The Cost of Milk

Perhaps you have found yourself wondering, exactly how much does she make? Well, every week or two weeks we get an envelope from the PC. We get about 240 hyrena, I think. Divide by 5 and you get the US dollar amount.

I have not had to do much shopping, simply because I brought a lot of stuff that I need and eat mostly at my host family's house. Occasionally I'll get tea (which is usually less than 1 UA (I really don't know how to say their rate of currency, or even spell it....excuse me, please) or buy a beer (usually 2.40-3 UA). As you can see, all of those things are well under a US dollar.

However, conversely, I mailed several letters home to the US this morning, and it cost 7 UA. This is relatively the same amount that you would pay in America. Yesterday, when doing errands with Sveta, I realized that a bottle of 2 in 1 Pantene costs 32 UA. That's over $6 folks, and we aren't talking about a BJ size bottle either. Go figure.

Other things are really expensive too, like batteries, which are sold per battery. Film is also very expensive, although I am told that printer cartridges are cheap. Cell phone are ridiculously expensive, it is hard to find one for under $70. On top of that you don't have a "plan" you simply buy minutes for it and use it from there. Some folks do this in the US, but I never have and am not looking forward to using this method here in Ukraine. Several people in my group have purchased cell phones, but I'm waiting for to find out what coal mining town I'm stuck in before plunking down that kind of change.

There are also certain things that you just don't think about so much in the US. Like drinking water. I have to buy my drinking water here, and the PC allowance is for 3 UA a day. Sometimes this will work, sometimes it won't. As such, I usually don't buy water and just drink tea all the time. Plus it's hard to find water without gas in it. They love mineral water. Even in juice. If I'm lucky there will be some kompot around to drink or juice. Kompot is made from boiled fruits. It's actually pretty good.

I am sure that you are all concerned about the gas prices, although I don't really know how to compare them seeing as how here it is in liters. But it seems to be around 80 cents for a liter.

Such is life here, and I do tend to actually spend less than 2 dollars a day.

"You Say It's Your Birthday"

Okay, okay. So my birthday is not for another 3 weeks or so. But really, anything that you would be interested in sending me would take about that amount of time to get to Ukraine, before it actually even ended up in my hands, since the address I have you all sending it to is the PC Headquarters. But I am not above shameless plugging of my birthday this year simply because there are a few small items that anyone interested could send this way and be of much use. Especially since they are all light items that will not take up much room.

Things such as:
old magazines or newspapers

black eyeliner (the kind that you don't need to sharpen, Cover-girl Pro-point or something like that)

potato peelers (Mom, actually, that is what I want you to send with the stuff you sent to Chicago, 2 please?)

silk long underwear large or medium (I only brought one pair and I wear them every single day. They are brilliant)

smart wool socks size 10 Women (thanks Chandra, they are great. I picked up a few pair before I left and they are amazing, but could always use another pair)

photographs (especially of your beautiful selves or places of interest. Any Alfred folks got photos of Alfred? Boston? Philly? etc)

Bigelow Tea (anyone who has lived with me knows what I'm talking about)

Small container of peanut butter (this isn't so much for me as it is for my the host families)

That's about all that I can think of right now, but I might add onto it later. Seriously folks, this is some awesome stuff to have and useful for classes and host family life. Okay, not the socks or long underwear, those are strictly for my use.

Also, please keep in mind that the PC HQ goes through the mail, opening letters, etc. I am sure that they will not take anything out, so if you do decide to be an angel and send something, inform me either via comment on this post or e-mail so that I can double check and make sure that someone did not snag a jar of Jiffy. Also then, Leah, keep the photos rated PG, okay?

A Big Shout Out To:

Perhaps I will try to do this every week, if there is a special someone deserving of this honor. Actually, all of you who read this (and especially those who leave comments) deserve shout outs all the time. I love hearing from you and what you think of this, as well as hearing how things are going in your lives. It's much much appreciated!

