During my four years of college, I rarely took the time to read. And by rarely, I mean never. My parents have always had a house full of books. They love reading. My brother loves reading. My aunt loves reading. My uncle loves reading. If I were in the states, I would upload a picture of me sitting in the built-in bookcases in my room in Alabama. But, that's not one of the oldies I have scanned and on my computer some 5500 miles away.
I grew up loving to read...but sometime along the way, my opinion changed. Perhaps because of having to read books for school? It basically ruined a book for me to be assigned to read it for class. I can remember enjoying To Kill a Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby in high school. I didn't read my senior paper book {The Grapes of Wrath}. And I still got a very good grade. But that's beside the point. The second semester of my senior year at Norman North, I took Reading for Pleasure with Claudia Swisher.
That class changed forever how I viewed books.
Every day, for 55 minutes, we simply sat in her classroom and read. You could read whatever you wanted, as long as you were reading. At the end of the period, we would journal for a few minutes stating how many pages we read and anything that struck you for the day. This is a class that, in my opinion, should be mandatory for every kid to take at Norman North. For the past six years when I worked with kids at McFarlin, I constantly told each of them to take that class. It was the best decision...ever. No question about it. You see, not only is Mrs. Swish, as she's commonly referred, one of the most fun teachers at the school...she also has pictures on her wall of every student she's taught at Norman North (and probably beyond). If my memory serves me correct, it's a requirement to give her a senior picture of yourself. And when some of my McFarlin kiddos would {actually} listen to me and take her class, they would come running to me saying that they found my pictures on the walls of her room. That was usually followed by laughter at whatever outfit I happened to be wearing or how my hair looked. Moving on...
The Kindle. I didn't want one. Remember? Well, I was wrong. It is by far my absolute favorite thing I brought with me to Ukraine. I hated the idea of having an "e-book" and no longer having my "pretty books" on the shelf. But, in the world of Peace Corps, it's really not practical to have a slew of heavy paperbacks (or even worse, hardbacks). So, two weeks before I left for Ukraine in March 2011, one of my best friends, Mitchell {and his loving fam!}, surprised me with a Kindle. If you want to read more about the background story {which I made very complicated by deciding I would buy my own Kindle!}, here's the link. Here's the horribly awkward video that my mom took of me opening the package in the mail.
Since today is Friday, I am always reminded of Mrs. Swish. She has a little poem that she says aloud to every one of her classes:
Take care of yourself; Take care of each other. Buckle up. Hug a dad or a mother. Tell someone you love them!
It's stuck with me for 7 years now. Here's to Friday, Reading for Pleasure, and one of the world's most passionate teachers. Thanks for teaching students the art of reading, Mrs. Swish!
I could have you guess what the number stands for as the title of today's post. Debating about whether I should do that or not. But, I'm impatient and want to go ahead and share with you.
That's the number of books I've read since I came to Ukraine almost one year ago exactly (official year anniversary is Thursday!). In somewhat chronological order, they are:
Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone, by JK Rowling
HP & the Chamber of Secrets, by JK Rowling
HP & the Prisoner of Azkaban, by JK Rowling
HP & the Goblet of Fire, by JK Rowling
HP & the Order of the Phoenix, by JK Rowling
HP & the Half-Blood Prince, by JK Rowling
HP & the Deathly Hallows, by JK Rowling
Safe Haven, by Nicholas Sparks
The Scarlet Thread, by Francine Rivers
Lost in Shangri-La, by Mitchell Zuckoff
The Kind Diet, by Alicia Silverstone
35 Miles from Shore, by Emilio Corsetti
Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
Choosing to See, by Mary Beth Chapman
Heaven is for Real, by Todd Burpo
13 Little Blue Envelopes, by Maureen Johnson
Come Back to Me, by Melissa Foster
High School Football--the Temptation, by Paul Swearingen
My Horizontal Life, by Chelsea Handler
At All Costs, by John Gilstrap
Blindsight, by Chris Colin
Dangerous Grounds, by Shelli Stevens
Unsinkable: A Young Woman's Courageous Battle on the High Seas, by Abby Sunderland
The Sum of My Parts, by James Sanford
Wife by Wednesday, by Catherine Bybee
Flat-Out Love, by Jessica Park
All She Ever Wanted, by Barbara Freethy
Thunder Dog, by Michael Hingson
Half-Assed, by Jennette Fulda
The Path Home, by Caedem Marquez
Life From Scratch, by Melissa Ford
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
Chasing Harry Winston, by Lauren Weisberger (one of two real books, not Kindle editions)
Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer (still need to read the others in the series)
Breakfast at Tiffany's, by Truman Capote
Marley and Me, by John Grogan (the other real book, not Kindle edition)
Unfinished Business, by Nora Roberts
I tend to buy books on the Kindle that are either on sale (there is a monthly list of 100 books that go on sale, and also a book a day that are usually $1 or less) and strike my interest, or find books that others are talking about and I want to know what all the hype is. Of course, I love good chick lit (Nicholas Sparks, eat your heart out), but I also enjoy stories of survival and edge-of-your-seat page turners. I've also found that since being in Ukraine and becoming a vegetarian, I've downloaded books about eating healthier and the way food affects our bodies. I have some cookbooks downloaded on my Kindle too but I don't think those count as actual reads for my list :) Let's not forget that my reading would be dwindling if it weren't for my wonderful gift of a Kindle by the Crow fam. I love it so so much and tell all of the new PC peeps to bring one over here. Top 3 items I brought with me.
