"I don't like the rain, we're too close to Chernobyl."

...said our LCF (language & cross cultural facilitator) when we stepped outside into the slight drizzle yesterday, right before she jumped under an awning. The rest of us, who were already standing well within reach of each radioactive drop, awkwardly crept towards the nearest shelter we could find. Just another day in Ukraine, I suppose.  Obvs the rain is (probably, i hope, please dear god) safe, but the danger just hasn't been shaken from the mindset of most people. After that anecdote, I will understand if no one wants to hug me when I return home.

Warning: a long blogpost follows.

I'm sitting here typing while I'm watching a football match between Shaktar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev with my host father. My host sister is coring apples on the other side of me and my host brother keeps running in and out of the living room pointing to my computer and saying "мне нужен" which means "I need". Very cozy scene. So some fun facts about my host family sitch:

1. Host mother & father, sister (13 years old, Nastya) and brother (2 years old, Vannya). That's it. This is unusual because there are typically more than just two generations living together, and sometimes some other random family members thrown in the mix, but I'm not complaining.

2. I'm in a house! And have my own (HUGE) room! And indoor plumbing! And hot water! And I can put the TP into the toilet, instead of in a trashcan next to the toilet! And, better than all the rest...FAST WIFI! Like as fast as I had at home. All of these conditions are truly shocking because we were not at all prepped for this. It's a charming home that has been continuously updated and improved upon since before my mom was born, literally, here.

3. There's also a cat (I believe her name is dashka), a dog (who's already made me his girlfriend, as my host mom told me while laughing, and has repeatedly made untoward advances on me) and some chickens!

4. For all the modern conveniences this family has (wifi, washing machine, microwave), it's incredible how self sufficient they are and how nothing goes to waste. They have one tiny (like bathroom size) trashcan in their kitchen and that's it. 

5. I look forward to gathering eggs.

6. My host family has already hosted 6 or 7 PCT, so they're pretty familiar with american oddities (e.g. they gave me my own trashcan, which I now realize is a rarity).

7. 3 outta the 4 family members speak some level of English. me --> spoiled

7. BTW: If I haven't already mentioned it, I'm training in the same city as our arrival retreat, Chernigov, population ~ 300,000. wikipedia it for more stats.

My cute little Vannya! We're the only two in the family that can't communicate with each other yet.

Basically all of my cultural training prior to moving was made ineffective as soon as I stepped into my house. This just means I have no idea how to actually behave around my own family. We were trained on some of the major cultural differences, like how to refuse gallons of vodka and five servings of borsht, to never, NEVER leave bread on your plate as waste, how two is the unluckiest number in the universe so avoid it at all costs, etc. etc.. But what if your family doesn't seem to subscribe to any of those cultural nuances? Like what if your host family gives you two shots of wine during dinner and that's it?? We weren't trained for that! I feel like at any moment I could be offending any member of the family. Should I be typing while they're watching TV? Is that why everyone's gone from the room already? Was I supposed to take the watermelon rind out to the chickens rather than throw it in the compost? Was it weird for me to ask to take a shower in the middle of the day? My mom already 'yelled' at me for leaving the kitchen earlier without taking any food for dinner. But there wasn't any food to take yet! Should I have just waiting at the table until she was done cooking? Should I not have gone back up to my room? Or should I have just sat patiently in the living room and checked on the kitchen every 5 minutes. I don't knoooowwww..... But it's only my second full day living with them, so hopefully I'll be able to work my way into a smoother routine as the days go on. Oh good! As soon as I finished typing that sentence, my host sister came and sat back down next to me. I didn't burn any bridges.

Our arrival retreat "hotel" and "cafe" (can you make out which word is which in the pic?! you just read ukrainian). Bomb shelter tour was the best part. Everywhere you're reminded that just a few decades ago, everyone here HATED us. Or at least thought we were starving alien-like creatures that needed their help.

My Ukrainian bed @ the hotel; I love rugomforters.

So today I went to the 'bazaar' with my mom, dad and bro (dropping the 'host' prefix). It was basically a mini Ukrainian version of the West Side Market, whole bunch of stalls selling various meats, cheeses, tea, underwear, you know. But you have even less room to walk between stands. Very interesting place to go and every neighborhood in the city has one. I brought my camera with me and desperately wanted to take pictures, but I wasn't sure about the cultural norms surrounding picture taking of strangers. I was too afraid a babushka would come charging at me, throw down my camera and declare she defeated an imperialist, so I kept my camera safely hidden in my purse. But as we were leaving, I felt brave enough to try and surreptitiously capture my family from behind, walking out of the bazaar. Just as I went to snap the pic, this happened.

"Spy!"

...she hissed to me as soon as she turned around. I began protesting "no! no! no! no! I didn't want anyone to think that!" but she just laughed and continued walking. Lesson: must look more like a Ukrainian before I start taking pictures in public. Which segues nicely into my next section.

