Happy Easter!

Easter in Ukraine was a week later than the USA so we just finished celebrating as of yesterday.

It was your typical Ukrainian Easter. We woke up at 2:30am to get to the church by 3am. We stood around the church on the edges of the sidewalks with out baskets. Our baskets were filled with Easter bread, butter, salt, eggs, salo and anything else you want blessed. Now Easter bread is break made especially for this holiday. It is usually round and tall and has some sweetness to it on the top. Sometimes decorated with jimmies or other sweet things. Traditionally, the bread was made at home but it takes a really long time to make it and you need certain cooking utensils. The service inside the church generally starts at 3am. So we get to the church early to get some good real estate. The closer you position yourself to the door where the priest will eventually come out the sooner you will be blessed and the sooner you can return home to start making breakfast or lunch or retire to the bed for a few hours.

Last year I came to this same church and did this exact thing. Only last year I was with Jeramie, Danny and Jeramie's neighbors aka grandparents. But we had some really good real estate. This year I went with Alla, Nickolai, Bogdana, Lyuda and a few of Alla's neighbors and co-workers. This is my Konotop Ukrainian family and it was good to be with them this year but the real estate was not as good. We definitely did not have our game faces on.

The priest came out at about 4am. He got to us around 4:30am, blessed all of our goodies and then we all started to scatter in different directions. I went home for a few hours to sleep. Alla and family went home as well and started cooking food for breakfast and lunch. I came back over around 2pm and had the meal of the year. I sat there at that table from 2pm to 5pm and just ate and drank. You can tell from the picture what happens next.

This was my last Easter in Ukraine. I won't need to wake up at 2:30am next year to stand outside of the church. It was a lovely day with my family.

Close of Service (COS)

I am not sure what to call this journal entry. In fact that is one of the reasons that I don't blog everyday there is so much work involved in coming up with the right title or the right things to blog about. Social media is still fascinating to me because I just didn't think people cared that much. Apparently, some do. It still isn't the first thing I think about when I want to tell my friends what I am doing or what I've done...but it just seems the easiest and fastest way to let everyone know all at once. So, I am coming around. (I just thought of it)

Anyway that was not the subject of this post. I had every intention of making the last few entries while still a Peace Corps Volunteer about the moving back process because it is a "process". I have been spending a lot of time closing things down and finishing things up. I didn't have too many projects open since I knew I would have to start shutting them down but I had quite a few things I stopped doing over the last few weeks.

The month of February was back and forth to the capital having my last meetings in each of my working groups. I was a member of HIV/AIDS but gave that up quite a few months ago. I finished my last meeting as the volunteer advisory council member for my group. That was the last meeting with the staff but I am still a rep for my group in the event that they have anything else they might have an issue with before we leave. I finished up with the Gender and Development Council where I was doing projects for women in the workforce and counter trafficking. I, along with one of my fellow PCVs, transferred leadership on the Special Needs working group to a good friend of ours who we think will continue our good work. Just recently had my last SPA committee meeting. That group reviews and chooses grants written by PCVs to receive money from USAID.

In March my group, group 38, had our COS conference. That means "close of service". We meet in a city and stay at a hotel for a few days. Until recently we would meet at a really awesome resort area but now there is no money in the budget so we now meet in Chernigiv, where we went when we arrived, at a pretty nice business center/hotel. We started with 76 volunteers but now we are down to something like 68 but I am not positive on the number. Anyway we meet, we eat, we have meetings, we leave. That is pretty much it. We cover information like what COS is going to look like, what we have to do for medical, what we have to do administratively, how to say goodbye to our sites, friends, other volunteers, things like this! It was really nice to see everyone all in one place again. I see people quite often but even for me there were some people there that I had not seen since we left swearing in almost 2 years ago.

