More clarification: There are 5 or 6 clusters of us in Chernigiv. A cluster is a small group you attend language and technical training with. My cluster consists of Megan who is younger from Denver, Zach who is 23 from southern California, Brian who is from New York and plays the guitar he brought with him. I think he is from Cali as well. Suzi is in her 50's and from San Diego and Teri is in her 40's or 50's and I don't know where she is from.
I have been buried with homework. We get at least an hour or two worth of language homework every night, we have a ton of reading to do, we have techincal home assignments twice a week and we have to give a presentation on Friday in Russian. My presentation is a slide show about what I did Sunday night. I have some hilarious pictures to show my cluster. I just wish I could share them here.
Last night, I got home and started to study, but my host dad was so proud of the fact that he pirated a copy of "300" in Russian with English subtitles that he hooked up his computer to the tv and made me watch all 2 hours worth. I then had to eat dinner (eggs) and as I was going to study, my host mom begged me to play UNO. She said she would do my homework for me if we could play after. I let her help me a little but then studied on my own and fell asleep. Luckily we didnt have to turn in the assignment today.
After class, we met at McDonalds where I had 2 double cheeseburgers and it was everything I remember it to be. We then walked to the main employment center and we had a roundtable discussion with the president and vice president. I was amazed how advanced it was. It is pretty much identical to employment centers in the states. We left there about a half hour ago and after leaving this internet club, I am going to a office supply store to buy some decent pens and paper. They gave us all graphing paper and it drives me insane.
Many of you have been having difficulty calling me. I just got the scoop 2 minutes ago. You need to dial 011 380 and then my complete phone number which starts with 0. Email me if you want it. I'm hoping this actually works.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Easter Weekend
Happy Easter to everyone!
This last weekend was a wild experience. Saturday, I met up with Megan, Zach, Jason and Mike and we walked around the city. We found this huge foot bridge that crossed the river and walked over it to this forest where we just hung out for a bit. At that point I was starving as I thought we were meeting for lunch not to explore Ukraine by foot. We went to another pizzeria and I enjoyed an amazing pie. I cruised home and the rest of the group continued on to do something else. I ate dinner and went to bed early as I knew we had to be up at the crack of dawn.
Easter (or Pasca in Ukraine) is a huge 3-day celebration. We woke up at 5am and got ready for church. As we strepped outside into the freezing air, you could hear choir music echoing throughout the city and hundreds of people (I mean everyone) was outside carrying their Easter baskets to the church. At the church everyone grouped up outside as the pastor blessed everyone and their baskets. From what I understand, in the baskets is the food they were unable to eat during lent. It is also part of Pasca supper. To my surprise there wasn't a church service, that was all there was. We met up with Marina's sister and her family and Marina's mom. We then drove to Andry's family's house for an early meal. At the meal was an endless supply of vodka and wine. I didn't want to even think about drinking at 6am, but didn't want to be the odd man out either so here I am doing shots of vodka with about 15 Ukrainans at breakfast. They asked me what day of the month I was born and I said 12. That opened up a can of worms as my new mission, as is a tradition, was to eat 12 pieces of different Pasca bread which is a sweet bread they eat on this holiday. I only made it to 5 by the end of the night. We came home after dinner and we all took a nap. We woke up and headed out around 6pm to Andrey and Marina's friend's house. She is an English teacher so it was a relief to have a translator finally. We ate another huge dinner and drank another bottle of vodka. We then ventured into the other room where I was forced to karaoke.
(side note: I had heard rumors that Ukrainians love the song "Yesterday" by the Beatles, and I read someone's blog where they made him karaoke it a million times. While I thought it was funny and probably overinflated, sure enough they made me sing "Yesterday". I also found out one of the guys in my cluster was forced to learn that song on the guitar.) Nonetheless, I rocked it out and by the end of the night I was an instant superstar. I have some amazing pictuers of the entire day's events, but once again, can't figure out how to shrink the size down to post them here.
Around 10pm, we took a cab to the local disco where Andrey had reserved a table and a bottle of ....vodka. We stayed there until 2:30 am and danced the night away. For those of you who want a taste of Ukraine, download a song by HollyDolly called "the Dolly Song". That song is huge out here and I was forced into doing the Russian dance in the middle of a circle of Russians at the disco to that song.
I came home, and called my parents to wish them Happy Easter and passed out.
Monday, I woke up late and was a half hour late to my technical language training. I caught a lot of crap for that, but my alarm clock battery popped out...totally not my fault. We were done somewhat early and I went home afterwards, ate dinner, studied for 3 hours and passed out.
Today we had language and technical training prepping us for community visits this week. Tomorrow we visit an employment center, Thursday we visit a school and sit in on a classroom and answer questions, Friday we go to social services. Busy week.
On a horrible note, my friend Travis quit yesterday. He was one of the people I was hanging out with in Philly. I will miss the guy and I am sick of seeing my friends leave so soon even though the thought has crossed my mind on occasion. I am beyond culture-shocked and homesick.
