One at a time please.

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I slept very well, but was shooed out of the living room at 11 because the family were expecting Mr. Kovalchuk's friend and his and family for lunch. When they met me they didn't know I wasn't Ukrainian, so my accent brought about a bit of surprise. A foreigner, in Luganskaya oblast'?

We sat down to another meal in the sitting room, leftovers from last night's party and some new dishes that Mrs. Kovalchuk had been up since very early preparing. At one point I had glasses of Yalta wine, cognac and fizzy orange lined up beside me. There was another variety show on television, this time a comedy set with a very funny man dressed up as a babushka. The parts that I understood were parodies of the way elderly ladies behave; it is a way of life that still exists, but is set apart from younger generations. The presenters and audience were the country's most famous pop stars and celebrities, who I know from my New Year's present from Ana, a 'Ukrainian top-20' CD. It gives me an idea of what to specialise in when I graduate!

The family must have felt quite left out, having invited relatives over for a New Year's catch up only to see all the questions directed towards me. Having reassured Lyudmila Ivanovna that Ukrainian women are more beautiful than English ones, and posed for a photo with their son, I sat and drank cognac with Genadii Viktorovich. So many questions about cars and wages and drinking habits were complicated to answer but it was a very friendly couple of hours. They asked me about the average English home and I replied that it was very like this one; warm, comfortable, with an old fashioned kitchen and a wooden staircase. I also said that British houses are smaller, which they almost didn't believe. Myself and Ana left them to go upstairs, while they were arguing over who I would stay with when I come to visit them next winter!

We watched an American film in the evening, in English but with Russian voice-overs, and conveniently my sofa almost instantly became my bed.

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Photos

Popasnaya.
Ana's road.