Try to Remember

It's Tuesday morning and I am trying to remember back to Sunday because I left off this narrative on Saturday night/wee hours Sunday morning.
Florin and I met for breakfast at 9 on Sunday.  It was not a buffet but was a fixed menu.  We sat down and the waitress brought us fried eggs, pancakes with rasberry jam, fish with seaweed, coffee and several other things.  It was quite a big breakfast.  We went to our respective rooms to work on our presentation which would be at 1:30, stopping only for a brief salad for lunch (grated carrots and apples and walnuts for me and borsch and cake for Florin).  The meeting started late, of course, since most participants had been out partying until 5a.m.  Oleg, the director of the host organization, gave the opening talk on what we would talk about and then Florin and I talked about MCC, the bible, ways of looking at it and interpreting it, with some focus on the texts used to attack lgbt people.  There was quite a bit of questioning and discussion.   We took a tea/coffee break for 15 minutes and I was invited to sit with a group from a central Ukrainian city to answer their questions.
When we came back together, we watched the movie Prayers for Bobby dubbed into Russian.  If you haven't seen this movie, please do.  It is about a young gay kid from a very religious family (especially the mother played by Sigourney Weaver) who ends up committing suicide.  That was the beginning of a transformative journey for Bobby's mother.  MCC plays a significant role in the movie.  It was very emotional and there were a lot of tears.

After the movie we adjourned to the pool area where we had a ceremony of closing.  We lit candles, heard speeches (including from Florin and me), released balloons and then ate and drank together.  It was a wonderful closing to a fruitful weekend.  All day Sunday we had no internet access at the hotel so I wasn't able to catch up on email or blogging.  I slept early and hard!  I still had no definite transportation back to Kiev.
On Monday morning, there still wasn't internet service.  We had breakfast at 8:30.  I'm getting used to fish for breakfast and kind of like it now, as long as I have my cappuccino!  When I returned to my room, we had internet service and I just answered a few brief emails.   Our driver came at 9:50 and we began the two hour journey to Odessa where Florin would go to the airport and I to the bus station.  We got to the bus station right around noon and there was a 12:30 deluxe bus to Kiev.  I took it and enjoyed the 7 hour journey.  The amount of agriculture in Ukraine is staggering.  The soil is very fertile.   There were hundreds of acres of rapeseed, which was in full blossom creating panoramas of brilliant golden.  Rapeseed is the source of canola oil.  Apparently a Canadian agricultural corporation works with farmers here to plant and harvest and press it.  I haven't verified this but a man on the bus told me that rapeseed depletes the soil so that it is not productive for two years after harvest.  I don't know if that's true.  I hope it isn't.
I arrived in Kiev at 19:30 and walked to the metro.  The first metro line allowed me to sit because it wasn't crowded.  The second metro line was jammed with people going home from work. I stood for nine long stops.  When I go to my station, Kharkivska, I still had a long walk to the aparment.  I was definitely feeling my age.  I stopped at McDonald's for a cappuccino and texted Rostek that I was on my way but would be slow.  My backpack and bag were feeling heavy.  It took about half an hour to walk home and I really took my time.  Rostek had supper ready, chicken in a sour cream sauce with bowtie pasta and mashed potatoes - very good, very flavorful.  I had a glass of Chardonnay and crashed.
Today in IDAHO (International Day against Homophobia (and Transphobia)).  There is a demonstration tonight in a downtown park at 7.  I will attend.  I called my language teacher and she is too busy to meet today.  That's good.  It'll give me a chance to catch up on homework.  We'll meet tomorrow.  So now I'm caught up.  When I went to take pictures on Sunday, I found that the chinese batteries I had bought for my camera had died after two days.  Sorry.  I'll try to do better.  I have a fairly light schedule this week and on Saturday will fly to Donetsk and on to Mariupol.  More later.