March 29, 2009
Well, its only 7am and I am already awake, on a SUNDAY!! Not usual for me, but it may be because for the past week I fell asleep at about 9 and woke up as the blazing sun worked its way through our curtains as it climbed over the mountains of Saudi Arabia…
Yes, I just got back from Egypt for a week! It all started about 3 weeks ago when my girlfriend and I started to discuss what we should do for our spring break. Egypt was thrown out there but I wasn’t very serious about it because of money, logistics, etc. We also thought about Norway but we didn’t really want more winter. Eventually, after confusion about where to reserve tickets for Egypt, etc. we booked a week-long trip to Nuweiba, on the Sinai Peninsula for 7 nights, at a 3 star hotel right on the beach. We had friends that had gone to this hotel back in December, and they had only good things to say about it. I went to Egypt about 4 years ago with my parents, so I sort of knew what to expect, but was a little off.
So on March 20th Megan and I headed to Donetsk where our flight was leaving at 6am Saturday morning. We stayed with another peace corps volunteer who lives close-by to the airport, which was nice because the weather had decided it didn’t want to be spring quite yet and was snowing and windy… we were ready to head to Egypt. Our first snag was when I tried to go through passport-control on the way out of Ukraine, and found out I didn’t have the required departure-form which you fill out when you come IN to Ukraine. The immigration officer kept asking in Russian where it was and I stubbornly kept saying, I don’t know, but I have a visa… After I went through he told Megan that he had noted this and I might have problems in the future…
So we arrived into Sharm Al Sheik after a 3 hour flight south, and started driving… (we thought North-west, but again were a little off) Megan and I had originally thought we would arrive at an airport only 40 minutes from out hotel, but I think due to not enough people wanting to go there we went to an airport over 2 hours away. We got off the plane, bought our visas, and headed out into the glorious Egyptian sun. We found a guy with a sign for our tour company, and he directed us towards a bunch of tourist buses, which of course we thought we were going to get on. Oh no, as we headed over a guy with what looked to be a brand new Audi, asked, are you the ones going to Nuweiba (in Russian), after we said yes he directed us to get in the car. Both megan and I were thinking, “what the heck?!” We realized that no one else was going to where our hotel was so we had this fancy car all to ourselves. After briefly talking with a tour agent in the front (who spoke very little English but excellent Russian, which was common there and which I was VERY surprised about) and driving over 200km an hour as I held tightly onto the “oh crap” handles in the back, we got to Nuweiba.
We pulled up to our hotel and they showed us to our room. The view was amazing, with beautiful shades of blue in front of us and mountains in all directions. I was a little confused though, since I thought Hurghada and the rest of Egypt would be straight across from us. After looking on a map of Egypt, Megan and I found out we had not gone north-WEST of Sharm, but north-east, and were now looking at Saudi Arabia, with Jordan and Israel less than an hour away. Very cool!
Our first trip out was to find some water, and of course the hotel didn’t have a place close by or cheap. We kept asking for bazaar, bazaar (international word for market) and kept being directed to single shops with very over-priced merchandise. We then wanted a taxi and first asked a worker at the hotel how much it would cost. 50 pounds round trip he said. That was almost 9 dollars so we then asked the front desk how much it should be and they said no more than 10 pounds one way… we needed to get into bargaining mode!!! We headed into the small town of Nuweiba, and found what we needed. Water, snacks, and snorkeling stuff. We walked the hot, dry 5 km back to our hotel and immediately went to the beach. At first I thought the beach wasn’t that cool because it seemed very shallow and it wasn’t easy to get out to deeper water, but as I explored more and more, I realized that we were incredibly lucky to stay at a place with such a great reef only 300 feet from the shore. Over the 7 days that we were there, I spent about 3 hours a day swimming back and forth along the beach, seeing all sorts of fish, corals, Moray eels, and what I am really hoping WASN’T a Sea Snake! The water was cold at times, but over-all it was great to swim and then come back on-shore and get warm but not too hot.
Most of our days evolved around the schedule of waking up at 6:30 due to the very bright sun, slowly moving around till 7 when we headed straight to the buffet breakfast, then back to our rooms for a bit of reading, getting ready for the beach; then snorkeling, sun-tanning, maybe a little beach volley-ball till about 11, then back inside from a break from the sun. We would then play some cards, read, take a nap, eat some food, then maybe take a walk into town and buy some more snacks, then repeat the beach excursion till 5, when it was time for showers, clean clothes, and another buffet dinner! Then maybe a movie, and falling asleep by 9:15!! Megan and I both got a lot of sun, but she was a little smarter about applying the sun lotion, so I eventually ended up burning my forehead, the top of my head, somehow my lip, and the back of my thighs when I wore a new Ukrainian ‘speedo’ which left some pretty white skin exposed!!
This was our life for a week, except for two very exciting exceptions. When Megan and I first decided we were going to Egypt, we talked about different things we wanted to see there, and we finally decided that we had to go to Cairo and see the Pyramids, since you can’t go to Egypt twice and not see them, and also do a sun-rise hike up Mt. Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.
So our first job was to find out how to get to these places and after some research on the internet we had thought the trips would be VERY expensive, but upon arriving in Nuweiba we were flooded with offers for taxi rides and other one day trips to both locations. We settled on an actual tour-group for Cairo because we wanted to feel more secure about this trip because it was expensive, long, and in Cairo, a CRAZY city! Tuesday night we woke up at 2 and headed out in our private mini-bus (not sure why we had such a big vehicle for only 2 people) with our driver and a ‘tour-guide’ whose Russian and English were incredibly hard to understand. After 6 hours of driving through desert we arrived on the out-skirts of Cairo, and it took us another 90 minutes to get to the Cairo History Museum. (We heard about 5 different numbers, but it seems that there are around 17 million people who live in Cairo, with another 3 coming in every day for work, and over a million cars on the road!) We had a great guide from Cairo nick-named Cassanova, who had worked as a tour-guide for over 25 years, knew everyone and carried a plastic gavel which he used to hit people on the head so they would get out of his way!! Pretty funny. The museum was huge, with pieces from a bunch of different Pharaohs, and some pieces over 5000 years old!
We then headed west towards the pyramids, and as we crossed the Nile we got out for a quick photo shoot. After another crazy drive though horrible traffic we could see the pyramids in the distance. Of course we had to stop at the papyrus factory and do the usual tourist thing of pretending you are interested in buying something when you are not at all! After another huge buffet lunch we finally headed to the Pyramids. As most people, Megan and I of course had seen the pyramids in tons of pictures, but you really do have to be there to truly understand how amazing it is that something like that could be created without modern machinery so long ago!! Breathtaking. We walked all around the 3 pyramids, took a brief tour down into one of them, then down to the Sphinx (which for some reason I thought was far away from the pyramids, not less than a kilometer away) and of course took hundreds of pictures. Definitely a worth-while experience. After that we were both exhausted, but we had another stop at a perfume shop, which Megan I were both leery about because we didn’t really expect to buy anything and we both get uncomfortable in these positions. But after some great tea, good sales pitch and smelling over 6 different scents I bought Megan a VERY small bottle of Sweet Pea extract for baths and stuff. I know my dad would have loved it, as we sat on plushy cushions and there were hundreds of bottles with all different scents which were eventually sent to Perfume companies all around the world! After another 6 hour ride back, taking a tunnel under the Suez cannel, he made it back our hotel around 11pm.
