The end of training

Well, I have three days until I finally go to Kyiv and open that fateful envelope which holds so securely the next two years. Besides the details about my site that I have ben waiting oh so patiently for, this envelope also contains the results of the Language Progress Interview. I think I did really well on it so I am excited to find out which level I was placed into. When it comes down to it, the interview cannot hurt us at all and is only a way to gauge how much we have learned in our language classes. Aka you cannot fail. Nonetheless, I studied pretty hard for it so we'll see if I've still got it.

The Interview took place on the first sunny day in weeks probably and it was a beautiful one for sure. I think that helped me. Walking briskly to class, sun in my face, sunglasses on, and dancehall pounding though my earbuds I went over the vocabulary I had trouble remembering. Trying to memorize lines this early in language learning can be pretty frustrating. Because we lack the more intermediate skills to express any abstract thoughts, you have to dumb down everything. I wanted to say things like; "I love to fly-fish, it is therapeutical and I think it would be a wonderful way to discover Ukraine and its nature" which will then turn into "I like fishing because the river is very quiet, and the river has beautiful nature." Another example "I like to create black and white photographic obras using surrealism to obscure what the human eye see" but I can only say "I like black and white photography, I work with surrealism." I hope that later in my service I will be able to express in Russian closer to what I can in English and Spanish.

PS if you are wondering how I could have used surrealism, its a cognate! Gotta love cognates!

Anyway, the day was a great one, and after the interview I was in a wonderful mood, switching off the dancehall and trading it for a gnarly cumbia, I watched as Ukrainians rode their bikes down iced over roads that more resemble the bumpy dark ice at Kennedy Memorial Rink in Barnstable than anything you would drive on. Another pleasant sight is how Ukrainian's wardrobe and accessories change after the first snowfall. Once flakes are spotted, Ukrainians let the fur fly! Men walk in tall fur hats and fur collared leather jackets, and women adorn elegant fur hats of their own or pull over a furry Inuit style hood from their massive jackets. They rally have winter fashion down here, and I have got to get with it! Mothers have put away their baby carriages and everywhere you look sleds slide through the streets. This ain't your typical snow day, Ukrainians put their sleds to work, they carry children, groceries, tools, whatever you usually carry can now be rested on a sled and pulled. Pretty cool if you ask me!

So above you will see me learning how to hand wash my clothes. Chances are that I will be keeping my clothes nice and clean like this for the next two years. Its pretty labor intensive, but as you can see, I'm totally getting the hang of it. As I was elbows deep in soap I thought back to the washboards that used to hang in my grandmothers bathroom and how I could really use one of those right now- my great grandmothers would be so proud of me if they could only see me now!

I would also like to correct a mistake I made in the last post. When I thought I had made a mistake leaving my wet clothes to freeze outside overnight, I was actually right! Though it is painfully cold to hang wet clothes outside, letting them drip for a while outside gives them the fresh outdoors scent that American companies strive to chemically substitute in your store bought machine wash. SO YEA! Maybe I'll have to do a little extra work, but I'm sure going to smell good!