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.

Color Coded Itinerary Tour (The last days in Morocco)

(December 25 Christmas Day – Fez)

Today was a slow day in the way of a story. All we did today was travel. It is a 2 hour bus ride from Essouria to Marrakech where we went to take the train to Fez. We had bought our tickets before leaving for Essouria so we already had them. It was an uneventful bus ride and once we got back to Marrakech it was time to hop on the train and head to Fez. It was more than a 7 hour journey through the country to Fez from Marrakech. There wasn’t much to see during the trip either. We did see some cities pass by as we made our way up the country side. As we passed by one of the towns it is highly possible someone threw a rock or something hard at the train. That I remember. We rode second class on the train which wasn’t too bad. The cars were like that of the train I took once from Moscow to St. Petersburg only not as nice. You are in a compartment with 7 other people 8 in total. You are all sitting in a private car facing each other so its 4 on 4. There is a table next to the window which is probably the best seat in the house. You put all your bags over top so that you can have some kind of leg room. The seats are cushiony but they don’t go back so sleeping is difficult for the sleeping straight up challenged.

We reached Fez and took a cab to our hostel. We were so glad that the cab drivers knew where we wanted to go. We got dropped off outside the walls of the Medina and the rest of the way would have been on our own but some nice local gentleman showed us the way…of course! And we paid him…of course! It wasn’t far from our drop off point but we would have never found it. We are actually living in the Medina this time. Inside the labyrinth of walls. It is like one big maze and we are the mice looking for some cheese!

We were hungry of course when we arrived having been on a train all day with only oranges to eat so we asked our hostel guy to tell us where to go. He did one better and took us there. It wasn’t far from the hostel but it seemed like we kept turning corners. I was unsure I would be able to find the way back. It didn’t matter though because he secured a guide for us for the return as we walked in. The restaurant was called Le Scorpion au Desert. It was a cool place with really cool staff. We were one of the only ones in the restaurant. We had the norm which was good and some tea. Our guide showed us the way home and we went to sleep in our lovely warm beds.

(December 26)

The next day we got up and went out to find our way. We had no idea what to see here either so we just went. We were using Amy’s kindle as our map since she had downloaded a copy of lonely planet Morocco. It was ridiculous trying to use the map on her kindle but it was all we had and it worked out quite well considering. We covered a lot of ground but we really didn’t see much except the castle that is right outside the walls of the Medina. We got lost in some neighborhood and had to use some kids to get out. They wanted money but we told them NO. I felt bad but you can’t give money to everyone you’d be broke. After a while we went back to the hostel and found one of the hostel owners. He was here on vacation. He is from here but recently moved to Australia. He is married there but here for the winter. He agreed to show us around since from what he heard of our story we had no idea what to do or where to go.

He showed us some cool spots including the museum that looks over the whole Medina so you open the window and you can see the whole city. It was beautiful. We took a bunch of pics. Then he took us to his carpet seller friends. We swore we weren’t going to buy anything but we did anyway. SUCKERS! What we got was actually beautiful and none of us paid that much for anything. I bought a blanket and so did Steph. Amy bought two. Apparently they are made from cactus and they can’t catch on fire! After that we took a tour of the tanneries and leather shops. We didn’t buy anything there. We wish he had taken us there first they had some really nice leather bags and jackets but we only have enough money for one pushy salesman tonight.

Tonight is a live Moroccon band at our favorite (and only) restaurant we know in town. We go there again to have dinner. The band comes on at 730pm. There are more people in the restaurant tonight. The band comes on and it is awesome. It is strictly Moroccon music with the drums and some light singing but it is great. It is clear that I am having a good time so one of the staff comes over and takes my hand and makes me dance with him in front of the band. It was great. This goes on for the rest of the time the band is playing…maybe 2 hours. Stephanie gets up there too and then several other foreigners that are eating in the restaurant. We had a great time. We are talking to all the people around us and having a ball. We start drinking wine and smoking hookah. It is great. Later that night we are asked to join them in the “Berber tent”. We don’t know what a “Berber tent” is but we go. Basically it is a tent on their terrace with comfortable couches along the wall and a few tables. I guess you could call it a “Berber tent” because there were Berber people in it. Quite a few of us go up there. We continue drinking and all of a sudden random people are going around the room and rapping. Amy even busts out some rhymes. Apparently one of the guys we are with is some famous rapper in Morocco…who knew? We do this for a few more hours and then our guide takes us home again. The end.

