Життя Update

So as you can tell from the lack of recent posts (besides ones I myself did not write), I've been very busy. On top of our language lessons and teachings, we've had our summer camp / community project implementation to plan, scratch, re-plan, correct, and plan again. It happens to be next Monday, Tuesday, Thursday - so there is obviously a lot to do and a little stress in the air. Not to mention it's hard to focus when you want to change out of your sweaty nice school attire into your Adidas shorts, GREY tank top, Chaco's, and Ninja'd glasses.

But in the midst of craziness and in true Peace Corps style, we've managed to have some fun along the way.


The weekend of May 14th and 15th was pretty jam packed. The 14th was my host mother Natasha's birthday! I will not disclose her age because I know she'd kill me if I did (some cultural norms do translate). The previous volunteer, Adam, who lived with Natasha came to visit that weekend as well so it was fun to listen to each others experiences / his saxophone. We had Ukrainian BBQ for dinner which I've grown quite fond of, many traditional Ukrainian beverages (use your imagination), and sang Happy Birthday in English while Adam played it on the sax.

I have two major loves in life - California Burritos and Volleyball. And on the 15th, both were satisfied. The Community Development PCV's in Chernihiv put on a large community picnic that we as a cluster + LCF attended. We decided it would be ideal to go grocery shopping when we arrived and might I say, It was like we struck gold. They had everything from Tortillas to Oreos. I dropped a fair bit of my monopoly money and ate way too much. I then proceeded to play volleyball - which was glorious, I need to buy one at some point.

When I got home from Chernihiv I made my host family traditional CA Burritos - and by traditional, I mean with what ingredients I could find, however it definitely hit the spot.


Last week we had Youth Development's PST University on Wednesday and Thursday in Chernihiv. While is was informative - it truthfully was just a excuse to hang out with all the other YD volunteers and catch up on the internetz.

While the brief retreat seemed like a weekend in itself, the real weekend following was a bit toasty. We ended up having a "study" social at the river. It ended up being another excuse to jump off things :)

One last thing, I'm slowly being eaten alive by mosquitos - and I saw a bee looking insect that was the size of a mouse... Ha ha - but really what the? I should have brought the Africa bed net.

Wish me luck!!

Two Cities, One Weeks, Time to Jump off Things!

As you can tell from the title of this post, I may have caught the travel bug just a bit - but it's not my fault (or so I tell myself). Kozelets is perfectly located an hour and a half in either direction from two big cities - Chernihiv and the capitol Kyiv.On the 17th, four of the five of my cluster mates made the trek by Mashuka (mini-bus) to Chernihiv in the wee hours of the morning. 


One may ask why the fifth was not in attendance? The lone ranger was actually under the impression she was going to milk a cow that day - which she's been wanting to do for some time now. Unfortunately... said activity never happened (which was quite hilarious) and this presumed cow wasn't even mentioned at all throughout the day, haha. Anyways, Chernihiv was a blast. The weather wasn't pristine however it was perfect for a day of walking around. We met up with a few groups who are doing PST in Chernihiv so we got a mini / fast paced tour of the city. We had an awesome time with only a little blip in figuring out how to get home to Kozelets - however it all worked out.

On the contrary, the 22nd turned out to be a scorcher in Kyiv - however the Ukrainian people still managed to be in their winter coats while I was sweating my life away. We were advised to not keep anything of importance in our pant pockets due to the prevalence of pick-pocketing so it was all zipped away in the million compartments of my North Face. However that meant I had to basically keep my jacket on the whole time! If I lost that - my life would have been over. The field trip to Kyiv was actually part of our PST curriculum so our LCF Natasha came along and had a scavenger hunt planned for us. Kyiv is really pretty with all the conveniences of what I think of as a city - McDonalds, Subway Station, and even an underground mall! We had to ask for a lot of directions to locals in Ukrainian and most people were very willing to help out - so it was much appreciated. The main point of the visit was to get a tour of the Peace Corps Ukraine headquarters. There was actually a fair amount of current volunteers visiting the office as well so it was fun to ask questions and get perspectives of people who've been there for quite some time. They had internet stations and showers for volunteers to get cleaned and caught up on life which was pretty neat. 