Last night Sergei (dad) and I were standing on the massive city square listening to Putin's favorite band play (Lubeer, or some kinda name like that). Yesterday was a "city day", but no one seemed to know why we were celebrating, nor did they care. If it's been a city day for as long as they can remember, that's good enough reason for them. Anyway, I had a lot of time to people watch and come up with these observations:

How you can tell I'm not from around here..
1. I don't look like I came out of a Baby Phat dressing room.
3. I say excuse me when I run into someone/need to get through people. Personal space is not a Ukrainian concept, thus there's no reason to say "excuse me/извините" if you bowl through a group of people.
4. Head to toe leather would camouflage me pretty well.
5. Get it gurl...no one in this city is afraid of the combination of 4 inch heels & bumpy, rocky or bricky surfaces. Every surface falls into one of these categories, so yea, you get the picture. I thought I was dedicated to heels, but these girls blow me out of the water. My tennis shoes last night @ the concert were a dead giveaway.
6. Frosty pink lipgloss is always accepted, encouraged, beloved. I'm going back to it, Allison.
7. No bangs, No scrunchie, No Ukrainian

So those are just some of my physical red flags, and why I sometimes get the 'whose the crazy mute over there?" looks from the locals. All in all, Ukraine has been wonderful and my family is beyond welcoming. Simultaneously I feel grateful and out of place/uncomfortable & everyday is a new adventure. Tomorrow begins the hardcore language/technical lessons, so I'm sure I'll be bitching about all of that soon. Rando pics below.

all 127 books i 'transferred' from a fellow PCT. i have grown to love my kindle

My new sunday morning brunch: homemade cottage cheese from a villager + homemade sour cream + homemade apple jam. fab-u-lous

nothing special, just ukraine

A typical soviet style apartment building. They all look the same and they're everywhere. I'm supposed to be able to weave my way through these to find the matrushka (small bus) station tomorrow, in order to get to class. I may end up in Russia instead.

This country knows how to cultivate flowers. They're gorgeous and everywhere. It's a perfect antidote to the drab buildings. Pics of my mom's flowers to come.

So Chernigov used to be THE place for airman/cosmonaut training during soviet times, esp in the 60s. A large portion of the training grounds is just a few minutes from my house.

An abandoned airmen military academy.

Closeup of the same building. My mom said that the city just doesn't have any money to do anything with this building. Sounds familiar.

People seem to love to attempt English, be it on signs or graffiti. This russian reads "your instruments for work"; it's a sign for a hardware store we went into today.

OH! I forgot another awesome part of my day. I had my first taste of Ukrainian vodka today! My dad gave me a shot of horseradish vodka during dinner. It was very smooth and horseradishy. My stomach didn't dig it as much as my tastebuds did, but still lovely.

Making weight

no like airport and weight restrictions

one of the worst parts about making this trip: freaking out about keeping your bags under 50lbs/ piece. and it just depended who you got at the ticket counter as to how mercurial they would be with your weight allowance. one girl had to get rid of almost an entire bag and ship her items to the arrival retreat. i'm just glad that the weight of my bags will no longer be a source of stress! let those bags eat what they want. it's all bumpy bus rides and hopefully on time train rides for the forseable future.

our country director greeting us on my bus after we arrived in Kyiv.

so guess what we have at our "arrival retreat"? WIFI IN OUR BEDROOM!! it's what makes this post possible. well not everyone got this, but we are able to reap the benefits of being so close to the wifi hub @ the 'hotel'. that's just one of the perks that i wasn't expecting at this place. especially when one of the Ukrainian coordinators explained on the bus ride to this site that the building was "built in the 1970s to be a training center for soviet military, when America was our ENEMY #1!". 

but the rooms are actually pretty decent (3 single beds to a room) and we have a bathroom with running water/shower in our rooms too. unexpected indeed.  i was also warned by a current PCV that we need to take advantage of our showers because we never know when the next one will be with the host family. some girls she knows didn't get to take a shower for 12 days after their arrival retreat because their host families were on some random water schedule….i dunno. oh and our room is equipped with a tiny TV that plays russian soap operas and shitty american music videos. all in all, massive upgrade from what i was picturing. we had our welcome dinner tonight with a traditional ukrainian welcome ceremony and i then had to get 3 immunization shots. see ya never, typhoid. 

their choreographed announcements in ukrainian and english

ukrainians offering a traditional welcome bread. you have to take a piece of the bread and dip it in a pile of salt before you eat it. my favorite thing about ukraine so far

our place settings before the meal. the pineapple juice box was our second juice box of the day. we are noticing a pattern.

thumbs up for our first meal in ukraine, no clogging of arteries yet. however, dessert consisted of a brownie wrapped in a croissant.

it's just so lovely to be able to walk around and hear russian all around (or ukrainian; i haven't been able to distinguish the two yet). we also found out who will be in our training clusters (5 total people) for the next 3 months and what language we'll be learning. this girl is officially going to become fluent in RUSSIAN in a matter of months. ok not months, but definitely by the end of two years i'll be able to walk into a grocery store with confidence and order bacon from the meat counter.

