junk food, listening to music, and watching Firefly. It was, in short, a slumber party, complete with the phrase, "There's this guy..." uttered by Tanya.

And we slept in until 10:30 the next morning and then had breakfast at a coffee shop, where Tanya ended up with something that we dubbed "Waffle Pizza", because that's exactly what it was.

On Sunday, I went to the Ks' church for a harvest festival. Apparently most Protestant churches in Ukraine spend the month of September visiting each other for harvest festivals. It was 3.5 hours of church (thankfully, lots of music and very short sermons), followed by a big meal on tables outside. Then I brought out my digital camera, and all of us young unmarried women (ages 14-23) took pictures of each other by the big display of produce at the front of the church. If I get a chance to be somewhere where people understand flash drives, I'll have to upload some pictures. (My ladies here at the post office, while they smile and joke with me, don't really understand flash drives and groan when I ask to use mine.)

My 7th form boys are fascinated by my blue sticky tac that I use to hang things on the board with. One of them apparently grabbed a wad of it, and none of them will confess as to who.

While buying an airmail envelope and getting Tif's package of magazines just now, I met Natalia, a woman who's a little older than me and who worked for a year as a teacher in Germany, much as I'm doing now. She teaches at the pedagogical college in town and also helps run a course for adult learners of foreign languages as well as a course for children of veterans from the Russian-Afganistan War. She wants to know if I can help with the children's course, which would be a lot of fun, but I suspect that my director will say no. (Technically, it's my decision. But my director doesn't realize this, so it's her decision. I guess. If you want a rant on this topic, email me and I'd be happy to oblige.) The best part of the conversation, though, was when I was having trouble forming sentences and finally just said, "I can talk about food very well. And I can say, 'Sit down,' and 'Be quiet,'" and Natalia just laughed, because she understood from when she'd lived in Germany. She has also been to Cologne, so we reminisced about the beauties of the Dom.

Three little neighbor girls came to visit me last night for cookies, juice, and Uno (two came last time), and one of them brought her English homework. I suspect I may end up with half the kids in the building eventually...sort of an after-school program, limited to one night a week, because my cookie budget can't handle it! (Or my sanity...or my free time...)