Pastimes

Two or three years ago if somebody asked me how I spend my free time I would answer that it is whole with my family. After our child birth I had not much time to spend as I wished. But I`m glad that today I have a possibility not only for cooking and walking with my child. I have different hobbies and I can do the things I am interested in. I can`t say that my hobbies are always the same. In different periods they were: needlework.

As my zodiac sign is Gemini, constancy is not my the most important feature. It also concerns to my hobbies. Over time my hobbies changed. Today I like to read interesting books. It can be different style of literature. Lately I found that I don`t really like some poems of ancient literature. It is not very interesting for me and I can`t remember terrible names of the heroes. I must read them because I want to pass the exam of foreign literature well.

Our whole family enjoys various sports activities. My husband can play probably every kind of sport. Almost every year he goes to Alushta with other civil servants to defend the honor of Rivnens`ka region. He competes in tennis (ping pong). My daughter is good in ping pong too. I like running and I`m sure that it is very useful for lungs.

Very often I enjoy spending my time with friends. Especially I like coffee drinking in the morning with my friend Lyena. It is really a great pleasure to have a good friend.

From time to time our family go to play bowling. It is one of the few games we like to play together. I enjoy it very much but … it is a little expensive and we cannot afford to play it, for example, every weekend. It happens about once a month or two.

Warm weather gives us the opportunity to go on nature and relax. We roast shish kebab there, play volleyball, badminton. I am lucky because I have friends that enjoy rest not only drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes. We enjoy our speaking and wherever we are we spend our time well and merrily.

For our family summer means mostly active leisure by the water. It is our favourite spare time activity in the summer. Every year for the past several years we go to the sea-side. And it is the beginning of my next hobby. It is travelling. We have already visited many beautiful places in Ukraine: Crimean mountains (Alushta, Partenit), the Carpathians (there are the most beautiful places I`ve ever seen), The White Lake. We visited many Ukrainians towns: L`viv, Lutsk, Zaporizhya, Berdansk, Yevpatoria, Alushta, Uzhgorod, Mukachevo and other.

Generally, in our town there are many places for pastimes. It depends on your preferences. 

For general development you can visit: Ostroh Castle, Troitsk monastery (Korec), Dubno Castle.

Holidays and Food

The culture of Ukraine is unique and diverse, but over the years it has been influenced by its eastern and western neighbours.

Despite this there are many just Ukrainian dishes.

Best-known Ukrainian dishes:

• Salo (salted pork fat with, or without garlic and pepper)
• Borshch (cabbage and beets based soup, usually with pork or beef meat, served with sour-cream)
• Pampushky (small baked breads, often buttered and topped with garlic and dill)
• Holubtsi (cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and minced meat)
• Varenyky (large stuffed dumplings, can be stuffed with potatoes, cottage cheese, curds, meat, berries, etc.)
• Nalysnyky (very thin pancakes)
• Syrnyky (fried cheese pancakes, usually served with sour cream, honey, or jam)
• Holodets' (meat (beef, or pork) aspic, prepared with garlic, onion, bay leaf and black pepper)

We have many holidays in Ukraine on which our cooking skills open. These are Christmas, Easter, New Year, Candlemas and many, many others. We celebrate birthdays of our children or parents cooking many dishes too. The most interesting for me is Christmas. Maybe it is because of combination rich Ukrainian table, dearest people gather around, and not less rich Ukrainian traditions of celebration this holiday.

Christmas in Ukraine is celebrated on January 7 according to the Gregorian calendar.

We always go to the country-side to visit my parents at Christmas. We prepare for the Holy Supper (or Sviata Vecheria). There must be 12 spreading food. The dishes must contain no meat or dairy products.

All are called to the table when the first star appears in the eastern evening sky. First of all everyone have to eat the main dish Kutia – the ritual food which is prepared from cooked wheat and special syrup containing diluted honey, grated poppy seeds, raisins and sometimes walnuts.

At the end of the Sviata Vechera we usually sing Ukrainian Christmas carols. It is always merrily, especially if you have children. My daughter likes to learn and sing different carols (a little incentive for this are presents and she knows that she`ll get them from grandparents and godparents). She and her friends gather together and go from house to house singing carols.

We have many guests on January 7 and everything is good. But we must remember that this holiday is not for eating tasty food but for glorification of Christ's birth.

My family album

I think that family is the most important thing for every person. We can always feel love and support in our families.

My immediate family is not big. Me, my husband and our daughter Ann. We live in a two-room flat in Rivne with my husband`s parents (Jevgeniya Vasylivna and Anatoliy Romanovych). My mother-in-law is fifty-five and my father-in-law is nearly fifty-seven. They are good people and they always try to help us. My parents (Valentyna Vasylivna and Jaroslaw Ivanovych) live in a village in Rivnens`ka region. My mum is fifty-two, she works in tax inspection. My dad is fifty-four, he is a driver. My parents both like their work very much. Unfortunately we visit my parents not very often. It can be even once a month. This is not enough, I think.

I have a younger sister Olya. We love each other very much and there is no day that we don`t speak over the phone. She is twenty-five and she is married. Her husband Juriy is a businessman. Their daughter Varvara is my god-daughter and she is a cousin of my daughter Ann. Althougt trey have large age different they like play together.

My husband Vitaliy is thirty-one. He is a civil servant. He enjoys sports. Sometimes, I think, that there is no such kind of sport he doesn`t like. Our TV set is always turned on the sports channel.

Our daughter Ann is almost eight. She studies at the second grade. She does well at school. Especially she likes creative lessons. She is very kind person and she is fond of animals. Moreover she plays ping pong and it goes well.

As for me, in this period I don`t work. This year I entered the Rivne Pedagogical University because I want to be an English teacher.

Except my immediate family I have many cousins, aunts, uncles and other relatives. They were doubled when I got married because my husband has a large family too. For example, my father-in-law has four brothers and sisters, and one of them has fourteen!!! children.

My grandparents died many years ago but my husband`s grandmother is still alive. She lives in a small village not far from my parent`s village. We try to visit her when we have such possibility. She is always very glad to see us especially her great-granddaughter.

Everyone in our family is rather busy, but we always look forward to a possibility to spend some time together. In the evenings we watch TV, read books, listen to music or just talk about the events of the day.