Football, corn silage and car rides

Sunday morning Maxim showed up with the Lada when it was time to leave for church, they loaded up the milk (forget to pick up the milk products for Victor's church) and Max drove to Dnepro somewhat slowly-- something about taking it easy on the new motor (at least it has new parts in it.) Garry and Max were concerned about the car temperature (not inside but the cooling system) as it was running hot.

Maxim had another dentist appointment so he dropped us off at Morningstar with the milk, took milk to Victor's church and went to his appointment. He told us later he kept falling asleep in the dentist's chair, because he had stayed up all night helping the mechanic put the car's transmission and motor back together. We made arrangements to spend the day with some of the other Summer Institute teachers after church.

Ukrainian Eagles fan???

First we took a bus down Kirova (street) then walked to the mall---Appollo Centre---for lunch. Then the female members of the group with the exception of me, headed home for the afternoon, while the guys and I went to the free entrance American football game at the nearby Meteor field. It was a little like watching high school football, and we cheered on the home team the Dnepro Rockets ---the crowd would chant Rock- ket-ti! Rock- ket- ti!

They were playing the Odessa Pirates for the championship and won in spite of going down 8-0 about 28-8 even with and injured quarterback that hobbled and threw off one leg after getting injured in the first half. They were way better in the second half, must have been a really good speech or strategy in the locker room.

Victor's son Daniel Dantsev came with us, and went to buy us some cold bottles of water and soda during the game when we were getting overheated, jusr before halftime. The trophy/medal presentation was cool- they played the theme from the TV show Dallas while they handed out the trophies once they got them back from the drunk guy who ran out, grabbed them off the table and had his buddy take his photo. We even found a guy in the crowd wearing an Eagles jersey, and here I thought Garry had the only one in Ukraine.

We walked back toward the mall and caught a number 11 tram to get to the bottom of Rabotcha (work street) and hung out at Clay's air-conditioned apartment until it was time to go over to our second game of the day---Ukrainian football (or soccer)



It was the home opener for Dnepro and we had blast-- a couple of the girls rejoined us for the game, and the home team won 3-1, in spite of being a man down for most of the game (on an unjust call when they showed the replay.) Buying water and cokes cost as much as tickets for the game---10 grivna (about $1.25 US) Most of the guys bought scarves, which did cost more.

some teachers and students too

Maxim came with the car, with some hoses reversed back the way they belonged, which seemed to solve the overheating issue, every one heading to Robotcha crowded in (we had 4 in the back seat of the Lada for ten minutes, a little squished) Then Garry drove out of the city after a stop at the Mc Donalds drive-thru, and Max nodded off after finishing his cheeseburger and fries. It was 11 pm when we got back to the house.



The next thing I knew Garry was saying was 6:30 am and I had to hurry and get dressed to drive in for English classes. Everything went fine, although it did worry me on the way back when the coolant gauge went just under the red., so I ran the heat and cooked myself all the way back to the village, where I was glad we have air conditioning to cool down now!

Maxim dumping a load of silage, the payloader is packing the pile.

Meanwhile Garry spent the day chopping corn, no mechanical problems, just there isn't much there to chop into silage! He says it will be done in three days or less, he plans to plant these fields in winter wheat, hopefully we get the fall rains this year to get them growing.
 It has been more than a year since we had a good rain. There were a few drops just as I pulled in the driveway, and now at 10 pm it is raining so you can hear it against the windows, hope it continues all night and it is too wet to chop corn in the morning, maybe the hay will grow back...