Jackpot

About 15 years ago my fam and I lived in Alton, IL. One night my mom, on a whim, brought home our first ever lottery ticket. During dinner we went around the table and Sean, Brendan, me, mom and dad described what we would buy if we won. The only two things I said I wanted were bell bottom jeans and a lava lamp (went through my hippie stage around 11 years old). As a family we all watched the winning numbers being pulled and I was legitimately surprised and hurt we didn't win. I wanted that lava lamp so badly I couldn't imagine that the cosmos would see anybody else deserving of that money. Fast forward 15 years and what's the first thing I see when I walk into my new home in Konstantinovka? My lava lamp. 

I've written a few really long emails since I've been at site, and rather than re-tell the story of my first few baby steps, I'm just going to copy and paste from some of the emails. Sorry to anyone who finds this redundant.

learnin russian in chernigov

After swearing in as PCVs at the US Embassy in Kiev, we were sent off with our counterparts and scattered throughout Ukraine. First experience riding on a train coincided with first experience riding overnight on a train. We (my counterpart and I) had a kupe, which is just a 4 person room, and we shared it with one other random man. It took around 12 hours to get from Kiev to Melitopol and then we had a taxi driver take us to my village. At 7am I arrived at our house and the director of the school was there waiting for me. We got all my stuff piled into the house and then everyone else left. At that moment I felt like weeping/running back to America. It was just overwhelming to think that I'll be here for the next 2 years, and how much I miss my family and friends. Training was so different because time was broken down into a manageable 3 month chunk and I was surrounded by American/Ukrainian support teams at every turn. Now i'm pretty much on my own to figure out everything from traveling, to cooking, to teaching, to the language. Well, that's not entirely true.

But I sucked it up, unpacked my stuff, watched season 1, episode 1 of Gilmore Girls and then headed over to my landlord's place for tea. I live in the small house on the property and my landlords live in the big house, not 5 feet away. The family consists of parents (around 40 years old) and two boys (9 and 12). Aside from the random matchmaking attempts, they're all great. The boys are learning english but that basically only means they can say "my name is…". So really no one speaks a lick of english, which is great for my Russian skills, both practicing and pretending to understand. During tea on my first morning, Alyona (landlady) called up my american neighbor to come on over. Now I knew I would be living next door to another volunteer, which in and of itself is already unheard of in peace corps life, but that's not the craziest thing. Here's what is: I 'met' her back in Cleveland and was already well acquainted with her house/village. Kristen (american neighbor) came over and we chatted for a little with Alyona. She learned Ukrainian during her own training so Alyona would try to speak Ukrainian to Kristen and then Russian to me. It makes my brain hurt just thinking about it. Once Alyona left, Kristen and I chatted about random things concerning the village and I kept thinking that her voice sounded just like someone I knew but I couldn't place it. Then all of the sudden I was transported back to my dad's couch in Streetsboro watching youtube videos about PC Urkaine. I completely interrupted her to ask if she was the same girl with the videos about her house and village. She said yes and there you have it. I'm living right next door to the same girl who I made everyone watch this summer on youtube. HOW INSANE IS THAT!?!?! I remember thinking that if I ended up with a life similar to hers, everything would be okay. That was exactly what I wanted. and now i'm basically living it. So if you watch that video, I live in the house to her right (if facing her house). She's in romania right now, hanging out at irish pubs and I couldn't be more jealous. I need to figure out how to copy that life too.

Walking behind this man during a foggy twilight was
one of those "I'm at home" moments

So....what else has been happenin' at site? Well I've survived two Christmas Eves, two Christmas days, a NYE in Donetsk-area, my first solo journey navigating the train stations of Ukraine and completely guessing which train I'm supposed to hop on (also pissed off the conductor on my return train trip because I accidentally opened up the coal hatch and about 50 gallons of coal came pouring out onto the floor before I had any idea what was going on), kholodets (shudder...), a 3 hour teacher's meeting at my school held completely in Ukrainian, one English club where 4 students showed up, getting lost in the fish section of the Melitopol bazaar, not throwing up after getting lost in the fish section of the Melitopol bazaar, carrying my first care package home from the post office (hour long trip) on top of my head like a Ugandan women carrying a tub of water home, opening said care package from john finnegan(care packages from him feel like you've one the garagesale/thrift store lottery) and avoiding multiple attempts from my neighbors to feed me samagon (Ukrainian moonshine). I still have one more holiday to survive though, old New Year, which will be celebrated this Sunday with my landlords. All in all, I love my site. Village life is completely different than life in Chernigov (walking behind babushkas leading/conversing with their goats always makes for a fun trip to school) but I think I prefer my quiet life here. Sometimes I look around me and think that I feel more at home in Ukraine than I ever felt in the America. Sometimes I look around me and want to slump down, yell at everyone to just speak English already and call Duff to tell her to come get me.

Whether or not this experience will prove to be my winning lottery ticket, no one knows. But I think someone was trying to provide a little sign on my first day at site to re-assure me that всё будет хорошо (everything will be ok).

Here's a link to my neighb's blog. Not only is she a great writer, she's head and shoulders a better picture taker/updater. So just follow her blog and when she writes about stuff she's doing, just think "hey, finn's right next door." and it will kinda be like you're reading about me. In her latest post you can see what my landlords look like! (kitten crushable hands/pirate hat/two boys)

I'm woefully behind on my picture postings. These are all from training, including a few from our trip to Kiev (that I stole from other volunteers). Promise to post pics of my new house soon.

A Kiev monument to magicians. maybe.

How'd that get in here...12-OH..

Kiev

Beautiful, beautiful Kiev

Kiev

scaffolding at it's finest. future holmes on homes contender.

beginning of my autobiography or an essay on the weather in ohio or both? you decide

Update on books read: finished The Godfather (3.75 stars, waiting for a dreary day to watch all the movies), finished Dracula (love loved, made me queazy multiple times, 3.5 stars), finished the first book in A Series of Unfortunate Events (needed a breather after the count), finished Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (a few lols, entertaining, 3 stars), finished A Clockwork Orange (never watched the movie. fantastic book. lots of russian slang thrown in, if you're into that type of thing, I AM. 4 stars), just began my first Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility. Very very excited to take this literary foray into Austenworld.


"He claimed that there was no greater natural advantage in life than having an enemy overestimate your faults, unless it was to have a friend underestimate your virtues"--The GF