Random Thoughts and Ramblings

I have a new-found love and its name is "Twin Peaks". Either this show is that good or I am just desparate for some boob tube. Sure this show was back in the early 90's, but come on, it's David Lynch...the man...the genious. My language teacher had the only 2 seasons on her computer and I copied them over to mine and now I'm hooked. I think my host family is worried about me because I won't play cards with them or watch corny Russian music videos with them anymore; instead I just watch this show on my laptop locked away in my room. I also watched "Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny" and "Napoleon Dynamite" this week...both are hilarious in my own diluted world. My host mom asked if I was suffereing from depression yesterday. It's funny because the Peace Corps tells them that we will go through days of depression and that is always the first thing they think of. The truth is, I just need time alone from screaming kids and people eating the food I buy. They are great people, but I am soooo ready to move out in a couple of weeks and am counting the minutes.
Due to some inspiring events, I am plaaning on starting my next screenplay in the very near future. I wanted to do a lot of writing out here in my spare time and now that training is winding up, I am starting my treatment. Ideally, I'd also like to tackle the novel after that is done. I also got some leads on some very interesting jobs for returned Peace Corps volunteers. Things are looking up and I am starting to look at things (i.e. my future) in a very different light.
We tentatively set a date for the Egypt trip. I am trying to arrange it around my birthday in October so I can ring in the big double 3's on top of a pyramid in the middle of African nowhere.
We are still planning a fun weekend coming up in a couple days. This Friday we are going to a huge soccer game at the stadium and Sunday we are going to that music festival in Kyiv. I'm sure there will be pictures coming.
We are learning the topic of shopping right now in language class which includes things in department stores and hundreds of clothing items and how to talk to sales clerks. Seeing how I have dropped 3 sizes and my pants sag down on my knees like Lil Bow Wow, this topic may come in handy faster than expected. I can now get some tight European pants and start living the dream officially now. Tomorrow we have the second session of Ukrainian entrepreneurship and economy class. Our project is also rolling along. I finished my portion of the manual and passed it to Greg to get translated. Brian and I handed out invitations today and now we just need to practice our portions. The big day is one week from today....crazy!
I've gotten a ton of support and advice from all of my friends and family and through it all, I keep referring to that one scrawny guy whose name I will never remember's advice: "The Peace Corps...it's not for everyone, just the sexy people" ;)

Thanks for being so good to me, Shawna!

and

Happy 47th Anniversary Mom & Dad!!! The big 5-0 is just around the corner!

2 Months Down...25 To Go

2 months here seems like it has been 6 months at least. When we look back to staging and Philadelphia it seems like years ago now. I think because we are being brainwashed with so much stuff and have experienced so much in just 2 months. It's actually quite amazing.

I forgot to mention that I received more shots in my left shoulder last week for Hepatitus and influenza. I think the total is up to 47 needles to this point. I also forgot to mention that on Friday we had emotional health day. It was 4 hours of first aid and stress-coping mechanisms. The one good thing that came out of it was I won some mouthwash playing health jeopardy.

Saturday night I watched the top 100 best songs of the 80's on VH-1 and educated Marina about classic songs from the 80's. I'm not sure I agree that Bon Jovi "Livin on a Prayer" should be #1 though I was happy to see Duran Duran in the top 5. That was a blast even though I pissed little Nikita off because I prevented him from watching his cartoons. I watch maybe a total of 1 hor of television a month here and this was my time dammit!
Yesterday rocked! I went to Jonathan's apartment with James and out tech teacher Andrey and we watched over 5 hours of "Lost". I can't believe how much better the season got since I left. I didn't even miss it until now. I only need to watch the final 2 episodes of the season now. The only problem is, we don't know if Jonathan will receive another shipment before we leave Chernihiv. I HAVE TO SEE THE FINALE!!! I will go on record once again by saying that this is the best show to have ever graced a television set..."Six Feet Under" is not far behind.
I have also been reading Mick Foley's new book that J.J. sent me. It's actually quite an interesting read going behind the scenes of professional wrestling (Yeah, I'm a nerd like that). It's also been really great reading those magazines everyone has mailed out. I also talked to my brother and his family last night which was great.
Here's a funny story. I was walking back from Jonathan's place last night and a huge storm came from nowhere. I took cover under this huge tree because I had my laptop with me and no umbrella. As I'm standing there I notice 2 younger guys speaking English next to me. I ask them where they were from and they freaked out at the sound of an English voice. It turns out they were Mormon missionaries traveling Ukraine and one of them was from Billings, MT. You don't see that every day here. They were nice guys and didn't try to push the church on me so I applaud them.
We just finished language class and I am about to head home to finish up the manual I have been working on. My host family is home today as is the rest of the country because low and behold yesterday was another holiday here....the holy trinity. When a holiday falls on a Sunday, everyone gets Monday off work. That sucks for us because our project group had planned on visiting some organizations and hand-delivering invitations to our event.
That's all I got.