Sidenote: I need to make a public apology for forgetting Mitchell's birthday. However, in my defense, his birthday fell on the day that I was traveling from Kiev to K-grad and was so exhausted and crabby that I just needed to get home. I didn't even check email that day. So, HAPPY {late} BIRTHDAY MITCHY POO :)
I started Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Foer, a week or so ago when I was in the hospital. But, it's a weird read and I wanted something light and airy, so I switched to the Nora Roberts book (the first one I've ever read by her).
Some of the other books that I plan on reading while I'm here in Ukraine:
Eating Animals, by Jonathan Foer
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larson
The Girl who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larson
The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' nest, by Stieg Larson
New Moon, by Stephanie Meyer
Eclipse, by Stephanie Meyer
Breaking Dawn, by Stephanie Meyer
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
I would like to read more classics that I've neglected to read my whole life...but we'll see if they ever happen :) And some Bill Bryson books, because he's one heck of a funny author. In fact, I may start reading a Bill Bryson book now. My brother informed me he was currently reading one (Notes From a Small Island) and I can guess that it's a laugh out loud funny kind of book.
Feeling better on the sick front as things go. Went out yesterday for the first time and was exhausted by the time I lugged my groceries home. So, looks like I'll be spending most of my week in my apartment reading and watching Desperate Housewives...per docs orders (the resting part, not the Desperate Housewives part). Might treat myself to making queso to last me for the week :)
Hope the McFarlin kiddos are enjoying themselves on the first day at their worksites. Stay tuned for another great way-back-Wednesday post this week :) Happy Monday!
There are a few words in Russian that have special memories that go with them. I can think of three right off the top of my head right now. As I was reading Marley and Me last night in bed, I came across one of these words {in English}: unfettered.
I'll be honest. Up until a month ago, I didn't even know what this word meant in English. BUT, at Russian language camp (you can refresh your memory here), I learned this word...both in English and Russian. You see, when we arrived at Russian language camp, we were broken up into groups of 4-5 people. Our group was assigned a Ukrainian teacher and we were then given our group name. Our group name was "Вольны как ветер" (volʹny kak veter), which translated to "unfettered like the wind." There were a total of 12 groups at Russian language camp, each with a different group name we were supposed to learn. The next meeting, we had to present a small skit to help everyone remember our group name.
What did our group come up with? Here was our skit:
person 1: "Что это?"--Shto eta?--What's that?
person 2: "Ето птица!"--Eta pa-tit-sa!--It's a bird!
person 3: "Ето самолет!"--Eta sam-mo-lay-ot!--It's a plane!
person 4: "Нет! Ето SUPERMAN!"--Nee-et! Eta SUPERMAN!--No! It's SUPERMAN!
all persons: "Он вольны как ветер!"--Ohn vol-nee kak vay-ter!--He's unfettered like the wind!
It was cheesy, but it worked. And I will never forget what unfettered means :)
The other two words that I will forever relate to memories in Ukraine come with more of a story. One of our first weeks of pre-service training (the first three months I was in Ukraine), our Russian teacher Zhenya showed us a popular Russian cartoon: Masha and the bear (Маша и медведь--Masha ee mee-yed-ved). This was probably the second week of class when we barely knew how to say hello and goodbye in Russian. The cartoon doesn't use too many words though, and she told us to listen for one word as we watched the first episode: ещё (pron: yay-show). If you want to watch the video, it's below (hint: you can skip to 4 minutes and still figure out what the word means!)
