Long Overdue Update

It appears I have just been in the habit of putting off writing about my PST experience so far.  My bad.  Life got in the way, so please forgive me.  How about a short recap by week using bullet points beginning with leaving Florida?

Week One: Staging and Arrival in Ukraine

-Missed checking in for my flight out of Florida by about 5 minutes.  So even though the plane was still there, it was a no-go.  Insert tears and frustration.

-Hung out at the Gainesville Airport for another 4 hours until the next flight to Charlotte.  This meant I wound up leaving Florida about a half hour before I should have been arriving in DC.

-Showed up to staging about 4 hours late.  Not such a bad thing though since the part I did make it for was rather boring. It did, however, suck that I missed out and that bit of bonding time.  I did make it in time to be able to volunteer to help with getting everyone to UKR in one piece.

-Learned I am not the only one to FB stalk others in my group.  It seemed that during staging and the retreat that I am easily recognizable (or something..)

-Last dinner in the US was BBQ.  A BBQ quesadilla to be exact.

-Saw the sights in DC the morning before I left.

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial.

Korean War Memorial. Neat and a bit creepy all in one.

WWII Memorial

-Last meal in the US: Chipotle! Yum.

-I slept a whopping half hour (maybe) on the flight. I was exhausted when we got to Ukraine on Wednesday.

-We received "Welcome" bread and salt the first night at the Arrival Retreat.

Bread is referred to as being "sacred" here in Ukraine. 

-I got shots my first night there.

-Met the people I’d be spending the next 3 months with and found out I would be studying Russian and training in Obukhov.  Also met many other people J

-Moved in with Host Family.  Nadia (52) and her grandson Yura (9).

Week Two: Week 1 of PST

-Russian classes commence!

Alphabet and greetings!

-Tried salo straight from the jar.  Not a huge fan of the texture.

-Bought my UKR cell phone and a wireless modem so I could have interweb access.

-Presented myself to the Vice-Mayor of Obukhov in Russian.

After the presentation.  That is the Vice Mayor on the left with 2 people from each Obukhov group in the picture.

-Had a picnic in the woods when our link cluster came to our joint tech session.

Week Three: Week 2 of PST

-Stomach issues galore! I hate upset stomachs.

-Rolled my ankle multiple times.  To top it off I also managed to trip and fall while walking home.  This led to a slamming of my face on the ground, two scraped up ankles, and one scraped knee. Insert face palm here.

-First shot of vodka taken.

-Enjoyed a movie night with ¾ of my cluster mates.  It was a night of Basketball, Ukrainian beer, and a taste of fish jerky.  The latter is salty and difficult to swallow, FYI.

You even eat the tail.  These things were quite large.

Week Four: Week 3 of PST

-Frustration about language rears its head. But hey, I have only been speaking it for a few weeks!

-2^nd and 3^rd shots of vodka.  I notice that pickles are used as a common chaser.  It works rather nicely!

-Note to others: BRING MASKING TAPE.  So useful, I want some.

-Taught my first two lessons.  One to 6^th form and one to 10^th form.  Both went awesomely.

-Went on a hike in the woods with the cluster.  It was awesome. Well, except for the days old dead cat and trash piles we has to pass on the way up.

Forest! So nifty.

-The local PCV invited both Obukhov clusters to her place to cook pizza and have beer.  It was nice to get everyone together and hang out.  Also, pastry crust is a tasty substitute for pizza crust J

Obukhov groups! Well, parts of them :)

And here are some picture of the people that I spend just about everyday with:

This is Rachel from Ohio.  She is a tiger.

Joe from Minnesota.  He provides great entertainment for us all.

Kip from California. He also provides hilarity to the cluster.

Katherine from Georgia. She's the mama of the group.

Obukhiv

So here I am at my training site.  It is about 2 hours outside of Kyiv and is a city of around 35,000 people!  I live in a Soviet style building on the 5th floor, so I will have a great ass by the end of training from all of these stairs!  My host family consists of a grandmother (age 52) and her grandson (age 9), neither of which speak English. 

I am in a cluster, or training group, with 4 other people who are also TEFL volunteers that are learning Russian.  Oh, Russian.  I think the hardest part for me is looking at a letter and feeling like it should be a consonant even though it is a vowel.  Oh, and "False friend" letters can also suck it.  Those are letters that look like a Latin letter (like English uses), but sounds nothing like it.  For instance "C" sounds like /s/, "H" sounds like /n/, and "P" sounds like a rolling /r/.  Fun, right?

I have a cell phone, but I am not entirely sure of the phone number, but I think it is 011380636776465 if anyone wants to test it out and call me.  I am not sure how much it is, but I hear Skype would be fairly inexpensive for an international call.  I am 7 hours ahead of East Coast time, so 10 hours ahead of West Coast.

That is all I really have for now! I am working on a post detailing my staging and first few days in Ukraine, but it is on my laptop and will be long!  Maybe next time :)

3 Days 'til Staging

It seems like the closer I get to staging, the more I find my stomach in my chest.  This is due to a recurring realization: I am moving to another country for just over two years.  I knew that it is what I was getting into and I am really excited to be going, however I cannot really tell you the last time I have lived somewhere for two years. Seriously though, I have lived in 10 different homes/apartment within 3 cities in the past 6 years, so committing to one place for so long is a bit foreign to the adult version of me.

One thing that I am pretty grateful for is that I haven't been attached at the hip to my family for the past few years, otherwise it would definitely make leaving that much harder.  Granted being near them and seeing them a ton these past few months has been awesome and I will miss them, I also know from experience that I don't need to be in constant contact with them to retain my sanity. I suppose I am one of those "create your own family" kind of people when it comes to being away from my own :)

In other news...
My sister is attempting to throw me a going away party tomorrow, which I am not too excited about since I don't know most of the people she invited (though, she does claim I have met them...).  I would have been fine hanging out at home and having a family dinner/game night.  I'm sure I would be more excited if my LV friends were here, but oh well.  I'm sure I will have fun nonetheless.