Hi Cassandra!!!
Happy Birthday, Mar!!! (if you ever read this)

This Week's Pictures

This was the monestary we hiked to on Tuesday. You enter the back of it and there is a huge maze under it.

Brian and Geoffrey descending into the unknown.

These are human remains from monks who lived underground. Good stuff, huh?

Exiting the caves...that whole expeience obviously freaked me out a little.

I thought this was a really cool monument. I wasn't a huge fan of climbing 800 steps in the unbearable heat with a 100 lb backpack on, but perhaps it was all worth it.

We stumbled upon a great cafe where we enjoyed an ice-cold beer.

and finally....my treasures from my parents, JJ and Shawna. Thanks and I love you all!!!

Weekly Report

A lot of people keep asking how much news I get about the U.S. Here's my answer. I hear the Bulls are doing okay. I have no frickin' idea what is happening back home and it's kinda nice.
Some statistics: the stomach meter has officially dropped again to 30%. For the last week, my stomach has been on edge. It could have been the river fish I ate that the medical officers warned us not to eat or perhaps the sewage water I swam in; there are so many options.
For 2 weeks this country has been experiencing record high temperatures. From what I gather, it usually only gets this hot for about 1 week in July. Seeing how nobody has fans or a/c, I am slowly melting away as my lovely friend Kelly pointed out. To give you an idea, I pound about 2 2liters of water every day and I think I've urinated once all week.
I finally received all my packages from the PC ffice and took them home Thursday. The microwave popcorn was a hit because they don't have that here. My family stared at the microwave in amazement like it was about to shoot out a million dollars. Beef jerky and red licorice was also a smash. I got 4 packages total (Mom, the DVD's did arrive...thanks) and I have included a picture here in which I show off my treasures. Wait, maybe that's why I am sick because my stomach doesn't recognize real food anymore.
So this week...a group of us went to the beach on the river. While I did not intend to swim in that mess of water, it was so hot I had to do it. The beach was a rather nasty experience all around.
Language class was good, but a lot of us are in a funk from our site visit and don't want to learn anymore. We are counting the days to the finish line. We had a tech session on Thursday and learned about the Ukrainian economy and the tax system out here. It was actually pretty interesting stuff.
I am hooked on playing badmitton lately. Yesterday, Hung-Chee, my host family and I walked to a different beach which was a lot nicer than the one on Wednesday. I soaked up some rays and then we went home and drank vodka, listened to music and played cards.
Tomorrow we are watching 7 episodes of "Lost" and I am more excited about that than anything else. I don't think the finale is included in there though. Tonight I am watching "Shrek the Third" in Russian and I also want to check out Pirates 3 at some point. I am also stoked about the news that a group of us are going to Kyiv next weekend for a music festival. It tuns out I won't go all summer without a good concert afterall. There are a bunch of bands, but only one band I know from the states.
My site situation is still the same. I'm trying not to think about it too much. I am focusing on our project for the time being. When that is over, I will make the big decision. /i am writing up a manual on interviewing basics and sample interview questions and then need to get it to a translator. I am working on a powerpoint presentation for our seminar as well.

Happy Birthday, Dad & TJ!

Lotsa Pictures For You

For those of you that think I am exaggerating about what I eat here, I took this picture of a cookbook that was on our kitchen table before I left. Mmmmmm.

This is Jim from Schaumburg, IL. It is completely crazy that he grew up literally down the street from where I grew up. He's a really great guy for a Sox fan, but then again, all guys from the the Chicago burbs are...right? Check out the killer sunset in this picture.