The next day we leave for Spain. Goodbye Morocco it was fun!

Color Coded Itinerary Tour (Part V & VI)

(December 22)

We wake up and have our breakfast as usual. We have been in Marrakech a few days. Crystal said we would own this town after 2 and I think she was right. We are waiting patiently for Amy to show up. We are still not even sure she will show up but we are hopeful. We are planning what we will do when she arrives. We think it would be best to show her the Siouk and the museums in the Siouk that we never went to. We were holding out until she came.

It is a little after 10am when all of a sudden she arrives. GREAT! We were going to send out a search party but we weren’t really even sure you were in the country. In case you forgot there was a mix us with the hostel. They didn’t have her registered until tomorrow so the fact that she came today is a surprise. So we put her stuff and take to the streets of Marrakech for one more day.

We head to the Siouk once again. We look around a little before trying to make our way to the museums. We enter the “spice square”, it bears that name now because of a certain carpet salesman. We enter the square and a man approaches us. He isn’t interested in selling carpet he wants to speak English. I think it is our friend from the other day. It is. I finally see him up close and he is gorgeous. I talk to him for a few minutes and he asks us to come back and have tea with him so he can practice English. We decide we will do that but first we want to go to the museums. He tells us how to get there and we go.

We check out a few museums and an old school. Not much to see really but we look around. After we get hungry and we start looking for a place to eat. There are several cafes in the siouk they are just hard to find. We run into a local who wants to show us a place to eat. He takes us around for a long time and then settles on a restaurant that we saw the other day. We walk inside and we realize this is a high price restaurant. We aren’t looking for that so we leave. We head back to the little square where our friend is that wants to speak English and there are some cafes there that we ponder. He jumps out from no where our little friend to make sure that we are going to come by as he is making tea. We tell him yes but first we must eat. So we eat. We take to the terrace and have some lunch.

After lunch we head over to the carpet shop to hang out with our new friend. He is from the Sahara and he is of the Berber people. We find out later most people in Morocco are Berber because those people settled here centuries ago but that no one is really still Berber apparently that race is dying out but people still claim they are Berber. Anyway he is running the family carpet business from Marrakech and his family still lives in the Sahara. He went to a university in Marrakech for English studies which is why his English is so good. We talk to him for a while and we drink mint tea. He asks us to join him for dinner so we agree that we will be back. We head to the hostel for some relax time.

That night we go to the square to have dinner. I decided that we don’t need to meet him as a group. The girls are hungry and I don’t want to make them wait to eat dinner. So we take to the square and get some Moroccon food with the masses and in the chaos. We have the usual calamari, shrimps, cous cous. A little while later a bunch of Australians join us. They came to snowboard. There were a lot of them and they were fun. We didn’t stay long because we had to meet our friend. He meets us on time and as we are walking towards his shop I release the girls to go and do what they want. They don’t want to be third wheels and I understand. I leave with Abduhl. We hang out for a few hours and talk and he gets to practice his English. He is a nice guy and very cute but we must leave tomorrow. He takes me home on his moped and that was that.

(December 23 – Marrakech to Essouria)

In the morning we get up early and take a cab to the bus station. The train station is nearby so we get our tickets to Fez for when we get done with Essouria we have to come back through Marrakech. The bus is awesome. We buy a ticket for the super bus and it is so nice. Very spacious, reclining seats with foot rests, the whole nine. The only thing that would make this bus better is if it had WIFI. It is about a two hour ride to Essouria. We sleep, we listen to our ipods, we read…. Not much going on until about half way through the ride there is some kind of protest and the street is blocked so the bus takes to off roading…why not?! We get out of that one with no time to waste.

