Hello all!

This has been the longest I have gone without posting. Sorry - I will make sure to update the blog with a nice long post soon. :-)

Привет всем! Hello Everyone!Wow, 2 months without posting. Oops. There is a lot to recap. I have been really busy lately with a couple of new projects in my community. I wrote 2 grants which I submitted yesterday in order to start a volunteer newspaper and an HIV/AIDS awareness project. I am really excited about these projects and can’t wait for them to start. Basically, with the help of the grant money, the NGO that I would with will start a newspaper to promote volunteerism and NGO participation in the area. We are recruiting volunteers that are interested in Journalism from the Volunteer Center that we started last fall and from local schools in the area. The volunteers will write articles, interview people & NGOs, and will design, distribute, and publish the newspaper themselves. It should be great. We will have some professional journalists come and train the volunteers and my friend Sergey and I will conduct the trainings on volunteerism. We submitted the grant and we will find out on Nov 15th if we won or not. The HIV/AIDS project is also very exciting – we will have professional trainers from Kiev come to our town to train local doctors about HIV/AIDS (many do not understand HIV or are unaware of the situation in Ukraine) and also to train 20 of our volunteers about HIV/AIDS. HIV is a huge problem in Ukraine with almost 2% of the population being HIV positive and most don’t know what HIV is, how it is transmitted, or what treatments are available if you have HIV. After the initial trainings, we will send our newly trained volunteers to all of the local schools in our town to train the kids at each of the schools and after all of the trainings, we are going to organize an HIV/AIDS awareness concert in the center of the town to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and to encourage people to get tested at our mobile testing unit with will be stationed nearby. We will also find out on Nov 15 if we won that grant. I don’t think there will be any problems with wining the grants though. We should receive the money in early January and will start both projects in February. Wish us luck!

From the last time I posted, I took my friend and coworker Sergey to Kamyanets Podilsky (A small city in Western Ukraine) to attend a HIV/AIDS conference put on by PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Action Plan For AIDS Relief). It was a really good experience. There were 25 PCV and 25 Ukrainians there to attend the 5 day conference. The conference made me realize how lucky I have been to be able to travel and experience as much as I have in my life. This was my counterpart’s first time traveling and being away from home for more than a one week period and he is 27. It was a bit of a hassle to get to the venue because we had to take 2 overnight trains and spend 15 hours in Kiev. We left Khartsizsk on Saturday evening and arrived in Kiev at 7 am on Sunday where we met up with a couple of Sergey’s friends then spent the entire day (15 hours) walking around Kiev and seeing the sights (it was Sergey’s first time in Kiev) before catching yet another overnight train to Kamyanets. We were exhausted by the time we arrived and were happy to have a couple hours to shower and clean up before the conference began. The conference was held at a resort about 20 km outside of Kamyanets in beautiful area next to a river. It was an amazing location – PEPFAR definitely has more money than PC. The trainings at the conference were extensive and ran from 8 am tell 8 at night every day but by the end of the conference, we had developed a pretty awesome project plan. I was very impressed with how well organized the conference was and it was very nice to be able to spend time with the other volunteers and their Ukrainian counterparts. After the conference, Sergey and I decided to spend an additional day in Kamyanets to explore the city and tour a famous castle. It was nice to spend a little extra time traveling with Sergey – he is a great guy and it was good to get to know him better. There were a few other volunteers that wanted to spend an extra day in Kamyanets so we all went out together and had a great time. It was funny because it was a group of Americans hanging out so Sergey was able to see how Americans interact with one another and he told me later that he understands what it is like to be the only one in the group that does not speak the language fluently though we all had a great time. It was very interesting to see some of the rich history Ukraine has to offer. Most of the historical sites in Ukraine were destroyed by the USSR in order to erase all record of previous cultures and get people to believe only in the tsar which is a shame because Ukraine is a bridge between Europe and Asia and has been conquered by almost every major world power at least once over the last 2,000 years so it would have been a historical and cultural goldmine.

After the PEPFAR conference, I have spent most of my time writing, organizing, studying Russian, and discussing our new projects with people in the community. We have met with the doctors at the local hospital, one of the leaders in the local government, and with another NGO in Makeevka to get access to a mobile HIV testing unit. My Russian is getting better but it is still nowhere near where I thought it would be by this time. I have started seeing new Russian tutors which has been great. They work at a small foreign language school in town. We met every day, 5 days per week – it is a great situation because I help them for one hour to improve her English and then they spend an hour helping me with Russian. Hopefully I will be speaking better real soon.

Well, It is getting late and I still need to pack for the trip so I need to go. My bus leaves tomorrow at 5:00 am so it is going to be a long day but this time tomorrow I will be eating awesome food with Bob. I can’t wait!

Conor’s Noteworthy Noteables:1. Heading to Greece tomorrow to travel and spend time with my Uncle Bob. I can’t wait to spend time with Bob and eat some great food.2. Finished my grants! Awesome. Now I finally have some free time again. 3. Spending more time with Danielle which has been nice. It is great to have a site mate. 4. Had a farewell party in Donetsk for one of the German volunteers. It was great but kinda weird to see someone head home to the real world. 5. Started my English club again. Great times – we have a good group of people. 6. Went to the movie theater in town and watched a movie in Russian. I actually understood more or less what was going on. 7. Picking up some much needed shoes, jeans, and a coat from Bobo in Greece. Finally! I can’t find clothes my size in Ukraine! I was starting to look like a bum. 8. Internet and hot water stopped working. ;-( I have gotten used to it though. I heat water up on the stove to take bucket baths. Lol I am amazed how much I get done when I don’t have internet at home. 9. I interviewed to be a volunteer with the Euro 2012 football championship. I hope I get it- we will know on Nov 15th. I will probably be a volunteer manager and if that is the case, I will try and get the volunteers from our volunteer center involved.

Hello! A lot has happened since my last post but unfortunately, I don't have time to blog about it right now so here are some photos that will have to do until I can find time to write.

Hello Everyone,

The long awaited and highly anticipated blog update has finally come (or long forgotten ;-) ). It is hard to believe that it has been a month and a half since my last post. I write this from my office in the Palace of Culture in the center of my little Eastern Ukrainian town - it is 1:30 pm and there is a huge rain & thunder storm outside. Kind-of a surreal setting with all the Soviet buildings in the background. Anywho, where to begin? Since I last posted, my parents visited Ukraine and I showed them around, I went to a Океан Ельзи concert with some Ukrainian friends, went on a bicycle tour of Holland, attended a few Peace Corps parties, and a few other things I have probably forgotten. I should probably post more often. I had my parents write a blog entry of their impressions of Ukraine which I will add to the end of this blog - this will be a long one.

After my last post, I went to the Океан Ельзи concert in Donetsk. It was great fun. We got tickets for the standing only area right in front of the stage. It was a great concert and I was very impressed with the quality of the music. This time I decided to listen to the music ahead of time so that I would be familiar with some of their songs which made me enjoy the concert even more. There was quite a bit of Ukrainian in the lyrics and as you know I have been studying Russian so I did not understand all of the lyrics but I understood enough. I went with a group of about 8 Ukrainian friends and we met in Donetsk a little early so that we could eat dinner together and have a drink before the concert. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera but I will try to get some of my friends photos to post on the ole blog.

Two days after the concert I caught an overnight train to Kiev to pick my parents up at the Airport. I was a bit nervous and extremely excited to see them after being apart for over 15 months. I met them just outside their gate and after a warm greeting, our adventure began. As we made our way into Kiev by public bus, I was trying to anticipate what their impressions would be of Ukraine. When I first got off the plane in Kiev (now 16 months ago), my first impressions where a bit buried under the stress of a new life, the unknowns - who my host family would be, would I learn Ukrainian or Russian, what will I be doing, where will I be living, and why did I accidentally take my Dad's pants instead of mine? lol (when I was packing for Ukraine I accidentally grabbed the wrong pants) Needless to say, I was a bit overwhelmed when I first arrived and I imagine my parents were probably wondering what Ukraine had in store for them but probably at a lesser degree than I did when I first arrived. (I should probably note that I decided to write this entry before I read my parents entries) Anywho, we met a fellow foreigner on the bus into Kiev and chatted a bit about Ukraine and some of the challenges Ukraine faces and after 40 min or so we arrived at the central train station in Kiev. Kiev has a European feel to it and one can find may western amenities here so it does not really give an accurate picture of Ukraine ie. TGI Fridays. My parents were troopers and took everything in stride such as the overcrowded metro, different (but good) food, and the miles and miles of walking we did (people walk a lot here - what can I say?). Many of the little nuances that I have not thought about since I arrived were suddenly very apparent. I suppose I have adapted to life here a lot more than I originally thought. I really enjoyed walking around Kiev with them, showing them some of the sights, catching up, and watching my Dad's face as he tried a variety of Ukrainian dishes. lol I have grown to really like Ukrainian food but my Dad is not exactly known for trying new things and probably has not tried a new dish in years. lol (slight exaggeration ;-) I have to hand it to him though because by the end of the trip he did enjoy eating Ukrainian Borsch, Shashleek, Kutletka, and (of course) chocolate. My Mom was, of course, more than happy to try all the new dishes - I am the same way. I must have gotten it from her. We walked all around Kiev, saw all the big churches & monuments, went to the War museum, ate at a few cafes, and stayed at a little comfy hostel close to the center. The hostel was a good experience, we rented a private room instead of staying where I normally do in the big "dorm room" that has around 8 beds in one communal room. I think they were a bit nervous about the hostel because their friend in the States was shocked and appalled that they were going to stay in a hostel. lol After exploring Kiev for a few days, we made our way via the metro to the train station to catch our overnight train to Donetsk. I was excited for them to experience train travel in Ukraine because it is such a unique experience. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I was shocked to find that our seats were located on a brand new train car! It was luxury compared to how it normally is. The train car was air-conditioned, almost nothing was broken (minus the bathroom), and it was very comfortable. Lol We had an enjoyable ride - we had a drink and ate some chocolate in our booth while we watched the scenery out the window and chatted about life while the sun slowly set over seemingly endless Ukrainian farmland.

We arrived in Donetsk early the next day (Sunday). Unfortunately, my parents were not used to train travel and were probably still jet-lagged so they were a bit tired. We caught a trolley bus into the center of Donetsk and started walking to the south bus station. Because it was early Sunday morning, there was almost nobody in the street. On the way to the bus station, we stopped by a small market where people were selling old Soviet trinkets. When we finally got to the bus station and purchased some tickets to an imaginary bus that did not exist thus having to exchange the tickets twice in order to finally get on a bus that actually existed (this is not entirely uncommon lol ) – we were finally on the way to my site an hour away. When we finally arrived, I introduced them to my favorite dish Okroshka which is a cold milky soup with cucumbers, egg, chicken, and dill. Deeeeelish. We then checked into the hotel that my parents will be staying at and rested for a bit before seeing my apartment, office, and the town. It was very interesting to listen to what they had to say about everything - especially my apartment. I had forgotten how unique Soviet housing can be if you are not used to it.

Probably one of the highlights of their visit was the dinner with my Ukrainian friends at a local restaurant. I don’t think anyone knew what to expect from the evening because my parents don’t speak any Russian and the culture is very different but everyone had a great time. The Ukrainian friends that I invited spoke some English and everyone helped each other out so we were able to communicate without any problems. My parents sampled a variety of Ukrainian dishes and, of course, participated in the “old Russian tradition” of toasting to a number of vodka shots. I made sure to teach them beforehand that it is not necessary to take the entire shot of vodka for each toast and that you can take the smallest sip if you want to and nobody will be offended. The night was full of stories, anecdotes, good food, and a fun mix of Russian & English. By the end of the night it was like everyone was long lost friends. Great times were had by all.

We made our way via overnight train back to Kiev where we caught our flight to Amsterdam without too much trouble. I had no idea how big of a shock it would be to be back in a “western style” country. It was incredible. When we arrived at the airport in Amsterdam I saw an old friend of mine and a tear nearly rolled down my face (small exaggeration). It is weird the thing you miss when you are traveling. The old friend I am referring to is none other than Mr. Starbucks. While my Dad was trying to figure out the ATM situation, I quickly made my way over to Mr. Starbucks and was looking at all the pastries and different coffees for a good 5 min before I realized that I had a childish grin on my face and the employees were looking at me like I was slightly crazy. Lol I felt the need to explain the situation and that I had been drinking instant coffee for the last 15 months to which they quickly gave me a hot cup of bold coffee “pikes place” with a dash of sugar and some whole milk. Awesome. For an evil corporation they make a damn good cup of coffee. If you are still reading, you probably agree with the Starbucks employees that I am a bit crazy so I will move on though I could easily elaborate for a few more paragraphs. Lol

Sooooo, we spent the next two days in Haarlem – just exploring the city, talking about life, and eating good food. The unique architecture, clean streets, and friendly people made it very enjoyable to simply walk around for hours. At one point I got lost among a maze of canals and winding roads so I ducked into a very small locals bar for a quick beer. One of the only negative things I have to say about Holland is that all beverages (beer included) come in tiny itty bitty little glasses – literally 8 oz. glasses. The people at the bar were very friendly and a bit older. They gave the impression that this bar was their home away from home as everyone seemed to know each other very well. One man even brought his dog to the bar and the dog even had his own bar stool where he sat proudly with what looked like a smile on his face. I was impressed that even the older generation spoke pretty good English. I found it to be a bit strange in Holland because it was so easy to communicate with everyone and it was nice not to have to worry about conjugating Russian verbs or putting the right stress on the correct letter.

After Harlem, we caught a comfortable, efficient, friendly, and carefree train back to Amsterdam ;-) to start our “bike and barge” trip. The bike trip was fantastic. Good people, good weather, beautiful scenery, and a comfortable barge to sleep on. We cycled around 50 km per day to a new city every day and spent the evening exploring and talking. We started in Amsterdam then to Kudelstaart, Leiden, Haarlem, Alkmaar, Purmerend, Edam, and many other smaller towns and villages. It was really nice to be able to spend time with my parents again. The guide on the tour was really cool as well (Femke) – not to mention that she was the only other person my age on the trip. I found the Dutch people to be very open minded, well educated, and friendly. Holland would be a great place to live. Femke and I went out on the town most evenings for a beer and to chat. It was really nice getting to know her a little bit. We talked about everything – life, philosophy, happiness, friends, family, everything. It was really nice and I found it quite helpful personally to get some of my priorities straight. Sometimes you meet people that have an impact on your life even if it was a brief encounter – this was one of those times. They bicycle tour was unforgettable and the time passed way too quickly. Before we knew it, we were back in Haarlem enjoying the last couple of days together. It was nice to be able to spend a couple days alone with my parents before they headed back to Utah. We chatted, ate some amazing Thai food (only a bit spicy ;-) and before we knew it, a rather abrupt bus arrived and my parents headed for the airport. After my parents left, I headed back to Amsterdam for a few days and went to a couple photography museums and the Rijksmuseum. At nights, after the museums, I would wander the city, enjoy some outdoor concerts, and mingle with some of the locals. Very pleasant though Amsterdam is way too expensive - I stayed at a “cheap” hostel next to Vondel Park in a dormitory with maybe 10 other beds in the same room and it cost over 40 Euros per night. Ouch. After Amsterdam, I caught a train to Utrecht where I spent a couple days visiting the De Haar Castle, climbing the tallest tower in Holland, and exploring the city. I have tons of amazing photos from the trip. I also met up with Femke and her boyfriend in Utrecht for a beer one night at a very colorful bar in the center of town. It was a fun evening. We also met up for lunch at their apartment one day before I had to head back to good ole Ukraine.

Well, this post is already too long so I am going to stop there. I hope all is well back in the States. I probably won’t post again until after I get back from my trip to Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria (Aug 18). I will post my Parents impressions after the “Noteables” and will try and post pics later.

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. I had an amazing time with my Parents - both in Ukraine and in Holland.2. My beautiful Niece Madi turns 1 year old soon. I was really nice to skype with my Sister and see my Niece and Nephew a couple days ago. 3. I personally made Tacos for 10 people! Thanks again Mom, Dad, and Aunt Kelly for sending the care packages. :-) They were a big hit. 4. I have been researching career paths with the Foreign Service. I will be taking the next Foreign Service exam in Kiev probably in October. I need to refresh my memory on US and World history as well as the constitution and amendments. 5. I met a few of the new volunteers in the area. Good people. 6. I met someone in my town that actually lived in Utah for a year via a high school exchange program funded by the department of state. wow. what are the odds?7. I am heading to Kiev for a week. My train leaves this evening. I will be attending a variety of Russian language lessons. Should be good.

Now without further delay, I give you my parents’ impressions. :-)

Mom’s Impressions:

Ukraine

We had a very nice visit with Conor in Ukraine. This was my first time in an EasternEuropean country and Conor asked us to write our impressions. We spent two nights ina hostel in Kiev and visited an old monastery and the military museum. Everything wasin Russian or Ukrainian so we couldn’t read about what we were seeing. Nevertheless, itwas interesting and enjoyable. The hostel, Really Central, was nice and clean. ActuallyKiev reminded me of other large European cities except that it was harder to get aroundbecause signs were all in Cyrillic and most people don’t speak English. Fortunately,Conor’s Russian is good so he could ask directions and he has also spent a lot of timethere so he knew his way around.

We took the night train to Donetsk, which was the first time I’ve ever slept on a train or,for that matter, taken a trip on a train. We had a four person compartment and it was stillcrowded. Sharing that small space with strangers would definitely feel uncomfortable.There were two toilets on the car and one was broken when we got on. The other onequit functioning about halfway through the trip. No one could use the toilet when thetrain was approaching a station or stopped so the need for a toilet could become quitepressing. I thought I would sleep good because of the rocking of the train but actually Ididn’t sleep good at all. I think I was stressed about the thought of needing a toilet andone not being available.

The train arrived in Donetsk Sunday morning and we had to walk to the bus stationacross town to take a bus to Khartsizsk, where Conor lives. Our walk through Donetskwas nice, but long, and it appeared to be a nice middle-sized city. I wish we could havehad more time there.

Fortunately Conor knew how to get to the bus station because I’m sure we never wouldhave been able to find it on our own. It was another hour ride in a rather hot bus butwe finally made it to Khartsizsk. Conor’s apartment is in a Soviet era block apartmentbuilding, which doesn’t appear to have had much maintenance since it was built. Youwalk into a staircase with one bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling, and go up threeflights of stairs to Conor’s apartment. He has a small kitchen, a closet with a toilet, andanother room (I don’t know whether to call it a room or a closet) with a bathtub and sink.Another small room is the sleeping/living room with a small balcony. It was pretty barebones living with running water six hours a day. Again, the availability of a functioningtoilet became a concern.

Frank and I stayed at the Hotel Domino and had a deluxe suite for $35 a night. It hada bedroom with a TV, a sitting room with a TV, and a bathroom. Everything was cleanand nice. Under the hotel was a car wash and a small café was on one end of the hotel,although it never appeared to be open.

It seems that most people in Khartsizsk live in the old Soviet era apartment buildings,which basically all look the same except some have more floors than others. Someappeared to be abandoned buildings except there were curtains hanging in the windows

and they were lived in. Some windows had broken glass that had not been repaired, orplywood was hammered over the window. The infrastructure, i.e. sidewalks, curbs, andstreets, has not been maintained. There was an open market, or bazaar, across the streetfrom Conor’s apartment which sold all the necessities, i.e. fruit, veggies, clothes, shoes,etc. but absolutely no “luxury” items such as crafts which a tourist might want to buy.Clearly, they do not get many tourists.

We had a nice dinner at the Salina Restaurant with Conor’s friends and businessacquaintances. The food was good and I even tried a couple bites of pig fat on bread.Actually it looked like uncooked bacon with a very small strip of pork. It tasted likebacon and was good on bread. The meal was very good and the people were nice and funto talk with. I was pleasantly surprised to find that shots of vodka could be sipped and itwasn’t necessary to drink the whole shot. The sip was followed by a chaser of juice soit was kind of like drinking a mixed drink. It was a fun evening. We walked back to thehotel from the restaurant.

We also visited a small museum in Khartsizsk with a personal guide who turned thelights on as we went from room to room. She was a very nice woman who was obviouslyproud of the museum. Some of the antique furniture and photos were very much likewhat you might see in the States.

The young women in Ukraine are strikingly beautiful with high heels, short skirts andlots of cleavage! Most people on the street returned my smile and greeting. The parksare pleasant with large trees although there was quite a bit of trash lying around. Thepark in Khartsizsk was well used and Conor encountered a couple boys from his Englishclass. They were very polite and friendly. We spent a lot of time walking aroundUkraine and it felt very safe, even at night. There are many things that are differentfrom what we are used to but there are similarities too, i.e. people who are proud of theircountry and are curious about foreigners. Thank you Conor and Ukraine. It was a greatexperience.

Dad’s Impressions:

Visiting Conor in Ukraine was the highlight of our 2011 vacation. Seeing where he lives,how he lives, who he works with, how he travels, and how he handles the challenges ofliving in Ukraine was very interesting, and gave me a direct feel for the life of a PeaceCorps Volunteer.

Thankfully, Conor met us at the airport in Kiev. There is no way we could have navigatedpublic transportation to his site, Khartsizsk. Kiev was a lively, modern city withmuch to do. The National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War was veryinteresting, as was the nearby Orthodox Church complex. Long walks, and I do meanConor-long, gave us a good feel for the city. The “Really Central” Hostel provided niceaccommodations.

It took almost as long to travel from Kiev to Khartsizsk as it took to fly from Salt LakeCity to Kiev. First a 10-minute metro ride to the Kiev train station, followed by a 12-hour overnight train ride to Donetsk, followed by a 15-minute bus ride to the bus station,followed by a 1-hour bus ride to Khartsizsk. The 2nd class train accommodations werequite comfortable. Since PCVs usually travel 3rd class, Conor was spoiling his elderlyparents. Our brief glimpse of Donetsk revealed a modern city with many beautifulparks. Khartsizsk is a town of about 60,000 with a base of heavy industry (pipelinemanufacturing for one) and mining. As with much of Ukraine, soviet era box-shapedapartment structures dominated the landscape. Conor’s one-room apartment in one ofthese buildings was fairly austere, with a very small kitchen and bathroom, and waterlimited to about 6 hours each day. Maintenance and landscaping don’t seem to havemuch priority in Ukraine. We stayed at the Domino Hotel, which was very nice.

