August 2010

New things are upon us: we returned to the U.S. for the first time in a year, I started a master’s program, we visited Prague and Slovakia for the first time, and the new school year is fast approaching.

I know, I know… I have not made a post in months. I am terrible at keeping up on this and all communication in general. I understand if no one reads this. But I am going to make an honest attempt to start this thing back up and keep it up to date. My current plans are get a post up every two weeks. We shall see if this works out. Right now, I want to share pictures from the summer…

One of the first stops we made while home was Comerica Park to see the Tigers play.

After that we spent a week with Cassie's mom, her sister, her sister-in-law, and nephew. I am not a good influence on children...
Shortly after that we went down to see my Grandparents, Aunt Jan and her family. On the way we had a "Jumbo Slice" at a local Chicago pizza place (the dollar is there to give some idea of size).

We then went to visit my Uncle Bill and Aunt Sue in Pentwater. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera that day...

Overall it was a great trip to the States. Three weeks sped by insanely fast! Next year we are thinking about doing four weeks back in the States before we go back home.

When we finaly got back to Ukraine, it was way too hot. This summer was a crazy one for temperature. The daily highs here were in the 100s, that is closer to AZ weather than anything that most people have ever experienced here. Fortunately we were only here a week before we traveled to the Czech Republic and Slovakia (we like to visit all the old Soviet republics as they were during the good old days...).
Prague was great, but was full of tourists. The last thing anyone wants to do while touring is deal with tourists...
The best way to get over the mass of tourists is to drink some of the local beer. Eastern Europe is great for many things, but the fact that 1 liter of beer costs less than a dollar makes it completely awesome... Oh yeah... Cassie drinks beer now!
No matter where you go, somethings always remain the same...



After Prague we rented a car and drove to the Low Tatras in Slovakia.
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that I now roll large. That's a Beemer parked outside our cottage in the mountains...

The main thrust of our time in Slovakia was hiking and just having a relaxing time before we traveled back home. Here are some random pictures of the mountains...






The trip was great. I hiked my butt off (seriously, my calves now have clefts in them). It was a resounding success.

Up next, we have the chaos of a new school year. I got into my room this week only to discover that last year's teacher lost her keys and no new keys had been made. So I was issued a master key by Sasha (our school's Godfather) and told that if I lost it he would kill me and put my head on a pike on the roof of the school. I am not sure if he was joking or not.

Cassie on the other hand does not have a room. The school was supposed to have a new wing put on it over the summer. Cassie was supposed to have one of the new rooms that was to be added. It has not been finished yet. There is a 50/50 chance it will not be ready by the time school starts. Needless to say, Cassie is stressed...

As I said earlier, I am going to do my best to update this thing at least twice a month. I understand if you do not believe me and I already see a problem with this plan, as I will be away at middle school camp in two weeks. Arggh!