tak, so, lots has been going on, and not alot of blogging, but it is what it is with limited internet access in ukraine. my friend in my city/group keeps a blog pretty regularly and talks about me so here it is if your intrested:
somethingfrosty.blogspot.com
Last Saturday I went to Chernigov all by lonesome to get out of Oster to a bigger city and to see my dear friend Andrea. I was successful in getting there, in a two hour marshutka bus ride. I put my brick face on and my ipod headphones in my ears. I got off in the city center and met Andrea with lots of reunion hugs. We then went to a library where they had the Twilight series in Ukrainian! and just relaxed. some of her group mates met us and they worked on thier seminar plan and I played on the internet (wifi!!!!) on my ipod. It was nice just to sit and talk with someone who knows me relly well. Later, we walked around the city and I marveled at the traffic lights and noted thier lack of chickens and horses in th street. We went shopping in a huge bazaar and made purchases. I got some pretty awesome sun glasses with bling, some tennis shoes (knock offs i'm sure), and we found a Columbia store! It seemed legit, I bought some socks, but thats about all I could afford. We also ate at this pretty awsome outdoor cafe. I had some asperagus with cheese at the end and Andrea ordered potatoes and lovely salo. When it was time to go, she took me to the bus stop and I bought my ticket for the way home. It took us about 20 minutes to figure out where the platform for the bus was. I asked the cashier, but instead of saying it slower, she just yelled at me louder, so I went to the hot dog girl and got a much softer answer. While waiting, this tiny little babushka comes up to me and grabs my hand and is like devi, devii, or give me give me. I was surprised, but gave her like 20 kopecks. I then watched her circle around the room and other people just shooed her away. and then she came to me again, and I turned her away. Getting on the bus, I just sat in any seat, because thats how it works in Oster, but apperenly not in Chernigov. ipod on, brick face ready, this little girl ( like maybe 10 yrs) starts talking to me about numbers, something in Ukrainian ( not that if it was Russian I would have understood) and I had no idea. I told her I didnt understand, but then one of the other passengers turned around and spoke english and helped me out. I was in the wrong seat, and thus sat in the right one after that. I made it home safetly, did some homework and went to bed.
Yesterday (saturday) was a field trip day for my group. We went to our link group first in Kozolets at 730 in the morning and then after our tech session we went to Chernigov. We got on the first bus that said chernivgov and waited for the driver to pay him. While waiting I noticed another bus come and go wich Chernivgov also written on it. When the driver got back on, I went and asked if we were going to the right place, and the answer was no. I got the group off and we called our teacher to find out what to do since we had missed our bus. We got into a van taxi thing and got dropped off at a bridge on the highway (dont worry, everyone does this) and then walked down to the under pass and basically hitched a ride in another taxi to chernivgov, did the whole hand out thing and everything. We did get there though, pretty fast and just in time because the boys had hair ct appts.They got the the canadian aparently, ( not my ginge, he just shaved it all off) and we went and got Lydia a hair straitener. We had all these plans for site seeing and have great day, however it was cold and started to rain. I didnt wear a jacket and I only brought a scarf. We did eat at a traditonal restaurant though, it was themed Australia, but served nothing resembling the outback. Still raining, we made our way to the train station and did our train lesson. We did not go to any cool places, it was freezing and we were all wet. Lydia and I did buy our big Ukrainian bags though.
Today, another day in Chernivgov. I went bymyself again. There was a picnic some of the PST groups in Cher. planned. There were lots of volunteers and some hostfamilies, LCFS, and students. We had a huge spread of food. It was so nice. It was in this woodsy park on a hill that over looked some body of water. Andrea was there and lots of others that I had met in the first few days of training. I was there for like 5ish hours i think, mybe more, we just chilled and threw some balls around, including my deflated rugby ball. I Think the seal is broken, it wont hold air :[ No troubles traveling this time, the weather was awesome, warm and sunny, all went well.