Some clarification: There are 75 of us total in my group. There are other Americans here from previous groups. We are the 32nd group to arrive in Ukraine. 25 of us business/community developers are here in Chernigiv and the rest of the youth developers are in small villages thoughout the country. After our training, we get sent out to our permanent sites where there may be zero Americans around.
That is all I have for right now. The weather has been cold, snowy, rainy and horrible this week so far.
My thoughts and prayers go out to Connie (if she is reading this). I am deeply saddened for your loss.
Another not to JJ: Thanks for sending me my first care package! You rock and I know you can relate to my homesickness.
This last weekend was a wild experience. Saturday, I met up with Megan, Zach, Jason and Mike and we walked around the city. We found this huge foot bridge that crossed the river and walked over it to this forest where we just hung out for a bit. At that point I was starving as I thought we were meeting for lunch not to explore Ukraine by foot. We went to another pizzeria and I enjoyed an amazing pie. I cruised home and the rest of the group continued on to do something else. I ate dinner and went to bed early as I knew we had to be up at the crack of dawn.
Easter (or Pasca in Ukraine) is a huge 3-day celebration. We woke up at 5am and got ready for church. As we strepped outside into the freezing air, you could hear choir music echoing throughout the city and hundreds of people (I mean everyone) was outside carrying their Easter baskets to the church. At the church everyone grouped up outside as the pastor blessed everyone and their baskets. From what I understand, in the baskets is the food they were unable to eat during lent. It is also part of Pasca supper. To my surprise there wasn't a church service, that was all there was. We met up with Marina's sister and her family and Marina's mom. We then drove to Andry's family's house for an early meal. At the meal was an endless supply of vodka and wine. I didn't want to even think about drinking at 6am, but didn't want to be the odd man out either so here I am doing shots of vodka with about 15 Ukrainans at breakfast. They asked me what day of the month I was born and I said 12. That opened up a can of worms as my new mission, as is a tradition, was to eat 12 pieces of different Pasca bread which is a sweet bread they eat on this holiday. I only made it to 5 by the end of the night. We came home after dinner and we all took a nap. We woke up and headed out around 6pm to Andrey and Marina's friend's house. She is an English teacher so it was a relief to have a translator finally. We ate another huge dinner and drank another bottle of vodka. We then ventured into the other room where I was forced to karaoke.
(side note: I had heard rumors that Ukrainians love the song "Yesterday" by the Beatles, and I read someone's blog where they made him karaoke it a million times. While I thought it was funny and probably overinflated, sure enough they made me sing "Yesterday". I also found out one of the guys in my cluster was forced to learn that song on the guitar.) Nonetheless, I rocked it out and by the end of the night I was an instant superstar. I have some amazing pictuers of the entire day's events, but once again, can't figure out how to shrink the size down to post them here.
Around 10pm, we took a cab to the local disco where Andrey had reserved a table and a bottle of ....vodka. We stayed there until 2:30 am and danced the night away. For those of you who want a taste of Ukraine, download a song by HollyDolly called "the Dolly Song". That song is huge out here and I was forced into doing the Russian dance in the middle of a circle of Russians at the disco to that song.
I came home, and called my parents to wish them Happy Easter and passed out.
Monday, I woke up late and was a half hour late to my technical language training. I caught a lot of crap for that, but my alarm clock battery popped out...totally not my fault. We were done somewhat early and I went home afterwards, ate dinner, studied for 3 hours and passed out.
Today we had language and technical training prepping us for community visits this week. Tomorrow we visit an employment center, Thursday we visit a school and sit in on a classroom and answer questions, Friday we go to social services. Busy week.
On a horrible note, my friend Travis quit yesterday. He was one of the people I was hanging out with in Philly. I will miss the guy and I am sick of seeing my friends leave so soon even though the thought has crossed my mind on occasion. I am beyond culture-shocked and homesick.
Some clarification: There are 75 of us total in my group. There are other Americans here from previous groups. We are the 32nd group to arrive in Ukraine. 25 of us business/community developers are here in Chernigiv and the rest of the youth developers are in small villages thoughout the country. After our training, we get sent out to our permanent sites where there may be zero Americans around.
That is all I have for right now. The weather has been cold, snowy, rainy and horrible this week so far.
My thoughts and prayers go out to Connie (if she is reading this). I am deeply saddened for your loss.
Another not to JJ: Thanks for sending me my first care package! You rock and I know you can relate to my homesickness.
Friday, April 6, 2007
One Week Down
As for the pictures, I dont know what to do. The files are too large when I try to upload or email them. I even tried on about 3 different computers. I'll keep working on it but if anyone has any ideas, let me know.
Last night Andrey, Marina and I went out for pizza which was the best meal I've had yet. It was nice to have a taste of home. I didnt think I'd miss good food this much. After that, we picked up Nikita from kindergarten. His teacher gave me her phone number so I can call her daughter. Apparently she is learning English and I am to help her with it....awkward. We then went to the university where they work and I tried to upload pictures on the internet to no avail. I saw Andrey's dad there and he made me do a shot of vodka. One thing I noticed here is that all professionals drink and smoke in their office during the day. Even the teachers drink champagne between classes. One of Andrey's co-workers found out I was not married and tried to set me up with her "beautiful" daughter. Another one insisted I was a spy from the FBI.
