CARE PACKAGE CENTRAL

I completely stole my neighbor's blog post about care packages and just changed the name and house number. 

So now that I'm finally settled in at site....YOU CAN ALL SEND ME CARE PACKAGES!!! You do have to manage writing my address in cyrillic, but it will be a fun exercise for everyone! If you really are lost, just google it. I'm sure there's some youtube videos that can help you out.

It should take 1-3 weeks for me to receive a care package, and it will probably be held at our post office until I go pick it up (unless it's a small padded envelope, then I might receive that directly at my house). So I might get stuff in time for Christmas!! Kristen, my neighb, also told me that her mom usually uses medium flat rate boxes from the post office. It's $47 but can fit quite a bit and weight doesn't matter. The karma that I'll be sending back to you for sending me care packages will be worth more than all the gold teeth one can find in the mouths of Ukrainians. 

So what should you send me? Thanks for asking. See the separate tab at the top of my blog for care package suggestions, so it will always be easily accessible. Oh and I'd love to receive cards too! Less expensive for you and I can decorate my house with them.

Here is my address:

Сара Финеган
вул Кiрова, 8
с. Костянтинiвка
Мелiтопольський Район
Запорізька обл.
Україна            72364
UKRAINE

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english version (use this only for customs)

Sarah Finnegan
Street Kirova, 8
Village Konstantinivka
Melitopolsky Rayon
Zaporizhzhia Oblast
Ukraine          72364

regulations for sending packages:

• please do not send valuable items through the mail, as mail sometimes arrives opened, with items missing, or does not arrive at all. (and don’t declare values too high, no matter what's in the package)
• use padded envelopes versus boxes when you can (the harder to open the better)
• write on the outside of the package: “goods for personal use” (things are less likely to be opened this way)
• please do not indicate anywhere in the address or on the package that it is for official use or project related (i.e. peace corps or TEFL project).

make sure you do NOT send the following items:

• money, credit cards, valuables/expensive objects, and any type of jewelry
• documents such as personal identifications, diplomas, and certificates
• any kind of medicine, plants, seeds, alcoholic beverages (darn)
• DVDs, CDs, videotapes, audiotapes, any type of dictionaries.
• (you can ship CDs, DVDs and other media into ukraine, but they cannot be returned to the U.S. unless you can prove that they originally came from in the U.S. Therefore, people shipping such items to Ukraine need an itemized list certified by the company doing the shipping)
• flammable, explosive devices, sharp objects (which is pretty much common sense)

regulations for mailing food:

Дашка says "send woman america". we're still working on her english

• not more than one box/pack per one kind of food
• all food weight should not exceed 4.5 lbs.
• total value of it should not exceed $100
• food should not be raw – it must be canned or cooked or otherwise prepared
• it should be factory packed.

the WORST blog update of all time.

i know you're thinking, 'twice in one week?? i don't have time for this', unfollow. sorry for the inconvenience but i recently found out some pretty important information and will only have guaranteed internet access for the next 12 hours.

after that i'm being thrown into the ukrainian wilderness and forced to fend for myself in a world where high speed wireless internet lives in the same fantasy land as unicorns and dracula (currently reading about the later, so it's on my brain. did you know van helsing was actually a character from the book!?)

so where might this wilderness be? the one and only largest village in europe. aka konstaninovka, the reno of ukraine. warning: don't google konstantinovka, it will give you other random cities or scantily clad ukrainian women. just google melitopol and then you'll have a good idea of where my general location will be (and this will also show you scantily clad ukrainian women). allegedly, my village/house is within walking distance of the big city. that's right, i said house. i will be living in my very own mini house right next to the house of my landlord.

aaaaaaaand i've run out of time and i need to get up at 530am to finish packing so i'm cutting this blog post off at the knees. i felt i needed to blurt something out there since everyone else did their own "last day of training" obligatory blog post. but now i feel guilty for not talking about my feelings or giving any meaningful information about my life...

these pictures should do the trick:

Great Patriotic War Memorial (aka WWII) in Chernigov, complete with eternal flame

game of thrones memorial. bum bum buhdeebum bum bum..

underground monastery ceiling. 

underground monastery bunk.

underground monastery bones.

belltower

belltower with a view

gingerbread house

tour guide with cannon

ukraine's favorite/friendliest poet, shevchenko. he just adores kids.

river flowing alongside chernigov...still can't remember it's name.

there's an entire story that goes along with this squirrel. no energy for stories. suffice it to say, squirrel sightings are a BIG deal in ukraine.