We enjoyed a lively dinner with some of the people Conor works with and some of hisfriends. Beer and vodka livened up the conversation. It was surprising to learn that thereis more animosity among Ukrainians towards Americans as a result of the Cold War thanthere is towards the Germans as a result of WWII. This provides a good incentive forthe Peace Corps to educate people and dispel myths/propaganda. A small local museumprovided a fascinating glimpse into the history of the region. We also visited a localgrammar school and chatted with its director.

This experience made me very proud of what Conor is doing, and made me betterunderstand the good work that the Peace Corps does in promoting good will andunderstanding around the world, thus making the world a better place for everybody.PCVs rock!

In keeping with Conor’s tradition of noteworthy notables, I share the following:Ø Once you have met, Ukrainians are very friendly.Ø Public transport is inexpensive and goes everywhere.Ø Russian is a tough language to learn.Ø Vodka does more than just keep you warm in winter.Ø Young Ukrainian women are very beautiful and dress well.Ø Sales of lawn mowers and household paint are not booming.Ø Dogs get little respect.Ø Ukraine has had a tough history.

Howdy,

It has been one month since my last post.  I am starting to think once a month is enough.  Ukraine now more or less feels like home so things that were once new and exciting are now normal which means there is not too much to blog about.  Lately, I have been working more and more with a Donetsk organization in order to fill my time.  The organization I work with in my community has not had much going on as of late which is probably because of summer so I have been trying to find other ways to keep busy.  Right now we are analyzing how prepared Ukraine is for the Euro 2012 games.  According to the gov, Ukraine is ready for the hundreds of thousands of foreigners that will venture into Ukraine for the 2012 football games (will take place in Kiev, Kharkiv, Donetsk, & Lviv) .  I have not seen any changes take place so I find this hard to believe.  Not to mention the fact that there are only a couple thousand beds available in hotels in Donetsk to accommodate an estimated 100,000 foreigners.  There are also no systems in place to help people that don't speak Russian and if you don't at least know the Russian alphabet, you can't even ask about the names of streets or businesses.  There will be plenty of work to be done and the organization I am working with has a few German volunteers (from a project that I helped write last year).  It has been interesting to talk to the German volunteers about their experiences.  One of the German volunteers speaks almost flawless Russian (far better than yours truly) and the other only knows a handful of words.  The Donetsk organization has been sending the volunteer that does not speak Russian to various places in Donetsk to "test the system".  She has had to go to the store to buy stuff, ask for directions, take public transport, buy tickets, etc...  She posts her very humorous experiences on a blog - I will add her blog address later.  It is funny to think about what will happen when Donetsk is flooded with foreigners.  

Since my last post, I have turned the extremely old age of 27.  ;-)   I am just joking.  I am by no means old but it is still hard to believe that I am 27!  It seems like there is a chunk of my 20s that is simply missing.  Maybe that is due to working at a desk for over 3 years with every min of every day planned.  Or maybe, like my blog, as you get older you get more and more comfortable with life and you become desensitized to everything that was at one time "special or interesting" -  causing life to simply fly bye.  Who knows.  Here I am 27 years old with a few gray hairs and already I am acting like some old philosopher. lol   Anywho, I had my second birthday in Ukraine!  It was nice.  This time around I decided to be a little bit more social so I through a party for some of my Ukrainian friends.  (remember that in Ukraine it is the birthday boy/girl's responsibility to throw their own birthday party).  I did not invite any of my American friends which my Ukrainian friends thought was a bit weird.  I am just not that into birthdays.  I took my Ukrainian friends to a pizza place in town where we ate pizza, drank beer, and had a couple shots of vodka (in the spirit of tradition).  It was a good time.  My Ukrainian friends are awesome - there is still a language barrier but we make the best of it.  I especially like the fact that the birthday boy/girl in Ukraine can call upon anyone at anytime to give a toast in their honor.  After the pizza, we made our way to the park where we had beer, chatted, and listened to some nice guitar music.  It was a nice end to a nice birthday and I am glad I have another year before the next one.  

In 10 days my parents will be in Ukraine!  This is going to be awesome.  I have not seen my family for 15 months!  It will be great to see them.  I am going to meet them at the airport in Kiev where we will spend a couple days in Kiev visiting museums, exploring the city, and experiencing as much as we can in the short amount of time that we have.  Then we will take an overnight train to my city where we will spend 3 full days in my community.  I am excited to hear their impressions of Ukraine, the people, the food, and everything.  I am sure they will like it.  I am going to have them post an entry on this blog of their impressions.  Then we will take another overnight train back to Kiev and then we will fly to Holland.  This is going to be an amazing vacation.  Once in Holland, we will be bicycling every day to a new location (~50 km per day).  This will be an awesome opportunity to experience Holland's countryside.  To say that I am excited is an understatement.  I will be in Holland for over 2 weeks before returning to Ukraine.  This summer will be deemed "The Summer of Traveling" because when I get back from Holland on July 9, I will be traveling to different cities in Ukraine on the weekends then in August I will be heading to Turkey for a week then Romania, Bulgaria, and possibly Moldova.  Awesome.  I will be pretty much out of vacation by the end of the summer though.  It will be worth it.  

Well, I can't think of anything else to post.  I hope all is well everyone.  I will try to post again before I leave for Holland.  Take care.

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1.  Parents are visiting me in Ukraine!2.  Heading to another football game tonight with my site mate, the ballerina I met at the last game, and the German volunteers.   3.  My Ukrainian friends gave me a traditional Kazak saber and a hookah for my birthday.  Very nice.   4.  I attended a "family business training" the other day.  Family is extremely important in Ukrainian culture so it only makes since that there are more family businesses.  5.  Missed the bus back to my site from Donetsk one evening - it was an interesting adventure getting back 

Hello All, Once again, I have gone too long without posting. My bad. Time flies – what can I say. It is 1:30 pm and it has been raining all day so it is a perfect time to update the ole blog. The Volunteer Center trainings are over and now we are concentrating on the projects that the kids will implement. Now that the Volunteer Center is winding down, I can start to concentrate on a new project or two. We have a few projects in the works but it is unclear which ones will be realized and the timeframes. I am thinking about working with an organization in Donetsk that I helped 6 months ago. They are well established and they can give me something constructive to do while things are quiet in my city. I am starting to have quite a bit of time on my hands so I have been looking for ideas, purchased a football so I can organize football games with the kids, shopping for a bicycle, and reading a lot. I have not read anything absolutely amazing lately – mainly just mediocre books by Jasper Fforde. Entertaining but easily forgettable. A month ago, I visited the famous Wine/Champaign factory in my friends town of Artemovsk. The factory is located deep underground and has an interesting history from when Germany invaded in WW2. It is a really old factory that is one of the few factories that still use the old methods for brewing wine and Champaign. They actually hand turn all of their bottles. They have a small army of people that go through the dark tunnels turning and shaking all the bottles all day every day. Very interesting. I went with a group of volunteers and a few Ukrainian locals. We had a great time and obviously, the wine/Champaign tasting was the highlight of the trip. We got to try every wine/Champaign they brew which was great because most of them are well outside a PCV's budget. After the factory, I stayed in Artemovsk for an extra day to spend time with some fellow volunteers, see the city, and just relax. I was impressed, Artemovsk is a beautiful little city. While I was there, I found a blowup mattress so I finally have something somewhat comfortable to sleep on. I can believe I slept on a bed with the size and comfort of a park bench for as long as I did. Ridiculous. Not to mention that I never thought I would be excited to sleep on a blowup mattress. :- ) Oh Peace Corps – you do change one's perspective in the strangest ways. On Easter, I took some of the kids from our Volunteer Center to the forest with another NGO in our city for a picnic and some games. It was a good time. We played a variety of games, had a tug-a-war, and had some good food. It was a good day and I got my first sunburn of the season. Oh sun, it has been too long. Finally color is starting to come back to Ukraine. Winter in Ukraine can be described as 1000 shades of gray. There is simply no color during the winter. The buildings are gray, people only ware dark clothing, the sun sets as early as 3:30 pm, and the sky is always overcast. Thank god winter is finally over. I look forward to lots of time outside this summer and lots of traveling. I will be going to the Netherlands with my parents in June and Turkey in August as well as many trips to different cities inside Ukraine. I spent last weekend in Simferopol with some Ukrainian friends from my city. It was an interesting experience to say the least. We went for a medieval reenactment so naturally, my friend Igor and I had monk costumes made for us and made our way to Crimea (we stayed in a forest outside the village of Pooshkee). Now, this is definitely now my scene. I know this but I thought it would be nice to go on a short camping trip and experience something out of the ordinary and out of the ordinary is exactly what I got. lol Around 100 people showed up to the event and it turns out that it is not only a medieval themed event but also for fantasy characters. When I joined the Peace Corps, this experience would rate pretty close to the top of the list of things I didn't see coming. The camp was setup as a miniature city and everyone there was a citizen of that city with a different background, history, and profession. We had blacksmiths, librarians, hospitals, etc... It was fun but I couldn't really play along with everyone because when a "battle" would start, people would shout out different attacks and how many hit points etc... and my Russian skillz definitely don't cover this particular topic so I had no idea what was going on. lol So, my friend Igor and I were dressed up as evil monks, someone let us borrow a couple of swords so we could protect ourselves, and we did what we could. Igor was named "Jay" and I was "Silent Bob" (because of my limited Russian). We were required to stay in character at all times which was interesting. At night the "city" had a few performances such as a theatre, fire show, and story telling. Overall, it was fun. I met many new people, went on a couple small hikes, and camped in the new tent I purchased a couple weeks ago. I also brought some spices that my awesome Aunt and parents sent me and made an American style BBQ which everyone seemed to like. It was just nice to be outside for a few days. While we were there, we kept hearing really loud explosions that sounded like thunder coming from the other side of a small hill. I asked what it was and someone explained that to this day, people are still finding unexploded ordinances from both WWI and WW2! So the authorities regularly destroy newly found unexploded bombs and whatnot. Crazy. Even in my city, a friend went out to a nearby forest with a metal detector and came back with WW2 ammunition, an old soldier's helmet, and an old water canteen. Well, I hope all is well. Take care America. Conor's Noteworthy Noteables: 1. My Brother graduates college today! Way to go Fer-man! I will wake up tomorrow morning at 2:00 am to skype Dad's Cellphone while everyone is at the celebratory dinner. I wish I could be there but this is the second best thing. 2. Thank you everyone that sent me an email stating that they are reading my blog. Good to know my Fidelity friends are still reading. I miss you all! 3. Heading to a Donetsk Football game tomorrow with some fellow volunteers. Should be awesome. 4. My organization will be organizing a fundraiser for a local hospital and a Chernobyl flash mob this weekend. Should be fun – I will be sure to take many photos. 5. Skyped with my family yesterday – always fun though it makes me miss home. 6. Visited a fellow volunteer in Makeevka a couple weeks ago. It is always interesting to see how other volunteers are living. This particular volunteer is hooked up. He has a huge modern apartment close to the city center. Wow. I am jealous. I live in a one room apartment with running water only 6 hours a day. 7. I am looking forward to my Parents visiting in June. This is going to be awesome. I will have them each post their impressions on the blog.

Hello all,

Wow, time flies! It has been over 3 weeks since my last post - I have a lot to recap. Things have been going well. I am approaching the 1 year mark and am very comfortable here in Ukraine. As I look back at my life over the past year, I can't help but be amazed at all that has happened. I remember feeling very nervous after I quit my job at Fidelity to join the PC and not knowing what the future has in store for me. I remember all the goodbyes before I left followed by a crazy 3 months that was Peace Corps training. I remember meeting all my cluster mates and they immediately became some of the closes friends I have ever had. I remember feeling amazed and overwhelmed by every new experience I had in Ukraine. I recall the first couple months at site being the only American in my city, figuring out how to work with Ukrainian organizations, learning the language, and leaning how to live in Ukraine. I remember all my travels to different cities in Ukraine and to Egypt, meeting countless new people, and experiencing so many things over the last year that my life before Peace Corps is difficult to understand. Even though it has only been a year and I still have 15 more months to go, I have definitely developed a new outlook on life and seem to view things from a different perspective than I did this time last year. For some reason I think of my sister Erin while I write this because she will no doubt give me shit for being so cheesy but it is all true. ;-) I still feel very honored and proud to have been given the opportunity to serve in the Peace Corps and to be able to live in Ukraine and experience so many new things. The last year has held numerous extreme ups and extreme downs and I still have many more ups and downs to come but I absolutely love the adventure. Ok...the cheesiest part of this post is done – now on to what I have been up to over the last 3 weeks. Lol

For starters, the Volunteer Center is going better than I ever imagined. I am amazed though I can't take much credit for it's success. My counterparts have been doing amazing work. They definitely have a different way of doing things here then in the US but the trainings have been excellent! We had the kids organize a fundraiser to raise money for an operation to restore sight to a young man in the community. The kids were amazing. We split the group up into 8 groups of 5 and sent them to different areas in the city to ask for donations. In just over 2 hours they raised 3,000 UAH which is a huge amount in Ukraine. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it and were very proud of their work. When we presented the money to the young man's mom she was extremely grateful and touched by the work the kids did.

I also spent some time in Donetsk for a collaborative meeting with all the volunteers located in the Donetsk region. It was good to meet some of the new volunteers, hear about what everyone else is up to, and SPEAK ENGLISH! God I love English. Lol We had a really good meeting and after the meeting we all got together and had a really nice evening. We played games, had a few beverages, and chatted about life in Ukraine. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night but it is just so nice to speak in one's native tongue/culture. It was great! Peace Corps attracts some pretty cool people.

I was also in Kharkov for a Peace Corps security meeting (I am one of the security wardens in my region). I took an overnight train from Donetsk to Kharkov and arrived at 5 in the morning so I hung out with some of the other volunteers that arrived early and walked around the city a bit. Kharkov is very historic country with some amazing architecture. It just so happened that the training was on St Patrick's Day! Around 10 volunteers went out that night and we managed to find …. wait for it... a Mexican restaurant! Lol Don't get too excited – the only spice they seemed to know was salt. It was still good for nostalgia’s sake. Nice try Ukraine. We also managed to find the only Irish pub in the entire city. It was an epic night and we even went to a club and danced which is way out of character for me but I enjoyed it. I got to spend time with some volunteers that I had not seen for a while like my cluster mate Cassie. It was a really nice evening but then had to catch an overnight train at 3 in the morning. That was interesting to say the least.

On Sunday night (March 20th) I went with a few Ukrainian friends to a rock concert in Donetsk. I really did not know what to expect out of a Russian rock concert but I was not going to pass up on the opportunity for an amazing experience. When my Ukrainian friends told be about the concert I thought they said,”3 day concert” so I kept asking what days we will go to the concert. I figured it would be a 3 day in a row rock fest. Lol I wondered why they kept giving me weird looks when I asked over and over again, “what 3 days is the concert?” - Turns out they meant a 3D concert. With the mass confusion finally solved, we made our way to Donetsk. The concert was huge with anywhere from 15 – 20 thousand people. There was 5 different Russian rock bands that are considered “legends of Russian rock”. Most of the bands that were there were famous even before the fall of the USSR. The highlight was a band called “АРИЯ” (areeya) – it is comparable to Nirvana. The concert was great but I didn't get back to my city tell after 2:00. Monday was a bit rough.

Well, I may have missed something but I am tired and I have to get up early tomorrow to catch a bus to Donetsk. I will try not to let my blog go so long without an update. I hope people are still reading this thing. If you are, let me know by commenting or emailing me. ConorSteffey@gmail.com I hope all is well in the US.

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:The ice is finally melting! Come on Summer!Reading a book called Boarderlands: A journey through the history of Ukraine. Very interesting and helps explain why the Ukrainian national anthem includes the words, “Ukraine has not yet perished.”I broke up with Amy but we are still really good friends. It is sad but it is for the best. I am trying to find an organization that can help with an electric wheelchair for a 9 year old kid in my city that has Muscular Dystrophy. Anyone have any ideas? It is a desperate situation. I have contacted The Wheelchair Foundation in the US and a couple NGOs in Ukraine but no luck so far. I decided to take a couple vacation days to visit my friend in Artemovsk and to tour a famous champagne factory and to see some fellow volunteers. This is going to be awesome. I have been trying to start a photo club in my town though it turns out my city already has a photo club. I will check it out and I might end up starting my own club anyway. I have met quite a few people that are really into photography and would love to help me start a new club. I plan on heading to Lugansk around the 10th for Amy's B-day and to hang out with some of my friends in the area. Now that spring is officially here (finally!) I want to travel as much as possible. I have been here almost a year and I am still sleeping in a bed the size and firmness of a park bench. Why have I put up with this??? I have been desperately trying to find a blowup mattress. I never thought I would be excited to sleep on a blowup mattress but I guess Peace Corps is a time for many firsts. The next projects I will be working on will be to start a business center, a journalism club, and to start a project to promote the democratic process in Ukraine. We shall see. I have been learning more about gender roles in Ukraine. It is very interesting to me. There was debate in one of my English clubs about whether or not women should be allowed to drive and some of the women actually said that they should not be allowed to drive and that driving cars is for men! Wow. Both the boys and girls in my English club agreed that the differences in roles is a good thing. Cultures naturally differ from one another – who am I do say one way is better than another. I couldn’t help but voice by opinion of absolute equality though. :-) If everyone is happy I guess that is all that matters. ***Click on the photo to see the large version***

Concert in Donetsk

Church in Kharkov

Kharkov at night (I like this photo)

The St Patties day crew in Kharkov

Kharkov

Mexican Food in Kharkov

Train Station Kharkov

Random festival in Khartsizsk

Volunteer Center Fundraiser

Concert in Donetsk

The last two weeks have been relatively normal or as close to normal as they can get for an American living in Ukraine. I have been trying to study Russian as much as possible but have been losing motivation – the learning curve has been more or less flat at this point. I will continue to memorize new words and try to speak as much as possible but it is definitely slow going. I thought I would be more or less fluent by now but turns out Russian is F*&%ing difficult! lol I will obviously keep at it though and have recently downloaded some "learn Russian" audio tracks to listen to while I work. It is kind of funny because I was listening to the audio tracks and repeating them out loud in my office when someone came into the office. I did not notice the person at first and continued to say completely random Russian sentences. After what I hope was only a minute or two, I looked up and I could not help but laugh when I saw a Ukrainian standing there with a confused and slightly nervous look oh her face. lol I tried to explain in a hurried and slightly embarrassed string of Russian words but I think she thought I was crazy anyway. lol It was totally worth the embarrassment though because I got a much needed laugh out of it which was great because I was feeling frustrated with my Russian Skillz. The Volunteer Center trainings have been going well. The Mayor came to our 2nd training which really helped give our Volunteer Center some prestige and reinforced the importance of volunteering. The kids seem very receptive to our trainings but the older generations still seem very skeptical. I think I mentioned this in a previous post but volunteerism in the USSR was very different and was seen a way to force the people to work for free. I can see why they are skeptical if they experienced "forced volunteerism" but hopefully the volunteer center will change some of the negative misconceptions. More importantly, the Volunteer Center will show the youth that they can make a difference in the community and will hopefully empower them. I was also interviewed by the local newspapers again and had my picture in Thursday's paper. Word as officially been spread. We have had a really good turnout at the last two trainings. We had around 40 people at the last two trainings which is great especially since we originally estimated only 25 (ages 16-30) . The trainings have been for 3 hours every Saturday and I have been providing a 30 min fun English activity/lesson to help mix things up a bit and keep everyone evolved. It has been a lot of fun and I think the Kids really enjoy it. Last Thursday one of my Ukrainian friends (Helen) invited me to the University of Economics and Management in Donetsk to talk to a group of graduate and PHD students. It was an open talk to give everyone an opportunity to ask questions about the USA, practice their English, and learn a little bit about the American culture. I really enjoy these experiences because everyone is so interested in the USA and they have tons of questions. I talked about American politics, markets, education systems, and a lot about myself & the Peace Corps. We also talked about Ukraine and some of the current issues Ukraine faces. I cannot comment on Ukrainian politics because I work for the Peace Corps but it is very interesting to hear what Ukrainians have to say. The old saying, "it's not what you know but who you know" seems especially appropriate in Ukraine. At the end of the talk, the presented me with a new cutting board and a small painting. It was very nice of them and I thought it was funny that Helen told them that I needed a cutting board. lol Helen was one of the people that came over to my apartment when I made soft shell tacos and she saw me using a cutting board the size of a small dinner plate so she must have told everyone about that. lol Thank you Aunt Kelly for providing all the delicious spices required for probably the first taco night my town has ever seen. lol Everyone loved the tacos! It was great. After the University, I was asked to visit another high school in my town and talk about the US currency and financial markets. This was a very interesting talk because the situation in Ukraine is so different than in the US. Inflation in Ukraine is around 15-16% and the Ukrainian stock market more or less closed off from the rest of the world. I remember reading the statistic that rated the ease of doing business in around 148 different countries – Ukraine came in 143. The article stated that difficult laws, confusing taxes, and corruption were the main factors. Last Saturday I met with the leader of the Business Union in my town to discuss possible projects. He owns the only Asian restaurant in town so naturally we met in a private room in his restaurant and all ate sushi and drank vodka from 7:00 pm tell 2:00 am. It was a nice evening. We never got around to discussing projects but I think everyone had a good time. That is just the culture here, social interactions always seem to come first before business and it would have been taboo for me to bring it up. It was interesting to hear a businessman speak about doing business in Ukraine and I hope we can work together on a project. Well, not much else going on at the moment. I am just trying to help as much as I can. I think I will visit the local Museum to help translate everything into English for them. That would help me learn Russian and would help the Museum because everyone wants to prepare for the Euro 2012 football championships that will be hosted in Ukraine and that means making things foreigner friendly. :-) Take care all.
Conor's Noteworthy Noteables: 1. Amy is returning to Ukraine next Tuesday! 2. The Mayer visited the Volunteer Center. 3. I went to another comedy club competition at the Palace of Culture (where my office is located). 4. Visited a Kazak festival and observed some old traditions and some Karate demonstrations from my old friends at the Karate club. 5. I have been trying to eat better but I hate cooking. It is a difficult combination. 6. The sun is finally staying up past 5:00! Earlier this winter it was setting at 3:30 pm. I am tired of Gray – Come on Summer! 7. I have been getting to know my Ukrainian friends better. Very good people. 8. I have been looking to start another project but I am not sure what to start yet. I will keep you posted. 9. I have been thinking about taking a trip to Turkey. I was there once with my uncle but I want to see more of it.

