It is unseasonably warm and foggy here in Bar. It's been rather foggy for the last week, and warm too. Of course by warm, I mean +8 to +10 degrees celcius. That's warm for Bar, at this time of year at least. The last few weeks have flown by and as sometimes happens when life very nearly gets exciting, I have neglected the blog.

I was in Kiev at the beginning of the month getting my (mandatory) flu shot. I scheduled my time in Kiev to coincide with Jennifer's end of service medical appointments, so the two of us had a day and a half to hang out together in the big city. We left for Bar Friday morning. Our train was scheduled for 8:50. We chose this train because it's first class, with comfortable seats and enough room to make the 3.5 hour ride pleasant.

Jen and I got to the train station with enough time to grab some coffee at McDonalds. We were sitting at our table, chit-chatting and drinking for nearly 30 minutes. Then, we decided to get on the train, but not until both of us had used the bathroom. As our careless luck would have it, by the time we left McDonalds, we had 5 minutes to get to our train. We started running towards the platform, and as we ran, we heard them announce that our train was on track 22. Without double checking the schedule, we ran straight to the 22nd track. We hopped on the first car we came to, a nasty 3rd class car, and proceeded to make our way down the train, expecting, at some point, to find our first class car. The further down the train we walked, the more 3rd class cars we encountered and finally it dawned on us that this wasn't our train.

"Jen, maybe it's that one?" I finally said, pointing two tracks over to what was clearly a first class train. We tried to get out of the car that we were in, but the door jammed. It took Jennifer a few good grunts and tugs to finally get it open. Then the two of us jumped off the train and ran desperately across the train tracks to our idling train. Just as we reached the doors, they closed. The attendant saw us, and went to put her red flag out to stop the doors from closing, but her flag got stuck in the doors.

"Please! Please!" we said, banging on the door. The attendant gave us a pathetic look and kind of shrugged. Her flag was stuck in the doors, and there was nothing she could do. The train sat for about 25 seconds, doors closed, idling, before it slowly pulled away.

"Sonofabitch," I said, "I can't believe we missed our train."

Jen and I decided to take the next train back to Vinnystia, no matter the class. So we ended up back on the train we'd been on minutes before. It was crowed and uncomfortable and slow. It stopped at every single possible stop.

"This is like taking the metro to Vinnystia," Jen said at one point. Only, it wasn't like taking the metro to Vinnystia, because it didn't go to Vinnystia. The train stopped in Kosyatin, a small podunk town an hour from Vinnystia. Jen and I didn't realize this until after everyone got off the train and we were the only living souls on it. We were walking through the station, trying to figure out our next move, when a woman said, in English,

"Jane?" Jen and I looked at her, she was talking to Jennifer.
"Uh, no," Jen said.
"Your not Jane? I thought you were my friend Jane," the woman said.
"Uh, no," Jen replied, "but maybe you can help us anyway." The woman pointed us in the direction of the bus station. Later, after we walked the kilometers to the bus station in the frigid cold and were on our way home, I said to Jennifer,

"Man, was it our good luck today that you are asian."

***

Two tuesday evenings ago, my friends Sergy and Vova stopped by my house.
"Do you want to go to the sauna?" Sergy asked.
"Sure," I said, "that sounds relaxing and fun."

Sergy called and scheduled our sauna for 10:45 pm. Then the three of us killed a couple hours playing Uno. They love Uno. Personally, I don't think it's that great of a game, but that's just me. I've never found colors and numbers and wild draw 4 cards that interesting.

We took a taxi to the sauna at the edge of town. It was a nice, private sauna, though it failed to be relaxing in any way shape or form. With Sergy and Vova, the reason to go to the sauna is to move around as much as possible. We'd sit in the sauna (set to an "unbearable" 120 degrees. "They must have turned it up because your American," Sergy told me) then we'd run out, and cannon-ball into the freezing cold pool. We'd jump in once or twice, they'd push me in once or twice, then it was back to the shower, back to the sauna, back to the pool... We never sat in one spot for more than two minutes.

They got birch leaves and beat each other with them. They were nice when they beat me, but when they beat each other, the apparent goal was to get the oother person to cry. At one point, I peeked my head into the saunat, and all I saw were flying leaves.