Myself and another PCV were in charge of doing our slideshow. Volunteers usually do something at the conference for fun. In the past some people have done skits, talent shows, superlatives, and other things. But always a slideshow. So me and this other PCV asked for pictures and we put together an awesome slideshow of volunteers doing projects at site, volunteers with Ukrainians, volunteers with other volunteers, some vaca pics, and other such things people wanted in the slideshow. It came out really good! It was mostly happy but there were some sad parts. It is pretty amazing what we have all accomplished over the last 2 years. We have all done such wonderful work. We have had a blast and the people, for me, that I have met will be my friends forever. Truly amazing people that I had the pleasure of working with and getting to know and that is priceless.

I am really going to miss my experiences here and the people both Ukrainians and Americans. I spent a lot of time the last 2 months traveling, like usual. I just had my last full week in Kiev doing work related to Peace Corps and as I was leaving, finally leaving for a while after all of the travel since February I was really sad. It was 8pm and I was sitting on the train waiting to depart from the train station and my eyes just teared up. I had just had a few staff members hug me as if it was going to be the last time they would see me. I was the last person to leave the office that night and it just hit me. Very soon, possibly the next time in fact, would be the last time I will be in Kiev and there may only be one more time that I will get back on a train from the capital to my site. What if this is the last time that I will be on a train leaving Kiev to go back to Konotop? It was a rush of emotions and I was truly sad. I talk a big game that I am ready to go home and can't wait to be there and this is true but what I will be leaving behind is in my soul now and it will be difficult to leave. I remember leaving NY when I was coming here and I was in tears but I knew I would be in a few years. I also remember leaving swearing in when I had to leave all of the people that I had gotten to know over the first 10 weeks of our time here and how sad that was.

As sad as it will be it makes me feel good that I let these people in. I cared about them knowing that one day I would have to leave. I spent the time I had with all of these people both American and Ukrainian and will continue to do that until the very last day.

Just when I thought it was over...

Last Wednesday I left Konotop and went to Anya's country house in a village named Hijki. It is a small village and I didn’t know at the time but her house had no running water and the toilet was outside. It has been a long time since I have done anything interesting by way of Ukrainian culture and I figured this would be my last opportunity so I agreed to go.

So I met her at her house early in the morning. We packed up the kids and went to the grocery store for some last minute items. I had no idea what to expect so I didn’t know what to bring or even what to pack. What kind of food we would need, what we would cook it in, nothing. I would assume her house had a stove but we are in the country things could get interesting. Little did I know they did get interesting. We were running around trying to get some food and watching the three little ones get into things. Anya has three children; 3 years, 5 years and 8 years. The youngest is her only girl and she is as cute as a button. We finally get everyone ready, grab some food and get on the bus. We take the route bus to the center which is where we are going to transfer and take the out of city bus to the village. We are assuming that the bus comes at 1:25pm but we aren’t really sure. It is a little past that time now and finally a bus comes to Hijki.

We hop on the bus, there are lots of people as this is the only bus that goes to this village and the only time on this day that it will go out there. Tomorrow is a holiday as well so this is prime time travel time. So it is about a 40 minute ride out of the city to her village. We finally arrive and we start walking. What seems like another ½ hour goes by and we are still walking. Finally we come to a yard which appears to be her yard and we start breaking out keys and opening doors. I immediately noticed the outside bathroom. Most country houses have them but if you are lucky the main house will have one too, not so much in this case. We get through the first two doors. It is so cold! Then the third and final door opens up to a two room house. There is a wood burning stove which I am assuming is the heating apparatus then the next room is clearly the bedroom. So we have a make shift living room/kitchen and a bedroom. Now don’t me get wrong I say kitchen and I mean a cabinet with dishes across from the wood burning stove. I notice immediately that there is no running water and now I am nervous.

