Pictures from Last Night

This is the group that survived the night. We ended up staying up until 3:30am so we can sleep on the long flight. We ended up strolling around Penn's campus. These guys are great fun!

Travis from Chicago, Jen from Wisconsin, Adam from Arkansas and Eryn.

Last Post for a While (this time I mean it)

We just wrapped up staging. This is all going so fast already. 27 months will fly by. Today we just did some excerises on cultural differences and went over our plan of attack. My roommate and I just got our baggage in order (Mom, I had to rearrange everything due to last minute changes) and we are off to one final American steak dinner....and, yes, probably a few last beers. We need to check out at 9am and 3 buses leave for New York City at 10:30am.
I won't have internet while in the first few days of training in Kyiv, but will update as soon as possible. Thanks to Jen, Chavella and a few others that have been reading this lately.
I'll be in touch!

Day #1 cont.

So a small group of us met in the lobby and walked for what seemed to be miles just to find a place to eat breakfast. We ended up eating at McDonalds. That is the longest I have ever walked to eat a sausage egg mcmuffin. From there the group split and Richard, Daisy, me and this guy from the bay area called Hung Chee took the subway to do some sightseeing. We checked out the liberty bell which had more security than the airport, we saw Independence Hall, Ben Franklin's grave, and Betsy Ross's house. It was actually very interesting stuff. We then headed back and Hung Chee and I grabbed a Philly cheesesteak before our meeting at 3pm.
The first hour or so of staging was all icebreaker activities to get to know all 85 of us. It turns out one of the guys in the group graduated from Schaumburg high school (our rival h.s. in Chicago). The best is he asked when I graduated Hoffman and when I said 1993, he responded "Dude, I was in 3rd grade in 1993". I don't think I have ever felt older; what a small world nonetheless. It's a good mix of people; about half men half females and about 15-20 over 50. The meeting ended at 7pm. We maily just touched on our anxieties and expectations as well as some security things. They gave us all $180 to cover cab fare and meals so after the meeting about 15 of us walked to this Indian restaurant for dinner where I was forced into eating goat meat. It was actually kinda good though. After dinner we met up with another group and went to a bar where some stranger bought us all pitchers of guiness and newcastle. I was feeling kinda sick still and needed some rest so this guy Adam from Arkansas and I walked back to the hotel where I am now keeping my roommate awake. I forgot how much it sucks to live in the same room as someone.
GoodNight or Добранiч

Some pictures

Dinner and drinks...and goat meat sauteed in curry sauce. Also observe the Indian beers we were all pounding.

The almighty Independence Hall

Hung Chee, Daisy, me and some dude who thought he was actually Betsy Ross's buddy (to quote The Office: "I'm about 95% sure that's not the real Ben Franklin")

This is a picture of Richard (my roommate), Daisy and I at the Liberty Bell. Don't you love how we are standing in front of it?)

Day #1

This is the most surreal thing I have ever experienced. Friday night thanks to my mother, we were able to squeeze 2 years worth of crap into 2 suitcases and a carry-on backpack. I had to use a larger suitcase than originally planned, but we got it all in and both bags were under the 50 lb. weight limit! The bad news is at this point I have a terrible cold (most likely from all the stress and changing weather). This is not a good way to star off the big adventure.
My dad dropped me off at the airport Saturday at noon and my flight left for Denver at 1:20pm. The layover was about 2 hours so I was able to get one last McDonalds fix at the Denver airport. The flight to Phioladelphia was delayed, but I did get to Philly around 11pm. My baggage claim curse continued as my 2 bags were the very last 2 off the carosel. It happens to me everytime and it makes for a very stressful 20 minutes. I caught a packed shuttle to the hotel. Everyone on the shuttle was very quiet and it was awkward. When the shuttle arrived at the hotel, everyone got out and it turned out everyone on it was paret of our group. It was kinda funny, but I was glad because I thought I was going to be the last one arriving that night. After we got our rooms, one of the guys, Joaquin, suggested taking a walk to find a local bar. The hotel is situated right on the university's campus. We took our stuff up to our rooms and met in the lobby about 10 minutes later. My roommate's stuff was there, but he was nowhere to be found. In the end, Joaquin, his roommate Zach, Daisy, and Monica all took a stroll over to this Irish Pub where we got sauced on Guiness and Jamison. At 2am (last call) we stumbled back to the hotel and Daisy recognized my room number as being a friend of hers so she came in and woke up my roommate. She left, I passed out and found myself wide awake at 8am which sucks because this could be my last morning to sleep in. I met my roommate this morning. His name is Richard. He is part of the over 50 group, retired and joined the Peace Corps to experience a new culture and really get to see the world. So far everyone seems really nice. I think I posted pictures of all these guys in a previous post if you care to put a face to the name. They are all from California with the exception of Monica who is from Spokane.
Richard, Daisy and I are going to meet for breakfast at 10am and then I think I'm gonna catch the train to Liberty Square to see the liberty bell, delcaration of independence, etc. I probably should grab a philly cheese steak too. Staging starts at 3pm and goes to 7pm today.
I have internet access in my hotel room so I will be able to post a couple more times. Thanks to Shawna who is the only person to email me so far. I miss you dearly! I also want to thank my parents for letting me stay with them for a few months. I hope I wasn't too much of a pain and I'm sure you're glad to have the house to yourselves again.
Gotta run.