We arrive in Essouria and we look out the window at all the locals that are waiting not so patiently for us to exit the bus. They can’t wait to show us where we are going. It is crazy. As soon as we get off and get our bags they are on us like white on rice. It is so chaotic we can’t even breath long enough to look at the map to see where we are and where we are going. Had I known I would have done this on the bus. A guy tells us he wants to show us and he doesn’t want money. So we start walking in the same direction. We enter the Medina and we have no idea where we are. We follow the guy because we have no choice. It is a ways to our hostel but we continue to follow. At each intersection he tells us that we can still follow him and that he knows where he is going and he doesn’t want money. We really have no choice but to follow him because we have no idea where we are. We finally see a sign for our hostel and we go in. We leave the man outside and we do not give him money!

The hostel is cute as the other one was and very Moroccon. The rooms are beautiful and we have a huge bed! The terrace is cool and that is where we will have breakfast and later to watch the sunset. It is very windy up here though but it is cool to see all the tops of all the buildings near us! We are meeting Steph’s friend who is also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. We ask where we can get some lunch and they tell us they have the best fish in the country and there is a fish market close by so we head there. We go to number 33 where he tells us to go. All of the fish is laid out on the table so you order what you want and they weigh it. That determines the price of the food. They of course haggle with you on everything including food. This is no exception. Today we are hungry and we haven’t had fresh fish in months! So we order all the good stuff, snapper, crab, lobster, all the good stuff and full fishes too. It was something like 500Ds! But it was worth every penny. That is about $60 for three people to have some good fish. And we ate it ALL too! The fish market is very much like the square in Marrakech as soon as you enter the area you are fish food…they hassle you until you sit down!

We met Steph’s friend around 3pm and she was with another friend who was meeting her parents. Another PCV. We had some coffee and talked about each of our experiences. Steph caught up with her old friend and we made new ones. We had a great time just sitting there catching up and then we went into the Medina to do a little shopping and looking around. Cara took us to the only liquor store in town and got us the famous doughnut that Morocco is on the map for! We couldn’t find it in Marrakech. We were having dinner at the hostel so Cara agreed to meet us there later and we went our separate ways.

Later that night we had Tajine at the hostel and sat around with all the guests. There were two other women there from Kiev. Can you believe that? Of all the places we go we run into other women from Ukraine. They were American too but not peace corps volunteers. They work at one of the special schools in Kiev. We never got their information so we couldn’t contact them again if we wanted to however, I think I worked with one of them when we did the healthy lifestyles project at that school. They were really nice. There was also another couple there from Canada who were really cool. The hostel owner was hilarious. His name was also Abduhl. He is an old guy still living like he is 30. His partner is from Australia and helps him run the place. Really cool guys. There are also two girls there from Germany. They are just traveling Africa trying to make a documentary. I am not sure exactly what they are doing. I wanted to talk to them more but didn’t get a chance. It is a quiet night. Cara meets us and we just hang out and drink a little. Tomorrow night is Christmas Eve and when the real party starts.

The next day we walked around a bit more, had more fish at the fish market, walked along the beach and got our bus tickets for the next day back to Marrakech. Cara was leaving today so she took us around shopping so she could haggle for us in Arabic. We all bought some earrings. Mine are supposed to be the Berber symbol. I liked them as they reminded me of my friend from Marrakech. They are really nice and they are real silver. Later that night we had a party at the hostel for Christmas Eve. It was a good time. We drank, ate and were merry. There were many more people at the hostel tonight for the celebration. We went to bed early though…big day tomorrow. A bus to a train to a new city…Fez!

Color Coded Itinerary Tour (Part IV)

(December 21 – Still in Marrakech)

Today we woke up to a wonderful breakfast. Some Moroccon bread and a fried egg. Always with coffee that is like hot water. There was a new staff member here today and he spoke English. We asked him where we should go today and what we should see. We aren’t too concerned about seeing too many things because we are still waiting for Amy to arrive and we don’t want to have to do things twice. He suggested that we see some gardens. There are a lot of gardens on the map and it looks like we can check them all out. The area is not too big to hit all of them and there is a synagogue in the New Town too so we can check that out.

