Three makes a Family

So I now have two cats. That's right, two. Klitchko has a sister and she's REALLY cute. I picked her up last night when I was at the cafe with my friends. We were sitting outside and I saw this cute little thing run by. I oogled at it, and then went and pet it, but it ran away from me so I sat back down with my friends. Then Sergy (Seriogia) got up and fetched her for me. She was scared and he had to chase her around a building, and when he emerged he had her and another small cat in his arms. He deposited them both on my lap and everyone laughed and told me I was the cat lady. The second cat bolted from my lap after a few minutes, but the other one stayed and was so skinny that I felt compelled go go by her some anchovies from the cafe. Long story short, I fed her, fell in love with her, and took her home. So now I have two cats, Klitchko and Pheobe.

Yesterday afternoon I went and got a pedicure. It was a rather interesting experience. I showed up at 3 o'clock and was soaking my feet in water by 3:05. The soaking lasting for a good 25 minutes, with the lady popping in every once in awhile to tell me to sit "just a little longer." When she finally got to work on my feet, the first thing she did was razor off all my calluses, which actually took quite a bit of time. I'd never had them razored off before and I think she could tell. She kept sighing and blowing her hair out of her face. She even had to stop and shake out her arm a few times. I didn't know how to say, "I've only ever been pummus-stoned", so I just sat back and watched as flecks of callous cascaded to the floor. Kind of gross.

Yulia invited me over to her house yesterday. I came over around 5 o'clock to find that I'd been invited to a Mary Kay party. It was me, Yulia, Anya, Katia, Misha (poor Misha, what 14 year old boy should have to suffer through a Mary Kay party?) and the Mary Kay representative for Bar. We washed our faces and lotioned our hands. All the samples that Anya and Yulia got were "energizing", while all the ones the lady gave me were "age-defying". I thought it was funny. I'm not THAT much older than them...or am I? After we washed and rejuvinated our skin, the lady did our makeup. We were fully madeup by seven o'clock, and then we hit the town. It was funny. I was dressed very casually, but my eye makeup screamed "PROM NIGHT!"

Last Saturday I met up with Dave in Kiev to see another show. We had a good time. We weren't able to see the DJ he had wanted to see, but it was all the same to me. We hung out at a cool night club named Wenzel and found an all-night producty/cafe. I headed home Sunday at 1:30. The weather had been beautiful in Kiev, but when my train got to Vinnystia, it was POURING down rain. It was ABSURD. I had only 35 minutes to get to the bus station so I couldn't waste time waiting out the storm in the Vokzal. I dashed from the train to the waiting marshrutka's. It was maybe a 50 yard dash, and in that time, I got so incredibly wet that I was literally DRIPPING when I got on the marshrutka. The driver LAUGHED at me. I made it to the bus station in time to catch my bus back to Bar. By that time the rain had subsided, though I was still wet and rather pruney.

Dave's birthday is on Sunday. A bunch of us are going out east to see him this weekend and celebrate his birthday. It should be fun. Skyler will be there, and my friend Emily, so I'm looking forward to that. Dave now has a cat too. He was out walking and a kitten started following him so he picked it up, carried it for awhile, and then called me to ask me what he should do. I don't know what kind of advice he thought I'd give. "Take it home! Keep it!" I said. And he did.

Summer is going by so fast. I can't believe July is nearly over. I've been traveling so much to and fro that I've been neglecting my blog. August will go equally as fast I'm sure. I may or may not be going to the sea with Anya and Yulia. They want me to go with them, but it depends on if Katia decides to go. If she doesn't go, I get her train ticket and go down to Crimea with the girls. We'll see. I'd love to go, but I don't need to. I've had a pretty action-packed summer as it is.

Well, I should get home to check on my cats. I must say that Klitchko is looking really good these days. His coat is so sleek and glistening black. He's had a number of compliments on it as of late. Pheobe is a little scragglier. She has longer hair and is full of color. She's brown, white, and grey with a pink nose, white paws and grey eyes. Oh dear, look at me, I really am a crazy cat lady. My blog has now degenerated into cat chat.

Apologies.

Lviv

I'm sitting in the computer lab at the Catholic University in Lviv. My friend Skyler and I are staying in a volunteer's apartment in the center of town. The volunteer is away at a summer camp and he left his keys with our friend Emily, so we decided to come and enjoy a few days in Lviv.