Hello, It has been a long time since my last post. Since my last post, we have had our first Volunteer Center meeting. We used the grant money to buy a computer, projector, and some supplies for the organization. Things have been moving along just fine. We had a few glitches at the beginning but I guess that is to be expected with all new projects and organizations. All in all I think it went pretty well though definitely not how I originally expected it to go. My counterparts seem to be pretty happy with how it went and the youth that came to the trainings seemed to enjoy it as well. Things just work differently in this culture. When I think of training a group of young people on various topics of volunteerism - I think organized PowerPoint presentations, clearly defined goals & objectives, planning, preparation, and meetings before the training actually starts. That is simply not how things work here. My counterpart told me a week before the training that everything was ready and that I should stop worrying about it so I thought – who am I to tell them how to do things in their culture? It ended up that the first training was delayed a week, nobody brought the presentations, we did not meet before hand, and there was mass confusion. I had to run to the nearest internet access point to download the presentations only to find that nobody bothered to download the software required to use our presentations. lol Once again, things do tend to work out here. Someone found another laptop to use that had the software installed though we then found out that we did not have an extension cord for the projector so I had to run to the nearest store and buy one. Needless to say, we had a few hiccups with our first meeting but people enjoyed it and even learned a thing or two. We all agreed that we need to be better organized for the next meeting but today is Thursday and the meeting is on Saturday and we still have not met. lol This will still be a beneficial project even if it is not how I would have imagined it. The more I learn about the culture, the more I think that an "American" style presentation probably would not be well received here. I need to have faith and trust the people I work with because after all, they know how things work in Ukraine far better than I. I just wish I could contribute more to the project but my Russian is simply not good enough.

Other than that, I have continued to facilitated some English clubs in my community and find them to be some of the highlights of my week. The kids are great and really enjoy learning English. I try to make the club as fun and educational as possible which is easy to do because the kids are so nice. Things have been a bit difficult lately so having such an awesome club is great. It has been soooooo cold here it is ridiculous. It is so cold that my nose runs and then freezes on my mustache. lol TMI? Amy was sent back to DC for medical reasons though she will be medically cleared soon so hopefully she will be back with in week or so. I have been frustrated because I want to help my organization more but am limited because of my Russian. I have also been missing family and friends back home. It is times like these that I have to concentrate on why I decided to join the Peace Corps in the first place. In training, the Peace Corps showed us a graph showing the emotional roller coaster that is Peace Corps service. It is filled with huge ups and sometimes huge downs. Part of this might be because all volunteers want to accomplish a lot in their respective communities and it can be difficult when you realize that due to cultural differences, the ever-present language barrier, or whatever the reasons might be – you might not accomplish what you originally thought. That is not to say that the volunteers accomplish any less than they originally thought – simply that the accomplishments end up being completely different than expected. Different cultures have different priorities and goals – often what volunteers see as a problem is not viewed as such in the local community. For example, many people in my community think that AIDS does not exist or is only limited to drug users when in fact, 2% of the population has HIV/AIDS. Also, many accomplishments are not measurable – how do you measure cultural exchange, showing people that their negative stereotypes of Americans or certain groups of people is not accurate, or the relationships that are made throughout Peace Corps service?

Anywho, not much else is going on. I keep busy. I will be heading to Kharkov in March and might be doing another 10 day camping trip in the Spring. I hope all is well back in the US. Take care everyone. Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. I received a package from my Aunt. Awesome! Thanks Kelly! Cheese dip, spices, recipes, chips, and tortillas! I made some soft shell tacos for some of my friends. It was deeeeeelishous. Oh how I miss spicy food. 2. I took another Language Proficiency Exam and scored significantly higher than I did after PST (pre-service training)3. I am looking to start a Debate club. Should be fun and will be 100% in Russian. 4. I met with a couple new organizations in my town. Always interesting.5. In the next few months I will try and start studying for the GMAT. I am not sure what I will do after PC but I want to have options.

6. Went to a concert in my city with some friends. Very cool. It was nice to see a more liberal croud.

Church in Kiev

Friends at Language Refresher (Chernigiv)

Volunteer Center

Interesting Building in Kiev

Amy and I

Hello everyone, Things are going good here in Ukraine. I have been working on my project, studying Russian, and spending time with my Ukrainian friends. It has been difficult because I want to work, organize, and plan everything before our project starts but nobody else seems to think this is necessary. My counterparts seem to think I am crazy for wanting to do things ahead of time and then they are always surprised when we have to struggle at the last min to get everything ready in time. Sigh. I have to admit that things do seem to get done somehow. I am not sure how exactly but the rabbit always seems to be pulled out of the hat just when I am starting give up hope. It is also frustrating because I cannot write the presentations due to the language barrier. My Russian has gotten better over the last 9 months but I am not at the point yet where I can write presentations. Other than the Volunteer Center, I have started a website for the organization that I am working with in order to increase the professionalism of the organization, list a schedule of upcoming trainings/events, and to organize a list of all clubs, groups, & extra-curricular activities available in Khartsizsk. (www.ActiveKhartsizsk.com) It is a work in progress but I enjoy that sort of stuff so I don't mind putting in the time. My friends find it hilarious when I write in Russian because some of my small mistakes completely change the meaning of the sentence. Lucky for me, my good friend Igor will help me with the Russian on the website so it doesn't sound like a 6 year old wrote the thing. lol Other than work, I have been spending trying to become familiar with all the classic authors. I recently finished "Crime and Punishment" written by Dostoevsky which was very thought provoking and gave some insights into life in the old USSR. It was a good book but a bit too serious for my liking. Since then, I have read a few light-hearted books but I have decided to read all the classics while I am here and since the sun sets at 4:00 pm, I have time to read. The next will probably be Mark Twain's "Double Barreled Detective". I love reading on my Kindle – easy to read, cheap books, and very compact. I had an interesting day which is worth mentioning. The day started like they normally do with me waking up and drinking the biggest cup of coffee possible while either reading a book, checking email, or studying Russian before heading out in the cold to my office in the center of town. While I was drinking my coffee, my counterpart called me and said something in Russian about swimming in the frozen river and to meet him at the bus station. I thought to myself, "Did I hear that correctly? Maybe I misunderstood him. Swimming? now?.... whatever, I will grab my swimming suit and camera just in case he said what I thought he said." Turns out that day was a special Ukrainian holiday and bank of the river was full of people watching some a few freezing individuals jump in the river. My sister commented later that the holiday should be called "National freeze your ass off day" which couldn't be more appropriate and since I never did learn the name of the holiday, I will refer to it as such. Anywho, back to the frozen river. I found myself staring at a 15 foot long cross that was cut into the river, tons of Ukrainians watching the cross, and of course plenty of vodka to warm people up after a plunge into the frozen river. I was thinking that there was no way in hell I am leaving today with jumping into the river. It just seems like such a unique experience that there was no way I would pass up the opportunity to partake in "Freeze your ass off day". So, right there on the side of the river I started taking off all my clothes and prepared myself for the crazy shock that my body would not doubt experience in the near future. It really was an interesting experience – my body did not know if it was hot, cold, burning, or what the hell was going on. The water felt so cold that it actually seemed hot to the touch. I got in the water and dunked myself a couple times and was instantly cured of all sleepiness and apathy. This is definitely another memory that has been burned into my soul forever. As I started walking back out of the river, some of the Ukrainians started yelling something to me that I did not understand at first. Apparently when there is a special way that you have to freeze your ass off on "National Freeze your ass off day". I guess I only dunked my head under the ice twice and on National Freeze your ass off day – you must dunk your head under the ice no less than three times lol so I had to turn around and go under the ice one more time. When I finally got out of the river, I dried off and put back on my clothes as quickly as I could and made my way to the library for my English Club like nothing happened. It was an interesting day. I hope all is well back in the US. Today I take an overnight train to Kiev then a bus to Chernigiv for extensive Russian Language lessons. I will be gone for a week. See you when I get back – stay classy USA. Conor's Noteworthy Noteables: 1. Obviously Ice Swimming. Awesome – it wakes up your soul. 2. Had a nice long conversation with my big sister. Always nice. 3. Finally bought a huge blanked to keep me warm during those long Ukrainian nights. 4. Got a care package from my sister. Awesome! Thank you so much. 5. Went out last night with some of my Ukrainian friends for a drink or two at a local restaurant. Very fun evening. *Click on the photo to see the large version*

Happy New Year everyone! It is hard to believe that it is 2011 already – as I get older time seems to fly faster and faster. So without delay, I give you the last couple crazy weeks. My trip started on Monday December 20th where I packed my bags in my little apartment while it snowed outside. I found it kinda funny packing for both hot and cold weather. I left my apartment around 4:30 pm and made the familiar walk to the bus station where I jumped on a bus as it was pulling out of the station. An hour later I was in Donetsk treating myself to McDonalds before the long 15 hour overnight train ride to Kiev. I arrived in Kiev at 7 am and sleepily made my way to yet another McDonalds to meet up with my cluster mate Cassie. As unhealthy as the golden arches are, my stomach rarely feels as content and happy as after a good ole Big Mac. We had a nice leisurely, salty, fatty, and delicious McD breakfast then went to the Peace Corps office to meet up with our other cluster mates. That night, we went out to a place called Dr. Bar and had steaks and a beer to celebrate the start of our adventure. The bar was down a dark alley behind some old soviet block housing units in a basement. No signs, no advertisements, just dark and sketchy but it ended up being the best steak I have had in Ukraine. It was awesome and all the waitresses dressed up as nurses and handed out shots in beakers. We may have celebrated a bit too much because we did not make it back to our hostel tell 1:00 am and had to get up at 4:00 am to catch a taxi to the airport. Lets just say it was a rough morning. When we arrived in Egypt, we cleared customs, exchanged some money for Egyptian Pounds, then took a shuttle to our "Resort". This "Resort" is almost worthy of it's own blog. It was a Russian resort so even though we were in Egypt, we were still speaking Russian. It was an all inclusive resort though that meant that you could have as many free 2 oz. beers as you would like. lol I was just surprised that beer was so readily available in a Muslim country and in fact, Egypt has been brewing their own "Stella" for over 100 years. Though there is a warning on the can that says every batch of Stella beer in Egypt is different and indeed some were very bitter, some were smooth, so you never knew what you were going to get. Most of the employees at the resort were confused that there were Americans at the Resort and when we explained that, Yes, we are in fact Americans, but we live and work in Ukraine and that we found out about the travel package because we live in Ukraine - It usually made people more confused. We spent the rest of the day (Tuesday) and all of Wednesday in Hurghada just chillin on the beach and having a good time. Unfortunately, we did not learn our lesson the first time and stayed out way too late again then had to catch another extremely early flight to Cairo. Brutal. We were on the no plan plan in Cairo and did not have a place to stay or an agenda other than we would like to see the Pyramids. It was the morning of Christmas eve when we arrived in Cairo, we took a bus downtown and started wandering Cairo (population 17 million). I have traveled quite a bit in countries where I did not speak the language and have always managed to get bye just fine but with the Arabic language, even the numbers are different(Arabic Numbers). Trying to find bus number 390 when the numbers are completely different can be a bit tricky. lol Also, I kinda felt ridiculous when we got on a bus in Luxor and I had no idea what my seat number was. The streets in Cairo were more or less deserted because it was a Muslim holiday. We wandered around until we met someone (Ali) that was very friendly and excited to meet some clueless and lost Americans. He took us to a nice breakfast place in an alleyway in downtown Cairo where we had Falafel and some other traditional food. Ali was a little too nice for me and I was very suspicious but nobody else seemed to think there was any reason to worry so we let him show us around Cairo. He helped us find a hotel in downtown Cairo, take public busses to the Pyramids, and find a tour guide for the Pyramids. He did end up asking for money at the end of the day (which in the Morning he said he wouldn't do) but with his help we were able to see Cairo through the eyes of a local and went to some cool places that we wouldn't have gone to without his help so it worked out. Still, I don't like dealing with people that are not straight up and with clear agendas. Our experience throughout Egypt was that we were nothing but a dollar sign to everyone. Even a holy man at a Mosque tried to con us out of our money. I guess that is what you get when almost the entire economy of a country relies on tourism. Taxi drivers charged extra, tour guides had surprise expenses, street venders tried to cheat us, and everyone seemed to be out to milk every tourist that walked by. Anywho, sorry for the tangent, when we got to the Pyramids our "friend" Ali set us up with a tour guide and some camels. That was a crazy experience. Camels are huge! And they make crazy Camel noises and our camels had very loud gas that would last literally at min at a time. lol So we made our way down a sketchy alley to meet the camel dude and started our journey though a back entrance to the Pyramids in order to avoid the touristy crowds. I will never forget the setting as we started our trek out into the rolling hills of sand. It was hot and sunny with a slight breeze as we started - I checked my watch and saw it was around 12:30 on Christmas eve. We purchased some of the traditional Egyptian turbans to protect our winter white faces from a guy that was running next to our camels. As our train of camels started up the first hill of sand, the sun seemed to intensify with every lumbering step. At that exact time, we could hear the loud speakers from the Mosques in Cairo start to broadcast a prayer. It was quite loud and it sounded like all of Cairo was chanting along to the loud speakers. It was extremely mesmerizing as we all held on to our camels trying not to fall off. There are few times in life that are so burned into memory as this experience was. All senses were engaged: The heat of the sun reflecting off the sand, the slight breeze that was causing my turban to blow in the wind a brush against my face, the smell of dry heat roasting everything, the feeling of my huge camel breathing in and out as it struggles to carry me up the rolling hills, the taste of sand in my mouth, the view of what seems to be endless rolling hills of sand with the peaks of the Pyramids in the background, and of course the sounds of countless millions of Egyptians preying on this Muslim holiday. That moment was quickly interrupted and replaced with hilarity as my camel made a series of weird noises then proceeded to run up and bite John on the leg. I will never forget the look of sheer terror on John's face as my huge camel ran up next to him and started biting him. John was obviously not amused at the time but I could not stop laughing. What could I do? It is not like there is a "stop" button on a camel. lol And the noises my camel made sounded like someone was gargling a gallon of Listerine. Unfortunately, for the rest of the camel trip I am not sure that John was able to look at the Pyramids because he was constantly checking to make sure my camel was not going to attack him again. After the Pyramids, our tour guide that promised to help us find a bus back to our hotel disappeared so we had to wander around a bit until we figured out the public transportation to get back. We ended up taking a van with some other people to the metro station then a metro to our area in downtown Cairo. The 5 of us were quite the spectacle – 5 foreigners of which 3 were girls that had shorts and t-shirts on. Everyone was looking at the girls in our group when we were away from downtown. The downtown area seemed to be used to foreigners and was covered with "tourism police" not that we every felt uneasy or in danger. I was just interesting to see that the majority of the police we saw were tourism police. After we got back to the hotel, we rested for a couple hours then went out for a very nice Christmas eve dinner. I ordered lamb and got a huge lamb leg on a plate with some rice. It was awesome. It was a very good mean and in general, I was very impressed with Egyptian food. Delish. The next morning, Christmas morning, everyone slept in except me. I woke up relatively early and went out on the balcony of our hotel and had a cup of coffee and watched the sun rise. Not a typical Christmas morning but it was very pleasant. I also managed to download a family favorite (or at least a family tradition) Neil Diamond's Christmas album. lol It is so ridiculous but after listening to it every Christmas for as long as I can remember, I absolutely had to. So I woke up my fellow travelers to the sounds of Neil Diamond's Christmas. lol Needless to say, they were not very appreciative but I thank them for tolerating it. It brought back fond memories of many-a-family-Christmases. We ate breakfast in the Hotel then walked to the National Egyptian Museum. We spend a few hours browsing the museum. It was very interesting. There is sooooo much history that it is difficult to comprehend sometimes. There are human artifacts in Egypt dating back 250,000 years. The museum was excellent though I was surprised to see that there was little to protect the ancient artifacts. People went up and touched most of the artifacts. After the museum we had dinner at a little traditional street restaurant, had a hookah in a random alley, and toasted with Egyptian beer before making our way to the train station. It was a very pleasant X-mas wandering Cairo with some good friends. We said goodbye to Cairo and boarded an overnight train to Luxor. We traveled in a nice train car complete with comfy beds, sinks in every cabin, and dinner/breakfast included. It was nice though when looking out the window of the train, I saw that this was not the common conditions on the other trains in the station. Two tracks down I saw a train car with two small sliding doors, no windows, and the car was packed with people standing in the dark with nowhere to sit. Kinda put things into perspective. We arrived in Luxor early in the morning as the sun was rising over the horizon and met our tour guide at the train station. It was a scenic ride from the train station to our first tourist destination – the Valley of the Kings. Dozens of pharaohs were buried in the valley and archaeologists are still finding new artifacts to this day. It was very cool but unfortunately no cameras were allowed in so I don't have any photos so show. We went down into 3 of the tombs which was very interesting but everything was stripped bare so there was not much to see. After the Valley of the Kings we visited the Valley of the Queens and an ancient temple. It was amazing how much history was there, it seemed like everywhere you looked there were ancient statues and artifacts. We were frustrated with our tour guide because he asked for more money after we were told everything would be included in the original price and because when we asked to stop for coffee, he took us to a souvenir shop where they proceeded to serve us coffee and aggressively try to sell us a ton of overpriced crap. We ditched our guide early and walked around Luxor, grabbed lunch, walked an Egyptian Bazaar, toured a Mosque, and caught an afternoon bus back to our resort in Hurghada (5 hours). My original plan when coming to Egypt was to extend my plane ticket and travel alone in Egypt for a few additional days but after the crazy traveling that we did as a group, me being sick, and the costs everything – I decided to go ahead and go back to Ukraine with my cluster mates. It was a good decision because if I had stayed in Egypt, I would have gone to Alexandria and there was a nasty terrorist bombing there at the same time that I would have been there. We arrived back in Ukraine in the evening and we were all shocked with how cold it was. It was hard to breathe because we were used to the warm dry air of Egypt. We spent the night in Kiev before saying our goodbyes to our cluster mates and going our separate ways. I decided to go to Lugansk to celebrate New Years with some of the older volunteers. We had a great time though I was too sick to properly celebrate New Years and ended up going to bed early. It was a nice relaxing weekend and a good finish to an awesome trip. Conor's Noteworthy Noteables: 1. Thawing out on the beaches of Egypt. Ukraine seems even colder now. 2. Spending Christmas with my good PC buddies. Awesome time. 3. Watched some very interesting anti-terrorism commercials on Egyptian TV which was trying to stop the youth from joining terrorist groups. 4. Riding a camel. Unique experience though I don't plan on riding another one any time soon. 5. I was sick throughout the trip and ended up having a respiratory infection. I guess that's what you get for not sleeping and traveling so much. Kinda put a damper on the New Years celebration. 6. Listening to the ridiculousness that is Neil Diamond's Christmas album in Cairo. Awesome! 7. New Years in Lugansk. Nice relaxing way to bring in the New Year. ***Click on the photos to view the large version***

Hello!Once again, I have gone too long without posting. I guess things that were once new and exciting are not commonplace and thus not blog worthy. Since I last posted, I have visited another neighboring town (Zoogress – named after the huge power plant that is located in the center of the small town – zoning laws anyone?) and spoke to a group of students there. It was fun – I always enjoy talking to the English students. They are always so excited to speak what little English they know. I especially like going to the smaller towns because the culture seems to be stronger and the kids are more excited to meet a foreigner. My class in Zoogress is a perfect example of this. I spoke to a group of around 35 kids for a couple hours. They had an endless supply of questions about America and about me and were super excited to hear what I have to say. Everything they know about Americans is based on the movies or TV shows they have seen. lol I am constantly asked what famous people I know and when I respond that I don't know any famous people they tend not to believe me. After the class was over, the kids gave me a medieval mace as a thank you for visiting them. Then I proceeded to sign autographs for 20 min. lol It was cute and hilarious at the same time. I also spoke to a group of about 100 kids at a tech school in my town. The questions are always so random that there is no way to prepare. What music do you listen to? Did you own a dog? What kind of car did you drive? How did you become so awesome? Ok maybe they didn't ask that last question but I am sure they were thinking it ;–). Just kidding, it is kinda hard not to feel like a superstar sometime. Most people don't understand why some random tall bearded American is in their community especially since volunteerism is a foreign concept. It is an excellent opportunity to open some minds, explain a little about the American culture/views, and dispel some of the incorrect stereotypes about America. Other than the visits with schools and institutes, I have been working on my project (to start a volunteer center) and I have started a website in my city to organize all of the activities, clubs, and events that are available to the community. Nobody seems to know what is available in the community so I am going to organize the information on a central location. Hopefully this will make people more active in their community. Wish me luck. I am no webmaster so we shall see.

My trip to Egypt starts tomorrow! Check out where I will be staying: http://www.pyramisaegypt.com/pyramisabluelaguna/location.asp. I can't wait to lay out on the beach, explore some cities/towns, and check out some of the sites. This is going to be awesome. We will also be spending a couple days in Cairo to check out some of the famous sites and I will take an overnight train to get back to the hotel in Hurgada. I will take tons of photos so stay tuned. I got a new site mate! That means that I will no longer be the only American in my city! My new site mate (Danielle) will be an English teacher in on the the high schools in town. She is cool and laid back just like all Peace Corps volunteers. We will get along just fine. I have been trying to show her around a bit and introduce her to some of my friends to help her adjust. It is interesting to have another American's perspective on my city. Not to mention the ability to speak ENGLISH! I love Russian but there is nothing quite like one's native tongue. I would have killed for someone to show me around and introduce me to people when I arrived. When I got here, I did not know anyone, I spoke horrible Russian, and had to learn everything through trial and error (tons of errors) lol Some funny errors too. I am better off because of it though.