With all the new sights I've managed to overlook one of Ukraine's favorite things - EASTER - which happens to be in two days! I'm not actually sure what's going to happen but I do know that there is an eight hour church service that spans though the night and into the next morning, delicious delicious comidas, and hopefully wifi, haha. My host mother Natasha has been in the kitchen the entire day cooking / baking and our house smells bomb so I can only assume good things are in the near future. I looked in my fridge last night and there was probably 75 eggs - so maybe I'll go hide a few to share the easter egg hunt tradition.

I've actually felt a bit under the weather the past couple days so I plan on sleeping all day tomorrow to hopefully knock out the bug that's got me down.

Pухомих!! (Moving)

добрий день (good day) friends! So the welcome retreat ends tomorrow meaning I'm moving to my new home for three months! The weekend consisted of a lot of sitting and listening to lectures - I met some pretty cool people for all over. 


The moment you've all been waiting for. I found out earlier today I'll be living in a town named Kozelets in the Chernihivs'ka Oblast. 

Of course I wiki'd it immediately. It seems pretty sweet including a soccer stadium, large churches, and apparently internet cafes. However I'm most excited / terrified to meet my host family. We had our first language class today which went rather smoothly - however the entent of my vocabulary is still that of a baby. I'm sure saying hello and thank you over and over will be rather "fun" for my family.


Stay tooned! 


на добраніч

2 Days of Travel

So it's currently 6:35AM here in Chernihiv, Ukraine. This is probably the best time to use the wifi here in the hotel because most are hopefully still sleeping (last night I'm sure the servers were overloaded with volunteers trying to access the internet that it made it basically impossible to keep a signal). It's currently 45F so my peacoat does wonders.

Anyways, so yesterday before we left for the airport in DC I felt obligated to at least go check out some of the monuments - seeing how I've never been there. Surprisingly, it was only around a buck to get down there by bus so I was stoked. Got to check out The White House (which was surprisingly a lot smaller then I was intending), Washington Monument, Linken Memorial, and just walked around the park. I was a bit jealous of all the joggers - I'd totally be down to run the 5 mile trek around all the monuments every morning.

The flight from DC to Frankfurt was long - even with trying will myself to sleep (which sadly only lasted a few hours). Most volunteers seemed to also be awake so there wasn't no lack of entertainment to be had. The inflight food and wine was actually pretty decent as well. I was forced to check my duffel carry-on (free of charge), meaning I literally had no extra clothes, no deodorant / toothbrush on hand throughout the flight which could have been a fun first challenge had it not all worked out. The hour layover in Frankfurt left me only enough time to purchase a pretzel and a beer - which I felt was appropriate to complete my cultural exploration of Germany.

my Ukrainian Visa - check out my name!

Frankfurt to Kyiv was a quick two hour flight. And was right when sleep deprivation kicked in - I napped for all but the take off, landing, and breakfast.  It was an interesting set of people on the plane; volunteers, a jewish group in all their get up, and some Ukrainians.

We were greeted with a fair crowd of Peace Corps staff once we arrived - all their flags and signs was comforting. I managed to find all my checked luggage! I was worried I'd be wearing my jeans and Cal Poly shirt for a good week while my bags were still in transit.

We hopped on a bus and drove a couple hours north to Chernihiv for our initial welome retreat. A shower and a tooth brushing was heavenly to say the least (I felt gross). I found out I'll be learning Ukrainian! While initially I though learning Russian would be cooler - I realized all the signs and transit information would be in Ukrainian meaning learning Ukrainian might be more practical. I still hope to pick up some Russian in my time here.

Our welcome dinner was pretty sweet - filled with awesome bread that tasted like angel food cake, beet salads, chicken legs, rice, chocolate, and of course tea and water.

my LCT / welcome bread passer outer

Cheers!