The dock at sunset at the beginning of the party at Prolosok.

The dock later in the evening.

Matthew, Me, Geoffrey and Brian at the bonfire party. Matthew catches a lot of crap for looking like the late great Chris Farley.

Cards the next morning as we wait for our bus to pick us up. Geoffrey taught us a Russian card game called Durok that I am now hooked on. The guy in the blue shirt is Nathan and the guy in the white shirt is Stephen. They were my roommates in Prolosok.

This is a crappy picture of what a typical train car looks like. I slept on the top right bunk.

This will be my room for 1 month when I return. Those that know me well realize I need a fan :)

This is Gara the boxer I live and sneeze with. She eats strictly oatmeal and chicken bones.

Tanya (new host mom), me, and Marina (my counterpart or partner) at the library I will work at....maybe.

This is Marina conducting a class similar to what I would be doing on Sundays there.

My office and desk.

This is the group of volunteers in my city and surrounding areas minus about 5 of them.

Kherson has a huge ship-building industry with tons of docking bays.

A really cool building. It's difficult to see, but there are statues of children sitting along the roof.

This is Tanya enjoying a smoke. Personally, I love the Ukrainian in the background sleeping in his boat. My plan is to make friends with every boat-owner in the city.

Gotta love the European speedo action in this one.

One Step Up (...and two steps back)

Okay, I don't remember what I wrote last time so forgive me if I repeat myself.

I'm back in Chernihiv from my site visit to Kherson. It's mad hot here now (especially south on the Black Sea) and I've been dripping sweat now for about 5 days straight. In addition, I think I've lost so much weight that I am back to my Jr. high school weight class. Overall, my visit was fun. I got to experience 2 looooong train rides through pretty much the whole country, I met some really nice people, I saw some really cool things, but overall I came back pissed off.
I know in my last post I was happy with my site. However, after that post I had a meeting with my organization's director and she laid down some strict rules including not wanting me to work with other organizations. In a nutshell, I will a librarian for 2 years, edit their website, teach English every Sunday ALL DAY, and that about sums it up. I joined Peace Corps when they told me I could continue to work in my field, work in business development and do some good things for this country based off my resume. This library had a PC volunteer working for them in the past and the guy set the bar too high for me and it will be difficult to fill this golden boy's shoes. Perhaps his dream was to be a librarian, but mine is not. I did not say anything to my director, but complained at my site debriefing in Kyiv yesterday. He pretty much said to just go with it and see if things change. Now I am stuck with a major decision as to whether call it quits and be a dropout and focus on a decent career in the states again taking away 3 months of great experiences, or stick it out, move everything across the country and give it a shot. My head is floating a hundred different directions and right now I am just going to focus on my Chernihiv project and give that my all. When that is done in mid-June, I will know what my move will be.
So, with that said, it wasn't all bad of a trip. My host mom is an awesome cook!!! She took me to this market and we picked out this huge fish fresh from the Black Sea and they chopped up 2 huge steaks for us. She made some amazing salads and we had strawberries like I never had before. I had heard they were good here, but it was ridiculous how sweet they were. I think I dreamt about them last night. I was super allergic to her dog, but it was a sweetie. Monday, my host mom had to work so I hit the town and walked around for miles and miles with a 200 lb. backpack in about 98 degree heat. I walked down to the docking station where boats and crusie ships dock as this is a big tourist port city. Later that day I met up with some volunteers who live in the area and took the bus into town to meet the four of us. We had dinner and many beers and it was cool to hear about their experiences and advice. One of them is about to marry a Ukrainian he met here. We then went to the train station and that was it. Time really flew there. The city itself is rather shady. 75% of it is pure ghetto. We had drunks coming up to us and our neighborhood is very dirty. The other 25% is awesome. There is one street they block off to traffic and now it's nothing but fun bars and restaurants. The Black Sea is about an hour's bus ride, but Kherson sits on a huge river that connects the Black Sea to another huge sea. Therefore, half the city is surrounded by water, beaches, fishing, water skiing, swimming, etc.
I think I could live there no problem for 2 years, the people I met were really cool as well. My host Mom, Tanya, is learining English because her boyfriend and daughter live in Israel and they speak English. She is self-taught over 6 months all from a computer program...I was floored at how much she picked up just from me. In return, I learned more Russian in 2 days there than the entire time in class here. I feel really good about my language skills now. My counterpart, Marina, totally rocks and I really lucked out with her too. We are going to take a cruise down to Crimea in July for free because some friends of hers owns a yacht.
Once we got back to Kyiv Tuesday morning, we stopped into the PC office to debrief and then went site-seeing around the city again with Hung-Chee and Geoffrey. I truly love that city! I tried to pick up some gifts and souvenirs, but couldn't find the place I was at last time. I ended up just buying a Ukrainian soccer jersey. We took the 2 hour bus ride back to Chernihiv and I went home, ate and passed out from exhaustion.
Today was "reflection day" since half the people are not back yet. I had my movk Language Proficiency Interview and scored intermediate mid which is way better than I expected. The real test is the last week of training. These tests are basically sitting down and having a half hour conversation completely in Russian. After that, Brian, Geoffrey and I backpacked across the city to this monestary and we paid to explore these underground caves where monks used to live. It was a trip down there because it was huge and there were human skulls and bones to be stimbled upon. We then hiked to the river to meet up with some friends at a beer tent and relaxed in the shade. Now I am going home to play badmitton. Tomorrow after language class, we have a project meeting and then we are going to the beach to swim and hang out.
This is what my life has become.

