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