24 short hours later we woke up and headed out on a 2 hour drive to Mt. Sinai/Moses (whatever you want to call it) for a supposedly 3 hour hike up to see the sun rise over the mountains. We had hired a local taxi driver so we didn’t have a guide and didn’t really know what to expect from the whole experience. Megan and I arrived at the base of the mountain at 2am, and started climbing. Within 10 minutes we were asked by another tour-guide, ‘where is your guide, you have to have a guide or you will get in trouble with the police.’ This is the first we had heard of it so we chose to ignore it. We had been told by others that had climbed it that it was very cold so Megan and I were bundled up in everything we had brought with us.
As we sluggishly followed the numerous paths up the mountain, with only my head lamp and the lights of other groups above us to follow, I got warmer and warmer and started shedding clothes. We had to occasionally get out of the way for groups of camels coming down the mountain, and it was a challenge to not get run over by them or pushed off the trail. We slowly worked our way up, passing other, larger groups, and only stopping for some water and to turn of the light so we could see all of the stars. The view was amazing and it was probably the most stars I have ever seen. Megan said it was one of her favorite moments of the trip. After two hours of switch-backs and loose gravel, we realized we were almost at the top and it was only 4 am. We stopped at a tea shop (which there were over 20 along the trail almost the whole way up) and got some hot chocolate and tea. We decided to rent a blanket since by this point Megan and I were both freezing. At around 4:30 we headed to the actual top of the mountain, which was slow going because by this point it was single-file up the stairs to the small monastery on top of the mountain. We got up there and right away found a good place that we could see the sun rise. About 5 min. after we got there we could see light on the horizon, but it took over an hour before the sun was actually visible. It was a pretty cool experience, as he huddled to keep warm, and listened to a group of Russian Orthodox priests sing as the sun rose!!
A difficult climb down, but overall, awesome. After we got back we only had another day and a half left, and it flew by. On our flight home, which was delayed over 30 minutes, the captain announced in Russian that it was only 33 degrees F back in Ukraine. Both Megan and I thought he had to be joking, but when we finally landed, we looked around us and saw wet, slushy snow and fog, a great welcome back to Ukraine!
Sorry this was so long, hope you enjoyed it, will post pictures on facebook soon!
With love,
Seth
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Back again!
Yeah, so I disappeared for a while… Well, not really, I just got lazy, and writing about my life was not up there on my to do list… Sorry.
But anyways, got plenty of time now to think back over the past month and see if anything new has occurred, and besides one big thing, not a whole lot has. The past month has seen about 5 ups and downs in the weather, cold/snowy, warm/muddy as heck, cold/snowy, etc. I am kind of getting ready for spring actually.
Teaching has been going okay, but still face a lot of problems with my schedule and actually getting time to teach my students, oh well.
On the 14th I was able to be in Kiev for an Environmental Working Group meeting where we talked about future environmental projects we want to start in Ukraine, as well as planned a few summer camps based on ecology, one of which I will probably be leading in July. Luckily enough, my girlfriend Megan was also able to be in Kiev that weekend so we were able to go out for a nice Valentines Day dinner at a ‘fancy’ Indian Restaurant. Very good!
On the 15th I took a bus to the airport and took a plane to… Austria! About 3 months ago my dad had suggested that I meet up with him, my mom, and my brother Jeremy in Ramsau, Austria, to do some cross-country skiing for a week. Sounded good to me. After the 2 hour flight I was ahead of schedule and hoping to make a train quickly so I wouldn’t have to wait 2 hours in Vienna, but luck would have it, I got a ‘little’ confused as to which train I should get on to go to the station so I ended up going all the way into Vienna, then back on the metro another 20 minutes to the train station I needed… I wasn’t mad at all!
After a 4 hour ride west with one change, I jumped off the train to see my dad, Jeremy, and my mom all waiting for me at the station. That night we just went back to the beautiful hotel and went to bed, cause Jeremy and my dad were both exhausted after skiing 25-42 km races that morning! Monday we got up early and headed out UP the valley (for someone who hasn’t skied in 15 months or really exercised in about 3, it was a ‘little’ taxing. But let me tell you, it was gorgeous! Tons of snow everywhere, beautiful mountains, just great. Tuesday we were pretty tired so we stayed and watched some biathlon in the morning, then about noon headed up on a bus to ski back to the chalet. It had started snowing the night before so the tracks were pretty slow, and the wind was only ‘sort of’ howling down the valley. We took the bus about as far as we could go, then we began to walk INTO the wind to try to find the trail (in typical Spencer fashion, none of us knew exactly how to get onto the trail, so we ended up bushwacking through about 2 feet of snow and me down a face dive into the snow) The ski was cold, but good.
Wednesday was one of the more beautiful skies I’ve ever had. The snow was as pure and white as you could possibly ask for, and we did a great 15 k loop with some great downhills and some BIG uphills. I also should say that after ski we were able to use the wonderful sauna room at the chalet, and then had about a 4 course dinner with some great beer. Not a bad life for a ‘impoverished’ Peace Corps Volunteer in Eastern Europe.
Thursday was another beautiful ski, with a great 17k loop up and around a small mountain (for any of you who have also been to Ramsau with my parents, you may remember this loop (ANDREA)) and then my Dad, brother and me decided we weren’t quite done yet so we did a 8km out and back loop up part of the mountain, after which (including an incredibly dive I took with my face that created about a 6 inch crevice in the middle of the train and some great goulash soup) we were all very tired.
Friday the weather had turned against us and our ski was kept to only about 90 minutes cause of snow and that we had to drive back to Vienna for the night so I could catch a flight home. The driving was pretty crazy, but my dad did an excellent job not getting run over by the crazy Austrian truck drivers.
Got back to Kiev on Saturday, and while there was snow in Kiev, it just wasn’t really the same.
Over all, the trip was great, and it was wonderful to see my parents and Jeremy!
(I will put some pictures up soon)
Hope to hear from you all soon!
With Love,
Seth
But anyways, got plenty of time now to think back over the past month and see if anything new has occurred, and besides one big thing, not a whole lot has. The past month has seen about 5 ups and downs in the weather, cold/snowy, warm/muddy as heck, cold/snowy, etc. I am kind of getting ready for spring actually.
Teaching has been going okay, but still face a lot of problems with my schedule and actually getting time to teach my students, oh well.
On the 14th I was able to be in Kiev for an Environmental Working Group meeting where we talked about future environmental projects we want to start in Ukraine, as well as planned a few summer camps based on ecology, one of which I will probably be leading in July. Luckily enough, my girlfriend Megan was also able to be in Kiev that weekend so we were able to go out for a nice Valentines Day dinner at a ‘fancy’ Indian Restaurant. Very good!
On the 15th I took a bus to the airport and took a plane to… Austria! About 3 months ago my dad had suggested that I meet up with him, my mom, and my brother Jeremy in Ramsau, Austria, to do some cross-country skiing for a week. Sounded good to me. After the 2 hour flight I was ahead of schedule and hoping to make a train quickly so I wouldn’t have to wait 2 hours in Vienna, but luck would have it, I got a ‘little’ confused as to which train I should get on to go to the station so I ended up going all the way into Vienna, then back on the metro another 20 minutes to the train station I needed… I wasn’t mad at all!
After a 4 hour ride west with one change, I jumped off the train to see my dad, Jeremy, and my mom all waiting for me at the station. That night we just went back to the beautiful hotel and went to bed, cause Jeremy and my dad were both exhausted after skiing 25-42 km races that morning! Monday we got up early and headed out UP the valley (for someone who hasn’t skied in 15 months or really exercised in about 3, it was a ‘little’ taxing. But let me tell you, it was gorgeous! Tons of snow everywhere, beautiful mountains, just great. Tuesday we were pretty tired so we stayed and watched some biathlon in the morning, then about noon headed up on a bus to ski back to the chalet. It had started snowing the night before so the tracks were pretty slow, and the wind was only ‘sort of’ howling down the valley. We took the bus about as far as we could go, then we began to walk INTO the wind to try to find the trail (in typical Spencer fashion, none of us knew exactly how to get onto the trail, so we ended up bushwacking through about 2 feet of snow and me down a face dive into the snow) The ski was cold, but good.