***

Jennifer has finished her service and returned to America. It is a bit strange in Bar without her. I'll be heading home in a couple of weeks to spend christmas with my family. I've very excited. It's almost all I can think about. My birthday came and went without much to do. This saturday I'm celebrating it with my Ukrainian friends. We're "taking a table" at Marafone. There'll be dancing and drinking and hopefully some good kodak moments.

Halloween Pictures (and Klitchko and Pheobe)

Pictures From Budapest

Celebrating Teacher's Day

Parties, Priests, and yes, THAT Time of Year

Well the first snow has fallen in Bar. So I guess that really, it's THAT time of year again. It snowed some two inches on Saturday night. Sunday it was cold and slick outside. It snowed again last night and today it has remained freezing outside, though the sun came out just long enough to turn the sidewalks into slippery, dear-lord-don't-let-me-fall-on-my-face-in-front-of-my-school death traps.

I hadn't really mentally prepared for winter, so this snowfall has thrown me for a bit of a loop. Meaning, I'm working on recapturing my "winter footing" because it's hard not to bite it when you are walking on pure ice.

Fall break went by pretty fast. I kept myself busy and never quite made it to the internet to blog. I went out east to a volunteer halloween party on the 28th of October. There were roughly 70 volunteers there. The party was okay, though seeing my friends was great.

The party itself was held in a bar not far from the apartment I shared with Emily, Katie and Dan. Emily went to the party as a rugby player, Katie as a black cat, Dan as a priest and I went as "ragidy anne 2020". Yes, I went as a futuristic ragidy anne doll. My sole prop was a shiny, orange, tinsel wig, so really, what else could I be?

My friends and I hung out at the party long enough for me to remember why I hate parties. I always forget. I always think that I'm going to go to a party and have the time of my life mingling and shmoozing and making small talk, and then I get there and I remember: wait, I don't like to do any of this stuff.

Emily and I hung out at the part for two and a half hours before the beer and the overnight train caught up with us. It was nice to see people I hadn't seen since swearing in, but there really isn't much to talk about that hasn't already been said. I believe my parting words to people as we left were: "I'm sorry, I just can't mingle and make small talk anymore." Not exactly how you get on anyone's mass email list.

Grouchy party attitude and all, I did have a fun time in Dnipropotrovsk. It's always nice to see my friends. The trip was brief. I took the train back to Vinnystisa on monday.The train left Dnipropotrovsk at noon and got into Vinny at 1 o'clock in the morning. It was a long time to be on the train, but it was fine. I mostly slept. Around 7 o'clock, an orthodox priest and his little alterman (not a boy, but literally, a little man) got onto the train and started walking up the aisles. They were throwing 'holy water' on people and blessing them and seeking donations for the church.

I watched them make their way down the train towards me. The priest took what looked to be a paint brush, dipped it in water and then splattered it on people a la Jackson Pollak. He would splatter, then take a large, dirty, metal cross and shove it in peoples' faces for them to kiss. I watched this commotion approach me and thought: eew! so NOT
kissing the metal cross, so NOT kissing the metal cross.

When he got to my section of the train, he turned first to the older ladies and splattered them. Then, with the same brush, he splattered the fellow laying next to me. I thought maybe I got out of the splattering, but no. He dipped the brush in the water and aimed it right at me. He flicked and sent 'holy water' flying towards my face. He was standing maybe a foot and a half away from me, so the impact was substantial. I got water in my eye, dripping down my face, all over the book I was trying to hide behind.

As I was wiping the water off my face, I saw the metal cross barreling in on me. I tried to roll over on my side to get away from it, thinking maybe the priest would notice my body language. But of course he didn't. The cross kept coming. I opened my mouth to
say, "ni nada", like "don't do that/you don't have to" but before I could get the words out, the cross was upon me and as I twisted my kneck around in a last attempt to avoid the nastiness, the priest CLANKED IT AGAINST MY TOOTH.

Like my best friend Darcy, you might be asking: why didn't you just kiss the cross?! Valid question, valid question. But then I'd have no funny story.

Anyway, in other news, my friend Sky was medically evacuated to America. It's nothing too terribly serious, but she'd been ill for awhile and the doctors determined she'll heal faster in the states. She should be able to return if she gets healthy soon enough, so please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. She's one of my closest friends in Ukraine and I want her to be able to come back soon.