Last week, I went to a Donetsk Football Game "Shakhtar" – it was very interesting. Shakhtar plays in a new stadium (Donbass Arena) with according to some of the Football magazine, it is the nicest stadium in Europe. I believe it. The stadium was beautiful and was filled with over 50,000 screaming fans. That was one hell of a cultural experience. I was surprised with how well organized everything was and how passionate the Ukrainians were about the game. Shakhtar won 2-0 and will go on to play Italy in February which is a game I plan on attending. I will post some photos from that evening. It was great fun.

Today was St Nicholas day so I decided to go to church. I know, not what you expected – I am not the churchy type. It is an important part of the culture here so I figured it was important for me to observe it, and I am glad that I did. So I woke up early today to catch the trolleybus which went off without a hitch until the bus broke down in the middle of an intersection. I could not help but laugh because it broke down at the exact time I thought, "Damn, things are going smoothly and I will get there early". So, I had to trek through slushy snow and deep puddles and ask people how to get to the church. I got there eventually though a bit late and entered the church as quietly as possible. It is almost impossible to enter any kind of gathering unnoticed when you are as tall as I am, have a beard, and look foreign. :–) Sometimes I get the double take. Always cracks me up. The church was fun. My friend is the Priest (I met him on the Crim camping trip) and his wife is my Russian tutor. Their son dressed up as St Nicholas and handed out some presents. Everyone had to sing in front of everyone in order to receive a present. lol This included me. I sang "Jingle Bells" in front of everyone. I warned them but they didn't listen. Lets just say it is a Christmas miracle that nobody's ears bled. Anywho, my friends are such good people. I have dinner with their family at least once a week and have become friends with their sons. I took lots of photos which I will post later. Very pleasant experience.

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. Egypt. Need I say more?2. Meeting more and more people. It is sooo difficult to remember all the names and faces. 3. Observed an English Olympiad. Interesting stuff4. Went to a huge concert at the "Pioneer House" - Dancing, music, singing etc... Very interesting.5. Got some letters from the states. Thanks all. That was very nice. Well, I am tired. Goodnight. I hope all is well in the States. I will post again when I get back from Egypt. Happy holidays everyone!!!Some of the kids from Zoogress

Dombass Arena

View from my seat at Dombass Arena

Town Concert

Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Some of my friends/coworkers

Hello again, Once again I have gone too long without posting on the ole Blog. I have been traveling quite a bit and have not had access to internet long enough to post. I am back and a lot has happened since my last post. Since my last post, I have had numerous sessions with my Russian tutor, Amy came to visit, I have visited numerous English classes as a guest speaker, I visited a University in a neighboring town to speak to the students about the cultural differences between the US and Ukraine, I attended a "Warden" training in Kiev, visited my friend Kim in Konotop, and had Thanksgiving in Lugansk. So you see, not much time to blog. I have been trying to devote more time and energy on studying Russian but with the traveling and constant things that seem to come out of nowhere – it has been difficult. I am not sure if my Russian is getting better or worse. My Russian tutors have been great though. They are very nice people and genuinely care about their crazy American. One of them has been teaching me how to prepare various Ukrainian/Russian meals while we converse in Russian. I have made Verinnakey, Permini, and have made dough by hand. Fun stuff. She an awesome person and is constantly surprised how little I know about cooking which usually makes us laugh. My problem is not that I can't figure out how to cook, it is simply that I do not think cooking a meal for 3 hours is worth the 5 min it takes to eat the meal. Not to mention the cleanup time. Who knows, maybe I will change and embrace my inner culinary self. I am sick of eating eggs, cereal, and sandwiches every day. I will add some photos of me cooking just in case you can't picture it mentally lol My week of traveling was awesome. I started with an overnight train to Kiev. I am more cautious with my stuff now because my friend had his pants stolen while he was sleeping. That would make for an awkward morning lol. I attended a "warden" training because I am now the security contact in my region in case of a disaster where all volunteers need to be evacuated from the country. It was interesting – they had someone that worked for the Israel Special Forces for 15 years come speak to us about conflict avoidance/warning signs. After the training, I went out with a couple volunteers and had a fun evening in Kiev then stayed at a hostel downtown. It rained the entire time I was in Kiev but I still had a good time. I enjoy staying at hostels - 15 beds in one big room is not all that comfortable but you meet many cool and interesting travelers so it is worth it. Not to mention the fact that the bed costs only $16 and the hostel is located downtown next to many cool places. The next day I went to get on the train to Konotop but alas the ticket I bought the day before was for a train that did not exist. lol Nobody knew what the hell kind of ticket I had. Oh Ukraine. So I had to buy another ticket and wait around for 3 hours. When I arrived in Konotop, I waited around in a café for my cluster mate Kim. Konotop is a nice city – bigger than my site and pretty clean. We walked around the city and met up with a few other volunteers to attend Kim's English club where they had a surprise Thanksgiving dinner waiting for us. It was very nice. We had a good meal, met some good people, then made our way to the train station heading to Lugansk. It was another overnight train but there were 4 of us so we crowded around a table and chatted the night away over wine and snacks. Train travel is a lot of fun with good friends. When we arrived in Lugansk, we were met by two of the volunteers that live in the city. They walked us back to one of their apartments until our hotel room was ready. Thanksgiving was a blast. There was a total of 14 people there with varied backgrounds and ages (22 – 70 years old). It was awesome – we hung out all day and night Friday and Saturday then I took a train home Sunday evening. One of the older volunteers orchestrated the whole meal and managed to find a huge Turkey, bake pies, find good wine, and provide a great atmosphere for everyone to be together. I tried to pitch in with a salad but I accidentally bought cabbage instead of lettuce. lol She saved the day by making a coleslaw with the ingredients I purchased. It was great to have the whole cluster back together and see the other volunteers that I had not seen for a long time. It was rainy in Lugansk too but it was still fun. Peace Corps Volunteers know what's important and can always have a good time. Last week I visited a few English classes in my community. I enjoy doing that and meeting the kids (10 – 20 years old). Some of them speak English very well. I am always s a bit of a spectacle when I visit these classes because most of the students have never spoken to a native English speaker or met an American. It is kind of a confidence booster when people are so amazed when I speak my native language lol The questions about America and the American culture are also quite entertaining. Without fail, I am always asked if I have a wife and when I say that I don't have a wife and that I am not sure if I want to get married – it never ceased to blow a few minds. I just see "cannot compute" on everyone's foreheads. I explain that I don't really want kids, the world is overpopulated/polluted/finite resources etc..., and that I enjoy traveling. Many of the questions I receive from the students are with regards to what kind of food Americans eat. I try to explain that every state is different and that my family usually prefers Mexican food though it varies. Obviously, the American culture is just a melting pot of many different cultures so it is almost impossible to answer some of their questions. However, when I explain that individuality is very highly valued in American culture, (it is considered negative in Ukraine) that seems to get the students to start thinking about their own culture and we end up having a good discussion. Many students are very shy and reserved – I think that being the first American they have ever met, being very tall, and the only person in my city of 65,000 people that has a beard can be intimidating for them at first but they come around eventually. Yesterday, I went to a neighboring city to talk with some University students about the American education system and culture. I though it would be a very casual conversation with a few students that would probably last 15-30 min. I should have know better – nothing ever goes down how you think it would in Ukraine. I woke up early that day to get ready and catch the bus a little after 8:00. I arrive at the University an hour later and the director gave me a tour of all of their classrooms which was interesting. We then go into a huge auditorium with over 100 teachers and students and one of the teachers tells me, "ok, go ahead a start. You will be speaking to them for 1 hour." I just think. ok. I should have seen this coming. The Conor 8 months ago would be pretty nervous at this point but I am pretty used to this kind of craziness now. I said what I could in Russian but soon had to switch to English. They provided me with a translator though she did not translate everything I said and would not translate what the students said – very frustrating. It was not the smoothest or most comfortable presentation I have ever made but I think everyone enjoyed it. After the presentation, I met with the director for some champagne, meat, cheese, and bread. It was nice and everyone was every friendly. Overall I had a good time. I also me a director from a youth organization in the neighboring city which I might be able to work with in the future. Conor's Noteworthy Noteables: 1. I ate 5 raw quail eggs at my Russian tutor's house. Pretty good, kinda sweet, but I had some crazy dreams that night. Not sure if I will be eating those again. 2. My Kindle arrived! Awesome. Now I have an endless supply of books to read which is important since the sun sets around 3:30 now. Yikes. 3. Egypt – 3 weeks and counting. 4. Bathroom flooded. Lucky for me, the person that lives below me was very nice and there was little to no damage. Apparently this is a common in old Soviet housing. 5. Read "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" on the train. Very good book. The new Kindle is awesome. 6. A package arrived from the states. Thanks parents! Kinda weird that 2 packages were sent at the exact same time from the same location but they arrived over a week apart. The post office has the 2nd package but I have not been able to pick it up yet. Thank again! If anyone wants to send me some love, shoot me an email and I will send my address. ;–) 7. Cooked a couple different Ukrainian dishes with my new friend/tutor. Always fun. 8. I have been starting conversations with random Ukrainians on the street. Sometimes they have patience with my Russian and sometimes they don't. It is interesting either way. 9. The new Peace Corps Trainees will be sworn in soon which means I will have a site mate within the next month! I hope he or she is cool. Well, I am going to bed. I hope all is well back home. Peace

Hello everyone, Sorry I did not post last week. I don't really have an excuse other than I just didn't get around to it. After getting back to my site from the Halloween party, I was feeling a bit drained. Anywho, since my last post, I have finalized the grant for my project. It is now official – we have won the grant and will receive funding to start a volunteer center in my city. Very cool. Now I just have to find a way to motivate my coworkers to work on the lesson plans. This is another time where I have to work really hard on not letting the American in me get out. I want to have a solid plan and prepare the PowerPoint presentations for our trainings ASAP but my Ukrainian colleagues don't seem to think it is necessary and will probably wait tell the last minute. Breath deep Conor – it will work out Conor. I have also been working with 2 Russian tutors. It is a lot of work and my Russian is at the point where it is hard to determine if it is getting better or not because I am now concentrating on learning words that you might only hear once a month or so. I feel I know most of the extremely popular words but as soon as the conversation goes into more detail, it can be tough to understand. For example, if I talk about Universities in general – I am fine but once we start talking about specific subjects – it is difficult. Because of this, the learning curve is damn near flat at this point and without hearing my new words regularly, they are easy to forget. Oh well. Nobody said this would be easy. I have also been busy working with a few of the English teachers in the community. I am not a teacher and I have little teaching experience so developing lesson plans can be difficult but I am already much better at it than I was a few months ago. Ideally, the Ukrainian English teacher will develop the lesson plan and then I will execute it. I had a class at the local museum that was very fun, everyone was participating in the activities, and I met some good people. One of the students invited me to go see a soccer game in Donetsk. Donetsk just built a new soccer stadium for the Euro 2012 games and has a very good team called Shakhtar. This stadium is huge and will host some of the World Cup games. Should be a crazy time. There is also a Foreign languages organization that I have been visiting from time to time and speaking to the students. It is kinda funny to get praise for simply speaking your native language. lol It is fun and it is a great way to meet people. I even have a class for little kids ages 4-7. The little kid class took some getting used to but it is also a good time. I have been working on some fun games for them to play and I bribe them with candy to keep them focused. My lesson plans have gotten better and I am happy to say that my last class was very well done. Everyone leaned a few things, the students were involved and asking questions, and we are all getting to know each other. This last weekend was the collaborative meeting for all the volunteers in the Donetsk region. I made my way to the main Donetsk Library and met up with 7 other volunteers that live within a few hours of Donetsk. We talked about everyone's sites, what projects people are working on, and discussed a variety of issues and best practices. It was a lot of fun and I met some awesome PCVs. After the meeting we all went out for dinner at a Turkish restaurant. It is always interesting to hear about how other volunteers are doing because we all have such different experiences. No 2 peace corps experiences are the same. After dinner we went to a bar that was off the beaten track and listened to some live music. One of the volunteers that I met will be COSing (Close of Service – going home) in a month – it was interesting to hear what he has done over the last 2 years and his impressions of Ukraine. The organization he worked with was a English Languages school so he was surrounded by people that speak a good amount of English and because of that, after 2 years, he still does not know Russian. At times it would be nice to have an English speaker in my community but overall, I am happy that I do not have English speakers in my community because I really want to be fluent in Russian by the time I leave Ukraine. After the live music, we went to a bowling ally / night club / karaoke bar. Lets just say, PCVs know how to have a good time. We bowled, sang a few songs, and danced the night away. My cluster has now fully paid and reserved our trip to Egypt for X-Mas. I can't wait. Egypt is going to be EPIC! Our hotel is right next to the beach. We are going to see the pyramids, celebrate Xmas together, and relax on the beach. It is very common for Ukrainians to go to Egypt for vacation because there are my cheap travel packages. We will be there 8 days / 7 nights and I might stay a bit longer by myself depending on the flight arrangements. I figure that I don't know when I will be in Egypt again so I might as well stay a bit longer and take it all in. After my cluster flies back to Ukraine, I plan on traveling to a small village/town that is off the beaten path to try and get a feel for the culture. You really need to stay in a foreign country for a number of months to experience the culture but that is out of the question. We shall see. The plane tickets might be expensive so I might decide to come back with my cluster. Next week I will be traveling to Kiev for warden training (I will be the security warden in my area). So I leave for Kiev Monday night and will stay there for a night or two then I will be heading to Konotop in the Sumi Oblast to visit my cluster mate for a day or two then it is off to Lugansk for Thanksgiving. I am excited. I love traveling and overnight trains make it so easy because you just go to sleep and wake up in a new city with a new adventure waiting for you. Awesome. When I first arrived in Ukraine I thought it was a bit silly to have to travel overnight when you are only going 200 miles or so but now I enjoy it. It is pretty cheap as well. It is only $15 to travel to Kiev from Donetsk (300 miles or so). Overall, life in general is going pretty good. I keep busy with my projects, Russian studies, English clubs, traveling, and all the random events that seem to come out of nowhere. It is hard to keep a routine because everything is always subject to change though I enjoy the variety of the things I do. When I reflect to my time working as a broker at Fidelity Investment, it makes me realize how lucky I am to be here. I enjoyed my time at Fidelity but I was at a desk all day every day and every min of every day was planned. Now I never know what the day has in store for me, I am constantly traveling to new cities, meeting new people, experiencing new things, helping people, and doing things I never thought I would be able to do. The downside is that I miss my family & friends, I miss everything familiar, and I don't get paid - in fact I spend some of my own money every month but that is a small price to pay for the experiences I am having. The culture is just so different here. Conor's Noteworthy Noteables: 1. Meeting up with the volunteers in my region for an unforgettable night. Awesome 2. Hand washing more clothing. God, I miss a washing machine. I find myself pushing my clothing to the limit. It is amazing how many times you ware the same clothing if you know you have to hand wash everything. Not to mention that I only have running water for a few hours a day. 3. Traveling to Egypt, Konotop, Kiev, Lugansk, etc.. Keeps thing exciting 4. Skyping with my peeps from the states. 5. I have a Kindle on the way. Awesome - not I will have an endless supply of English books to read. 6. Meeting people and learning more about the former USSR. Very interesting. 7. Getting pretty creative with my meals here. Oh Costco. Where are you? 8. Trying Holodets. Animal fat that was liquefied then put in the refrigerator to solidify then eaten. I don't know if I will every get used to that particular dish though I have started to enjoy Salo. I will post photos in a few hours.

Hello everyone,

I write this from Balaklea (Amy’s town). We just got back from Kharkiv (the region center and former capital of Ukraine). It was awesome. Let me start from the beginning. I took a taxi late Friday night to a neighboring town (Markeevka) and boarded an overnight train to Balaklea. Arrived at 3 in the AM and waited at the train station for 45 min because Amy was arriving from Kiev on a different train. We then made our way to Kharkiv where we checked in at the hotel all the PCVs will be staying at. Let’s just say customer service is still a foreign concept here. When I was talking to a group of PCVs, I jokingly referred to the lady at the front desk as “a big bucket of sunshine” and everyone knew who I was talking about. This constant lack of customer service can probably be attributed to the old days of the USSR when everyone was assigned work, everyone knew their place/role, and there was little opportunity for change – if someone did not like the service they were receiving, there was little to be done. Everything was government owned so there is only one option and if you didn’t like that option - tough. Nowadays, though things have gotten better, private property rights and free enterprise are not fully developed or understood. It is interesting to me to see this transition first hand. It is apparent that those that understand the concepts of Supply and Demand have a huge opportunity here in Ukraine though they first have to get around an extremely difficult legal system before they can start any viable businesses. Not to mention the business mentality that exists. It is difficult to explain and I am by no means an expert on the subject but I think a good example is the old films from the USSR. When I was hanging out with some of my Ukrainian friends in my community, we watched a couple old films from the USSR. In one of these films, a man brought cases of oranges from Moscow to the Crimean Peninsula to sell them for a profit (USSR controlled the supply of everything). It was interesting because he was the bad guy in the movie. Why? It is because he is taking initiative and trying to buy and sell things for personal gain. It is a common mindset that everyone should get an equal share, the government knows what’s best, and it is bad to question authority or to take any initiative. Anywho, the slow transition to a free market system is very interesting to me and the businessmen in Ukraine that have identified inefficiencies in the market have huge opportunities though the rules and regulations (or lack thereof) that govern markets and businesses is a huge obstacle to overcome for any businessman or entrepreneur.

Sorry, kinda went off on a tangent. Back to Kharkiv – After checking in at the hotel Amy and I took the metro to the city center and walked around for a while. Kharkiv has lots of history – we walked around the “red square”, saw the sites, and ate at McDonalds. The day was nice however the Halloween party that evening was Legendary! Since Halloween is not celebrated here, costumes are difficult to come by. Lucky for me, Amy let me use her “dead-face gorilla mask”, and we found some black wings so I was a flying monkey from the Wizard of Oz. It was awesome. We had over 100 PCVs - young men women from 100 different communities all over Ukraine that have been deprived of all things American, that have not seen there fellow Peace Corps friends for long periods of time, and that have not been able use/speak English for long periods of time. It was a recipe for an unforgettable night. We had a nightclub rented out only for PCVs that was right next door from the hotel. It was so nice to see everyone again, to hear about everyone’s crazy experiences, and to simply relax with people that speak your language and know your culture. Well, I need to get going. I am helping Amy with her English club before heading back to my site later today via overnight train.

Conor’s Noteworthy Noteables:

1. Best Halloween party ever! PCVs are the most friendly, carefree, open minded people I have ever met. Makes for awesome times.

2. Exploring Kharkiv. Good times – I will have to go back.

3. Seeing my fellow volunteers and cluster mates that I have not seen for a long time.

4. 7 months in Ukraine.

5. We booked our trips to Egypt. My cluster and I will be going to Egypt for 8 days over Christmas! Whoohoo! It is very cheap to travel to Egypt from Ukraine and all meals, hotels, and drinks are included.

