Back in Town

So I'm back at my site after a week of peace corps training at a sanitorium outside of Kiev. The trainig was two part: the first part was a Russian language refresher and the second part of technical training (ie: teaching stuff). I could have gone to the Ukrainian language refresher, but my friends all speak Russian so I went to that one instead. I wouldn't say that my Russian is refreshed. I do know a few new words though, and I now understand why I always hear the word "Kak" (sounds like the bird) in Russian speech.

I was pretty proud of myself for getting to and from Kiev. My train left really early last thursday morning. I went into Vinnystia wednesday night and stayed with another volunteer. I took a taxi to her apartment and in the morning I took a taxi to the train station. I got on my train without incident, which was nice. I was nervous because the train only stopped for 4 minutes and I was in wagon number 3. That meant that I had to choose where I stood wisely because if the train came in head first and I was standing like it was coming in tail first, I'd have had to run like a crazy woman down the icey platform.

The morning train is called the Podilsky Express. It had me in Kiev in 3 hours. From the train station, I took the metro one stop to the Peace Corps office. The metro is CRAZY during rush hour and rush hour is pretty much all day. I only had one bag but it was still difficult to get on the metro. First I had to shuffle in a herd of people to buy a token, then I had to shuffle in a herd of people to the escalator, and then I had to shove my way onto the metro and off again after a stop. Rush hour metro in Kiev is like the mad rush to leave Disneyland after it closes at night. It's like the thick crowd that slowly files out and waits for the trams to come. It's absolutly horrible and yet I was too lazy to walk with my one (heavy) bag uphill to the Peace Corps office.

In some ways, I've become very Ukrainian. This is what I was thinking as I was shoving my way ahead of people in line to get a token at the metro. Actually, to be fair, there was no line for me to shove my way to the front of. There was just a big mass of people all trying to get to the same 3 windows. I simply siezed every opportunity to snake my way to the front any time I saw the slightest bit of an opening (and by opening I mean 2 inches of room between people). I did this by using my bag to create space and then shuffling behind it. In America, what I did/do regularly is called cutting. Here, it's the only way to get to the front of a line. If I don't want someone to slip in front of me, I have to stand with my body literally pressed up against the person in front of me. People stand this way everywhere: bank, post office, market, BANK. It's crazy. In America, if someone was standing over your shoulder while you were withdrawing money from the bank, you'd say something, or the teller would tell them to go wait behind the line. There is no line here. Everyone lives close and stands closer. I think that's why there are no secrets and everyone knows everything about everyone.

When I was in Kiev, I saw a volunteer who lives a couple hours from me. Her host brother goes to school in Bar and apparantly plays basketball at the gym every night. She said that he came home to visit his family last week and asked her if she knew the american who plays basketball. She assumed it was me and said yes. I thought it was crazy when word of my basketball playing made it's way across my town to Jennifer's host father, but that apparantly wasn't crazy at all. Crazy is word spreading across the oblast that there is an american girl who plays basketball in Bar.

Being in Kiev was fun. It was nice to see other volunteers and to not be treated like a 5 year old for a week. Yesterday, before we left the sanitorium, my friend Dave and I walked on the Dniper River. It was cool. I've never walked across a river before, let alone a big one like the Dniper. I took an evening train back to Vinnystia and then I took a taxi to another volunteers house. This morning I headed back to Bar, so now I'm back. Tomorrow it's back to the classroom.