Went to L'viv with host family today, them in search of lower food prices, me in search of an atm without surcharges. No success. Andre drove my family's 1991 Lada. They bought it new, just as the currency was being devalued. Despite the cardboard in the grill, the heater would not put out anything. You would think a soviet car would have a working heater given the lattitude at which it was designed. Maybe the heater core needs to be bled, or maybe the thermostat has been taken out. The wind coming in through the door handle did not help my circulation problems. It always amazes me when I compare my 1991 Accord (I miss driving!) to their 1991 Lada. I don't know where to start. The Honda was quite, fast, efficient, warm, a/c, cruise control, fuel injection, power everything, an amazing machine. The Lada tops out around 70mph, carbreated, have to play with the choke whenever throttle position changes (or maybe it's a mixture control?), like I said earlier, it feels like a 1970's Volkswagen.
I want to bring Liam and my dad a few cars that they have over here. Most notable are the deisels of every variety. Audi, Volkswagen (awesome variety of vans), Mercedes (again, hook me up with a mercedes deisel mini-van), BMW, Opel, Skoda, and a bunch of other companies I can't remember because I don't know the language well enough for their commercials to be effective. There are some models of known companies that I'm convinced would do wonderful in the US, but then maybe my dad and Liam have influenced my views on what's cool. Then there are trucks which run on both benzene and propane, simply flipping a switch based on which is cheaper at the time. I'll try to describe the smell of benzene exhaust later.
Andre just brought me a plate of steaming hot toast with potato ladka and garlic mayonnaise on top. They're really trying hard to fatten me up a bit. Everything I eat has oil or grease of some sort. I will not make a scene or lecture them on the food pyramid because I only have 19 more days until I get my own apartment, where I may do a few days on just fruit and vegetables, need to clear my arteries. And then a few days after that I'll probably miss somebody cooking for me, even if it is full of lard, grease, butter, sour cream, mayonnaise, sunflower oil, or canola oil. Well off to my violin. One of my four full body warmth activities. Sleeping, running, soccer and violin.
I'm reaching the point where Ukrainian is getting pretty frustrating, trying to build vocabulary beyond what I want and action verbs into ideas and concepts is difficult because I can't repeat the words as much as I need to remember them. Also trying to speak grammatically correctly is difficult, because even if I correct myself, then I've said it once wrong, and once correctly, and have exactly a 50/50 chance of saying it correctly the next time. I can't even speak correctly in English. I've also realized that a highly developed language means one that does not easily fit within grammatical structures and rules. In other words, exceptions, just like English. For every rule, there are a handful of exceptions which come and bite just as my confidence starts to go up.