Wednesday was one of the more beautiful skies I’ve ever had. The snow was as pure and white as you could possibly ask for, and we did a great 15 k loop with some great downhills and some BIG uphills. I also should say that after ski we were able to use the wonderful sauna room at the chalet, and then had about a 4 course dinner with some great beer. Not a bad life for a ‘impoverished’ Peace Corps Volunteer in Eastern Europe.
Thursday was another beautiful ski, with a great 17k loop up and around a small mountain (for any of you who have also been to Ramsau with my parents, you may remember this loop (ANDREA)) and then my Dad, brother and me decided we weren’t quite done yet so we did a 8km out and back loop up part of the mountain, after which (including an incredibly dive I took with my face that created about a 6 inch crevice in the middle of the train and some great goulash soup) we were all very tired.
Friday the weather had turned against us and our ski was kept to only about 90 minutes cause of snow and that we had to drive back to Vienna for the night so I could catch a flight home. The driving was pretty crazy, but my dad did an excellent job not getting run over by the crazy Austrian truck drivers.
Got back to Kiev on Saturday, and while there was snow in Kiev, it just wasn’t really the same.
Over all, the trip was great, and it was wonderful to see my parents and Jeremy!
(I will put some pictures up soon)
Hope to hear from you all soon!
With Love,
Seth
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Back again
Well, I am back, in Lugansk, again. No really, I am happy to be back here, kind of…
It is good to be back in my own apartment, not rushing off to catch another train, and know that I will not be sleeping next to someone who snores louder than you ever thought possible (there are many of those people out there, not just you Dean). But… I did catch a bad chest cold on my way back here, so I am not really teaching or anything, which is kind of boring…
Anyways, yes, I am in Lugansk, but where was I you may ask? Well, on Dec. 24th I was able to head to Megan’s site and spend Christmas with her, which was much nicer than spending it at home, alone. On December 30th we both caught a night train to meet her parents in Kiev (gulp). After a Peace Corps medical check-up I headed to the apartment which Megan’s parents had rented (it was right on the main street in Kiev and only a few blocks from the center square, great!). We spent the day of the 31st walking around Kiev and checking out the Chernobyl Museum there. While you hear about it all over Ukraine, I think most of the volunteers living here don’t have a clue as to what it was like for all of Ukraine to be so impacted by a single event. It was their September 11th. Truly moving, but I was very glad that I was able to experience it.
On a happier note we were able to meet the New Year in the center square of Kiev surrounded by thousands of others, popping open a bottle of champagne and dancing around like crazy people trying to keep warm… definitely up there on best New Years I have had. The next day was spent again walking around Kiev, in the Peace Corps office trying to keep warm, and eventually catching a train to Lviv, in the western part of Ukraine. Before I go on, I must explain one thing… traveling in Ukraine around the holidays can be a very interesting experience (i.e. all the tickets are gone more than 3 weeks beforehand, and when you don’t believe Ukrainians telling you this, it can be slightly panicking when you have tickets out of the country, but NONE back in) Luckily we were able to buy some of the tickets we needed before we headed west.
Lviv is a beautiful city in western Ukraine, much, much different than the eastern cities. Unfortunately we didn’t have any time to search around that day so we searched around the train station for a bus to the Polish-Ukrainian border (more like I searched because Megan was trying to buy us some very useful train tickets,) and the search was slightly unnerving when I had a 10 minute conversation with a bus driver about whether the bus would leave in 35 minutes, or 7:35am (7minutes from then) It turned out to at 7:35 so there was a rush to catch the bus on time. We took a very packed bus to the border, which consisted of a line of shops and signs pointing you to a fenced in walking section to the customs inspection, where Dean(Megan’s dad) and I (not the women) had our luggage searched and the inspection lady was very interested in a copy of “The Life of Pi”… probably more interested than I was…
After the 15 minute walk we tried to get on a bus to another city to catch a train to Krakow (we didn’t like doing things the easy way) we found out that we had to large of money so we had to try to get it changed in the next 2 minutes. Luckily, the bus driver was Polish (not Ukrainian, no offense to any Ukrainians reading) so he waited for us, caught the train with time to spare and made it to Krakow in 7 hours. We realized we had been very lucky in our connections, and Megan and I were already amazed at 3 things.
1) How organized and coordinated everything seemed to be in Poland
2) How much English Polish people spoke
3) How nice everyone was…
Anyways, we spend the rest of that day (Thursday, the 2nd) walking down streets with Megan and I literally (at least for me) drooling at the foods that we hadn’t seen in months… good pizza, kebabs, Burger King!!!
Friday was a lazy morning, but eventually we caught a bus to Auschwitz and Berchanau, a truly depressing, yet necessary to experience part of Poland’s history. Advice: give yourself the entire day at these two sites. We didn’t know that the museum at Auschwitz closed at 3 in the winter so we felt rushed and didn’t get to see all of the different exhibitions about the horrors that occurred there. Berchanau can be described in one word, sickening. It is row after row of brick buildings were hundreds of Jews, Poles, Russians, were stacked, awaiting execution. You wonder at how anyone could have survived what could only be hell on earth. Again, a must see, but know that it will blow you away.
That night was a little stressful with Dean realizing that he had lost his passport (we at first couldn’t believe this was possible, but after a frantic search of the hostel we were staying realized it was) and after panicky calls to the American Consulate in Krakow we found we could get a new one on Monday, but that would mean we would have to postpone our train to Budapest to stay with my parents. The next morning we were thrilled to discover that the passport had been found at Auschwitz, and that a woman had given it to her friend, who had given it to two police officers in Krakow, who had dropped it off at a station, where it was then delivered to another station where we picked it up only 16 hours after realizing it was lost!! The rest of the day was spent seeing the salt-mines of Krakow, very beautiful as your crawl your way over 440 feet into the earth!
We woke up at 5:30 Monday morning, which was WAY to early for me, but had a nice train ride through the Czech Republic where we switched trains to Budapest, and after being a few minutes late we met up with my dad and where on our way to seeing another European city. Monday was spent having a wonderful home-cooked meal prepared by my mom and eventually crashing into bed.
So, I haven’t mentioned this up till now, but some of my friends have asked this question… “You are traveling with Megan’s parents for 10 days, and are staying with your parents for 4 of them… are you crazy!!” Now this not against either parents, but I haven’t heard of too many couples doing this after 3 months of dating… Not sure about Megan, but I can say it was ultimately a success. I don’t know about Megan’s parents, but I know that I was glad they were there, so that any time Megan and I got frustrated with each other about how turned the wrong way or how we were ever going to find a way back to Ukraine, there was someone there telling us it would be okay!! So thank you everyone involved, for making it a lot easier than it could have been.
Okay, on again (I promise I will be done soon) Tuesday Megan, her parents and I headed out to visit the Buda castle (where the Austro-Hungarian empire use to have its summer palace) and after a lot of walking we headed to my 2nd favorite restaurant in Budapest, the 4 sale pub, for some wonderful Hungarian Goulash. Visited a very cool closed-market than back to the house for another delicious meal of enchiladas.
Wednesday my mom took time off from school to give us a guided tour of Budapest, with stops at the beautiful Hungarian Parliament, and a very interesting museum about ethnicities in Hungary. That night Dean accompanied me and my dad to the Rudas baths which that night was men-only. The place is over 400 years old and as Dean perfectly phrased “felt like you were at a Mafia hangout.” Dark, musty, but very very cool.