ещё--more!
It's a cute video. And that word forever stuck with me...and is used quite often in my every day life.
The other word that strikes up a funny memory in Ukraine? The word for rain--ДОЖДЬ--dohsh-d. This funny story also happened during training, probably around the middle of our time spent in Oster. One of my clustermates, Jamie, and myself were wandering downtown in Oster. At the central park, we happened to run into a family we knew in the community. As we stood there smiling and pretending like we understood everything the family was rambling away at us (when we honestly had no clue what they were saying), it started to rain. We had just learned some of the weather vocabulary and were excited to put it to use. The family had a little boy with them and as we stood there awkwardly not understanding a word the parents were saying, the small boy (2 or 3 years old) said, "Дождь!" in the most perfectly clear and articulated manner. I think that was the only thing Jamie and I understood in the 5 minutes we stood there "talking" with the family.
I finished. I read all three books cover to cover {hmm, digital page to digital page? That definitely doesn't have a ring to it...}. If you don't know what the phenomenon of the Hunger Games trilogy is, you can read the wiki page here. Or, if you're more of a movie trailer person, this gives you a glimpse of what the first book is about.
After finishing this trilogy, I realized that I don't like series to end. I have a problem actually finishing the last book (this happened when I read Harry Potter too). On Sunday morning, I woke up and finished reading Catching Fire {book 2} in an hour. As soon as I finished the second book, I picked up Mockingjay {book 3} and couldn't put it down until I was 50% of the way done {or 3 hours later}.
Then, I stopped reading it cold turkey.
I picked the final book up again last night (Monday night) and read until one am when I was 87% done. One of the meds I took yesterday must have made me not sleepy because I couldn't fall asleep even though I was quite tired. I feel like most people would have picked up the book and finished it then and there. But, I didn't want it to end! Maybe I was scared to know who Katniss would pick in the end. Whatever my reasoning, I lay in bed, determined to finish the book this morning.
I don't think I've picked up a book in quite some time that had me hooked from the first or second page like Suzanne Collins does with The Hunger Games. I didn't even know what the trilogy was about, other than it was set in the future. This genre of books {futuristic} doesn't usually fall in my go-to pile of 'chick lit,' but I kept hearing talk of the books and decided I wanted to see what it was all about.
Overall, I think my favorite books were the first and last. However, I'd like to go back and reread the books at a slower pace now that I know how they all end. Collins knows how to create a page-turner, and I found myself skipping details to read the next paragraph because I knew she would give away important info. Then, I had to go back and reread the paragraph{s} I skimmed because I wanted to soak it all in.
I have been wanting to see a movie in the Ukrainian theater, but all movies in Ukraine are shown in Ukrainian...and since I learned Russian, I probably wouldn't be able to understand most of it. When Harry Potter 7, part 2, came out last summer, I wanted to see it at the theaters here but never got a chance to. My thought process of seeing a movie in Ukrainian: preferably see an action-packed movie with minimal {important} speaking lines. Extra bonus if I've read the book. So, I think The Hunger Games will be perfect. Just gotta wait now... :)
I feel pretty crappy today. My head feels so fuzzy and heavy that I may give in to a nap right now. I did enjoy some Cheez Its from home though for a treat for feeling so lousy. Glad I can still eat with this bout of sickness :) Off to zzz land now...night night.
The snow that is. Although in my head, I heard the the title of the blog more like how the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz would say it. In fact, I even looked up the video for it just to give myself a good laugh.
But really, the snow is melting...at an alarmlingly fast pace I might add. This means that the water has nowhere to go, except to make larger and larger puddles lakes. The view from my kitchen window went from this....
to this...in a a few days!
and from this...
to this!
But, with the warmer weather (it's 36 degrees Fahrenheit right now), you know what that means?
My old men playing dominos are back!
And just because it was meowing very loudly at me as I opened my kitchen window to take pics, one of my {obnoxious} neighborhood cats who thinks I might feed it.
Sorry kitty, not today.