We head out for the first park. It is a beautiful day there isn’t a cloud in the sky. It is actually quite warm in the sun almost too warm. We walk to the gardens it is quite a walk from the center but not too bad. We aren’t sure what we are supposed to do in here. We read that there are orange orchards and I definitely see a lot of tree but there are no oranges on them. There is some crowding going on up ahead in the park so we go see what the fuss is. We walk up a few stairs to a large pond. The water is dark and you can’t see anything but people are throwing bread in the water. Something must be coming to eat it. Considering the color of the water I am a little nervous what exactly might come up and eat the bread and then we see a medium sized fish barely hitting the surface. That is exciting. One park down a few more to go.

We are hungry so we take to the map and try to find a restaurant in the area we are in. We walk up the street and bit and see a few cafes. This part of town is very rich there are lots of high priced hotels over here so hopefully we don’t end up in some really expensive restaurant. We sit at the first café we come to outside on the terrace. We have a perfect spot in the sun and it is really warm. Not your typical Moroccon food but that is ok. We eat paninis and drench them in hot sauce. We have some real coffee and then it is off to explore more parks.

As we are walking we are in the center of the road and there is a park there. Steph and I attempt to pretend we are vacationing together by taking a snapshot of the two of us together. She has never used her timer and there aren’t many people walking around in this area to help us out so we prop the camera up on a bench and try to take a picture of the two of us with some orange trees in the background. Epic fail but at least we tried. The picture was so far away you can hardly tell who the people are but at least we are together!

We walk a little further and we run into the train station. We have to come here in a few days when we go to Fez and the bus station right behind it we will visit as well when we head to Essouria so it is good to know where it is and it is easy to find and not too far away from the hostel. Across the street is a theatre that should be interesting. We head to it and go in. Upon our entrance we meet a man who is the concierge, that is what he calls himself. We ask if we can go in and look around and he offers to show us around. Oh how nice. The theatre is apparently not done yet so we are getting VIP service here. He shows us the opera and shows us the coliseum. We go back stage and outside all over the place. It is cool and we take some pictures. After of course he wants money. You had to know that was going to happen. They don’t charge admission. We aren’t even sure we are supposed to come in here but they want you to give them money. So I slip the guy 20Ds. He looks at me like I am crazy. I probably should have taken the money back he didn’t seem to like the amount I gave him. We talked about that all the way to the next park but I didn’t. I gave him the 20Ds and left. If he didn’t like it he should have given it back but I certainly wasn’t giving him anymore…the nerve!

So we talked about this guy all the way to the next park. We stopped by to try and find the synagogue but it seems as though it is no longer there. The next park was pretty cool. It was much smaller and it did cost something to go inside. It was full of bamboo and agave plants and it had a little museum in the back. We were trying to find the art museum we are not sure if we found it or not but we weren’t going in. We took a couple of photos in the park and headed out. It is too beautiful a day to stand in there in complete shade. We did, however, find a memorial for Yves Saint Laurent in that park. It was just a stone structure hanging out in the park. I am still not sure why the memorial was there and what it was meant for. Why it is in Morocco?

Now that we are in New Town we are going to stop at the grocery store and pick up some food and alcohol. We can’t get alcohol in old city so while we are here we are going to pick some up. We planned on having dinner in the square tonight. Every night in the square there are a bunch of food carts, big food carts that have dinner. They compete against each other it is kind of crazy. We are going to go there tonight and check it out. We met a few girls from our hostel that will head there with us. They are in our room. One of them lives in Rome and teaches English and the other girl just finished studying. Not sure where she lives I think she is still trying to figure that out. So we head to the square and people are yelling at us to eat at their cart but we are just walking around checking all of these things out so of course we tell some of the people that we will be back. They like this saying and we can say that to get away from them and move on. We sit down and have some food. Most of the restaurants have the same menu there is no surprise there. We sit down and have a few tapas plates of different food. We go to leave and run into some of the same guys that were trying to get us to sit at their carts and they weren’t very happy with us. They called us ugly smugly liars. Very strange!

We turned in for another early night. All of this walking around is making us tired. Amy comes in tomorrow and we want to be fresh for her arrival. We aren’t really sure if and when she is coming. She made an incorrect reservation with the hostel and since she made an incorrect flight reservation when we booked this trip to begin with we aren’t really sure if it was the hostels mistake or hers so we aren’t really sure when she is coming but she is supposed to be here tomorrow. We also want to check out this cool bar in New Town but we will do that when she arrives. So that is it for today.

