Spring In My Step

It is Spring! As I touch every piece of wood in sight, I can announce that most of the snow has gone.  It’s been a long time coming, but it seems that the seasons are changing...and that was definitely vitamin D I felt coming through my curtains this morning.  Ohhhh yes. The sweet smell of fresh warm air and the sunlight beaming off the yellow church outside my window has brought a new energy to April and I feel that the only way is up. (baby).

So I’ll begin by saying how different it is to walk around Perekop now.  Strangely enough, without the snow the place feels quite empty.  I popped out this afternoon for a walk and even though I could tell it was sunny, I still took my coat because I could see all the babushkas pretty much dressed up as bears from my window and also I don’t trust that sunlight means warmth here.  I took a dramatic step in my year abroad and put a pair of shoes on today though.  By the time I’d walked to the end of the street I was boiling and it was so muggy out.  I couldn’t believe it.  However, I don’t want too get to cocky yet by going out with just a jumper.  There were children playing outside and actually rollerblading on dry ground. Crazy times.

I have nothing exciting to write in this blog, because as per usual I’ve not done anything particularly out of the ordinary.  I’m just going to note down some moments which have made me laugh over the past week or so. 

As you may or may not know, I do have a pet hate here.  It’s one of our cats (sorry about the pun).  He’s called ‘Darcy’ and even as a cat lover, I hate him with a passion.  I’m pretty sure he’s brain damaged because he chases shadows all hours of the day, tries to throw himself out of windows and against doors, poos in the bath, takes packets out of the bin and eats soup. He's the most annoying animal ever. Lately, he’s been especially badly behaved, so Natasha has decided to punish him by shutting him in the bathroom.  The other day she was rummaging in her cupboard and pulled out a little pot with the words ‘Sound of Switzerland’ written on the side.  I realised that it’s one of those things that you tip upside down and it makes a cow noise.  So she chased the cat around with a mooing pot for about 10 minutes, which terrified him.  He’s no less annoying now though.  Darcy the cat pretty much hates everybody and will bite you if you try and stroke him.  He does, however, love our neighbour Ludmila and goes all angelic when she is around.  Ludmila is slightly insane sometimes though, and likes to prod Darcy and continue to prod him despite his protests.  Unfortunately, she’s asking to get hurt, and the other day he did indeed scratch her hand very slightly.  In response, Natasha dropped everything she was doing and ran into the kitchen, bringing back a bottle of iodine and she spread it liberally over Ludmila’s hand. 

Natasha has been on form the past week or so.  A few days ago, I came home from school and she said she’d made me some ‘Pelmeni’, my favourite meal.  She then asked, ‘would you like Champagne with that?” So I hesitantly agreed.  She then invited Ludmila up and poured us out a big glass each and announced that she had bought Champagne because she felt tired and her tooth hurt.  So we sat there having a drink and toasting to various things, such as ‘to girls’, ‘to students’, ‘to success’. We had a lovely conversation about peculiar things and it really just went on and on like that.

Irrelevant photograph of 'Mr Proper' bathroom cleaner.  Why not?

The following day, I found Natasha and Ludmila preparing to dye eachothers hair.  They’re both blonde birds, but this time Natasha has gone for ‘platinum blonde’ and Ludmila ‘Silver blonde’.  Natasha really does seem quite slapdash with it all, but was mixing the dye on a dinner plate and slapping it onto Ludmila’s head.  She then offered to do mine the same colour, which in hindsight I don’t think was actually a joke.  Then they swapped, and as Ludmila was painting dye onto the back of Natasha’s hair, Natasha took it upon herself to dye the front of her hair with a toothbrush.  All the while I sat there with my cup of tea spectating and loving the fact that this is all so normal.

Yesterday Charlotte and I were on the bus home from the town centre where we’d been working and cafe hopping.  We got some seats and then to our delight, the two greasiest men came and sat next to us.  We decided that they smelt like butter and chicken.  They looked like they’d actually got a big mac and wiped it around their mouths.  It was a bit of a stomach churning ride home.

Yes, this post has pretty much all been about Natasha and her antics, but I love her really.  My next one will probably be when I get back from St. Petersburg at the beginning of May, because I’m sure I will have lots of good stories to tell from that trip.  Until then, I’ll try and keep my tan under control.