One Last Post...for a while

This is my last post until I am able to do so elsewhere. Hopefully I can get on the internet at some point in Philadelphia. From what I am told, I won't have internet or phone access for about the first 10 days out in Ukraine. I will send updates as soon as I am able to.

I posted my mailing address to the side, but this frustrating thing won't cooperate with me and therefore does not look very legible. Here it is again. This will be my address through June:

U.S. Peace Corps/Ukraine
PCV Paul von Rohr
48A Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Street
01030
Kyiv, Ukraine

Off I Go.....

So Long, Keg Zoo

My precious Keg Zoo (named by TJ and Heather after a keg of beer exploded in the backseat 2 days after buying it) is now the padawan learner of Haacky G. I will own another Ford Escape someday. This car treated me well! So long!

Goodbyes & Farewells

I spent Thursday wrapping up some things on the computer. I still need to strategically choose 500 songs to throw onto my ipod. As far as movies go, I'm going to bring some seasons of The Simpsons, Family Guy, King of Queens, Futurama and Da Ali G Show. I am also bringing some essentials: "Lost In Translation", "Borat", "Goodfellas", "The Godfather", "Napoleon Dynamite", "Anchorman", one or two more comedies, and thanks to Shawna "The Departed".

After finishing my computer stuff, Shawna and I went to see "300" which was a really good flick. After the movie I had to choose my last supper and the winner was Outback Steakhouse's Alice Springs Chicken. It was a heavenly dinner. This morning was full of depressing goodbyes. I had an emotional farewell with Shawna. I said goodbye to Brian & Bill and...my car. I dropped her off at Brian's this morning and it is crazy how attached one can get to a piece of machinery. That car and I have been through a lot together.

Now I am doing laundry, I picked up my dry cleaning and somehow now need to fit 2 years worth of essesntials into one oversized duffel bag, a backpack, and my laptop carry-on. Wish me luck as this is going to be a huge challenge. I am about to eat a Lou Malnatti's pizza for lunch that was shipped to me by the always amazing Jessica in Chicago. After that, I need to take care of my banking situation and pick up some last minute things at WalMart. For dinner, we are heading over to my brother's house for a Mexican feast. I then need to get back home and pack up my room.

I fly out at noon tomorrow. The stress is coming to an end and it's actually a relieving feeling. The only crappy thing is I think I am getting sick. It figures.

2 More Days

So since Brandy has yet to email me pictures, this is the only one that has surfaced from some guy I don't even know, at least it has all the boys in it. Observe the stickers that Andy made quoting the funniest movie ever Borat "Kiss Me I'm Sexy Time". This may become the only picture that documents the historic St. Patty's Day going-away bash....

Last night I went out for drinks with Shawna and met up with Lindsey and some others. Today I had lunch with Brian at the pickle barrel one last time. I ran more errands for about 2 hours, came home, changed and went to Mackenzie River for some beers and pizza with Andy, Lindsey and their boys. It's always a blast riding around town in his VW bus.

I have made pretty much all of my farewell phone calls at this point with the exception of a select few. All of these goodbyes are taking its toll on me; it can really get exhausting. Saying goodbye to Brian, Andy and Lindsey really sucked.

