So I keep hearing about this theme that things are never set in stone in the Peace Corps. Even if they say your job will be this, when you get out to your country they can very well end up putting you in a completely different job. This is what I have heard, but didn't put much weight on it.
Today I got an email from the Ukrainian office and the subject line read "Staging Location Change". Anger stepped in immediately. I was really looking forward to seeing Washington DC. That anger quickly turned into excitement. I was hoping if it got changed it could at least change to Chicago so I can see some people and take care of something I need to do for someone out there that I really care about.
So where are they sending me? Philadelphia. Yeah. Hopefully they change their minds again soon.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
The Laptop Chronicles
This post was supposed to read "I Am Officially 100% Out Of Debt", but things changed and the money went elsewhere....
It was Thursday late evening and I woke up remembering my old buddy TJ who I used to work with here in Billings; he now lives in Laramie, Wyoming. TJ is the techiest (if that's a word) guy I know. He works in the IT world and rebuilds computers. I must have been having a nightmare about laptops or something. I called him Friday morning and asked if he would be able to hook me up with a laptop for a good price. The conversation resulted in him getting me a brand new slimline Dell for $625...fully loaded. He is coming to Billings on business February 5th and he is dropping it off to me then. So now I feel better that I won't be the oddball out there without a laptop.
Today I rented the movie "Everything Is Iluminated" and I'm about to watch it. A lot of people in our group recommended it. It stars that hobbit Elija Wood and it's set in Ukraine. I guess it paints a pretty good picture of what to expect. At least they didn't tell me to watch the movie "Hostel" saying the same thing. From what I remember that was in Ukraine as well.
In other news...
I've been seeing a girl out here and we just had the big discussion about what is going to become of the relationship since I'm leaving in 2 months for 27 months. It's pretty obvious how that discussion ended up seeing how I am on the internet on a Saturday night. There are so many loose ends to tie up in the next 2 months, this is just the beginning.
It was Thursday late evening and I woke up remembering my old buddy TJ who I used to work with here in Billings; he now lives in Laramie, Wyoming. TJ is the techiest (if that's a word) guy I know. He works in the IT world and rebuilds computers. I must have been having a nightmare about laptops or something. I called him Friday morning and asked if he would be able to hook me up with a laptop for a good price. The conversation resulted in him getting me a brand new slimline Dell for $625...fully loaded. He is coming to Billings on business February 5th and he is dropping it off to me then. So now I feel better that I won't be the oddball out there without a laptop.
Today I rented the movie "Everything Is Iluminated" and I'm about to watch it. A lot of people in our group recommended it. It stars that hobbit Elija Wood and it's set in Ukraine. I guess it paints a pretty good picture of what to expect. At least they didn't tell me to watch the movie "Hostel" saying the same thing. From what I remember that was in Ukraine as well.
In other news...
I've been seeing a girl out here and we just had the big discussion about what is going to become of the relationship since I'm leaving in 2 months for 27 months. It's pretty obvious how that discussion ended up seeing how I am on the internet on a Saturday night. There are so many loose ends to tie up in the next 2 months, this is just the beginning.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Some Pictures That Were Sent To Me
In case I don't get any pictures on this day, this is the former group at their swearing-in event. This happens after our 3-month Pre-Service Training.
This is a shot of Kyiv where our training will be held when we first arrive. It is also the capital of Ukraine for those of you who don't know your geography.
Another shot of Kyiv
This is one of the many cathedrals in Kyiv.
Most of the bars/night clubs in Ukraine are located in old bomb shelters like this one.
This is a typical Ukrainian meal. Everyone says I am going to starve to death, but in reality, from what I hear from those out there, they love to eat and not exactly healthy food either. The volunteers out there now say they have put a good amount of weight since arriving there. I'm in trouble. From what I read, dinner in Ukraine is quite the event. There are toasts at every meal and they are mostly formal unless the host states otherwise. 
This is one of the villages that I might get stationed at. From what I hear they are all very similar.Today's news
Holy Crap!!! I can read Ukrainian...well sorta. Today at work I brought a print-out of the Ukrainian alphabet and the pronunciations. Every hour I would memorize 5 letters and I wrote out the letters about every half hour. By about 2pm, I had the whole thing memorized. I quizzed myself throughout the day, mixed up the letters, wrote it out backwards, etc. I came home all excited and picked up some literature in Ukrainian and was totally able to sound out words and understand what they meant. It was an amazing feeling and I am totally in the zone to learn more.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Here it is...
So this is the Ukrainian alphabet which I need to learn. I keep having flashback to when I was a wee little frat boy and they made me memorize the greek alphabet. Who knew that would come back to help me out in life?
What's new?