I arrived last night after a long, hot train ride from Vinnystia. The apartment that we are staying in is REALLY nice, very western, equipped with a microwave, a huge bathtub, hot water, and wood floors. It looks like something you might find in Manhattan, or San Francisco, but not Ukraine. I think we're still in a bit of shock.

This morning we had brunch at a cute little cafe that served marguaritas. It's the first time I'd seen tequilla on the menu since I've been in country, so of course, I got one. It was delicious.

Sky and I don't have any concrete plans for our stay here. We're going to walk around, probably drink some beer, window shop and maybe even catch an english language movie. I'm here until thursday night, when I'm catching an overnight train to Kiev for peace corpse training. I'll be at training for 4 days and then it's back to Bar.

Last week I spent a lot of time hanging out with Yulia and Ania, my two young, adorable Ukrainian girlfriends. We went out to the cafe and danced a few nights. It was fun. On Saturday night we went dancing at Stary Zamock. There were a lot of people there that night. The dance floor was pretty packed. At one point, some drunk guy picked up another drunk guy and started swinging him around. It was all in good fun, but I wasn't paying attention and out of the blue, I got kicked in the face. It hurt, but it didn't leave any mark and I was okay, though I was a bit wary of the dance floor after that.

Ania agreed to feed Klitchko for me while I'm away. I bought her a bottle of vodka, a couple of beers and some drinking snacks as a thank you. I wanted to pay her, but I knew she'd never take my money. Alcohol is always an acceptable form of currency here.

I know I promised to regale you with tales of 4th of July pond scum, but that story isn't all that exciting. On the 4th, I went to the "lake" (pond? reservoire? watering hole? puddle? I don't know what to call it) with Jennifer and her family. The water looked clean, as in, there were no heaps of visible trash floating in it; but when I emerged from the water after a quick dip, I looked like a hairy ape. There was all sorts of dark, floating bits on my body and I looks like a hairy beast. It was disgusting. From here on out, my new rule is that I'm only swimming in moving bodies of water.

Anyway, the weather here in Lviv is beautiful, as is the city itself. Anyone who comes to visit me will certainly be taken here. It's almost like I'm not in Ukraine anymore, like I've somehow been transported to a European city. I intend to take a lot of pictures which I probably will never be able to post here, but perhaps sometimes I'll turn them into a scrapbook.

I Survived

I've been home from survival camp for nearly a week, so I guess it's safe to say that I survived. Camp was a lot of fun. It wasn't the rugged adventure I was expecting, but it was still a great experience.

We ended up camping on the outskirts of a small town in western Ukraine called Kosiv. Kosiv is a two hour marshrutka ride away from the city of Chernivsti. It's on the edge of the Carpathian mountains.

There were eleven or so PCVs who worked at the camp. We arrived a day before the kids. All of us were expecting a fairly significant hike to our campsite. So you can imagine our suprise when our "hike" from the "trail-head" (AKA some family's front yard) to our campsite (AKA the field behind some family's house) ended up being a mere 15 feet. There were two potatoe fields on the hillside next to our campgrounds. We used well water from the houses in the neighborhood below us. One family lent us pots and pans, another family lent us blinkets and yet another family let some of the boys crash their house to watch Ukraine in a World Cup game.

The kids who came to the camp were great. They were mostly all university students with very good english skills. They had to speak english the whole time they were there. They were broken up into teams and speaking Russian or Ukrainian would lose their team points.

The team I counciled, team Explosion, came in dead last the points competition. As my co-counciler Jeff said, we were an Explosion of apathy. It didn't matter though, the kids still had a great time. My email is flooded with emails from girls who were at the camp all talking about how much fun they had and how much they miss it.

The best thing about camping so close to town was that we could go into town frequently and swim in the river. The river in Kosiv was beautiful. It was clean and deep in parts and fast. It was like paradise.

The kids learned survival skills. The only survival skill I was able to teach was the hemlick (which I know I can't spell). While I was teaching, I kept wanting to call it the heneiken. At least that I can spell. I learned a lot of survival skills that I didn't know before, like how to build a fire, tie knotts, and build a shelter. I feel ready to take on the wilderness now, for real.

One day we went on a hike. Our guide, Alexsander, took us straight up the side of the mountain. I was huffing and puffing. I didn't know if I could make it. Towards the end I was literally lifting my legs and forcing them to take steps. It was beautiful in the mountains.

This is a rather unfocused blog. I apologize for that. I'm writing it as fast as I can because I fear that my internet time will be up at any moment. I'll write again soon though, I promise, and regale you with tales of my exciting 4th of July swim with pond scum. Good stuff, so stay tuned.