my name is larry

haven't been here in a while. been super busy. yeah. that's my story.

finished up school. yay. that's all i'm going to say about that. too many eyes that like to read.

finished up the third draft of my novel. sent it out for comments. hoping to market it when i get home. even if it's not very good. at least i'll have the experience.

what's it about you ask? my good friend told me to say, "it's about the human condition." so there you are. it's about the human condition.

here in kyiv. just finished working with the FLEX kids who are about to go to america to study in american high schools for a year. we worked for four straight days in a sanitorium (you non-ukrs don't actually get that concept...jokes on me) south of kyiv. we taught all day and held activities for the kids at night. i taught ukrainian kids how to play washers! i also played concerts at night for the group of 60. i wrote a song for them and they freakin' loved it. i can't even tell you how much they screamed and clapped. it felt so amazing.

working for FLEX was the most amazing thing i've done in ukraine. working with those AMAZING kids has rejuvenated me. ukraine tends to drag you down cuz you end up dealing with 90 percent of people you don't ever want to deal with and 10 percent (those are not exageratted numbers) during your day. but these kids man...they're something special. it makes me all teary and warm and disney channel movie-ish.a girl came up after my little concert last night--and before my bedtime song i wrote--to sing us a song. it was the most beautiful song i've ever heard in my life. she played guitar and sang her heart out. it really brought tears on in me--and a lot of the people. the applause was incredible. i followed up with my song and the room was just vibrating with energy.

i loved it.

and the best part?

i get another four days with a nother group of kids in two days.thank you god for sending me to ukraine, if only for these eight blissful days.

at the end of the very last session, we did an activity where we wrote comments about each other by passing slips of paper around in a circle so that everyone could write something about everyone. i want to write you what was written to me. i'm crying as i type this because, i think, i haven't really gotten any heartfelt, positive feedback in 23 months of being here and it feels really, really good.god bless these kids.

here's my card:

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larry

he's funny and serious.

you are a great person. and this is not all the truth.

very interesting person. he must be a very good friend.

larry, you rock!

you are a very funny man and clever.

larry, your songs are really cool!

i like you!

i love working with you!

great teacher. funny!

the best teacher in the world.

the coolest teacher which i ever had

i won't forget you! you're a great person

the coolest teacher at PDO

the best teacher in the whole world

you're a raelly super person

you're great!

you're the coolest teacher!

you're really cool...but sometimes strict

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:D

ukraine's got a great future if these kids get the power.

Juneteenth

Happy Juneteenth!

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth)

We're settling in to our summer routine of not doing much at all! Actually, that's not true. Larry's about to have 2 weeks of very hard work preparing the FLEX students to go to the US for their year of study abroad. And I am planning for my Camp, and researching all of the fun places we will go in Budapest.

We have very frequent visitors; so many that we have to keep a schedule of them on our calendar. That's how I discovered "Juneteenth." Check it out, it's an interesting holiday to know about. Last week Ben and brothers, this week Shelley, Casey, Ezra, Celeste...

I'm headed up to Lutsk tomorrow to help out with the softball teams there. It's all-star season already, and they want me to help the pitchers and pitch some batting practice. We'll see if my arm holds up, and I don't hit too many batters!

I've been keeping a list of funny t-shirt sayings. Things in English are very fashionable, even if they make no sense at all. Some of my favorites:


I took wrestling lesson for annual greyhound sale

Space vixen (worn by a boy)

Stop looking for love in all the me wrong

Successfull.

Goodbye for now...

This past week we spent a great time in Kyiv seeing off our good friends Kris and Jen. They're headed home a little earlier than expected, and though we are sad to see them go, we're so happy for them and their upcoming adventures.

There are times in your life when you realize how lucky you are to have friends who you can relax with, talk about everything, and who seem to just understand you without having to try very hard. These are those times.