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 :)