Later last week I actually did receive a piece of mail! A Halloween card from Lauren. Thanks, Lauren! My mother also finally got through on Sunday and it was great to be able to talk to her!

Thanks folks for keeping in touch!

Making History

In case you were unaware, Ukraine is the largest PC Country in the world. It's really quite an honor to be here. Also, our group, Ukraine 29 is the largest group in PC history. History, people!

We started out as a strong group of 116 back in Chicago. But that was as far as we went with 116. Rumors and gossip flow endlessly about who got sick, who's doing what, etc. Of course, most of the gossip revolves around who left. Varied reports say 106 to 103 remain. Site announcement are also supposedly a large exodus of folks who are like "wait, I thought that I'd be in the Crimea???" I am hoping to not be one of those folks and am trying my hardest to keep a positive spin on where I could end up. My clustermate and I starred at the map for an hour last night debating excellent Russian language placements. Or more like comiserating. We shall see. Only time will tell.

Frustrations

Both our TCF and LCF have indicated that the 4th and 5th weeks are full of frustrations. That people end this honeymoon and start hating everything that they originally found charming. I really haven't found that to be the case here so much. I always have frustrations around the language and what I think that I should be learning versus what I actually know. (For example, I can't ask for a ticket to Kyiv, but I can describe my own family). But earlier this week I found myself in my room thinking about pizza and chicken salad for some reason. And of course there is always the desire for Indian and Mexican food. But really, I thought about a lot of those things while I was in Bowling Green too. So in that way, Ukraine is no different from Northwest Ohio.

My main concerns of course now lie in thinking about my site placement which I will find out about on November 7th. I am currently working at a Pedological college, which in somes ways is a lot like a high school. This was not really what I envisioned for myself when I thought about being a "university" instructor, and there is still a chance of being placed in a University in a larger city, but of course the chance also exists to be in a town and in a situation much like this one, which isn't really what I want. So a lot of my recent feelings and thoughts have been in dealing with what I will do if that is the case and how I will learn how to struggle through and make it or realize that that is not going to help me out professionally and decide what to do from there. Time of course will tell how things go.

Still No Sign of Mail

Thanks to those who have responded that they have indeed sent me something! I very much appreicate it and can't wait to see it (I should really just say Lauren!)

Leah, currently I really don't need anything other than my Bigelow tea. I am going to have enough problems hauling my stuff to site in a few weeks as it is. When I get a chance, I will talk about that later. I am just thankful to have had a phone call from my father and to hear that all is well.

I would be writing more, but currently I am talking with some of the fellas who work here and they think that I can actually understand them. Apparently they now have a printer and scanner and want me to tell the other Americans. Also, they told me that I am sitting in a chair that is soaked with "pivo": beer. Yikes! It's true. Now, a part of my pants are soaked with beer. Great.

Nothing really new to report, other than going to a new cafe the other day with the other two young women and meeting about six Armenian men who insisted that we take our tea and beer inside to watch them dance. After refusing five or six times, we decided the the mostly older group of men were really okay and just wanted to talk with us, so we went in and were plied with vodka and fruit.

Kyiv

On Sunday our group went to Kyiv for the day. The city was much more beautiful than I had antipicated. It certainly could give St. Petersburg a run for it's money in my book.

Not having been to other European cities (Copenhagan is the only continential city that I've been to) I have nothing to really compare it to, but it felt European in a sense. The buildings were beautiful and I was in love with every street we saw and every monument we passed. I would love to get a chance to see this city more and spend more time there. As it was we walked around a bit and then took off for the zoo.

And also like St. Petersburg and Moscow, those subways kicked some serious American asses. I don't know why we as Americans can't seem to get our act together when it comes to public transportation. It was clean, fast, and cheap! Each trip costs 50 kopeks to ride (5 hyr. are a dollar, the kopeks are the change). We didn't wait longer than one minute for a ride and get this: they had tv's in each car. Not only for advertising purposes but also to announce the next stop and what stop it was. Freaking amazing if you ask me. Take that NYC!

