We started the day walking by a giant statue of "Mother Pussia" and her two children. Then onto the home visits in Ternopol. No van today. (Shabbas Koydesh)
- First apartment was very large and nicely decorated. Belonged to these two old ladies who talked about the war the entire time. Much of their stories were lost in translation. One alluded to the fact that she was in a camp liberated by the Soviets.
- Favorite Babushka grandma with a pudgy dough face and grey eyes. Very thick ankles. She was wearing a million layers of clothes. This woman was SO CUTE. She sang along to Dyenu in this high operatic voice. Her apartment was very cheery with bright yellow walls. She was the most heart-breaking thing, though. After we finished our first song, she started crying. She said, "You come to sing and make me so happy, but then you leave." "I wish I could come with you." She also told us that we make her feel young again, and that one day we will be old, too.
- Third lady marched around her apartment wearing a short, tight polyester dress and white open-toes heels. It was freezing. Her hair was three different colors (not unlike many of the Ukrainian women we saw in the town). She spoke a million words a minute and had lost her short-term memory. She acted like she was on speed. She used to be a music teacher, so we told her we would sing for her and she could give us our marks. After we sang she told us that we got full marks for amateurs, but we were not yet at a professional level.
Then on to our hunting lodge oops I mean restaurant for lunch, while the girls went and got pizza. Very good food, but the atmosphere was too creepy to enjoy oneself without a creepy feeling, especially with Andre the guard and Scary KGB Chesed guy, who at one point all but demanded that I give him a key-chain as a present. This is what I wrote while at the restaurant: We are sitting in a hunting lodge restaurant. The table cloth is dark green velvet, with a square of red plaid under the centerpiece. The walls are decorated with guns in glass cases, mounted deer heads/antlers/feet, and dioramas of vultures preying on little furry animals. Ukrainian MTV is playing in the corner. The best part is our company. Andre the guard, the Very Russian Lady with Bangs from Chesed, and Scary KGB Chesed guy, who keeps winking at me. The only person who speaks English is Andre, who doesn't really speak English. I would never ever step into this sort of establishment anywhere else in the world.
Major major bonding with the girls. We went to buy Esther a Bday card, then off to the hairdresser where Alona got her hair snipped and I got a nifty manicure for under two dollars! Me and Meeps observed the Ukrainian women getting god-awful very layered haircuts and three-toned dye jobs. (serious situation.) Adam and Andre sat in the corner looking uncomfortable. Then off to Europa restaurant (the green room this time) where we ate deeeeeelicious ice cream. On the way home stopped at a liquor store and purchased kosher-for-Pesach potato vodka. In our hotel room we toasted our seder successes and wrote a clever (if I do say so myself) Pesach/Ukraine themed musical. (you can find the fruits of our labor under "songs." )
Random story that I forgot to put in before: At our two big seders there was this thirty-forty something guy there, who wore a grey baret and kept staring at me with his squinty eyes. He really creeped me out. Until he came up to me at the end of the seder and game me a Kopek, an old Soviet coin!!
Quote of the day: "It's too bad our interpreter doesn't speak our language." (Adina, re: Andre)
daily horse and stick cart count: 0 (due to being in the city)
daily egg total: 9 (between the three Americans.)
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