Weekly I go to the 'Windows on America' club here in my city. (At least I go when I can, usually once a month or so.) This club is usually occupied by 4 or 5 regular people and then maybe a few more that aren't regular but like to come and just listen to us speak English. We talk about everything from politics to life in Ukraine, but always and most definitely the conversation ends on the topic of food, which is a common denominator to everyone everywhere. This week at the club we had a new guest who had just arrived back home in Ukraine from Detroit for the first time in 8 or 9 years. His name was 'Dre' as in the rapper, Dr.Dre. Dre is originally from Ukraine, Ivano Frankivsk, and while in Detroit his job was 'husteling cars', not people, not drugs, not the poker table...but cars. While Dre refused to speak English half the time, the other half of the time his perfect northern accent was dominated with words like 'straight up', 'bling', and 'keeping it real'. When the club was finishing, Dre gave me makeshift business cards with his name and number on it, including a message of love and peace for Ukraine. It looked like this;
Andre S.
364857
'Keeping it real for the brothers and sisters living in the world'
Friday, February 29, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
My Language Skills Are Perfect - Thats a Lie
This will be an interactive blog; Where is the biggest square in Europe? Where is the biggest Vladimyr Lenin statue in East Europe? What city takes 24 hours to get to by train from my city?
KHARKIV! Former capital of Ukraine and the only other city in Ukraine to have a metro other than Kyiv. After a 3 day training in Kyiv about HIV/Aids I have headed east to Kharkiv to hang out with Shelby. I can always tell I'm in east Ukraine because no one understands me. I speak Ukrainian because I live in western Ukraine and people in the east speak Russian. Yesterday morning on the train I casually went to the conductor and asked for a cup of coffee.
"a cup of what?" she says.
"coffee, you know, black stuff" and i pointed at the coffee sitting on the shelf.
"oh, coffee, why didnt you say that?"
I decided just to let it go but with the mental note to remind myself how to say coffee in russian, which is actually the same in Ukrainian, just pronounced differently. knowing is half the battle.
Shelby actually lives in Zolochiv which is a village 45 minutes north of Kharkiv and about 20 minutes from the Russian border. I think today I will take a bus to the border just to say I've been there, maybe I will throw a rock into Russia for good measure. Last night we went to visit her host family who speaks Ukrainian. Theyre such nice people. It made me miss my family in Chernihiv and wish I had a host family in Frankivsk. Maybe I'll work on that when I get home.
KHARKIV! Former capital of Ukraine and the only other city in Ukraine to have a metro other than Kyiv. After a 3 day training in Kyiv about HIV/Aids I have headed east to Kharkiv to hang out with Shelby. I can always tell I'm in east Ukraine because no one understands me. I speak Ukrainian because I live in western Ukraine and people in the east speak Russian. Yesterday morning on the train I casually went to the conductor and asked for a cup of coffee.
"a cup of what?" she says.
"coffee, you know, black stuff" and i pointed at the coffee sitting on the shelf.
"oh, coffee, why didnt you say that?"
I decided just to let it go but with the mental note to remind myself how to say coffee in russian, which is actually the same in Ukrainian, just pronounced differently. knowing is half the battle.
Shelby actually lives in Zolochiv which is a village 45 minutes north of Kharkiv and about 20 minutes from the Russian border. I think today I will take a bus to the border just to say I've been there, maybe I will throw a rock into Russia for good measure. Last night we went to visit her host family who speaks Ukrainian. Theyre such nice people. It made me miss my family in Chernihiv and wish I had a host family in Frankivsk. Maybe I'll work on that when I get home.