I am not really sure what to do. The house needs to be cleaned and it is freezing. The kids go outside and start to play as there is no real difference between outside and inside right now. They are playing around with all the wood in the yard as there are many sheds with wood piles. I am nervous for them as this is not very safe but this is apparently what kids play with in the village. Anya asks me to help her clean and to help bring water from the well. This is exciting I always wanted to know what that was like. I carry two buckets with her a little ways from the house and we get water from the well. One of the buckets has a chain and a rope attached to it and you drop it into the well using the assistance from this metal piece on the side of the well that helps roll the bucket down smoothly and helps bring it back up so you don’t get water all over the place. There is a method here. You get just enough water in the bucket as it floats around on its side, then pull it up and drop it back down so that the bucket actually goes under the water filling up the bucket. Nice move! Then you bring it back up, fill the other bucket and then drop that one back into the well. This is all very exciting for me.

We take the water back to the house. We put some on the stove to heat up. The water that we heat up is used for washing the dishes. We didn't bring any dish washing soap so I am disappointed. We are going to have to wash the dishes with water and our hand since a sponge or some type of washing cloth is also not available. The house hasn’t been opened in quite a few months so dirt and soot are covering the dishes, the floors and the furniture. We do our best to clean up the mess from the animals that took to hibernation there in the house over the cold winter months and then begin to make the beds. There are 4 beds in the bedroom. One nice two piece that sits on top of each other, a child’s bed that Anya slept on when she was young (as this is her grandfather’s house) and a larger bed that in its time was built for two people. It is just a bed frame with a few wood pieces straddled across the frame poles in order to hold up a potential mattress or something soft enough to put under one’s body for sleeping. That was my bed. It was about 2 feet off the ground and they put some blankets on the wooden planks to soften the blow to my hips!

After we get the dishes as clean as we can do with hot water and our hands we start to make some lunch. We had bought some salami, cheese and bread for lunch. We also bought meat for shashlik (aka shishkababs) and some farsh for cutlets and she had potatoes in the house from last season that we made French fries out of. We cooked, cleaned, watched after the children all day. While we were making dinner the room started to fill with smoke and we had to keep opening the door to clear out the room as it was hard to breath. At one point we realized it wasn't the food and we went into the bedroom and there was a pillow on fire. How did that happen you ask? Well on the other side of the wood burning stove is a wall in the bedroom and that wall gets as hot as the stove and since there is a bed leaning up against the wall and there were pillows and blankets leaning up against the wall the pillow got hot enough that it caught on fire. While the kids were playing in the room. Thank goodness we caught that!!

After dinner we retired to the room as one big happy family. I was reading my book and the kids were all doing their things in different parts of the room. We all were pretty tired from such a trying day so we went to sleep around 9pm. I tried hard to go to the toilet and relieve myself enough to last through the night but that never works out because I drink a lot of water. At 10pm I went out and I thought for sure I would be ok until morning but sure enough I woke up at 1am and had to go again. I wasn’t sure that I was going to move but then Sergey got up and he had to use the bathroom so I went outside after him. Somehow I made it until 6am the next morning before I had to go again. There are three doors to the outside of this incredibly tiny house and on each door is about 3 locks all of which make tons of noises in the middle of the night while you are trying to open them and stay quiet enough not to wake the kids.

The next day we made shishkababs on the fire outside. After breakfast, getting the kids dressed and cleaning the house again we started to make the bobs. Then Sergey cooked them on the fire. Shishkababs is a time honored tradition for Ukrainians and it is a favorite among the Americans as well. This is pretty early for cooking outside but we made it work. It wasn’t that cold out and as long as the fire was lasting we were fine. I was afraid with leaving so early in May that I would not get my shashlik fix so I was glad I came for this.

They had invited some of their friends to join us for lunch. We had the bobs, potatoes, some salad and of course homemade vodka. I was doing my best to get drunk and the rest of the day would fly by or I would fall asleep and wake up the next day but we only had a small bottle of vodka and I was worried about my hydration situation. Didn’t worry enough about it because after that we had coffee. I was falling asleep while drinking it and it was only 6pm. I was dehydrated double time but I didn’t want to drink any water because I didn’t want to have to pee outside a number of times. Well I didn’t work out the plan well on that one. I went every two hours!!! I didn’t even drink any water and I was still getting up to pee often. It was miserable!