9 More Days.

I leave on the 10th day. Eep!

This has been a pretty great week:

•  I managed to sell my car for the price I was asking for.
•  I received my 401K check and, after depositing last night, it was available this morning!
• I paid off the last of my cards this morning!
• Just need to drop a couple checks in the mail
• Bought the last of what I need for service (I hope!)
• My mommy bought me a Kindle. I loaded it with the free classics on Amazon and with my PC related materials that I converted to PDFs so I can study on the go!
• I had no issues with Verizon when it came to cancelling my service. It falls under their military information, if you were wondering.  The bummer part is I am not getting a refund of my most recent payment, so I will have service until April 6th, even though I leave on March 22!

I still need to:

• Find Cortez a home
• Study Ukrainian! I want to know the alphabet and counting (at least) before I get there.
• Yard sale this weekend to get some extra cash for service.
• Hair cut since it has been far too long. Maybe dye it as well, we'll see.
• Return some items to Old Navy that won't fit in my carry-on
• Partake in some Cracker Barrel
• Pack up the last of my stuff at my Meme's and bring it to my mom's for storage.
• Get a power of attorney set up
• Inform my bank
• Look through Staging paperwork
• Get spices

But really, I am feeling so much less stress since selling my car, that was my biggest worry.  It is a bummer though because now I am car-less! This weekend I'll have my mom's since she and her husband just left for Bike Week in Daytona and I am at her house for the weekend with my siblings :)

Test Packing: I have skills.

I have been working on getting things organized and ready to pack over the past few days by consolidating and sorting things as well as doing quite a bit of laundry.  Today I decided I would do some test packing.  After the first round, I learned that I was bringing far too many clothes and my sleeping bags takes up quite a bit of space (but I really want to take it, so I'll deal with that little issue!), so I needed to once again go through my clothes and pick some soldiers to leave behind.

I realize that I am still bringing a ton of clothes, but I really like having variety in my wardrobe. Plus, I was able to fit most of it (read: everything but some underwear, socks, and pajamas) into my carry-on via the method below. :

Yes, I have posted this before, and check out my results:

Before

After

Just about everything fit into the bag in the back of the "After" picture! (I only put 1 pair of shoes in the bag) My goal is to further reduce these clothes so that I can fit ALL of my clothes into the bag.  Le sigh, I will miss having access to my collection of fun tanks and camis.  It also doesn't help that I wear an undershirt everyday. 

For fun, here are some other pictures of my giant collection of stuff:

 Dry erase calendar, school/office supplies, books, batteries, collapsible boxes, and books

Tripod, HCN gifts, sheets, purses/bags, sleeping bag, sunscreen, Degree, belt, lounge dress and jeans

Hot water bottles, measuring cups/spoons, surge protector, and misc beauty supplies. 

Bagged up games! Yahtzee, Catch Phrase, Uno, Scrabble, Scrabble SLAM!, Uno, The Game of Things, Scattergories, and Cranium :)

In other news:
 Paying off debt this week! Woot! Now if only someone would buy my car.  I went to have it appraised at both CarMax and Toyota only to get offered less than I owe on it (both offered the same amount) and $2,500 less than I could sell it for to a private party.  I don't need to make money off of it (though it would be nice), I just want to be able to get rid of it free and clear.  Someone called about it and offered me the same as the dealerships!  Jerk.  It is also annoying that Craigslist either doesn't show my ad or someone flags it! I am not sure why it gets flagged, either.  I think perhaps it should be required that people put the reason they are flagging an ad so the poster knows the issue. Again, le sigh.

My attempt at a yard sale this weekend failed. Weather sucked on Friday when it wasn't supposed it, it was overly windy on Saturday, and it was supposed to rain today but didn't!  Hopefully, next weekend will work out better.  It is bike week in Daytona which means tons of people will be driving down the highway my signs will be on.  Fingers crossed it helps! Plus I will be at my mom's house that whole weekend keeping an eye on my siblings while my mom and step-dad head down to Daytona for the festivities. It is still nuts to me that my mom now owns a Harley and has tattoos; I am not sure anyone could have seen that coming :)

OH!
And I am stoked because we got all 50 countries for the Snapshots Project!

I really enjoy my peer advisor over there in Ukraine.

She is nifty and helpful!

Oh the joys of Skype.

Dear Congress

Learn to compromise on this whole budget thing and stop being stubborn jerks.
My departure to Ukraine could be affected by your silliness and I would love to get on with my Peace Corps service.


Love, 
Kim


But really. I got this e-mail today:

"Dear Group 41,

  A few of you have contacted me recently with questions regarding the effect a government shutdown could have on your departure for Ukraine.  Today, Congress agreed in principle to pass a Continuing Resolution that will fund the government through March 18^th.  While the extension is welcome, I know that it would be poor timing for all of us if the government were to then shut down just prior to your departure on March 21^st.

  Rest assured, a government shutdown would only delay the departure of your class until the budget is resolved.  The Peace Corps would plan to send your group of volunteers to Ukraine as soon as possible.  The new date of departure would be contingent on:  1) when the new budget is passed and 2) when we are able to book new hotel rooms for Staging and arrange new flights to Ukraine for your group.  In the event of a shutdown, I anticipate being deemed “essential personnel”, so I will send you updated information as I receive it.

  At this point, the decision ultimately lies with Congress and we will base our plans on the timing of the budget they pass.  As always, our priority is getting volunteers into the field and we will be aiming to do that as soon as possible.

Regards,
Lenny"

I am pretty much hoping for the best.  Yay optimism!