Thanksgiving Footnote
*hey. I forgot to mention that on Thanksgiving I took a trip into Europe. I went to Krakow, met up with my friend Brittany in London and then we went to Amsterdam. It was fun. After that I came back to Odessa to spend Thanksgiving weekend with other PCV's. It took 2 buses, an hour of hitch hiking, and 3 hours to get to Eileen's village. We killed a turkey, chopped wood for heat, and sang the Star Spangled Banner for our Ukrainian friends. I also drank a lot of home made wine with Emily's host mom, Ina. It was one of the most memorable moments in Peace Corps. :)If your reading this, send me an email and I will tell you more about the smugglers on the train coming back into Ukraine and how the UA boder guards almost didnt let into Poland.*
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
The Real World
On television, what’s shown is only the exciting parts, the parts that make for a good story. Most of those ridiculous reality TV shows have cameras on their "characters" 24/7, but they only air the most interesting parts. We all know that its only 10% of a real person’s life and the other 90% is a drag. The last few months I've been posting stories that I thought were funny. (Jonathon's Real World) I've realized that they don't really give any insight to what my real life is like. So, from now on I'll try and write more about everything in general. I’ve also had a comment that I should post more pictures, that is also doable and on the way as well as soon as I figure out how to do that.
Ukraine is finally back in full swing after the holidays. Everyone is back at work and even my schedule is filling up fast. I've picked up 2 classes a week, teaching at one of the universities. I just got back from language training in Rivne and a workgroup in Kyiv. And the best job related news is that I finally have a primary project. Over the next year or so I will be facilitating connections between my city, which is the Oblast Center (like a state capital) and 2 pilot regions near my city. I will create research teams to update the tourist information in these regions and then there will be conferences and training sessions for businesses in the tourism sector on how to use that information to their benefit on topics like marketing, business management, strategy, etc. That will start to take up a majority of my time. Finding a purpose while here in Ukraine has been half the battle to my Peace Corps service, now I feel like I have it and I'm excited to finally have some real work to do. Last year was all about just getting to Ukraine and surviving, now that I've done that it’s all about actually living here.
I got another package from home! This package was one of the best because my mom sent me a new pair of jeans and 2 new shirts. I'm not really a clothes person but Ukraine is abnormally harsh on clothes. A few months ago, during the raining season, (it literally rained for 2 months straight) I was walking home with a friend of mine. I walked up a sidewalk that was slightly tilted to avoid having to swim across a mud puddle. I slipped and fell into the puddle and accidentally ripped my jeans. Since then my friend has learned how to say "Jonathon fall down, ooops" and since this is the max of his English skills, he says this every time he sees me. So, now I can wear my new jeans and say "Jonathon have new jeans with out hole - hooray!”
I also got a ton of new movies, magazines, and food from the US. I almost don't want to come home so I can keep getting boxes of stuff from home. It’s like having Christmas once a month. (Just kidding mom and dad)
Ukraine is finally back in full swing after the holidays. Everyone is back at work and even my schedule is filling up fast. I've picked up 2 classes a week, teaching at one of the universities. I just got back from language training in Rivne and a workgroup in Kyiv. And the best job related news is that I finally have a primary project. Over the next year or so I will be facilitating connections between my city, which is the Oblast Center (like a state capital) and 2 pilot regions near my city. I will create research teams to update the tourist information in these regions and then there will be conferences and training sessions for businesses in the tourism sector on how to use that information to their benefit on topics like marketing, business management, strategy, etc. That will start to take up a majority of my time. Finding a purpose while here in Ukraine has been half the battle to my Peace Corps service, now I feel like I have it and I'm excited to finally have some real work to do. Last year was all about just getting to Ukraine and surviving, now that I've done that it’s all about actually living here.
I got another package from home! This package was one of the best because my mom sent me a new pair of jeans and 2 new shirts. I'm not really a clothes person but Ukraine is abnormally harsh on clothes. A few months ago, during the raining season, (it literally rained for 2 months straight) I was walking home with a friend of mine. I walked up a sidewalk that was slightly tilted to avoid having to swim across a mud puddle. I slipped and fell into the puddle and accidentally ripped my jeans. Since then my friend has learned how to say "Jonathon fall down, ooops" and since this is the max of his English skills, he says this every time he sees me. So, now I can wear my new jeans and say "Jonathon have new jeans with out hole - hooray!”
I also got a ton of new movies, magazines, and food from the US. I almost don't want to come home so I can keep getting boxes of stuff from home. It’s like having Christmas once a month. (Just kidding mom and dad)
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