Drew's visit! I had such a wonderful time while he was here. While I waited for him in the Kiev airport, I oscillated from controlling hysterical tears to bouts of giggles, until finally he came through the doors. His marathon of travel didn't stop after his 16 hours in
air-transit; we had a 12-hr train that night, and then a 3-hr bus ride to my town. He held up admirably, and went to bed around 7 that night, after a tour of my house and petchka which inspired him to say, "wow, your life is a lot more bad-ass than I thought!" We spent the next few days at my school and touring my town. My kids were SO excited about seeing him...I think their excitement level easily matched mine. We visited classes, then put on an English club for them, at which they did a traditional Ukrainian Bread Ceremony which they use to welcome guests.
After my site, we headed to Odessa. The weather wasn't particularly pleasant for walking, but we managed to get quite a tour of the city. I really like Odessa, and Drew seemed to like it, too. We stayed near the center, and spent time near the Opera House, saw the sea port (that's the picture there), plenty of churches, some parks with some mad chess happening, the main street, a Love-Lock bridge and the bazar. We had some good coffee, good food, and great conversation.
Then on to Kiev, which was about the same weather-wise and just
as wonderful converstaion-wise. We toured the city, met some other Volunteers, and saw many sights. Again with the laundry list of cool things to see here; churches, parks, a MUCH prettier Love Lock bridge (Drew locked one for him and Lindsey!), an enormous catacomb and monastery, and again, good food and drinks (think no open container laws...we call them "walking beers." This inspires a grea number of other "walking" items/actions...I'll leave it up to your imagination.). It was very hard to see him go, and I haven't felt that lonely/homesick before or since. I truly believe it was harder to say goodbye to him that early early morning than it was to leave the States...something about feeling like a huge part of my life was here for a fleeting moment and then gone again...it was tough. BUT, I didn't have too long to wait for another adventure...Poland!Drew had a COLD sp
ring break in Ukraine, I had one in Poland! A group of volunteers and I decided to venture out and see what we could see. We went first to Lublin, which is just the other side of the Ukraine border. We actually stayed in a nunnery there! It was awesome. Lublin was so nice with it's old-world charm, and yet it was very clean and well-ordered. The first couple of days we all walked around saying, "this is SO not Ukraine..." We ate excellent food (I had a salad...a REAL salad!) and drank excellent beer and had a great time together, then headed off to Krakow.Krakow was equally amazing in the old-world yet clean balance. There are so many beautiful churches and squares and parks and we even stayed very near to a castle. It was very fun cruising down the street and getting a "kebab" here from a street vendor and a pretzel thing from another. We took a day trip to Auschwitz, which was suprizing and indescribable. We also toured the largest underground salt mine, which boasted the largest underground salt cathedral! Really, we even licked the walls. Every Polish person was very nice to us, and most people speak English, which was pretty useful.
We kept remembering that we weren't in Ukraine, not as a slight, but rather as a reality-check. You see, Poland was a Peace Corps country only 8 years ago. How can Ukraine get there? Where do we begin to make the tiny adjustments that will lead to such a huge change? Most Ukrainians I talk to are aware that there are problems here and that their lives could be better, the country cleaner, and most importantly, that they could feel more secure in their daily living. I'm not sure what those steps are, but I know I'm a part of the tiny changes, as are the people who surround me and with whom I work alongside. It's a good feeling. :)