In other news, I've finished book 2 of the Hunger Games trilogy and am just over 50% done with book 3. Holy cow, those books are something else. I don't remember the last time I was that hooked on a book by page TWO. Shall I finish book 3 today? I think I've read for 4 or 5 hours today...but I really don't want to go out in the splash zone outside. Happy Sunday :)
Excuse the past few days of skipped blogging. I ended up having another round of sickness...though this one is hopefully almost over. Tuesday, I taught all of my clubs like normal...and since I was sick two weeks ago for Valentine's Day, we celebrated Valentine's Day a week late! I made a Valentine's Day powerpoint with random pics collected from searching google about things we do in the US for Valentine's Day. Thanks to my parents and the Louy Fam, my kiddos had authentic Valentine's Day cards AND conversation hearts. Words cannot explain how much my 3rd formers LOVED this candy.
Liza and Nastia
Margaret, Nastia, and Diana
Nikita and Andrei
Ivan and Yaroslav
The kids only ate a few of the hearts in class and I was confused when I asked them what they were doing with the rest of the candy?
"Taking it home to our families!"
I couldn't believe these kids were willing to share this candy with their brothers, sisters, and parents. Definitely underestimated them :)
On Tuesday, I went home exhausted from teaching, but ready for the rest of my clubs on Wednesday. However, no kids ending up coming to English clubs on Wednesday, which was good for me because that was when I started going downhill fast. My throat hurt, my voice was giving me problems, and I felt nauseous alllll over again like before. I went home Wednesday evening and fell asleep around 9 or 10 pm (way early for this night owl!). I was supposed to play some English games with kids on Thursday morning at a school here in K-grad, but I called the teacher and informed her I had no voice to instruct games. I slept all day Thursday. Barely ate anything. Friday was a bit better, but I called the PC doc just to update them on my illness, that is all still part of this viral infection.
I can speak pretty normally today, but am still trying to rest my vocal chords...doc's orders! I managed to get all of my dirty laundry done today and have spent most of the day reading The Hunger Games book 2: Catching Fire.
Two of my sweet sitemates, Dan and Vicki, brought me homemade chicken noodle soup (that I'm saving to eat tomorrow!) and homemade cornbread (which I ate over half of today...). Vicki asked the question, what have I been doing for 2 weeks of basically being in my apartment? The answer: read and watch tv shows online. I am now up to date on Glee, Modern Family, and the New Girl. And, I'm on the second season of Desperate Housewives. You could say I've had a little time on my hands. :)
The weather has finally warmed up here...which means that all of the snow/ice is becoming giant {monstrous} puddles. You know what that means...this girl will get to break out the pink rain boots soon! Unless it drops below freezing again...
I gave myself an hour-long manicure today. I've never actually used all of the tools that came in my mani/pedi kit my sister-in-law got me...but I put them all to use today :) and then used some of my LUSH cuticle cream that Kym got me for my birthday. My hands felt like a million bucks!
Off to read more now. Toodles :) and a shout-out to all of my McFarlin kiddos on the team-leader retreat! Wish I were there with y'all :)
It was -30C (-22F) when I woke up this morning. Brr!!
As I lay in bed this morning all nice and toasty, I didn't want to get out of bed and into my cold(er) room. Last night, I used one of my brother and sis-in-laws Christmas/birthday presents. A hot water bottle!
I have the red one :)
I've never had one of these things, but holy cow was it phenomenal! When I get in bed, my toes are usually freezing...so I tucked this down at my feet and let it warm up my toesies while I read my book (Chasing Harry Winston). More on the book in a minute.
I conducted my morning like normal. Made hot water for my instant coffee. Cut up a banana and ate it with yogurt (note: had to thaw the yogurt first because my fridge is frozen...). Turned on my computer and checked email and facebook. And then, my phone rang.
It was Olena, my counterpart, on the phone telling me the most glorious news ever: I didn't have to come to work today! "See you Monday," were the last words we spoke. Yippeeeeeeeee! That meant that my day became a LOT more productive, at least in the scheme of things that needed doing at my apartment.
Important things first...I tried this video that my brother posted on my blog yesterday. Turned out to be an epic fail from my window, but it's still cool to watch the lady do it!
Eventually, I started making veggie chili (I base it off this recipe but definitely can't follow it to a tee. Half of the ingredients aren't available here...). Tastes pretty darn good if I do say so myself! Watched the newest episode of Glee. Cleaned up the apartment. Thought about showering and then decided it was too cold. Then decided it was time to go to the store. But first, let's take a look at the weather (this is tonight and tomorrow's forecasts, but they were basically the same):
current temp right now: -24C
gonna get down to -29C in the morning but it will feel like -30C. Wowzers.