I Made It

We got to Kherson at around 10am. The train ride was long, but very cool. We all shared a cozy (cozy meaning uncomfortable) room and I had the top bunk in a scorching hot room. The last 2 days have been super hot and I have been sweating for about 2 days straight now. They don't have air conditioning in this country so I hope you all realize how lucky you are and think of me once in a while.
My counterpart or partner(Marina)picked me up at the train staion and the four of us purchased our return ticket for Sunday night. We then went our separate ways and she took me directly to my new organization. My counterpart is awesome. She is a divorced single mother, 28 years old, and she speaks basic English. I met my host mother whose name is Tatiana (or Tanya for short) who is also very nice, but apparently we are living with a huge boxer (the dog, not Mike Tyson). I went on a tour of the building and met about 20 people here whose names I can't pronounce. All I know is I had to kick my Russian into 3rd gear because nobody here speaks English except Marina. I do know that only one male works here and he is the driver. It might be a looooong 2 years. For the most part, everyone is really nice. We walked around downtown and ate lunch at the local pizzaria. Now we have one hour to kill before I go to see my new home. I have internet at my desk and this is a pretty sweet set-up. Tomorrow I need to be back here at 8am to begin discussing my projects in detail. It sounds liek right now, I need to finish developing their website, put on seminars on the English culture for the community and build the library through donations. I also need to start a film club and English club. Apparently there was a former volunteer who worked here and set the bar pretty high for me so I have some big shoes to fill.
Gotta run.

Time To Blog

We got to Prolosok (AKA: Prolosuck) yesterday afternoon. Prolosok is the place we spent our first 3 days in Ukraine just south of Kyiv. We had our site announcement ceremony. How did it go? FRICKIN' AWESOME! ...at least on paper. They answered all my requests. I am going to a city called Kherson (pronounced "Hersone"). It is in Southern Ukraine right on the Black Sea just above Crimea and across the bay from Odessa. The weather is supposed to be perfect there this time of year. It is a port city of about 400,000 people. It is a big agriculture and ship building city. That's about all I know. There are 3 other volunteers going with me: Peter and Marcia who are an older married couple and Leah who is about 23...I think. I'm super excited to head south.
Last night we all started a bonfire on the beach at Prolosok and had a little party. It was awesome to see everyone again, but now we are all going separate ways..at least for a week.
I am currently at the Peace Corps headquarters in Kyiv and we are wasting time until we leave for the train station. We then hop on a 13-hour train ride and we will meet our partner (the person who takes care of us there). I guess my host family is a middle-aged female and her friend. She works at my host organization. My host organization (the place where most of my work is focused and I am stationed) is a childrens' library. I will be developeing their website, starting a film club and an English club as well as finding time to work in H.R. with employment centers and other organizations. Here at the Peace Corps office I tracked down my 2 packages from J.J and Shawna...both were loaded with food, books, games, and tons of other stuff. Perfect timing and I'm eternally grateful to you both!
I'm off to check out my new home now. I have internet at my host organization so I will be able to blog once I'm there most likely, but tons of pictures will follow when I return to Chernihiv.
Mom, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! I love you tons!!!!!

