Good day, gentle reader. Christopher and I just returned from a relaxing weekend with our friends, Kristen and Jordan, at my piano teacher, Luda's, dacha. A dacha is a country home where people often grow vegetables for the winter and go to relax and breathe fresh air. Luda and Pavel, her husband, as well as their two sons, Anton and Andry, were wonderful hosts. Their dacha is in a small village in Poltava Oblast, on a clean river, the Vorskla. We swam in the river, walked in the forest and fields, picking and eating wild strawberries, then ate meals made of fresh vegetables from their and neighbor's gardens. We had shashlik, (shishkobabs) on Sunday - see photos that Jordan took from the weekend. We drank samohon, the homemade vodka, then were mercifully saved by the sons to go visit a fishing hole with some friends. 7 or 8 or us packed into a VW Jetta and swam in a dark watered pond, speaking Russian, Ukrainian, English, beer. :-)

Later that night, we went out again with the youngins', walking around the village, drinking the ubiquitous warm beer. There was to be a dance later at a community center and after some prodding, Jordan agreed to sing karaoke. He graced us with a strong rendition of "My Way."

I still marvel at people's willingness to open their homes to random foreigners, to share what they have without reserve and with joy.