November 16th

Hello everyone!

I have not written in a while! Internet has been scarce lately. Our most recent way to obtain internet is to sit in a pagoda in the yard of this nice Australian man we met. He has wireless internet in his house, and the internet (on good days) reaches the pagoda. So we sit there and freeze and check emails and such. It’s great.

It’s so funny sitting here in this random pagoda, using wireless internet and hearing roosters and chickens clucking and cockadoodle-do-ing in the background. It is such a strange paradox. And these babushkas just came over to the pagoda and were like, “Why are you here?!?! We said we are friends with the Australian man and we attempted to chat with them for a minute. It’s gotta be kind of weird for them to see these strange foreigners sitting outside with laptops. If I saw this and was them, I would also walk over and be like “Ummmm who are you and why are sitting in the freezing cold with a computer?!?”

Not much has been happening lately. Schools are still closed and we are still not teaching because of the flu epidemic. Supposedly we have this next week as the last week that this “quarantine” will be in place. But the landlady whose house we have Russian class in is a teacher, and she said that there is talk about just cancelling school until the New Year. I asked my host mom about this because she works in a school as well, but she said she did not know. That would be pretty bad if we were not going to be able to teach anymore before we got to our site. Additionally, we are developing a Community Project focusing on educating high school students at our school about HIV/AIDS, and most of the success of this project revolves around school actually being in session. So, we will wait and see what happens.

People in my town are so nice. I think at first it was maybe frustrating for the store clerks (as well as for us) because we did not really know how to buy things, so we would just sort of point and say “I want this.” It felt terrible being so abrupt, but we had no idea how to say anything. Still sometimes, I have to point at something if I do not know the name, but now I can be friendlier. It’s a good feeling—knowing how to do things without relying on my language teacher or my dictionary to complete tasks. Hooray doing simple things! Now whenever we walk into the store near our language teachers house, the store clerks smile and ask if we are back to buy cookies (we have a weak spot for their cookies) and whenever we walk into the office supply store in town, the woman laughs and helps us with everything we need.

Oh a funny Russian term I learned on Friday—our language teacher asked us what it is called when there are people sitting around and no one is talking—an awkward silence in English. There are a couple of terms for this in Russian. One of them is, in Russian, милиция родились which translates into “A policeman was just born.” We all thought that was hilarious. So whenever there are any awkward silences that take place, I can say in Russian that a policeman was just born. Hooray.

My host mother's granddaughter is still living with us, and we are still having a blast. I am teaching her colors in English and she is teaching me colors in Russian. She is a very good and patient teacher for being only 7 years old. But there is one word that every day she is trying to teach me, it is the Russian word for “napkin holder”. For whatever reason, I cannot pronounce this word in Russian. She keeps saying that i am pronouncing the “L” incorrectly in the word, and I know that there are two different ways to pronounce L’s. One way you put your tongue on your teeth, the other way you put your tongue on the roof of your mouth. So whenever I try to say this word, she smooshes my mouth together to try to get me to say it right. But alas, I cannot. So now she likes to taunt me at the dinner table and make me say it. And every single time, I cannot. The other day there was some other word that I just could not pronounce, and she and my host mom were trying to teach me, but I again could not pronounce the “L” sound. My host mom was literally on the floor laughing hysterically at my inability to say it. It was pretty funny, I will admit. I am thankful that my family enjoys trying to teach me words, even if I butcher every single one. It’s fun when my terrible pronunciation leads to so much laughing in my house!

I have recently begun to think about how I must sound so ridiculous to people when I speak Russian. Yes I am often making full sentences, and they are usually understandable, but they sound so absurd sometimes. Like the other today, I asked my host mom if my friends could come over after our lesson. I think what I said translated into “After lesson my friends house. This good? This bad?” I mean she totally knew what I was asking, but I just feel so silly all the time.

I can’t believe there are only 4 more weeks left of training. Next Friday, we have our site placement interviews. This is the time that we discuss with one of the training managers about our preferences about where we might want to live the next two years—bigger town, small village, host family, alone, etc. Sometimes I forget that this is not the Peace Corps what I am doing now. I have two more years after this. I have come to really like my town and I love my host family. It will be hard to leave. My host mom keeps saying she doesn’t want me to leave and she squeezes and hugs me, and I don’t want to leave either! Hopefully I will be able to come back and visit at some point.

So my efforts to do NanoWrimo (the novel writing thing) have pretty much come to a halt. I was doing SO well the first week, writing every day, and now I have not worked on my novel in over a week. Even though we are not teaching at the moment, we are still developing lesson plans, so it’s hard to squeeze in time to also work on the novel. Oh well. Sorry NanoWrimo! Maybe next year will be easier.