In the real world...my Bears advance to the Superbowl and Martin Scorsese gets an Oscar nomination today. What a year this will be if both parties end up winning!! I'm sad that football has come to an end for 2 years...this is the perfect way to go out though. I suppose I need to start following soccer now.
In my world?....confusion. Apparently this blog of mine is now linked to about 50 different Peace Corps sites so I really better watch what I say on here now. How that happened, I have no idea...the magical internet fairy must have taken care of this. Yesterday I spent some time responding to an email that was sent to me. The Ukraine office wanted me to complete a skills inventory packet to, I assume, get a better feel for where to place us. I also got an updated contact list emailed to me earlier this week. Ummmmm...somehow the group I'm going out there with has doubled in size. The current list reflects 68 people shipping out with me to Ukraine. I give up on posting photos at this point. I had no idea there would be this many people going with me, but the more the merrier I guess. I'm sure it will be nice to have a HUGE American friend base out there for networking and other things. The odd thing is that there have only been about 20 or so people chatting in our Yahoo group. Where are these other people? Is there another group I don't know about, but am supposed to be part of?? I guess as long as I am in with these 20 people, it's better than nothing. So what have we been chatting about lately? Mostly packing issues, money issues, tax issues and arguing about how much of the language to learn before arriving in DC. My last Yahoo post posed 4 questions to the entire group....
1. What is everyone doing about money out there? There was no general consensus. I guess you can store up to $700 cash in a safe deposit box in the Kyiv headquarters. Some people are keeping their funds in their American account and using their ATM card there even though it is discouraged due to fraud issues. Some people are bringing travelers checks even that is discouraged due to the local banks taking such a high percentage. Some people are bringing some cash with them and having their friends/family bring more when they come visit. Others are opening a Ukrainian account. Others are bringing just enough cash to buy a cell phone and other incidentals, but really want to live without worrying about cash and live like the locals do. A lot of people plan on just pinching their weekly allowance enough to save up for travel and other entertainment. If I understand correctly, we get a weekly spending allowance on top of our living allowance and we also get 1/3 of out "big pay-out" immediately in payments of $250/month or something like that. The Peace Corps opens a local account for us where our earnings will be deposited weekly. I know I plan on buying a guitar when I get out there as well as things like blankets and a few other essentials. Which brings me to the next topic....
2. What's this business about sleeping bags now?? Apparently it is strongly recommended to bring a warm, lightweight sleeping bag with for traveling and the very cold nights. Seeing how we can only pack a limited weight and have limited space, I am lost for words. About 90% of the group has already purchased one and the others (including myself) are considering just buying one out there after we arrive. The same goes for these things called YakTrax which strap to your shoes for walking on ice. Do I seriously need these?? I have lived through some brutal winters and from what I understand, the winters in Ukraine are similar to those in Wisconsin so I'm thinking I can handle it.
3. What about travel? Does anyone plan on doing some traveling in their free time and vacations? Everyone said yes, after we are settled in, of course. It even sounds like we have a group interested in hitting up Dracula's castle in Romania, Rome, Greece and Amsterdam. That pretty much sums up all the places I want to visit. My friend Andras will be in Budapest over the summer so I plan on hooking up with him as well since Hungary borders Ukraine.
4. (I snuck this one in there hoping to find someone on my side) Is anyone NOT bringing a laptop? Not one person said yes. So apparently, I am the only one not bringing one at this point. I tried to sell people on the points of theft (you can get cheap insurance), weight of carrying it everywhere (they sell super lightweight ones), lack of internet (everywhere has internet now), and wanting to get away from the technology of the US (fat chance...it will be extremely beneficial in our work assignments, journaling/blogging, putting pictures on CD's to send to people, watching DVDs, listening to music and so on and so on and so on.) One volunteer currently out there said that bringing her laptop was the single best packing decision she made and couldn't imagine living there without one. Okay then, I still don't see how I'm going to be able to afford a freaking laptop computer. I have exactly 2 months to go and my employment is not guaranteed at this point. I have sold just about everythign I own including my car which I sold to my friend who is letting me drive it until I leave (sweet deal). Ultimately, my plan is to just stash away as much cash as possible and see where I am at come mid-March. If I don't have enough...so be it. I figure, life won't be over and I'll survive. STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES.
I have done some shopping. I bought a really nice backpack/carry-on for the rides and short training trips. I bought some warm sweaters since all the stores are clearing out their winter clothes. I bought a small ipod that holds 500 songs. I need to carefully choose 500 of my favorites out of about 20,000 MP3s. I knew it was essential though for the long rides/flights and those lonely nights. At this point I really wish I would have asked for more of this stuff for Christmas. I got a power converter and that was about it as far as practical things I can take with me. Now I am scrounging around at the last minute buying all this junk. At least I'm not the only one stressed about what to pack and what we might forget.