The next day after breakfast I went to the bus stop and went home. I was an interesting time in the country. And that would be the last time I would spend so much time with my Ukrainian counter parts in the country side!

Moving back...(part one of many)

So this title might be used more than once over the coming months but I just didn't know what to call this entry. It has been more than a month since I updated you last but there hasn't been much excitement in my life. It has become the same old same old. I started this blog to talk about crazy and interesting things that would happen to me in Ukraine or the experiences I would go through. Not a whole lot of that happens anymore. I think I mentioned this some time ago in another post. Things are normal now. It is funny what 2 years will do for you. I have become so comfortable in my life and where I am living and I can set a watch to my mood swings. I know the times of year where I get depressed because I am still living in Ukraine and the times when I am hyper and ready for anything. I've got it all down and good thing too because it is about to start over again from the beginning!

In a few short months, less than three now, I will be home and ready to start my life all over. I will have new challenges and experiences. It will be like traveling to a new place. It is so foreign to me now. Funny thing I have heard that it is even harder to re acclimate yourself to America then it was when I first got here. I can tell that my mind is preparing for all possibilities. I have the weirdest dreams. Last night, in fact, I dreamt that I had just returned and I was working as a waitress. I was just trying it out to see if it was a good fit. I remember only wanting to work for 4 hours but my boss told me that I had to work 12 hours. 12 hours?? Are you crazy? My body just didn't want to work more than 4 hours. I remember physically not being able to work for more than 4 hours. It was so weird. Then I remember her (my boss) telling me that it would be fine if I only worked for 4 hours today but that tomorrow I would work for 12 hours! I couldn't believe it. I was so nervous and worried. I didn't want to come to work the next day. How could I possibly work more than 4 hours. I don't recall what happened next. I am not sure if I ever came back or I was fired who knows. I know that I am apparently concerned about going back to the states and not being able to perform at the level of intensity in which I did only a few years ago. I mean don't get me wrong we work here but it is a different kind of work. I can be home in the middle of the afternoon before I go to a club or a meeting or go to the train to go somewhere else. I could also be home in the middle of the day watching a movie or taking a nap. But then there are weeks where I am never home or working from morning until night. Those days are probably over for the most part now that I am nearing the end.

My mind is apparently very nervous of what is to come. I am certain that I will be able to do exactly what I did before and maybe even better but it doesn't stop my subconscious from preparing itself. That is what I do I prepare myself for all kinds of situations. And now that I don't do it when I am awake my mind is still doing it while I am sleeping. I have been having crazy dreams like this for a while I just don't always remember them.

So the end is near. I am wrapping up a project I have about HIV/AIDS. It has become a great project. It started as just an idea in my head and I had no idea how I was going to make it happen. I didn't even have anyone to work with here in Ukraine. But after a lot of miscommunication and sitting on the edge of my seat to find out if it was going to work I found someone to help me and it is moving along real well. See I wrote a grant and received $1000 for my project. I planned to introduce this subject by bringing in a trainer to discuss with a group of teachers about HIV/AIDS. My plan was to have them then take this new information they learned and teach their kids. Then I wanted the kids to draw something or paint something and then have an art contest. Have an exhibit in our town where the whole community could come and see what they drew and learn something themselves about HIV/AIDS. No one thinks it is a problem here and I am pretty sure Ukraine is up there on the charts of a growing number of people with the disease so YES it is a problem. Anyway it took some serious advocating but I found someone to help me and I scheduled the trainers and found the participants. I even had a trainer come out and teach the groups about project, design and management which is HUGE. People just don't understand that concept here. So now that the training has happened we are having a big concert on April 10th and the winners of the art/poem contest of famous people that have died of HIV/AIDS will be on display on one of FOUR billboards I am paying for to put up around the city. I am so happy this project is coming into fruition! I was nervous.