Thursday was spent relaxing, until Megan, Dean, Ellen and I headed to the Szechenyi baths in the center, which is the same concept as the Rudas but is co-ed and the main hot-pool is outside. Very cool to see everything steamy due to the cold weather.
Friday we headed to my parents school to show everyone around and then caught the 4 hour train to the Ukrainian border, where we waited for an electric train to Ukraine. It was a very interesting experience as we had no idea how it was going to work, but we weren’t really surprised as we saw a one-car train pull up, and as we crowded in and sad in the dark, Megan and I both felt like we were almost home! We got into Ukraine and this is where our no buying of tickets beforehand became a problem… We found a train that left in 7 minutes (dang 7s!!) but the clerk messed up and by the time she reprogrammed it the computer told us the train had already left, even though we could clearly see it standing there. The next train didn’t leave till 4:30 am, but luckily we found it arrived at 2am so we could sleep and we would get back to Lviv (yes, we made a big circle) at 10. (this train was coming from Budapest, so technically, we could have just taken it all the way… woops) Saturday was spent sleeping, reading and having one last amazing meal in Lviv before I had to catch an overnight train to Kiev, wait in the office all day and catch another over-nighter back to Lugansk. Vacation went by in a flash, but it was truly and awesome trip, and again want to thank Dean and Ellen for letting me tag along, and for Megan for putting up with me.
I hope all of you Christmas Holidays went well, and look forward to hearing from you soon!
With Love,
Seth
P.S. Happy 2009
Oh, and yes, I still have heat, not sure for how long though…
It is good to be back in my own apartment, not rushing off to catch another train, and know that I will not be sleeping next to someone who snores louder than you ever thought possible (there are many of those people out there, not just you Dean). But… I did catch a bad chest cold on my way back here, so I am not really teaching or anything, which is kind of boring…
Anyways, yes, I am in Lugansk, but where was I you may ask? Well, on Dec. 24th I was able to head to Megan’s site and spend Christmas with her, which was much nicer than spending it at home, alone. On December 30th we both caught a night train to meet her parents in Kiev (gulp). After a Peace Corps medical check-up I headed to the apartment which Megan’s parents had rented (it was right on the main street in Kiev and only a few blocks from the center square, great!). We spent the day of the 31st walking around Kiev and checking out the Chernobyl Museum there. While you hear about it all over Ukraine, I think most of the volunteers living here don’t have a clue as to what it was like for all of Ukraine to be so impacted by a single event. It was their September 11th. Truly moving, but I was very glad that I was able to experience it.
On a happier note we were able to meet the New Year in the center square of Kiev surrounded by thousands of others, popping open a bottle of champagne and dancing around like crazy people trying to keep warm… definitely up there on best New Years I have had. The next day was spent again walking around Kiev, in the Peace Corps office trying to keep warm, and eventually catching a train to Lviv, in the western part of Ukraine. Before I go on, I must explain one thing… traveling in Ukraine around the holidays can be a very interesting experience (i.e. all the tickets are gone more than 3 weeks beforehand, and when you don’t believe Ukrainians telling you this, it can be slightly panicking when you have tickets out of the country, but NONE back in) Luckily we were able to buy some of the tickets we needed before we headed west.
Lviv is a beautiful city in western Ukraine, much, much different than the eastern cities. Unfortunately we didn’t have any time to search around that day so we searched around the train station for a bus to the Polish-Ukrainian border (more like I searched because Megan was trying to buy us some very useful train tickets,) and the search was slightly unnerving when I had a 10 minute conversation with a bus driver about whether the bus would leave in 35 minutes, or 7:35am (7minutes from then) It turned out to at 7:35 so there was a rush to catch the bus on time. We took a very packed bus to the border, which consisted of a line of shops and signs pointing you to a fenced in walking section to the customs inspection, where Dean(Megan’s dad) and I (not the women) had our luggage searched and the inspection lady was very interested in a copy of “The Life of Pi”… probably more interested than I was…
After the 15 minute walk we tried to get on a bus to another city to catch a train to Krakow (we didn’t like doing things the easy way) we found out that we had to large of money so we had to try to get it changed in the next 2 minutes. Luckily, the bus driver was Polish (not Ukrainian, no offense to any Ukrainians reading) so he waited for us, caught the train with time to spare and made it to Krakow in 7 hours. We realized we had been very lucky in our connections, and Megan and I were already amazed at 3 things.
1) How organized and coordinated everything seemed to be in Poland
2) How much English Polish people spoke
3) How nice everyone was…
Anyways, we spend the rest of that day (Thursday, the 2nd) walking down streets with Megan and I literally (at least for me) drooling at the foods that we hadn’t seen in months… good pizza, kebabs, Burger King!!!
Friday was a lazy morning, but eventually we caught a bus to Auschwitz and Berchanau, a truly depressing, yet necessary to experience part of Poland’s history. Advice: give yourself the entire day at these two sites. We didn’t know that the museum at Auschwitz closed at 3 in the winter so we felt rushed and didn’t get to see all of the different exhibitions about the horrors that occurred there. Berchanau can be described in one word, sickening. It is row after row of brick buildings were hundreds of Jews, Poles, Russians, were stacked, awaiting execution. You wonder at how anyone could have survived what could only be hell on earth. Again, a must see, but know that it will blow you away.
That night was a little stressful with Dean realizing that he had lost his passport (we at first couldn’t believe this was possible, but after a frantic search of the hostel we were staying realized it was) and after panicky calls to the American Consulate in Krakow we found we could get a new one on Monday, but that would mean we would have to postpone our train to Budapest to stay with my parents. The next morning we were thrilled to discover that the passport had been found at Auschwitz, and that a woman had given it to her friend, who had given it to two police officers in Krakow, who had dropped it off at a station, where it was then delivered to another station where we picked it up only 16 hours after realizing it was lost!! The rest of the day was spent seeing the salt-mines of Krakow, very beautiful as your crawl your way over 440 feet into the earth!
We woke up at 5:30 Monday morning, which was WAY to early for me, but had a nice train ride through the Czech Republic where we switched trains to Budapest, and after being a few minutes late we met up with my dad and where on our way to seeing another European city. Monday was spent having a wonderful home-cooked meal prepared by my mom and eventually crashing into bed.
So, I haven’t mentioned this up till now, but some of my friends have asked this question… “You are traveling with Megan’s parents for 10 days, and are staying with your parents for 4 of them… are you crazy!!” Now this not against either parents, but I haven’t heard of too many couples doing this after 3 months of dating… Not sure about Megan, but I can say it was ultimately a success. I don’t know about Megan’s parents, but I know that I was glad they were there, so that any time Megan and I got frustrated with each other about how turned the wrong way or how we were ever going to find a way back to Ukraine, there was someone there telling us it would be okay!! So thank you everyone involved, for making it a lot easier than it could have been.
Okay, on again (I promise I will be done soon) Tuesday Megan, her parents and I headed out to visit the Buda castle (where the Austro-Hungarian empire use to have its summer palace) and after a lot of walking we headed to my 2nd favorite restaurant in Budapest, the 4 sale pub, for some wonderful Hungarian Goulash. Visited a very cool closed-market than back to the house for another delicious meal of enchiladas.
Wednesday my mom took time off from school to give us a guided tour of Budapest, with stops at the beautiful Hungarian Parliament, and a very interesting museum about ethnicities in Hungary. That night Dean accompanied me and my dad to the Rudas baths which that night was men-only. The place is over 400 years old and as Dean perfectly phrased “felt like you were at a Mafia hangout.” Dark, musty, but very very cool.
