All of us wanted to stay home in our wonderful air-conditioned apartment for dinner. So Pippa whipped up a quick meal of fresh fruit, bread, jamon Serrona (you can buy anything from anywhere in the supermarkets in Kiev) and blueberry and cherry bliniki (pancakes). I added a little ice cream to mine; the ice cream in Ukraine puts ours in the States to shame.
After dinner, Andry and Olya were alternating with Olya’s computer where the two of them have built very elaborate families in Simms, and Andry’s new Sony PSP. Pippa was answering emails and trying to upload to our blog at the times when our internet connection was connected.
The whole family was watching “Animal Planet” in English, thanks to Andry who is a genius with the complicated TV language menus. The kids, Pippa and I are hooked on the animal rescue programs that are non-stop here. Andry and Olya would rush back in from the bedroom to watch any of the dog rescue portions of the program. Olya is dog and animal crazy and it seems that Andry may be as well. Good thing with all the critters we have.
Andry snuggles up to us when he hops on the couch. He constantly makes jokes, made all the more charming with his Ukrainian accent and he still can’t get the “he” and “she” with the right sex. Olya, as always, is a bundle of animation, bouncing and skipping and tickling everyone within tickle-shot.
For me the only thing missing is a library of books. I haven’t yet found a good resource for English books or magazines. When Niklas and Oliver, the directors of the Hamburg school, were in Miami they introduced us to a friend who worked with a Ukrainian film production house called Radioactive. It’s owned by Roman, an American-Ukrainian, who they thought could be a good resource for us. We visited Roman a couple of weeks ago and he loaned us his technical computer geek who fixed our computers. No doubt Roman will know of a bookstore.
He also put us onto a really interesting photo exhibition that we had also read about in two different Kiev magazines that were a cross between Ocean Drive and New Times. Actually, the exhibit was of his wife’s photos. She had gotten a new ring light and decided to try it out by photographing her friends who are all “hot women” according to Roman. He was right about that! We couldn’t let the kids see the exhibit; they stayed in the car with Vasilly. The pictures of the women, who are models, mothers, teachers and business women, sizzled. As it turns out, his wife, Vita, is going to Miami Beach with her son for vacation. We invited her to stop by Miami Ad School while she is there. We also invited her to speak to the photo students. Not likely, Roman said, because Vita is too shy. Well, her photos certainly aren’t.
These photos we took of her images in the magazines covering her exhibit don’t do the originals justice.
We spent the rest of the evening planning tomorrow which will likely be another one of our “pinch me, I’m dreaming” days. We are having a tooth party for Nikolai and Maria. They are in Kiev for their last dental treatment before the replacement teeth start being implanted sometime next week. With so many replacements needed it will take several weeks to complete. We will (hopefully) leave before seeing them with toothy smiles.
We’re coming to the last week or two of our time in Ukraine and so we want to give the biological parents a couple of more opportunities to have contact with Andry and Olya before we leave the country. Who knows when the children will be back to Ukraine?
On the phone, Maria asked again if we would pay for her “hair styling”. Of course. Pippa also thinks it will be a good opportunity to see Maria without a kerchief on her head. What a pity we won’t see her with her new teeth. They aren’t likely to be finished by the time we leave. Well, we hope we are gone by then.
I think both Pippa and I have good wishes for Maria in her quest to improve her appearance. We aren’t certain of her reasons. Maybe it’s just a “woman-thing”. Or maybe after seeing Pippa, Maria is suddenly more aware of how she looks to her children, Yet, she very much wanted to be photographed with Pippa in front of the cathedral in Percherska Lavra when we went to have egg decorating lessons.
Speaking of eggs, Pippa has signed us up for another egg decorating lesson at the Folk Art museum on Sunday morning. The children want to do it; it’s fine by me. Yet, I am beginning to wonder what we will do with all these eggs eventually.
I remember, a thousand years ago when I was a young man, I did a photo documentary on the weird men in New York State. One particularly deranged man collected eggs. He didn’t do anything with them; he just collected them. He had a dozen barns filled to the beams with grocery store eggs in cartons that he had collected for years and years.
When I met him, he was out of barn space and was now using abandoned cars for his ever-expanding collection.
I think that we, like he, will soon be up to our ass in eggs.
No comments:
Post a Comment