Quick Post

I have a few minutes and thought I'd send a quick note out. I had a boring weekend of doing nothing. In the package I got from my parents, was a new card game. We spent many hours playing Phase 10 and now we all hate UNO. I had a new and exciting food experience...chicken embryos. They are basically eggs in the earlyy development stage comlete with nasty veins and all. They are very tought and resemble that of a sheep testicle. Good eating. Can someone please tell me why my host family eats the weirdest stuff??
Today we had an easy day in language class. We watched a Russian movie and cooked an awesome lunch together. I am aboutto meet up with some people at the beer tent in about 10 minutes to hang out for a bit before I need to go home and pack. It is super nice outside for once...nothing like Billings though.
We leave at 8:15am tomorrow and get in around noon. Tomorrow at this time, I will know where I am going to spend 2 years of my life. We are all excited to see each other again and hear the news...good or bad.
I got a call from the office in Kyiv this morning. They have 2 packages for me I need to pick up next week. I'm guessing they are from J.J. and Shawna. I'll let you guys know. Thanks for taking care of me.
Talk to y'all in a week!

The Week In Pictures

Pictures from the Soviet War museum. You had to pay to take pictures inside, so this is the best I could do. This is an old school Soviet tank.

This is my project group (minus Greg) slaving away in the only place available...the local shopping mall. The mall did have an amazing ice cream shop where the owner spoke English. I tried smoked ice cream....not good. Ukrainian ice cream is awesome though.

Project Group study break at Jonathan's place just before the greates Ukrainian meal of all-time.

A manly pose of me taking a tea break. Not only is Jonathan's mom the world's greatest cook, she also makes killer tea. Jonathan is the guy drilling for oil on the right.

Victory Day celebration!!!

Weekly Update

Tuesday was Victory Day. We went to this Soviet World War II museum which was really interesting. We had an English tour guide and it made a big difference. It was painful to see how the Jews were treated back then and to see graphic photographs of it all. I got home in the late afternoon to find out Andrey pirated Spiderman 3 so we watched that on his computer. I guess my Russian is getting better because I understood the entire film except one scene he had to translate for me. When that got over, we ate dinner. What was for dinner?? It looked like delicious chicken soup so I dove in. I noticed a peculiar taste and at that moment Marina said to me, " You do like fish heads, don't you? Just be careful of all the bones". I choked down the rest of it and Andrey had the idea to get on a bus to watch the fireworks show downtown. I was reluctant, but I was glad we went when all was said and done. We stopped and grabbed some beers and when we headed into the center it was like Vegas on New Year's Eve. Most of the city was out at 11pm and it was a huge street party. We ended up staying out pretty late. We walked home and stopped into this pool hall and played some Russian billiards. The differenece is all the balls are white and you can hit any balls you want. The first person to hit 6 in wins. The tables are twice as big as American pool and I sucked. They did have one American table so I taught Andrey and his friend how to play "real pool" and I still lost :) I finally got to bed at 4:30am and had to be up at 7am.
Wednesday was an awkward night. Andrey and Marina were in a screaming match and then not speaking to each other. I felt very uncomfortable and left the house to hang out with olga down the street so they could have some privacy.
Thursday we had our last session on grant-writing. I came home and watched some more lame DVD's.
Our project finally has life after several meetings and a busy week. We are putting on a seminar June 6th for 6 organizations and a group of college students on "selling yourself" (e.g. resume-writing and interviewing skills) so our original idea came backl to life in the long run. We sat in on one Russian seminar at the employment center Tuesday and brought an amazing translator with us so that is a big reason why we had success. We spent the last few days drafting our proposal and applying for a grant to pay for this thing. Wednesday at Jonathan's house I expereiced something amazing....food! His host mom rocks! She cooked so much food for us and it was all delicious. Good to know I'm the only one who got the shaft in the food department. I am going back there tomorrow with our translator to watch the last 5 episodes of "Lost". Jonathan's mom in the states mailed him a DVD with the last few episodes on it and I am excited!!! Our translator, Andrey, also is a huge fan of the show so tomorrow should be a good day. Speaking of packages, I finally received my first one!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was mailed April 6th from my parents. Cutoms took out the food that was in it, but I was glad to get something. My mom put a hot wheels car in there for Nikita and now he thinks he is the coolest kid inUkraine. He is so proud to have an American living with him and he loves to show me off to his friends.
On the down side, I am completely broke. I have enough of my pay to get me to my site on Tuesday and that's it. I get paid again when I arrive there. Therefore, it will most likely be a boring weekend.
Last night totally sucked. When I got home Andrey and Marina were shouting for hours and hours again. She's a screamer when they argue and it went on until about midnight. My dinner last night was a bag of mushroom flavor potato chips. She offered me dinner, but I saw it was left over fish head soup with nothiung but bones floating around in there so I kindly passed.
Today I laughed harder than I have in years. In language class, we had our Tech teacher come in and teach us Ukrainian cuss words. It was for our safety and for the business teachers mostly. The handout had every possible word and phrase imaginable and some of the translations were hilarious and made absolutely no sense. We just got out of another meeting with the director of the employment center and tonight I have the house to myself WOO HOO!!
I won't be posting for over a week most likely. I will be back around the 23rd. I can't afford phone minutes this week so I apologize for the lack of calls. I will be back in touch when I get back from visiting my new city.