Thursday was spent relaxing, until Megan, Dean, Ellen and I headed to the Szechenyi baths in the center, which is the same concept as the Rudas but is co-ed and the main hot-pool is outside. Very cool to see everything steamy due to the cold weather.
Friday we headed to my parents school to show everyone around and then caught the 4 hour train to the Ukrainian border, where we waited for an electric train to Ukraine. It was a very interesting experience as we had no idea how it was going to work, but we weren’t really surprised as we saw a one-car train pull up, and as we crowded in and sad in the dark, Megan and I both felt like we were almost home! We got into Ukraine and this is where our no buying of tickets beforehand became a problem… We found a train that left in 7 minutes (dang 7s!!) but the clerk messed up and by the time she reprogrammed it the computer told us the train had already left, even though we could clearly see it standing there. The next train didn’t leave till 4:30 am, but luckily we found it arrived at 2am so we could sleep and we would get back to Lviv (yes, we made a big circle) at 10. (this train was coming from Budapest, so technically, we could have just taken it all the way… woops) Saturday was spent sleeping, reading and having one last amazing meal in Lviv before I had to catch an overnight train to Kiev, wait in the office all day and catch another over-nighter back to Lugansk. Vacation went by in a flash, but it was truly and awesome trip, and again want to thank Dean and Ellen for letting me tag along, and for Megan for putting up with me.
I hope all of you Christmas Holidays went well, and look forward to hearing from you soon!
With Love,
Seth
P.S. Happy 2009
Oh, and yes, I still have heat, not sure for how long though…
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Merry Christmas to all
T’was the night before the night before Christmas,
And all through Ukraine, not a creature was warm,
Not even a Seth.
Okay, while Eastern Ukraine has not hit the -20s,-30s that Minnesota has faced the last week or so, but I would assume that all those hearty mid-Westerners have living establishments that don’t level out at 48 degrees… (the temperature of the inside of my apartment last week) I really can’t complain too much. The school has had recent heating troubles (i.e. the heaters don’t work, and in an attempt to put in new ones the contractors succeeding in flooding 3 classrooms), but I have purchased another (yes Peace Corps, the one you gave me is NOT ENOUGH) heater, so life is good in my one little tv room. I don’t venture out of it too much except for class as the temp drops about 10 degrees every week we get closer to January.
Besides it being almost Christmas, which I will get to in a second, I have yet another thing to be thankful for this December the 23rd… IT’S GETTING LIGHTER!!!! Somehow the Winter Solstice escaped my notice last Sunday, but I woke up Monday somehow knowing that the day that every (I think) Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine, person who lives in Eastern Europe, and Minnesotans look forward to, when the days start just getting a little bit longer. As the sun has been setting at about 3:45 in the afternoon, this is a pretty big deal to me.
Well, now that the semantics of heating and light are out of the way, I will get down to what this letter is really all about….
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! I can’t believe this is already my second Christmas here in Ukraine, yet I am pretty sure I will NOT be spending this one the way I did last year (sitting in my host-families apartment watching some dumb movie and wishing I was at home). While I won’t be able to be on some on glorious sunny beach (yeah, I’m talking to you Bjorn!!) this Christmas, I will be able to head over to the next oblast west of here to my girlfriend’s site, where she will be creating (I may attempt to help, but it probably won’t amount to much) a delicious Christmas feast (yes, I am expecting a lot of you Megan). We will be joined by at least one other Peace Corps Volunteer, so I am very excited for that.
The semester will be over (at least for me) tomorrow, and I am very excited about that. Some things have gone really well with teaching this year, but some are just as frustrating as ever. But, I really have nothing to be upset about, because after my wonderful Christmas celebration, I will be heading to Kiev next year for some Peace Corps stuff and… GULP, meeting Megan’s parents… I am not nervous at all. We will spend New Years in Kiev (which I am very excited about) and then heading to Krakow Poland for 3 days, and then heading to Budapest for around another 3 days, to visit my parents. Its going to be a whirlwind tour for all of us, but I am looking forward to traveling with Megan and her family and seeing my parents during the holidays.
After that it will be back to Lugansk where I will start the 2nd semester of the school year. I know this will fly by faster than I expect, and by this time next year I will be back in Minnesota (almost 100% for sure).
Love to hear from all of you! Have a safe and happy holidays!
With Love,
Seth
And all through Ukraine, not a creature was warm,
Not even a Seth.
Okay, while Eastern Ukraine has not hit the -20s,-30s that Minnesota has faced the last week or so, but I would assume that all those hearty mid-Westerners have living establishments that don’t level out at 48 degrees… (the temperature of the inside of my apartment last week) I really can’t complain too much. The school has had recent heating troubles (i.e. the heaters don’t work, and in an attempt to put in new ones the contractors succeeding in flooding 3 classrooms), but I have purchased another (yes Peace Corps, the one you gave me is NOT ENOUGH) heater, so life is good in my one little tv room. I don’t venture out of it too much except for class as the temp drops about 10 degrees every week we get closer to January.
Besides it being almost Christmas, which I will get to in a second, I have yet another thing to be thankful for this December the 23rd… IT’S GETTING LIGHTER!!!! Somehow the Winter Solstice escaped my notice last Sunday, but I woke up Monday somehow knowing that the day that every (I think) Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine, person who lives in Eastern Europe, and Minnesotans look forward to, when the days start just getting a little bit longer. As the sun has been setting at about 3:45 in the afternoon, this is a pretty big deal to me.
Well, now that the semantics of heating and light are out of the way, I will get down to what this letter is really all about….
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! I can’t believe this is already my second Christmas here in Ukraine, yet I am pretty sure I will NOT be spending this one the way I did last year (sitting in my host-families apartment watching some dumb movie and wishing I was at home). While I won’t be able to be on some on glorious sunny beach (yeah, I’m talking to you Bjorn!!) this Christmas, I will be able to head over to the next oblast west of here to my girlfriend’s site, where she will be creating (I may attempt to help, but it probably won’t amount to much) a delicious Christmas feast (yes, I am expecting a lot of you Megan). We will be joined by at least one other Peace Corps Volunteer, so I am very excited for that.
The semester will be over (at least for me) tomorrow, and I am very excited about that. Some things have gone really well with teaching this year, but some are just as frustrating as ever. But, I really have nothing to be upset about, because after my wonderful Christmas celebration, I will be heading to Kiev next year for some Peace Corps stuff and… GULP, meeting Megan’s parents… I am not nervous at all. We will spend New Years in Kiev (which I am very excited about) and then heading to Krakow Poland for 3 days, and then heading to Budapest for around another 3 days, to visit my parents. Its going to be a whirlwind tour for all of us, but I am looking forward to traveling with Megan and her family and seeing my parents during the holidays.
After that it will be back to Lugansk where I will start the 2nd semester of the school year. I know this will fly by faster than I expect, and by this time next year I will be back in Minnesota (almost 100% for sure).
Love to hear from all of you! Have a safe and happy holidays!
With Love,
Seth
Monday, December 8, 2008
Second addition-Books I have read in Ukraine!
51.“Made in America” by Bill Bryson *** A little dry at times, but overall an interesting look at why Americans speak the way we do.
52.“ A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian” by Marina Lewycka **** Wonderful look at Ukrainian immigrants in England and what happens as your parents get older.
53.“Hot Six” by Janet Evanovich ****
54.“Seven Up” by Janet Evanovich ***
55.“Neither Here Nor There” by Bill Bryson **** great book about traveling through Europe by a very funny author.
56.“A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain” by Robert Butler*** interesting stories about post war Vietnam.