I am going to spend the next few weeks gathering what I need for my project and closing the grant. Then I will go to our close of service conference in the city where I first lived in Ukraine. That conference will be March 21st. After which I will have a ton of paperwork to fill out and signatures I will have to get. Then I will spend a few weeks traveling for business. Then I will have not more than 2 weeks left in country before I head off to Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia and then finally Italy.

In the meantime along with all of this other stuff I will be trying to figure out what the next step is....

Color Coded Itinerary Tour (Final - The End)

December 30^th – January 2^nd – Krakow

We arrived in Krakow after midnight on the 29^th so we arrived on the 30^th. Still not feeling 100% and we are in Krakow now at 1am. We are sitting in the bus that was supposed to leave at 1245am but still hasn’t moved. It doesn’t leave the airport until 145am! We get to the hostel around 3am. By the time we convince the hostel guy to let us stay a night earlier than we booked because of the time we arrived and get to our beds its 330am. Just about when I was falling asleep because I am exhausted two guys come home, get into bed, and start snoring…in harmony! Oh man it was awful. I put in my ipod but that didn’t drown out the noise then I put in my ear plugs but that still didn’t work. Finally, I put in both my ear plugs and my ipod and turned it up really loud. I probably didn’t fall asleep until 6am and Hailey woke us up at 9am! I was happy about that because I didn’t want to miss anytime in Poland but still I was exhausted!

That day we went to see the salt mines. There is a giant (I can’t even tell you how big) chunk of salt under Krakow. Let’s put it this way…there is a church carved out of part of it! Salt was a big money maker for Poland back in the day. It is where the word salary comes from because of the Polish word for salt. The miners lived down there and so I guess when they were bored they carved things out to pass the time. You can even lick the walls! Salt keeps everything preserved so it doesn’t disappear or anything. That was a cool experience.

That night we went for Mexican food and I had a margarita. Now I haven’t had tequila since that awful night in Barcelona but I couldn’t very well have Mexican food without a margarita. We had tons of hot sauce on our food as well since we can’t get that in Ukraine. The dinner was good and we walked around a bit before heading to the hostel. I am beat and just can’t do much tonight if I plan on doing anything for New Year’s Eve. Also, there are tons of Peace Corps volunteers coming in tomorrow so I want to get some shut eye and I am traveling to Auschwitz.

The next day I feel like shit. I don’t know what I ate or drank but my stomach is in knots. I don’t eat anything that morning and when I go to Auschwitz I am preoccupied with the possibility of fainting. I try to take in the experience anyway which I am glad that I traveled to see this place. I didn’t take a lot of pictures out of respect. I just don’t see any reason to have pictures of everything in the museum. It was quite eerie being there knowing that 70 years ago people were being murdered by the thousands at a time. I can’t even explain the feeling of seeing this whether it is amazing or not. I don’t know what words to use to describe it but it is definitely something you should see if you have any passion or respect for what happened. I am glad I went.

That night we had a party in our hostel for NYE. We partied there and I tried to drink as my stomach was still upset. Just before midnight we all headed to the square for the countdown and the fireworks. We had a great time. There were lots of people in the square drinking and having a good time. After the New Year came we all got lost from each other and continued our night by bar hopping. Finally a few hours later we headed back to the hostel where the party was still happening. Somewhere around 3am I went to sleep. Happy New Year!

The next day was a day of recovery. I was in bed until almost 11am and still feeling queasy. Did nothing this day and left for Kiev the next day. The end of the color coded itinerary tour. Until next time – May 2012 the Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia and Italy tour! Then THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Spain (Color Coded Itinerary Tour continues..)

Now I left off when we finished with Morocco. Barcelona here we are. It's December 27th and we get into Barcy a little late. We took the metro to the hostel and checked in. Our hostel people are cool and they set us up. We go head out and get something to eat not too far from the hostel. We noticed a wine and tapas place not too far from the hostel when we were walking here so we want to check that out.

