Rocket Street

Racketnaya vulitsia intersects Melytopols'ka right where marshrutka 59 stops to go to the center of town. Conveniently, it also goes right by the 

University where I begin Crimean Tatar language tomorrow.

                                         This is the house where I am living......

Picturesque, right? That veranda on the second floor connects to my room. I imagine practicing the banjo on it when it gets warmer. 

The neighbors are building something next door, but no one seems to know what it is.

 Behold:

It's been stalled at this stage for months, apparently. Ran out of money, they speculate.

I went running this morning, and many people on the street commented on this fact to me: You are running! Why, devotchka? What's the hurry? etc.

Was it my Canadian hoodie?No, I think it's that there's no culture of jogging, or really recreational exercise here, unless you're an Olympic athlete or a school-age child. This is what my host brother believes. He says that most Ukrainians and Russians just want to drink and to smoke and be lazy. He goes to the "power gym" though, so he's an exception. My host brother also believes that arugula is expensive grass, so take his opinions with some salt. mmmmm, arugula and salt.

As I started my run, it was like knocking over a string of dominoes, except instead of dominoes, it was howling dogs. One by one, down the block. 

There are many howling dogs around and also many cats. The dogs belong to families, many of the outside cats seem to be communal. This cat seemed especially suspicious of me:

 

Below is the family dog, Rolf. Those tires are in the concrete front yard, I'm not sure why.           

(There's another dog, but he is small and yappy and presently undeserving of a photograph for his bad behavior. Hear that, Mot'?)

This afternoon I was invited to attend an English club meeting for 13 and 14 year old Ukrainian girls. They seemed more interested in the older teenaged boys (my host brother and his pal) who accompanied me to the club than in the visiting Amerikanochka, but it was fun anyway. We watched "Just Like Heaven" I think it's called, with Reese Witherspoon and some guy. It was all about the kiss of life. Or maybe it was about the kiss of true love, which is basically like mouth-to-mouth. But everyone was pretty grossed out by that scene when it came around, so we didn't really discuss it.

Here is the soup I will probably eat for dinner: 

Hi, Mamo! Tomorrow, I write about Crimean Tatars!