See you on the flip side!

Okay kids,  I'm off to meet my pals in Philly for a night and then am off to Ukraine!

I'll try to keep the blog as current as possible.  No promises for the first 3 months, since I'll be in training and stuff and don't know how much internet access I'll have.  

Soooo. . . . . keep checkin' and as soon as I have a second I'll update this sucker.

Bye everyone!  Write, call and keep in touch!

I got a Phone!

In an effort to get ready to leave (1 WEEK!!), I bought a Ukranian phone from someone who just got back from there.   Know what that means?  It means that you can call me (hopefully I'll have service wherever I end up)!!  But, alas, I will not be able to call you.  Still, I'll be much more accessible this way, since I'm still not sure how often I'll be checking my email (I won't know how close the nearest internet cafe is until I get there).

Here's how to dial my phone number from the US to Ukraine:  011 380 636 624 267

Of course, this means that as of April 1 I won't have my US phone anymore, which makes me sad (come on people, I totally had the coolest number ever!).  So no more lovely texts, calls, or drunken (or sober) messages.  I'm sure the next owner of that fabulous number wouldn't appreciate it.

Wanna Know How to Keep in Touch?

So because there's no way that I'll be keeping my phone (I'm planning on getting one when I get there, which I can get free incoming calls) while I'm away, I hope you're all good letter writers! Of course, because I (and by "I", this includes you all, because you'll be writing me. . . duh) must abide by all the rules the Peace Corps sets out, I can't just give you an address. I have to give you the guidelines and policies too. So here they are:

Only small, flat pieces of mail (no boxes or packages) can be delivered to trainess over the course of pre-service training. Because Peace Corps Ukraine cannot be responsible for property mailed to trainees, delivery of boxes and packages sent to this address will be declined. Therefore, only letters will be delivered during training.

Here's the address for pre-service training:

U.S. Peace Corps/Ukraine
PCV Jessie Salpeter

P.O. Box 298
01030
Kyiv, Ukraine

If a street address is required:

U.S. Peace Corps/Ukraine
PCV Jessie Salpeter

111A Saksahanskoho Street
01032
Kyiv, Ukraine

Now, I know that you all want to send valuable things through the unreliable mail service, but if you're going to send any packages, I recommend using UPS. Otherwise a package may take up to 3 MONTHS to get to me!!  No joke!!  And, here are a few other things you can't send and I can't recieve (unless you want to send the receipt with it to prove it's from the US, but really, what's the fun in knowing the price of gifts?):

1) Money, credit cards, valuables/expensive objects, and any type of jewelry

2) Documents such as personal identifications, diplomas, and certificates

3) Any kind of medicine, food, plants, seeds, alcoholic beverages

4) DVDs, CDs, videotapes, audiotapes, any type of dictionaries. You can ship CDs, DVDs and other media into Ukraine, but they cannot be returned to the U.S. unless you can prove that they originally came from in the U.S. Therefore, people shipping such items to Ukraine need an itemized list certified by the company doing the shipping. There is a limit to how many pieces of media purchased in Ukraine can be shipped to America. The limit is 20 total pieces, and this can be a combination of tapes, videotapes, CDs and DVDs (20 pieces total—not 20 DVDs plus 20 CDs plus 20 videotapes, etc).

5) Flammable, explosive devices, sharp objects (knives with large or multiple blades)

The total value of one parcel cannot exceed $120 USD.

Once I get a permanent address, which I'll get after the first 3 months, I'll post that, and then I'll be able to recieve all sorts of lovely goodies in the form of care packages (hint hint).

Want more info.? Check out The Peace Corps Manual or check out the Peace Corps Ukraine Website ORRR Wikipedia It

Where the ---- is Ukraine?

Well, for those of you who haven't Wikipedia'd recently, here's a slight background on Ukraine (listen up kiddies, you might become full of random facts like me!).

Ukraine is that orange part on the map. Yep, it's a big place. I think about 47 million people. The official language is Ukrainian, which, while cool, makes my life harder (you all know that I'm not so good with languages). But I digress. While Ukrainian is the only official language of Ukraine, most people speak Russian as a second language. The dominant religion is Eastern Orthodox Chrisitanity (which I think is the same as Russian Orthodox, but I don't know).

For more info. for you knowledge geeks, check out the full history at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine.

New Blog

Hey all,

The time is rapidly approaching for my departure to the big, bad Ukraine. I've gotten a lot of questions/concerns about how to keep in touch with me, what I'll be doing, where I'll be, etc. The answer to all of the above is. . . I have no clue! From what I've mustered up from the ever vague Peace Corps, I'll be doing Community Development. Here's the official definition of that:

The community development project was launched in 2006 as a pilot project seeking to support Ukraine in its efforts to promote ideals of the free-market system at the local level and to facilitate development of civil society. In practice, the project enhances local capacities in partnership building, business and management skills, and organizational development. Volunteers promote cooperation and partnerships among the three sectors of society— business, government, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)—to facilitate local address of issues of interest to communities. They work with schools and universities, NGOs, and government structures at regional and municipal levels.

Now, what the heck does all that gybberish mean? Well, from what I can make of it, I'll be going into a community, and play negotiator and mediator between a local business or organization and the government. That and I'll probably be building some sort of non-profit along the way. But who knows. . . according to returned volunteers, the title you get doesn't necessarily mean that's what you're doing. . . I'm sure I'll be doing all sorts of things. Moral of this tale is. . . . when I know, you'll know.