It is a rare day indeed when a Peace Corps Trainee has any time off, and today has been such a day. It's been an awesome Sunday. I started my day early, as usual, doing some homework. Then my host mom and dad left early to go…someplace. (That mystery place they go to every day when they leave the house at 8am sharp, 7 days a week.) I finally found out where it is they go…more on this later.
So the day starts out as cold but sunny. In a little bit it starts to rain. Then it gets sunny again. A little bit later the winds pick up and it starts snowing. Then the sun comes back out after a few minutes. A little bit later and it begins to hail for about 2 minutes. Then…you guessed it. Sunny. Just where the heck am I anyway? New England????? It was awesome. Yes, I was cheered by the "wait a minute and it will change" weather that is so reminiscent of my home.
I had plenty of time to do some long awaited chores so I thought it was a good time to do some laundry. Notice I say "some". In Ukraine you never wait until you run out of panties. No. No. And no again. It takes way too long to wash anything NEAR a full load because everything is washed by hand. Yup. I am a bona-fide pioneer woman here in Ukraine. In fact, from what I hear, most people…most FAMILIES (imagine the amount of laundry here now…) wash everything by hand. I did a small load a few weeks ago with help from my host mom and it took hours. After the washing, wringing, rinsing, and wringing again, my back was screaming. And I still had to hang everything up on the porch/balcony to dry. I will never again complain of having to go to the laundry mat ever again.
SO, laundry finished, I decided to study some more. Meantime my host parents come home and I decide to practiced some new vocabulary with Tanya (my host mom) while she is cooking, who is happy to help me as long as I read the words fast. Has anyone ever tried to read a Cyrillic language fast…with almost no knowledge of what you're looking at? It's a bit stressful, I can tell you. Most of the time she just yells out the word and I really can’t blame her a bit. I'd be impatient with me too.
So Tanya is a wonderful cook, but her and everyone else in Ukraine cooks with lots of butter. And salt. So much salt I can safely drink a gallon of water before bed and not have to get up to pee in the night. I think salt is the national food.
So, after lunch Tanya asks me to take a walk with her and I am happy to get out for a little bit in this weather. It's nice again, but even if it changes again I'm okay with it. I'm not sure where we are going, but one thing I am sure of is I am walking down the main street in town carrying a chair. Yes, you heard me right. I am thinking that perhaps we are going visiting and there aren't enough chairs to sit on where we're going. Of course, with the language barrier, we could be going to the bazaar to trade it for some dry goods. What do I know? So, here we are, strolling down the street with a chair and I am just laughing my head off because I think "I am doing some performance art" and it sure feels good to be making art again! It also feels good to laugh and be silly. I haven't done that since I left home. Anyway, Tanya took a great picture of me so you can see me with my chair in the photo below.
So, we walked for about ½ mile and where do you think we ended up? On a little farm, with a big huge friendly dog and 2 lovely sweet kitties and some chickens and a little field that has been freshly plowed. I find out this was Tanya's mom's house and she grew up here. Mystery solved! Tanya and her husband go to the farm everyday. Tanya will feed the animals and take whatever dry goods and vegetables they need home, and her husband toils in the earth. It was a beautiful little place with a little cottage and some outbuildings. I had heard that most families here in Ukraine have little farms or small fields of land where they grow their own fruits, veggies, and grains. Ukraine is known for its very fertile soil and is considered the breadbasket of Eastern Europe.
After Tanya feeds the animals and gathers a few things, I deposit the chair in the cottage, secretly relieved I won’t have to carry this back to our apartment. We then walk back home with the cold wind in our faces and I am thinking that it feels really good.
SO, that was my day. I enjoyed every aspect of having a little free time away from the classroom and Russian lessons. Tomorrow is Monday, and I start my third week of training. I will teach two classes of 11th grade English and afterwards, I have 4 hours of language training.