The Last Week

Saturday: I met up with Andy, Lindsey and Brandy (who was in town from Iowa). We went to the very crowded Yellowstone garage and watched some live music. From there we met up with some other people at Hooligan's and had some dinner and more drinks. We then walked down to the Crystal and had a great time dancing and karaoking. I tore up some Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and The Killers. From there we stumbled to the Railyard to watch more live music. Just when I thought the night was over, Kevin convinced a select few to go up to the rims and drink some beers over the city lights. I'm so glad we did because that turned out to be a great time. Finally at 4am the evening ended and I ended up crashing at a friend's house due to having one too many St. Patty's Day cocktails. I took some great pictures, but somehow they all got deleted. When Brandy gets home she promised to email me her copies.
Sunday: I get dropped off at my car and head over to Andy's to drop off his beer stein and say goodbye to Brandy. I then head home to take care of some things on the computer and then my cousins and brother and his family stop over for a turkey dinner.
Monday: I woke up finding myself overwhelmed with things to do. I went to blockbuster video to pay some late fees, I went to the bank to talk about options with my checking account and I had to close my Visa card. I bought Mar and Carrie's wedding gift. I stopped at several places finally finding a Power of Attorney form, I stopped at WalMart and stocked up on some things. I came home watched some Rocky Balboa and ate a great corned beef and cabbage dinner. After dinner I went up to Bullwackers to meet my bother and Toad. We ended the festivities around 10:30pm. I came home, downloaded some music onto my laptop while watching "Sideways".
Tuesday: So far today, I helped my dad sell some things on ebay, we went to get the Power of Attorney form notorized so he can file my taxes for me and now I'm off to mail Mar's wedding gift, buy more stuff at Target and come back to study my CD-ROM. I really want to meet up with Shawna tonight, but I also want to watch "Blood Diamond" in 65" surround sound glory with my dad. Decisions decisions.

T-Minus 7 Days...and counting

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

Exactly 1 week from now, I will be landing in Philadelphia; time is flying.

Yesterday was my last day of work. I am officially retired for 1 week. Everyone I worked with in that department was so awesome and I will miss them. It's crazy how attached you get to people when you spend 8 hours/day with them for 5 months. Thursday they took me to lunch at the Olive Garden, Friday Jennifer made me my most favorite food of the gods thing in the world, her spinach and artichoke dip, and they all gave me a gift bag with the following contents:
- Vitamin C, airborne and Echinecia (because I am always paranoid of getting sick)
- 2 disposable cameras (1 for Italy and 1 for Greece so I can send pictures to them if I make it to those places they are dying to go)
- An old school cassette walkman (because I am always complaining about my ipod)
- A fifth of vodka (speaks for itself)
- 2 Montana shot glasses (see above)
- A book light
- 3 Paperback books (my personal favorite being "The Italian Boss's Secretary Mistress" with Fabio on the cover)

Last night I was having beers with my brother one last time and the girls from work showed up and surprised me. It was a blast hanging out with them and my life is complete now that I saw Fern karaoke Cheeseburger in Paradise. I will miss all of you. Thanks for making the last 5 months fun!

I learned some fun facts about Ukraine. It sounds like I'm going to a different planet or something. Check out some of these superstitions the Ukrainians have:
- Never shake hands in a doorway. It's a form of insincerity.
- Never whistle indoors. Your money will fly out the window.
- Never look a baby in the eye or tell the parents how cute it is. It is bad luck for the baby.
- Never give an even number of flowers. It symbolizes death.
- Never refuse a drink. It is the same thing as refusing a hand shake here.
- Ukrainians like to feed people. If you finish your plate, they will refill it and if you don't eat it all they take offense. I have to strategically remember to leave one morsel of food on my plate when I am done, I guess.
- Never shake a woman's hand unless it's offered to you.
- Take your shoes off when entering a house. Most of the time they will give you slippers when you enter.
- Ukrainians love to make toasts. If they do, you are expected to make one as well and a simple "cheers" or "thank you" is not good enough.

There are more, but those are the most entertaining. I'm hoping by writing them out, it will help me remember all of this.

The Final Stretch

Holy crap, I leave a week from Saturday. Wow.

I finally got my flight information emailed to me yesterday. I leave Billings at noon on Saturday the 24th and arrive in Philadelphia at 10:15pm. Training starts Sunday afternoon so a group of people are hoping to take in some sights before we start. The bus leaves at 11am on Tuesday, March 27th to take us to the airport and we fly out of New York City at 6pm for a 7-hour flight to Frankfurt Germany and eventually arrive in Kyiv Ukraine at 1:05pm (they are 9 hours ahead of Montana) on the 28th.

