you don't know how lucky you are, boys

My guidebook said to avoid mushrooms because of the high chance of
radioactive contamination...and both of the meals I had today were
chock full of them. And let me be the first to tell you that
possibly-contaminated mushrooms are even tastier than their safer
counterparts!

The first full day of our ukrainian odyssey was very relaxing. We had
breakfast, went to vova's apartment for tea, and then spent a couple
of hours wandering through Alexandria Park with Vova, his son, and his
parents. After our rambles, we came back here for lunch (or rather
dinner since the service was so slow), then went back into Bila
Tserkva for groceries, then came back to our house and successfully
kept ourselves awake until a reasonable bedtime.

Now, a few quick observations:

1. Living here now would be a breeze compared to thirteen years
ago...while my father used to buy meat in an open-air market and
judged its quality by looking at the teeth of the dead animal, today
we went to a bona fide supermarket with a nicer meat and fish counter
and more delicious bread than you can get in most places in the
States.

2. Restaurants also seem better...in twenty-four hours, I haven't been
served anything that tested my gag reflex. As a matter of fact, I've
actually enjoyed everything I've eaten.

3. We have yet to be forced to drink any vodka...Vova said that since
things are better now, people don't need vodka as much. We'll see if
that holds up when we hang out with people who haven't made a fortune
since the fall of the USSR.

Okay, I'm tired of typing on this tiny keyboard, so I'm going to go to
bed. Say hello to America for me!