But that's tomorrow.Today, I am going to enjoy every moment that I have left. Good day all.
So the day starts out as cold but sunny. In a little bit it starts to rain. Then it gets sunny again. A little bit later the winds pick up and it starts snowing. Then the sun comes back out after a few minutes. A little bit later and it begins to hail for about 2 minutes. Then…you guessed it. Sunny. Just where the heck am I anyway? New England????? It was awesome. Yes, I was cheered by the "wait a minute and it will change" weather that is so reminiscent of my home.
I had plenty of time to do some long awaited chores so I thought it was a good time to do some laundry. Notice I say "some". In Ukraine you never wait until you run out of panties. No. No. And no again. It takes way too long to wash anything NEAR a full load because everything is washed by hand. Yup. I am a bona-fide pioneer woman here in Ukraine. In fact, from what I hear, most people…most FAMILIES (imagine the amount of laundry here now…) wash everything by hand. I did a small load a few weeks ago with help from my host mom and it took hours. After the washing, wringing, rinsing, and wringing again, my back was screaming. And I still had to hang everything up on the porch/balcony to dry. I will never again complain of having to go to the laundry mat ever again.
SO, laundry finished, I decided to study some more. Meantime my host parents come home and I decide to practiced some new vocabulary with Tanya (my host mom) while she is cooking, who is happy to help me as long as I read the words fast. Has anyone ever tried to read a Cyrillic language fast…with almost no knowledge of what you're looking at? It's a bit stressful, I can tell you. Most of the time she just yells out the word and I really can’t blame her a bit. I'd be impatient with me too.
So Tanya is a wonderful cook, but her and everyone else in Ukraine cooks with lots of butter. And salt. So much salt I can safely drink a gallon of water before bed and not have to get up to pee in the night. I think salt is the national food.
So, after lunch Tanya asks me to take a walk with her and I am happy to get out for a little bit in this weather. It's nice again, but even if it changes again I'm okay with it. I'm not sure where we are going, but one thing I am sure of is I am walking down the main street in town carrying a chair. Yes, you heard me right. I am thinking that perhaps we are going visiting and there aren't enough chairs to sit on where we're going. Of course, with the language barrier, we could be going to the bazaar to trade it for some dry goods. What do I know? So, here we are, strolling down the street with a chair and I am just laughing my head off because I think "I am doing some performance art" and it sure feels good to be making art again! It also feels good to laugh and be silly. I haven't done that since I left home. Anyway, Tanya took a great picture of me so you can see me with my chair in the photo below.
So, we walked for about ½ mile and where do you think we ended up? On a little farm, with a big huge friendly dog and 2 lovely sweet kitties and some chickens and a little field that has been freshly plowed. I find out this was Tanya's mom's house and she grew up here. Mystery solved! Tanya and her husband go to the farm everyday. Tanya will feed the animals and take whatever dry goods and vegetables they need home, and her husband toils in the earth. It was a beautiful little place with a little cottage and some outbuildings. I had heard that most families here in Ukraine have little farms or small fields of land where they grow their own fruits, veggies, and grains. Ukraine is known for its very fertile soil and is considered the breadbasket of Eastern Europe.
After Tanya feeds the animals and gathers a few things, I deposit the chair in the cottage, secretly relieved I won’t have to carry this back to our apartment. We then walk back home with the cold wind in our faces and I am thinking that it feels really good.
SO, that was my day. I enjoyed every aspect of having a little free time away from the classroom and Russian lessons. Tomorrow is Monday, and I start my third week of training. I will teach two classes of 11th grade English and afterwards, I have 4 hours of language training.
But that's tomorrow.Today, I am going to enjoy every moment that I have left. Good day all.
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| View from my Bedroom |
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| Me and Mama Tanya |
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| Performance Art with Chair |
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| Castle next door to my Apartment Building |
Sounds like a good day. I have a really hard time with languages myself so I am so impressed that you are doing this. cheers.
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