That's all I can type right now. I need to upload some tunes on this ipod so I can sell my computer and then I need to try to learn this damned Ukrainian alphabet.
In my world?....confusion. Apparently this blog of mine is now linked to about 50 different Peace Corps sites so I really better watch what I say on here now. How that happened, I have no idea...the magical internet fairy must have taken care of this. Yesterday I spent some time responding to an email that was sent to me. The Ukraine office wanted me to complete a skills inventory packet to, I assume, get a better feel for where to place us. I also got an updated contact list emailed to me earlier this week. Ummmmm...somehow the group I'm going out there with has doubled in size. The current list reflects 68 people shipping out with me to Ukraine. I give up on posting photos at this point. I had no idea there would be this many people going with me, but the more the merrier I guess. I'm sure it will be nice to have a HUGE American friend base out there for networking and other things. The odd thing is that there have only been about 20 or so people chatting in our Yahoo group. Where are these other people? Is there another group I don't know about, but am supposed to be part of?? I guess as long as I am in with these 20 people, it's better than nothing. So what have we been chatting about lately? Mostly packing issues, money issues, tax issues and arguing about how much of the language to learn before arriving in DC. My last Yahoo post posed 4 questions to the entire group....
1. What is everyone doing about money out there? There was no general consensus. I guess you can store up to $700 cash in a safe deposit box in the Kyiv headquarters. Some people are keeping their funds in their American account and using their ATM card there even though it is discouraged due to fraud issues. Some people are bringing travelers checks even that is discouraged due to the local banks taking such a high percentage. Some people are bringing some cash with them and having their friends/family bring more when they come visit. Others are opening a Ukrainian account. Others are bringing just enough cash to buy a cell phone and other incidentals, but really want to live without worrying about cash and live like the locals do. A lot of people plan on just pinching their weekly allowance enough to save up for travel and other entertainment. If I understand correctly, we get a weekly spending allowance on top of our living allowance and we also get 1/3 of out "big pay-out" immediately in payments of $250/month or something like that. The Peace Corps opens a local account for us where our earnings will be deposited weekly. I know I plan on buying a guitar when I get out there as well as things like blankets and a few other essentials. Which brings me to the next topic....
2. What's this business about sleeping bags now?? Apparently it is strongly recommended to bring a warm, lightweight sleeping bag with for traveling and the very cold nights. Seeing how we can only pack a limited weight and have limited space, I am lost for words. About 90% of the group has already purchased one and the others (including myself) are considering just buying one out there after we arrive. The same goes for these things called YakTrax which strap to your shoes for walking on ice. Do I seriously need these?? I have lived through some brutal winters and from what I understand, the winters in Ukraine are similar to those in Wisconsin so I'm thinking I can handle it.
3. What about travel? Does anyone plan on doing some traveling in their free time and vacations? Everyone said yes, after we are settled in, of course. It even sounds like we have a group interested in hitting up Dracula's castle in Romania, Rome, Greece and Amsterdam. That pretty much sums up all the places I want to visit. My friend Andras will be in Budapest over the summer so I plan on hooking up with him as well since Hungary borders Ukraine.
4. (I snuck this one in there hoping to find someone on my side) Is anyone NOT bringing a laptop? Not one person said yes. So apparently, I am the only one not bringing one at this point. I tried to sell people on the points of theft (you can get cheap insurance), weight of carrying it everywhere (they sell super lightweight ones), lack of internet (everywhere has internet now), and wanting to get away from the technology of the US (fat chance...it will be extremely beneficial in our work assignments, journaling/blogging, putting pictures on CD's to send to people, watching DVDs, listening to music and so on and so on and so on.) One volunteer currently out there said that bringing her laptop was the single best packing decision she made and couldn't imagine living there without one. Okay then, I still don't see how I'm going to be able to afford a freaking laptop computer. I have exactly 2 months to go and my employment is not guaranteed at this point. I have sold just about everythign I own including my car which I sold to my friend who is letting me drive it until I leave (sweet deal). Ultimately, my plan is to just stash away as much cash as possible and see where I am at come mid-March. If I don't have enough...so be it. I figure, life won't be over and I'll survive. STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES.
I have done some shopping. I bought a really nice backpack/carry-on for the rides and short training trips. I bought some warm sweaters since all the stores are clearing out their winter clothes. I bought a small ipod that holds 500 songs. I need to carefully choose 500 of my favorites out of about 20,000 MP3s. I knew it was essential though for the long rides/flights and those lonely nights. At this point I really wish I would have asked for more of this stuff for Christmas. I got a power converter and that was about it as far as practical things I can take with me. Now I am scrounging around at the last minute buying all this junk. At least I'm not the only one stressed about what to pack and what we might forget.