One of the our group members has spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe and has been to Kyiv before. She mentioned that the last time she was here (2002) there were communist symbols everywhere. Now they all seem to be gone, which to me was another indication of how much further Ukraine has come compared to Russia in regards to democracy and trying to Westernize. I am curious as to how much of that transformation has to do with Yuveshcenko. We also got to see some of the places where the Orange Revolution took place, which was just amazing to think about... All the thousands of Ukrainians camped out on the streets of Kyiv in the middle of the winter in order to protest a fraudalent election. I wonder sometimes if Americans have that much passion about them anymore when it comes to politics...

Kyiv was quite the experience and I can't wait to go back and get to know her better!

I went to Kyiv and I all I got was Nothing.

People, what are you doing? Why are you not writing me?

Kyiv is the headquarters for the Peace Corps in Ukraine, hence it was an opportunity for me to pick up any letters, cards, pictures, peanut butter, Bigelow tea, etc, that anyone has possibly sent to me. Imagine my bitter disappointment when I found out that only one of my group got mail, and that one was not me. As it turned out, the married couple did receive a package from Amazon.com, which made me hopeful that perhaps I had been overlooked, but I was not able to find this pile, but was assured that no one possibly loved me.

Leah asked how come I'm not in Kyiv but my mail is for Kyiv, that is because the PC HQ is in Kyiv and I don't want to give out an address until I am permanently at site. So that is the story people!

Dancing Queen

For weeks us ladies have been dying to get out of the house at night and go dancing. Finally, since my host mother does not have to teach this week, she offered on Saturday to take us young devushkis out to tantsvat (to dance). She called up some of her younger friends and asked them to meet up with us. It turns out the younger gals suggested that it was too early to go to the disco and that we should take advantage of the super weather outside and join the rest of the town in buying a beer and drinking out in the park. My host was only planning on staying out for an hour, so she took off leaving myself and the other two young women in my cluster with her friends.

Shortly there after, we took off for the disco to shake our tailfeathers, which we took little time in doing.

The music at the disco was probably the regular Eastern European fare, some Ukrainian/Russian dance tracks thrown in with some other European, English, and American music. For example, I got to down to "Hollaback Girl" but chose to sit out a J Lo track. Even I have standards, people.

It was also an interesting cultural experience, as most of the night we were here only young women were dancing, and I am not even entirely sure that I could call it that, as it was more of a sort of ritual. In America, women will usually dance in groups. Here they do it alone, each in their tall shoes, short short skirts and see through tops, each working their hardest to look 'enticing' or 'sexy' for the male onlookers. One member of my group even commented on how this is the least favorite part of Eastern Europe, as having lived here extensively for some time. That the idea of women's rights or feminism has not really taken any hold here, and a man who isn't drunk all the time is considered an awesome catch.

So, we got up and did our thing, not in our high heels or skirts, and I'm sure that we stuck out, but who cares? We had a great time. And we did so enough to attract the attention on one courageous man who danced with another member of my group. His moves involved swivelling his hips and giving two thumbs up. Very interesting and sophisticated stuff here. Apparently he was dared by the two Ukrainian ladies to take his clothes off, which he also did (his sweater and shirt) and left his American dancing partner and myself feeling rather awkward about the whole thing (what drug is this man on???). Again, the Ukrainian ladies thought this dude was an awesome catch and seemed to enjoy his attention, while we Americans were like, he dude, that was cool, but let's just dance alone here...

At any rate, he was harmless, and he was nice, and he stayed later to probably try and find someone more receptive. We had a great time and I hope that we will be able to go back another night!

Going to Kyiv!