57.“A Season in Hell” by Jack Higgins *** mystery/action
58.“Dark Justice” by Jack Higgins *** mystery/action
59.“ ‘A’ is for Alibi” by Sue Grafton *** mystery
60.“Congo” by Michael Chrichton *** suspense thriller
61.“How to be Good” by Nick Hornby **
62.“Dark Light” by Randy Wayne White **** great thrillers
63.“Prey” by Michael Chrichton ***
64.“Key West Connection” by Randy Wayne White ***
65.“The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama **** a little thick at times, filled with interesting info. on the way Washington works.
66.“Three to get Deadly” by Janet Evanovich ***
67.“To the Nines” by Janet Evanovich ***
68.“Dead of Night” by Randy Wayne White ***
69.“Naughty Neighbor” by Janet Evanovich **
70.“The Overlook" by Michael Connelly **
71.“Blood work” by Michael Connelly ***
72.“The Talbot Odyssey” by Nelson Demille ***
73.“Nightfall” by Nelson Demille **
74.“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini **** look at why
Afghanistan is the way it is today.
75.“Code to Zero” by Ken Follett ***
76.“Zlata’s Diary” by Zlata Filipovic **** young girl’s point of view of the Bosnian/Serbian war in the early 1990s
76 ½ “The Clue of the Hissing Serpent” by Franklin Nixon** Don’t ask…
77.“N is for Noose” by Sue Grafton ***
78.“R is for Revenge” by Sue Grafton ** 07/23/08
79.“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” by J.K. Rowling **** 07/26/08
80.“Lost Light” by Michael Connelly *** 07/29/08
81.“The Constant Gardener” by John Le Carre **** 08/03/08
82.“The Pardon” by James Grippando ** 08/04/08
83.“Wild Thoughts from Wild Places” by David Quammen *** 08/17/08 interesting look at how you can find wild things everywhere around you, and maybe why they are there.
84.“The Appeal” by John Grisham ** 08/20/08
85.“The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri **** 08/27/08 great story following an Indian family through their ups and downs in America, a look at how deeply our parent’s lives really impact us.
86.“McNally’s Dare” by Lawrence Sanders *** 09/03/08 another intriguing mystery novel.
87.“McNally’s Luck” by Lawrence Sanders ** 09/05/08
88.“Montana 1948” by Larry Watson **** 09/06/08
89.“While my Pretty one sleeps” by Mary Higgens Clark * 09/12/08
90.“Conviction” by Richard North Patterson *** 09/18/08
91.“Dancing at the Rascal Fair” by Ivan Doig **** 10/03/08 interesting story about trying to create a life in 1900 Montana
92.“The White Masai” by Corinne Hofmann *** 10/09/08 true story about a CRAZY Swiss woman who travels to Kenya, falls in love with a Masai warrior,and thinks she can live a normal life with him in the bush.
93.“Come Ride with me, Mariah Montana” by Ivan Doig *** 10/18/08 3rd of a series about Montana, good stories
94.“Angels and Demons” by Dan Brown” by Dan Brown *** 10/24/08 prequel to the Davinci Code
95.“Flight of the Old Dog” by Dale Brown ** 10/27/08 high-tech war between USSR and America
96.“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by J.K. Rowling **** 11/04/08 as always, good book.
97.“Puerto Vallarta Squeeze” by Robert James Waller * 11/06/08
98.“Accordion Crimes” by Annie Proulx * 11/25/08 not one of her best
99.“Mad Cow Nightmare” by Nancy Mean Wright * 12/01/08
100. “Everything is Illuminated” by Jonathan Safran Foer *** 12/08/08 story about Jewish-American man trying to follow his grand-father’s roots to Western-Ukraine, horrors of WWII.
52.“ A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian” by Marina Lewycka **** Wonderful look at Ukrainian immigrants in England and what happens as your parents get older.
53.“Hot Six” by Janet Evanovich ****
54.“Seven Up” by Janet Evanovich ***
55.“Neither Here Nor There” by Bill Bryson **** great book about traveling through Europe by a very funny author.
56.“A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain” by Robert Butler*** interesting stories about post war Vietnam.
57.“A Season in Hell” by Jack Higgins *** mystery/action
58.“Dark Justice” by Jack Higgins *** mystery/action
59.“ ‘A’ is for Alibi” by Sue Grafton *** mystery
60.“Congo” by Michael Chrichton *** suspense thriller
61.“How to be Good” by Nick Hornby **
62.“Dark Light” by Randy Wayne White **** great thrillers
63.“Prey” by Michael Chrichton ***
64.“Key West Connection” by Randy Wayne White ***
65.“The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama **** a little thick at times, filled with interesting info. on the way Washington works.
66.“Three to get Deadly” by Janet Evanovich ***
67.“To the Nines” by Janet Evanovich ***
68.“Dead of Night” by Randy Wayne White ***
69.“Naughty Neighbor” by Janet Evanovich **
70.“The Overlook" by Michael Connelly **
71.“Blood work” by Michael Connelly ***
72.“The Talbot Odyssey” by Nelson Demille ***
73.“Nightfall” by Nelson Demille **
74.“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini **** look at why
Afghanistan is the way it is today.
75.“Code to Zero” by Ken Follett ***
76.“Zlata’s Diary” by Zlata Filipovic **** young girl’s point of view of the Bosnian/Serbian war in the early 1990s
76 ½ “The Clue of the Hissing Serpent” by Franklin Nixon** Don’t ask…
77.“N is for Noose” by Sue Grafton ***
78.“R is for Revenge” by Sue Grafton ** 07/23/08
79.“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” by J.K. Rowling **** 07/26/08
80.“Lost Light” by Michael Connelly *** 07/29/08
81.“The Constant Gardener” by John Le Carre **** 08/03/08
82.“The Pardon” by James Grippando ** 08/04/08
83.“Wild Thoughts from Wild Places” by David Quammen *** 08/17/08 interesting look at how you can find wild things everywhere around you, and maybe why they are there.
84.“The Appeal” by John Grisham ** 08/20/08
85.“The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri **** 08/27/08 great story following an Indian family through their ups and downs in America, a look at how deeply our parent’s lives really impact us.
86.“McNally’s Dare” by Lawrence Sanders *** 09/03/08 another intriguing mystery novel.
87.“McNally’s Luck” by Lawrence Sanders ** 09/05/08
88.“Montana 1948” by Larry Watson **** 09/06/08
89.“While my Pretty one sleeps” by Mary Higgens Clark * 09/12/08
90.“Conviction” by Richard North Patterson *** 09/18/08
91.“Dancing at the Rascal Fair” by Ivan Doig **** 10/03/08 interesting story about trying to create a life in 1900 Montana
92.“The White Masai” by Corinne Hofmann *** 10/09/08 true story about a CRAZY Swiss woman who travels to Kenya, falls in love with a Masai warrior,and thinks she can live a normal life with him in the bush.
93.“Come Ride with me, Mariah Montana” by Ivan Doig *** 10/18/08 3rd of a series about Montana, good stories
94.“Angels and Demons” by Dan Brown” by Dan Brown *** 10/24/08 prequel to the Davinci Code
95.“Flight of the Old Dog” by Dale Brown ** 10/27/08 high-tech war between USSR and America
96.“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by J.K. Rowling **** 11/04/08 as always, good book.