We get over there and right away I start talking to this couple sitting next to us. They are excited to talk to Americans since they are American themselves. They are from Minnesota. And to talk to the woman you could tell right away. The sweetest things though. The husband is a history teacher at a public school in their town and they are here on his winter break. They have already been here 5 days and have been to enough restaurants in the area to know that this one is the best. So we are excited that we picked it. They tell us what they had for dinner and what was good and what was ok. They also told us about the wine they picked out. The wall is full of wine and you just walk up grab a bottle and the waitress opens it up for you. Doesn't get any easier than that.

Now the menu is a bit more challenging. I can't understand most of what is on there and I love to try new things but I just can't make out what it says. Stephanie is also a vegetarian at times so I don't want to order too much meat and there are lots of meat dishes in the world of tapas. So I try to talk to the waitress about what to order and she is telling me in Spanish which I still don't understand. Amy and Steph order the first round of food and everything was delicious but finger foods and I am HUNGRY. So we order another round and we have three bottles of Rioja wine which is delicious! After dinner since we were such good customers the waitress puts down a frozen bottle of alcohol and three shot glasses on our table. Well after a few glasses of wine I am like "yeah let's do it" so we take the shot and then I proceed to pour another one. Now I don't know what this is but it looks like it could be in the tequilla family which let's face it tequilla is never a good idea especially for me. But I have two shots anyway. Then the owner comes in and he is excited to talk to us and Steph and Amy are getting down with him in Spanish so he is even more excited and then what do you know another bottle of alcohol and more shot glasses are put on our table. Now this looks like it is in the Bailey's family but I still don't know what it is. Now the owner is telling us where we should go to find a good time because now Steph and I are ready to take on the town.

We head back to the hostel to get ready and talk to our concierge about where to go. He gives us a few pointers and we head out. Now I have the map because lets face it we don't know where we are yet or where we are going. We just got here and its dark. We get to the bar that was recommended and we have a blast. We are talking to people. Steph is speaking in Russian. She has a pitcher of Sangria and I have some Mojitos. Then we throw back what we think might have been more tequilla with the bartender and the bouncer. We proceed to the club downstairs and make some more friends. At some point I think it is a good idea to leave so I grab Steph and we go. Now this is where things get a little blurry. One theory is we were attempting to go to another club which is how we got lost, then we realized we were lost, then we fought over who might be right with where we were supposed to go, then we departed company in not so good terms, then I took a cab to the hostel, and it is possible that Steph was attacked by a stranger but either way she had lots of bumps and bruises which could have been her running and falling since she doesn't do the running thing very well. She got back 20 minutes before I did so god only knows what I was doing between the time she left me screaming and when I decided to take a cab. She was running down the street trying to get our friends attention when the hostel guy realized she was staying there and let her in. I got there and she was sleeping on the table but not enough to not see me and try to take a swing at me. I went to bed!

When we woke up in the morning it was all different. First we were still not 100% and we needed more sleep that was obvious. Steph wanted to make sure she had all of her belongings. Well you know how that is. After a good night you wake up, you can't quite remember how you got there but you want to make sure you have your purse, wallet, money, keys and identification. All there...check! We proceed to go over the events of the night but my body is banged up, my head hurts and I can't keep my eyes open so I go back to sleep. Meanwhile it is 930am and we are in Barcelona and the sun is OUT! Around 1130am we wake up again still in pain and can hardly stand up straight but we WILL go out and enjoy this city.

We head to the center to do something but first stopping at..well...yes...of course we are going to eat there...Burger King! Its the only answer after the night we had. After a nice hearty brunch we continue on to the beach area, we find a bench in the sun and take a seat for a while. Amy looks for a bathroom and comes back about an hour later. She found a mall and did some shopping. We then decide that the perfect thing to do right now is get on the hop on hop off bus. The best way to see the city when you are too hung over to walk. We aren't actually going to hop off though. The sun and the stars line up for us and there it is our chariot awaits not too far from where we are sitting the hop on hop off bus! We take to it and we ride around the city for 4 hours! We plan out our next day where we will actually go and see all of these things. It is dinner time now and time to find a place to eat. An uneventful night and its home to the hostel and bedtime!

