Finn Everyday

*part rant/part pictures. enjoy.*

two years worth of clothing?

I'm slightly obsessed with this style blog called Kendi Everyday. A personal recurring fav idea of her's (that can't be grammatically correct...english teacher over here..) is her 30 for 30 challenge. In a nutshell, she chooses 30 pieces from her wardrobe and she can only wear those 30 pieces for the next 30 days. It forces creativity and frugality. When I tried to imagine paring my wardrobe down for Ukraine I imagined the 30 for 820 challenge (take that, Kendi). I knew the perfect pack was going to be an impossibility, but I would give my 5 inch patent leather shoes to go back and pack all over again, having an official ukrainian month under my (7) belts. For the record, belts were a great idea. Easy way to change up an outfit with something that takes up the space of a...small snake? Couldn't think of a good analogy. Anyway.

WHY OH WHY did I think I would only need one pair of jeans?? I remember going through my jeans and somehow convincing myself that more than one pair of jeans was ludicrous. Here's what one pair of jeans is: house arrest. What are you supposed to do when you come home from teaching and your host mom is working out in the garden lugging stumps of trees around for no discernible reason? You're supposed to go throw on a pair of jeans and head outside to help said mother train for a weightlifting contest. But when you only have one pair of jeans you have to consider the mud that will inevitably get all over your jeans, and once that mud's on your jeans, you can't wear them out until they're washed, and since you only do laundry once every 2 weeks, you'll have to don business casual slacks for 10 straight days (if you give a mouse a cookie). So instead of being a good ukrainian daughter, I sulked in my room protecting my cursed single pair of jeans.

my street

4 pairs of sandals (3 of them flip flops). What country/season did I think I would be walking into (pun intended)? Let me tell you, Ukraine in general is not sandal friendly. Ukraine is boots up to your knees and coats down to your ankles friendly. (What are my brown leather boots DOING IN MY DAD'S CLOSET?!?!) On the other hand, leopard print high heels were a great idea. This country loves their animal prints (esp when it comes to linoleum flooring). Girls here wear high heels like it's nobody's business. Cobblestone-esque sidewalks and crater size puddles of sludge and you all look at me crazy when I bust out my bright yellow rain boots? Girl, YOU cray. Yet..you brave.

high heel death traps lurk everywhere, disguising themselves as passable sidewalks

my once formidable shoe collection reduced to this (not pictured:bright yellow rain boots, 5 inch patent leather shoes, hiking shoes, teva flats. aka too lazy to go downstairs to gather all my shoes for a proper picture)

And finally, I have to admit defeat. I thought that with enough tea intake, fruits/veggies, and my stellar immune system, I would be able to stave off sicknesses that plague weaker specimens. But today I woke up with a sore throat & runny nose, so I've been curled up in nana's blanket all day bemoaning my condition. mow mow.

kryptonite for the common cold

This national treasure has gone everywhere with me and I'm so glad I lugged it 6000 miles. Home is wherever I'm with you, blanket.

All Hail Caesar

This post is disjointed and purpose-less. Life's been too busy over the past week to sit down and make sense out of anything. So here are just some random synapses that are firing right now, with a few pics to keep you scrolling.

3 Things I love about the Uke (p.s. i did find out that you are NOT supposed to insert the "the" in front of Ukraine. this is an independent country people, show some respect):
1. I can take a shower 3 times a week and no one raises an eyebrow. Actually, eyebrows would be raised if I increased that number. Andrea, you're going to love visiting this place.
2. As soon as I step through the threshold of my house, I'm expected to change into my sweats. The clothes you wear outside are not acceptable clothes for inside. Jeans during dinner? Who are you expecting? Jesus? Take em off! Bring me my robe. This also makes me regret donating all of those OSU sweatshirts that I just didn't think would be practical.
3. I love using teapots everyday and cookies/cakes/candy are everywhere.

My bday flowers/balloons from my mama! She wrote happy bday in english, russian and ukrainian on the balloons. (sorry i only captured the english balloon)

directing me

some of my birthday feast. while i was helping my host mom prepare the food, i THOUGHT she said that her husband wanted her to make a pizza but she was already making so much other food. so i proceeded to tell her in broken russian that i had already had pizza that week and that i didn't need/want it tonight. when she pulled a pizza out of the oven i just prayed that my russian was so poor that she didn't understand anything i said about the pizza. situations like this happen at least 3 times a week.

helping open up the bottle of wine. whattaguy/nevertooearly

Temp's starting to get chilly and we still haven't turned the heat on in our house. Tomorrow is the day when the city turns on the heat. That's right, everyone's heat is centrally controlled. I'm tempted to start wearing gloves indoors. Despite those Siberian winds we get here in the Uke, the weather is pretty similar to the weather in NE Ohio. However, there are some HUGE differences in how we experience winters here. Let's make up a list, shall we?

1. Radiators. Those are the only heating instruments I've seen indoors. What I wouldn't do for my old heat dish..
2. As I mentioned before, those radiators don't get fired up until the temps are safely in the 30s (aka 0 degrees Celsius)
3. Insulation? Stalin didn't believe in it.
4. In my day I had to walk 5 miles to school, uphill and through 4 feet of unplowed/unshoveled snow. My day will be everyday for 4 months.
5. I've been warned that my face will become fatter because that's my body's response to prolonged cold temps on ma face. Awesome.

