Kharkiv!

Am currently in Kharkiv at an Internet cafe on the main square with a somewhat sticky keyboard. I think I'll wait to post my "extra" posts that I've been writing once I'm somewhere that seems less likely to be infected with viruses, as I don't want to end up with an infected flashdrive (and hence an infected laptop).

Today (don't worry, there will be posts for the previous days later), I went to the college in Balaklia to say hi to my friend Nataliya. Nataliya teaches Ukrainian, and if you can imagine a tall (but still plump), blonde, Orthodox, Ukrainian version of me, you'd pretty much have Nataliya. She was in a staff meeting when I got there, so I had to wait a bit, but the look of delighted surprise on her face when she saw me standing there was totally worth it. We caught up on work and church news (she's the only young person I know in Ukraine who's active in the Orthodox Church), and I appreciated that she didn't start the conversation with "So are you married yet?" as most people seem to. I told her this, and she informed me that she hadn't felt the need to ask since a) logically, I would have told her, and b) she didn't see a ring. She then bought me cookies and a bottle of cold water and put me on the eletrichka to Kharkiv.

Got to Kharkiv around 2:30, bought tickets for Melanie (who appears to still be on her merry way but is at least now in Ukraine) and I to get back to Kyiv on Sunday night, got a couple of souvenirs from the art market, looked in one of the clothing stores and decided I'm better off going to the second-hand store my friend Lena recommended, and am now here for Internet. Tonight I'm spending the night at Lena's mom's apartment and in the morning picking up Melanie. The Y kids were quite perturbed that I was leaving for a day, but hopefully bringing Melanie back with me will assuage them.

I really hate this keyboard, so this post is over now. :)