4:00 a.m. Ukraine awoke slowly and stretched out her arms to work out the kinks in her muscles that her deep sleep had left behind. Once she was out of bed, she changed into her usual day clothes and adjusted her hairband and bobby pins into her usual style. After checking her reflection in the mirror built into her dresser, she went out to prepare breakfast.
4:30 a.m. Although there wasn't much in variety, or quantity, Ukraine always tried her best to make her meals the best they could. This morning was an everyday breakfast for her. It consisted of two nice servings of deruny along with two glasses of kompot. Normally she only made one of each just for herself, but now that she had Sealand to look after, she made sure to make her portions bigger and made one more for Sealand. She enjoyed these times in the early mornings, but now she enjoyed them even more knowing that she would have someone to be with her later on in the morning. Once everything was hot and on the table, she went to go and get Sealand.
5:00 a.m. Sealand awoke gently to Ukraine patting him on the shoulder.
"Dobroho ranku trokhy morya, it's time to vake up." Sealand slowly opened his eyes, then smiled when he saw who had awoken him.
" Good morning Miss Ukraine." Ukraine smiled gently. Although he had gotten used to calling Ukraine starsha sestra during the day, he still sometimes called her 'Miss Ukraine' in the early mornings when he still hadn't quite yet woken up.
"Come on, it's time to wake up, breakfast is ready." Sealand got out of bed and rubbed his eyes. He didn't even shiver when his bare feet touched the cold wooden floor, he had already been so accustomed to the metal flooring of his home that he didn't even notice. Ever since he had become one with Ukraine, he had been staying in her house most of the time. Nowadays he only went back home about three days in each week. Ukraine left him alone to get changed and use the restroom. He could, he had already told her, do these things for himself, he wasn't a helpless toddler after all.
Sealand went about what he did every morning. It wasn't that he wasn't used to waking up early, he sometimes had to be up by 3 a.m. back home. He was always just a slow waker. He changed into the clothing Ukraine gave him, tied the scarf around his neck, and went to the kitchen for breakfast.
5:30 a.m. "Zo, how iz your deruny?" Ukraine asked Sealand. Sealand shrugged as he finished chewing and swallowing the mouthful he already had.
"Eh, it's okay, could use some more salt though." Saying this, he grabbed the saltshaker and generously piled it on his food. Ukraine honestly couldn't see how the child could eat so much salt on a single food. At first she warned him against having so much salt in his diet, but then he reminded her that his country was completely surrounded by the sea, which was filled with salt. He would naturally eat a lot of salt to make up for the lack of it in her land.
"Vell, alright then. Come out vhen you're done." She got up and put her empty dishes in the sink before going out the door.
Approx. 5:50 a.m. By the time Sealand got outside, he found Ukraine already tending to the winter wheat and spring barley.
"Hi starsha sestra, I'm here." Ukraine stood up from her kneeling position where she was tending to the grains and smiled at him, already wiping her brow from the sweat of hard work. She sometimes complained how her back hurt after a day's work. Sealand could actually understand that. Especially considering how she was stooped over most of the time and her gigantic chest seemed so heavy. Ukraine smiled when she saw him.
"Ah, good timing trokhy morya. I've just started vith the grains. Could you please go and care for the corn for me? Vunce your done vith that, you can meet up vith me vhen I'm tending to the sunflowers." Sealand nodded energetically and ran over to the corn-rows. The plants were only about waist-height, so about up to his chest, and he only had a few rows to crawl through to get rid of the weeds and pick off the worms and other insects that dared to crawl around on Miss Ukraine's corn.
He wasn't used to gardening, being raised on a metal for on the sea and all, but he had no objections to getting a little dirty. Besides, his body was very strong from swimming in the ocean and all of the chores required around his home, so he didn't care about the physical labor farming required. Once he had plucked the last weed and he had checked every leaf for bugs, he went and met Ukraine at the small sunflower patch.
He knelled down next to her and immediately began checking the 9-inch shoots and making sure they were okay. He couldn't help but notice how gentle and careful she always was when tending to the future yellow flowers. He had asked her once in the week when she had adopted him, but she had gone silent and only mumbled something about them reminding her of Russia when he did and he never questioned about it again.
