Saturday there was another trip to the American commissary for shopping. I stocked up. Saturday night I had popcorn and An A & W rootbeer and I was in heaven! I had pancakes on Sunday morning; that was a treat also. My apartment was very cold this morning. I shut the kitchen door and turned on the oven to warm up.

Yesterday the shine was able to break thru the clouds in the afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today we woke up to blue skies with some puff clouds. The sun is shining full force right now and it is such a huge relief to see the sun again!!!
Tonight i have been invited to dinner at a couples home. Several of us are going home with them after work. They are a very nice family and it should be a fun evening.
The exchange rate is up to 5.02 hrevna for $1.00.We are happy to see it go up. It was at 4. 64 when we got here.
I'm glad the week is ending. I am finely starting to feel better and look forward to being able to rest this weekend. On Saturday there is a trip to the American Commisary to shop and I am looking forward to American food!!

On Sunday in Lviv, we ate breakfast at the hotel and headed out for more exploring. I was really sick and Sam was feeling slightly better. Neither Barbara or Isobel were getting sick yet. We were able to leave our luggage at the hotel until three when we would take a cab to the airport. We went back to the market square to do some shopping. I bought a small glass chicken (I now have a Ukrainian chicken!!!!!!!!), a bandelero (similar to a guitar but smaller and slightly different shape), and a cup and saucer made from black clay (Very elegant in it’s simplicity). We met an Ukrainian couple who had lived in the states for several years. They were very nice. They helped us do our shopping; there is the regular price for items and then the price for Americans. They wanted to spend time with us but we were leaving soon by the time we met them. We visited another church, walked thru a beautiful park, traveled some new streets, found a restaurant with simple but very delicious food and then headed back to the hotel. We caught our cab to the airport and hung out for an hour till our plane left. There were no assigned seats for the flight so it was a free for all getting on the plane. A new slogan I have is “worse than cattle in a chute.” There we 5 guys on the plane who needed to slapped up; they were terribly unruly and drunk. Happily two of them were really in pain when the plane started landing cuz their ears wouldn’t pop. JJJJJJJ Revenge is so sweet sometimes. The taxi ride back to our apartments was terrifying but we got home safe.

On Friday evening, (very rainy) Barbara, Sam, Isobel and I left for Lviv for the weekend. We took an overnight train; this was my first train trip. It was suggested that we take first class cars. They were simple and nice. Nobody slept very well due to the way the train rocks but it was a pleasant enough trip. We arrived at 6:30 a.m. in Lviv. We took a taxi to our hotel and they locked our luggage up in their office so we didn’t have to haul that around with us. McDonalds was the only thing open so we ate there. We walked over to the Opera house to look at it and wandered around a bit waiting for a real place to eat to open. At about nine we ate at the hotel restaurant. I had potato pancakes stuffed with cheese with a side of sour cream. There were delicious!!! We walked around a bit more until a friend of Barbara’s daughter and her husband (Lillia and Anzar) met us to give us a tour. They were a wonderful couple; very intelligent and very informative about Lviv’s history. We visited several churches; briefly stopped at the market in the square. We ate at a great restaurant called the Golden Boar. The place has a very interesting history, which I can’t remember exactly but when the basement was being cleaned of ruble three golden boar statutes were found hidden in the walls. So there were several boars’ heads hanging on the walls and a complete stuffed boar hanging from the ceiling. The food was fantastic!!! We saw nearly two dozen brides as we wondered the city. They have more than one Lent and can’t get married during Lent. One had just ended so many people were getting married. What a cold rainy day to get married!!! We got in on two of the weddings as we were visiting churches. (I’ll have to write more about the churches.) Lillia helped us by tickets for the Opera. We then departed company with Lillia and her husband. We went for dessert then back to the hotel to rest before the Opera. It had rained constantly all day and we were soaked; shoes, socks (I went thru three pair) and pants. The Opera was good. We couldn’t understand it too well. They had the basics of the story printed in English in the program but was hard to follow most of the time. It was great to listen to the singing and to watch the actors.

Checkout this web site!!!
http://www.horacek.com.au

Babyn Yar is a place/statue to commemorate the Ukrainians that died at the concentration camp that was at this site. (One guide book claims the statue is at the wrong end of the park.) It was a very emotional place to visit. A true story about one incident here is that there was a Ukrainian Soccer team at this camp/ To break the boredom the team challenged to the Russian soccer team to a match. The Russians agreed but told the Ukrainians that if they beat the Russians they would be executed. The Ukrainians beat the Russians and the next day the Ukrainian team was executed.

On Saturday Patty and I tried to find the art exhibit but had no luck. We wandered around and then went to the art supply store. I got watercolors, brushes and paper. The store had lots of painting and drawing supplies. After I got home I called Barb and she and Isobel invited me to go out for pizza with them. We went back to Barb's afterwards and watched the movie "Attonement". It was nice to get to watch a movie. Sunday Isobel and I made an attempt to find the art exhibit. We were directed to an art museum but it wasn't the one with the exhibit we wanted. We did see lots of great art tho. We spent three hours there. We saw two Picasso sculptures and one Giacometti sculpture; one painting by Chagall. There was a large exhibit aobut the starvation imposed by Stalin. On the second floor they had rented spaces to antique art dealers (like an art fair back home) and there was lots and lots of incredible stuff!!! I bought two art books; one on antique postcards of women and the other on images of women in Ukrainian art. I am now comfortable enough about getting downtown that I would go on my own and I can go to this museum since we didn't see everything!

On Saturday I am going to an art exhibit of 5 rare works by Salvidaor Dali, Marc Chagall and one other artist who I've not heard of. I'm excited!
I procured 4 seeds of the "Bette Anne" plant from the librarian here. I'm excited to have gotten them! (Relatives know what this plant is.)
We have open house tonight for the parents so I will be here until 8 tonight. Last night I sept 13 hours! I feel much better today.