Lazy

I went to sleep last night around 7:30am. I woke up at 12:30. So that, coupled with the 8 hours I got on the train, put me at 13 hours of sleep leading into today. A good start.

My bed has errant springs. It's a shame, because I feel them pressing into me when I'm lying down. Didn't bother me too much in terms of sleep, but it's a little uncomfortable. Good thing there's a lounge chair in our room, too.

It was a very lazy day. I spent the afternoon conversing with Amelia, a Californian who's spent the past 5 months teaching English here, Nina, an Austrian who has been here for, well, a long time, and Chadwick, aka Joel, an Aussie from Sydney who came here for Christmas and never left.

Around 5:30 we went to Мегамаркет, where one of our hostel owners got tons of food to make for a family dinner tonight. Jonas and I bought the alcohol, 12 beers and a liter of vodka, plus a loaf of bread and a few cheeses, for only 180 Hryvnia, or $22.5. It's still cheap here, though not by Belorussian standards. 

That was the only time I left the hostel today. We had traditional borshch for dinner, home made by our Polish hostel owners. It was delicious - I'd probably never order it at a restaurant but I was more than happy to indulge myself in the cuisine. We also had bread with a spread on it, apparently made from cured pork fat. Quite good.

Speaking of fat, the Ukrainian people have a unique way to chase their vodka shots. Strips of raw fat, taken from pork meat, dipped in mustard. Yea, we chased vodka with mustard coated fat. Brilliant.

I had a few too many shots tonight, but chose not to go to the bar when Jonas, Nina, Amelia and Nick (an American from Seattle who showed up to stay here during dinner) headed out. I've finally gotten over my perpetual stuffy nose, and one more day of recovery was necessary.

I relaxed for a while, made some phone calls. When everyone came back around 2, I went out to see them.

It's almost 4, and I'm going to bed...