Make yourself at home.

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We got to Lugansk at 5 in the morning and tried to sleep in Ana's room at her university, but the watchman at reception wouldn't let me in. Instead we walked to her auntie's house ten minutes away while we waited for our minibus. I was in a bad mood after so long stuck in the train, and carrying my heavy bags over pot-holes didn't make it any better. Lugansk at dawn had an empty, eerie feel to it.

Auntie Lena chatted to me for a bit and offered to make me a cup of coffee, but by the time she brought it to me I had fallen asleep in her armchair. When I woke up she was putting a blanket over me. Half an hour later I thought a kiss on the cheek was a nice way for Ana to wake me up, until I opened my eyes and found a cat on my shoulder!

The minibus arrived at 8 and took us two hours to Pervomaisk, and from there it was another half an hour to Popasnaya, where Ana lives. By the time the taxi took us to ulitsa Stepnaya it was more than a day since we had left Kiev.

Her house is a country farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Very different to the town flats I have been used to staying in and perfect for 'getting away from it all'. There is a kitchen with a tiled floor, a bathroom (where the hot tap runs cold and the cold tap runs hot), a living room with a huge decorated Christmas tree and a sofa that folds out into a double bed for me, and an upstairs with three bedrooms. She lives with her parents, Nadezhda and Aleksandr Kovalchuk, her older brother Andrei and both her grandmothers, and Rex the German Shephard dog. As soon as we arrived her mum made us lunch. fish soup and white bread with Ana's favourite chocolates.

We watched 'Notting Hill' in the living room in the afternoon. She is going to work in a holiday camp in America next summer so it is as important for her to listen to English as it is for me to hear Russian. Then we had tea with her babushki. It was good to see that they are the head of the family, as opposed to Yaroslavl where generations don't communicate with each other so easily. One babushka doesn't say very much, the other talks a lot in a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian. I don't think she knows herself that she is mixing the two languages because everyone usually understands her.

In the evening we went for a walk around Popasnaya. Afterwards I tried to keep up as her father spoke about politics, then her mum made me another meal. It is very hard to understand their accents but they are patient with me. Ana's mum talks faster than anyone I have ever met, and rushes around the kitchen finding new things for me to eat and drink while we are talking. I have lost weight lately but I think I am about to put it all back on again! Her cooking is fantastic so it will be worth it.

Ana and I chatted in her room until late, then I went to bed.

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Comments

[Nikolaya]

it's interting project !!
i'll like it. I living in Popasnaya. When You back here? How about meeting?