Ukrainian Mexican Food to Celebrate an Irish Holiday

Allison making the first Ukrainian Mexican burrito.


Allison, Travis, & Aidan better known as the V.V. crew.


Allison and I got to make traditional Ukrainian Eggs alot more complicated process than what I'm use to.


As you can guess these were done by kids and not the two American girls.


Boo for the snow! (view out Allison's window)


The V.V. murial/art work at the bus station.

This week was another four day week. But sometimes knowing that I only have to survive four days in the classroom instead of five makes the classes periods drag as if time is barely moving. This week was alright. I have classes I really enjoy and others that aren’t a walk in park. Overall, it was an ok week at school.

On Thursday, I got to speak to a group of 30 foreign language teachers at the district building. I had a PowerPoint about myself as well as another one about Peace Corps. It is so funny how speaking in front of large groups doesn’t really faze me that much anymore. I can remember being asked to speak at chapel or focus on campus and I would reluctantly suffer through it. Now I can get up in front of a group microphone or no microphone and handle it pretty well. I count my successes in how many laughs I can get out of them. Normally, I’m pretty good at crossing that cultural barrier.

Working out at the gym was a little slow this week. I missed two days of working out because of Women’s Day celebrations. But I enjoyed hopping back on the treadmill and getting some ever so slow miles in. I was really hoping that this past week was going to be the week that I could finally start running outside. The snow was almost melted completely with icy roads and sidewalks defrosting enough for a mid day run but on Thursday the snow started falling again. Over the weekend, it has continued to flurry enough to cover the ground. So for now I’m trapped running at the gym on the treadmill which normally only gets me two or two half miles depending on how busy the gym gets.

But good news is that the group organizing the half marathon that I was going to do on April 16th also decided to offer a 10k as well. In my circumstances of limited running, I have signed up for the 10k. It is still 6 miles and the course is near the Carpathian Mountains so it isn’t going to be the flat running of central Illinois or Chicago land that I was getting use to this summer. Allison and the V.V. boys are going to volunteer to help run the race. So I’m looking forward a nice weekend with my crew as well as many other volunteers.
F
riday, I headed to Voldymyr-Volynski which is roughly 2 hours on transport from my town to visit Allison and the boys. Mama Perrone had sent me a St. Patrick’s Day packages with many American snacks so I kept from eating them until this weekend. M&Ms have never smelled so good in my life. Besides snacking on the theme green candies and snacks we also made Mexican food. Or should I say that Allison did most of the work while Aidan, Travis and I reaped the benefits. Hung around Allison’s place as well as hitting up the bar below her apartment.

The rest of the weekend Allison and I just lounged around trading media on our externals and PCs. We got some movies in that I hadn’t seen; Ironman not too bad. Also saw Crazy Heart that Jeff Bridges won Best Actor for. The best part of the movie was when he was fishing and drinking a PBR, I nearly cried. Yeah, so just a lazy weekend.

Oh, I haven’t confirmed it yet but I think I might have set a world record for the most peanut M&Ms in some one’s mouth with 70. I’m sad to report that I don’t have a photo but I do have a great video. Hopefully sometime I can find a faster internet connection I can upload. It was pretty impressive I must say.

Well I got some lesson planning that needs to get down on this Sunday evening. Hope everyone is well at home. Think about you all a lot. A lucky few faces were shown in my PowerPoint (Mom, Dad, Tob, Kev, Lou, Bre, Sluis, and Kenya #1 group). Miss ya, love ya all.

Still no flat if you were wondering. Patience is a virtue...I guess.