Christmas Happenings

Last Saturday we had a special Ladies' Bible Study. Melinda, our teammate, had baked dozens of cookies and brought them for the ladies to decorate. She had also prepared a story about the true meaning of Christmas. We had a great time. The ladies got very creative decorating the cookies, and at the end we each took a plate or two to give to our friends and neighbors along with a Christmas story. We will take our cookies tomorrow to a lady neighbor of ours. We can't believe Christmas is less than two days away!

Nadia, Anna and I also went Christmas shopping for the rest of the family. First, we had to find a meat for Christmas. I knew we could get turkeys (see an earlier post), but I toyed with an idea of having a rabbit for Christmas dinner. We went to Central market again. It was crowded, but not overwhelmingly crowded. People in Ukraine and Russia celebrate Christmas on January 7, as is celebrated by the Orthodox church. Since it comes after the New Year's, when parties take place and gifts are exchanged, Christmas is more a religious holiday, comparable to Easter in the US. So, right now everybody here is getting ready for New Year's. Back to meat-hunting. We found some decent-looking turkeys, but I still had my hopes up for the rabbit. We found one, and it looked good, furry hind paws and all (they leave them unskinned for some reason). Unfortunately, it cost about $26, way too much for the amount of meat. We decided to go with a turkey, which were about $13 for a ten-pounder. As we were trying to make our selections, one of the ladies pointed to an unidentifiable animal on the counter and said, "Have you tried nutria? It's really good!" Now, I eat a lot of things, but this one... you would have to do a lot of persuasion. They use nutrias (or coypu) for making fur hats in this part of the world. I guess one can eat them, too. I would be able to eat it only if I didn't know what it was.

We bought some cranberries, too. The saleslady took at least 5 minutes to try and talk me into eating them raw. She would not take "no" for an answer. I listened politely. I like raw cranberries in a relish. They are great. But it's hard to eat them uncooked after seeing them lying in the open air and being handled. Sorry, lady, we were told to wash and peel fresh produce or cook it. There is just too much wild life that can be on them.

The hit of our Christmas shopping day was finding wrapping paper. After looking in many, many places and stores for a week or so we found it at one stand at the market. The lady had 40X24" sheets of wrapping paper, sold individually. We bought a dozen. Hopefully, it will be enough. We are doing the wrapping tonight while we are watching "A Christmas Story". Tomorrow Melinda is coming over, we will have a Christmas Eve dinner followed by Lessons and Carols led by Jamie. We look forward to it.

Merry Christmas to you, friends!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Our long wait for a Christmas tree is finally over. After asking everybody when the Christmas trees arrive, we finally received a call this week that they are in the city (thanks, Melinda!).

Thursday morning, armed with this information, we left for the Central Market. On our way there we met a guy at a bus stop who had a small scrawny Chistmas tree. We were hopeful. At the Central market the 5 or 6 Christmas trees were pretty pathetic. We decided to go to the other big market to where the guy got his tree. After battling the crowds and walking through the maze in the open-air market we found the trees. In the States Julia always liked Balsam fir because of its scent. Here there were only pines. There was a big one and a bunch of smaller ones. We decided for the bigger one, about 2 meters tall (6 1/2 feet). The bargaining began. We got 5 grivnas off, but the guy had no rope (think the movie "A Christmas Story"). But now we had a problem: getting it home. We called a freight taxi company, but they refused the order because they did not want to dirty their new Daewoo vans (this was the official reply). It was way too big for public transportation, so I slung it on my shoulder and started off with Julia and the kids following close behind, slipping and sliding on the ice. At a major street Julia and the kids caught a taxi, and I continued on. I made it home in about 1 hour. I estimate the tree at 50 lbs. Besides a sore shoulder and getting my eye poked, I made it all right. Now it's in the house and decorated. It feels like Christmas now!

Cultural Adjustments

I used to hate going to the BMV to renew my drivers license or license plates. The line always seemed to be long and the ladies working there seemed to be having bad days. I think the BMV has been trumped at least a thousand times. A week ago today, I experienced the worst of all waiting for service. It was at the bank where I am trying to open an account with a bank card so that I can cut my withdrawal fee from 3% to 1% as well as get a better exchange rate. When we tried to open the account we had a big hassel surrounding where our money was coming from. They wanted to see our customs declaration which we did not have because we did not have to declare anything. After a 20 minute discussion we finally got the lady to admit that we did not need a customs declaration, only a receipt of any kind that showed where we got the money. I asked if a bank machine receipt would work and she said "Yes." I quickly went out and pulled some money and brought the paper. I was sent to the cashier to deposit my money and came back with the receipt. The amount needed for deposit: a whopping $2. A piece of paper showing where the $2 had come from!

Anyways, back to the line that beats all lines. I went to the pick up my bank card and found about 20 people ahead waiting. I asked who was last and got in line. This was about 3 pm. The line slowly moved forward but more and more people came and got in front of me. Well, there is no line. People come and see a long line find where they are and tell the person who comes after them that they are stepping out and to keep their place in line. So with this many people and the line moving so slowly many were doing this. It seemed like I waited an hour and there were always 20 people ahead of me. When Julia arrived at 3:45, I told her the situation and we waited. Things really got frustrating when the lady that was after me, went in and smugly said "Goodbye" on her way out. By about 4:20, I had had enough of the chaos when 3 younger people came in and said they could not remember who they were after and convinced someone ahead of me that they were before them. After a while a lady from a different desk started taking people, and I was next in line. But unfortunately the card was not ready and I was told to come back in hour and get in line again. When I voiced my displeasure through Julia, she said I could come directly to her in an hour. I did and as I was waiting for her to find my card, I saw people who came after me finally getting in and leaving. I think I would happily wait in the BMV line now.