Just Stopping By

I just got out of a brutal language class where we had to learn how the European train system works. The entire exercise was over my head so I guess I will end up in Kazakstan when I am trying to get to Odessa. We are going on a field trip Thursday to the train station so I have a few days to figure this thing out. Tomorrow I have tutoring in the afternoon and Wednesday is Victory Day and we have the day off, but need to get together with our clusters for reflection (whatever that means). I hear we are taking an English tour of a museum here so that should be fun....hopefully.
So yesterday, I got home and instantly got talked into going back to that amusement park. I guess my pictures sparked interest for the family. Olga and her son and my host family took the bus back there and I ended up breaking my kneecap in 7 pieces on the stinkin' bumper cars. I had Olga's son in my lap and in order to protect the kid, I sacrificed my precious knee. Oh well, I have another one. Now I am walking around town like George Jefferson "WHEEZY!!!". As a reward, however, I treated myself to a Ukrainian hot dog. Little did I know they were pretty much raw (what a surprise) with mayonaise and carrots on them. So, Heather, when exactly should I expect this package of Chicago eats??! We got home around 7pm and I studied for about an hour. One of Andrey's friends then came over and we ended up drinking beer and eating fish jerky (yes, the kind where you rip the heads off, take out the guts and eat away). I ended up arguing with the guy about television when he stated the "The Simpsons" was "s**t"! He spoke very good English and we got in a heated debate, but it was defused early on when he gave me the next batch of crappy English DVD's. This batch includes I, Robot, Swordfish, The Terminator trilogy and Doom. The crappy sci-fi film festival begins tonight if anyone wants to fly out to join me.
Word around the rumor mill is that up to 4 of the 30 of us will be stationed in Chernihiv permenantly. God, please don't let me be included in that group. I like my town, but I am ready to move out of here at this point.
Well, my hour is up and I need to head to the employment center now to have our meeting and finalize our project.

Welcome to the blog, Maicie and the i_TECH crew; it's nice to know I have a fan base out there and I am the topic of conversation around the water cooler nowadays. Thanks for finding my babbling somewhat interesting.
Keep On Truckin'!

