On Friday I met Tanya, my new host mom for the next three months. She speaks zero point zero English, which is actually a great thing as it is forcing me to speak only Russian- which by the way I was assigned to learn during training. I am certain that she is having some frustration with me not getting her words, but hey, I am like an infant now and need to be spoken to like a child as I learn. She is a very decent cook and everything so far has been tasty. I had her borscht tonight which was beet soup (hers with some white beans and chunks of garlic). Tomorrows breakfast looks like fish, so I am going to remain optimistic the meal will be on par with the others. As for my living arrangements, unlike many of my peers, I have access to internet in the house; I live in a house (not apartment); and Tanya has a washing machine! No oven, but I don't need to bake right now.
Meanwhile, I had my first cross-cultural class today where we spent much of the time discussing our schedule for the next week. Busy, busy, busy. We took a field trip on the marshtruka which is the local network of buses into the town center of Chernigov to buy cell phones. I felt like the group of slow adults who take the big day out to the supermarket- which for me is tomorrow! We found an internet cafe and my cluster mates and I will be meeting there tomorrow to prove we can find our way there and home.
Sadly, even though Tanya has internet in the house, I cannot figure out how to change her keyboard to English from Russian, hence I do not know how to type WWW.anything! No wi-fi so I will probably send this post from a free wi-fi zone tomorrow.
Anyway, I am loving Ukraine so far. Yes, it has only been a couple of days, but imagine if I hated it already? All is good and with my intensive training starting Monday I am not certain what my availability will be.
Thinking of all back home often...showed Tanya all of the photos on my computer and the number of times she said the Russian word for "beautiful" was really nice.
Until the next post.
Meanwhile, I had my first cross-cultural class today where we spent much of the time discussing our schedule for the next week. Busy, busy, busy. We took a field trip on the marshtruka which is the local network of buses into the town center of Chernigov to buy cell phones. I felt like the group of slow adults who take the big day out to the supermarket- which for me is tomorrow! We found an internet cafe and my cluster mates and I will be meeting there tomorrow to prove we can find our way there and home.
Sadly, even though Tanya has internet in the house, I cannot figure out how to change her keyboard to English from Russian, hence I do not know how to type WWW.anything! No wi-fi so I will probably send this post from a free wi-fi zone tomorrow.
Anyway, I am loving Ukraine so far. Yes, it has only been a couple of days, but imagine if I hated it already? All is good and with my intensive training starting Monday I am not certain what my availability will be.
Thinking of all back home often...showed Tanya all of the photos on my computer and the number of times she said the Russian word for "beautiful" was really nice.
Until the next post.
Glad to see you are settling in. Not even a week and already a new woman in your life. She looks lovely; how comforting. Влюбленность, МАМА
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