A Boxed Cake

The box that store bought cakes come in! It says "Cappuccino". It is VERY tasty cake made by the famous Roshen bakery here in Kiev.

Happy Birthday to ME!

The theme this week at English Cafe was health and sickness and it came at just the right time...many of our Cafe friends were sick this week with a virus that seems to be making people sick all over Ukraine.

(Actually, I don't want to write about sickness right now. After all, nobody really wants to talk much about being 'sicker than a dog', or how they are 'sick and tired' or how we are 'feeling under the weather' or how something is just plain 'sick'.)

I want to talk about birthdays.

It wasn't my birthday this week, it was actually the young man's birthday who is holding the cake in the picture. He bought and brought the cake himself. By the unwritten rules of Ukrainian culture, if it is your birthday, you bring the cake. If you want a party, you do the inviting, make the food, decorate the house...Yep, you throw yourself a big birthday bash. Quite the opposite of what American culture tells us to do: if it is your friend's birthday, you make the cake for your friend.

So, knowing that Roma was coming (we didn't know he was bringing a cake) and feeling compelled by my own culture to make a cake, I made one of our special cakes- a box mix straight from America, a treat. My cake was quite plain compared to this beautiful 'tort' that Roma brought. But, with twice the normal amount of cake for a single birthday, every sweet tooth was satisfied as each of us had at least 2 pieces of cake.

It was a sweet Happy Birthday for us all!

Soy Sauce and Wasabi ~ Make your own sushi party

DIY sushi!

the guys 'cooking' for the first time!

Make your own sushi party....

So, we had a make your own sushi party at English cafe on Wednesday. I actually have had the idea for a LONG time...finally my dream came true.

It was a day to be remembered for a long time...this whole week has been unusual, filled with unplanned things, unexpected guests and spur-of-the-moment happenings, but all in all, very pleasant how it has all worked out.

So, on Wednesday, when the car battery had to be replaced (twice- as the first one that we bought was the wrong one), and the English movie time needed to be transferred to our home due to double scheduling of events at the University and a few other things, I had to remind myself several times that God is in control of it all and it will all work out...but when the water went out 30 minutes before everyone came to our place, and stayed off till 10pm...it took all I could muster up to laugh about it, remembering that it was under control and all would work out....how do you clean the sticky sushi rice off of your fingers?????

But, you know what? Everyone else seemed to be doing just fine with the whole situation and I have heard from several of our friends, how much fun they had and how they would love to do something like this again...

I kept thinking that something really great was going to happen because it was such a CRAZY day...this is yet to be realized...but...I have hope that things are happening...

Remember us, please...it is really cool to see what is happening and are hoping to see even more!

Stars on Ice

Here we are....the not so famous Stars on Ice of Kiev! We usually hang out at our place and have fun speaking in English, but last week one of us had the grand idea of getting together on a totally different day to go ice skating while we spoke English. It was a beautiful evening, the snow was gently falling. We warmed up afterwards with tea at a cafe and laughed about the fun we had going round and round in the rink, managing not to fall. Such fun people to have the privilege to know.

As we drank our tea and laughed...someone had another brilliant idea - to go snowboarding!

Yikes!

Remember us as we have fun, sharing our lives, dreams, hopes and the most important stuff of life.

Old Christmas Pie

Our friends and the pie they prepared!
cutting the pie

It was 'Old' Christmas Eve and our good friends invited us over to their place for pie. In Ukraine, Christmas is a religious holiday. On that night, "Holy Dinner" is eaten after the first star appears and no gifts are exchanged. We were excited that they would invite us over on this special day.

We thought we were invited over for dessert, as we sat down we realized the pie they had prepared for us was a fish pie! It was beautiful. On the bottom was a layer of potatoes, a layer of sliced onions and then a layer of fish, all wrapped in a savory crust. It was delicious!

As you remember the special memories you have of this Holy season, will you also remember our good friends as they wrestle with their beliefs and thoughts about Jesus and how His birth changed everything. Thanks for coming along with us on this adventure!

New Year's dinner 2012

We enjoyed a quiet dinner together with 3 of our friends here at our place. Our neighbor brought a stuffed fish that she made for us to eat along with our tacos. It was a very nice dinner. I am sorry that I totally forgot to take a picture of us all together. At 11pm, we started walking to the center. We enjoyed a few mintues of the free concert and then the fireworks began at the stroke of midnight.

Happy New Year 2012

the beginning of the firework salute!

the ocean of people celebrating the new year 2012

Ringing in the New Year 2012

We celebrated in the city center, Kiev with thousands of others...Happy New Year!!!!