Color Coded Itinerary Tour (Part II & III)

(December 19 – Valencia, Spain)

There isn’t much to see in Valencia. We were told about this but we stopped here anyway since this is on our way to Morocco. We did hear they have a great aquarium. We start off looking for some coffee and maybe some breakfast. We know we can’t find bagels in this city but we attempt to ask hostel lady just in case. Yup never heard of a bagel. So sad. So we decide we will find something else on our own. We start to walk around the city which is actually kind of cute. It is starting to look like all of the other European cities I have seen but still cute. There is a lot of shopping here, there is an apple store, all the good stuff. We decide by looking at the map that the aquarium doesn’t look that far away so we try to find it. It is outside of the city but we can certainly walk there and there is a park that we can walk through to get there.

The park is nice and quiet and there are quite a few fountains on the way. There are also many people riding bikes which we thought of doing but we didn’t. We get to the aquarium area and we see very cool architecture. The buildings are all modern and different and really cool. The bridges that you can see that go over the park and out of the city are cool too. That’s what is cool about Europe all the buildings have character and they don’t build them too high. By the time we reached the aquarium and found out how much it was to enter (24 euro) we decided it wasn’t worth seeing a bunch of fish so we turned back and headed for some lunch. We found a cute little place, had some more tapas and some beer. We found this off the beaten path and after we were threw with lunch we headed to the center to do some shopping and head back to the hostel.

Once there we finally ran into someone at the hostel. Her name was Heidi and she is from Australia. She seemed cool and she was willing to go out tonight which is what we were interested in doing. We picked up a flyer that talked about this great international party…meanwhile it is Monday night! Apparently, there is an international party every Monday night. Must be a big deal. She had ran into some other people around the hostel and agreed to meet us later and head to this bar. So we went to have dinner and then we came back to find the gang and head to the party. All we seem to do is look for food. Anyway we got back and we couldn’t find anyone. We have to get up really early to catch our flight tomorrow to Marrakech and this international party no longer sounds as exciting as it once did. So we decided we are going to watch a move. Lame…I know. So our second night in Spain and we are hanging out in the common room watching a movie. It is a good one though!

As soon as we sit down and start watching out of nowhere come all of the hostel guests. Heidi is here and several newbies. They all come over start talking to us. There is a family here too and the one guy is from Barcelona. We tell him that we are going there after Morocco and he gives us some good tips on where to go and what to do so I write a list. The gang is ready to head to the international party but we are no longer interested. It is after midnight and we have to get on the subway at 5am. The movie is still going but no one is watching. It doesn’t look like the gang is actually going anywhere and we are all having nice conversation. They are drinking while we are curled up on the couch in our pajamas but no one seems to mind. After a while we decide to head to bed. Tomorrow is going to be really interesting. I have never been to Morocco before and I can’t wait.

(Tuesday, December 20 – Marrakech, Morocco)

We get to Morocco and this is really cool. Kind of reminds me when we arrived in Egypt last year. Very similar. The bus situation couldn’t be easier. The bus was right outside the one we needed and we hopped on. We only waited about 15 minutes and then it headed into the city for only 30Ds (aka durham). The exchange rate is similar to that of Ukraine so that’s about $3. The bus takes us right into the old city in front of the mosque and a short walk from our hostel. The hostel owner gave us some great directions. Good for Stephanie for printing them and putting them in the color coded itinerary. I am not sure where we would be without the itinerary. Neither one of us did much research on what to do once we got to these destinations. That might have been my responsibility. I am on the NO PLAN plan these days. I just want to see where life will take us.

So we follow the directions and we end up down some alley. Not unusual. We find number 18 on a wooden door as instructed and we knock. The door opens and we are welcomed in. There are a few people sitting around some tables in what looks like the common room. The hostel is nice and very Moroccon. Not that I know what Moroccon is at this point but it looks like that. The common area has a few tables in it and along the wall is a couch with some pillows and then there are some chairs around the tables. You can see all the way to the top of the building and there is a terrace up there. The hostel is 4 stories with the fourth being the roof. There are bedrooms on each floor except the roof, with bathrooms and showers. The beds are large single thick pads on the floor and it makes for a very Moroccon feel. It is very cute. It is a little dark and chilly but these buildings are made to keep cold air in when it is ridiculously hot in the summer so I can understand. We are here in the winter months and it isn’t even that cold outside. In the sun it is quite warm! There are lots of colors, tiles on the wall, incents is burning and Bob is playing on the ipod we are definitely in the right place.

