Russian and my Birthday Picknic

First off, I want to thank all of the peeps who have been commenting on the blog, its really nice to know that people are actually reading what I am putting up. I miss you all very much. I have tried calling some of you like eggy, but i never can catch you, do not worry I soon will.

Learning Russian gets harder by the day. According to my teacher Masha Russian and English came from the same family of languages, but overtime English developed into a tongue that got rid of the whole stem/ ending idea with gender. As I have discovered in the last few days Russian did not. Every new normative concept we learn, is then followed by its accusative, genitive, dative etc cases as well as plural and gender endings. I am getting it, but the fact that I have to memorize dozens of ending for dozens of stems while trying to memorize basic Russian is a bit overwhelming. Its all at once, but PC offers us the best language learning that exists, not to mention that I do not have to pay for the classes. As for Ukrainian, it isvery similar to Russian in vocab and form, and I am told that once at my site, PC will provide me with a Ukrainian tutor as well so I can try and master both languages which are spoken inter-changibly throughout almost the whole country.

As a side note, whenever away from home I always miss the

food incredibly, and it has already set in. I crave hot wings daily and the closest slice of pizza is in the capital. SO to all my homies out there, have a slice for a brotha in the motha-land na sayin?

So on to the good stuff. I turned 23 the other day, which was a lot like 22, except more people wished me happy birthday this year then last year when I was in the US, whats up with that people? Don't know what you've got til its gone huh? Just kidding, news travels fast within the Peace Corps community here and once one person knows something so does everyone else despite our lack of access to daily internet, so I got a lot of birthday wishes from other PCT's.

When I got up my hist dad Sasha gave me basketball and a firm handshake, so I'm gonna start ballin hard at the one functional hoop in all of Oster. When I got to class all the other PCTs where there with a big sign that said "Happy Birthday" in Russian and a cake with fishing lures on it, the most thoughtful themed cake ive ever had

After class my hist parents Luda, Sasha and I loaded up into their sweet blue car and headed off road driving through the woods (literally) looking for a good spot by the river, passing by horse carts and winding through trees and clearing through paths you wouldn't take Subaru down. Ukraine; No Fear.

Sasha picked a suitable spot, Luda spread the blankets and then things got good. Sasha threw some chicken on the fire and we waited patiently, but we were not bored. Of course it would not be a picnic without a little vodka. After a few toasts and some deliciously slow bbq'ed chicken we headed back for some tea, homework and bed.

Overall things are working out in my favor here and life in Oster is sweet! Miss you all!

Settling In.

I now feel very comfortable here in Oster, it is a very small town where even I am starting to see people I know every time I go walking somewhere. It is a town of only about 7000 people and here, they say, everyone knows everyone else's businesses. They say that everyone in town knew about us long before we got here and even on the second day small children would come up to us and practice their english, which was about the equivalent to our Russian; little to nothing, but it was pretty funny.

Saturday night my PC friend Sean and I spent on the river Desna drinking Champagne made in Kyiv, (quite good I might add,) and beer with a group of Ukrainians talking about movies, authors, and talking about travel, luckily we had a couple of Ukrainians who spoke some english so our conversations could get more abstract than the survival Russian and Ukrainian we have learned so far. You can only spend so much time with basic greeting dialogues, "I work for Peace Corps" and "I love apples." It was a lot of fun.

The next morning the same group brought us to the Orthodox Church in town which is 100-700 years old depending on who you talk to. I am not sure if this church was a Russian Orthodox or Ukrainian Orthodox church since all churches here do not so allegiance to the same head, regardless it was absolutely beautiful. When we entered the church people were prostrating in front of a beautiful alter where the priest went in and out of doors that sectioned his holy area from that of the others.

We were also lucky enough to see a number of babies being christened, and I had never seen ceremonies like this. At first it seemed like that of a Catholic ceremony but after the priest took the child from the mother, brought it from the entrance of the Church onto the alter, touching the child's head on two paintings of saints, enter the holy area through one set of doors and out the other. The child is then given back to the mother and the priest then dipped roses in holy water and cleansed the two, all the while a call and return from the priest on the alter tot he old women chanting in the top of the church ensued.

The day ended with a little fishing trip to the Desna and one little fish that was retuned back to the water.

I am 23.

M0$H

come here.

River Desna.

So things continue to be going very smooth. They have us going 24-7 here and I have had little time to just take a rest, which I'm sure is so that we do not get too homesick. My Russian and Ukrainian have been growing exponentially, though that isn't saying much since a week ago my Russian vocabulary consisted of "Peeva" and "Spaciba", translated for all y'all non Russian speakers as "Beer" and "Thank You."

Veteran's Memorial from WWII, people still leave flowers daily.

