OMG all the snow is melting off the balcony. Today is 36 degrees!

Someone told me a story someone else told them recently. He was asking a guy in a bar about the upcoming elections and what he thought about the candidates. This guy looks around for a way to explain, and pulls out two cigarettes. "These are the candidates," he says. "They are two different cigarettes but they both give you cancer."

We went to the beach recently and it was the best beach I have ever seen. Ever. It was beautiful. As you can see pictures all around.

Georgian Restaurant Menu Delicacies:

1. A red string bean, a nut, greens, the Georgian Seasonings, an onions, garlic

2. Female Quail of Tobacco

3. Language under Mayonnaise

4. An eggplant, a walnut, the Georgian Seasonings

5. Bread the Basket!!!!!!!! (exclamation points not mine)


On another separate note a guy I met told us this story. Imagine it in a scottish accent. "So I went out the other night and ate dinner and then asked where the bathroom was. This guy takes me back through the kitchen into a back room the staff use. It's all piled high with potatoes and onions and is where they store all the food. And there's a hole in the middle of the floor. I'm like, oh god, don't show me that. I just ate here!"
In the photo below maybe you're looking at it wondering if those people out on the pier are going to jump in. They are. Two of them already did. Three of them further down the beach are just walking around with no shirt or pants on.

Hmm, can I include another random quote? "People in this country have no fucking concept of what a sandwhich is."

So I am this close [fingers slightly apart] from getting an apartment. Unfortunately not in the center. We looked at one really close to my friend's house but the guy answered the door in his bathrobe, and was also middle aged, which is widely considered the sketchiest age. So I could see a lot of awkwardness there. My friend was like, "Living there would be a very Russian experience, but I would be more comfortable if
you lived with a girl." I agreed, although it turns out I will probably be living with two brothers who are medical students. I didn't meet them but was assured they are stellar people.

I also looked at a really cute place that I could have to myself for not much more, but I feel it will be better if I don't live alone or I will never associate with anyone. This may force me to meet people. Or I may just hate it. It shouldn't be too bad though because I am taking a pretty huge room. So I look forward to getting that sorted out.

I went to a play with my friend Masha last night, and then went back to their house again and we watched Dazed and Confused and An Education. It's really probably better I'll be moving far away because otherwise I would spend my life at their house and they would get very very sick of me. Oh! Also did I mention John runs a literature club for people learning English and I went to the last meeting and got to meet a LIBRARIAN? It was at a small library that is run by the US consulate or something. I think once I get myself together today and can face a world outside of bed and writing on this blog I will go see her and ask what she does etc. Maybe I should go do that now. Okay I also went out a few days ago and our party went back to another friend's house were the cops came and had to be heavily bribed because we were making too much noise and I didn't have my passport on me. Until later.

I am obsessed with the song Made in the Dark by Hot Chip and Lost Someone sung by Cat Power.

Odesa again

Well here we are. I arrived and am now looking for an apartment. It was great flying in, I have never seen a landscape like this before. It was all white. Not mountains that have white on top and then valleys, all white and then squares of brown. I couldn't figure out for the longest time what the squares of brown were because it was all flat. Why were these areas warmer than other areas? And it wasn't where the houses were either, those were white squares on white. So no warming due to people's bodies/cars/houses. Why would they heat these random pieces of land? Finally I realized they were trees sticking up out of the snow. Which then makes you think about the way we leave forests, just lines, connecting up irregular polygons. But makes you a little afraid, seeing so much white.
Odesa is, besides being the place where all your biggest baby dreams come true, a sea port and flying in we passed what I think was the Dniester river which was all frozen over too, except right before emptying into the sea. Anyway to cut to the chase last night it was about -20 degrees fahrenheit. Today it was also cold but bundled up and walking in the sun it was not bad at all.
Anyway hopefully the housing issue will be taken care of soon and in the meantime I will try to keep busy writing, drawing, taking pictures etc. Tomorrow I will get to see a library, a secret I could not unlock last time because I was yelled out.
Updates as events occur,
signing out,
Me

This is probably the best picture I ever took.

At least of me and Jade in her apartment in New York. I just rediscovered it and felt compelled to share it with the world.

No me di cuenta de que habia pasado tanto tiempo sin escribir. Tal vez ahora no sea el mejor momento, como no estoy haciendo nada en especial y ademas tengo que levantarme manana para hacer caminata, sobre lo cual tengo muchas dudas porque no estoy nada en forma, pero aún así siento que debo escribir algo.
Ara en català. El meu tiet em va visitar amb el seu novio i ho vam pasar realment bé. Vam caminar per tot Barcelona, la primera vegada aquest viatje que vaig daixar-me pasejar sense destinació ni horari. A més a més vam descobrir un pastelería més bé. És tot pastes i dolços de l'India. El més bo és un cuadre fet de pastanaga i, es clar, la baklava. M'encanta aquest color verd clar dels pistachos. També van pasar amb mi i la meva famella el nou any. "Bon any! Bon any!" vam cridar tots i vam menjar el raïm i portar bigotis falsos i tocar trompetes petites i jugar i cantar. Ho vam pasar molt molt bé.
Sabeu un cosa que no entenc? Això de deixar bolsos de plàstic a la pica de la cuina. Per a mi no té sentit. En primer lloc no pertany, en segon has de saber que quedará asquerós. Però bé, seguïm.
En aquest moment em trobo en un lloc dificil. No sé que fer. Serà millor tornar als estats units, o a Ucraïna? Em semblen bé tots dues.
Ahora me estoy liando pensando en registrarme con delicious o otro servicio así. Como por fin uso el internet, y estoy intentando aprender idiomas tengo un montón de links para diccionarios, sericios de traducción, cosas así. Por find entiendo para que sirve un servicio así.
Bé, a dormir. Aquesta setmana prometo pujar unes fotos de les vacances. Fins després!

I just thought I would add this picture to make things a little more interesting. This was from the Best Buffet Ever that I went to with Jade and her friend Patrick (pictured above) in...what was that place called? In Pennsylvania. A trip which allowed me to check both that state and New Jersey off my list of visited places. And eat tons and tons of crepes from the surliest crepe chef ever, who probably stayed out way too late the night before, drunk, and was hung over and couldn't think of anything he would less like to do than make crepes for us. But he did it anyway. And the potatoes were good, there was even ravioli and cheese cake and bacon and...oh gosh, I don't even remember. It was the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory of breakfast\brunch buffets. And our hotel room had a lovely view of the river. And the terrorist's bike, which is now Jade's bike, continued to be unstolen from the back of her truck.