I am very excited about this coming weekend. Our group along with our Language teacher will be heading out to Kyiv on Sunday to take in some of the sights. This will be the first time that we have been able to leave our smallish town other than the few times we get to leave our smallish town to go the even smaller town where our "link" cluster lives. There town is ridiculously small, seeming to only exist of goats, chickens, and dirt roads. Because most of my group is University TEFL teachers, we get a "bigger" town with a Pedalogical College, so really, the excitement is more for them to come here than for us to go there. So, Kyiv will be a freaking large treat for us.

There are so many things to do and see in Kyiv, and everyone has their ideas of what will be cool. I think that I'll just be happy if we can find an interesting (ethnic) restaurant that might involve some spice of some sort. And of course, the huge statue that is like 900 feet tall. Underneath her (she's a woman holding a big sword) is the museum of the Great Patriotic War (WWII, for those of you not in the know),. which also might be neat to take in, depending upon the weather. We've been having some fabulous weather the past couple of days, but like it was at Alfred or Bowling Green, when the sun goes down it starts getting cold fast.

I am also hoping to take some pictures, but I have no idea when I will be able to post photos again...

The Koom/Kooma Relationship

Ukrainians have very interesting relationships with one another that only emphasize how this culture values friendship and community. For one, they specific words for all in-laws, meaning the husband's mother, the wife's sister, and so on, not just "mother-in-law" or "brother-in-law."

But the relationship that I am going to refer today is that of the 'godparent' to the 'godchild's' parents. Not everyone in the United States has the tradition of having a godparent, typically celebrated only in the Catholic church. Here in Ukraine, everyone does it, whether they are religious or not and they take this dedication very seriously. They are expected to help instruct the child and help him or her grow up to be good adults. More importantly, there is a long standing relationship between the godparent and the parents of the child, which is collectively (from what I've gathered) referred to as kym for men and kyma for women. So, for instance, my host mother is kyma to at least two different children as far as I know in addition to having her own kym and kyma for her own child, Maxim. From what I gather, the Ukrainian counterpart I have at the Pedalogical College is somehow kyma to someone in Sveta's family one way or another, so they are in essence, "like family." Tradition has it that the first child you are godparent to should be of the opposite sex, so our Language teacher, for instance, has many friends with only girls, so she is not kyma to any of them, although her two children have kyms and kymas. Make sense?

So last night I went to a birthday party for a boy who was turning 7. My host mother was either his kyma or his younger sister's kyma and was invited. It was a close family gathering with only family and godparents invited. There must have been 14 people there, including the 3 or 4 little children, and about 900 pounds of food. No lie.

Everyone who was there seemed to be a godparent of someone or other, as Ukrainians tend to have smaller sized families, rarely having any more than 2 children. It was a great time, and again the food was fantastic and the language that was mostly spoken was Ukrainian, so I was at a complete loss. Which is not the first time, I have to honestly admit.

We drank shots of homemade vodka, and the family and friends gathered were very curious to know whether or not Americans made their own vodka. I replied that people made their own whiskey, but I'm sure if people wanted to, they could likewise make their own vodka too. This alcohol is also only drunk after someone has made a toast, of which people, there were many. But it was interesting because that is not the same thing in our own culture when people are free to drink as little or as much as they want without this practice. Glasses are then refilled and plates must have food on them. Because of the aforementioned stomach issue, I am always very careful about my food intake, but here they kept saying something like 'you must eat,' the belief being that after drinking alcohol, if you have something to eat it will soak it up and you won't be sick. Also, I think the word on the street is that vodka improves your appetite. It seemed to do the trick for me, as I was pleasantly surprised as I was able to chow down on numerous tasty Ukrainian delights like fish and beets smothered in some sort of mayonaisse (believe it or not, it was good) or the same variation but without beets and carrots instead. Galuptsi was present and is a pretty famous Eastern European dish and they were very proud to have me taste it and wanted to know if it could be found in America (it can if you know where to go). It's a cabbage roll with meet and rice and spices. Pretty darn tasty stuff. Present was pizza that didn't seem to have mayo on it (it does exist, I guess, Cathy!), fruits, chicken fried with egg, some more fishie stuff, blini with liver (I did not partake) and homemade dumplings filled with meat which were tasty too.

