10.13.07 Red, Blonde, Pink.

Those are the colors that 80% of the women in Ukraine have as hair color. It's almost hard to find brown or black hair! And when I say red, I mean Very Bright like a brilliant burgundy or fire engine red. And pink. Like pink. And apparently these colors are totally appropriate for teachers to have. Wild! I may end up dying my hair red if it's not too spendy.

My house: Okay, first of all it's on the fifth floor. I think I climb 60 stairs to get up to it. I already mentioned about the wild locking mechanism, and after you open the door, there's an inner door that's padded like a vinyl seat cushion. The dog then greets you--well, she greets me and would bark at you because she doesn't know you, of course!

You walk into a room and there's a...I can't remember the English word for it...it's like a small dresser that comes up to about your knees and has three tall mirrors on it so you can see your hair from all sides. On that dresser is the phone. Your shoes go to your right.

To the right is the kitchen, forward is the living room/my host parents' bedroom. To the left is the hallway and the first door on the left is the toilet room. Just a toilet. It's got a padded seat, which is going to be super nice when it's freezing and I won't have to set bare skin on subarctic temperature porcelain! The next door on your left is the bathroom. There's a bathtub, a mirror to your left, and a small washing machine to the right.

Straight down the hall is Tanya's room, and to the right is my room. My room has wallpaper on it--a grey/black floral design. It looks very 80s to me. My bed is pretty large, and there are massive cabinets every where. I have a table and chair for studying, and there's a balcony in my room where the laundry is often hung.

My routine: In the morning I wake up to my alarm. It's the Superman theme. Then I tell it to wake me up in 10 minutes. Then I tell it wake me up in 5 minutes. I then get up and fold my blanket and put it in the cabinet, I fold my sheet and cuddle blanket and put them in the cabinet, I put my pillows in the cabinet, shut it, straighten the decorative blanket on the bed and put on the decoration pillows. By this time my host mom has gotten up and peeked her head in to say good morning and has started breakfast. I put my stuff for class on the bed along with my bag. I pick out my clothes and change from my yummy fleece pajamas to long underwear, black pants, formal shirt and sweater. I then go eat too much breakfast. Always have coffee or chai. I sit on the side of the tub and brush my teeth using the bathtub as a sink. I then apply makeup, throw my crap in my bag and leave for my lesson.

Dom Dva. I have hit the jackpot. It means "House 2". Think Top Model meets Big Brother only with more rolling in flour (thank you, Amy, for giving me this description). Thanks to the power of my camera, I have recorded bits of Dom Dva for your viewing pleasure. Sadly, I missed most of the part where the model was attacking her boyfriend--I did catch the tail end where she was flailing her fists at him and crying. This is High Drama. Think the Puck season of Real World. Exactly--this is Real World, Russia! The commercials are pretty damn funny as well--I took a video of those.

My host mom gave me a shirt. It's so Ukrainian! It's a light blue/grey color and it's ANIMAL PRINT! Sweet! I've never owned anything animal print and now I do. I'll be the most fashionable PCV here! heh.

Today I had a tiny bit of a tough day. I've noticed that Ukrainians have their personal volume set about two notches higher than Americans. Or they're doing what we do when people can't speak English--you speak louder. ^_^. My host sister often tells me what to do in a very matter of fact way "Julia, EAT. Julia, GO TO BED. Julia, GO TO BATH."


_{My first host sister}

Which is fine and I take these as a) a rite of passage b) temporary c) a way of showing care. But still, there's a lot of loud directed my way and I absorb it well, I think. So my host sister and I went out to the 75th anniversary celebration of Chirnihiv being made capital city of this Oblast, and we were going around to food vendors and I was asking her what things were, and she yelled at me "I DON'T KNOW." I kind of lost it internally and held it in. A little later when I thought I was composed I said "Please don't yell at me for asking you what something is." Only my stupid eye started leaking and she said "please don't cry--I'm sorry." I have no idea why it got to me all at once, but it did. I think every once in a while things just overwhelm, and there's enough here that's NEW and DIFFERENT that sometimes really small things can tip over the internal order that was much more precariously perched than you realized.