New Beginnings

Session B began on Tuesday, leaving us with a free day on Monday-- so the summer school planned the day for us with a tour of L'viv and an icon-painting workshop.

The tour supposedly revolved around the theme of coffee, although really it seemed to be more of a tour of the interesting places in L'viv. The tour guide knew we had all spent time in L'viv before, and did her best to introduce us to new places and facts. She also obliged when we requested more Ukrainian in the tour so that we could practice, so the tour was given in a mixture of Ukrainian and English. Although it was ridiculously hot and the tour involved two hours of walking, it was nonetheless enjoyable.

The four corners of Rynok Square are decorated with four fountains featuring figures from Greek/Roman mythology. Neptune is a common meeting place. 

My friend Alex talks to pigeons. They're his friends. We don't ask.

Miniature sculptures like this are scattered around L'viv. It is believed that if you take a picture with one, you will find love.

The ceiling of the Apteka (Pharmacy) Museum is decorated with paintings depicting the four Greek elements: Water, Fire, Air, and Earth.

The Water painting

The Pharmacy Museum also boasted a small collection of these beautiful antique typewriters. Can you guess the exotic locale from which they originally came?????

You guessed it! The very same town that all the best things (and people!) come from!!! ;)

Yup! NCR.

Another miniature statue

We also visited the "Italiysky Dvory" or "Italian yard/garden," which my friend Mariya had shown us a few weeks ago. It's designed to look like,...well... an Italian courtyard!

After lunch, we went over to the L'viv Icon Museum and climbed down into the blessedly air-conditioned basement, where we made some icons out of glass.

First, we traced the design with black ink, and a fixatif was sprayed onto it. Then, the colors were painted in layers, so that each color could be painted on top of the ones that came before it.

The finished product didn't look so pretty from the back side-- but that's because so many other colors and shapes were under the paint!

My finished icon from the right side-- it's St. Nicholas!