During our technical session this week, (we have two technical sessions a week, focusing on teaching and Ukrainian culture in the schools) my friend Michelle and I were adapting a lesson plan in a textbook for 9^th graders. We decided to adapt a lesson about Americans’ Food. In the textbook, there was a text about American’s and their love for food, especially fast food. My favorite lines from this text were “Many fast food restaurants have a drive-in section. Here you can order and pick up food without even getting out of your car!” and “Americans eat out a lot, and when they go to a restaurant, they don’t expect to be hungry afterwards!” It made us laugh. Oh lazy Americans who love their food.

I never really talked about the trip to Kyiv we took a few weeks ago. The trip was fun, but I would say that in general, this trip was not really an accurate representation of what Kyiv is actually like, just because we did not see too much of the city. We got up early and went to catch the bus to Kyiv. It took about an hour and a half. The bus dropped us off at the outskirts of Kyiv. The main goals of the trip were to find out how to navigate the metro, go to the Peace Corps office and ask strangers for directions to different places. So we got to the metro station. Our language teacher went with us, and her role was to pretend that this was also her first time here and that she was to not really help us much. In fact, she had only been to Kyiv like 3 times in her life, so this was all pretty new for her as well. So we figured out how to buy the token, we paid and we went down to the trains. We started asking some people about which train to take to where we were going, people looked at us kind of funny, but we got some directions. The trains arrived like every 2 minutes, which was great. BUT, they were all packed. And I am not talking about the kind of packed where you groan and squeeze in, I mean I have never in my life, in any city I have ever been to, not NYC, not Boston, not London, not anywhere seen or been on a train that had so many people squeezed in as these trains did. So basically about 7 trains went by, and we did not get on any. And finally another one came, and we decided okay, we’re just gonna squeeze in. So Luda, me, Yeri, Cait and Kathleen all squeeze in, and suddenly the doors begin closing on Jacob. We tried to pry the doors open, but they closed and we waved to Jacob as the train pulled away and he was left on the platform. It was so funny. Luda was so nervous he was going to get lost in the train station, but we figured he would find his way to the correct station. Okay so we are on this packed train. Honestly, I cannot explain to you how packed this was. I mean there is no personal space. I was not holding on to anything, but I didn’t need to since I was pressed into so many people that just their bodies held me perfectly still. Even when the train lurched forward, I basically didn’t move at all. We got to our stop, got off the train, and waited, hoping Jacob would show up. A couple minutes later Jacob got off of a train and we were very relieved. After switching trains again, we got to our stop, which is the main train station in Kyiv. Can you guess what the very first thing was that I saw when I exited the metro station? I bet you can’t. The very first thing I saw in Kyiv was a McDonalds. It was so absurd. We went into the main train station, which was amazing. I have to say that this was my favorite part of the day. It was very cool. The train station was beautiful, and we looked at the train schedule. There are trains there that go to all different parts of Ukraine—Odessa, Crimea, Lviv, and there are trains that go other places—Moscow, Berlin, Minsk, Prague, Budapest, Krakow. It was really, really incredible to see how many amazing countries and cities are just a train ride away. I can’t wait to travel and see more of this country and other nearby countries.

So then we went to find the Peace Corps office. We found it, spoke with some PC staff, met some current volunteers, used the computers. It’s a really nice office, so that was fun. Then we went off to find the city center. Unfortunately we never quite found the main downtown part, because it was getting late and we had to get lunch. I am looking forward to going back again, seeing some of the cathedrals and going to some museums. But I have to say, it was so comforting being back in my small town after being in Kyiv. Even though I did like Kyiv and I know it has a lot to offer, being there made me appreciate my town and how nice it can be to live life a little slower. I think I am still a city girl (that sounds weird) at heart, but maybe in Ukraine, I am not. We shall see…

Thank you to everyone who sent me mail! It is the best feeling in the world getting mail. Seriously. Peace Corps recommends that people do not send mail from the states after November 30^th, since I will be moving mid-December. As soon as I find out my permanent address, I will certainly pass that along. And then I can finally have packages sent to me. Like all the hot sauce I know you are going to send me.

Okay last thing I will share. No one will think this is funny unless you are learning Russian, but I will share it anyways! On Friday we were at Russian. Jacob went out to use the outhouse, and when he came back, he said that when he went out there, the dog that the landlady owns was barking at a chicken that had escaped from the chicken coop. He said to the landlady: “Курица на улица” which transliterated is pronounced “Kooreetsa na ooleetsa”, so it rhymes. It just means, “chicken outside”. We thought it was the funnies thing ever, and then the landlady barges into our lesson and starts shouting “Kooreetsa na ooleetsa! Kooreetsa na ooleetsa!” It was hilarious.

Okay. That is all for now. Until next time! (or at least until the next time I come to the pagoda)

Much love,

Rose