9/23/10
Day Three:
They have a saying in Ukraine: "On the first day, guests are like gold. On the second day, they are like silver, on the third day they are like copper and on the fourth day you throw them out. Today was my third day with my host family but I hope they don't throw me out tomorrow.
Today, I helped Bogdan sort his potatoes. I live on a working farm. All Ukrainian doms are working farms in Kyinka but Bogdan's has a large field where he grows potatoes, wheat, melons, and more. He also has about eight chickens, three cats, and a dog (sobacka) named Silva. SIlva looks like a little wolf. Tonight, Elena made pasta boiled in chicken stock, cutlet and fried eggs for dinner. I think Bogdan likes Sriracha hot sauce though he kind of sucks in air loudly because of the heat. He was eating it tonight on his eggs.
Bogdan said I should take the marshruka (mini-bus) to school today. He showed me where to stand and what number bus to catch. This morning I waited and when the first bus came I did not see a number so I chickened out and walked the twenty five minutes to school. After school, as I like to do, I walked Shannon home from class which is about a twenty minute walk from Victoria's dom-school. On the way home, I was studying my new Russian words and wasn't really paying attention to how long I had been walking. When I looked up I didn't know where I was. I turned around to look for a landmark but everything suddenly became a landmark and I became hopelessly lost. Fast-forward to the end, I made it home safe and was never in danger but here's how I did it:
Mind you, the walk home is basically a straight line. You just walk down the same road until you get to my street, you take a right, you walk a bit and you're home. Not difficult. So, I turn around and walk back toward the city and I find a landmark that I am sure of. I turn back around and walk toward home again at which point I pass a bus stop with some babushkas (grandmothers) sitting in it which will come into play soon. I keep walking and I pass a shop but I don't remember a shop so I turn around. I pass the babushkas again. "Dobry den! (Good day!)" I say to them. They wave. I keep walking back towards Kyinka for five or six minutes until I reach another landmark that I remember. I turn back around and walk towards home. Five or six minutes later I pass the babushkas "Dobry den!" I say again. They wave again. I keep walking for five to ten minutes until I pass the shop again. I decide my home must be past the shop so I keep walking. But then I suddenly stop recognizing anything so I turn back around and head back towards Kyinka. This time I'm convinced that I'm simply passing the road. I know that there is an old dilapidated barn across the street from my road but I can't seem to find it. But, I do see a house that looks like a barn...maybe I just remember it differently. I take a left on the road and after a couple of minutes it becomes clear that this is not my road. I turn around and go back to the main road and head towards Kyinka again. I see another road so I take it. Not my road. I see the babushkas up ahead and I don't want to see them again so I take another road before I get to them. Not my road. Now, I decide, I will hike all the way back to Kyinka, turn back around and start all over from the city so I know for sure that I have not walked too far and passed my road. I head toward Kyinka. Pass the babushkas, I nod, they nod and start speaking to each other, I move on. I walk for fifteen minutes back to Kyinka and I turn around and head back home. Now, everything begins to look familiar. The house with the red gate, the big house being built/torn down?, the roadside well, AHA! I walk for fifteen minutes. I pass the babushkas, I keep my eyes straight ahead, they begin to talk to each other, one laughs at something, I assume she's laughing at the reciprocating American, I move on. I pass the shop. I keep walking. I stop recognizing things, I keep walking. Within one minute since I stop recognizing things I arrive at what is most definitely my street. When I first thought I was lost and turned around an hour and twenty minutes earlier, I was literally fifty yards from my street. Oh, and did I mention that Victoria (my language teacher) gave us about twenty pounds of books yesterday and another five or six pounds of material today? Oh well. I say if you haven't been lost during training then you haven't explored enough.
Otherwise, folks, we are learning Russian faster than anyone can possibly learn. I am speaking and reading so much Russian that my english-language novel is collecting dust because the words look funny when I pick it up at night. Weird.
Ok. Until next time: I love you guys and do zvadanya!