My Tour of Chernihiv

So after I posted yesterday, I walked around downown looking for that cluster that was in town, but had no luck. Instead I ran into Greg, James and Brian and 3 Ukrainians. They invited me to go with them although none of knew where we were going. Greg and James had just finished their site interviews and were dressed in their suits. I also had nice clothes on and uncomfortable shoes. Long story short, we ended up walking around Chernihiv from 2pm until 8pm. These guys felt they needed us to see the entire city by foot. Brian and Greg took off about halfway through and maybe I should have followed their lead, but I did get to see a lot of stuff I normally would not have seen here. We checked out famous landmarks and statues and then walked down to the river. He showed us the beach and sauna and then we walked into the woods. I was thinking these guys were gonna murder us or something, but we stumbled upon Chernihiv's version of Six Flags (in the middle of the forest). Here was this huge central park with an amusement park, stadium and concert venue. I never knew any of this even existed here. The two Ukrainian guys (Sasha and Sergey) bought tickets and forced James and me to ride these rides that looked like they were built before world war II. They bought me a beer and we slammed it and then he made me ride the orbit which spins around a million miles/hour; just what my stomach needed (it's still holding strong at 97% by the way). We then rode a few more rides and continued to walk for another 10 miles. I finally got home, ate some pizza my host mom made and passed out around midnight wishing I had more crappy movies to watch. By the way, the weather was amazing finally. Today is pretty nice as well although it's windy as hell.
This morning I had my site interview. It lasted about 20 minutes and I'm not sure what to make of it. They went over my resume and asked me if my priority was a big city, to live by other volunteers or to be south near the Black Sea. I didn't know how to answer that question since those are all priorities for me. I sid I will just roll with the punches and told them I'd like to work for an organization that ties into my work experience; working with kids, AIDS, disabled and all that was secondary and ideal for side projects. I now wait for a week to hear where I get placed. Brian went on a date last night and saw Spiderman 3 without me so that is off for today, but Marina wants to take me to these caves in town and do more sightseeing after seeing my pictures. Unfortunately, my legs and feet are killing me from yesterday. I'm curious to see how the day will unfold. Here are some pictures from yesterday...

It's a wonder I was even able to take this picture. I hate heights, I hate ferris wheels because they freak me out and I was scared this old 1942 ride was about to break. The things I do for my blog.

This is the river that runs through my city. In the distance on the left is a cool little beach complete with a sauna.

Mini Me.

The three on the right were our Ukrainian tour guides for the day.

The Week In Pictures

Somewhere along our journey into the woods, I stumbled across the shire from Lord of the Rings. Here I am coming out of Bilbo Baggins' house.

One big happy dysfunctional family.

Roasting some expired, rotten wienies over an open fire and doing my best to tell my friends in Russian about my philosophy on life.

Oh yeah, I adopted a kid while out here. My goal is to Angelina Jolie my way to adopting enough kids to start a Ukrainian 80's cover band.

A true Ukrainian superstar I am. I believe here I was singing "I've Got You Under My Skin" by Sinatra. Chuck, where were you??

2 of the craziest SOB's this side of Nantucket.

I introduced The Running Man to Ukraine this week.

Oh yeah, and this happened.

I'm Alive!!!

