November 2009
9 posts
Personal Hygiene
I read a quote once that said, An optimist sees the glass half full, a pessimist sees the glass half empty, and a Peace Corps volunteer sees the glass and says, “Hey I can take a bath with that!”
Truer words, my friends. That said:
I’ve mastered the art of taking a shower.
Now, let’s start at the beginning. I am so lucky and thankful that not only do I have an honest to God shower, it has...
Being an Ugly American
I hate going overseas for almost as many reasons as I love going overseas. After all it’s really great to experience a new culture, seeing new sites, blah blah blah.
But I really hate being the ugly American.
It’s unavoidable. Unless you are blessed with the double whammy of incredible good looks and lots of money you will look like an ugly American. And I’m pretty decent looking. At least...
Weighing In
I’ve lost roughly 12 pounds since arriving in Ukraine. I’m chalking up the last four I dropped to being sick for two days and I expect they will come back in the next week or so, but Jesus, 12 pounds!
My pants are so loose they bunch up when I pull my belt tight.
My skinny jeans are starting to get baggy.
WTF? I had abs under there?
Not that I’m knocking any of this. This is awesome! I...
Aging
I live in a variety of ages here. In many ways, I’m a toddler. I can’t go anywhere by myself, I need to be in before dark and my mom makes breakfast and dinner for me every night. If it weren’t for the crippling caffeine addiction, I’d be in kindergarten. Except that kindergarten is way too advanced for me.
Afterall, I can’t speak fluently and even a freakin’ 3-year-old can do that. I couldn’t...
Case Files
I don’t know if you ever thought about how language operates before but can I just say that it royally sucks to try to learn it?
Russian, for example, has one way of conjugating for the past tense that is universal for verbs with some exceptions, and basically one way of conjugating for the future. This is very different from English where there are, I believe, six forms of the past tense ALONE....
Going Back to the Future
I learned past and future tenses in Russian class. FINALLY now I can tell my host mom that I WENT to the café and tomorrow I WILL go again! HA HA.
iTunes
iTunes is a bit like the old love I always come back to. I remember in the hey day of it’s newness, when the iPod just came out and hey look! You can get cheap music over the internets without getting sued! It was cheap and easy, all I had to do was click and a song was mine! Three months and a 100 downloads later I was in love.
But love is fickle, and I was shortly seduced by cheaper and easier...
Toilets
Toilets are odd things. I used to see them as a sort of marker for civilization. This one time, Gill and I were driving up 101 and stopped at a Shell gas station in King City. My need to pee was undeniable and I took the plunge in going to the bathroom. I walked to the women’s room to see a sign that said, “Out of Order.”
Remember that.
Undaunted, I moved on to the men’s room, figuring that’s...
On Gender
I’ve never felt like the hopeless girl before.
Today at the café, Karen and Laura Ruth discussed girly stuff that I’ve somehow avoided learning all my life.
When I was a kid I stubbornly fought against my girlyness. I denied I ever liked pink. I played with Barbies, but only if they were doing kung fu moves on Timothy’s Power Rangers. For years I would only ever wear a dress when it was...
October 2009
2 posts
One week in.
I’ve officially been in Ukraine for a full week now but it feels like a heck of a lot more. This is my first day off since I left the States so I’m taking the opportunity to geek out and watch videos, play with my external hard drive and in general do all the things I did in America. Except with Russian in the background. It’s interesting to see English stuff on TV here. By law, everything is...
September 2009
2 posts
Internets!
Well I got a modem and a phone so now I can at least be in contact. I’ll have to buy a card tomorrow and top it up. Thank God for the great exchange rate and the fact that I’ve saved a ton before coming here. Though I still need to call AT&T about my phone. I went to a cafe that has real coffee (i.e. it comes brewed in a machine) which was delicious. The cafe also has free wifi so...
First Day With Host Family
Today I had my first day as a PST in the city of Chernihiv (pronounced cher-NI-ghiv). My host family is incredibly nice and the apartment they live in is a million times nicer than the “resort” I was in last week, and certainly nicer than our basement. :) The family is a mama (Ina) a sistra (sister, Alena) and brat (brother, Dema). The kids are 12-year-old twins and the mom is only 32!...
PST!
Hey Everyone!
It’s my second day of PST (Pre-service Training) and I’m pretty excited!
It’s been a hectic few days. After we left JFK we got to Frankfurt at a ridiculous time, like 5 a.m. local time. After sitting around the airport for four hours, we had to check in with our boarding pass then take a bus out to the plane. Odd. Anyway, the flight to Kiev wasn’t bad and...