I'm still doing my best to learn as much Ukrainian as possible before I leave. I had a great weekend. Friday I went out with Kevin and some friends to visit some of the bars one last time. Saturday morning, Shawna and I drove up to the mountains in Red Lodge and spent the night there. We came back Sunday afternoon and I met up with my niece and nephew to take them to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. I ended up winning the grand prize at skee ball (460,000 points baby!). Skee ball is so fun; I wonder why they never made it into a bar game. At any rate, it was nice to spend time with my brother's kids befroe I take off. Last night, my brother and I did some bar-hopping which was also a great time. On top of that, I watched a great movie called "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" with Robert Downey Jr. and Rosario Dawson. I liked this movie so much, it entered into my top 5 films of 2006 list just after "Blood Diamond". So all in all, with one weekend down and one to go, I'm having great success. This weekend coming up should be both crazy and emotional. My goal is to get some pictures taken so I can post them on here.

The NCAA Tourney starts tomorrow and it really sucks I won;t be here to see how it all play out. I joined the pool at work anyway for the hell of it and have Ohio St. playing Wisconsin in the championship with Ohio St. taking it all. I was just stoked that UNLV finally made it. The first victim is Georgia Tech Friday morning. GO REBELS!!!

The Last Few Days

Overall, I had a productive weekend. I finished watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Star Wars movies so that's out of the way. I am now ready to be de-nerded for 27 months. I went to Bruno's with Shawna Saturday night for one last fabulous Italian dinner. We also saw "Zodiac" which I highly recommend to everyone. Sunday was spent reading Peace Corps posts online, filling out forms and studying history and language lessons. Some new words I picked up:
I can do it myself
I can't
To sleep
To drink
To eat
Hello
How are you?
You are welcome
Give me, please

I can also now count to 10.

The language is coming along rather nicely. I'm sure I will still be in for a rude awakening when I arrive in Kyiv. After reading through all those posts, it is clear that pretty much everyone is starting to freak out. I don't think I've ever been this stressed out and on-edge before. It's amazing how many things need to be tied up before one can escape the country for 2 years. Things like medical records, bank accounts, credit cards, cell phones, taxes, absentee ballots (since an election will be held in my absense), finding a power of attorney, etc. Add to that stressing about fitting 2 years worth of essentials into two 50 lb duffel bags. I cancelled my car insurance and Netflix subscription last week. I'm renewing my subscription to Entertainment Weekly so my parents can mail out back issues to me periodically. I also called out of paranoia to make sure my visa and passport are in order...everything is good to go. Slowly things are getting knocked out, but everyday becomes a little more nerve-wrecking. It is said that it is normal to have days of doubt and frustration where you question what you are doing. I read the booklet entitled "On the Homefront: A guide for volunteers' families" and it totally freaked me out! That book was really dark and dreary and scared the hell out of me. I guess none of it was new to me, but to read it all in one quick read really hit me hard. Today was one of those "doubting days"...all day. At day's end, I'm back to being excited and that makes all the difference. Plus, hey, it was 70 degrees out today...spring is here!!!

Jessica Jessica JESSICA!!!

My little buddy Jessica is upset that I don't mention her enough in my blog. Hopefully this will make up for it.

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE NEW APARTMENT AND LEAVING THAT LOSER BOYFRIEND OF YOURS!

(you best be sending me the most letters and gifts of all)

My First Ukrainian Conversation

So over the last 2 days at work and over drinks with Shawna last night (Isuccessfully passed her test), I memorized all of the vocabulary and phrases that were on this handout entitled "My First Ukrainian Conversation". I wonder what the Peace Corps is trying to do to us because when you take all of this and try to make a paragraph out of it, any normal human being, Ukrainian, American, or any other nationality would recommend me checking into a mental institution. Here is what I know how to say now...

Excuse Me please, who is this? What is your name? Good afternoon, my name is Paul. Yes, I am American. I like fruit, meat and milk. I like juice a little. I don't like vegetables. No, thank you. I want vodka. Delicious! What is this? This is my family. Where is the bathroom? There? Here?? Thank you very much! Good night and good bye.

That's pretty much everything I know in a nutshell. You do the math.