So in conclusion, while it may be very cold in The U.S. during the winter, the average time of exposure to that temp is around 5-10 minutes per day. Then you're safely tucked into your double paned, insulated houses or your independently heated offices. Here, you're outside walking for a solid 1-2 hours per day and you have to sleep with 12 blankets on top of you just to retain your body heat.

mayonnaise pizza/beer date with some fellow chernigov volunteers. there are 3 PC clusters in the city

Thursday was a big day; taught my first ukrainian class the english language AND was called "Caesar" by my own language teacher.  I was shouting out commands (по русски) to a fellow cluster-mate during an activity while I was completing another activity on my mac. Apparently my commands can sometimes come off a little too...I own your soul. Not really a good history with strong armed leaders around these parts so 'Caesar' was probably not a complement. But I thought it was hilare. At least my own students didn't call me Caesar (and yes, I know you're all thinking "yet...").

Took this video for Rhett (it's not working on my comp right now but maybe you'll have better luck). We were gathering on red square for a tour and there just happened to be a bike rally going on. It's not very well produced..sorry. Here are some pics that will add more clarity.

Looking for Jax

Didn't see him.

...and the great advantage of being a literary woman was that you could go everywhere and do anything.
~Henry James

Henry, I agree. 1st completed book in Ukraine: Water for Elephants. 3/5 stars. Easy read but...meh. Donating the book to our local English Club.

Visual Intrigue

Since my last post was woefully un-visual...this post will be gratuitously graphic, bringing balance to my blogging life. I just finished helping my mom cut some vegetables for my bday dinner. From the looks of it, it's going to be a FEAST and I'm super pumped. I also stopped into a random market yesterday and picked up a bottle of champ for the occasion. Not scared to bring a little Heather (RHOOC) to northern Ukraine. This was the first time she's allowed me to help with preparation and I was feeling so good about myself that I thought I might even get to help with the actual cooking of the food. But as soon as I peeled my last garlic she said "ok see you later". So I have some extra time on my hands before dinner, hence this post.

Our собака (sobaka). He has 3 working legs, which is pretty common with the dogs around town.

I wish I captured more pics of our apple picking day, but this was it. They have 3-4 apple trees in their back yard and we (they) spent an entire Sunday plucking apples from the trees, using a wooden ladder and tall apple-plucking device. Both looked like they were straight outta Snow White. My mom makes apple jam, juice and various other spicy/sweet condiments out of these babies.

Vahnman.

Fresh squash for dinner! I'll be walking down the streets like it's any other street in the U.S., and then I'll hear a rooster crow from someone's back yard and think "oh yea, I'm in Ukraine"

My bed after our first language class. Learning a language in 3 months is easy.

5000 apple pancakes (блинчики) made by my babushka. I popped these like skittles. Also pictured: homemade apple juice. Never liked the stuff until now.

Adorbs tea pot we use every day

I'm obsessed with the mailboxes here. Mostly because none of them have been updated since the 1930s and no one seems to mind.

The entranceway of our LCF's apt. This was with a flash. I took a picture without a flash and it was pitch black. It's super creeps walking from a bright day outside into a horror movie entranceway.

Fall in Chernigov.

Stray dog on a stroll (look at who's lurking in the background....)

...is that Andrea?

LENIN! complete with flowers from his secret admirers.

His autograph. Two policemen were staring me down while I was snapping these pics as quickly as possible. I ran away before they could approach.

Big fatty fat crows everywhere.

My library!!! (sign in ukrainian)

Front door

So far, my favorite room in the library to work in. Since they haven't turned the heat on yet in any building in the city,  I'm only able to last about an hour before my hands start to go numb. 

One wall is lined with Ukrainian oil paintings. Thinking of investing.

The ceiling

Found this guy spying on me from behind a screen

Surviving the Marshrutkas

Making it through my first week in Ukraine felt like I made it through the first year. I survived my first solo marshrutka (google it) ride by using my old pal, Lenin. I deciphered the correct stop I was supposed to get off at by looking for his statue. Since they pack you about 200 deep in a bus that can only fit 20 ppl comfortably, I only had a sliver of window I could manage to see out of. But by golly, when I saw that old bastard raising his arm towards me, I've never felt so relieved. So it's been pretty smooth sailing on the marshrutkas since then (one morning we were crammed so tightly, I almost accidentally kissed a man).

I would have posted yesterday but our internet has been down for the past few days. I realized how ridiculously addicted I was with unlimited fast wifi. It was tough to go cold turkey wifi for the first few days, but I've made a TON more russian flashcards without my internet access. I also haven't had a chance to upload any of my new photos, so this will be a sans visual intrigue post.

Yesterday I finally got my first library card in Ukraine (which is also where I am now, and i think it's closing like, now)! It's beautiful old school lib that hasn't really been updated since the 1920's..except for the wifi part. I attended an English club with some fellow PCT and it ended up just being a massive Q & A session. They had a bunch of questions for us, including " When will Bernanke quit printing money?" and "What are the difficulties facing the middle class in America?". We asked questions like "Can we wave to a baby in the marshrutka?". All part of the cross cultural exchange that Peace Corps strives to implement.

The food choices haven't been too cray yet, but everything I've had to eat has been pretty damn good. Most of the meals we have come right out of my mom's garden in the back yard. It actually reminds me a lot of nana's cooking. I tried to save both of my hot sauces for when I actually get to my permanent site, but that only lasted for 3 days. No one else in my house has been brave enough to try out my hot sauce, but that's A OK with me.

Funny scene of the week: My brother Vannya running through the house the other night yelling, "куда?!?!" (pronounced 'koodah' and it roughly means 'where'). He was holding a dish towel and slapping it at any inanimate object in his path. After every slap, a "куда?!!". I sat completely still for a minute, wondering what could possibly be the cause of this odd Ukrainian behavior & hoping I wasn't somehow to blame, I finally realized he was on the hunt for a fly. Just being a two year old. He had no idea where the fly was, but he relished in his task of finding it.

Ok I'm being kicked out of the library now, I think...

"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.