We finally went home and cleaned the house together. Apparently Ukrainians can't do any physical work over Easter weekend. They take this holiday pretty seriously and I am to attend a church ceremony on Sunday morning. I have been so tired and am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. I lucked out in the fact that my host family likes to saty up late and sleep till noon. After we finished cleaning, Andrey and I watched Fight Club in Russian. One hasn't lived until he sees Brad Pitt speak dubbed Russian. I went to bed after finally having an early night.
Today after language class, we had our first medical training session where I got 2 more shots. They also spent about 2 hours on STD's and HIV. We all had to put condoms on rubber penises. It was the most embarrasing, awkward yet hilarious moment of my life; I wish I had my camera.
Got news today the so far 2 people have quit. One couldn't hack it anymore and I'm not sure what the other's story is since he is in a different town. That kinda news brings us all down. We are all feeling uneasy and today was the first day I really missed home and asked myself why I am here. Supposedly this is normal. At any right, I was sorry to see these people have to leave.
For those of you that have been watching CNN, everything is cool in my part of Ukraine. Most of the action is in Kyiv. For those that haven't heard, Ukraine is on the edge of a civil war and there is buzz about evacuation if it gets violent. They are calling for a new election for prime minister and people are divided as to which to side with. Their have been hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians rallying in the streets in the larger cities, but so far it is all peaceful. The news is blowing it up far worse than it is.
Tonight I beleive we are just going to play games and maybe drink some beers. I am beyond tired at this point. The Peace Corps is cramming so much into these 3 months it is insane. Between technical and language homework and reading assignments, socializing with my host family and just living life, I am completely drained.
I wish all of you a Happy Easter and I'll write more next week. This internet cafe rules and I dont k,now if I told you but one of the attendents here speaks English.
Last night Andrey, Marina and I went out for pizza which was the best meal I've had yet. It was nice to have a taste of home. I didnt think I'd miss good food this much. After that, we picked up Nikita from kindergarten. His teacher gave me her phone number so I can call her daughter. Apparently she is learning English and I am to help her with it....awkward. We then went to the university where they work and I tried to upload pictures on the internet to no avail. I saw Andrey's dad there and he made me do a shot of vodka. One thing I noticed here is that all professionals drink and smoke in their office during the day. Even the teachers drink champagne between classes. One of Andrey's co-workers found out I was not married and tried to set me up with her "beautiful" daughter. Another one insisted I was a spy from the FBI.
We finally went home and cleaned the house together. Apparently Ukrainians can't do any physical work over Easter weekend. They take this holiday pretty seriously and I am to attend a church ceremony on Sunday morning. I have been so tired and am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. I lucked out in the fact that my host family likes to saty up late and sleep till noon. After we finished cleaning, Andrey and I watched Fight Club in Russian. One hasn't lived until he sees Brad Pitt speak dubbed Russian. I went to bed after finally having an early night.
Today after language class, we had our first medical training session where I got 2 more shots. They also spent about 2 hours on STD's and HIV. We all had to put condoms on rubber penises. It was the most embarrasing, awkward yet hilarious moment of my life; I wish I had my camera.
Got news today the so far 2 people have quit. One couldn't hack it anymore and I'm not sure what the other's story is since he is in a different town. That kinda news brings us all down. We are all feeling uneasy and today was the first day I really missed home and asked myself why I am here. Supposedly this is normal. At any right, I was sorry to see these people have to leave.
For those of you that have been watching CNN, everything is cool in my part of Ukraine. Most of the action is in Kyiv. For those that haven't heard, Ukraine is on the edge of a civil war and there is buzz about evacuation if it gets violent. They are calling for a new election for prime minister and people are divided as to which to side with. Their have been hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians rallying in the streets in the larger cities, but so far it is all peaceful. The news is blowing it up far worse than it is.
Tonight I beleive we are just going to play games and maybe drink some beers. I am beyond tired at this point. The Peace Corps is cramming so much into these 3 months it is insane. Between technical and language homework and reading assignments, socializing with my host family and just living life, I am completely drained.
I wish all of you a Happy Easter and I'll write more next week. This internet cafe rules and I dont k,now if I told you but one of the attendents here speaks English.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Problems
For some reason, this site is acting up. I have some good pictures, but it won't let me upoad them on this computer. Also, the last post is screwed up. If you click on the subject line you can read the whole thing. I am not going to type it all over again. Sorry. I miss you all and life is good!
another day
This is the most surreal thing a person can experience and I strongly believe every American should do something similar. When you see how excited people get over a stick of gum, a quarter, or even a map of their hometown, it really puts things into perspective. Living with people who don't speak your language is a total mind blow as well.
Monday was my first day of language training. We spend 4 hours a day in our teacher's apartment. After class, our cluster walked around the square and had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. After that I went back to my teacher's apartemnet as I was the first one to get tutored. We have to put in so many hours of tutoring a month. Andrey took me and picked me up so I can learn the bus routes to Olga's apartment. The transportation is a little intimidating. When we got home, Andrey and I bought a couple beers and hiked to this huge river near his house. The weather has been amazing and we just relaxed and had a very awkward conversation. It really helps my Russian when the people you talk to know only about 20 words in English. After that we came back, ate, I talked ot my parents and then played UNO until 2am.