Highlights of the evening involved a heated political discussion between two men on opposing sides of the Ukrainian political fence (one man participated in the Orange Revolution and gave me a Yuschenko button, which I did accept but told him that Peace Corps regulations prohibited me from wearing it. "In America" he told me, implying that when I am home I could wear it). I had no idea what they were talking about, and some of the women did participate in it as well, but I had no idea what was said. There was also some exchanges made at my expense of course, and always the implication of me finding some Ukrainian man, even if he's married.

All in all it was a fantastic night, even if I could barely understand a word that was said.

What is Ukraine Like?

I thought that the best way to describe this place to you is to explain where I am physically and what my surroundings are.

As I sit here on the other end of your computer screen, I am in an old Soviet Building that I believe roughly translates to "House of Culture." Outside the front of this big imposing building is a statue of Lenin surrounded by beautiful colorful flowers. This building is situated in Red Square (no lie) and I live on Bolshevikskaya street. In western Ukraine names like this supposedly no longer exist, but we are not in Western Ukraine. We are in shzurzik land, where language and culture are mixed between Russia and Ukraine.

Their is a direct connection between this Red Square and the real one in Moscow: The granite that Lenin's Tomb is made out of comes from this town. Apparently good Soviets from all over the U.S.S.R. send granite to Moscow, wanting to have the distinction of being the absolute "best" and this town won. Quite an honor.

This building also contains a small square and somewhere a movie theater. We haven't really figured that out.

Where the computers are located there are two connected to the front room and about eight in the next room which is always occupied by prepubscent boys playing video games. I hear that only these two out front are connected to the internet, but I am not sure, I just simply do not wish to go back there.

The heat has not yet kicked on here and so it is also a bit cold. A few minutes ago I put my hat back on to keep my ears warm (a major thanks to Angie for knitting it for me, it adds some color to my otherwise drab clothing). The two dudes who work here are major punks who like to make fun of us or just like to make things more difficult than they need be. However, they love to blast Russian or Ukrainian pop dance music and occassionally the recognizable American pop song from the Black Eyed Peas or 50 Cent.

Outside the window I saw an older man cleaning up the falling leaves and putting them into a huge wagon that was powered by some old time tractor. In this town it is not uncommon to see horses pulling wagons and livestock just hanging out near the road. This includes goats and cows.

The town itself is attractive in a foreign way, I guess. Roads are kinda dusty and always tree lined. Homes are simple and different than what one would see anywhere at home. But it is a very green town and a very beautiful one. Just have to be careful at night because of the lack of street lights and the fact that brakes on a lot of cars do not work properly, so you have to be careful when you cross the street and make sure that a Lada or Volga isn't going to mow you down.

When I think about the size of this town (25,000) and where I thought that I'd be placed originally, I was a tad disappointed when I made the realization that I may not be placed in a big city. Actually, the chances of that happening are very unlikely. But the more I am here, I see how close knit this community is and how the opportunity to make an impact is that greater. While I don't know if I would end up in the same site as my training site, I am expecting it to be similar to here, and thinking that that is okay.

Although I would be lying if I didn't say that I wanted a big huge city like Kiev. Only time will tell.

The Kafe

Our language trainer decided that all the families and PCT's should all go out for dinner one night our first week. It was very fun and involved tasting all sorts of interesting things like pizza with mayonaise and tongue (which was really really good).

But after the meal the fun began. She proposed a game of singing, which is in a sense a Ukrainian pasttime, where the Americans would sing some American song, and the Ukrainians would sing either a Russian or Ukrainian song. They began. It was beautiful. After their turn had ended, we looked around the table somewhat confused. I can't remember what we settled on, but during this time frame we sang, "This Land is Your Land," "You are My Sunshine," "Oh, Suzanna!" "Stop in the Name of Love," and some patriotic songs. The Ukrainians cleaned the floor with our poor American showmanship. Their songs were beautiful and very melodic and they easily won that match.

