"You can't smell it in a picture."

All right, first off a clarification from yesterday. It's the Turks, not the Ukrainians, who are obsessed with all things Native American. So we're still looking for a reason to explain the abundance of buffalo at the Kiev Zoo. I'll keep you posted if we find anything out.

As we pass the midpoint of our trip, Ellie and Leah took a day to lounge around the apartment and catch up on rest. They made playdough spaghetti, had lunch in a tent, and straightened all our shoes. We should have known Leah had a secret cleaning agenda. Ellie has developed a preoccupation with dusting and sweeping since we got here. This baby boy cannot get here soon enough -- I am need of a comrade.

I went with my parents out to Irpin, a suburb of Kiev, for a thank-you party to the staff of the seminary, of which my mom is a part. It was fun for me on many counts -- I got to get out of the city, I got to spend some time playing with our new camera, I saw a sign on a house that warned of an "evil dog" inside. But most of all, I got to eat some shashlik. Basically, meat on a stick. Meat, of course, is good. And a stick, well, that just makes everything better. You can see the shashlik above, but as the Ukrainian cooking it mentioned to me, you can't smell it in a picture. Bummer. Because it smelled rockin'.

We are back on the Kiev circuit tomorrow, maybe with a trip to the circus. The sign advertising the circus says "Circus on Water," and shows a clown who appears less-than-enthusiastic with the idea. Undoubtedly, this will be interesting!