Tuesday after language class I had my first technical training class in a school downtown. I have technical training every Tuesday and Thursday. Today we just had an overview of our projects. When that was over, I took the bus by myself for the first time. I figure I'm good as long as nobody talks to me. I stopped at the market and picked up some food for lunches. I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I ended up with some bologna, I think, cheese, OJ and cookies to share with everyone. When I got home, Andrey and I walked ot the internet cafe,m but it was too crowded. Weinstead ended up playing soccer (futbol). Futbol is huge out here and Andrey is a former futbol champion. I was just amazed I could keep up. We came home and showered (not together) and then had a small dinner party. Marina invited her best friend Olga over for dinner and games. Dinner was a pasta dish with pork. After dinner we played a mean game of UNO which I won. During the game they were all having a conversation which was over my head. after teh game it dawned on me that they are trying to set me up with Olga. The thing is, she knows zero English. The only thing she knows is "oops". At any rate, the rest of the night was awkward. She left and I studied before bed. I tried to call Shawna and Jessica because I wanted to hear a familiar voice, but since it was the middle of the day I couldnt get a hold of anyone.
Today after language training, we had our best suits on for a meeting with the Mayor. That was a trip. As soon as we walked into the courthouse, we were bombarded with news media and paparazi. It was a very formal meeting where his group sat in an elevated panel and I had to talk to him briefly in Russian in front of 25 of my peers and Olga (teacher Olga). For the most part they were very welcoming. We also met the head of the militia. When that was over I walked around with some people and we got lunch in this cafeteria in a courthouse. I ate a salad that consisted of eggs and beets and to my surprise anchovies. Thank God another guy's host mom bought me a candy bar. We then went to get cell phones for a few people and I bought an umbrella because it started to rain and I forgot to pack one. I am now killing time at an internet cafe before I need to meet up with Marina. We are going to the university because her co-workers are dying to meet me. At least one of them speaks English. It's always nice to have a translator around.
Monday was my first day of language training. We spend 4 hours a day in our teacher's apartment. After class, our cluster walked around the square and had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. After that I went back to my teacher's apartemnet as I was the first one to get tutored. We have to put in so many hours of tutoring a month. Andrey took me and picked me up so I can learn the bus routes to Olga's apartment. The transportation is a little intimidating. When we got home, Andrey and I bought a couple beers and hiked to this huge river near his house. The weather has been amazing and we just relaxed and had a very awkward conversation. It really helps my Russian when the people you talk to know only about 20 words in English. After that we came back, ate, I talked ot my parents and then played UNO until 2am.
Tuesday after language class I had my first technical training class in a school downtown. I have technical training every Tuesday and Thursday. Today we just had an overview of our projects. When that was over, I took the bus by myself for the first time. I figure I'm good as long as nobody talks to me. I stopped at the market and picked up some food for lunches. I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I ended up with some bologna, I think, cheese, OJ and cookies to share with everyone. When I got home, Andrey and I walked ot the internet cafe,m but it was too crowded. Weinstead ended up playing soccer (futbol). Futbol is huge out here and Andrey is a former futbol champion. I was just amazed I could keep up. We came home and showered (not together) and then had a small dinner party. Marina invited her best friend Olga over for dinner and games. Dinner was a pasta dish with pork. After dinner we played a mean game of UNO which I won. During the game they were all having a conversation which was over my head. after teh game it dawned on me that they are trying to set me up with Olga. The thing is, she knows zero English. The only thing she knows is "oops". At any rate, the rest of the night was awkward. She left and I studied before bed. I tried to call Shawna and Jessica because I wanted to hear a familiar voice, but since it was the middle of the day I couldnt get a hold of anyone.
Today after language training, we had our best suits on for a meeting with the Mayor. That was a trip. As soon as we walked into the courthouse, we were bombarded with news media and paparazi. It was a very formal meeting where his group sat in an elevated panel and I had to talk to him briefly in Russian in front of 25 of my peers and Olga (teacher Olga). For the most part they were very welcoming. We also met the head of the militia. When that was over I walked around with some people and we got lunch in this cafeteria in a courthouse. I ate a salad that consisted of eggs and beets and to my surprise anchovies. Thank God another guy's host mom bought me a candy bar. We then went to get cell phones for a few people and I bought an umbrella because it started to rain and I forgot to pack one. I am now killing time at an internet cafe before I need to meet up with Marina. We are going to the university because her co-workers are dying to meet me. At least one of them speaks English. It's always nice to have a translator around.
lots of reading and catching up
I've been journaling everyday since I dont have direct access to the internet. I am pasting everything here so feel free to read as much as you want, but I hope you read it all. I'm loving life and I miss you all!!!