So, I decide to go to the store. Kishenya is my favorite store in Kirovograd but it's a marshrutka ride away. I wanted to go yesterday but didn't think I could physically wait for a marshrutka in these temps, so I opted for the grocery store that's across the street from my apartment. I'm pretty spoiled, I know.
There are a number of marshrutkas I can take to get out to Kishenya. Instead of waiting for one that I was positive would go there (I had already been standing outside for 2-3 minutes), I saw the #5 that I knew went out to another store nearby. I assumed that it would go down the street that Kishenya is on.
I assumed wrong.
Let me state that marshrutkas are not easy to see out of to begin with. But, when the windows are completely iced over on the inside of the mashrutka, it makes it really hard to see out. It was literally like riding in a big box with a tiny hole to see out of the front. I had to guess where we were half the time. We stopped a few times and let people off and more people got on. Eventually, I figured we had to be getting close. And then, we stopped. Everyone started filing off the bus and I could tell that we were at the end of the line...and nowhere near Kishenya.
I had to laugh at myself for not waiting for a marshrutka I knew would go to Kishenya. At this point, I was by some apartment buildings and could see EpiCenter about 500 yards away. Head down, hood up, hands in my pockets, I started walking. Let me add that the first breath you take outside literally makes you cough because it's so cold. My eyes were tearing up. I wasn't all that cold, just feeling incredibly stupid because I wasn't patient :) I stopped in EpiCenter and looked around, mainly just to warm up. EpiCenter is kind of like a Home Depot, while Kishenya is like a Wal-Mart/Target.
Not sure how far EpiCenter and Kishenya are away from each other, but I had a revelation sometime along the walk (it's probably half a mile if I had to guess). I had heard talk of people saying their eyelashes froze...but I didn't understand what they meant. About halfway through the walk, my eyelashes felt weird and wet. And then they started sticking together. It is SUCH a weird feeling. It must come from the fact that my eyes were tearing up like crazy and I'm sure the wind doesn't help the situation either. Whatever the scientific reason, by the time I got to Kishenya, my eyelashes were icy and white-ish. I didn't have a camera or I would have taken a picture of this phenomenon.
While at Kishenya, I bought a rolling pin. I have really been wanting one (instead of using a bottle of hairspray in a ziploc bag) and decided that I will truly use it in the next 17 months. I plan on making homemade wheat thins sometime tomorrow or Saturday (recipe here!). We'll hope they turn out well :)
Back to the book I'm reading. This is the first book book I've read since I have had my Kindle. I picked this book up in the Peace Corps office last weekend and thought I would give reading a real, physical book a shot again and give my Kindle a rest.
It is SO weird to be reading a real book. My fingers instantly try to hit the "next page" button. Or even worse, there are words every page that I want to look up the actual definition for. Can't do that with a real book :( Don't know how I feel about this because I absolutely love having real books on my shelf and picking them up to look at them. Read the plot. See what other books the author has written. It's so strange now to have it all electronic. BUT, I'm very thankful I do have the Kindle because without it, I wouldn't have read as many books as I have (somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-50 since I've been gone?).
I am tired and cold and ready to curl up with my hot water bottle and my real book :) goodnight blog readers!
It's the little things as a PCV that really make your day. Today, I wanted to call the bus company on my own and reserve a seat on the bus using correct Russian. I've done it before using whatever Russian I could to get the point across...but Olena and I sat in the office today and she repeated what I needed to say a few times with me so that I would say it properly.
I managed to only screw up one word...which I would consider a success!
At the end of the conversation, the lady asked me a question that I hadn't been prepped for. Totally blew my cover of her thinking I was a native. But, the important thing is that I got 'er done! All self, as I used to say when I was little :)
The caption of today's post comes from a trip that I finally got the details sorted out for. I have a few different things coming up in the new few months...but I just got all of my train information sorted out for my...
FIRST SKI TRIP IN UKRAINEEEEEEEEE :) :) :)
I am so.so.so.excited to shoop down the beautiful Carpathian mountains. It's something that I've wanted to do since I learned I was coming to Ukraine. I am by no means a world-class skier, but I probably have the excitement of one right now :) And the best part? I get to do it with other PCVs :) more about it later. It only helps my excitement that the past few days at the gym, the tvs have had ski sports on.
Shoop, shoop, shoop (if you don't understand what this is...it comes from the tv show Friends. And it's a line that I love to throw into everyday conversations as much as I can.)
