Saturday, August 5th.
This morning we went shopping like we usually do. We were out early as it was supposed to be in the high 90s. When we were going to the store it was not too bad but coming home I could really feel the humidity climbing.
Elder Morgenegg took an exercise walk and was gone a while and so I while he was gone I wanted to get our budget and finances caught up so that took some time but all is well and all balances so that is always a good thing. I guess I take it a little too far as I balance the checkbook and then I created a spreadsheet to track our cash as well as our other expenses while we are here. I think we spend more cash here than we did at home.
Then we did laundry and our usual Saturday cleaning.
Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention.
I wanted to make muffins. We had these delicious blueberries and I was so hungry for Andrea’s blueberry muffins but no muffin time available. One day I found muffin papers at the grocery and I bought them. Yesterday I was thinking, why not create something that would hold the muffin papers to create my own muffins. I took a Ukrainian version of a 9×13 pan and used used foil to divide it into three sections lengthwise. Then I put in the papers and they sort of fit. Then I made the muffin batter and topping. I carefully put the muffin batter in the muffin papers and added the topping. They are not exactly round but they cooked all the way through (in a longer time – between the oven and the situation it took longer). We will eat them latter. I am excited to try them.
Blueberry muffin invention
Not so perfect mufins
Do not send me a muffin pan. I don’t know where they have them here but if they have muffin papers there must be muffin pans somewhere as well. We will see if I ever see one.
I also made cookies. I had remembered cookies I have made from time to time – kind of like a sugar cookie but not so sweet. You cut out circles and on one circle you put a raison filling and then another circle on top. Crimp it and delicious filled cookies. I had not uploaded or saved my recipe so went looking for something similar. The filling only went for 13 of the 20 cookies so I used blueberry jam in the rest. The look delicious. I hope they are. They are bigger than I would choose so next time I will have to find a smaller cutter. I just used a round container from something we had bought.
After I cleaned up I suggested we take a walk. It was seven thirty and I thought maybe a little cooler. It probably was but it was still hot. I suggested we walk up to the park that is not far from our apartment where the missionaries had their bubble activity. Elder Morgenegg had been there earlier in the day and I had wanted to see what was called the “Palace of Students.” The reviews on line were mixed. Some said it was a must see, a few said it was a typical Soviet structure – beautiful in its day and now run down and falling apart. It was both. I was surprised how huge it is though the pictures on line do not do it justice in that way.
This is the entrance gate from inside. The entrance is actually on the street across from the park where the large church we went to a few weeks ago. It is also very near to the upper end renok we have been to. And it is around the corner form where our mission president and his wife live.
Our first view of the palace through the trees.
Here is the front of the palace. I think it is quite impressive.
The words basically say National University. It is another university – there are many here in Dnipr.
Across from the entrance is this garden with an interesting sculpture – no idea what it means.
Close up of the sculpture
A view of the entrance from farther away.
Going towards the back you can see somewhat how big this building is.
A view of the side shows the crumbling exterior
This may be an entrance or just the back. It reminds me of a scene in The Count of Monte Cristo with all the stairs. There is a group of people evidently a dance class of some kind. We watched for a moment before going on.
This is a view going down the hill from the back of the palace.
This is a picture of the lion statue in the back of the palace. I took a picture of Elder Morgenegg by it but it is too dark to see. So you need to imagine it.
As we walked down the hill we noticed that the ferris wheel on the island was all lit up.
We also saw three girls with an interesting looking item. We were not at all sure what they were doing. Two girls were holding a perhaps fabric item that looked almost like a heart. The third girl lit a fire under the fabric and it sort of expanded. I think it was a kind of hot air balloon. The third girl then took pictures of it. Interesting. Perhaps they were students and this was a project of some kind.
In reading about the university later I learned it is a preforming arts university that has lots of activities. The pictures on line are varied and interesting. I don’t know if we would ever go there or even if we could.
As we walked home the sun was almost down and there was lots of activity as always across the road at on the river walkway.
We came home and turned the air conditioning back on to cool off. Thank goodness for air conditioning. I feel bad for those who don’t have any at all. It is just plain hot here and the humidity (although not as bad as New York) makes it hard to handle.
All is well and we still have lots to see and do.