The hostel owner comes to greet us. Her name is Crystal and wouldn’t you know it she is American! Apparently, she met her husband in America and he is Moroccon. She moved here and started a hostel with him. Not sure the whole story because we didn’t talk to her much after this introduction as she was under the weather. She was really cool though. She told us where to go and what to do to get started and pointed us off in the right direction. She is also from NY so that makes her cool right away and we bond. Unfortunately, she can’t provide us with a map but I am sure by the end of the day we will have one. She tells us that Tajine is the native food so considering we are starving we take this information and head to find…what’s that? Yes….FOOD!

It is at this juncture that we realize that we are terrible at picking out restaurants and that we should always go with the one next to the one we think we want to go to. We have realized that once we make a decision we tend to prefer the restaurant next to us. It always seems to have something we didn’t see when we were making our initial decision to sit down. This happened in Valencia a few times. So as we sit down at the café in the square we ask for Tajine now mind you it isn’t even lunch time yet. Anyway the waiter tells us that they don’t have it and that it isn’t time yet so without any hesitation since we are starving and done with picking the wrong restaurants we stand up and head next door. They were much more concerned with us eating with them anyway and we should have chose them right from the start but again…we suck at picking out restaurants. So finally we sit down and we ask them immediately…”do you have Tajine? And are you serving it now?”

We get our meals. We both got chicken. It is delicious. It comes served in a clay pot with lots of saffron. It is really good. You can either get this or chicken cous cous but for some reason it doesn’t come together and who wants two chicken dishes for lunch? Anyway it is great and we are ready to take on the town. We have some coffee and head for the siouk. Now Crystal told us we should get lost in the siouk and without a map that will be the easiest thing we do. The siouk is their version of a market. And if you have ever been to a market in places like this you know you need to mentally prepare yourself. They are going to harass us so get ready!

We head into the siouk and it is one big maze. I am just headed in whatever direction I see fit at the time I see it. There are some really narrow streets we walk down meanwhile we are not alone. There are tons of other people walking around with us, tourists and locals, donkeys, bikes, motor bikes. The only thing I haven’t seen try to come down these roads are cars and I wouldn’t be surprised if I did see one or saw one attempt to fit down these streets. People are crazy here. I would just get pissed off having to break everytime I rolled up behind some damn tourist that doesn’t realize I have to come down these streets on my motor bike with my donkey! Welcome to Morocco.

About an hour later we are still walking. I am not sure where we are going and I am pretty sure we have gone around the same streets a time or two. We have no real destination and even though there are museums somewhere back here and leather tanneries which we hear are worth checking out neither of us is really that interested so we continue to wonder. We finally end up in a tiny square behind the square and some ladies ask us if we want some henna. Now I don’t realize this until later and you will understand once I tell you the story but the women were only asking for 5Ds for this henna. Now if there is one thing I want on this trip it is henna. I have always wanted to try it and I plan to do it here where it like came from??!!

Stephanie spots some earrings she is interested in and that keeps her attention for a few moments and I walk around the square seeing if there is anything of interest when all of a sudden a man comes up to me and asks me if I want to come to his shop and have some tea and help him practice his English. I didn’t really get a good look at this guy and I am not even sure I know where he came from. I am tired and I have my sunglasses on which impairs my vision while the sun is shining down right into my eyes. I walk away but I am not sure where I am going and Steph proceeds to tell me that he was cute. Damnit! Now I wish I had gone over to talk to him but I didn’t want to buy any carpets. Meanwhile if he was trying to sell us carpets he certainly wasn’t doing a very good job. He let us go pretty darn easily.