That's all I can type right now. I need to upload some tunes on this ipod so I can sell my computer and then I need to try to learn this damned Ukrainian alphabet.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Meet the Gang
I'd like you to meet my new "family" over the next 27 months. We will all be heading to Ukraine together and according to past groups will grow super close and become besties. We all do our training in Kyiv as a large group and then break into groups of 4 throughout the country. We then meet up again periodically throughout the year and I hear it is usually quite the party. They all seem so nice up to this point and I think I am lucky to be serving with these people. As you can see they come from various age groups and backgrounds...
Sarah is 24 and from New Jersey. Her degree is in Social Work.
Zach (right)...ummmm....I don't know anything about.
Stephen is from California and, like me, has lived all over including Alaska, New Mexico and Utah.
Monique (right) is 23 and has a BA in History. She now lives in Santa Cruz, CA.
Megan is from Denver and will be working with me as an NGO Advisor. She just got her Masters from the University of Denver
Mary-Anne is 22 and will be working in Youth Development.
Laura (right) is a graduate from San Diego State and currently lives/works in LA (woo hoo!)
Kim (left) is from Long Island, NY and just graduated with a degree in International Business
Katie is from New Haven, Connecticut
Jonathan is from Charlotte, NC and has a business degree. He's also working in Business Development.
Jen is 24 from Wisconsin. She has a masters in school counseling
Jason is 27 and a grad student from Minneapolis, MN and will be working with me as an NGO Advisor
James (right) is from Ohio and will be working as a business educator
Hung-Chee Chan is 56 and was raised in Hong Kong, but lives and works in San Francisco
Eryn (left) is 23 and from Portland, OR. She has a BS from the University of Oregon
Eileen (middle) is from Rochester, NY and has a BA in Fine Arts/Photography.
David (59) and Rebecca (51) - David is a retired salesman and Rebecca is a retired business consultant.
Daisy (on the right) is from Santa Cruz, CA
Adam - I think this is the Adam from Seattle
This is Geoffrey. He has become somewhat of the leader of our group since he is about to embark on his third term. He previously served in Mongolia and the Philippines. He lives in Washington state.
Sarah is 24 and from New Jersey. Her degree is in Social Work.
Zach (right)...ummmm....I don't know anything about.
Stephen is from California and, like me, has lived all over including Alaska, New Mexico and Utah.
Monique (right) is 23 and has a BA in History. She now lives in Santa Cruz, CA.
Megan is from Denver and will be working with me as an NGO Advisor. She just got her Masters from the University of Denver
Mary-Anne is 22 and will be working in Youth Development.
Laura (right) is a graduate from San Diego State and currently lives/works in LA (woo hoo!)
Kim (left) is from Long Island, NY and just graduated with a degree in International Business
Katie is from New Haven, Connecticut 
Jonathan is from Charlotte, NC and has a business degree. He's also working in Business Development.
Jen is 24 from Wisconsin. She has a masters in school counseling
Jason is 27 and a grad student from Minneapolis, MN and will be working with me as an NGO Advisor
James (right) is from Ohio and will be working as a business educator
Hung-Chee Chan is 56 and was raised in Hong Kong, but lives and works in San Francisco
Eryn (left) is 23 and from Portland, OR. She has a BS from the University of Oregon
Eileen (middle) is from Rochester, NY and has a BA in Fine Arts/Photography.
David (59) and Rebecca (51) - David is a retired salesman and Rebecca is a retired business consultant. 
Daisy (on the right) is from Santa Cruz, CA
Adam - I think this is the Adam from Seattle Also heading out to Ukraine with me we have.....
ADAM #2 who is 26 from Fort Smith, Arkansas. He's a Case Manager for a Homeless Center
ADAM #3 who is 23 from Tennessee is a substitute teacher and a football coach
MIKE who is a Web Developer from Boulder, Colorado
SHANNON who is 24 from Colorado with a degree in theater
PATRICK - don't know anything about him
TERI from New Hampshire
MARY who is 55 from Columbus, OH
BRIDGET who is 58 from Kansas City, MO and currently a bank officer
MICHELLE from Salt Lake City who has a degree in Anthropology
JOSEPH from San Antonio, TX whose degree is in Politcal Science
JAMIE who is 27 from Utah and works for the Sundance Film Festival
(I gotta meet this person!)
GREG from Washington DC who will be working as a business educator
SUZI from San Diego, CA
NORMA from Colorado
PETER & MARCIA - a married couple in their 50's from Seattle
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