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!