dziendobryblog

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Let's do this! 🇨🇦 #movingrightalong

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Looking back/moving forward. #movingrightalong (at 1000 Islands Skydeck)

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Let's do this! 🇨🇦 #movingrightalong

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A post shared by Ivana (@wickedlittlestitch)

SPINNING WHEEL #kromski #kromskisonata #spinnersofinstagram #spinallthethings #bestchristmaspresent

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#family (at Natchez Trace State Park)

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In and on the way to Zakopane.

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The cemetery and the opera house.

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Today in very old pictures that I still need to post: L'viv’s National Cemetery. As with a lot of the time I spent in Ukraine, I was ill on this particular day. But that really couldn’t dull the beauty or the greenery of the cemetery. We were also lucky to have an incredibly knowledgeable guide--my mom and I caught the Ukrainian here and there, and my dad translated what we couldn't understand. I wish I'd posted this sooner, when the stories were still fresh in my mind.

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After spending six months in another country, I can no longer intuitively navigate my parents' house in the dark.

In related news: oww...

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I'm particularly proud of this.

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Guess who's in Berlin again.

Hint: you don't really need a hint.

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I leave Krakow in roughly 24 hours

And I am not ready for that.

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I'll be back in the U.S. when this happens (and trust me, I am full of feels about that...), but it looks awesome and if you're near enough and you like your feminism young and girly and angry and optimistic all at once, you should go to this.

Uwaga! Mała zmiana rozkładu jazdy: Zapraszam na pierwsze spotkanie polskich czytelniczek ROOKIE!!!  Sobota 18 lipca, 11.00-18.00 Hocki Klocki nad Wisłą Bulwar Flotylli Wiślańskiej, Warszawa łączymy siły z damsels in distress djs i zapraszamy na piknik GIRLS TO THE FRONT #4 Emma Dajska będzie robić z Wami kolaże, Ola Szmida narysuje pisakowe tatuaże, a Monika Zaleska wyplecie najbardziej dziewczyńskie bransoletki przyjaźni

Niedziela 19 lipca, 17.00 Warsztat Artystyczny Ul. Krasińskiego 18, Warszawa Wernisaż wystawy, na której razem z obrazkami ilustratorek z ROOKIE znajdą się Wasze prace, zrobione dzień wcześniej podczas naszych kolażowo-rysunkowych warsztatow nad Wisłą! Wstęp na wszystkie wydarzenia wolny!

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We also visited my great-grandparents' gravesite. While I'm sure it will emotional for her to finally see, I think my grandma will be glad that her parents' resting place is well maintained, visited regularly, and covered in all kinds of bright, healthy flowers. Here are also a few less somber pictures from Novosilky, including all of the town's cows walking down the middle of the road to the pasture together.

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My grandmother was a skilled needleworker and and outright genius when it comes to gardening, and roses in particular, so I can't wait for her to see the flowers and cross stitch pieces we saw at her family's church. I can't wait to hear what she remembers of it, what's still the same and what's changed. I would also like to quickly thank all of the Catholics who gently guided me in how to behave in a Catholic church that day. Because while I know of a fair bit of the theology, the actual mechanics of proper Catholic respect and worship are things I don't have a whole lot of experience with.

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When we first got to Novosilky, we we're necessarily expecting a lot. We were hoping to find my grandmother and my step-grandfather's families, and to see the Uniate church my great-grandfather donated the land for, but really, we didn't know for certain if anyone was still alive or in the area. We didn't know what condition the church would be in--my dad was actually quite nervous over the possibility that we would find it in disrepair. All we knew is that we would be able to get pictures of the outside of the church to bring back for my grandma in the U.S. And guys: we got so lucky. My parents met up with my grandma's younger brother in L'viv, and we all met her beautiful little sister (She and my grandmother look so much alike, it's incredible. And the mannerisms are hilariously similar). My dad also met with two of his cousins, N and J, and their children (my "little cousin" with the accordion was J's son, the lovely young woman above is J's daughter, and the tiny, adorable human in pink is N's daughter). And we all had dinner together in Novosilky, in J's living room. My mom and I did our best with the conversation (neither of us are remotely fluent, but I've found Ukrainian a lot easier to follow than Polish), and my dad translated what we didn't catch. And, after a while lot of food and as much to drink, we actually got to see the inside of the church, and I feel like I've never encountered anything like that. Clearly, my dad's fears about it falling into disrepair were misplaced, and really, the church is aesthetically stunning. But, more than that, it represented so much of why I came to CEE to study in the first place. J's daughter M took me up to the balcony, to see where my grandma sang in the choir as a girl, where the man I knew as my grandpa sat with his family in the pews on Sundays. Where family members I had never met before, family members even younger than me, family were christened and had their first communions. Young, lively kids, just like me, who play video games and sing pop songs and who are still in my grandmother's village, keeping traditions alive, too. My honors research involved a lot of, well, paperwork. There were marriage and christening certificates, DP camp IDs, maps and photographa, boat itineraries and applications for citizenship. But sometimes it felt like there weren't a lot of people, despite how all that paperwork was pretty directly about people who I know personally and love. But there are still Kuchers and Kurdiakas who call Novosilky home, and now I've met some of them, and I've seen the work our shared ancestors put into this town, and I don't know how to describe the way that that livens even the typos I pored over, looking for just one part of our story.

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Finally: Novosilky stuff again. My little cousin made the horrible mistake of letting my dad know that he plays the accordion, and my dad wouldn't let him stop (Little guy was so very good at it, too.)