Not much to report this week. I spent the first part of it sick as a dog with a high temperature. That was joyous. I got my butt up and out of bed at 430 am on Thurs though to go to Kiev...my favorite place in the whole world. This week was my first VAC meeting which was very important. Basically what that is is a meeting of the minds... It is a meeting with PC Staff and selected PCVs and they discuss issues and concerns of other PCVs. The meeting was 2 days in Kiev but it was very successful.
I was supposed to head to Lugansk or Brody or Sumy this weekend after the meeting but for the first time in 4 weeks I stayed home for the weekend and it was really nice. But for the next 3 weekends I will be back on the train gang! Off to Donetsk this weekend.
The trains are a cool place though. For all my travels last weekend was the first time I had been alone on an overnighter. I slept on the top bunk of platzcartni which I explained in my last post and no one really bothered me but on my way back from Kiev this time I had to buy a train ticket instead of an elektrichka and I also had to buy kupe which is a cabin oriented situation. There are 4 bunks still but you are in a room with a door as opposed to an open space. There was a nice gentleman in the car when I came in and we both had the bottom bunk. He started talking to me in Russian and I responded that I couldn't speak well so he asked me if I spoke English in English which was fantastic!
The train was headed to Moscow and he was from a city called Kazan which is about 800 km east of Moscow. He is a scientist and works in the field of sports medicine. Very interesting man. He learned English in a peculiar way. When he was a young boy they had an experiment at his school where they brought English teachers to teach math, science and biology to children who had no prior knowledge of English so not only did they need to learn the subject but English too. As a scientist he has to write papers in English so even though he never practices English his English was excellent. He gave me a magnet from his city when I got off the train in Ktop. What a nice man!
So last week was Ivano in the West and this week and next it is Donetsk and Kharkiv in the East. I am just making my way around the country.
Until next time.
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