It's All So Lovely

Today it is sunny and the sky is blue and the breeze is slight and I'm the happiest I've ever been in Ukraine. Mostly this is because I'm finally living in my own apartment, though the nice weather helps too.

I moved into my apartment last Friday. I had LOTS of bags of stuff. Somehow, I've managed to aquire even more stuff -- mostly books and manuals -- since coming to Bar. My coordinator said she found a car that could drive my stuff the few blocks to my new home. I packed my bags with that in mind. They were all pretty damn heavy. Then, Friday morning, the plans changed. Instead of a car and the three or four older men who were going to move me, Sasha (english teacher at my school) suggested that he get some students to move my stuff.

Now, in America, a teacher could not just volunteer his students to move someone's stuff in the middle of the school day. In America, it would require permission slips and probably district approval. Not so here. Here, it's okay to enslave students. So at 11:00, I went back to Katia's house and got everything in order and by the door. Then, around 11:30, a small army of boys came to move me. Sasha had recruited 15 or so boys from the 9th, 10th and 11th forms. They took all my bags. The only thing I ended up moving was my purse. It was a spectacle as my small battalion of porters marched my many, many bags across town. People stopped and watched us. I heard lots of comments like, "There goes the American" and "Moving the American" and even just "Americanka."

My apartment is pretty nice. I had to do some deep cleaning in the kitchen and in the bathroom, but other than that, the place is in good condition. I'm subleting it from a woman who moved back in with her parents. She left a lot of stuff and by stuff I mean crap. There are cupboards upon cupboards full of empty plastic beer bottles, jars, caps, ratty magazines from 5 years ago, and knicknacks galore. Knicknacks are really big here. So are ugly, florecent, fake flowers. The first thing I did was box up all the fake flowers and weird trinkets she'd left out for my enjoyment. Then I took all the freaky stuffed animals she'd left displayed in the bedroom and put them in the spare room.

Dave came to visit last Saturday. We had a lot of fun while he was here. We did a lot of cooking. We made pizza dough and baked veggie pizzas, we made tortillas and had fajitas, we baked chocolate chip cookies, it was a good time. Jennifer's family had us over for dinner one night. Jennifer's host father loved Dave. After dinner, everyone played music. Olya, Jennifer's host sister, played a few songs on the piano, Adriy, her host brother, played a song on his guitar, Jennifer's host father (who has a name but I've only ever heard him called Papa so I don't know it) played the accordion and the guitar and Dave impressed them all by playing a few tunes on his trumpet. It was a really great time.

Dave left on Wednesday. On Friday, Jennifer and I took the train to Kiev and then the bus to Zhetomer to visit some other volunteers. There was a national English competition last week so a lot of volunteers were in Zhetomer to work as judges. I met a lot of people from group 27 (I'm 29). On Saturday night, we all went out dancing. It was fun to be out with Americans. We all got pretty drunk. We danced a lot, racked up an enormous tab and stumbled home around 3:30 in the morning. It too was a good time.

Tomorrow it's back to school. Only two more months until summer. I'm excited about summer. There'll be a lot I can do with Jennifer's family: dig potatoes, garden, pick fruits, walk the cows in the village. Things are starting to turn green and thaw. The country side is so beautiful. I'd never noticed it before because it's been covered in snow since I arrived here. Between Bar and Vinnystia, there is nothing but rolling hills, small forests, small farms and orchards. It's all really very lovely.