97.“Puerto Vallarta Squeeze” by Robert James Waller * 11/06/08
98.“Accordion Crimes” by Annie Proulx * 11/25/08 not one of her best
99.“Mad Cow Nightmare” by Nancy Mean Wright * 12/01/08
100. “Everything is Illuminated” by Jonathan Safran Foer *** 12/08/08 story about Jewish-American man trying to follow his grand-father’s roots to Western-Ukraine, horrors of WWII.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Thanksgiving extravaganza
It started off as a simple invitation from my girlfriend Megan; “Why don’t you come spend Thanksgiving with some of my friends in Odessa?” and turned into one of the cooler things I have done while here in Ukraine.
The trip started off with a 2 ½ hour bus ride from Lugansk to Donetsk on Wednesday the 26th of November, through the pouring rain. This was an inauspicious start, seeing as I was headed to my first ever Champions League soccer game between Shakteur Donetsk (Ukraine) and FC Basil (Switzerland.) I rolled into Donetsk just as the rain was finishing… there I met up with Megan and we headed into the city to meet up with some other volunteers who live in or around Donetsk. We had some dinner, and at 9:45 were walking through the gates of the Donetsk soccer stadium. Probably most of you don’t know this, but going to a Champions League game has been on my top 10 list of things to do in my life for about 5 years, so this was a big deal for me… the stadium was only 1/3 full, due to both teams being towards the bottom of the rankings and the weather beings o miserable. But, over the 90 minute game, with the temperature hovering around 35 degrees, rain for only 10 minutes, and 5 goals scored… all by Donetsk Shakteur, the team I was supporting. It was a blowout, but even more fun because due to a misunderstanding by the person buying the tickets, we were supposed to sit in the first row but got to sit only 5 rows up, high enough to see everything but low enough to hear the players talking too.
Thursday morning was spent walking around Donetsk, as I had never been there before. Its about Ukraine’s 5th largest city, so even though the weather was a little chilly, it was fun to walk through the parks and eat some good, greasy burgers at a local fast food-chain. At 5pm Megan and I jumped on a train to begin our 16 hour journey down to Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port on the Black Sea. Again, I had never been there and I was very excited.
We entered the beautiful Odessa train station at around 9am and set out to try to find an apartment, because we were going to spend the night with one of Megan’s friends and her brother and dad. Finding an apartment in Ukraine is often much different than anywhere else I have ever been. There is the option of booking on-line in many cities, but the much more popular approach is to immediately be set upon by about 5 babushkas (older women/grandmothers) asking if you need an apartment, how big, how much you want to pay, etc. Now, I am definitely used to new experiences, but I was extremely thankful Megan was with me (as my sister so gracefully put it when on the phone with me, “She sounds smart…” and yes, she is, her Russian is excellent) to take over the entire negotiations. After the first failed attempt when we set out with a woman only to find 5 minutes later that the apartment wasn’t ready after all, we met up with some other volunteers who were waiting at a bus stop to head to the tiny village where Megan and I would head the next day for Thanksgiving dinner. We (as in Megan) eventually found an apartment that was big enough for a very good price, and after a quick shower we headed out to explore the sights, and to fix Megan’s Falafel needs. She suggested sharing one as we would eat lunch with her friend in about an hour, but seeing how good they looked I denied. 10 minutes later, after ingesting what seemed to be about 5 pounds of potatoes, falafel, tortilla, and mixed vegetables, I thought I might pass out and explode at the same time… it was excellent though. We headed to Potemkin’s steps, one of the most famous sites in Odessa (which is famed for its port, red-light district, and its nightlife) and then headed to meet Megan’s friend.
That night we were able to get tickets to another soccer game between Odessa and a different Donetsk team. The Donetsk team was supposedly much better, but Odessa played well, and with it also being the last game at the stadium before it was rebuilt, the fans got a little carried away and started ripping chairs off the benches and setting flares on fire (it felt like a real European soccer game at this point) and when Odessa won 2-1, almost the entire stadium flooded the field and started having a party! Very cool.
Saturday morning we jumped on a bus to go to a volunteer’s site who lives about 2 hours away from Odessa, but we had to take one bus, and then a taxi to get to her very, very isolated site. It was really cool pulling up in the taxi after driving through farmland and seeing a bunch of our friends chopping wood, cooking in the summer kitchen, and just hanging out. The rest of the afternoon we chopped wood for the girl’s two fireplaces, helped begin the Thanksgiving feast, and just catch up with people we hadn’t seen in a while. We eventually headed out to play some American football on the remains of a soccer field, and we took care to miss the cow pies and not hit the geese that were waddling nearby. As there were only 8 people playing, we were soon exhausted and ready to head back and get ready for dinner.
The feast was begun around 7 pm, and consisted of a turkey (donated by the next door neighbors and killed the day before) cranberries, mashed potatoes, amazing stuffing created from mixes sent from America, gravy, delicious pumpkin bread, and I’m sure a few more things I am currently forgetting. For having limited means to buy American goods, it was a truly amazing dinner. I think the highlight of it was when we all went around (including the host’s next door Ukrainian neighbors,) and said what we were thankful for. It showed me how important family traditions are, how proud we all were to be Americans, and how close you can become to your ‘Peace Corps family.’
The night was spent playing some hotly contested charades between the men and women… lots of fun!
Megan and I got up the next day and with a few others started to head back to Odessa to catch our train around 3pm. At about 10:45 Megan had called a cab, and after a while a old-looking car pulled up and said he was our taxi-driver. The guy was a little crazy and it was a little unnerving when he would turn around to talk to us in the back seat. We arrived at the town were we needed to catch a bus with no problems, but then sat there for an hour due to few buses on Sundays. We were a little worried that we might miss our train, but after our 2 hour ride back to Odessa (passing through Moldova for about 10 minutes) we arrived with an hour to spare, at the wrong bus station….
We had been told this might happen so weren’t too nervous, but jumped on a bus that got us to the train station with 20 minutes left. I headed to buy a bunch of waters and Megan went to get us some food for the 17 hour train ride back (why it slower on the way back, I don’t know…) We were able to play a lot of cribbage (a game Megan has excelled at and now beats me regularly) and gin rummy. Arrived in Donetsk this morning and hopped on yet another bus back to Lugansk.
With about 46 hours travel time to and from, it was still a wonderful Thanksgiving, and definitely won’t forget it! Hope your holiday weekends were as memorable! Miss you all.
With love,
Seth
p.s. will try to add photos soon
The trip started off with a 2 ½ hour bus ride from Lugansk to Donetsk on Wednesday the 26th of November, through the pouring rain. This was an inauspicious start, seeing as I was headed to my first ever Champions League soccer game between Shakteur Donetsk (Ukraine) and FC Basil (Switzerland.) I rolled into Donetsk just as the rain was finishing… there I met up with Megan and we headed into the city to meet up with some other volunteers who live in or around Donetsk. We had some dinner, and at 9:45 were walking through the gates of the Donetsk soccer stadium. Probably most of you don’t know this, but going to a Champions League game has been on my top 10 list of things to do in my life for about 5 years, so this was a big deal for me… the stadium was only 1/3 full, due to both teams being towards the bottom of the rankings and the weather beings o miserable. But, over the 90 minute game, with the temperature hovering around 35 degrees, rain for only 10 minutes, and 5 goals scored… all by Donetsk Shakteur, the team I was supporting. It was a blowout, but even more fun because due to a misunderstanding by the person buying the tickets, we were supposed to sit in the first row but got to sit only 5 rows up, high enough to see everything but low enough to hear the players talking too.
Thursday morning was spent walking around Donetsk, as I had never been there before. Its about Ukraine’s 5th largest city, so even though the weather was a little chilly, it was fun to walk through the parks and eat some good, greasy burgers at a local fast food-chain. At 5pm Megan and I jumped on a train to begin our 16 hour journey down to Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port on the Black Sea. Again, I had never been there and I was very excited.
