Tired. Stressed. Blah.

Since Friday the N-- volunteers have been hosting upwarps 30 folks from 3 groups here in Ukraine.

The idea was to put together a "music festival" of sorts at the dacha purchased by some former PCVs now in the States.

People were contacted at least a month in advance and we secured an apartment for one night on Saturday to have more space for people to stay.

Friday night was spent at my house doing I-pod concerts, essentially the idea is like karaoke, except you are the only one who can hear the song and people sing along. It was a lot of fun, but as the party kept going and I kept asking it to stop, a neighbor finally got fed up and came down and yelled at us. I've never met this neighbor and surely felt like an ass, as we were being really loud. Needless to say everyone who wasn't staying with me got kicked out and that ended that night.

The next day we went out to the dacha where we basically ate and talked and danced. Some of my cluster and link mates came into town. This is the first time we had been together like that since December. Unfortunately, since I was hosting, I didn't get to spend a lot of time with them, as I had otehr responsibilities, but it was great to see them, hear about how they are doing and how their lives are.

Sunday was another busy day with some folks going back to the dacha and others hanging out in the city.

Monday again seemed to roll along as most olks from my group left into the evening. Since I had no one staying at my place, I said that I could host some others even though I had to go to the university in the morning (they never clarified with me that I've have class or not. The answer, as I found out after the walk, was no). I also arranged to go back to Odessa with a couple because I thought I may not be as stressed and that they could help me a bit. It was very frustrating not to get a ticket from N-- to Kyiv and cuts into my day today for cleaning, packing, or simply just relaxing, as I haven't really done that for a week because of the party preparations and hosting.

Because the schedule is so messed up I fear that I will feel no peace till I am on my airplane to Italy.

Her are my journey plans, which exhausts me just thinking about them:

N-- to Odessa by marshrutka (3 hours)
Odessa bus station to train station (by tram, maybe 20-30 minutes?)
Odessa train station (maybe 3 hours, just sitting around). I didn't want to take a chance of a marshrutka breaking down on me and not making it to the train station in time for my train.
Odessa to Kyiv, overnight train, platzkarte (over 11 hours)
Arrive early morning Kyiv
Taxi from Kyiv Vauxhaul to airport (maybe 1/2 hour, estimated $20--which is expensive for me).
Check in, wait in airport until late morning flight (hopefully at least 2 hours)
Fly to Italy (3 hours)
Wait for next flight (3 hours)
Fly to America (over 9 hours)
Arrive, getting bags, customs (God only knows)
Drive home to Philadelphia (maybe 3 hours??)

It is going to take me over a day to get home. Ugh. I am tired just looking at it. But I know that I will be excited when I get home and get some sleep.