Just your normal Ukrainian adventure...

So, I lost my PO Box key.  I normally do not lose or misplace things, but everyone has a slip up.  My post office is very similar to an American one in the way the PO Boxes work I think.  Well, kind of.  There are 5 or 6 big stands of post office boxes, and each of the stands has a big door that can open up (so the staff can put our mail in our boxes).  Then, there are individual doors for each PO Box.  Hope that makes sense.

Needless to say, I didn't think it would be a giant hassle that I lost my key.  I kind of lost it over a week ago...but have been waiting on Christmas/birthday packages to arrive in the mail.  And, I knew if I told my parents that I lost the key, they would think that me not getting my packages was somehow related to the missing key.  Totally not the case.  My mom is probably laughing and rolling her eyes at this knowing that I'm right... :)

The first time I went to the post office and informed the lady I lost my key, she opened up the big door and let me see in my box.  She informed me I needed to buy a "замок"...I memorized the word and ran home to look it up.  I was guessing that she told me I needed to buy a whole new lock, but when I google translated the word, it showed up as CASTLE.  Ha.  Not exactly a lock like I was thinking...

Then I got sick and barely left the house for a week (btw, just finished my last amoxicillin dose today!  yippee!).  I think I checked my PO box twice during that time.  Each time, the same lady was working and she got madder and madder at me that I hadn't bought a new "замок" yet.  I explained to her that I don't know Russian all that well and that I would be bringing a friend with me to help translate.  Then, it was Ukrainian Christmas and the post office was closed for a few days.  

Flash forward to Tuesday of this week.  Olena and I went to the post office to see about buying this new lock.  The lady not so kindly opened the whole door for us to look at what we needed to buy, and I got to look in my box and see that I had a package note waiting for me!  Olena asked the lady where we could buy this lock.  The lady (of course) had no clue.  She said she'd try the bazaar.  

So today, after working on my PEPFAR grant some (HIV/AIDS project grant), one of my EuroTrip travel buddies Zhenya (a high school girl in K-grad) was subjected to walking around the entire central bazaar looking for this mysterious PO box lock.  An hour and a half later, we had been to SEVEN stores, and not one of them had a lock.  Whyyy!?  

This is the pesky little item that I so desperately need...why does no one carry them?!

The post office is missing out on a prime opportunity to make some extra cash here.  After having tried 7 stores, I would have paid quite a lot to buy it from the post office if they indeed sold them.  But, they don't.  I don't remember ever taking a marketing class but that's a no brainer to me.  We ran out of time (and options at that bazaar) today...so tomorrow the hunt may continue.  Olena said we will go to the post office tomorrow and tell them they're no where in town.  Can't wait to see what the lady has to say about that...lol :)  just your normal Ukrainian adventure...

This is my weekly manicure, courtesy of Lyuda :)  I bought the nail polish in Poland for around a dollar.  

note the bedazzled ring finger...quite a popular trend here.

this is the longest my nails have ever been on their own...shocking, huh?

bling.  

I'm thoroughly engrossed in The Help right now.  I don't know what page I'm on (grr...that's my one complaint about the Kindle), but I'm 70% finished.  Itching to read some more tonight...that's for sure.

This is the second night this week my dinner consisted of homemade Chex mix.  This time, I at least poured it in a bowl so I would show a little self-control.  Then I filled it up again.  The peanut butter fudge my mom made was a hit at work on Wednesday.  I guess I'll have to be nice and share some of my peanut butter and make them PB&J's one day at work.  They won't know what hit them.

My last news for the day is that I'm trying to memorize at least one or two Russian words every day.  The blog may be my accountability partner for helping me go back through and remember past words.  Today's words included:

1)  замок--which can mean castle OR lock
2)  папка--folder (learned this word when writing stuff for my grant)
3)  найти--to find (verb).  As in, "Я не нашла ключ от моя почтового ящика," or "I have not found the key to my mailbox."


 It's almost Friday :)  maybe you should go get a blinged out manicure...they're quite the rave in Ukraine.


One more thing. No, two more things. 1) It SNOWED in Oklahoma, and not here?  What the heck is that about? 2)  enjoy the sneak-peak of a video from my work party.



Kym is dancing with a ribbon.
Mary-Kathryn is the other girl.
The guy in the red apparently works at my office, although I've never seen him before.
The guy in the suit is our orchestra director.
The guy in the red and black striped shirt is a great saxophone player/teacher.
We're dancing in the cafeteria, because that's where all great Ukrainian discos are held.

There's plenty more videos to post...slowly but surely :)