We realize we are close to the main square and I am a bit tired of walking. I also have my boots on and my feet are screaming for a break. We find our way out of the maze and into the square and head for the hostel. Oh but wait. You can’t get away that easily you silly Americans! You keep smiling and talking to strangers and someone is bound to take advantage of you!!!! Well I did it good! I met Fatima. Fatima was talking to me from across the square and she just knew I had a big fat S on my forehead for SUCKER. She saw me coming from a mile away. There was something about Fatima that drew me to her. I started to walk over and she grabbed my arm and started drawing. I knew I was stuck like chuck. I was trying so hard to remember how much those women were going to give me henna for. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t even think of what the exchange rate was. Oh no! I am lost and I am about to get took! Well she got me for 250Ds. Yup that is $30! Have you ever heard of ANYONE paying $30 for henna!?!?! Well now you have. SUCKA! That was ridiculous. I thought she was giving me a deal. She came down from 500Ds. I couldn’t believe it. I thought we were friends. She even drew an eye on my palm to keep bad people away from me. Well it didn’t keep her away from me. Look at it this way I either fed her family for a few days or allowed her to take a well needed vacation! Always think positive. I help people that is what I do.

Back at the hostel and my feet are happy. We take to the roof and read some English entertainment magazines while sunning ourselves. Unfortunately, the sheesha isn’t working and there is no alcohol in old city but this is the life. I could stay up here for days. I am burning the henna into my skin so that it will last longer than the 20 days I paid for. I am trying to get all I can get out of this. It isn’t the prettiest thing I have ever seen but it isn’t too bad. It is blacker than anything it looks like I took a magic marker to myself. After some fun in the sun Steph and I head to New Town. We want some food and we have no idea where we are going or what we want but we walk to New Town and figure we will find something. It is like walking around NY. There are so many streets and you just don’t know where to go so we wonder around for what seems like hours before deciding we want something in the Asian category. I am thinking Indian. Then all of a sudden we come across a Thai restaurant and after a long time of searching we sit down and we are happy. Apparently we have also realized that we eat too early. People eat late in Europe and even though Morocco is in Africa it seems to follow suit. That is why no one is out and those who are are at cafes sipping coffee while we want food! The Thai place ends up being really nice and we have some sushi and some thai. The food is really good and after we walk some more and then head back to the hostel. Tomorrow we will do this again and maybe better.

Color Coded Itinerary Tour Part I (The Airport in Kiev)

Slowly recovering from yet another virus in my body. Was home all day yesterday and in bed with a temperature of 102. Just got back from a lovely 2 week vacation on January 2^nd and have been in my apartment ever since. So here is the story of the color coded itinerary tour… we call it that because well there was a color coded itinerary involved.

I meet Stephanie at the train station in Kiev. I am walking past McDonalds and randomly see her on the street. We are headed to a restaurant that is not McDonalds but still near the train station so we can hop on a bus and head to the airport soon. We have some lunch at a Ukrainian restaurant nearby. We sit there for a little while to kill some time before we have to head to the airport. We are leaving out of the airport closest to Kiev called Zhuliany. It is only about a 20 minute bus ride to the airport and the busses leave frequently…we think.

We head to the back of the train station and search for the bus we need to get to this airport. After only about a 10 minute wait we find a bus that has the airport on its sign and we hop on. I am told that I can only have one bag to carry on and I currently have two if you count my purse so I proceed to rearrange my things so that I can stick my purse in my carry on. Near the end of our trip we turn a corner and I see a plane, maybe a 727, at the end of the road. I am not sure but I think that might be the airport. There is no sign. We are still within the city limits so you wouldn’t believe that there could possibly be a runway around here to allow for a commercial airliner to take off. The airport looks like a small administration building. But so it is an airport. We get off the bus and head in that direction. We go inside to find people everywhere standing around waiting for a counter to open. This certainly isn’t a place where planes fly often. The flight after ours doesn’t leave until almost 8pm so everyone in here must be on our flight or they are really early!

