For some odd reason I have the old dating show theme song running through my head right now, which doesn’t make any sense, since I’m thinking about cooking. But there just aren’t any good cooking show theme songs I can think about right now.

What I have come to realize in this country is that a man who isn’t completely incompetent in the kitchen in this country is something of an oddity. This started a couple of days ago when there was no one home and I need to make myself something to eat. Not exactly something in my mind all that difficult. However, my host family was rather worried and one of my host sisters made sure to peel potatoes before she left for the day. She actually peeled a lot, I don’t know why, must have thought I would be real hungry for lunch. So I came home that day with the full understanding I would need to cook, used about one and a half potatoes, grilled them on the stove and added onions, tomatoes, eggs, meat and cheese for a nice little meal. Something I would do with some frequency when I was living back in the States. My good friend Rodney once said it was one of my better dishes. So I did that, ate, washed the dishes and cleaned up, no big deal.

So later that night I came home and hear the same host sister tell my host mother it looks as if I didn’t eat anything at all. I pipe up and say, no I did eat just fine, I don’t think they fully believed me. I explained what I ate, and they were impressed. Then I proceed to hear from several other people they are impressed I can cook for myself. It happened again today. I haven’t entirely figured it out, but almost as soon as I got into this country I have had people worry about whether I will be able to feed myself. Sheesh, I have lived on my own and am here to speak about it. My only complaint at this point is that since I’m not in my own kitchen it takes a little longer for me to find things I want. Other than that, I am actually looking forward to when I can buy my own food and prepare it. Sure it may get old after a while and I will miss the good food my family prepares here, but I may not be going far. As for that story…

So it has been one long drama of trying to find a place to live since even before I arrived. There were two volunteers at my site before and there was some talk of me taking that place once I moved out on my own. The only sticking point was the price, which was high, but no other places had been coming up, until today. One of the ladies my host mother works with had asked me yesterday for how the word “management” translates into Ukrainian. So when she stopped by today, that was what I expected her to ask me, but she also dropped the bomb she had an extra apartment, she is living with it along with her family right now but is moving into a larger one shortly. Somewhere along the line a question just wasn’t asked and I guess she just found out yesterday I am looking. So I got a chance to look at it today and for my standards it was just fine and she talked with my Regional Manager and things seem to look positive. So yeah!

Small matter of making sure there will be a refrigerator when I get there, but that is a pretty minor matter, in my opinion. It was said it could be taken care of. Well this, is quite enough to read for a while, I need to work on a speech for Independence Day and think about bed.