This weekend was another one for the books. And this all started with Andrea, Sara and I crashing with a PCV we had never met during a weekend in Donetsk a few months ago. The four of us had a fabulous time together and it was time for a repeat. Adam wanted to visit Lugansk, Sara was facilitating English Club today…and Andrea spent 20 hours traveling one way so that we could have a repeat weekend together.
Sara and Andrea wanted to make a sign to welcome Adam. Adam was lucky enough to be met at the train station by three girls and the sign was awesome…considering the Ginger (Adam is a red head) was spelled phonetically in Cyrillic. Comedy and a true sign of the weekend to come.
Soon after Adam’s train arrived we all headed to English Club. Sara was facilitating English Club today, and Adam and Andrea were ‘helping’.
And then the four of us headed to my flat to cook. I had invited some friends and PCV to dinner. We started with about ten people, but as PCV’s arrived to English Club the number quickly grew to 18 Ukrainian’s and PCV’s. WOW! And the four of us were suddenly trying to figure out how to fit and feed so many people in my one room apartment.
I made a quick grocery store stop to double the lasagna quantity and was home in record time. I thru all bags (Adam, Sara and Andrea were staying with me) in the tub. I repeated the move for all the winter coats hanging in my entry way. I quickly cleared the table and created a drink station, food serving area, and put the beginnings of appetizers out. And then I started to cook.
Finally, help arrived…and Andrea and Adam hardly left my side. Thank goodness!
For a bit we added Sara to the mix…Rule: only four people in the kitchen at a time (we did a horrible job at this, but we had a great time) And suddenly we were streamlining the process of putting together two lasagna’s.
Often, especially in Ukraine, there is nothing better than a Lasagna Night with friends. We had a fabulous time!
This was hilarious! I had no idea how to organize 18 people in my tiny apartment once the food was out, so I stood on the chest that I use for seating. Yuri could not resist getting a few pictures of me at my finest. My sisters will surely roll their eyes at this photo. Too funny!!!
And then there was the dessert. The dessert was Sara’s find and after a lengthy and very funny Facebook conversation it was decided that Amy just had to make this. So thanks to my sisters for the chocolate chips and brown sugar, and Dad and Beth for the brownie mix…we had an incredible dessert.
The bottom layer is chocolate chip cookie dough. Already incredible, right? The next layer is Oreo cookies. yes, I can get them here. They are a bit outside my budget, but they were worth it for the dessert.
The final layer was brownie mix. WOW!! It baked fairly well in my odd oven and tasted amazing!
I am pretty sure I have to make this at least one more time in the next 15 months.
We added ice cream! As Rachel and Kurt and many others can attest…it was AWESOME!
What would be a night of craziness and good food with PCV’s without a group photo? Good Times!
And then came the backrub chain. I have no idea what was going on here, but suddenly the backrub chain began and there was just no stopping it.
Peace Corps and Ukrainian love right here!! I love that this pic is almost half Ukrainians and half PCV’s.
We share so many things…drinks and hugs! Meriden and Keith….Paul and Wyoming
Yuri and Will giving Alexey a hard time…Rachel and Andrew showing off their beverages of choice.
Three of these peeps are headed home in May. And Sara is with my group. But Kyle, Caroline and Hailey will be leaving us soon.
Peace Corps love….YEH!!!
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