Even after the sunflowers, they still had the sugar beets, Ukraine's small vegetable plot, and the few livestock and poultry she had, but that was usually about it. All the animals Ukraine had were one or two cows, an old sow who Ukraine claimed was close to having a litter, a single wool-giving sheep, and a handful of chickens, but that was it really*. All in all, the farmwork generally took up about 5 to 6 hours since they had to do everything by hand. Sealand had asked her once why she didn't have any equipment to farm, she had told him about bad credit and other things he didn't understand. So, like with the sunflowers, he didn't ask about it again.
12:00 noon Caked with dirt from working in the fields all morning, Sealand looked forward to lunch. Ukraine had left him to feed and brush off the livestock while she went inside to make it. Sealand enjoyed working with the animals, especially the chickens. They somewhat reminded him of the seagulls that flew around all the time back home.
Once all of the animals were taken care of, he ran for the house to get lunch. He stomped his boots to get most of the dirt off before he went inside, then went in. He headed straight for the kitchen and sat down at the table. Ukraine brought two bowls and put one at each of their placemats, then went back and placed to hunks of bread bigger than her fist to them. Sealand smiled at the soup, which Ukraine had once told him was yushka.
As he hungrily slurped up the soup, he and Ukraine talked about the different things that were happening. The weather, how the animals were, what was going on politically in their countries, everything. Ukraine enjoyed listening to Sealand chatter and wave his arms about as he ate his extremely salted soup. She had spent to many silent and lonely meals by herself that she was just glad for the company that the small adopted nation brought her, it reminded her of when Russia and Belarus were little and she cared for them.
Yes, she considered Sealand adopted. She really couldn't find anything else to describe what she had done. Honestly, it had been hard to convince her boss to let Sealand become one with her. She would have fought him tooth and nail if she had to. Luckily her boss must have been so shocked by her sudden resiliency that he didn't put up much of a fight. Regardless, having Sealand around was like having a little brother, or, maybe more like a son.
However, there were some strange behaviors she noticed from other countries close to her. She noticed that, on the recent occasions when she had seen Russia, her little brother had seemed to be restraining his hand from going his lead pipe whenever he got near Sealand. America had also become more warm and friendly, if that was even possible. He had constantly ruffled Sealand's hair and was chatting with Ukraine about how to care for kids, which left Ukraine utterly confused, as she had never thought of him as the fatherly type. Even Belarus was acting strangely. As they were neighboring countries, she saw her little siblings often. There were more times than she could count on both hands when Ukraine had to pull Sealand away from Belarus to keep her from cutting him with one of her hidden knives.
In all her years, Ukraine had never seen her siblings act like this. It was almost like they were mad at Sealand for something, but she didn't know what it could possibly be. Sure he was a bit hyperactive, but he was really very sweet. Luckily, she wasn't allowed to hover over these negative thoughts for long, as Sealand was constantly making sure she was paying attention to what he was saying.
1:00 p.m. After lunch, the time was mostly spent up doing other chores around the house. Dishes were always the first things done so the flies and smells wouldn't gather around the house. On more than one occasion had the two gotten into bubble fights, blowing the suds at each other and making small bubbles by using the leftover soapy water in the sink.
1:30 p.m. After dishes, Sealand's job was to bring all of the dirty clothes; and the occasional bed-sheet; to be washed. Sealand put them in the soapy water to soak until Ukraine could get around to scrubbing them on the washboard. As Ukraine was poor, she didn't have the money to spend on frivolities like washing machines and dryers. She always washed her clothes by hand, then hung them out to dry. Whenever she had finished washing whatever had been washed, Sealand immediately rinsed it out and ran it out to the clothes line to hang and dry.
Also from his sea home, he was constantly running here and there over the deck, so Sealand bragged about how fast he was. Once the clothes were dry, which happened quickly when it was a breezy day; slower on a rare cold, damp day; Ukraine folded the clothes and put them in a basket. With Sealand around to help, this went much quicker.
3:00 p.m. Now, after all the work was done and the house was cleaned, Sealand and Ukraine had some free time. This was usually spent laughing and playing outdoors until dinner. Sealand brought his laptop back and forth between his house, so they sometimes just stayed indoors while Sealand showed her things on the computer. Occasionally other countries would come to visit Ukraine. Ukraine would introduce them to Sealand if they hadn't come over and met him before. Due to his cute face and spunky attitude, Sealand was thought very sweet by the other countries. Sealand liked Miss Hungary a lot because she was so nice.