Last night of staging was a blast. We went to a Mexican restaurant where I ate my last American dinner. We then went to the same pub again where pretty much all 80 of us showed up to annoy the local Philly folks. After the bars closed, I walked back to the hotel with Travis, Adam and Eryn. We ended up walking through Penn’s campus and posing for some amazing pictures along the way. Travis and I are convinced we are going to shoot an award-winning Ukrainian film while out here. There is even a girl called Jamie who has connections with Sundance Film Festival that maybe we can sweet talk.
Monday morning, I woke up and ran around downtown Philly looking for a laptop lock.
I found a good one, but it cost me $45. We all checked out on time and loaded onto 3 buses. At the last minute, one girl had still not received her luggage and it was finally getting delivered at the last minute. It arrived just in time for us to leave. We took off just in time and drove for 3 hours through New York City (including Times Square) and ended up at JFK airport in time to eat and spend a couple hours in a boiling-hot airport before boarding. Apparently this airport isn’t allowed to turn on their air conditioning until summer is officially on. I mean, it was HOT!!!
We got into Frankfurt, Germany on time. It was really cool flying over “the motherland”. I really want to visit Germany and see more of it at some point. Our flight to Kyiv was delayed because of our large group and the amount of luggage. The entire group got on the plane, but when all was said and done, about 30 of us were missing at least 1 luggage. I was missing 1 suitcase, but others were missing everything...even the carry-ons they made them check. Originally we were all supposed to take off together, but since so many of us lost luggage, the one group took off ahead of us. Our group had to wait in line for about 3 hours and fill out customs forms for our lost bags. Once we were all done, we were able to head out of the airport….finally! As they were loading the bus, we were able to eat a banana, a candy bar, and drink a juice box. We had to hurry up because the Ukrainian Prime Minister was about to arrive at the airport and they were waiting for our bus to get out of the way. We took the 1 hour drive on the bus from the airport to Prolosok (snowdrop). The drive was interesting. There was a lot of normal city life (McDonalds and all) and then a lot of forests and fields getting burned. You could definitely notice the pollution in the air. We arrived at Prolosok around 7pm. Imagine the most run-down camp you ever went to as a kid and then multiply it by 20. It was rather beat-up to say the least. We were just happy to be somewhere and at that point that had somewhere to sleep horizontally since we were all so jet lagged. They unloaded our bags and our group was starving at that point. The other group was already done eating and were getting ready to play a game of soccer. We all went into the cafeteria and enjoyed out first official Ukrainian meal which consisted of a small chicken breast, rice, bread cucumbers and tomatoes. They had candy bars, tea and coffee for dessert. At the end of dinner, a Ukrainian couple in full costume came in and offered everyone this festive bread that everyone takes a piece, dunks in salt and toasts. After dinner, I put my 1 suitcase in storage, met up with Travis and we hung out in Eryn, Jen and Laura’s room after watching some Duck Tales season1 in another guy’s room. I had to live in a super small room with 2 roommates (Jonathan and Greg) and we all were so tired we started to have some crazy vocal dreams in the middle of the night.
The next morning we ate some cheese, cucumbers and other staples of the Ukrainian diet and then attended some classes. There was a volunteer from another group that gave a lecture, I found out I am to learn Russian and had my first Russian class (which sucks because I had put in so much time learning Ukrainian), and we had some other workshops. The United States ambassador stopped in to visit all of us as well. We then ate some sort of pork and noodles and some soup with onion and tomatoes and then went up to the room before meeting up to watch “Volunteers” (a great Peace Corps comedy starring Tom Hanks) in the campus theater. After that, we all went to the one small store on campus and bought out all the vodka and had a mad party in the downstairs discoteque where we played some guitar, listened to music and just hung out talking. Even at this point, I am still meeting more and more trainees that I haven’t had the chance to meet yet. In our rooms, they supplied us with bananas, water, juice and apples so we took the juice down to the ball room and had something to mix the vodka with. I was able to talk to my parents briefly today with a phone card they gave us and I am now wrapping up the night after a luxurious shower. This shower is basically a huge elevated step with no shower curtain where you use this nozzle to hydrate, lather, rinse, etc. It is extremely unreal, but entertaining nonetheless….not to mention the water is hot so that makes a huge difference. I guess some of the rooms do not have hot water and they have to squat the whole time because the hose is not long enough.
Friday, we attended more classes and ate more cucumbers. I swear I have lost about 5 pounds already. We got assigned out clusters (people we will be living near). In my cluster is Megan, Brian, Zach, and Teri. Our instructor’s name is Olga (pronounced “Ola”). She seems really cool. We got our assigned communities in which we will be shipping out to. There are 4 clusters of 5 people moving to my area. We will be moving to a city called “Chernohigiv” which is about 2 1/2 hours north of Kyiv. After a surprisingly delicious dinner of cabbage rolls and a beet and egg salad, most of us headed back to our rooms to study while some of the others stayed in the theater to watch a movie (I think it was Blood Diamond). At this point a small handful of people are really homesick and some are talking of quitting although I’ll believe it when I see it. One thing is clear, there is always going to be ups and downs. Yesterday my luggage was still lost and my ipod died on me. Today my luggage arrived and my ipod is working again. I’m having a great time, but am a little nervous about meeting my host family tomorrow. I hope they speak a little English or at least some Ukrainian as my Russian is extremely horrible at this early stage.