6. Got a nice letter from my sister with some great photos. Thanks Erin-o!

7. Submitted my final draft for my project. Cross your fingers for me.

Hello everyone, I am back from my camping trip! It was awesome. We hiked all day every day around the beautiful Crimean Peninsula mountains then spent a day and a half camped on the Black Sea. Lots of exercise and lots-o-Russian. Thankfully, there was a great guy named Igor there that spoke some English which really helped. Igor, if you are reading this, thanks again. The trip started at someone's house where we finished packing up our backpacks and organizing 10 days worth of food (probably around 50 pounds with water) then made our way on foot to the train station in my city. It was raining and a bit cold which was not a good sign for the start of a 10 day camping trip but Igor assured me that he always has great luck with weather - thankfully his luck ran true. We took the 90 min electreechka (slow, cheap, low range passenger trains to and from major hubs) to Donetsk. We arrived in Donetsk in the early evening and chatted outside the Вокзал (train station) until it was time to get on the overnight train to Simferopol. We were in platzcart (3rd class) and everyone thought it was hilarious that I did not fit in the tiny little bunks. lol Many photos were taken with my feet hanging off the end of the bed. Then, in typical Ukrainian fashion, we proceeded to crowd around one of the small tables and have a nice meal. I brought a small amount of cognac as a thanks for allowing Amy and I to go on this trip so we all toasted to the start of our adventure. There were 9 people in total all with varying backgrounds and ages. Everyone got along fine and we all had a great time. We had a priest with an extensive military background, a blacksmith/karate instructor also with strong military background and his wife, a computer programmer, an industry/factory safety coordinator, 2 blacksmith apprentices, and 2 crazy Americans (Amy and I). At times, it was difficult to communicate with my limited Russian skillz but we made it work out just fine and when we couldn't communicate, we would sit back and absorb the absolutely beautiful scenery (I took over 300 photos). It was nice to be away from all modern amenities/electronics/stresses and just be out in nature doin our thang. At times, it was tough: hiking at night down steep and slippery terrain (I didn't have a flashlight cuz it broke), hiking without any trails through thick forests, hiking with little water to drink (we had to find our water), hiking for over 12 hours (usually only 8 hours), sleeping in below freezing weather (turns out my sleeping bag is not that great and when we woke up our water was frozen), sleeping with 3 people in what seemed to be a 2 man tent and me being extremely tall, Amy got sick and I had to carry some of her stuff in my already heavy bag, etc... It was well worth it though - many great memories, awesome times, and I got to know some very cool people. Towards the end of the trip, we hiked down from the mountains though a small town on the way to the sea (Black Sea = 10 km away). It was around 10:00 pm, pitch black, cold, tired, and we had been looking unsuccessfully for hours for flat enough terrain to make camp for the night. To my astonishment, the group sent the girls to go up to a random house and knock on the door for directions. I guess they would be less threatening than the guys. I was surprised once again by the Ukrainian hospitality we received. We woke someone up late at night and they were nice enough to spend time with us and explain were we could find a suitable camping place. It was great and just in time. I didn't feel like I could hike another inch. And the next morning, when it was light out and we could actually see, we awoke on a hill next to a beautiful little lake/reservoir nestled between sheer cliffs with the small quiet little village down a short distance from where we camped. I bathed in the stream then took off with my camera to explore the small town. I walked around the village greeted only by stray dogs, grazing goats, and the occasional sleepy villager. After walking for a while, by pure coincidence, I ran into a few other people from our group at the local магазин (store). it was 11:00 am and the only store in town still had not opened for the day so the people from my group were waiting patiently outside. Supplies were purchased and we made our way to a little house that had a garden and some grape vines in order to buy some veggies and wine. Once again, I was surprised to see that the owner of this house gave us (random strangers) wine and veggies without payment and said it would be fine if we paid latter (guess nobody brought money). Trust and honor go a long way here. We then packed our backpacks and made our way to the sea. On the way we pass dozens of vineyards until we arrived at our campsite surrounded by the black sea on one side and a vineyard with an old Turkish watchtower on the other. Beautiful. We proceeded to pitch our tents one last time, barbeque some chicken, cook some borsch, drink some wine, relax on the coast, and swim in the sea sometime after midnight. The next morning we walked down the coast 6 km to the town of Marskova and explored another small town. It was one hell of a way to end a fantastic trip. I arrived back in my town on Wednesday. Since then, I have been working on finalizing some of the details of my project to start a volunteer center in my city. We will find out early November if it will be funded or not. I really hope it gets funded - it could really help my community. I spent most of the weekend in Donetsk with Amy and other volunteers. My cluster mate Kim was in Donetsk to meet with people about starting a computer lab for the blind in her community. Very cool project. It is exciting to hear about other people's projects and to see what they are up to. We found an Irish pub in Donetsk and caught up on life then went to a Turkish restaurant for some fantastic food (though I felt a little sick afterwards). Very pleasant weekend and after sleeping in a tent for ten days, my tiny little bed is that much more comfortable. Earlier today, I met up with some of the people from the camping trip and someone's wife gave me a Russian lesson. Very helpful. I need to devote more of my time on my Russian skillz. Anywho, I hope everything is going great back in the states. Miss you all. Conor's Noteworthy Noteables: 1. Ten day camping trip in Crim - unforgettable. 2. I now have 2 Russian tutors. Now I just need to find time to use them and study. lol 3. Still learning how to work with the ever-present extreme cultural difference. 4. My new friend from the camping trip is helping me find faster internet in my apartment! Awesome. I might actually be able to skype with people soon. Cross your fingers. 5. Found a couple old coworkers from Fidelity on Facebook. Shout out to Tanner and John F*&^ing Carlquist. lol (inside joke). Tell everyone hi for me. 6. Halloween party next week in Karkiv! Over 100 volunteers! Private club and hotel. Awesome~! It is late and I have to get up early tomorrow. Peace!

Hello all!

Right now I am sitting in the only place in my city with WIFI while I wait to depart on the camping trip. I will be going to the Crimean Peninsula with an NGO from my community that consists of "veterans of the USSR Airborne, Special Forces, the KGB, the Interior Ministry, Afghans, combatants and other arms." Should be awesome! Wish me luck. I just wanted to let people know that I won't be posting until I get back (probably almost 2 weeks).

I hope all is well in the US.

-Conor

Hello everyone,Well, this week was more low-key than normal which has been nice. Now that I have submitted the first draft of our project, some of the pressure is off. I still have a lot to do in order make this a successful project but at least the overall project plan is more or less complete. Now we are concentrating on getting all the lesson plans organized and finishing up as much paperwork as possible before I go on my 10 day camping trip. It has been interesting trying to work together with my Ukrainian counterparts. The culture is just so different. I feel obsessive compulsive for always trying to organize everything. How do things get done without a clear-cut plan with specific details and due dates? I guess we will find out. lol I am constantly trying to keep the "American" in me from getting out. I need to learn to do things how Ukrainians do things because after all, I live in Ukraine now. I have also been warned by some of the PCVs that have been here for over a year and from PC staff that if you try and do things like you would in the US, you will probably fail. So, this is me going with the flow with faith that things will get done eventually ...gulp...

I have also been teaching a couple different English clubs in my community. It has been a lot of fun. My adult class now knows most basic greetings and some basic words so next week we will start to put things together into sentences and attempt to have some simple dialog. It is fun to see everyone learn and attempt to speak. I have over 20 people in my adult class varying in age from 13 - 55 and 7 kids in my young class with ages ranging from 5 -10 years. I think I do a pretty good job of keeping everyone entertained and learning though it really helps to have a Ukrainian friend there with me to help when people don't understand my Russian. This friend has been great and I really appreciate the help. I have also been going to Karate 2 or 3 times per week. It is fun, I get some exercise, practice my Russian, and I have made a few friends. I try to accept all invitations to do anything at this point in order to meet as many people as possible.

Other than work, I have been doing a lot of thinking about life, relationships, and the decisions we make. You never know which decisions you will look back on many years down the road and think - That decision shaped my future. Because of that decision, I am now doing this or I became that or whatever. Obviously, joining the PC was one of those decisions and it was obvious from the beginning that it would be one of the important "forks in the road" of my life but there are many decisions that seem insignificant at the time that end up becoming a defining moment in one's life. I guess I have been thinking about this because of all the different roads my old friends have taken in their lives, my bro thinking about getting married, my sister giving birth to a beautiful baby girl that I have yet to meet, and me a million miles away from everything in a small city close to Russia. Who knows how everything is going to play out in the long run. Life is an adventure, the least we can do is enjoy the ride.

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. It is starting to get cold here. As I type this, I have my winter coat on and a couple blankets lol. The weird thing is that when I lived in Wyoming, it was probably colder. The difference is that in Wyoming and other cold places in the US, you are usually only cold in transit and once you are inside you are relatively warm. Here, there is no escape. It is usually just about as cold inside as it is outside. 2. I need a new bed. My back hurts. Why do I feel like I sleep in a tiny crib instead of a bed....oh yeah...Peace Corps...right, I signed up for this. 3. I can now comfortable speak to most people about basic things. It is hard to gage how much Russian I am learning at this point - I kinda have to have faith that I am learning through being surrounded by Russian 24-74. I need faster internet. I can only skype from a bar in town because it is the only place in town with free WIFI. 5. I finally feel like I am somewhat in a routine (as much as possible in Ukraine). Only took 6 months. lol I still don't know what the day will bring until it is already here but now not knowing is expected. : -) 6. I have not been taking very many photos lately but will try and change that by next post. At the very least, I will have tons of photos to post after the camping trip.

Donetsk

Found someone my height!

Gas Mask Con

Khartsizsk Day

Blast from the Past. Guatemala 2006

Ukrainian Countryside

Hello Everyone,Well, not too much to report this time because I just posted on Wednesday. Since I last posted, I have completed the first draft of a SPA grant (Small Projects Assistance). If the grant gets approved, we will be starting a volunteer center in our city. Pretty exciting stuff. I have been working a ton trying to get all the details organized and everything written up. Wish us luck. Other than that, I was in both newspapers this week from the interview last week. Pretty cool stuff. People have come up to me in the street to say, "Hello" in English to which I reply, "Hello, how are you?" - most of the time I get a blank stare in response but it is still cool to be greeted like that. I am still waiting to get a copy of the TV interview - I will post it when I get a copy. That will be pretty cool. On Friday, I went to a KBH competition. This is a humor competition where teams from neighboring towns and cities come to compete. It was a lot of fun though I did not understand many of the jokes. Good atmosphere and lots of laughs. Maybe next year I will understand more of the jokes. After KBH, a group of 12 of us went to a restaurant for the evening. It was a lot of fun. We had some traditional drinks then I took a taxi home around midnight. My organization is great - full of good people that want to help however they can. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I will be going on a 10 day backpacking/camping trip in the Crimea peninsula with an organization in town from Oct 10 - 20. It is going to be awesome. We will pack all the food we are going to eat for ten days in our backpacks. We will hike all day every day in the mountains. I can't wait. And at the end of the trip, we will spend 2 days on the beach before taking the long train ride back to our city. Well everyone, not much more to report. I hope everything is going great back in the US. Until next week. Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. First SPA draft submitted!2. Getting ready for the camping trip. Lots of little purchases. 3. I have been attending a Karate group 3 times a week at the local school. Good times - it is nice to have a good workout. 4. I now have another Club. That makes 2 on Wed and now 1 on Sat. The new one will be for intermediate speaks so that should be fun.5. It was Nate "old man" McBride's birthday on the 24th. Happy birthday! The McBrides are Awesome! 6. Found a place that sells frozen chicken nuggets. I never thought I would be so excited about something so simple but after eating eggs every day for months, it is nice to have some variety. lol

*Click to view large version*

KBH (Humor Competition)

Birthday PartyNewspaper Article 1 Newspaper Article 2

Hello again. Well, I am starting to sound like a broken record but....this has been another crazy week. It is hard to get into a routine when nothing ever goes as planned and things tend to pop up out of nowhere. Sorry I did not post on my regular day (Sunday). Lots of crazy personal crap...So....lets catch up. The week started as they all do. Me alone in a small city in Ukraine - just trying to figure things out, learn the language, and help however I can. I have been working on a grant to start a volunteer center in my community. It is coming along slowly but surely. With the language barrier, it can be tricky to work out some of the finer details but I am used to that at this point. We have worked out most the details so I know what the plan is however how we are going to execute the plan is not clear at this point. Come-on Russian skills! Get better already! I had my first English club this week. It was supposed to be for around 10 kids around the age of 10. Things never go as planned - I had probably 25 people show up with ages ranging from 4 years old all the way up to 55. I couldn't help but chuckle at this. It went fine - we just went over simple greetings and introductions and I gave the little kids some candy at the end. Needless to say, I now have 2 groups. lol It will be interesting to see who shows up tonight. Word may have spread like wildfire and I may have even more people. yikes. It will be fun tho. So, between working on the grant and the English club, I have also been going to a Karate club 3 times per week. It is fun and I get some much needed exercise. Every Sat, Mon, and Wed at 7 pm. Good stuff. It is organized by someone I met the night I met all the army guys (previous blog). Since the title of this blog is named "week of surprises" - let me explain: The English club was surprise #1 then the next day I was sitting in my office working on the grant when the head of the education dept walks in my office to inform me that i will be giving a 30 min presentation to 30 teachers from 30 different schools in the area and that I will be giving this presentation in 2 hours. It turns out that the English teachers from 30 schools in the area are all meeting today and they want me to discuss the differences in education systems of the US & Ukraine. Crazy. So I frantically grab my friend Google and start searching for any and all relevant information. I knew many cultural differences and some educational differences but it is difficult because I don't know the Ukrainian education system. I am a Community Development volunteer and do not work in a school. The presentation went great and I will be traveling to many different villages in the area over the next 4 months to visit English classes, help students prepare for the English Olympiad, and be a judge at English competitions. That will be really fun. I gave all the teachers my phone # so I might be very busy soon. I said I would be happy to visit their classrooms or just meet with them individually to practice their English over a cup of tea. I also found someone that is willing to be my Russian tutor - Awesome! I need all the help I can get. So that was surprise # 2. Surprise # 3 happened the very next day (Friday). I was in the office working on the grant when the vice mayor called me and said, "Conor, the town newspapers will be interviewing you in 1 hour - good luck" Lol Just kidding. He did not say good luck. He assured me that it was only for information about me, Peace Corps, and my current activities in the community. Lucky for me, I had someone that spoke some English to help me out. I think it went ok. I will try and get a copy of the article and post it on the ole' Blog. The next surprise happened in Kiev but that one is personal. Lets just say that I now know how the people of Hiroshima felt when they saw a large bomb fall out of the sky. Surprise # 5 happened yesterday (Tuesday 9/21). I was again sitting in my office trying to catch up on work on the grant because due to all the surprises, I felt I was behind. Again, the vice mayor calls me up and says, "The media is here and they want to interview you" I think to myself Dejavoo - was the last interview a dream? What gives? So I ask him, "is it a different newspaper?" He replies, "it is the local TV station" I think...Wow...ok...what?...5 min....ok. Lucky for me, I was dressed nicer than usual. This particular interview was all in Russian. I think I did alright. I will hopefully get a disk with the footage on it. I will post it if I can. I thought it was great that the camera guy was someone that I met over a month ago and have had tea with him a couple times. We will play backgammon one of these days. Well, I need to get going. Unless there are any unforeseen surprises, my next post will be on Sunday (like usual). Stay classy America Conor's Noteworthy Noteables: 1. Trip to Kiev. Found an Irish Pub - no Guinness but they did have Murphy's Irish Stout. Good enough. Huge surprises in Kiev - it was good to kick back with an old Irish friend. 2. Random media interviews with no time to prepare. I am getting used to it. They went alright. Hopefully I can put the video and the articles on the blog. 3. Met some really cool Ukrainians on the train ride to Kiev. Very nice people and they spoke some English. 4. The grant is coming along just fine. I really hope the grant gets approved. It could really help my new counterpart, org, and the community. Cross your fingers. 5. It was my Dad's B-day on the 14th. Happy Birthday Dad! I wish I could have been there with you guys. 6. I was invited by the PC head of security to become a warden. Meaning I will be the contact point / go-to-guy in my region if there is a countrywide emergency. 7. I keep trying to skype friends and family back home. Erin! I will keep trying. Josh, you are next. I can skype cell phones for cheap but I have to call from a WIFI café in town and can only be there around 5 pm my time which is 8 am your time. I will try to post photos when I have more time.

Hello. This week was a pretty good week. I am getting to know the community more and more as the weeks pass by. I like what I see. The older generation in the community have a very interesting perspective on how the world works where as the younger generation is very progressive. The contrast is startling. The older generation came from a mindset which can be summed up from a famous quote from the days of the USSR, "any initiative will be punished" (this definitely does not apply to everyone). Contrast this to the youth in the community that are really starting to fly and embrace the freedom that an independent Ukraine has to offer. I have seen the youth organize themselves in many different activities and clubs with little or no outside assistance. It is inspiring to see. When I was in high school, I don't remember ever seeing any student organized clubs that did not have some sort of assistance from the adults in the community or from the local school and I certainly never organized anything like what I have seen here. For example, there is a pop dance group in town that practices multiple times per week with little assistance and was organized by the youth themselves. It is fun to see the youth take charge and I will help them however I can. On Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the birthday party of one of my friends that works for the local government. It was a great time. In Ukraine, birthday parties are organized and thrown by the birthday boy/girl instead of by friends and family (like in the US). My counterpart, a couple coworkers, and I all pitched in and purchased a painting from one of the local artists in town for the occasion (just so happened to be my counterpart's friend so we got a discount). We also purchased some flowers which continues to amuse me because the flower business in Ukraine is huge! There seems to be more flower shops than any other type of store in town. People buy flowers for everything - birthdays, funerals, weddings, first day of school, tea with friends, anniversaries, and every single holiday (there are probably twice as many holidays here than in the US). I realize that people buy flowers for these occasions in the US but the extent to which flowers are purchased here is enormous. I went to someone's house the night before the first day of school and I noticed that the streets were flooded with people holding flowers. I explained to my counterpart that I can count on one hand how many times I have purchased flowers and he gave me a look of empathy. I tried to explain that it is simply not as common where I am from but I could tell the message was not received. lol I could tell he felt bad for me no matter how many times I tried to explain. Anyways, we made our way to the government building for the birthday party and I wished my friend happy birthday. The party was held in her office and all of her coworkers came over to her office with flowers and gifts then proceeded to start giving toasts. I thought it was interesting that the birthday boy or girl gets to call on anyone at any time to give a toast about the birthday boy/girl followed by a stiff drink. After numerous toasts given by various people, the birthday girl looks at me and says, "give a toast" so everyone stops talking and stares at me with a lingering anticipation to hear the American speak. I think to myself, "here we go," and gave my toast all the while praying that I would not get my Russian mixed up and end up insulting everyone in the room. My toast went ok though there were many comments that I did not understand - then everyone took another drink. I ended up giving 4 toasts for this particular birthday party and as far as I know, everyone had a great time and nobody was insulted by my broken Russian. There was one gentleman at the party that told me he had a bad experience with Americans at his factory some 10 years ago and accused me of knowing more Russian than I let on. He was obviously not a fan of yours truly though after many toasts and drinks, we seemed to get along just fine and he even shook my hand before he left. I love that part of my job - when you meet someone with preconceived notions of Americans or simply negative views of Americans, and you get them to realize that not all Americans are greedy capitalist pigs or war hungry or rich etc etc... This weekend I traveled to Donetsk with my counterpart to do some shopping. Since I have to walk everywhere, my shoes are already a bit worn out (even though I just bought them before I left for Ukraine...sigh). We started at the Bazaar without any luck because of my enormous size 51 shoes (15 US). My counterpart was determined to find me some shoes so he called his brother that lives in Donetsk for help. We me up with his brother and went to 12 different shoe stores. Those of you that know me, know that I can't shop. I get exhausted after 5 min of shopping. I tried to explain that it is ok, I don't need to find shoes right away but no dice. My counterpart is a very nice guy and was determined to find shoes that fit so 4 hours later...we finally stop. I don't know what it is about shopping that gets me so exhausted but damn! I think I will have to order some shoes from the US and have them shipped. On the work front, I have an English club setup for about 10 kids at the local library. This will be fun - my first lesson is this Wednesday. I am not a teacher so I will have to do some major planning to make sure my club is both entertaining and educational. Wish me luck. I will definitely buy some candy for the first class to help grease the wheels while I get the whole teaching thing down. This should help my Russian and help me meet people. I have also been discussing a project plan with my counterpart which I will be writing a grant for this month. It is difficult to discuss details when you don't know the language so hopefully we can find a translator for some of the more complex stuff (scope, budget, action plan, time frames, etc). I hope to start writing tomorrow. Again, wish me luck. Well, I need to get some sleep. I hope everything is going great in the good ole US of A! Drop me a comment so that I know people still read this thing. Conor's Noteworthy Noteables: 1. Getting to know my new NGO. Good people. I hope we have a successful project. 2. Ukrainian birthday party. Awesome 3. Trip to Donetsk - always fun to explore big cities. 4. Bought my train tickets to Kiev for this Friday. I joined the Peace Corps Tech group - we will meet in Kiev to discuss technology related needs/issues/etc... 5. Still may or may not go on a 10 day backpacking/camping trip in Crem. 6. Found my first sandwich place in Ukraine! Whoohoo. Who would have thought I would be so excited about something like that. lol Donetsk! 7. Just hand washed my jeans. I would not recommend it. 8. It is starting to get cold. I gotta admit, I am a bit nervous about my first Ukrainian winter.

Hello all,I have been in Ukraine for almost 6 months! Thinking back about all the experiences I have had since I arrived in March, it seems more like a year or two but at the same time it seems like the time has flown by. I remember having butterflies in my stomach constantly at staging in DC and for the first week or so in training. I remember when I first met my host family and not being able to speak hardly any Russian yet living in a complete stranger's house. I have fond memories of my first day of language class and meeting my cluster mates. We have all come a long way but sometimes it still feels like I don't speak any Russian and am new to Ukraine. I wonder what it will feel like when I can speak and understand everything that is going on around me. Will it still be exciting or will life start to become mundane and repetitive? Probably not considering my job description and the fact that Ukraine can be extremely random even for the locals. Sometimes it seems like my Russian skillz are improving drastically earlier this week when I had a 30 min conversation with someone from the Kazak org in my city yet at other times, I feel like it is a struggle to simply talk about the weather. Go figure. We will have a large group of new volunteers arriving in Ukraine in a couple weeks and in 3 months (after their training) one of them will be living in my city which will really put things into perspective as far as how much I have learned etc... It will also be nice to have a site mate (a fellow volunteer living in the same city).

Since returning from Krivoy Rog late Sunday night (1:00 am) I have yet again had a crazy week. I often find myself in situations where I have to be somewhere at a certain time but have no idea why and what I will be doing. It is a funny situation because Peace Corps Training taught us that it is important to integrate into our communities and a good way to do this is to say "Yes" to every invitation to do something but with my Russian skillz the way they are, I don't always know what I am saying yes to. I have talked to numerous other volunteers about this and they seem to get themselves into similar situations which means it is not just me. It is not longer weird tho and is kinda exciting. I did not even realize how comfortable I have gotten with this "not knowing" until I was on the phone with Amy and she asked me if I had any plans that evening to which I replied, "Yes, I have to meet someone dressed in camo behind the government building tonight at 7:00 then he will drive me somewhere and we will do something." Amy then asked who I will be meeting, where I will be going, what I will doing? I replied, "Dunno, I forgot the guys name but I think he has an NGO and I don't know where I will be going or what I will be doing or when I will be back" Then it struck me - Why is this comfortable? In the states, I would never do anything like this! I only met this guy for one minute earlier that day after talking with the vice Mayor of our city and I did not understand what he said only that I should meet some guy at 7:00. This has happened so many times that I guess I have grown comfortable with it. lol I just bring my backpack with me at all times complete with water, peanuts, an umbrella, Russian dictionary, a camera, and an open mind; you never know what you will be doing or for how long so you have to plan for everything.

