Time flies and drags at the same time. Each day is slow at times, but it's hard to believe I've been in Ukraine since last Thursday. The weather is still cool and cloudy every single day, but last Friday--would you believe it!--it was sunny and warmed considerably in the afternoon! My host family is great. Olier called me "Don Ju-wan" last night and kept saying "American or Ukrainian girls, da, Andrewski!" His son, Sergei, spent almost the entire day playing an old version of Warcraft on the computer--reminded me of when I was 13 and could spend the entire day playing video games. Now I get bored after 2 hours or so.
My Russian skills are progressing quickly. Olga and I have a basic method of communication--I can understand now when she asks me if I want to eat, have eaten, what I'm wearing tomorrow, and other basic stuff around the house. I haven't been babied this much since I was about 10 or so. Once I'm able to, I'm gonna start asking her to teach me how to cook and let me iron my own clothes. Until then, I'll have to deal with her chasing me away when she cooks or irons. I have managed to do dishes on several occasions, although I have to wait until she steps away from the sink and repeatedly say, "ya sam, ya sam" (I'll do it myself).
This morning was the definite low point of my stay here so far. I stayed up late last night--til 2 or so--and intended on sleeping in as late as I could. Instead, I awoke at 7 to extreme nausea, unable to go back to sleep, and vomited after 30 extremely uncomfortable minutes in bed. I tried to go back to sleep, and an hour later, I vomited again (there wasn't anything in my stomach at this point). Then I slept very poorly until about 1:30, when I felt much better.
As I said before (to Courtney today, not to Olga or anyone in my family), I think it was not something I ate, but a stomach bug of some kind. I ate at 6 PM last night and felt fine when I went to bed 8 hours later. When I threw up was 13+ hours after I ate. I haven't had any alcohol in 3 days. I feel mostly fine now but am still not hungry at all. To make matters worse this morning, all I could think of was how Mom would tell me to drink a Coke. I need to buy some Coke to keep here for myself. It's readily available in any magazine (store), of course.
I have my first lesson, co-taught with Collette, this Thursday. We're teaching the seventh form. Gotta make some lesson plans tomorrow--in Ukraine, teachers aren't allowed to teach without submitting a detailed lesson plan in advance!
Hope everything is well stateside. If anyone is wondering, no the Danube does not flow into or through Ukraine. It does, however, empty in the Black Sea, so I'm not sure how/if the sludge in Hungary will affect us. Probably a rise in fish prices at the very least. Maybe a rise in energy costs too if hydroelectric plants have to shut down and more gas has to be imported from Russia. The central heat still isn't turned on in my building, but it's not that bad yet. I think it gets turned on in 2 weeks.
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