Back from the 'Dam!

Well, after a nice long week of vacationing in Western Europe, I'm back in Ukraine. And strangly enough, it kinda feels good to be back!

Amsterdam was awesome. That town is pretty friggin' cool, coffee shops aside. Of course we indulged in the coffee shops and ate a bunch of brownies, but the more exciting part was having Asian and Mexican food (even though they weren't great, they were amazing to us!!!). WE spent New Years at this little party, which kinda reminded me of an 8th grade dance, which really bad Eurotrash music. BUt it was fun to hang out with my friends. And at the stroke of midnight, everyone in the city started setting off fireworks right in the middle of the street!! I swear, I almost got hit by one and kept hiding behind my friend Megan. I think Rachel took pictures of that. It was ridiculous! I've never seen so many fireworks in my life!!!

The last day in Amsterdam, I had a "Jessie date day" and explored the entire city, since we really hadn't done that yet. I went all around the Red Light District, and found this Tibetian store, which I proceeded to spend all the rest of my money of fun little trinkets. I also found the Sex Museum and decided to splurge on that. And thought I couldn't get into the Anne Frank House, I walked by. . . . I figured that was enough for this visit. That house isn't going anywhere.

Elizabeth, Rachel and I also had to figure out how we were getting back to Ukraine, so we went ot the train station and bought tickets to Prague, where we could then buy tickets to Krakow (or, in my case, Kiev). So we got to spend a day in Prague, roaming and exploring my old stomping ground. And surprisingly enough, I remembered everything about that city and how to get everywhere, including the bagel place, which made us all SO happy!!! After a day of Prague, buying hot wine and fun little goodies, and going to Tesco, which, by the way, is the best supermarket in the entire world (I kid you not), we were off to the train station once again, and we were off. The train we were all on stopped in Krakow and then continued to Kiev. But because I was going straight to Kiev, I was in a seperate car than my buddies, and I swear, as soon as I stepped onto the car, it was like I was walking into Little Ukraine. everyone was speaking Russian and they were all Ukrainian. Hell, even the rain car was a Ukrainian train car!! And, of course, the train moved as sow as Ukrainian trains. I spent about 32 hours in transit from Prague to Kiev. About 6 of those hours were waiting in Krakow for something or another, and another 3 were spent at the border of Poland and Ukraine. Thank god this train car had a toilet that actually flushed though! Usually the toilets just dump onto the tracks, which means in big cities you can't use the bathroom because they close them! I thank my lucky stars that this wasn't the case.

So, now I'm in Chirnigiv with my host family for Ukrainian Christmas. It's like coming home from college all over again. I love it! Apparently my family was invited over for dinner at my next door neighbors house tonight, and I'm tagging along. I asked galya if it was okay, and she said, "well, I said we'd all go. . . I just didn't say how many people was 'all'". So, I guess it's okay? She looks great, by the way. I think she's about 7 months pregnant and glowing! I can't wait to have a little host baby brother! (It's a boy). I hope they name it Jesse. Or Jessovich. Or something like that.

I hope everyone had a great New Years!!! Go 2010!