Welcome to Saturday…the most surreal day of my life to date and the most nerve-wrecking day thus far on my big adventure. This morning we attended classes on what to expect from our host families. The staff performed some funny skits about possible situations we may find ourselves in. After that, we had a quick safety workshop about water, vegetables and things of that nature. We ate a nice lunch of pork and rice which, by the way, I tried this stuff on the table which is essentially ketchup mixed with hot sauce. It is amazing and I can’t believe no one has brought this to the states yet. We had about an hour after lunch to get our stuff together and meet in the lobby where about 5 different buses were picking us up to take us to our cities (oblasts). I said some sad goodbyes to friends and we got on our bus to Chernohigiv. When we arrived, we drove by a McDonalds and other familiar things and they let us out in the downtown square where slowly host families began to meet us and take us away. I was the third to last to leave and was getting more nervous (probably more nervous than I’ve ever been) by the second. During the bus ride I frantically tried to scrape together a few words and expressions in Russian to make things less awkward. While we were waiting on the sidewalk 2 Ukrainian girls came up to Jonathan and me and started flirting with us. I think they were amazed by us and thought we were movie stars. Finally, my host father came up to me and in a very awkward 2 minutes with the help from my language instructor, we were off. My host father’s name is Andrey and he is 29 years old. His father and 6 year-old son were in the car and his father drove us to their flat (apartment). This was bar none the most awkward car ride in my life as all my Russian escaped from my head and I froze. The only one that made a lick of sense was Nikita (the son) who knew how to say brother, sister, mother and father in English. The father dropped us off and we walked up to the third floor of the apartment complex where I met my host mother Marina. She is 25. Right away the stress and awkwardness went bye bye and we did our best to communicate. I ended up following them around the apartment while they showed me various things such as the refrigerator, light switch, toothbrush, towel, etc. and I used a notepad to right down the Russian word. Now, get this…this flat is nicer than 80% of the apartments in America. It is a newer place with cable tv (even some English channels), a Roman bathtub with hot water, a washing machine, a home office with a computer and a nice kitchen. Andrey is a movie buff like me and has over 1000 DVDs. He works as a computer programmer for the college of geology studies. Marina works at the same college in a different department. I really lucked out. He offered me a really good beer and we sat down for dinner which was pretty much potatoes, cabbage with egg and some pork. The put it all in a bowl and add mayonnaise. It was actually quite tasty. After dinner, we finished our beers and sat down and watched some crazy Ukrainian television. We ran out of beer and it was Andrey’s night off so I offered to buy more. The three of us walked to the market and I picked up some bottled water, juice, chips and more beer. We came back and I taught them how to play UNO. We played the longest game in history and then showed each other photographs of our families and friends. We drank some more beers and watched Dancing with the Stars (the Ukrainian version) and after an awkward time of “who is going to go to bed first”, I finally caved in and headed back to my room. I never pictured my host family to be like this. I pictured a typical older family and a completely different scenario. Andrey and Marina are 2 people I would have made friends with back in the states. They are way cool and we have a lot in common. My host family is the coolest in the history of the Peace Corps and today was one of the most amazing days of my life.
I slept well last night. Although my room is very nice with a big desk, the bed is a long chair or bench and is similar to sleeping on a big brick with absolutely no cushion. I am not complaining because things could be a lot worse. Today we walked around the market where I bought some slippers. In Ukraine it is essential to wear slippers around the house. Andrey had to lend me some yesterday. I stepped out onto their balcony without slippers and they freaked out. I am slowly adjusting to the ways things are quite different out here. The market is like an outdoor mall. It’s really like a huge flea market in the states. The only unfortunate (or fortunate) thing is that Peace Corps has made me paranoid about getting pick-pocketed. So I am skeptic about anyone who gets near me. With my limited Russian skills, somehow I managed to buy a cell phone today. Incoming calls are free, but I haven’t quite mastered the cost of outgoing calls. In Ukraine, you need to buy a card which stocks the minutes beforehand. At least I won’t be receiving a huge cell phone bill this way. In the flat, we have a pet. He is a guinea pig. They treat him like a cat. I feel kinda bad though because they don’t give him water. I don’t feel comfortable saying anything yet, but I bet the little guy is thirsty as hell. Right now I am hanging out with Marina while Andrey went to pick up Nikita from his grandfather’s house. I believe for dinner we are about to eat fish soup (ugh). For breakfast we had bread with cheese and sausage with honey on it. Is everyone jealous of my eating habits? I am going to lose so much weight. It is kind of a good thing though. It’s like being on a diet with no temptation. The music out here is crazy. All of the stations play one song in Russian or Ukrainian and the next song is bad American pop music (i.e. Spice Girls). Gwen Stefani and Jennifer Lopez are big out here and I just heard a Green Day song on the radio in the kitchen. Thank God I stocked my computer with good music.
До сииданя!
