ice cream, cute shoes, and jokes

Last night I went to L'viv Central Baptist Church to help out with their English conversation group. We had a good turnout, about 30 people. Afterwards, an American choir was giving a concert at the church so I stayed for that. I sat with Lena, a woman in her late 40s (?) who's learning English.

Lena said to me, "Do you want some ice cream?"

Slightly confused, but always in favor of ice cream, I said that that would be nice. Lena left and came back a few minutes later with four ice cream bars (the type that come individually wrapped and on a stick). She handed one to me, and since I was pretty sure we weren't supposed to eat ice cream in the church, I held on to it until I saw her stick the other ones in her bag, and so I stuck mine in my bag. The concert was very nice, but I kept thinking about my ice cream, and how it was probably melting, since the temperature had been in the mid-90s for much of the day.

After a bit, Lena whispered to me that our ice cream was melting and therefore we should eat it now. "In church?" I whispered back. She said that it was okay, and we (plus the man behind us, who also got one of the ice cream bars) began to eat our ice cream. The ice cream bars in Lena's bag were still fairly solid, but mine had more or less melted, so I was trying to eat it out of the paper without making too much of a mess of myself.

At this point, Lena saw that I was having problems, and gave me the last (whole) ice cream bar. As I was trying to eat it without drawing attention to myself, I happened to notice a Rather Cute Guy standing near us, who I had noticed was rather cute the first time I had been to church there. Keep in mind, I have never spoken to him and don't expect I ever will, and I don't even think he noticed me last night, but I still was a bit mortified to be a) eating ice cream in church and b) getting it all over my face in the process.

Then, the woman sitting in front of us turned around and chewed me out for eating ice cream in church. Fortunately, I finished it quickly and then could actually start enjoying the concert.

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Am randomly in the mood for a new pair of cute shoes. Unfortunately, the two pairs that I really liked weren't available in my size. Ukraine has discovered flats, which I think is a wonderful innovation, and with the hryvnia currently 7.8/$1.00, they're fairly inexpensive.

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Okay, people, I'm interested in your reaction to a joke. This was in our reading this week (in Ukrainian), and Vanessa and I had very different reactions to it. I'd like you to comment on whether or not you get the joke and whether or not you think it's funny. Vanessa's and my reactions to it will come in a later post.

A man walks into a vegetable shop.
Man: Do you have any potatoes?
Shopkeeper: No, we don't.
Man: Do you have any cabbages?
Shopkeeper: None of those, either.
Man: And I suppose you don't have carrots?
Shopkeeper: Look, friend, this is a vegetable shop, not an information bureau!