The three of us women in the group (we are all about the same age, there are an older couple in my cluster as well) decided one night after a particularly stressful language lesson (we are also all at different levels of the language, the two of them having studied it at length prior and have an excellent grasp on it, whilst I have a small background and the couple have none) to go to the kafe again and drink some piva (beer) and chai (tea). We sat outside, although a bit cold, and just talked and talked for quite some time. After a while had passed, the waitress brought out three pieces of cake and explained that some boys had bought them for us. We could not see anyone around, but gladly took the torte. Soon after three men came and sat down at the table next to us, but they didn't seem like the sorts that would be interested in buying cake for young American devushki's (girls) so we sent in the best Russian speaker to ask the woman who bought them for us. She took her by the hand and repeated Vee-tall-eee. We followed her into the bar next door and this young man stood up and introduced himself. We walked outside and talked for a bit and I was simply excited by the fact that I could follow the conversation. He did not speak English, wanted to know what we were doing there, and why were there. We thanked him for the cake, to which he replied, "you can't have tea without cake" in Russian, which was quite nice. After that we all left, and we were all quite pleased at how well that interaction went instead of it ending up being some smarmy Ukrainian looking for "easy" American girls.

But that interaction has been more the norm here than anything else. Ukrainians are very friendly on the whole and the town where I am is quite different than my prior experience in St. Petersburg where smiling was not something you did on the street or talking to strangers.

Smachno!

Which is Ukrainian for tasty.

Everything is tasty. The borscht, the cabbage rolls, the potatoe pancakes, the assortive desserts and soups. I have yet to have something that I did not like. My favorites included some soup had at babushka's place, the potato pancakes and this rice salad made from canned peppers, carrots, onions and rice. It was incredibly good.

What I did not enjoy, although it wasn't bad tasting, was the clear jello like substance that was boiled salty meat. I just didn't like the texture of it. I mean, what would you do with clear gelatin meat? Do I spread it on bread? Put it in my soup? What the heck?

Unfortunately, as anyone who has either travelled with me or spent significant amounts of time with me knows, I have a stomach problem. I tend to get sick easily and from no rhyme or reason with the food. This has continued in Ukraine but has only intensified because of my stress level (try learning a new language and being responsible for teaching a subject that you don't really know anything about) coming to a point where I at times barely eat anything. I explained to my host mother originally that I have a bad stomach and I have to be careful about what I eat. What this somehow translated into was "I want to lose weight and be really really skinny." Because the message is the same, I figured, whatever, if they want to think that, that's fine. However, my eating habits (or lack thereof) has become such a topic of conversation that another PCT has told me that her mother now asks what the hell is wrong with me. Great! She likewise told her host mother (who is younger than her) that I have a heard time digesting things. The topic turned into, well, is it milk products? No. Well, I just don't understand? So she told her that I have a heard time breaking down carbohydrates, and considering that everything here in Ukraine is a carbohydrate, that worked. I have not really gotten any other questions from my family, they just ask me what I ate when I was away from the house and push me to eat more of the tasty food, which I gratefully would if I lived in my own flat and could have the luxury of using my own bathroom.

Also, speaking of such things, I am super grateful that I have a toilet indoors unlike the older couple in my group and our link group a ways away that we have group trainings with one a week. When we travel to that town, which as far as I have seen consists of a big lake and a bunch of dusty roads and old people, we have to get dressed up and walk out back behind the house, the well, and the garden to get to the outhouse and do our business. That's a freaking joy, let me tell you! So far the weather has actually been really nice, so it's hasn't been so bad, but when the snow comes.... Oi!