Anywho, back to this particular night (Monday), as I am waiting in the parking lot of the government building, I ponder about how even the most uncomfortable things can eventually become comfortable, a car rolls up and a large man dressed in soviet camo gets out and enthusiastically shakes my hand. He then proceeds to speak quickly about something that I can only assume is in Russian but did not manage to pick out even a single word so I smile politely and explain that I no speaka da rooskie very well so he simply smiles and shakes my hand again and gestures for me to get in the car. I think, ok...here comes another adventure ready or not. I sit down in his Russian-made car and make small talk and we are off to god knows where. I knew it was going to be an interesting night because when the car started going, my seat (passenger seat) rolled back into the back seats because it was not attached to the car. lol We both chuckle a bit as I prop the seat back upright. We arrive at this old soviet block housing unit where there is a group of people all dressed in old Soviet uniforms chatting outside. We get out of the car and immediately their conversation stops and everyone stares at me without saying a word. I am pretty used to this response at this point but notice that these are not your typical Ukrainians. Not only are they all in old army uniforms but they are all built like weightlifters and seem to all be in their late 40s early 50s. We all proceed inside the old soviet building and as we are walking, the man that drove me there explains that they are all part of the old Soviet mobile army unit and have stayed very close after the fall of the Soviet Union and that they have been remodeling this building for over a year now. We walk through a few dark hallways and up a few flights of stairs to a room full of old gym equipment. Ten of the army clad gentlemen sit in a circle around me and proceed to ask me a series of questions. I had to stop them a few times and explain that I am studying Russian right now and that I don't speak very well yet. Some were amused but most had the usual "brick face" while they questioned me. At this point I am thinking, oh shit...this is going to be interesting. I go through the usual Peace Corps explanation - I am a volunteer from the US and am non-political, non-religious, and just want to help. Still brick faces all around...then a long pause...then one of the older gentlemen asks, "why are you here and what do you want?". I noticed that my mouth was suddenly very dry as I explain that I work for their city, a youth org, the library, and have been meeting with the Kazak org in town (I noticed that the Kazak org seemed to have military ties so I thought that would ease their minds). Another long pause....the group then starts to loudly discuss things and I notice (maybe it was only in my head) that the guy that drove me there was suddenly very sweaty but they were also joking around and laughing. I heard them mention the gov building and the vice mayor's name which was good to hear. Then they asked if I was there to gather information probably because I mentioned that I want to learn Ukrainian culture to which I explained that I simply like traveling, meeting new people, experience different cultures, etc... etc... A few of them leave the room for a bit and come back 10 min later. They brought with them a 18 year old kid that spoke some English which was awesome. We chatted for a while and people started laughing and joking around. We discussed their organization and how they are almost done remodeling the building which will be a place for the youth of the city to go (instead of drink vodka). They all ended up being very nice people and I ended up having a beverage with them at the local hot dog joint and they even invited me to a 10 day camping trip in Crem. Awesome.

Since that meeting, I have spent two evenings with them at different houses - for dinner one night and tea another night. Turned out to be pretty awesome and I look forward to working with their organization which is a fully registered NGO.

This weekend was the anniversary of my city so there were plenty of festivities and a big celebration/concert last night. Amy visited this weekend so we went to all the major activities together. It was awesome. There was a celebration for everyone in the city that got married this year, horse racing, wrestling, sword fighting, knife throwing, dancing, carnival games, cotton candy, fireworks, traditional cooking, and the entire town participated. Very interesting - I took ton's of photos which I will give to various parties on DVD. The Ukrainian culture has many different roots and is very rich. It was a good weekend though I am exhausted now. Well, I need to get going so I leave you with some noteables and some photos. I hope everyone has an awesome week!

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. Amy came to visit! We were busy with all the town activities but it was awesome. 2. Just about at the 6 month mark! Time flies!3. Met more organizations and made a few friends.4. Starting to get cold here. Hard to believe that just a few weeks ago it was in the 100s5. Met with the library a few times. Hopefully I will have an English club started within the next week. 6. Might be going to Crem for a 10 day camping trip starting Oct 10! Maybe7. Took tons of good photos of the festivals this weekend. Will burn a disk of the photos for the gov people. 8. Dropping in on orgs that I met with a box of chocolate. People are more patient with my Russian skillz when they are eating chocolate. ***Click on the photo for the large version***Cassie, Amy, and I in Krivoy Rog

The kids at camp made a cutout of me...Enough said.

Traditional Kazak uniform

Honey at the festival

Concert to celebrate Khartsizsk Day

Hello Everyone,Sorry I did not post last week. I have been very busy and have not had more than 5 min of internet access over the last 2 weeks but I am back in my city now so let me recap. The journey began two weeks ago with my new counterpart (I now have a new Counterpart and NGO to work with). We met at the bus station in Khartsizsk and took a hour long bus ride to Donetsk where me took a couple different Mashootkas to the main train station in Donetsk. We then hoped on our overnight train to Kiev. Just when I thought I was starting to feel comfortable with traveling via train, our compartment mates arrived (4 people to a compartment when traveling 2nd class). Turns out, it was a train full of body builders that were making their way to a competition in Kiev. These people were HUGE. They were a couple in their late 20's that made me feel scrawny in comparison. They were busy eating handfuls of pills with protein shake chasers to care too much about me and my counterpart and the next morning they actually made me some coffee and chatted for a while which was nice. They are trying to compete in the next Mr. Universe competition in the UK and they ended up being very nice people despite the intimidating exterior.

After chatting with our friendly humungous gentle giants, we arrived in Kiev at 7 am and took another series of Mashootkas to the Post Grad institute of the Ukrainian National University where we will be staying for the next 4 nights to attend a Volunteerism conference/training. This is the same place we stayed at for swearing-in. We stayed in the student dorms which always makes me think of my experiences in college and my old college buddies even though the college experience is extremely different here. The conference was very informative and by the end of the conference, my counterpart and I had a project plan written out. The new NGO that I am working with already has 40 registered "volunteers" so this conference was especially helpful. It covered how to recruit, motivate, organize, and use volunteers specifically in Ukraine. It was interesting to me because the concept of volunteerism is lost on most Ukrainians due certain aspects of the USSR and their forced "volunteerism". lol If you are forced to do something, are you still considered a volunteer? I can see the confusion. Times have changed though and now volunteers are needed in Ukraine - slowly but surely the concept will catch on. The Ukrainians I have talked to about being a volunteer are always extremely skeptical and usually assume that there is some sort of hidden agenda. We will try to stress the importance of volunteerism in the younger age groups because they seem to be more receptive and it can help their resumes (getting work experience is almost impossible here). While we were in Kiev, my fellow volunteers and I went out on the town a few times. It was awesome. We have not seen each other for over 2 months and have all experienced some crazy and unique stuff in that time. No two Peace Corps experiences are the same. We are spread out all over Ukraine from small towns of 300 people to big cities of a million plus. We speak either Russian or Ukrainian and we are all matched with very different organizations - for example HIV/AIDS, Youth orgs, Women's rights orgs, orphanages, schools, universities, local government, NGOs that work for the disabled, etc etc... It was interesting to hear everyone's experiences and I think we all had a great time. While we were in Kiev, we got most of the old Stari Belose cluster back together (the group of PCVs that I trained with) and our LCF (language facilitator during training) and went out for dinner in downtown Kiev. We packed a ton of stuff into those 4 nights and by the end, Amy and I were completely exhausted. This was only the beginning of our trip so after the Volunteerism convention, we decided to stay in Kiev for most of the weekend and explore the sights. Amy got a massage, I found a Cuban restaurant, we exlpored a museum about Kiev 900 AD. Very interesting. I especially enjoy finding a public location like a park or a monument and sitting back to observe and think about life. Amy and I found a nice little park in downtown Kiev that was perfect for this. This park had many people playing chess, kids playing on the playgrounds, the usual people drinking beer, and a slight breeze to top things off. Very nice.

After a very nice week in Kiev, we made our way back to the train station and boarded our first class train to Krivoy Rog. This was awesome. Amy and I had our own compartment for the overnight train ride so we did not have to worry about anything. I had a stomach ache but other than that, it was perfect. We arrived in Krivoy Rog at 6 am and made our way to .... wait for it ... McDonalds for an awesomely delicious yet unfortunately unhealthy meal. It is kinds funny, I have hear from almost all volunteers that they hated McDonalds before they left the states and never ate there but now that they are in Ukraine, they can't get enough of those beautiful golden arches. It is true, I only ate at McDonalds once very 6 months but here It is like crack and I can't get enough of it. After McDonalds, we checked in at the world's creepiest hotel and met some of the other volunteers that will be helping with the camp. The camp we helped with is called Camp Lead which is a business/leadership camp for kids ages 17-22 (http://www.camplead.webs.com/). We had over 200 kids show up and I think they learned a thing or two. Amy and I are CD volunteers (community development) and not teachers so this was a good opportunity to observe some classes and learn a thing or two about teaching kids. There were over 20 PCVs that helped out with the camp (mainly TEFL). I helped out however I could which meant making sure all the little things and the administrative stuff was taken care of and I also took tons of photos of all the classes and activities and made a DVD at the end for everyone. It was a great time. Well, I need to get going and meet up with my new NGO to discuss what I will be doing. I hope all is well.

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. Spent almost 2 weeks traveling around Ukraine with Amy! Awesome2. Met up with many PCV buddies in Kiev for an unforgettable week. 3. Ate at TGI Friday's in Ukraine with my old cluster and LCF for an out-of-Ukraine experience. 4. Explored an old soviet hotel. Very creepy5. Sushi with Cassie and Amy. Fantastic6. Went to a Ukrainian Sauna with a large group of PCVs - very awesome experience. 7. Toured Cassie's NGO - it is good to see an active NGO that truly wants to help the community. 8. Developed a project plan with my new counterpart - It feels sooo good to finally have a plan. 9. The kids at Camp Lead made a cutout photo/poster of me complete with a Nikon camera. Hilarious. Good kids. 10. Found some hot sauce and normal tortilla chips! Unfortunately the salsa tastes like ketchup with a chili pepper but still awesome.

***Click on the Photo to see the large version***

Cluster (minus Cassie and plus Emily)

Train from Kiev to Krivoy Rog

Statue in Kiev

Lonely Room in old Soviet hotelLong walk with Amy into the Countryside of Krivoy Rog

Sushi at last!

Howdy, Like always, a ton has changed since my last post (I can only blog about a fraction of it). I now have a new counterpart and am working for a different NGO. I will still be in the same city and working in the same office but for a different NGO. I am excited to see what happens from here. My new NGO has a lot going on and seems to be very involved in the community though I have not seen much of the NGO so far. My new counterpart and I will be heading to Kiev today at around 5 (1 hour bus to Donetsk then an overnight train to Kiev). We will be attending a volunteerism training/conference that the Peace Corps has organized at the university. It should be a very informative training and I hope my counterpart enjoys it. At the swearing-in conference in June, I heard multiple Ukrainian counterparts comment that the trainings put on by the Peace Corps are extremely well organized and that they have never seen anything like it before. I think this is a prime example of a difference in cultures. Americans like to have everything organized down to the min and to the tiniest little detail where as Ukrainians are more open in their scheduling. It is interesting to see how Ukrainians react to an American run event. It will be nice to be in Kiev again and I am looking forward to seeing some fellow volunteers that I have not seen since swearing-in. I can't wait to go out with everyone again for a night-out in Kiev! It will be nice to speak in English! I am sure everyone will have some crazy stories to tell and it will be nice to get the cluster back together (minus Cassie due to a soccer camp : ( ). My counterpart will be with me in Kiev until Friday night then he will head back to our city. I will be in Kiev till Saturday night then I will be taking another overnight train to Krivoy Rogg with Amy to help with a week-long business/English camp for 200 college kids. Should be awesome. Amy and I decided to treat ourselves to first class train tickets to Krivoy Rogg - that will be awesome. We will have our own train compartment complete with air conditioning! Whoohoo! It has been an extremely hot summer with temps in the 100's for the last couple weeks with some humidity as well. This is out of the ordinary for Ukraine and it should be cooling down soon. I never thought I would be looking forward to winter but damn! I am sure that when winter rolls around I will regret that statement. Over the last week I have been in transition from one NGO to the other so I have had some spare time to help an NGO based out of Donetsk with a website and some translation work. This org is very interesting and has been around for a long time with tons of projects going on at all times. Cool stuff. I have also been going on walks every now and then when I it is not too hot though I keep finding myself back at the bazaar day after day and every time I am there I find something I missed the first time. Well, I need to finish packing. Have a good week everyone.

Hello from "The Boarderlands",It has not been that long since my last post but a lot has happened and I want to get back into the routine of posting every Sunday/Monday. For starters, I have met with some other organizations in town that seem really cool and I think I can really help them. We shall see - things progress very slowly here, especially in the summer so I probably won't know if things will work out for quite some time but it is exciting. I may be horseback riding with one of these organizations sometime next week. I love Peace Corps - the job can take you anywhere and you can end up doing anything. I also met with the local library and after the initial shock that there is an American in town, they seemed pretty receptive to the idea of an English club in their library but the director is on vacation tell Aug 22 so the waiting continues. I also helped a Donetsk NGO with an application to the EU "youth in action" program. Very cool. I am excited to see how that plays out. When I got home from the library, I came across a couple of old guys playing chess under a tree near my apartment so hopefully they will let me play one of these days. Could be fun. The older generation is very interesting to me because they have lived through so much - famines, wars, regime changes, boarder changes, etc... They seem to have a very different view of the world than most. I just wish my Russian was better so that I can have more in depth discussions with them.

Yesterday I decided to go for a long walk out into the countryside to clear my head and take some photos. I am definitely glad that I did. After walking for an hour and a half outside my city, I came across a beautiful lake and the quietest little village I have seen so far in Ukraine. This was the stereotypical small Ukrainian village complete with green rolling hills, cows, sheep, goats, old thatched roof houses, small farms all over the place, and a small creek running through the middle. It was starting to get dark and I hadn't seen a paved road for more than 45 min so I should have headed back at that point before it got too dark for me to find my way back but I was too intrigued with this quiet little place. What would it be like to live here? What are the people like? Chances are that this village is extremely old considering the fact that my little village during training (Stari Belous) dated back into the stone age. What was this village like during the "Great Patriotic War" (WWII) ? How many secrets lie buried mere feet below these vast fields? While I was pondering these questions and stroking my beard, probably with a blank or slightly inquisitive expressions on my face, I noticed from the corner of my eye that an old man has been staring at me with a confused look on his face. Probably wondering what the hell this tall bearded foreigner is doing way out here. I could not help but giggle at the fact that here I am out in the middle of nowhere thinking about a small village while an old man inquisitively looks at me looking inquisitively at his village. I snap out of my trance and say hello before continuing my walk. It is not common to say hello to people you don't know here so I was not offended when the old man did not respond to my greeting and continued to look at me with a confused look on his face as I slowly walked around the next bend and out of sight. At the top of the next hill I saw a familiar red tent next to a small lake. These tents are small portable Ukrainian bars so I figure what better way to end my walk than with a nice frosty beer before I turn around and make the long trek back to the city and I was curious to find out why someone decided to setup a bar in the middle of nowhere. I make my way there and am pleasantly surprised to find a sandy beach on the side of this small lake with many people hanging out and enjoying the sunset. I purchased a beer (1715), took in the sunset for a bit, then made my way home as quickly as possible because I did not want to find myself lost at night in the middle of nowhere. It was dark well before I made it back to my city but I managed to get back to my apartment without incident.

Today (Sunday) I decided that I have eaten enough eggs for one lifetime and that I would attempt to cook something that I can nibble on for the next couple days. Amy pointed me to a recipe in the "babushka's cookbook" (PC issued cookbook) for stew. This is about as simple a meal as possible and I have attempted it in the past so I thought I would give it a try. I also Googled simple stew recipes only to find all the "simple" recipes require premade packets of Lipton this or premade that. American's have it easy. I headed out early this morning to the local store for the ingredients but unfortunately they did not have any carrots or good looking meat so I decided to head to the bazaar. Always an interesting experience at the bazaar.

There are a few things you should know about a Ukrainian Bazaar. First of all it is utter chaos but also a prime example of a free market economy. Supply and demand regulate everything in this place. I have mentioned this in previous posts but I am still amazed at how random the stuff can be at a bazaar. You can buy clothing, veggies, livestock, electronics, motorcycles, furniture, and everything else you can think of. Some people seem to find stuff on the side of the road and haul it to the bazaar on the small chance that they can sell this item. Today, I decided to sit back and simply observe the chaos for a while and was thoroughly entertained with all senses engaged. The smell of too many unwashed bodies huddled together under a hot tent mixed with the smell of oversized fish heads that a babushka has on display on gruesome looking hooks mixed with the smell of fresh picked veggies mixed with the smell of women's cosmetics etc etc... The air is so thick with aromas that you can almost taste it. Then you have the overwhelming heat (it has been in the 100's) radiating off of everything and compounded by the humid air that hits you like you just opened the oven and leaned too close. Visually the bazaar is overwhelming due to the bazaar consisting of countless narrow rows of people trying to sell everything under to sun all the while the rows are packed with 3 times as many people as should properly fit in these tight rows of chaos. The constant movement of people and things in addition to the huge plethora of different colors forces your eyes to dart back and forth constantly. The audio stimuli can be hypnotic - everyone in the bazaar yelling at the same time in a mix of Russian and Ukrainian about prices, gossip, goods for sale, the tall bearded foreigner, bargaining, etc... The sense of touch at the bazaar is probably what will stick in my mind forever. All the heat and humidity makes your clothing stick to your body while you try and make your way though endless crowds of pushy sweating people - you seem to slide through a sweat lubricated mess of chaos like a mosh pit from hell to the tune of angry babushkas all the while checking your pockets constantly to make sure you have not been pick pocketed. A friend of mine had her purse slashed open and wallet stolen at a bazaar by a couple adolescent girls.

Anywho, I kinda went off on another tangent. After I bought carrots and fresh meat (1 kilo of beef that was alive mere hours before I purchased it) I made it back across the street to my apartment and proceeded to cook. I love good food but the once in a blue moon where I actually attempt to cook always reminds my why I never cook. It took me hours to cut up and prepare all the meat, veggies, etc... and that does not include cleanup. It was worth it though - the stew was awesome and I ate until I could not eat any more then took a much needed nap before going on another walk.

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. Exploring the countryside. Great for clearing one's head and putting things into perspective.2. Making more and more contacts in my community. Very cool.3. Cooking. Fun but exhausting. I am no cook. 4. Helping an NGO based out of Donetsk with some meaningful projects. It is nice to have something meaningful to work on and I might be facilitating a lesson or two for this NGO on entrepreneurship in the near future. 5. Sitting in front of a fan whenever I am in my apartment. Temp in the 100's and no air conditioning. How do Ukrainian's not drink water constantly? I find myself constantly dehydrated. 6. Studyin Russian as much as I can but not nearly as much as I should. It is exhausting trying to speak it all day so I have little patience for it at night. 7. Returned PCVs from Ukraine contacting me because they came across my blog. Very cool.

***Click to view large version***

Just shootin

My Walk

My Walk 2

Quiet little village

Stew

PC Ukraine Stew Recipe (click to view large image)

Hello all,

First of all, my sister had a new, beautiful, and healthy baby! Awesome! I can't wait to meet her. My entire family went up to meet her. I gotta admit, this makes me a bit homesick. I wish I could be there. This is life. Lots of sacrifices. I have lots of photos though and will video skype ASAP (no WIFI in my city so we shall see).

It has been a while since my last post. I spent last week in Lugansk at a summer camp for troubled kids. It was nice to get away for the week and be out in the countryside in a tent. Whoohoo! It was very nice. Of course there were some unexpected events at this camp but that is to be expected here. Seems like everything that happens here ends up happening differently than initially planed. The plan was for my PCV friend's organization to rent space at a camp for our kids (60 kids from nearby towns and villages). When the organization rented part of the camp they were under the impression that they could do whatever they wanted with their kids because they rented the time. Turns out, the camp "forgot" to mention that the camp requires all kids to attend bible study sessions. Since the Peace Corps is a non-religious org, my fellow PCVs and I could not participate in any religious activities. The kids and their parents did not seem to be surprised at all and seemed to be ok with the situation and expected something like this to occure. They were just happy to be together at a camp because most of the kids have not had an opportunity to go to a camp. My fellow PCVs and I taught English, healthy lifestyles, and organized some fun activities for the kids. Everything turned out ok and I think everyone had a good time.

After the camp, we spent the weekend in Lugansk. Lugansk is a decent sized city with plenty to do. We explored the city, watched a movie at the movie theatre, and had some excellent meals with some fellow volunteers. Some of the other volunteers were quite handy in the kitchen and managed to make some damn good salsa. I was in heaven. Salsa is definitely one of my comfort foods for sure. She told me how to make it and I think I will have to give it a try. We shall see, I have messed up some pretty simple meals soooooo I am not too optimistic. I am having a difficult time with the organization that I "work" with so I don't know if I can handle the disappointment of messing up salsa. lol Might be the straw that broke the camel's back. Anywho, while in Lugansk we went to a the home of one of the translators out in a small village. We had a picnic, saw the famous sunflower fields, and swam in the river. Another awesome time.

Now I am back in my city and trying to meet new organizations. I met an organization yesterday that is very interesting. I am going back today to observe a karate class (Kazak style) and may or may not be horseback riding on Friday. I also went to the city library to talk about setting up an English club but the director is on vacation tell the 22nd. Not much happens in the summer here. The Peace Corps warned me that everything slows down in the summer and that I might not get much done in the summer but I never thought too much about it. Turns out they were spot on. lol I just wish I had something productive to do. Things are not going well with the organization that I work with. Now that I am back from camp I will try to continue updating the blog every Sunday/Monday. Peace!

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:

1. New baby in the family! Awesome!!!!

2. Summercamp with Amy in Lugansk. Very cool

3. Had a few American style homecooked meals with some of my fellow PCVs in Lugansk.

4. More crazy train experiences.

5. Numerous get-togethers with fellow volunteers. Always nice to have an English-speaking night.

6. Booked my tickets of Kiev (Aug 17) then to Keevoy Rog (Aug 21).

7. Ate at a "Texas" grill in Lugansk. There was nothing "Texas" about it but it was good.

Here are some of the photos from the last couple weeks. As always, click the photo to see the full version.