This program will soon have us speaking like we had been for years since it is basically all we do! As you may know for total emersion you have to live in a host family, and this has helped me greatly as well. Doing everyday chores, cooking, washing clothes, and walking around town doing errands with my host parents, I am able to pick up words, vocab, and intonations that I would not get int he classroom as well as tacit cultural rules experienced only in places like the Bazar or the milk store; yes, the milk store. I am lucky since My town isright on the River Desna, which splits Ukraine in half East from West, which is also a major mark of demarcation for the major languages Russian and Ukrainian. Though most of the country speaksbothlanguages almost fluently, Eastern Ukraine's proximity to Russia has made it spokenpredominately as their first language. Here are a bunch of pictures taken over the past few days where our cluster group as well as our cluster link, a group in a nearby city met with local dignitaries and militia, as well as pictures taken on walks with my host mother Luda on the Desna river.

Babuska- Mad Rabbits for Eating! Literally,a Shed-full.

Bad-ass graffiti- "I love life." The sign above is marking the town's anniversary; Oster- Incorporated in, yup... 912.

"Hard Rock"

My cat, Tom. The only cat I've ever respected.

Kozalets

I'm safe, I'm Happy, My Belly is full and I made it!...

And I have internet! Yes thats right, I am finally here in Ukraine doing my training for Peace Corps service and things could not be going any better. After our Per Service Orientation in Washington DC we hopped on a plane to Ukraine via Frankfurt Germany, a very eventful flight I might add. I split red wine all over my khaki pants but after 30 mins of my own and 2 flight crews work the stain was gone! Speaking of the good luck I have been having so far, (which I am just waiting to run out,) I am one of only a few volunteers whose host families have internet access, and its even wireless! Thanks to the Twohigs for the luck of the Irish, I'm going to need all I can get out here. Feel free to send some more luck my way via positive vibes. So anyway, after the fight we bussed up to the Chernihiv Oblast, which is in way northern Ukraine and its already cold here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernihiv_Oblast

We stayed two nights at an old soviet vacation site, which is exactly how you could imagine it was. The activities, though, were not as typical as they may had been when Ukraine was part of the USSR. We had meeting after meeting, which prepared us for the kind of culture shocks and training we were about to experience. At first I thought that the way in which things were going were unorganized until I got here and then I realized how much effort and thought is put into this whole process. Any question you could think of asking was answered in talked ranging from security, language acquisition, politics, history, host families, service sites, food, and culture clashes, and any other questions unanswered were those that were sure to be answered soon after. After the bombardment of information us trainees found plenty of time to release any pressures with massive dance parties on the compound.

Serenaded by Euro-Electronic music and accompanied by unknown Ukrainians we danced the night away to heavy bass. As if this wasn't enough we were unexpectedly treated with traditional song after song sung by Ukrainian women and men living on the compound. Swaying to and fro to the tunes of the accordionist who nursed cigarette after cigarette, we started to realize how special all of this really was. I mean even the informational groups were amazing, and thats saying something when you have a group of people, mostly all just out of college or grad-school who havent slept for 36 hours.

Anyway we have already started language classes, and I really should have broke into that Rossetta Stone earlier because I will be studying Russian as my primary language. Nonetheless, the program they have developed for us is apparently one of the most advanced ways to acquire languages there is and I am not worried, after only one day of classes I feel that I will start to grasp it quickly and so will my peace corps comrades.

Today we sadly split up into what PC called our "Clusters." Groups of 4-6 are spread across the Chernihiv Oblast. It's sad really, I feel like the moment we all got together in DC we clicked. It was kind of weird because after 3 days with the staff and new trainees we have to split up and will not all be together again until our swearing-in ceremony in 3 months. I really feel that most of us are here for the same reason and as lamely idealistic and stereotypically peace corps-ish that may sound, its true. The passion of the staff has been rubbing off on us so much that it and our common interests are acting as a kind of lame ass glue, hopefully resulting in training us into successful volunteers.

So to sum it up, I will be speanding the next 3 months in the village of Oster, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine with my new host family Sasha and Luda and their two sons Maxim and Pasha. They have already welcomed me warmly into their home and over our extended dinner tonight they made me feel as comfortable as a I am comfortable feeling on a first night somewhere half way across the world. So do not worry I am in good hands!

Today

Today I am running away,
I'll be back soon!

Defferment and New Beginings

"O you youths, Western youths,
So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,
Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,
Pioneers! O pioneers!"

In 2 days and 10 hours I will be leaving home for Ukraine to serve for 27 months (2 years 3 months), in the Peace Corps. Emotions whirling, I have no idea what to expect from this entire experience, but I am prepared for an ambiguous future and butt loads of adventure. I have many hopes for this trip, big and small. I hope to live a less comfortable and more simple life than I have been used to in the US, I hope to serve my community and I hope to gain experience in international development. I am going to miss my family and friends incredibly, but hope that all those who plan to visit make it, I'll need the company I'm sure. So I hope this is an informative and fun look at what it is like to be a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine. For all those waiting to hear about a safe arrival; access to communication will be extremely limited and not probable for the first few days in Ukraine, so no news is good news! I am excited to start this huge journey, just don't forget about me! My email is patrick.cutrona@gmail.com and I'll post my mailing address as soon as I get it. I'll miss you all.

"All the past we leave behind,
We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world,
Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march,
Pioneers! O pioneers!"
Walt Whitman



Basically All I'll Bring