Last night of staging was a blast. We went to a Mexican restaurant where I ate my last American dinner. We then went to the same pub again where pretty much all 80 of us showed up to annoy the local Philly folks. After the bars closed, I walked back to the hotel with Travis, Adam and Eryn. We ended up walking through Penn’s campus and posing for some amazing pictures along the way. Travis and I are convinced we are going to shoot an award-winning Ukrainian film while out here. There is even a girl called Jamie who has connections with Sundance Film Festival that maybe we can sweet talk.
Monday morning, I woke up and ran around downtown Philly looking for a laptop lock.
I found a good one, but it cost me $45. We all checked out on time and loaded onto 3 buses. At the last minute, one girl had still not received her luggage and it was finally getting delivered at the last minute. It arrived just in time for us to leave. We took off just in time and drove for 3 hours through New York City (including Times Square) and ended up at JFK airport in time to eat and spend a couple hours in a boiling-hot airport before boarding. Apparently this airport isn’t allowed to turn on their air conditioning until summer is officially on. I mean, it was HOT!!!
We got into Frankfurt, Germany on time. It was really cool flying over “the motherland”. I really want to visit Germany and see more of it at some point. Our flight to Kyiv was delayed because of our large group and the amount of luggage. The entire group got on the plane, but when all was said and done, about 30 of us were missing at least 1 luggage. I was missing 1 suitcase, but others were missing everything...even the carry-ons they made them check. Originally we were all supposed to take off together, but since so many of us lost luggage, the one group took off ahead of us. Our group had to wait in line for about 3 hours and fill out customs forms for our lost bags. Once we were all done, we were able to head out of the airport….finally! As they were loading the bus, we were able to eat a banana, a candy bar, and drink a juice box. We had to hurry up because the Ukrainian Prime Minister was about to arrive at the airport and they were waiting for our bus to get out of the way. We took the 1 hour drive on the bus from the airport to Prolosok (snowdrop). The drive was interesting. There was a lot of normal city life (McDonalds and all) and then a lot of forests and fields getting burned. You could definitely notice the pollution in the air. We arrived at Prolosok around 7pm. Imagine the most run-down camp you ever went to as a kid and then multiply it by 20. It was rather beat-up to say the least. We were just happy to be somewhere and at that point that had somewhere to sleep horizontally since we were all so jet lagged. They unloaded our bags and our group was starving at that point. The other group was already done eating and were getting ready to play a game of soccer. We all went into the cafeteria and enjoyed out first official Ukrainian meal which consisted of a small chicken breast, rice, bread cucumbers and tomatoes. They had candy bars, tea and coffee for dessert. At the end of dinner, a Ukrainian couple in full costume came in and offered everyone this festive bread that everyone takes a piece, dunks in salt and toasts. After dinner, I put my 1 suitcase in storage, met up with Travis and we hung out in Eryn, Jen and Laura’s room after watching some Duck Tales season1 in another guy’s room. I had to live in a super small room with 2 roommates (Jonathan and Greg) and we all were so tired we started to have some crazy vocal dreams in the middle of the night.
The next morning we ate some cheese, cucumbers and other staples of the Ukrainian diet and then attended some classes. There was a volunteer from another group that gave a lecture, I found out I am to learn Russian and had my first Russian class (which sucks because I had put in so much time learning Ukrainian), and we had some other workshops. The United States ambassador stopped in to visit all of us as well. We then ate some sort of pork and noodles and some soup with onion and tomatoes and then went up to the room before meeting up to watch “Volunteers” (a great Peace Corps comedy starring Tom Hanks) in the campus theater. After that, we all went to the one small store on campus and bought out all the vodka and had a mad party in the downstairs discoteque where we played some guitar, listened to music and just hung out talking. Even at this point, I am still meeting more and more trainees that I haven’t had the chance to meet yet. In our rooms, they supplied us with bananas, water, juice and apples so we took the juice down to the ball room and had something to mix the vodka with. I was able to talk to my parents briefly today with a phone card they gave us and I am now wrapping up the night after a luxurious shower. This shower is basically a huge elevated step with no shower curtain where you use this nozzle to hydrate, lather, rinse, etc. It is extremely unreal, but entertaining nonetheless….not to mention the water is hot so that makes a huge difference. I guess some of the rooms do not have hot water and they have to squat the whole time because the hose is not long enough.
Friday, we attended more classes and ate more cucumbers. I swear I have lost about 5 pounds already. We got assigned out clusters (people we will be living near). In my cluster is Megan, Brian, Zach, and Teri. Our instructor’s name is Olga (pronounced “Ola”). She seems really cool. We got our assigned communities in which we will be shipping out to. There are 4 clusters of 5 people moving to my area. We will be moving to a city called “Chernohigiv” which is about 2 1/2 hours north of Kyiv. After a surprisingly delicious dinner of cabbage rolls and a beet and egg salad, most of us headed back to our rooms to study while some of the others stayed in the theater to watch a movie (I think it was Blood Diamond). At this point a small handful of people are really homesick and some are talking of quitting although I’ll believe it when I see it. One thing is clear, there is always going to be ups and downs. Yesterday my luggage was still lost and my ipod died on me. Today my luggage arrived and my ipod is working again. I’m having a great time, but am a little nervous about meeting my host family tomorrow. I hope they speak a little English or at least some Ukrainian as my Russian is extremely horrible at this early stage.
