Time To Say Goodbye

One last post on the Peace Corps blog. This blog started many years ago as a personal blog and transitioned to my Peace Corps blog several years ago. But I have decided to stop blogging for a while and move onto other projects in my life.

I left Ukraine on February 22nd, 2014 during an evacuation of all Peace Corps Volunteers in the country of Ukraine. The political unrest was becoming too dangerous for many of us, so everyone was evacuated. It was hard to leave so suddenly, but I was thankful to have a PCV at my apartment in Lugansk to pack me up. I was trapped in Kyiv for the five days prior to the evacuation.

Transitioning back into life in America has been hard, but I have enjoyed living at my moms and am looking forward to a new life transition. I have accepted a job in Cleveland, Ohio with the Social Security Administration and am excited about my new endeavor. I will miss so many things about Oregon, but Yuri and I very excited to discover a new part of America, when he finally gets here.

Thanks to all for the support and love in the past several years. I am thrilled to be an RPCV and to have been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine.

Part 1 Of A Long Promised Blog

My uncle asked me a couple of years ago to take some pictures of the vodka in Ukraine.  And I took these pictures a couple of years ago in Simferopol of the beer aisle. I was hoping to gather more photos, but haven't manage to quite yet. However, I going to go with what I have for now.

The choices are incredible. I have never seen so many choices in one place of beer and canned mix drinks. It is amazing!

 The Shake drinks in a can are some of my favorites. Lately I have taken to the Daiquiri flavor, but the Bora Bora is good also. They tend to be carbonated fruity drinks with alcohol. Basically a mixed drink in a can...awesomeness...

The beer mixes are quite popular here.

I will do more regarding hard alcohol soon.

An Afternoon With Friends

In the USA the weekend between Christmas and New Year's is often quiet and low key. And I always appreciate that time to catch up on life a bit. In Ukraine, New Year's comes before Christmas (7 Jan), which means a few free days. And because my life is a bit slower here, I find that I have afternoons to spend with friends. It is wonderful!

A Bit Of Snow

There was just a bit of snow today. Two years ago we were buried under a foot of snow at this time, but so far we have not been blessed with many inches, barely a skiff today.

Happy New Year

After a quick drive to the city center of Lugansk, Yuri and I discovered that NYE fireworks had become a thing of the past and were not to be this year. But there were lights and a big tree.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM UKRAINE!

Celebrating A Birthday

Today, Yuri's mom Lydia turned 60.  And we had a great time celebrating. Amazingly, we both wore red and looked crazy festive.

Of course we celebrated with great food.

 

 And then there was cake...  Perfect for a birthday. I even made her make a wish and blow out the candle for good luck.

Celebrating New Years At The Office

Last year I missed this party. I tend to take time off for the American Christmas season, so I am not always around for the celebrations at the office, but this year I made it. We all had a great time. The food is always great and it is fun to spend down time with people from the office.

I got an awesome gift from the director of the center. A statue of Ded Moroz and Snegurochka, which translates to Father Frost and the Snow Maiden. It is pretty cool and will be coming home with me as a holiday decoration for years to come.

My department (I technically work for the Department of International Relations within the training center) was asked to present something.  And the head of the department came straight to me with a request to do something. For some reason the American is always interesting. So Olga and I decided to do "Twas The Night Before Christmas". Me in English and her in Russian. It was quite fun. Many had never heard it before.

Merry Christmas!

Today was fantastic. I had lots of great help in the kitchen, which makes for a relaxing Christmas Day. There was a ton of food, but the biggest success of the night was definitely the goose.  It was simply amazing. I would cook a goose again without it being a holiday.

The oddest dish in the bunch was the shrimp and tomato aspic. Aspic translates to holodets in Ukraine and here it is made with pork pieces, like feet. I wanted Ukrainians to try an old family favorite of mine.

My First Goose

Tonight I cooked my first goose ever. I was seriously gun shy about this, but I really wanted to try it. I found an amazing tutorial online and got to work. Cooking a goose takes a lot more prep and stages than a turkey, but the reward was completely worth it. It was awesome!

My goose even looked like the pictures once it was cooked, cut, braised, sliced and ready for serving. I was so freaking excited that I called another PCV, Steven, just to share in my excited with another cook. Awesomeness!

Getting Into The Grove

It is finally time to get moving on the cooking and food thing for Christmas.

Wasn't sure if I would have a hard time finding geese for Christmas Dinner, but I got lucky with an awesome frozen food section at one of my large supermarkets in town.

After finding my geese, I discovered a couple of new things during my search. The cheddar was pretty good, not fabulous, but ok.  And I have not tried the Tandoori yet, but I will.