Today's word of the day:
ЗАКАЗАТЬ--to order/reserve
I'm not actually sure that it means to reserve, but that's how I picture it in my head...
It's late. And I'm at 90% in The Help. It is so, so good. Highly recommended. Enough said. Night night :)
P.S. I'm still reaping the benefits of queso. I have eaten it every day since Saturday and plan to do so until it's gone...
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 :)
Since arriving in Ukraine almost 9 months ago, one of my favorite activities to do is people watch. No matter where you are, what time of day it is, or what the weather is, I usually have one fun experience people watching every day.
One thing that is different here in Ukraine is the fact that people don't wear sunglasses during the winter. In fact, they stopped wearing sunglasses a couple months ago. I, however, still wear mine. Maybe just to stick out, maybe to people watch, maybe just because I like to watch people's reactions of seeing me in sunglasses. Nonetheless, I enjoy wearing them on days where it's sunny and they are needed. I wouldn't want extra wrinkles after all... :)
Today I wore my sunglasses while walking to the post office. I noticed more people stare at my entire outfit today than I have in sometime. For one thing, I wasn't wearing my giant winter jacket complete with fur trim. Why is that? Because it was FIFTY degrees here today. Instead, I wore my North Face fleece (without fur) and got the oddest looks for it. I also stuck out because I'm not going to wear 4" stilettos for my trek to the grocery store. If I know I'm going to walk a lot, I wear my tennis shoes, which most females don't even own here. Needless to say, I got some unbelievably long stares today...all of which I could secretly stare back at thanks to my sunglasses.
My sunglasses have also come in handy a few times on marshrutka rides. I don't think I wrote about the time that I was sitting on a marshrutka, minding my own business, when a lady got on with a cowl neck jacket on. What was nestled right under her chin in the cowl neck jacket? A rat. An honest to goodness, live, decently large rat. I couldn't help but stare as she found her seat. And just because I couldn't help myself, I stood up earlier than my stop so that I could turn around and look at her again and make sure that I wasn't seeing things. It was real, I promise.
If only my sunglasses had a secret camera attached to them. Oh, the things I could show y'all...
There is the more recent adventure that just happened last weekend. I was on my marshrutka ride from Rivne to Kiev (a four hour ride) after our Thanksgiving day hoopla. There was an older babushka on the ride too. I drew a picture to help you visualize this experience...which is key to the story.
So, this is a marshrutka, typical for longer rides (as opposed to the ones I ride around town). I am the "L," the babushka is the "B," and there is a sliding van door by the seat in front of me. Also key for the story background.
We were probably 30 minutes outside of Kiev when I was awoken from my slumber (thanks to the sunglasses) by the babushka yelling and carrying on about something. The driver (a younger guy...probably in his 30s) was yelling right back to her, completely unafraid of whatever she was saying. She spoke Ukrainian so I didn't catch the whole conversation, but in my mind, it went something like this:
Baba: "It's really hot on here. Open the windows."
Driver: "We're flying down the interstate. I'm not opening the windows. Take of your full-on winter parka and fur hat, and maybe you'll cool off."
I was still wearing my heavy down jacket and was quite comfortable. Maybe the baba was sick. Maybe she didn't want to take off her jacket. All that I know is that I'm thanking my lucky stars I wasn't sitting in the seat in front of me. The baba was sweating profusely and kept dabbing her face with an incredibly old and gross looking rag. Now would also probably be a good time to mention that this was a BIG baba. She squashed the poor girl sitting next to her in the two-seater. Again, thankful it wasn't me.
So, as we're flying down the interstate going at least 60 mph, she leans across the man sitting in front of me to OPEN THE VAN DOOR. That's right. It SLAMS open and the driver turns around to see what was going on. He then proceeds to slam on the breaks so that the door will shut. She starts yelling at him for shutting the door...and I'm sitting there wishing that I had another PCV with me just to witness this whole situation. Don't worry, it gets better.
After the driver yells at her to sit down and gives her a good verbal lashing, we approach Kiev. We start dropping people off at various stops along the way, and soon our once full marshrutka is half full. Or half empty? :) Anywho, the seat in front of me is now open, as well as the triple-seater in front of the baba. She was too large to maneuver around to the row of three seats, so she chose the single seater in front of me. It's high traffic time in Kiev as we're heading towards the bus station, when out of nowhere our driver has to slam on the breaks (a common occurrence here). Apparently, the old baba was not ready for him to slam on the breaks, because she goes FLYING forward. I'm not sure whether the aisle seat on the triple-seater is supposed to lift forward (for people to be able to pass by), or whether her brut force knocked the bolts loose, but regardless, the seat moved forward and the baba ended up in the floor.
