Less than 24 hours now!

In less than 24 hours, I will know where I'm living for the next two years! HOORAYYYY :) the time has almost come! Not every PC country (sidenote: I think there are around 70 countries with PCVs in it now around the world) does pre-service training the same way. It depends on the programs that are in that country, how intensive the language training needs to be, etc. That also means that there are different ways PC countries announce their site information. PC Ukraine has been around for almost 20 years and I feel like they have a lot of the kinks worked out of the system, although I'm sure there's always room for improvement. It was explained to us a few weeks ago why we don't find out where we are going to live for the next 2 years until right before the swearing-in ceremony. PC Ukraine used to inform trainees where they would be living in the middle of their pre-service training. However, what does everyone do when they find out something like that? You google it. Or wikipedia it. And the information isn't always correct, and it will either make you REALLY excited or REALLY bummed about where you'll be living for the next 2 years. So, on Monday when we find out where we're going for 2 years, we will be super excited. And on Tuesday, we will meet our counterpart who is actually FROM the city where we'll be living and can tell us all about it. It makes perfect sense in my opinion.

Yesterday was our farewall picnic with our host families. It turned out to be quite a nice day to do a little picnic-ing...not too hot. Although the bugs were out like crazy and my feet are still covered in mosquito bites from the other day.

My host sister, Christy, on the left with our teacher Zhenya on the right...starting the fire!

Our technical teacher Lyuda...getting rid of an envelope we saw for the past 3 months. It says "Tech. Training: feedback of yours is very welcome :) "

Some of the group...Lyuda (tech. teacher), another Lyuda (Jamie's host mom), Cassi, my host sister Christy, Lydia, Mark, and my host mom Gala.

Cassi and Lyuda

Mark, Zhenya, and Lyuda (Jamie's host mom)

Zhenya and Lyuda, who played the guitar for us!

The Oster River...if you look past the tree (click on the picture to make it bigger) you can see the beach area where kids always play...

My host mom getting the shashleek (shisch kabobs) situated on the fire.

She made great shashleek for us all!

Cassi's host mom (left) Natasha and Jamie's host mom (right) Lyuda

The spread! All of the plastic bags you see is how we buy things here...

Christy, Gala and I :)

Cassi and her host mom and sis (her sister, Zhenya, was in my 7th grade class at the gymnasia!)

Part of the group with the certificates that are given to the families from Peace Corps.
Lyuda (Jamie's mom, Jamie was sick...), Zhenya, Mark, Lydia, Christy (host sis), Gala (host mom), Cassi, Zhenya (Cassi's host sis), Natasha (Cassi's host mom)

The end! I am almost done packing...it's amazing how much stuff I have...but I need to go finish. I want to go walk around Oster one last time and take some pictures around here. The next time I post on here I will be letting you know WHERE I'LL BE LIVING FOR THE NEXT 2 YEARS! :) toodles