I Forgot I Had a Blog

Bless me blogworld, for I have sinned. It has been many weeks since my last post. I invented this thing so I could effectively communicate with friends and family back home. Well no one should be surprised at my absence because for me "effective communication" involves carrier pigeons sent out once every 12 months.

Here are some firsts that I've experienced today: first snow in Ukraine (we're on hour 8 of snowfall so this 'first snow' won't be ignored, dan); first language test in Ukraine (called the LPI); first injury in Ukraine.
SNOW: Of course the site of snow blanketing soviet era building makes my heart go all a'flutter, but after my 45 minute walk home with a formidable wind whipping snow into my face and blinding me no matter where I turned, I was a little glad to be out of it's reach and under my nana blanket.
LPI: Went fine. My idea of prepping for the test this weekend was to drink beers, play chess, and shop for my fabulous new Ukrainian style wedge boots. I think my LPI scores will reflect my efforts. We'll take another LPI before we end our service and that's where I better reach "damn, she's good" level.
INJURY: We have this game we like to play in the creepy creepy stairwell of our LCF's apartment called "turn off the lights and hide in a dark corner for the next trainee to walk by and then scare the shit out of them". Today was the first day I played the roll of scare-ee. So after I screamed bloody murder my next instinct was to attack and kill my friend. I charged at him, leading my with shoulder, and he ending up blocking my charge and now my shoulder hates me. It was very difficult lifting my arm to add salt to my borsht tonight so this injury is having extremely serious effects on my quality of life.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...UKRAINIAN CAT PICTURESSSSSS!!!!!

the usual breakfast joint

My first cat slideshow of this blog is of a perfect little place I like to call kitten grove. Everyday on my way to class I pass this magical area where thousands (7-10) homeless cats congregate to get their morning meal provided by a kind, local babushka. I shall greatly miss kitten grove but I have faith that 'if I build it, they will come' to my site.

waiting to be served

caught her showing off her gymnastics skills

Discussions over a hot cup of morning tuna

straggler

come on buddy! everyone's welcome at kitten grove!

i've been spotted..run

enough with the cats..for now. here's some of my favorite graffiti on our LCF's apartment building

soccer players across from kitten grove.

my favorite ukrainian, alia! LCF extrordinaire being celebrated on national teacher day. she's displaying all her gifts from us (i got her the cookies she's eating)

making blinchikis

too busy eating to take a picture of the batch of completed blinkchikis. this was all i managed to get a picture of, the disfigured final blinchiki

political posters that were everywhere in october.

i didn't not steal some

so Chernigov is famous for it's churches/monasteries. here are some pictures of them

original bricks displayed, meaning they're probably 800ish years old. wishing i hadn't waited months to post these pictures because now i forget what the symbols on these bricks signify

this is the church that you're greeted with as you enter the city (bottom right corner of picture is part of a cannon that also points right at you as you enter the city)

Here's a piece from my last blog post draft that I wrote a month ago. It's still kinda relevant but very boring. However, I doubt anyone's even reading this anymore after all the cat pictures (editor's note: finished godfather<4 stars>, now reading dracula):

I'm procrastinating. I have to write (in russian don't ya know) a 3 page essay about my life in Ukraine, that's due tomorrow. So I'm updating my blog, writing emails back to friends/family and watching The Walking Dead, in order to see what all the fuss is about.

Today I visited my first track in Ukraine and challenged a 3 year old boy to a race. He won fair and square. It was the first running I've been able to get in here and it felt amazing. Tomorrow I'm sure it won't feel amazing.

Also finished my second book in Ukraine a few weeks ago, A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion. 3.75 stars. Now I'm firmly embedded in The Godfather by Mario Puza. I actually haven't seen any of the movies all the way through, so the plot points are all new to me. But I suggest if you love the movies, you'll love the book. Not a difficult read at all.

Of course anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper.
~David Quammen