Campin

Campin

Camp Gates

Photo of a Future Photo

Interesting Guy that Chatted with us on the Street

Drinkin Coffee at the Mall in Lugansk

Cooking and Cribbage at Caroline's Place in Lugansk

Field of Sunflowers on the way to our Picnic

Sunflower

Picnic

Fresh Picked Veggies for the Picnic

Greetings from Ukraine,Well, I have been at site for over a month now and have been in Ukraine for just about 4 months. These months have been some of the craziest months of my life. Three months of extensive language training. Then moving to a new city, without any friends, zero English speakers, and having to figure out how to live and work in a new community is insane. New jobs are stressful even when you know the language and the culture but when you don't know, it is a recipe for some crazy times. Even after one month I can tell that I have not even scratched the surface. I still have a long ways to go before I am a productive member of society and before I can really build an effective network of friends and possible business partners. Sometimes I need to step back for a min to realize just how far I have come with regards to learning the language, culture, and job because it can be overwhelming if you only think about how far you still have to go.

Over the last week I have been exploring my city a bit and have been looking for gyms and recreational facilities. I found the addresses for two gyms - one boxing gym and one general workout facility but even with the addresses, it has been hard to find these places. For whatever reason, many Ukrainian businesses do not have signs on the outside of their buildings. So I probably walked by these places many times but because there are no signs outside, I have not been able to find them. lol I have also been learning to work with my new org and counterpart. We have a lot to figure out. That's all I can say on that matter. I am also trying to meet with other organizations that I might be able to work with or that can help my org with some of our projects. I have a meeting tomorrow in Donetsk to meet with a much larger NGO and hopefully we will be able to devise a project that we can work together on. One can hope.

I just want to start have a positive impact ASAP because it seems like time is flying without much getting done. This might be because of the lack of some of the conveniences that I have grown accustomed to back in the US. For example, a WASHING MACHINE!! I spend many hours each week doing laundry by hand and I never know if my cloths are clean or not - not to mention the fact that it is tiresome work bent over a bucket of water scrubbing your cloths. Also, when you do not have a dryer you have to iron everything. Kinda crazy but I have hardly ever ironed anything in my life. lol I took stuff to the dry cleaner and only bought wrinkle free clothing. :-) Cooking is the other huge time consumer. In the US, I basically lived off quick meals like COSTCO frozen veggies, lasagna, pasta, stir fry, sandwiches, or would simply grab a burrito or burger at the local fast food joint. Here I have to walk to the bazaar or local store and purchase some veggies, meat fresh off the cow/pig/chicken/etc, fruit, and bread. The food here has zero preservatives which at first i thought that was great/healthy/neato - but soon realized that when milk expires in 3 days, bread in 4, and the veggies last less than a week that you find yourself walking to the store around 5 times a week. The food does taste fresh especially the milk but there are no quick easy meals :-( It takes me around 2 hours to cut up all the food, cook it, eat it, and clean up. Not to mention that this process depends greatly on when the water comes back on (running water only 6 hours per day 3 morning & 3 evening). Add an average of an hour a night for laundry and there goes 3 prime "Conor time" hours. Then it is off to studying Russian before alas falling asleep in my midget sized bed (I put a chair next to the footboard so that I can stretch out from time to time lol). I don't want to sound like I am complaining because truth be told, I kinda enjoy doing all these things. I find it peaceful and when everything else is unknown and crazy, you need to enjoy any peace you can find.

Anywho, the last weekend was spend walking around my town, studying Russian, and relaxing while trying to just take it all in. Tonight (Monday) I purchased a train ticket to Lugansk (7/24 - 8/01). I will be helping a fellow volunteer run a camp in the forest. Whoohoo! That will be awesome. Amy will be there too! Can't wait. Things have been stressful at my site so it will be nice to get away for a week, be surrounded by nature, meet new people, and help however I can. Should be interesting - Platzcart both ways (3rd class train car, refer to previous post for details, all 2nd class tickets were taken) After that I am back at site for 2 weeks then I am off to Kiev for a couple days for some Volunteerism training then I go from Kiev to Keevoy Rogg for almost a week to help someone else with a different camp. I love it. I think back to my days sitting at my desk all day dreaming about the adventure Peace Corps was sure to give me and it really puts everything into perspective. Life is an adventure - if you disagree with that statement you might want to do some thinking. Anywho, my counterpart should be coming over any min now to have a beer and talk about some work stuff so I need to go. I hope all is well in the US

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. Exploring my City. Always fun 2. Learning how to cook, clean, and live in my new surroundings. It's a process3. Having my first weekend all to myself in a long time. Very relaxing but a bit weird after being surrounded by people every weekend and having tons of stuff to do for the last 4 months. 4. More learning pains while I figure out how to work with my counterpart / Org.5. Figured out the train system finally. It is in desperate need of an update. It is written in a mix of Russian and Ukrainian & the postings on the walls of train stations can be outdated so you never know if you have reliable info. 6. Skyped with numerous people. Skype is awesome7. Starting a website for my org. Should be fun.

Amy and I

Donetsk

Afgan War Vets

Hello my friends,I have now been at site for over 3 weeks. If you read my previous posts, you would know that it has definitely had it's ups and downs. This was expected but still crazy. I have spent that last week researching possible projects, figuring out how I can help, and traveling to visit Amy in Balakleya. As expected, I will definitely have my hands full as far as work is concerned though it is kinda funny because the majority of my time is spent figuring out how to do the work that needs to be done with little time actually doing the work. For example, I will be starting a website to promote tourism and community awareness for the 2012 football games that will be hosted in Donetsk (hundreds of thousands of people are projected to attend). In America, you would simply pick a free service provider and go. Here I need to find a free service provider that allows me to use both English and Russian, uses software that I am familiar with, and I need to check with various people to make sure I don't step on any toes by starting this website. Should be interesting. Every possible project has issues similar to these that seem to slow things down a bit. I understand now why so many current volunteers, previous volunteers, and PC staff have warned us that you might not get a lot done during your first year at site. I am going to take it a day at a time and try not to get frustrated. It will work out as long as I don't act like an American and want results immediately. Be there at 8:00 means 9 or 10:00, now means tomorrow, and the word urgent does not seem to exist. Why is this difficult? It seems laid back. What gives?

Other than work, I am starting to feel more comfortable in my city. I have learned how to get around, how to shop, figured out a few good meals that I can actually cook, and have been working on "being here now" and just taking it all in. Anywho, visiting Amy was just what I needed. I left late Thursday night by bus to Markeevka by bus and was dropped off way on the outskirts of the city. Every time I go to Markevka I take the same bus but am dropped off at a different location. Oh Ukraine...way to keep me on my toes :-) . I did not know how to get to the center and must have looked a bit lost because before I had time to ask random people how to get to the center - someone came up to me and spoke in English with a thick Ukrainian accent, "I will help you". I was surprised to say the least because I have not met anyone in my city that speaks English that well. He rushes me into a small van that we manage to catch while it was rolling. We each pay the driver 2 Greven ($0.25), we sit down, and we start chatting. Very interesting guy. He is a 24 year old surgeon in Donetsk and has traveled to the US (Nebraska for 2 weeks) for some sort of exchange program. He was very interested to see an American this far east. That seems to be the reaction from most people - "your American? what are you way out here?" followed by either a confused look or a fit of laughter. lol I enjoy these conversations. He asked me a million questions about what I though of Ukraine and I explained in a haphazard mix of Russian and English that I am a volunteer working in the area of Community Development in a city outside Donetsk. When we got out of the van, he pointed me in the direction of the bus station. I had a couple hours to kill before I needed to take a bus to the train station then get on my 10:30 pm train so I offered to buy him a beer at a nearby bar. He explained to me that when he got back from American he was motivated to change Ukraine and develop it's infrastructure but that within a year he realized that that is impossible. Not the most encouraging thing for a community development volunteer to hear but he had some interesting points. We discussed some of the possible projects that I have been working on to develop my community and he agreed that change is possible but it will take a long time. I realize this and don't expect to change the world overnight. I just want to have some sort of positive impact on my community. We say our goodbyes and eventually make my way to the train station and get on the correct train car - no problem. On the way out to Balakleya I was in Koopay (2nd class) which means 4 beds to a compartment (2 bunk beds) and a small window. When I arrived at my compartment, people were already sleeping so I attempted to be quiet and make my bed (top bunk), and go to sleep. This is where things got out of control - lol. It was dark and I managed to bump something with my backpack that made a crashing sound, a little girl that was sleeping with her mom in one of the bottom bunks started to cry, I then bumped into someone else when I turned around to say excuse me, the train attendant knocked on the door but I was unfamiliar with the locking mechanism so I was unable to open the door so they continued to knock over and over again, the list goes on and on - it was a circus. And when I finally got into the top bunk, I managed to knock down some clothing hangers that fell on the person below me. That is nothing compared to the ride back from Amy's place in Platzcart (3rd class - all the 2nd class bunks were taken). Platzcart: Aka a dim and stuffy train car filled with as many bunk beds as possible - no compartments, no doors, and no privacy. On that particular train from midnight to 6:00 am - almost no sleep. Hands constantly checking pockets and backpack. Thin mattress that is 1.5 feet wide by 5 feet long - only 2 feet from the ceiling of the train car. Awesome experience. Not sure why....?

Wow, kinda went off on a tangent. Back to the visit with Amy. I arrived at 3:30 in the morning on Friday and met Amy at the train station. We walked the 30 min back to her apartment. It was already getting light out - sun is up from a little before 4:00 am to around 9:30. She has a nice little apartment that is comparable to mine (soviet block housing). We had an awesome time: walked around the city, tried out the Uzbekistan restaurant, cooked many awesome meals (mostly Amy tho I did try to help), and swam at the beach (sandy area on the river - lol). B-town is smaller than my town and has some nice countryside only 10 min from Amy's place. It is a pleasant little town. It was a nice relaxing weekend.

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. Visited Amy in Balakleya. Night trains, buses, and taxis - I am exhausted but it was an awesome visit.2. Got my first package in the mail. Made my day. Thank you sooooo much. I finally have spices!3. Platzcart. 4. Exploring Balakleya with Amy. 5. First sunburn in Ukraine. Check6. Probably heading to Kiev for a training mid august then off to Krivoy Rog for a week so that I can help a fellow volunteer run a camp. 7. Did I mention I recieved my first package! Hint hint

Stay classy America!

*Click on the photos to see the large version*

Beach in Balakleya Area around Balakleya

Uzbekistan restaurant

My Train Tickets

It feels like I have been on a roller coaster for the last 2 weeks.  Lots of dramatic ups and downs and unseen twists and turns.  Wow,  I can't wait for things to flatten out.  The biggest issues are still expectations - both my expectations and the expectations of my counterpart.  I don't yet know what we will be doing and how I will help other than the fact that they want me to start a business center.  I am looking into it and have been working on some possible business trainings that I can give or possibly writing a grant to setup a computer lab though these are my ideas and I am not sure if they will fly or not.  It is difficult to get any details from my coworker and since I don't know the community I am forced to assume a lot.  That can be dangerous so I am going to observe for a while until I figure stuff out.    Other than the stressful work situation, I  had a good weekend with Amy and a nice weekend in Dobropillya with some fellow volunteers to celebrate July 4th.  I took a taxi at 4 in the morning to a neighboring city (Markeevka) to pick her up at the train station.  Everything went smoothly though the taxi driver thought I said bus station so I almost got off at the wrong place.  lol  Things went smoothly from there.  We ate Pizza for breakfast (only place open at that time) then made our way back to my city.  We had a great weekend hanging out, cooking delicious meals, and watched a movie (Hot Tub Time Machine) lol understood only 20 percent but it was fun.  We also took a trip to Donetsk to explore the Oblast capital.  It is a nice city.  We went to their amusement park and rode the Farris wheel which was interesting because when we were at the top I realized that there is a TON of rust all over this thing.  I was happy we managed to get off without incident.  We then went to a Mexican food restaurant "Taquila Boom" - it was good though not your typical Mexican food.  I showed Amy the office and we had a BBQ with my counterpart and his wife.  It was a very nice weekend and it was awesome to have another American's prospective on my situation.  I dropped Amy off at the train station and made it back to my site via taxi.  This taxi driver ripped me off a little because I am American and do not know the language very well.  This was discouraging but lesson learned - reaffirm the price over and over again.  He wanted an extra 15 Grev - I argued with him a bit but I was not going to get into a fight over roughly $2.00 USD.  Still, that's messed up.    This last weekend I woke up early and took the hour long bus ride to Donetsk where I met up with a volunteer and had breakfast.  We then made our way to a bus station on the other side of the city where we took another bus to Doborpillia (1:30).  We had our own little 4th of July party complete with BBQ, fireworks, and we even found some Miller Light.  lol  It was a good time.  8 American's showed up - 7 volunteers and 1 Fulbright scholar.  It was nice to be able to understand an entire conversation and just relax.  I think the Ukrainians were a bit confused about the fireworks though we did explain it was our independence day.  It was good to meet some of the other volunteers in our region.  They were all YD (youth development) and TEFL (English Teachers) so they had very different situations (they have some structure)  than I do.  Good people - good times.    Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:  1.  Amy visited.  Good times.  Very nice.  2.  Numerous intense discussions via google translator with my Counterpart. 3.  First overnight solo travel.  Always an adventure 4.  Sleeping on the floor at a fellow volunteers Apt for the 4th of July.  I woke up with 30 bug bites.  yikes 5.  Slowly figuring out different meal options and how to properly handwash my clothing.  I would kill for something as easy as a hotpocket right now.  6.  Talked via skype with my sister in an Internet club.  Headphones did not work so I had to use the speakers.  People were very intrigued with our English conversation.    7.  Mexican food in Ukraine.  Different but a nice change of pace.  8.  Explaining to Ukrainians why I am here.  Some of them find it hilarious that an American is way out here in Eastern Ukraine.  Usually a pretty funny conversation.  9.  Tomatos.  Deeeeelish.  taste like home grown tomatos.    (once again, I am unable to post photos  :-(    I will try to make it to an internet club with fast internet)          

Hello Everyone,

So, I have been at site for a little over a week. I have gotten lost, walked around the entire city, had 2 BBQs, watched a movie at the movie theater, met tons of different organization, and have been thinking about possible projects to work on. It will be difficult to find ways that I can help and what projects I can work on but I am sure with time - it will work out. It is difficult to manage expectations though because my organization wants results yesterday but they don't know exactly what they want. Managing my own expectations and those of my counterparts/partner organizations will be first on my list of things to do. They expect soooo much from me and I don't even know the language yet. Yikes. I also desperately want to help with anything and everything that I can help with but don't know what is needed and what I can help with. Everyone has be extremely welcoming and nice - it makes me want to help with everything but right now I simply don't know how I can help - very frustrating. I want to repay everyone's kindness by pulling of an amazing project but I just don't know what project yet. Things simply operate differently here - all my business knowledge does not seem to apply here so I will have to be creative.

Then I will need to figure out how to communicate effectively. My Russian has gotten much better over the last week due to not being able to speak any English but I have a long way to go before I feel comfortable with everyday conversations. The main project that I will be working on right now is setting up a business center. I will be conducting a variety of trainings among other things. It will be interesting to say the least. During the summer, it may be difficult to attract interested community members. I also want to start an English club for anyone that is interested as a way to meet people, find out the needs of the community, learn the culture, and network. So far I have found 5 adults that are interested. That will be a good start considering that I am not a teacher but I have spent the last 11 weeks in Russian language classes so I can use those methods and resources to teach. It will be fun. I will also be creating a website for the community probably to promote tourism and to provide news and info on what is going on in the community. The exact details are yet to be determined. It is extremely difficult to pin down exact details - part because of the communication barrier and part because of me not knowing how things work here. I keep explaining that I simply need time to learn the community, people, and way of life but that message never seems to be understood.

Anyways, other than work - I have been spending a lot of time with my counterpart going to different businesses, gov buildings, museum, meeting tons of people, having BBQs, etc..etc.. It has been extremely interesting if not a bit overwhelming. This weekend is a holiday weekend so we have Monday off - I am sure I will be doing something I have never done before but I won't know what I will be doing until 5 min before I am doing it. Thats just how things go here. For example, I will be working when my counterpart calls and tells me to go outside and get in a car and then bam - I am off on another unknown adventure. lol Or I will be meeting a high gov official and suddenly a piece of furniture will open up to reveal a large bottle of something where it is tradition to take 3 consecutive shots. lol Or I will be having a cup of coffee outside the Palace of Culture (where my office is located) and suddenly find myself touring a truck and tractor factory 15 min outside of town. I never know what the day has in store for me. Lucky for me, Amy is visiting for the weekend - it has been awesome. Friday at 4 in the morning I took a 30 min taxi to a neighboring city (Markeevka) to pick her up at the train station. That was an adventure - I am glad we made it safe and sound. We had to navigate an unknown city and find the bus station then take the correct bus back to my city. It is nice to have her around to help digest some of the random stuff that happens. The culture is just so different - I thought I had an idea of how things worked when i was in training but turns out, I have only scratched the surface.

We are planning on taking a bus to Donetsk tomorrow to explore the city. Donetsk is the Oblast (Similar to a state) capital w/ a couple million people. That will be fun and yet another adventure. I hear there may or may not be a Mexican food restaurant somewhere in the city. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I hear it is pretty good too. Then we will see the sites and walk the city. I am looking forward to it. Something may or may not come up between now and then which will take up our time but I am sure whatever we do will be fun.

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables: (no particular order)

1. Amy is here! Awesome

2. Survived my first week at site. It will take time to learn how to live and work here - I am excited, still a bit nervous, and overwhelmed at the same time.

3. Met tons of important people in the City. Very interesting. They all seem to wonder what an American is doing way out here.

4. My sister will be having a daughter within the next month! Super excited to finally see photos of her.

5. Still trying to find out how I will be contributing to my organization here. Extremely stressful - I desperately want to help but I don't know how yet.

6. Millions of awkward situations. It is starting to feel awkward to feel comfortable. lol

7. Trying out all the different places in my community. People seem to be perplexed that there is an American living in their community. Makes me laugh.

8. Havin a coffee in the morning on my balcony that overlooks the bazaar. Always interesting people-watching.

9. Hand washing my cloths. Is it clean? Who knows. But it doesn't smell so it is good enough.

I hope all is well in the US - I will try to post photos when I have time.

Greetings from my new apartment in the Donetskaya oblast. I now live in a small city (120k) outside the city of Donetsk Ukraine. I am only a couple hours from Russia and only a couple hours from the Sea of Azov. I can't post the name of the city due to Peace Corps policy but I assure you that it is pretty cool. The city is very green, beautiful parks, friendly people, and the organization I work for is great. My first impressions other than "wholly crap...I am finally a volunteer" and "wow...there are no other Americans/English speakers for at least an hour in any direction" were that this is a nice City - I think I can be happy here. It would have been nice to have another volunteer close by but it is better for integration in the community if I can't run off with fellow volunteers whenever I want. My organization is a new NGO (less than a year old) and it consists of me and my Counterpart and a small room in the "Palace of Culture" (government owned community center). We have 2 tables, 2 chairs, and a million ideas. I just got chills thinking about it. Awesome! I know it will be tough and it will take time before I can be effective and can actually speak well enough to network but I am excited. The first project we will be working on is opening up a Business Center for the youth in the community. At the moment it is only an idea and with my limited Russian, we have not been able to discuss the idea in too much detail but I will no doubt be writing a grant for this project. We will have an interpreter on Monday so that we can discuss exactly what, why, where, how, and with who. lol. I am sure I am getting a bit ahead of myself given that I have only spent two nights in my new community but hey...it doesn't hurt to start thinking about possible projects right away. My counterpart/coworker is a nice guy , 26 years old, married, has a pet rabbit, and is extremely ambitious. The mayor's right hand man took us out to eat last night which was nice. We had Ukrainian Steaks followed by a some Ukrainian beer - Delicious. It was a nice evening and my counterpart, his wife, and the mayor's guy speak a little bit of English so we can get probably 70% of our messages across. I can't wait tell I can have a full conversation without pausing and without having to resort to using words that do not fit the sentence. Other volunteers have stated that the first few weeks at site can be the most difficult and that your language skills improve dramatically because you don't have any English speakers to fall back on. I hope this is true because I could really use more Russian skillz. Today is Sunday morning here and I am sitting in my appt with the balcony door open, listening to the sounds of the busy bazaar across the street, and sipping some tea while I think about how crazy life can be and all the new stuff I have already experienced. This is awesome! Yesterday my counterpart took me to a friend's summer house where we had a BBQ, some delicious Ukrainian beer, and swam in the river. It was a busy day. The day started at 8:00 when I woke up and finished unpacking then my new landlord came over and showed me how to work the gas, water, etc... I have a gas water heater without a tank so I think the flames heat a coiled pipe which in turn heats the water. In my city we have running water from 6 am - 10 am then from 4 pm - 8 pm so you have to plan accordingly. The landlord is a very nice guy probably in his 60s and he speaks a little bit of English that he learned 40 years ago by listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival at University. I thought that was pretty cool and I will try to burn him a CD one of these days so he can listen to them again. After that, I went with my counterpart and his friend to a little house out in the country by a river. Very scenic. We picked cherries, chatted (as much as I could), and relaxed. The wives prepared a delicious salad while the guys prepared the meat for the BBQ. I helped as much as I could. We cut up tomatoes, yellow peppers, and onions then seasoned some pork with milk, tomato sauce, and a packet of spices. We then put everything together shish kabob style - cooked everything with the wood of a fruit tree for extra flavoring - it was very good. We also took a drive out to someone's house that turned out to be a fisherman that sells dried fish. Everyone thought it was pretty funny when I didn't know how to eat the dried fish lol I am still not entirely sure. It looks like a regular fish - not cut or prepared in any way - only dried and hard. I didn't know where to begin. Do you just start biting? I had no idea. Turns out that you rip the head off then start pealing the skin off and eat everything but the spine. I didn't get home last night tell midnight - exhausted - awesome day. Today I am going to do some shopping, attempt to hand wash some clothing, and then take the bus to my counterpart's house for dinner. I hope I can figure out how to get there. Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. I am now an official Peace Corps Volunteer! 3 months of training done!2. Had to say all my goodbyes to my fellow volunteers in Kiev. Dare I say it was a bit emotional. We have all grown very close over the last 3 months and I will miss them all. My closest cluster mate is 6 hours away and some of my friends are over 30 hours away by train. I am in the south east and some have been sent to the north west. When you think about it, it would be faster to visit someone in the states than my friends in western Ukraine.3. BBQ - met some cool people and had a great time. 4. Counterpart and new organization - So far it looks like a great fit. I am looking forward to start working. 5. Walked around the city - very interesting. It will take some time before I am comfortable and familiar with everything.6. I finally have my own place. My host family was great for the 3 months of training but I need my own space. 7. The 13 hour train ride from Kiev to Donetsk - interesting stuff to say the least. Slept like a baby.8. Shopping. Went to the grocery store for some essentials and definitely stuck out like a sore thumb. Everything has a different process that I am unfamiliar with.

