Small town boy goes to the big city

well, i am not exactly living in the country, but Rokytne is tiny compared to Kyiv, where I traveled Sunday. Actually, my weekend began with a wonderful host family dinner (actually, host mother dinner, the fathers are not really into that kind of thing) where we were able to meet the host mothers of the other volunteers. As our language coordinator as translater, we discussed differences between America and Ukraine, expectations of the next 3 months, and were just able to get to know each other better. When one of the mothers asked whether we would be willing to stay in Rokytne for the whole 2 years, my friend Zahar answered, "if i meet a Ukranian girl and get married, haha, just kidding" and his host mother, in English, responded "you know Zahar, there is truth to every joke." it was pretty hilereous, because now all the host mothers are introducing him to their young daughters.
On Saturday my group ventured to Bela Certka (beautiful church), which is about 40 minutes east of Rokytna by electric train. We spent the day touring the city museum, and learning a lot aobut Ukranian history, Soviet occupation, and the famine of 1932 were hundreds of thousands of Ukranians starved to death. we also took a stroll through Alexandria park, the 2nd largest park in Ukraine. It was great.
On Sunday i woke up at 7 and was at the bus station by 8:00 to catch a 2 hour bus ride to Kyiv. I didn't really know where to get off, so when we go to Kyiv i just got off at a random street,found a metro, took the metro 2 stops, got off, and spent 10 minutes deciding if i was going north or south. So after staring at the map and having no idea, (yes, i actually did this) I whipped out my compass and found that i actually was going north. It was pretty hilereous. Ran to the train station where i met up with another group of peace corps volunteers and spent 6 hours touring around the city. Kyiv (as my dad can tell you) is gorgeous, with tons of beautiful chruches and nice parks. I really had a great time. At about 3:30, i realized that i needed to be at the train station by 4, so i hopped on the metro, transfered and got there by 3:50, and called another peace corps volunteer who i was supposedly going to join on a bus back to Roytna. Well, they were about 45. minutes away from the station, so i spent 8 crazy minutes attempting to find the electrichka (electric train) ticket office, was told in russian where to go, sort of understood, found it, realized my train was leaving in 2 minutes so i thought i would buy my ticket on the train. well, i attempted to run through the then open ticket barriers (the kind that are usually closed and only open when you put a ticket or coin into them) well, as i was running pretty much full tilt through it, it closed, and i proceeded to whack my shin full force on it. it felt great. A guy laughed and pointed to a ticket window. bouhgt a ticket, hopped on the train, it left a minute later and i was back in Rokytne 3hours later. it was great!
Again, pictures are difficult to download, but i will keep trying.
Take care,
Seth