42.

Do you know what the title of this post is for?  I want you to take a stab in the dark with what you think the answer is.

A)  The number of kids I had in English clubs today

B)  The number of days until Christmas

C)  The number of times I sang the ABC's song today

D)  The number of flights of stairs I walked up and down today

E)  The number of days until my birthday

Okay...so, are you ready?  Humor me, and email me your response (because I like getting email) or leave it on here (because it's like an email).  

But, I'm going to go ahead and tell you the answer.  However, I really am curious what all of you thought :)  

So...if you picked answer D, you're right.  Yup.  42 flights of stairs were walked by yours truly today. Let me give you a quick play by play, because I'm tired and ready to go to bed.  But...I've been slacking on blogging lately and felt a little guilty.  

My office has 4 floors.  I work on the 3rd floor.  Today, I saw an apartment (that I will not be renting) that was on the 5th floor.  That's 10 flights of stairs right there.  Bam!  

up 3--go to work

down 3--get peewee English club from their babushkas and moms on 1st floor

up 3--take peewee English club up to my office

down 3--finish peewee english club/take them back to waiting babas & mamas

up 3--work for 30 minutes

down 3--retrieve my visiting regional manager from 1st floor

up 3--take regional manager to my office

down 3--finished with regional manager meeting

up 5--visit apartment

down 5--leave apartment (that again, I will not be renting)

up 3--back to work

down 1--bathroom on my floor was locked by kids, must go down 1 floor to use different bathroom

up 1--back to work

down 3--leave work (finally)

If I did this everyday, I'd never have to work out!  Although let's be realistic...I haven't worked out in at least 1 month.  Maybe more...

Sidenote:  I didn't count any of the "half flights" of stairs that Ukraine is famous for.  IE, leaving my apartment, going into the grocery store, going into my work, etc.  

Another sidenote:  I don't really know if any of the other answer choices are correct or not.  You can let me know how many days til Christmas and my birthday though.  And there's a very, very good chance I sang the ABC's song at least 42 times today.  

Design services 5500 miles away...

My brother took the day off from work yesterday to do some things around the house.  The northeast had been blanketed by an early snowstorm before all of the leaves had fallen, which meant a lot of people had big branches down.  This means that Jeremy gets to use his chainsaw and ax and go to town cleaning up the yard.  Also on his agenda yesterday was to talk to his dear sister (me) about placement of the chandelier I found for Jeremy and Tina the last time I was up in New England.  We won't say how long ago that was {cough cough, January 2011}.  

I found this chandelier at Homegoods or TJ Maxx or some place like that for an incredibly good price.  I realized I don't have a picture of just the chandelier, whoops.  But, I loved it...and could picture it in their dining room.  The only thing to do now was sell Jeremy and Tina on it :)  We were figuring that the junction lighting box would have to move, which is why this project has been put off and put off.  But, with Thanksgiving quickly approaching and Jeremy and Tina hosting it for the first time this year, they needed to check this item off of the to-do list.  This is where I come in.

Thank goodness for Skype.  The amazing world of technology never ceases to amaze me while I'm 5500 miles away from home.  Jeremy set up the phone on a table in the living room so that I could see him hold the the chandelier up in the dining room.  Hysterical.  I snapped some of these pictures on my phone as he worked away...enjoy :)  

P.S.  Sorry they're not very good quality...he was on his iphone and I was on my iphone.  But, it got the job done!

How's this for placement?

goofing off with one of the pieces of the chandelier he had to remove :)

my brother, the comedian

From the sick bed of Lydia...

I've been in bed since Wednesday evening feeling achy and pretty blah. Sore throat, headaches on and off, no strength.  After my absolutely wonderful trip to Poland, Czech Republic, and Germany, I came back and taught two full days of English clubs on Tuesday and Wednesday.  By the last club on Wednesday evening, I was incredibly weak and wanted to curl up in bed at 6 pm.  I think I went to bed at 9:30 pm and slept for 12 hours that night.  It reminded me of my old studio days; our project would be due on Monday, class was over at 5:30 pm, I was home by 6:00 pm and usually in bed by 7:00 pm (sometimes earlier).  I would then sleep until the next morning around 9 or 10 am (that's around 15 hours of sleep folks).  I can remember the first time Stephanie and Allison (two of my old roomies) witnessed this phenomenon...they thought something was wrong with me!  Nope, just sleep deprived!

I am bummed to be staying in this weekend though because I was supposed to go visit my host family for the first time since training!  What's even better was that my old LCF (Russian teacher) Zhenya is on rotation in Oster (the village I trained in) as well as my TCF (technical teacher) Lyuda.  And, most of the Kozolets group (our link cluster) would be there as well!  But, it just wasn't in the cards.  Instead, I've been in bed watching an embarrassing number of episodes of the Real Housewives of Orange County.  It's a guilty pleasure that makes me feel like I'm back at home in Oklahoma laying in my nice, comfy {big} bed.  

This morning when I woke up and pulled my laptop into bed with me, I opened up facebook to be bombarded with status' about my friends playing and hearing Christmas music back in the states.  As I sat in bed, I began to hear what sounded like caroling music.  At first, I wondered if I was really that sick and my mind was just playing tricks on me.  Then, I just figured my upstairs neighbor was playing their tv a little loud.  When I finally got out of bed, I went to my kitchen to make hot tea and heard the singing very loudly then.  As I looked out my kitchen window, I was quite surprised to see what was before me.  

The caroling that I had been hearing was actually a funeral going on.  I stood in awe as I wondered who had passed away--it was a little old babushka as best as I could tell.  The singing went on for two hours as more and more people placed flowers on their beloved.  This was literally happening in the entrance way to my apartment, and I can only wonder who passed away.  I didn't recognize many of the people at the funeral.  Only two or three other babushkas who sit on the benches and watch as I go to work, always saying something to me in very fast Russian that I can't understand.  Definitely a new experience for me here in Ukraine.  

I hope to take advantage of my time at home this weekend by blogging about some of my traveling experiences.  I am super excited to have my first guest from the states here in Ukraine in just a short time...Mitchell will be making his way over to Eastern Europe come Nov. 20!  Much love, Lyd :)