First Night at Ira's

First thing’s first. I think I have a cold? This doesn’t surprise me because it happens every time I travel to or from Birmingham. It just seems that this would be the least likely thing to happen. Oh well, it could be a gazillion times worse.

Today was awesum. Oh wait, I’m going to stop saying that word and use ‘rad’ instead. So I guess today was totally rad. We went to a Messianic Jewish church and there were two things to note: the music was crazy 80’s Jewish tape deck praise songs that were obviously sung in Ukrainian, and there were two sermons. Yikes. But it was a neat experience for sure. Natasha’s husband is the pastor there and she was very excited for us to be there. We sat in the balcony and Masha translated for us the whole time, poor girl. She is wonderful.

After that we went to the Shelter, which is one part of Last Bell, where Chris is going to be working. It’s a really cool place that houses a family, a church and any teenage kid that wants to hang out or live there for a period of time. Read Chris’ articles and I’m sure he’ll tell you more about it.

The most important thing is that I totally repped my Hoosier pride today and SCHOOLED everyone in bball. That’s right. And I wasn’t even wearing my new sporty shoes, I was in a dress. We played two games of ‘minus five’ (essentially it was horse on roids) and I won both. Against Barry, Chris, Krystallin, Jim (an American who married a Ukrainian woman and works with Last Bell) and two other girls from Shelter. It rooled.

Also at Shelter we had the most delicious ice cream with chocolate sauce on top. Hershey’s has nothing on this Ukrainian magic.

We then all got to see where we are living this summer! How exciting. Don’t tell anyone, but I most definitely win. Ira is the coolest and her apartment is wonderful. I even have my own magic pullout sofa bed and a balcony with a rocking chair. Not to mention she is incredible and made me a cake. I love her already.

After we dropped Barry and Chris off, me and Krystallin and Pastor Peter (who Krystallin is staying with) and Ira went to the mall and got milkshakes at McDonald’s. You better believe I’ll be back there. I just have to learn how to say “chicken nuggets” in Ukrainian…

We then went on a food excursion at a Costco type place and got many delicious food items. I want to go back and make a trail mix out of all the dried fruit. Mmm.

Then Ira took me to her small group at her church. This was maybe one of the best things I’ve ever done. They are so wonderful! Everyone sat around and force fed me ice cream and coffee and chatted like girls. They all introduced themselves to me and asked me questions about my life and just normal girl things like how much it costs to get my hair cut in America. They even said I looked like a “French fashion girl” or something goofy like that. I won’t pretend I didn’t love it.

It was so fun watching them all chat away and not having any idea what they said. Ira would eventually tell me the general turn of the conversation and even included me in it. They all decided they need to have a cooking party while I’m here to teach me Ukrainian recipes and dishes. HOW RAD. Honestly, coolest women ever. And such a great picture of a true community and family of Christ. I love it. I want to be all of their best friends.

For now that is all I suppose. Church isn’t until two so we get to lounge around all morning. That is the most marvelous thing I’ve heard in a while.