We just know this is going to be a zoo. As soon as they open the counter all the people that were randomly standing around have formed a small crowd around the one person that is working right now to check us all in. There are about 5 lines that are merging into one. Eventually we get to the counter and we get our tickets which we realize say “free” on them. Not sure how to make that out except the anxiety starts again when we realize that means we have to do this again when we go to board the plane. I hate lines or lack there of. We reach the gate and we have some time so I head to the bar. I am not sure why but in recent months or since I have joined the Peace Corps and lived in Ukraine I have this new found fear of flying. It could have something to do with my cluster mate. The first flight I took out of Ukraine last year was to Egypt and he kindly told me about his fear of flying and how he thinks since he has been flying so much in his life that his odds are turning against him. Like his number is coming up or something. I mean really dude?? We are on a plane right now and I don’t want to talk about how this may or may not be the day that the plane crashes and your number comes up!!! You know who you are! Thank you for that I haven’t been right since. Even better was our trip to Germany when he proceeded to tell me about Polish Airlines which we were flying at the time had crashed recently. Thank you again! Any other words of wisdom you would like to share with me about plane crashes while I am on a plane 35,000 feet in the air? People really need to work on their timing!

So anyway I take to the bar for a shot of vodka to calm my nerves. I end up getting a glass of vodka and I am ok with that. Stephanie helps me get it down. Then we see the line forming at the door and we rush over there. Meanwhile 2 hours later we are still standing there. Apparently, our plane is late but we wouldn’t know that because no one is telling us anything. There is nothing flashing on the flat screen TVs they have hanging all over what looks like an old garage which they now refer to as our gate except the weather. So we continue to stand because if we get out of line now they win! We are too close to the front of the line for that to happen. We have good real estate to get some decent seats on this plane. We aren’t moving!

The doors open up and we head to the plane. Stephanie is on it and she gets us some great seats. Now she is a window person and I need the aisle so we sit accordingly with an empty space between us. I am sure that is not fair but that is how we like to sit and if someone is alone they will just have to sit in the middle. Should have gotten here first! Well the stewardess comes by and asks if we are together and we say “yes”. A few minutes later she comes back with two young girls. They want to sit together so the flight attendant asks me to move in so the girls can sit next to each other from across the aisle. Well I am pissed because we stood in line for 2 hours and ran to this plane to get these seats and now you are going to ask me to MOVE? Shit well of course I am going to move because I am nice person but I won’t be happy about it! I am going to curse you and these two young girls for at least 10 minutes after this happens.

After that excitement was over we are in the air and on our way to Spain. Nothing matters now. The plane is full of young kids and I am not really sure why or where they are all going. They don’t even seem to have parents. It is quite the lively trip to Valencia. I look over across the aisle and this young boy is standing on his seat and reaching into the over head compartment. A few minutes later he does it again and a few minutes later there he is again. I ordered wine from the flight attendants and received a half bottle which is already gone so I am feeling a buzz. I start messing with this boy which is funny. Let’s not forget he doesn’t speak English. Then I find out that the young girl next to me that kindly pushed me out of my seat DOES in fact speak English and pretty well. Now I am concerned because I don’t know how much she understood when we were having the bashing session after getting kicked out of our comfortable seating arrangement. But it seems since she is doing a lot of smiling that she wasn’t offended or she couldn’t understand. This is good because I feel like an ass. Even though most of my anger was geared towards the flight attendant and not the young girl who just wanted to sit next to her friend.

We have finally reached Valencia and we land safely! I start clapping! We head into the airport to rush one lonely passport patrol officer for our entire plane. GREAT another line! Now I should tell you that it isn’t the “line” that we as Americans are accustomed to. No this is no ordinary single file orderly line. This is what you might call a gathering in front of the destination with no real order of who is next. They don’t do that on this side of the world we have found out and it causes those of us from a place of order with severe anxiety when you don’t know who is next or when someone else doesn’t know that YOU are next. I hate that. So when I say that we have to stand in another line that means that my blood pressure is going to rise and I have to deal with this chaos until I get to the front of the line and can escape.

Valencia is beautiful. I have only yet made it to the convenient metro that is right downstairs from where we exit the airport and we head to our hostel which is only about 7 stops away. It doesn’t get any easier than this folks. Only two hours late we arrive to the hostel get checked in. Receive our very fluffy towels and head to a restaurant. We can’t take the advice of our hostel lady who pointed us in the direction of a restaurant that is either not open yet or recently closed but right next door is a quaint little bar/restaurant and we retire there for the evening. Very good tapas and a margarita for us. We decide to go to bed and start over tomorrow.