The driver didn't know what was happening as the baba started screaming and cussing and crying for someone to help her up. The two closest people to the baba were myself and the tiny girl who was her old seat mate. Luckily, two men jumped up from the back of the marshrutka to help her into her seat. This was by far one of the weirdest marshrutka experiences I've had in my time here, and I'm certain it's not going to be my last. As soon as we parked at the bus station, I hightailed it out of there.
During my adventures today (all with sunglasses), I went to Kishenya, a GIANT supermarket I had yet to visit. Holy. Cow. This is the motherload of all stores. I think I spent an hour just walking around, then I decided to get a cart and start loading up. I bought myself a little Christmas tree for 30 griev (less than $4)...and a shower curtain! A hot pink, polka dot shower curtain. I also bought some hangers which I can now use thanks to the fact that my landlady cleaned out a piece of furniture in the back room with hanging space. They even have books in there, including the Harry Potter's in Russian. I really want to buy them before I leave...it's one of my goals to read the first one sometime while I'm here (in Russian).
Tomorrow I've got English clubs back to back, but first my landlady will come to collect rent money in the morning. I can't begin to express to you how excited I am to have some friends visit this weekend. And the week after that, we get our new volunteers in K-grad. And then it's Christmas. And then it's my birthday. And then it's New Years!
I've decided for every post I make in December, to do a random part of a movie or TV show clip that I enjoy and makes me laugh. What shall be the first one I share with you...none other than one of my favorite movies of all time :)
Yippeeeeeeee :) finally!! I am so so so so so so excited to have a Russian tutor. After being at different trainings and hearing other PCVs speak in Russian and realizing how much mine has digressed...it made me sad and somewhat frustrated to know that I haven't been doing anything to make my Russian better. Granted, for the first couple months after training, I didn't want to see any type of Russian class material for a while. You try learning a language every day, for 4 hours a day, for 3 months straight and let me know if your brain reaches max capacity. I think it would. At the end of training...I was done. Kaput. Couldn't handle any more new information. But now, I'm ready to conquer it.
One of the reasons I requested a non-Spanish speaking country for PC was because I wanted to learn a new language...and I mean really learn it. And I knew that the only way I would ever learn a new language at this point in my life was to be submersed in it. And boy, let me tell ya, that makes ya learn quick! I met with my new tutor, Sveta, yesterday and today to decide on how things would work and what we would be doing. Yesterday, she told me she wanted me to read a book in Russian. I laughed and said it needed to be the level of a 5 year old. So...look what she brought me today :)
The book is actually two books in one: 1) Winnie the Pooh and 2) Malish and Karlson. I'm going to read Malish and Karlson, which is the top part of the picture featuring a flying man with a little boy on his back. We will meet twice a week for one hour each time to speak and work on my Russian. I'm also supposed to read aloud my book at home. My neighbors will probably think I'm crazy (actually, they probably already do...). If you want to see a little bit about what the story is about...here's a youtube video on it. I only watched the first few minutes because I am supposed to try to comprehend from the book and I don't want any help! But, the first 3 minutes are pretty boring...I'd fast forward through that.
One of my goals while I'm here in Ukraine is to read Harry Potter 1 in Russian. We'll see if that ever happens...so please please please hold me accountable!! Ask me if I'm getting anywhere close to reading Гарри Поттер и Философский Камень!! Here's what it looks like in Russian...
Also, if you google "Harry Potter in Russian"...this is one of the things that comes up. Hysterical :)
Dumbledore, Snape, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and what's the last little guy?!
On another note, today marks two things: 1) my first English club meeting with adults (14 people! Not too shabby...) and 2) I haven't had a piece of meat in one month! That's right...this girl is trying being a vegetarian. There are a number of reasons for this which I will be happy to explain if someone is so curious...but I doubt everyone really cares. I may go off on a rant on it someday, but I'll warn you so you can skip that days post if you so desire :)
Okay, going to indulge in one of my guilty pleasures here: The Real Housewives of ________________. It's embarrassing but true. I'll watch any of the shows but the Atlanta one. Fare thee well :)
