hive work

I cannot believe the smile on my face right now. I am on top of the world. I haven't felt like this in a long time and I want to run into the streets and scream out...

My head is buzzing for all good things.

know

snapsnap

I don't feel like writing much, but I have taken a few pictures in the past couple of days and want to share them. I went to visit Colette, Courtney and Adrianne down in the beautiful Crimea and enjoyed my time in Simferopol, Yalta and Saki.

Colette and I went to the Chekhov House. This is a clock from his kitchen and a few photographs from his mother's bedroom.

Colette made friends with this cat at the house.

We played scrabble.

Colette and I went to a wine bar in Yalta and tried different Massandra wines.

We went to a lake with mud (much like the Dead Sea, except less salty) and covered ourselves.

abuh

I don't even know what to write about. I usually count on a conversation with Gilad at some point during my week to get me thinking about something weirdly human and natural, and maybe he'll help by pointing me in the direction of a good text or philosophy, but not this week.

This week I haven't been myself. I feel on edge and confused and not really with it. I am going to take this time at home to just kind of reconfigure and re-re. Especially since I haven't done a single thing that might count for the month of September, and I think I need to start thinking about my actual service instead of "what sounds good for dinner?" Summer is closing up, but I am kind of happy about it because I get to be myself and do what I intended to do all along - teach, educate, integrate.

However, if there's one thing I've learned in the past 10 months (yes, it's been 10 months!) that the most important thing I can do when I'm feeling unlike me, is to surround myself with company who do like me. So, score one for mental health victories.

Here are some photos from the past.

Wavy sunflower fields on the way to Donetsk.

Dnipro football game fans.

A poster Colette and I made for children while we were in Russian Language Camp, I mean, лагерь.

Cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg pull apart bread made with Caroline.

Fresh tomatoes from the bazaar (2 kilo for 10 hryvna. Also highway robbery).

Tomato sauce I made from said tomatoes.