Lviv, Miss Benes, the 4th, and Ukrainian Boot Camp (end of June/beginning of July)

My trip back was equally smooth. Once across the border, I decided on a whim to take an overnight train to Lviv, and visit the city for a day with 2 other volunteer friends who happened to be in town. On the train I met a young Ukrainian who works abroad in Italy and only comes home once every few years, so naturally he was excited to speak Ukrainian! He even paid for me to doze in the chairs of the first class lounge for a few hours after he continued on his journey home, until it was a decent hour for me to visit the city. I explored by myself in the morning, and visited a beautiful cemetery later, with Heather and David (we also had liquid chocolate at a cafe--yum). We spent the night at Suzanne’s, who lives an hour from Lviv. All of us in GAD want to be Suzanne when we grow up; she’s 60 going on 25 and one of the coolest people I know. I was exhausted from my travels, and it was cold and rainy out, so I stayed in her apartment all day and got treated to gourmet meals from Suzanne and Heather’s boyfriend, both superb chefs. Suzanne and I were supposed to go to Ivano-Frankivsk to meet another volunteer and learn how to use a special publishing program for the GADFly, but we ended up using Microsoft Publisher on Suzanne’s computer, so I helped a bit with the layout, but the brunt of the work fell on her, and I finally made it back home.

I’ve been away from site a lot this summer, but each time I finish a trip, I can’t wait to turn the keys to the door in my apartment (at the same time holding my breath, in case I find a fruit fly infestation or a toilet situation). Traveling makes me appreciate home more and more, wherever “home” might be!

I was home for less than a week, and caught up immediately in the whirlwind surrounding the imminent arrival of Miss Jessica. I finally got the chance to meet my predecessor face to face, but it felt more like greeting an old friend, since I’ve heard so much about her. We made (correction: burned) brownies at Kamilia’s, and ate around the burnt bits and foil as we sipped tea and had a slumber party. The next day, Larissa hosted an English teacher luncheon (though Lena wasn’t there, Natasha and her daughter Dasha were), and Jessica managed a nap in her bedroom while I went home to nap too before going to Slava’s birthday shashlik picnic on the island and then to Jessica’s favorite bar with Matt and Anya. I’m tired again just thinking about it! I planned a picnic on the 4th to meet the new volunteers, and we took a ferry on the river in Vinnytsia to a really nice spot.

Ukrainian Language Refresher was sort of like a summer camp for PCVs. The days they put out Kit-Kats for snack were infinitely better than the days when gross giant Ukrainian marshmallows showed up. We had morning games and team activities and each team was “on duty” one night. Optional activities included Ukrainian folk dancing, canning and conserving (I managed to shatter the glass jar we were using to practice sealing, but putting our blueberry jam on everything at dinner sufficiently made up for it). I sold GAD merchandise at meals and was the captain of Team Bandit Bears (Vedmedykiy Banditiy), so I was more visible than usual at these kinds of events, but I still hung out mostly with Lauren and Meghan. I did meet several other 37ers that I’ve never seen before, including my roommate Jordan, who I went running with a few mornings. I enjoyed the chance to formally study Ukrainian again, with elective classes on prickly topics that constantly give volunteers grief. I also forced myself to take the Language Proficiency Exam again, in hopes that personal shame would later make me more willing to study. The personal shame part proved right (I guessed correctly that I had only marginally improved my entire time at site), but so far no studying has resulted; we’ll see what happens in the fall.

This summer has alternated between weeks of blistering heat with unfortunately timed patches of cold and rainy reprieve. The whole week at Refresher was chilly when we could have been swimming in the river, but it’s a bazillion degrees whenever I’m home near my polluted river; it also rained at baseball camp and environmental camp, when we slept in tents. True to form, the weather heated things up in time for my overnight train to Kolomiya for G.L.O.W. Before that though, I spent a nice afternoon walking around Lutsk with the volunteers who live there.