Welcome to Saturday…the most surreal day of my life to date and the most nerve-wrecking day thus far on my big adventure. This morning we attended classes on what to expect from our host families. The staff performed some funny skits about possible situations we may find ourselves in. After that, we had a quick safety workshop about water, vegetables and things of that nature. We ate a nice lunch of pork and rice which, by the way, I tried this stuff on the table which is essentially ketchup mixed with hot sauce. It is amazing and I can’t believe no one has brought this to the states yet. We had about an hour after lunch to get our stuff together and meet in the lobby where about 5 different buses were picking us up to take us to our cities (oblasts). I said some sad goodbyes to friends and we got on our bus to Chernohigiv. When we arrived, we drove by a McDonalds and other familiar things and they let us out in the downtown square where slowly host families began to meet us and take us away. I was the third to last to leave and was getting more nervous (probably more nervous than I’ve ever been) by the second. During the bus ride I frantically tried to scrape together a few words and expressions in Russian to make things less awkward. While we were waiting on the sidewalk 2 Ukrainian girls came up to Jonathan and me and started flirting with us. I think they were amazed by us and thought we were movie stars. Finally, my host father came up to me and in a very awkward 2 minutes with the help from my language instructor, we were off. My host father’s name is Andrey and he is 29 years old. His father and 6 year-old son were in the car and his father drove us to their flat (apartment). This was bar none the most awkward car ride in my life as all my Russian escaped from my head and I froze. The only one that made a lick of sense was Nikita (the son) who knew how to say brother, sister, mother and father in English. The father dropped us off and we walked up to the third floor of the apartment complex where I met my host mother Marina. She is 25. Right away the stress and awkwardness went bye bye and we did our best to communicate. I ended up following them around the apartment while they showed me various things such as the refrigerator, light switch, toothbrush, towel, etc. and I used a notepad to right down the Russian word. Now, get this…this flat is nicer than 80% of the apartments in America. It is a newer place with cable tv (even some English channels), a Roman bathtub with hot water, a washing machine, a home office with a computer and a nice kitchen. Andrey is a movie buff like me and has over 1000 DVDs. He works as a computer programmer for the college of geology studies. Marina works at the same college in a different department. I really lucked out. He offered me a really good beer and we sat down for dinner which was pretty much potatoes, cabbage with egg and some pork. The put it all in a bowl and add mayonnaise. It was actually quite tasty. After dinner, we finished our beers and sat down and watched some crazy Ukrainian television. We ran out of beer and it was Andrey’s night off so I offered to buy more. The three of us walked to the market and I picked up some bottled water, juice, chips and more beer. We came back and I taught them how to play UNO. We played the longest game in history and then showed each other photographs of our families and friends. We drank some more beers and watched Dancing with the Stars (the Ukrainian version) and after an awkward time of “who is going to go to bed first”, I finally caved in and headed back to my room. I never pictured my host family to be like this. I pictured a typical older family and a completely different scenario. Andrey and Marina are 2 people I would have made friends with back in the states. They are way cool and we have a lot in common. My host family is the coolest in the history of the Peace Corps and today was one of the most amazing days of my life.
I slept well last night. Although my room is very nice with a big desk, the bed is a long chair or bench and is similar to sleeping on a big brick with absolutely no cushion. I am not complaining because things could be a lot worse. Today we walked around the market where I bought some slippers. In Ukraine it is essential to wear slippers around the house. Andrey had to lend me some yesterday. I stepped out onto their balcony without slippers and they freaked out. I am slowly adjusting to the ways things are quite different out here. The market is like an outdoor mall. It’s really like a huge flea market in the states. The only unfortunate (or fortunate) thing is that Peace Corps has made me paranoid about getting pick-pocketed. So I am skeptic about anyone who gets near me. With my limited Russian skills, somehow I managed to buy a cell phone today. Incoming calls are free, but I haven’t quite mastered the cost of outgoing calls. In Ukraine, you need to buy a card which stocks the minutes beforehand. At least I won’t be receiving a huge cell phone bill this way. In the flat, we have a pet. He is a guinea pig. They treat him like a cat. I feel kinda bad though because they don’t give him water. I don’t feel comfortable saying anything yet, but I bet the little guy is thirsty as hell. Right now I am hanging out with Marina while Andrey went to pick up Nikita from his grandfather’s house. I believe for dinner we are about to eat fish soup (ugh). For breakfast we had bread with cheese and sausage with honey on it. Is everyone jealous of my eating habits? I am going to lose so much weight. It is kind of a good thing though. It’s like being on a diet with no temptation. The music out here is crazy. All of the stations play one song in Russian or Ukrainian and the next song is bad American pop music (i.e. Spice Girls). Gwen Stefani and Jennifer Lopez are big out here and I just heard a Green Day song on the radio in the kitchen. Thank God I stocked my computer with good music.
До сииданя!
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