Happy Cinco De Mayo, Mi Amigos!
Good news: Stomach meter is at 96% and I am in much better spirits this week.
J.J., haven't gotten your package yet, but as long as you didn't write food or CD's on it, it will come. I'm still waiting on other packages that were mailed to me 5 weeks ago. Brian, I am anxiously awaiting your package as well :)! Kelly, welcome to blogging heaven. I can't wait to visit you in your Ukrainian Chicago village. Heather D, did you get my email? Email me at my hotmail address. Kate, got your new number. I promise to call sometime over the next 26 months ;)
So it's been a week since last you heard from me. What did I do? Monday? Can't remember. The weather has been just awful. Freezing cold and rain everyday. Tuesday was Labor Day in Ukraine. It is the only day we have off during training. Did I mention there was a flippin' blizzard on Tuesday?? Next week is Victory Day which is a huge holiday here where they celebrate their victory over Germany in WWII with fireworks and festivals. We have to work, but it sounds like an easy and early day. On Labor Day we went day camping. A guy here called James said yesterday that some things in Ukraine are better like being able to start a fire anywhere you want. It was funny at the time, but he is right. Even in Montana, the world's greatest camping mecca, you can't have fires in campgrounds half the time. I went with my host family and Olga and her son. We hiked into this forest, set up a huge picnic blanket, searched for firewood and started a bonfire. We ate lots of food and played soccer. It was a fun day. The rest of the week is a blur. Wednesday night we went to Olga and Andrey's place to have dinner and drinks and ended up singing karaoke. I started off with some Blue Suede Shoes and went into some Sinatra, Steve Miller and by special request...Ace Of Base. They said I had an amazing voice and should make an album out here (they were actually serious). I said they need to get out more. Language class is getting better. We are studying how to make phone calls, take public transporation and kick ass at the post office. One of our assignments was to mail stuff to America and send someone a telegram. I chose this guy Geoffrey and we sent him one that read "I know what you did last summer" signed anonymously. The lady at the post office thought we were crazy and it was much more difficult than we imagined. He did receive it though and is still trying to figure it out. Our group project is still in the works. It's gone from a resume-writing workshop to train-the trainer to currently developing a career fair in town that they can hold annually. We have a big meeting Monday with the chamber of commerce and employment center to get this nailed out. Our final project proposal is due next Friday. Yesterday, we had 3 hours of safety training. We learned about fun things like assault and rape and we got to put out a fire in the back of the school. There was a medical guy in town from D.C. and he enlightened us with....I forgot. I do remember him looking like George Lucas, however. When he got up to the front of the auditorium, I was ready to ask why he chose the color green for Yoda, but instead everyone asked him questions about medications. I don't get it.
Other than that, I've been a slacker this week which may be part of the reason why I am feeling better. I hardly did any homework and gave myself a little one-week vacation. I managed to watch the rest of those American DVD's Andrey's friend lent me. I offically had the Worst Films Ever Made Film Festival this week. The list included Anger Mangement, The Whole Nine Yards, Bedazzled (Elizabeth Hurley is one of the most beautiful women on this planet by the way), My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Bruce Almighty and The Freshman (which I actually enjoyed). I'm hoping the next batch of flicks will be better, but obviously I will watch anything right now. Andrey uploaded Clockwork Orange, From Dusk Til Dawn and The Science of Sleep to my laptop so I have 3 more to watch. We also watched The Good Shephard the other night in Russian with subtitles. The movie moved very slow, but was still interesting. He got Tarantino's Grindhouse last night so we will nail that one out this weekend. Also, tomorrow we are going to see Spiderman 3 at the theater; yes, it's in Russian and, no, I don't care if I can only understand every 15 words.
So, out of 1500 channels on satellite at the house, we only get 4 in English (The Travel Channel, VH-1, BBC and CNBC). Thursday night, Marina and Andrey went out to the disco and I had my first night alone in Ukraine. It was amazing. I turned on CNBC and BEHOLD!!! Conan O'Brien was on. I was in my element. He had a musical guest on by the name of Brandy Carlisle. What's the deal with her? I hate female singers and bands, but that song was awesome. Is she a huge deal in the states? Who is mailing me this CD???
What else?? One of my clustermates, Teri, came down with the same stuff I had except her fever was much worse. An ambulance had to take her to the hospital and now she is in the Kyiv medical offices. I learned that if things get really bad, they medivac us to Thailand. Does that make much sense?? Anyway, we may be looking at the next American to leave us. I have discovered shaving in a whole new light and it sucks. I was spoiled with my electric razor that I killed. My neck is very sensitve and I cut the hell out of it. Funny story: Nikita, who is 6, learned lat week that the male genitals are a great target. He keeps walking around trying to punch everyonein their family jewels. I have managed to successfully block each blow this week until last night. I was playing Godzilla and destroying a village he built out of building blocks. He came out of nowhere and nailed me in my little guys. It instantly took me down; I guess I deserved it. I now need to buy a protective cup to wear around the house.
I discovered a new market in town that has an amazing selection of food including Guiness beer and Honey Nut Cheerios. We scored some tortillas to make quesidillas with at language class and I found smoked string cheese which completely rocks!
Training is just about half over. Tomorrow at 11am, I have my placement interview with the Peace Corps big whigs. They ask us what size town we want to live in, if we want to be in a Russian or Ukrainian town, if we want to live around other Ameicans, etc. I think they already have places for us and this is just a formality, but I really want to work on heading south to the black sea region...maybe the Crimea penninsula. Next weekend we head back to prolosok where all of us reunite for mid-training debriefing and site announcements. From there we all go separate ways to our new towns and we meet our new organizations and new host families. We stay there for a couple days and then go to Kyiv to debrief at headquarters. We then come back here to Chernigiv to complete our projects. Things are picking up and time is flying.
There is another cluster in town today and I'm about to try to meet up with them. I have been getting a lot of calls from other PCVs outside of my city. It is so great to talk to them and hear about their very different lives in small villages. We are all very excited to reunite in prolosok next week. Stephen and Nathan have invited me to room with them so it should be a fun time.
Be safe and I love you all!!
Until next time.