In my house, and in most of the houses here in Ukraine, you can not flush anything that does not come out of your body down the toilet either, so ponder that thought for a moment. This is not uncommon in most of the world, but there are certainly times when I wish that this was otherwise.

Bucket baths continue to be the norm as well, although I have gotten quite lazy about it, pushing for three days before bothering with one. They keep us so super busy that I just want the extra forty minutes to sleep in rather than get up, put some water in the pot and then wait for it to get hot. But those are really the only inconveniences, and they are both relatively small.

Greetings from Ukraine!

Where to start? We spent three days altogether in Ukraine in a big sanatorium outside of Kyiv getting a chance to know each other, bond, drink, and endure various trainings.

I will be learning Russian, which means that I am destined to a life of pollution in the eastern part of the country where Russian is predominantly spoken or a beautiful sunny life in Southern Ukraine, where the Black Sea is. As you can only imagine, I have my hopes set for one thing, but my expectations on another.

So far, things have been very good and are going well. I am staying for the next three months an hour and a half west of Kiev with a family. The husband and wife are my age and they have a 5 year old son, Maxim. All are adorable. The town is a biggish town, but lacks public transportation. And this is not an internet cafe as much as it is a telephone center that has a (yes, one) computer with internet access. Hmm. We will see how this works.

Beyond that, I will spend most of my days here doing language lessons and cross cultural training in addition to working at an internship, which I am assuming will be at the pedalogical institute.

We are broken up into clusters for our towns, so I am here with 2 other women approximately my age and an older couple. The 2 women have much more experience with the language and the couple have none, so I find myself somewhere in the middle, and so far it is comfortable. Every weekend (on Saturdays) we get to get together with our "link" group, another group of 5 PCT's who live in a neighboring town. Except in our case, it's an hour and a half away in a different direction. That's the way that it goes, I guess. It seems that not everyone is as far away either from each other or Kiev. But whatever. I'm having fun.

Ukraine is a wonderful country that in a lot of ways looks familiar. Not too different from Russia (smaller towns). It is the fall here, so the leaves are changing. Things of course are different as there are little challenges, but nothing very difficult. My family has indoor plumbing, even if water is not on all the time or always hot. I have yet to use the bucket bath as we just arrived last night, so perhaps tonight will be the night for me!

I want to thank all of you who have written to me, I am sorry that I do not currently have time to e=mail you all personally, but in some ways this is what the blog was supposed to represent. I want to give an extra shout out (as I assume that this will be a regular thing) to Cathy for sending me an entertainment update. Myself and the other volunteers certainly appreciate it. I can't believe that Tom and Katie are having a baby. That is ridiculous. Of course my first question is whether or not it is his, but that isn't nice, is it?

Things will continue to be busy, but I am here, and when I can I will post, and if I can figure out how to do so with pictures, I will. Also, please cross your fingers that I will not be stuck in some polluted crazy city in the Donbass region, although, if I am sent, I will of course go.

Leaving on a Jet Plane Part Deux

So after an intensive day of training we were finally let loose to take in some of the city. I ended up going out to dinner with two other women in the program and we headed out to see downtown Chicago. Out of the three, I was the only one that has been here before, so I thought that we should head over to Millenium Park. We ate at Giodano's and had some deep dish and came back after strolling along Michigan Avenue.

I still want to repack my bags and redistribute some weight for the flight tomorrow. I'm still cursing myself about the packing issue, but there really isn't anything that I can do about it, so I'm resigned to just hoping that some other people take pity on me and help me out. One can only hope...

So, the word is that after we do get into Kyiv we will be bused out to a "wooded area" and stay for a few days before being put in our cluster groups and settling in with a host family. I still have no idea where I will be placed or anything about the family, but I am looking forward to those questions being answered, although, honestly, I am taking comfort in being with the large group for a few more days.

They tell us that we will not have access to international phone calls or internet service, so if this site is vacant for a few weeks that is why.

Some people are nervous, some people are excited, I'm just ready.