6:00 p.m. Tonight Ukraine had made some nice bowls of borshcht. It was very hot, rich, and hearty, and the vegetables were savory too. Like with lunch, Ukraine had served it with a nice thick loaf of bread. The evening meal was a lot more relaxed than the midday meal. This was the best time for them to just relax and think. Ukraine always liked eating borshcht, it brought back a lot of memories about, her childhood with Russia and Belarus. She remembered the time she had first made borshcht.
It was something she had just had an idea for, she never knew what inspired her to make it. All she knew was that one night, she made it and served it to her siblings. The look on Sealand's face reminded her of the one on Russia's when they both took their first bites. Like Russia's, Sealand's eyes had lit up and he had immediately gained a smile. Then he had dug into the soup, just like Russia had. It brought a sort of nostalgia to Ukraine, and almost a tear to her eye. After dinner, Sealand took his bath. Ukraine took her shower after Sealand went to bed.
7:00 p.m. Sealand sat in Ukraine's lap as she carefully ran a comb through his sand-colored hair. She was very careful not to get the comb caught in all of the tangles in his hair from running about. His hair wasn't very soft, probably from all his years of living under the scorching sun with the salty water and air drying his hair out. Still, Ukraine did all she could to be gentle.
8:00 Finally, with all of the things for the day done, Ukraine tucked Sealand into bed. He had hung up his hat and scarf on the foot of his bed and stayed still as Ukraine covered him with a soft, thick blanket.
"Starsha sestra," Sealand whispered. Ukraine rubbed his hair.
"Yes trokhy morya?"
"Do you think maybe I could go and hang out with Latvia sometime soon? I haven't been able to for a few weeks." Ukraine smiled and held him to her chest.
"Of course you can my trokhy morya, vhenever you vant." Sealand leaned his head into Ukraine's soft, pillow-like chest. No matter how much he denied so, he was still a child. He always got tired this time of night. Ukraine put him back under the covers and kissed him on the forehead.
"Goodnight Miss Ukraine." Ukraine patted his head once more and left him to sleep.
"Dobranich miy̆ trokhy morya," she whispered as she closed the door. Ukraine felt happy at the end of every day, knowing that she had left little Sealand feeling happy before bed, just like her little siblings when they were younger. She found herself doing that a lot, she noticed. Comparing Sealand to Russia when the latter was younger. She couldn't help it, the similarities were just too great for her not to. However, there was one thing that reminded her of Russia the greatest, and what made her most happy. That was that, no matter what he was doing, Sealand never took off the scarf that she had given to him.
deruny - potato pancakes, usually served with rich servings of sour cream.
kompot - a sweet beverage made of dried or fresh fruits and/or berries boiled in water.
dobroho ranku – good morning
trokhy morya – little sea
starsha sestra – big sister
*I actually looked this stuff up. In Ukraine, wheat its the major grain crop that is grown there, about 95% of which is winter wheat. Wheat is grown throughout Ukraine and, because bread is a staple in the Ukrainian diet, is a good food crop for the Ukrainians. Barley is a major feed crop, about 90% of that is spring barley. The increasing demand for barley in malting has made it another major cash crop, leading to a jump in barley. Corn is the third most important crop in Ukraine. Only 25-50% is used for grain, though, as most of it is used for chicken and swine feed. Sunflower seed is Ukraine's main oilseed crop. Because it can be sold for high prices, is fairly high in demand, and can be produced for relatively low costs, it is grown by many Ukrainian farmers and has become one of the most consistently profitable crops. Sugar beets are slowly on the decline in big farms, but smaller farms and private gardens have begun to grow more. Household plots account for 25% of grown sugar beets. About 90% of all vegetables in Ukraine are grown in small, privately owned plots. As the agricultural business has grown, the raising and tending of livestock has also been declining. After the freefall in cattle raising due to increased beef prices slowed down in 2000, a recovery is not expected soon. Most cattle is owned by small, privately owned farms, usually holding about 2-3 head of cattle each, or possibly less. After Ukraine's separation from the Soviet Union, lack of credit and poor agricultural tools and broken equipment kept Ukraine from becoming agricultural for quite a few years. It's getting a lot better now, though.
yushka - fish soup, made of fresh-water fish, usually carp. Similar to the Russian cuisine, ukha, which is also a fish-soup.
borshcht – Ukrainian soup, very popular in other central- and eastern-european countries, made with a base of beets.
dobranich – goodnight
miy̆ - my
