Halloween

What happens when 60 volunteers go into Eastern Ukraine? Well, a party. Here's how it went down.. . . I spent all week sewing my outfit. No joke. I actually sewed!!! I was sewing in my really bad, "I learned when I was 6 and a Girl Scout)" way, and one of my coworkers, Kristina, comes over and says, "what are you doing?" My response was, "sewing" (duh). Then she says, "no. You're not." Okay. So I wasn't sewing. Then I got a one hour tutorial on how to properly sew. So, I now knowhow to sew.

And what happens after I go through all that trouble, take a 6 hr. train ride to the industrial part of Ukraine (ps. I literally felt like I was entering Russia. . . the part of Jarkiv we were in was so dreary and depressing). . . anyways, what happens once I get on the train on my way there? My stomach decides to revolt! So I spent all friggin' weekend, ill, not able to stay more than 5 feet away from a bathroom, and couldn't drink at the what really was a frat Peace Corps party! SO SAD!!!

I left Harkiv last night after only having eaten a little bit of rice yesterday, and took an overnight train back to Kiev. Of course I would have the top bunk instead of the bottom, because God hates me. And, not to anyone's surprise, the bathrooms on Ukrainian trains. . . not the cleanest. People actually stand on the seats and squat over the toilet. I can attest to this because I see the footprints all the time. So here I am in Kiev, after a very unsuccessful and anticlimatic weekend, and can't take the 2 hour bus ride home, because I don't think I'd made it. So for now, I'm stuck in Kiev. Halloween, to me, was totally more of a bust than last year, but at least I got to experience the trains and know how to travel that way for when people come to visit!

In other news. . . just in case no one's heard, the Swine Flu has come to Ukraine. It's actually quickly turned into an epidemic in Western Ukraine. There are many Peace Corps volunteers who aren't allowed to leave/go to their sites because the sites are being quarentined, and school has been cancelled for the next 3 weeks as a method of controlling the outbreak. I just wanted to let you all know this, because you'll be hearing it on the news anyway. But this for now has really only affected the very Western part of the country. Seeing as I'm in Central Ukraine, I'm okay for now. I haven't heard of anyone getting sick in Berdichev or Kiev, and so I'm not worried. But I'll be keeping everyone informed as to what's going on.

Love to everyone! Hope you all had a great Halloween! Pictures from my amazing outfit, and Halloween with the kids last week to come shortly (once I upload them to my computer).