The next day we have a much better start. We head to breakfast where we eat BAGELS! Can't find those everywhere in case you are wondering why that is exciting. Then we go to the Sagradia Familia. This is the famous church in Barcelona. It takes us an hour to get to the door and then we check it out for 2 hours. Then we decide to get some lunch and we search for sushi which is kind of challenging. We only find a sushi/chinese buffet but it is pretty good. Then we head to the Gothic quarter. This area is like the West Village in NYC. It is so cute and there are so many awesome stores selling off the wall stuff. There are so many cute restaurants and bars. Why weren't we here yesterday?? Then as we attempt to walk back to the hostel and get ready to go to the airport we stumble upon a protest! Not sure exactly what they were protesting but it had something to do with work benefits. That makes getting around more difficult but we finally get to our hostel. Now I've been told for days that our flight doesn't leave until 11pmish. Now I don't know what made me look but I had to take a look at our boarding passes and I see that our flight is at 9pm! It is 7pm NOW! So we scramble to get packed after our laundry debacle. Yes we tried to do laundry which is supposed to be guaranteed in a first world country but the day we show up both washers and dryers break? Anyway we get packed, we head to the subway, we find the bus to the airport, we get there in the nick of time. And now we are off to Poland!

Winter is definitely here...

I am going to take a small break from the trip and tell you about my day today and the events of the last few weeks since I have been back from my trip. Today hasn't even really started yet but I got up and worked out and I had plans to meet my site mate at the stadium to run this morning. The winter has been pretty mild and there hasn't been much snow so there really is no reason not to run outside. As soon as we were headed out it started snowing but it is light so no big deal. Now the drainage system in Ukraine is...well...non existent in some respects. So it has been raining lately and so warm that whatever snow we do get melts right away. Now this is fine in my book but that means a lot of puddles. So today because it is actually a little colder the puddles have frozen over so walking outside is challenging. Now when I say puddles I mean small lakes. There are places where the water is knee deep.

So I walk to the stadium to meet my site mate. I am pumped that I am going to run after months. The sidewalks are horrible and really slippery so I almost fall and break my ass quite a few times. Now I am not sure where he is but I am walking slow to the stadium. I don't see him anywhere. I walk up to the stadium and I think that is him stretching and getting ready to run. I go to the front door but it is locked. Now they are doing construction at the stadium so I could just walk in where the fence used to be but there is just a lot of construction materials in the way but it doesn't matter. So I walk around to the side where there is an opening and there is an area over there where water really likes to hang out.

Now everything looks frozen over so I walk on what I think is ice over to the grass so that I can get around into the stadium and my feet go right in. All the way up to my calves. Not only am I soaked through to my bones but its all muddy and my entire foot and calf area are black. My pants are black and wet, my shoes are now a different color and I am sure my socks are black. SHIT! I find my site mate and tell him the story and I obviously can't run now. Not to mention the track is like a skating rink! Everything is icy and its snowing. What was I thinking?

Now to catch you up on some of the events of the past two weeks. Urkainian Christmas strikes again on January 6th and 7th. I went over to Anya's with Jeremie and had dinner with her and her husband and her three kids. This was not your average Christmas dinner. We only had a small few courses. On this day Ukrainians cool 12 dishes and spread this out all around the table. All of their family comes to have dinner and it is a big event. I did it last year with my counterpart and her family.

Last night was Old New Year. Another holiday that is in January. This is when people dress up and go around and sing to people in stores and at their homes. It is like Christmas Caroling only up a few levels. Sometimes kids just ring your doorbell or bang on your door all night and into the morning like that shit is funny? Damn kids!

There is always excitement going on in the center around the big Christmas tree and to finish the night you can hear fireworks going off in the distance.