We entered the beautiful Odessa train station at around 9am and set out to try to find an apartment, because we were going to spend the night with one of Megan’s friends and her brother and dad. Finding an apartment in Ukraine is often much different than anywhere else I have ever been. There is the option of booking on-line in many cities, but the much more popular approach is to immediately be set upon by about 5 babushkas (older women/grandmothers) asking if you need an apartment, how big, how much you want to pay, etc. Now, I am definitely used to new experiences, but I was extremely thankful Megan was with me (as my sister so gracefully put it when on the phone with me, “She sounds smart…” and yes, she is, her Russian is excellent) to take over the entire negotiations. After the first failed attempt when we set out with a woman only to find 5 minutes later that the apartment wasn’t ready after all, we met up with some other volunteers who were waiting at a bus stop to head to the tiny village where Megan and I would head the next day for Thanksgiving dinner. We (as in Megan) eventually found an apartment that was big enough for a very good price, and after a quick shower we headed out to explore the sights, and to fix Megan’s Falafel needs. She suggested sharing one as we would eat lunch with her friend in about an hour, but seeing how good they looked I denied. 10 minutes later, after ingesting what seemed to be about 5 pounds of potatoes, falafel, tortilla, and mixed vegetables, I thought I might pass out and explode at the same time… it was excellent though. We headed to Potemkin’s steps, one of the most famous sites in Odessa (which is famed for its port, red-light district, and its nightlife) and then headed to meet Megan’s friend.
That night we were able to get tickets to another soccer game between Odessa and a different Donetsk team. The Donetsk team was supposedly much better, but Odessa played well, and with it also being the last game at the stadium before it was rebuilt, the fans got a little carried away and started ripping chairs off the benches and setting flares on fire (it felt like a real European soccer game at this point) and when Odessa won 2-1, almost the entire stadium flooded the field and started having a party! Very cool.
Saturday morning we jumped on a bus to go to a volunteer’s site who lives about 2 hours away from Odessa, but we had to take one bus, and then a taxi to get to her very, very isolated site. It was really cool pulling up in the taxi after driving through farmland and seeing a bunch of our friends chopping wood, cooking in the summer kitchen, and just hanging out. The rest of the afternoon we chopped wood for the girl’s two fireplaces, helped begin the Thanksgiving feast, and just catch up with people we hadn’t seen in a while. We eventually headed out to play some American football on the remains of a soccer field, and we took care to miss the cow pies and not hit the geese that were waddling nearby. As there were only 8 people playing, we were soon exhausted and ready to head back and get ready for dinner.
The feast was begun around 7 pm, and consisted of a turkey (donated by the next door neighbors and killed the day before) cranberries, mashed potatoes, amazing stuffing created from mixes sent from America, gravy, delicious pumpkin bread, and I’m sure a few more things I am currently forgetting. For having limited means to buy American goods, it was a truly amazing dinner. I think the highlight of it was when we all went around (including the host’s next door Ukrainian neighbors,) and said what we were thankful for. It showed me how important family traditions are, how proud we all were to be Americans, and how close you can become to your ‘Peace Corps family.’
The night was spent playing some hotly contested charades between the men and women… lots of fun!
Megan and I got up the next day and with a few others started to head back to Odessa to catch our train around 3pm. At about 10:45 Megan had called a cab, and after a while a old-looking car pulled up and said he was our taxi-driver. The guy was a little crazy and it was a little unnerving when he would turn around to talk to us in the back seat. We arrived at the town were we needed to catch a bus with no problems, but then sat there for an hour due to few buses on Sundays. We were a little worried that we might miss our train, but after our 2 hour ride back to Odessa (passing through Moldova for about 10 minutes) we arrived with an hour to spare, at the wrong bus station….
We had been told this might happen so weren’t too nervous, but jumped on a bus that got us to the train station with 20 minutes left. I headed to buy a bunch of waters and Megan went to get us some food for the 17 hour train ride back (why it slower on the way back, I don’t know…) We were able to play a lot of cribbage (a game Megan has excelled at and now beats me regularly) and gin rummy. Arrived in Donetsk this morning and hopped on yet another bus back to Lugansk.
With about 46 hours travel time to and from, it was still a wonderful Thanksgiving, and definitely won’t forget it! Hope your holiday weekends were as memorable! Miss you all.
With love,
Seth
p.s. will try to add photos soon
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Check another country off the list!
Well, I figured I should finally send out some details about my last two weeks, sorry it has taken so long!
So, it’s a little strange writing a note on November 4th, and not being in America right now. All I can think of is when I wake up tomorrow, America could be an entirely new and different place to be from, or… it could be exactly as it was for the last 8 years. Exciting, and scary at the same time.
Anyways, on the 18th of October I took off for Turkey for a week long trip to meet up with my parents and my friend Bjorn Betzler from Duluth.(yup, that's right, another country off the list, and another chance to get out of Ukraine for a bit) You can see his blog on my list of links to the right and down a bit on my page.
I arrived in the afternoon, and set out to find my things and wait for Bjorn was supposed to be coming in shortly after me, but… as fait usually works out, I kept staring at the computer screen for incoming flights as the minutes delayed message kept flashing next to his flight from Casablanca… 20 minutes, 40 minutes... arrived… still waiting. Finally saw him in line, and we just kept laughing to ourselves thinking how cool it was that two guys from a smallish city in Northern Minnesota would be living in two completely different countries halfway round the world, and meeting up in Istanbul, Turkey.
I have to say that I didn’t do a lot of research for the trip, so didn’t have a lot of expectations about what Istanbul or Turkey in general would be like, other than I knew that I would be going into Asia for the first time in 9 years. I was pretty excited.
We jumped on the wonderfully easy public transportation, and after a few wrong turns, and a guy randomly asking, “are you lost,” “sort of” came our reply “are you guys from Minnesota?” he then asked. WEIRD, we eventually made it to the hotel. Since Bjorn had been out of civilization for the past year, we needed to get him some good kebabs and a beer, so we headed out on the street. We got a little lost again, but eventually made it back that evening to meet up with my parents. Even though I have seen them more than 3 times since I’ve been in Peace Corps, it was great to see them again.
Sunday was spent on an awesome ferry ride up the Bosporus Straight to the beginning of the Black Sea. The weather was beautiful (a little windy) but great to see both sides of Istanbul. Incredibly huge, over 15 million people!
Monday, we headed to the Asian side of Istanbul to buy some bus tickets for our 10 hour bus ride on Tuesday down the eastern coast of the Aegean, and also were able to get our hair cute/great shaves all at the same time. (Bjorn looked like h had lost 5 years in about 20 minutes, after his beard was shaved off)
Tuesday evening we arrived in the beautiful little town of Celchuk, near the ancient ruins of Effus. Effus is the 2nd largest set of ruins in the world, and the capital of Roman Asia over 2000 years ago.
Celchuk is the site of Peter’s Basilica, where Jesus’ disciple Peter came and built his church and was later buried in. Very cool to see where all of this history actually took place. The city was also only 10 minutes from the Sea, so after a 13 month hiatus, I was able to go swimming in something other than a dirty river. It was great. Friday we took another long bus ride back to Istanbul, and spent Saturday morning doing some last minute gift shopping, walking around the beautiful spice bazaar, and eating some more great food before we all needed to head our different ways.It was great to travel with my parents, and was awesome to spend a week with Bjorn as well. The food was delicious and the people were always friendly and willing to help. I would definitely recommend Turkey for your next trip.
Sorry this was so scrambled, but a lot went on, but also don’t want to bore you. Will try to be a little more frequent with my ramblings!! As always, miss you, and always great to hear from you!
-Seth
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