Ukraine is game to you?

first of all: rattails. i forgot all kitchen stuff that i wanted to bring: i.e. spices, caraway seeds for irish soda bread, measuring spoons, etc. so once i get notified of my permanent site, expect to see some of those things on my wish list. BTW i can't receive any packages until i reach my permanent site, which won't happen until December. it would be great if there was a holiday around that time of year to give everyone an excuse to spend lots of $$ on care packages for me. i did remember to bring two bottles of hot sauce. and i'm ready to mine my own salt if necessary.

second of all: let's go through my stages of packing.

before a.k.a chaos

during a.k.a organization OCD and sorry dad for taking over the living room

during2 a.k.a watching bravo and admiring my soviet union hat

after a.k.a asking the cab driver to get a pic of my luggage @ the hotel staging event

i did it! both bags just a hair under the max allowance of 50 lbs/bag (thank you, restaino)

after the last pic was taken, it was time to begin the staging event which is actually just a crash course 8 hour orientation that allows us to meet as many in our group as possible, do ice breaker activities and gleam cursory information on Ukraine. it was like a hyper training session that will mirror the next 3 months. we're honestly really lucky to be a part of an organization that focuses so much on whipping us into the best little development professionals that we can be.

once staging finally wrapped up, all i wanted to do was crash in my glorious hotel room and bask in the TV and double bed, but I guilted myself into venturing out since this would be my "last night in america". our training coordinator repeated, in many different ways, that this was it for the next 27 months. it hadn't hit me until she kept saying these things today that this IS it. it's terrifying and i had more than one instance of "WTF am i doing here". but then i found some other volunteers and we decided to wander around georgetown until we landed at an extremely good italian restaurant.

My actual last supper.

the food and company greatly alleviated my anxiety but i'm sure it will rush back to me tomorrow, and the next day, and everyday for a very long time. i just hope i don't start crying in the security line tomorrow; that was a little embarrassing today.

as a nod the to 10 core expectations of the peace corps, here are 10 quick facts from today:

1. there are 61 people in our group and we'll all be educators in Ukraine
2. i still don't know if it's acceptable to say "the" ukraine
3. i won't have much internet access for the next week-ish. when we arrive in ukraine, we'll have a 2 day arrival retreat in Chernihiv (where i'll learn if i'll be studying russian or ukrainian. obvs i want russian but it's a core expectation of every volunteer to be 'flexible'. )
4. there's also this hybrid language that mixes ukrainian and russian and we could be placed in a community that speaks this. we won't be trained in this hybrid language, so the best we can hope for is to understand 1/2 of what they say. fun.
5. after the arrival retreat we break into clusters of 5-6 PCT (peace corps trainees) and will be placed in a village with a host family for the next 3 months.
6. there's one other ohio girl here
7. there were about 5 references today to "ukraine is game to you" segment from seinfeld. thanks martell for making me aware of it.
8. things most people here are nervous about: the weather, language barriers and outhouses.
9. i plan on draining the holiday inn of its hot water tomorrow, as i have no idea when my next hot shower will be
10. i signed up to pen-pal with a classroom in the United States! if you're an educator and you'd like to set up a pen pal partnership between my classroom and yours, just let me know!

and finally, massive love out to the finnegan family today, as we lost one of our best ever. i'll continue to wear the cross of st bridget necklace she gave me, reminding me to always strive to act in a manner that would make auntie jo proud. i've been so lucky to have so many amazing finnegan women to look up to and try to emulate.

now back to enjoying my last bit of american football...oy

How to stay warm

while reading through the 128 page health and safety manual, that was emailed to us about a week before our departure date, i came across some invaluable gems:
1. a tip to stay warm during the -25 degree winters, "being dead drunk in the snow is a bad idea".
2. "don't forget to look up! icicle hazard."
3. "the large number of unreported cases <of HIV> makes careless sexual activity in Ukraine extremely risky." noted.

that's as far as i got before i was distracted by other PC tasks. looks like i won't be getting through that manual before training begins. it also looks like i won't be getting through my packing before training starts. i've spent the past two days trying to pack (in reality i'd organize for 10 minutes and then spend the rest of the hour running around doing other stuff i forgot i had to do before leaving). for instance, i needed to insure my brand new macbook that already has a 1/2 chewed through power cord thanks to my dad's cat, streets. but it's 1230am and i need rest because tomorrow my dad and are going to the zoo! plus i'm getting my haircut, have three "goodbye" appointments around the greater cleveland area, a trip to my office to tie up loose ends and i need to find a flipping mini osu football and buckeye candy for my future host family. all of this needs to happen tmrw. the following day i'm supposed to have a day date in cleveland and then head off to su's wedding. my goal was to be completely packed before i left for the wedding. looks like day date in cle is going to turn into packing date in streetsboro.