10.03.07 On My Way to Chirnihiv

We packed up and left Kyiv today. Packed all our things back in bags and finished our pre-training. I'm going to be in a big city with internet! Hooray!

Our bus left at 2:45 (though it broke down before getting to us, delaying our leave by an hour or two). We all stood around and hung out, played Mad Libs, and bs-ed until the groups left. Our bus was late, so we went to the store. I bought a bottle of Georgian semi-sweet wine (my favorite!) for my host family, and I bought some yummy milk chocolate for myself.

The store was great! There were a lot more American brands than I thought. It seemed like a regular grocery store except with different brands and you couldn't read the signs. They sold everything from liquor to fruit to Tide with bleach. The Ukrainian dollar is about 5.05 per US$1. Candy bars were ukrainian $3-$6, and the good wine was anywhere from Ukrainian $40-120.

We waited more and I had to use the bathroom. I'd heard about the "squatty" toilet in the main building, and I had to go pretty bad, so I decided to try it out. Thankfully I had two ladies with me to walk me through it.

First, I rolled up my pants legs, then walked into the stall. In order to get in, you open the door and walk up two stairs onto a platform with a porcelain sink in it with porcelain sides to step on. You are supposed to face the door, so you stand on the porcelain, face the door, pull down your pants to your knees, squat down and hold your pants out of the way. I was concerned about my hair fallin in it because my hair is really long, but I think I got through it okay. After wiping you throw the toilet paper in the trash and then flush. Success!

Finally got on the bus and loaded my many suitcases (I have THE most luggage from anyone in our group!). I immediately fell asleep on the bus. I woke up when we stopped, and I looked out the window. There were trees everywhere, and everything had an orange and brown color to it. Then you realized it was because of the autumn trees. Leaves were everywhere and to my right was a sort of tree park, and the trees seemed to go on forever. We were in a very old style village, and the host families were there to greet their volunteers. Everything felt like a Hans Christian Anderson story--it was absolutely gorgeous.