9. One last walk with Amy in our little training village.

10. Swearing-in ceremony.

Swearing-in Ceremony

New PCVs

My new Flat

New Flat 2

New Flat 3

New Flat 4

Greetings, I will know where I will be living, who I will be working with, and what I will be doing in two days. So, while we have all been waiting for our assignments we have been getting ready for the move, hanging out, and tying up loose ends in our village. It has been nice to have a few days without language class and to be able to spend time with other volunteers. It is kind of funny because we are all trying to prepare ourselves for the move to our permanent sites where we will be living and working for the next two years but we still don't know what we will be doing or where we will be living so how do you prepare? You don't know if you will be in a village without running water or if you will be in a city with some amenities or in a cold part of Northern Ukraine or the much hotter Southern Ukraine. Good thing PC people are all pretty laid back because if you are the type of person that likes to have some control over things - you might freak out. I am not too worried about where I will live or what I will be doing - I am mainly concerned with who I will be working with. As long as I get along with my counterpart, they can put me in a hole in the middle of nowhere and I will probably be happy. Other than site placement, we have all taken our LPIs (Language Proficiency Interviews) which I am sure we all did ok. Our group's got some mad Russian skillz however we will definitely struggle the first few months at site. We can at least get our messages across in Russian even if we don't understand the response. lol I am forced to be a bad listener because I can't understand what people are saying but I can say what is on my mind. I find myself getting rather good at determining the topic of a conversation based solely on reading facial expressions and body language. lol Either that or the Ukrainians I speak to have gotten used to me saying really random stuff. lol For example, a babushka in my village walked up to me and started talking to me in Russian with a really concerned look on her face and the only words I picked up from her concerned handful of sentences was: Egg, chicken, garden, today, and old. I usually understand more that this in the average conversation but sometimes this is all you have to work with. So from here you have two choices - A. Try to guess what she said based on the few words you managed to pick out, her facial expressions, and prior conversations with this nice old babushka or B. Ask her to repeat herself and probably end up in the same situation with the same two options once again. In this particular "conversation" I decided to wing it and attempt to guess what she said. I based my guess on some universal truths about babushkas: They are always extremely concerned about what you have eaten, how much of it you ate, and what you are planning to eat later. So given that 2 out of the 5 words that I understood were food related, it is a relatively safe assumption that she wants to talk about food or has asked if I want to eat. My response went something like this. "Hello. Good morning. This morning for breakfast I cooked 3 fried eggs and ate 4 sandwiches (Bread, cheese, kielbasa) and I think I will have borsch (similar to soup) for lunch. Also, I am not hungry right now. Thanks. Good weather today isn't it? How are you?" At this point, there are usually three possible outcomes A. One of her eyebrows raises slightly and she gives you a very confused and inquisitive look then slowly starts laughing at the verbal diarrhea that came out of your mouth at which point I usually start laughing too because of how funny the whole situation is. or B. You got lucky and nailed it. At this point she will be happy that you ate something but will not believe that you are not hungry and will attempt to feed you if you don't repeat that you have already eaten and are indeed not hungry at least 3 more times. or C. There is a slight awkward pause followed by a small nod of the head with minimal facial expressions then she starts talking about the weather and will usually agree that the weather is nice but it is too hot/cold/rainy/etc. This is why I try to add something at the end of all my responses about some insignificant topic so that if I do mess up and say the wrong thing or if she does not understand my response - she has an out. She does not have to repeat herself a million times, she can just start talking about the weather or what she is up to and hopefully I will understand more of what she says later and we can have a more fluid conversation. The only problem with this strategy is that you never really know if you guessed correctly or if she had originally said something totally different. For this conversation she could have easily said that she needs help gathering eggs from the chickens and help in the garden today because she is old and can't do it all herself. If that is what she had actually said, I might look like a bit of an ass talking about all the food I ate. lol But people are patient and know that you don't speak the language very well yet and will usually give you the benefit of the doubt. Anywho, the actual outcome of this conversation was outcome C. I still am not entirely sure if I answered correctly or what but after that part of the conversation we talked about the weather, what she is up to, her daughter, my host mom, - we actually chatted for about 15 min. Learning a language is a hilarious and incredibly awkward process and I am sure I will have thousands of similar conversations before I start to "get it". lol I almost want to add a segment to my blog called the "Awkward Conversation of the Week Award" lol Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. Language test completed - will find out score in a few days.2. Went on a scavenger hunt in Chernigiv with 20 other volunteers followed by happy hour at the local cafe. It was nice to walk around Chernigiv one last time before we all move away from one another to our separate sites. 3. Going to the "beach" later today. It is a sandy area next to the river - very popular in our little village of 2,500 people - should be fun. 4. Ate some Peanut Butter. Fantastic. I never thought I would say that about something like peanut butter but damn it was good.5. I have not had running water for a few days (I hope it rains soon so that I have running water again). I stink and my cloths are dirty. When I told this to some fellow volunteer they said welcome to the Peace Corps - lol6. Packing up all my stuff again + 20 pounds of books and paperwork. Should be interesting.

7. Raided a fellow volunteers hard drive and got tons of good movies. That will come in handy come winter when we only have 8 hours of sunlight.

Howdy, Training is more or less over now. I have learned a ton but still have a lot to go. Training has been absolutely great - we were busy all the time but we were doing stuff we enjoy, which made the experience extremely enjoyable and fulfilling i.e... learning Russian, helping the community, working on our project, and basically integrating in the community. From this point on I will be doing it solo. No English speaking friends nearby, no caring locals (not yet anywho), no structure, and basically nothing familiar. With time I will meet people at site and will develop a network of friends and coworkers but in the meantime it will just be me and Ukraine. To be honest, it is a bit freaky but also exciting at the same time. I debated omitting that last sentence but then I would not be painting a realistic picture. Up to this point, I have been safely nuzzled in the bosom that is 3 months of Peace Corps Training (which has had it's own set of challenges). We have had a support network from the beginning of training - complete with cluster mates, language facilitators, host families, cultural facilitators, fellow volunteers, and of course the PC staff. Now it will just be me and my counterpart in whatever city/town/village they decide to put me. I will find out more details on the 14th so until then, I will continue to cross my fingers and study the language. Other than training coming to an end, we have our LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) on Wednesday which will give us an idea of where we stand as far as Russian goes. We have to get to at least intermediate low/mid which means we can communicate on most topics with some errors and a basic vocabulary. I fell comfortable that I will get at least intermediate mid. Apparently the older groups have a much harder time with the language. Among the Community Development volunteers, I am one of the youngest - my cluster (the 5 volunteers in my training group/community) consists of 3 of us being 26 years old. Some of the older clusters (60+ years old) have tons of work experience and are extremely knowledgeable - one of the volunteers being the former CFO of a fortune 500 company. It is interesting to see the many different approaches to CD. I look forward to collaborating and working with some of the older volunteers if possible. Hopefully I can find a side project that I can work on with fellow volunteers - I feel like I can learn a lot from some of my fellow volunteers. There are also a large # of YD (Youth Development) and TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) volunteers in Ukraine. YD and TEFL are usually the youngest volunteers. Regardless of background, age, experience, etc.. everyone will have to make a major adjustment. Me for example, will have to work on being more social and will have to concentrate on networking as much as possible especially during the first couple months at site. Everyone is different, some are going to have a hard time adjusting to life without the comforts that they are used to having (running water is a biggie), some will have a hard time living alone in an unfamiliar village/town/city, some will struggle with working without any structure, the list goes on and on. To me, benefits far outweigh the costs. Two words - "fulfilling work" - it is hard to find something like this; something you believe in. Other than all that stressful stuff, we have had some visitors to our quiet little village. The volunteers that trained in our village 6 months ago have decided to visit their former host families. It is interesting to see another person interact with my HF. Very funny and cool at the same time. These volunteers are TEFL volunteers so they don't do the stuff that we will be doing but it is interesting to hear their experiences and stories. The former volunteer that stayed with my host family will be staying here tell Monday. It is awesome to hear her interact with my HF and to see everything from another perspective. It has been a good weekend. The previous volunteers arrived Friday night and we all got together Sat for a long game of football followed by a trip to Chernigiv for a night out. Like always, it was nice to have an English speaking evening with some interesting and genuinely good people. Sunday we got together at one of the Babushka's house and had snacks and chatted. We then went to the Sauna for the evening. It was awesome. Sauna's are extremely popular in Ukraine and considered very good for your health. I rented a private room for the evening just for us volunteers. Sorry I was too busy to update the blog at my regular time. I try to update at the same time each week. Well, it is now Monday morning and I really need to start studying Russian to make up for lost study time from this weekend. Not to mention that this is the third time I have written this post which for whatever reason kept being deleted. ArgggConor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. Finished up my side project of learning Russian cursive. 2. Had some long conversations with my HM. (I have come a long way with the language but still have a long way to go)3. Chatting with the previous volunteer that stayed with my HF. Very cool.4. Found a decent wine called "Bastardo" - not bad. All the other Ukrainian wines are extremely sweet. 5. There is a group of Geese that live near one of my cluster mates. Apparently, they really don't like my cluster mate and will chase her as soon as they see her even if she is a block away they will start charging her. I feel bad but this is one of the funniest things in the world to me. lol Even typing about it is making me laugh : )6. Going to the Sauna with some fellow volunteers for a relaxing evening. 7. Went out for another English speaking night out in Chernigiv with some fellow volunteers. Always interesting and fun - PCVs are interesting and genuinely good people. 8. I have been working on a photo project where I have taken the same photo of a certain babushka's garden every day for the last couple weeks and before I leave my village I will put the photos together into a movie to show how fast things grow here. I will try to post the video if I can. (I will try to post more photos when I have access to faster internet - maybe Wed)

Hello Hello,All is still well in Ukraine. Training is starting to wind down. We have finished the majority of our project and have come a long way with the Russian language but now in only 2 weeks training will be over. Exciting and sad at the same time. Our cluster has grown very close over the last couple months. After we officially swear in as Peace Corps Volunteers - we will find out where we will be living, who we will be working with, and later that same day we will take the long trip (could be a 30 hour train ride) to our permanent sites. I just hope we live relatively close to each other once we get to site. Site will consist of me and my counterpart. No fellow volunteers. No English speakers. Zero familiarity. Simply "Go Time". There is also a chance that housing will not be available at our respective sites which would mean that we would have to live with a host family in our new village/town/city for possibly the entire 2 years (gulp...). I am sure I will do fine but I realize it will be rough for the first couple months while I get to know people and become familiar with the community. I can now speak my mind for the most part but only if the person I am talking to has patience and is willing to listen to me slaughter their beautiful language. lol. But you don't get better if you don't try and I will have plenty of opportunities to try. It is exhausting though - and after long periods of speaking Russian, my mind craves English conversations. Well, now it is time to work on some Russian homework, finish some paperwork, and get some much needed sleep. I will try to have an more informative post next week. : - )Conor's Noteworthy noteables:1. My friend decided to leave. Major bummer. He will be missed though I respect his reasons and I respect him as a person. Hopefully we will chill again one day. It never ceases to amaze me how different people's paths of life intertwine with one another. 2. My cluster mates got me a cake for my birthday! They rock! no doubt. First birthday in Ukraine! Here's to two more!3. Had my first haircut in Ukraine. I am happy to report that I am still mullet free!4. Played more soccer in our little village. This time we had a few more kids and some adults join us. Good times. Hopefully next week we will have even more. 5. I went to the graduation ceremony at the local school. Interesting. After all the high school kids graduated, they all got together outside the school and danced tell the sun came up. 6. The weather here is awesome and starting to get pretty hot. I love summer. 7. People know me in town. It is crazy. I wish I was better at putting names to faces. SoccerMy B-Day w/ cluster Yes...a flower. What?

Whoohoo! Hello again! We are now done with the majority of our project! We conducted a healthy lifestyles seminar for the teachers and students in our little village and and for a few people from a youth organization in Chernigiv. We had over 50 people show up and it went off perfectly. I covered the dangers of drugs and alcohol complete with a skit on how to say no to peer pressure. Pretty funny - I had a hat on all crooked, sunglasses, and an oversized smoke for the "drug". The kids got a kick out of it and I think they learned a thing or two. John covered some of the facts and statistics specific to Ukraine which were downright startling. Drugs and alcohol are definitely a big problem in Ukraine. Now for the second part of out project we are going to put together some English learning resources for the local school, Chernigiv library, and a Chernigiv youth organization. This will include a manual on English materials development that I am working on now. There are tons of free resources out there now if you know were to look so I am compiling these resources into a usable format. We also had our site placement interviews with a few of the PC staff. Friday was definitely a big day. I am very curious as to where I will be working and living for the next 2 years. Since I am learning Russian and not Ukrainian chances are that I will be far east near Russia though you never know. I met a current volunteer that learned Russian in training and now lives near the boarder of Hungary. Whatever - It is out of my control - I just hope I have an awesome counterpart/organization to work with. Cross your fingers for me and we will find out in a few weeks. With the hard part of out project over with, we decided to get together with some fellow volunteers and have a relaxing English speaking evening. The other volunteers are good people - most of us quit good jobs, sold houses, said goodbye to loved ones, etc..etc.. to be able to do this - it takes a special type of person. I find myself constantly intrigued and honored to be around such a genuinely awesome group of people. We sat & talked at a little café/pizza place with a covered patio near the center of Chernigiv and had a great time. We then got up early yesterday (Sat) and went to Kiev for the day. Kiev is huge and very interesting. I think we have the transportation down now. We went to the Chernobyl museum, walked around the city, and observed everything over some ice cream in Independence square. Nice day. Today we played soccer at the local school with some school kids. It was nice to get some exercise and not have to worry about our project or anything else for that matter. Now I am at a little Café in Chernigiv drinkin an amazing cup of coffee. Life is good. [Break for skype] I just finished chatting with my sister and parents on skype so now I have to update the blog with 5% battery remaining. lol I hope I make it. Things are going great and in 3 weeks we will all move to Kiev for a few days for the swearing in ceremony then it is off with our new counterparts (business partner/coworker) to our new sites (wherever that may be) for the next 2 years. Wow, I could use some luck right now. I hope everything is going great back in the good ole USA!Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. Successfully finishing my first project in Ukraine! Whoohoo!2. Meeting more current volunteers - awesome people - makes me excited to start working solo. 3. Had an onion salad for breakfast 3 days ago. Bowl full of onions and mayo - mmmmmmmm. Lucky for me I love onions. Though my breath in language class may have been a bit rough for my clustermates. lol I told them later and they all agreed that smelling something during class. hahaha what can I say? I ate a bowl full of onions? What?4. Skyped with my sister, nephew, and step bro. Awesome. We will have to do it again. 5. After our project we went out for a night on the town with fellow volunteers. Fun evening full of good conversation and awesome pizza. 6. Played soccer with some kids from the local school. Fun time. I have not played soccer for years. 7. Walked around Kiev and relaxed in the Independence Square. Good times. People watching is especially interesting here. 8. A friend had a birthday so we all went out for pastries. good stuff9. Had a chicken sandwich in Kiev. Beautiful. A tear ran down my cheek. 10. Gave a presentation to a large group of people about drugs and alcohol in Ukraine. People seemed involved in the presentation and I think they all learned a thing or two. Mission accomplished. Now on to part two.

***Like always, click on the photo to see the large version***

Soccer at the local school in our villageThe crew after the seminar (good job team!)Cluster at the officeMe, Amy, and Cassie in Kiev Independence Square

Hello again, I have a lot of work to do and I am sick as a (insert metaphor here cuz I am too busy to think of one) so I will have to keep this post brief :-( But on the plus side, I have a PC issued med kit so I have been able to make it to most of my obligations. Since I last posted, I have visited Kiev which was awesome. Kiev is the largest city in Ukraine with around 5.6 million people. Huge contrast to my quiet little village. At 7:20 AM on a cloudy morning we took a bus from the village to Chernigiv then on to Kiev. Including a coffee break, it took about 2:40 min. First impressions: Huge, neat, spread out, and very interesting. We arrived in the outskirts of Kiev and took a metro the the city center. The metro warrants a post of its own but unfortunately I don't have time. Lets just say...you know the game they used to pay to see how many people can fit in a VW bug or a phone booth - well that sums up the Metro and the Mashootkas for that matter. It is that game being played over and over again. lol I may or may not have accidentally gotten to third base with at least a dozen people. This impression seems to be mine alone which may be a result of me being from Utah where nobody uses public transportation and the rest of my cluster being from big cities in the East. Anywho, after the metro we went to the train station to familiarize ourselves with the whole train travel process. Cool stuff. To travel from eastern Ukraine to western Ukraine can take over 30 hours lol. Mental note - get a sleeper car. After the train station we walked to PC headquarters and talked with some of the staff. I am constantly amazed at how friendly, energetic, and motivated the PC staff can be. Makes me want to start building schools, hospitals, or anything Ukraine may need with my bare hands. Good people. We then went to a Ukrainian Restaurant and had a delicious meal before doing the whole touristy thing. We saw most of the main sites - Churches, Independence Square, Monuments, Bell Tower, Gov buildings, etc. The churches here are absolutely beautiful - I have seen churches all over Europe and can say that the churches here are unique. We proceeded to walk around a bit, have some ice cream, take some cool photos, then make our way back to our village by a little after 8. Long day - awesome. My PC friends are awesome and definitely make the whole experience more enjoyable. I thought it might be interesting to write a bit about the cost of things here in Ukraine. 1 buck = roughly 8 Ukrainian Greven. You can buy a travel by bus around the city for around 1 - 2 HUA (Greven). The 2 hour trip to Kiev cost 30 HUA. A beer at the local store cost 4 -6 HUA. A meal at a decent restaurant in Kiev is around 40 - 50 HUA and in Chernigiv probably around 25 - 45. Inflation is a cool 15%. My walking around $ during training is around 700 HUA. Food can be expensive at Restaurants but if you buy food at the local stores it is very reasonable. Restaurants are for the most part no-existent outside the cities - I spoke to one lady that was probably in her late 50s that said she had only eaten in a restaurant once in her entire life. When I told my HM (host mom incase you forgot) that a fellow volunteer and I ate at a restaurant she proceeded to explain that all restaurants are bad and should be avoided. That explains why restaurants and coffee shops are so rare - not to mention that they are considered expensive and most cannot afford them. It is difficult for us volunteers because the Café in Chernigiv is one of the only places we can meet to do work and have access to internet but at the same time we would like to avoid these places. I jokingly call it my office. What's a volunteer to do? We need a place where we can all meet? One of the many funny situations I have encountered here happened a few weeks ago but I feel it is worth mentioning. So...my cluster consists of 2 guys(including me) and 3 girls. We spend a lot of time together. Walking around the village, studying Russian, and working on our respective projects. So I have walked all the girls home at one point or another and we have all gone on numerous walks together. I have also visited their houses and they have visited mine. Well...in Ukraine, if you are seen alone with a member of the opposite sex too much word will spread fast and you will suddenly be "together" before you even realize it yourself. For example, a couple weeks ago, my HM (host mom) informed me that I am "with" one of the other volunteers and was confused that I was spending time alone with another. I attempted to explain that we are all just friends but she insisted that NO we are in fact an "item" if you will, and she crossed her fingers in gesture to show what she meant. She then started to lecture me on not being with too many girls at the same time and basically accusing me of being a player. lol I immediately started laughing uncontrollably which definitely did not help the situation but I could not help myself. I never though that I would ever be considered a player. Those of you that know me, know that I am anything but - so I immediately got the urge to try and explain to her, "Don't hate the player, hate the game!" lol I am sure that would have been lost in translation. Well, I gotta go. We are conducting a seminar at the local school on Friday and I just found out today that we could have around 80 people attending. Need to prepare. Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. Kiev. I love exploring new cities.2. Being harassed by a random guy on a bus for being American. I need remind myself not to feel too comfortable and keep my wits about me. 3. Doing certain things easily that only a month ago I found to be challenging. We really have come a long way with both the language and the culture.4. Climbed to the top of a really old bell tower overlooking downtown Kiev. Very cool.5. Still having "wholly shit! I am in Ukraine" moments. With all the stuff going on, it can be easy to get absorbed in the moment and forget to see the big picture. Internet is too slow to upload photos. Maybe later.

So...I have been here for a while now. I suppose I should do a recap. I have learned a ton since we originally arrived though I feel like there is definitely a ton more to go. I think my host mom is used to having me around because we joke around with each other a lot more now than we did when I first got there. I now am familiar with my little village and have walked just about everywhere. The neighboring city also feels familiar. I feel like I have seen all the major sights that Chernigiv has to offer. I can't wait to explore more of Ukraine. I should have some time on Wednesday to visit Kiev so that should be awesome. Kiev is a major city complete with some western amenities - should be nice. I will probably explore the city, visit a museum, and try to take it all in. Hopefully I will have a few good photos to post. Language skillz are coming along just fine though never fast enough. Sometimes I feel like I am starting to get a feel for it and others I questions what the hell I have been doing with my time. Previous volunteers have told me that this is normal and that it will come with time. In the meantime, I have to communicate with members of the community enough to pull off a successful project so....what's a guy to do? I will heed the current volunteers advice and try not to fret the language too much and just enjoy getting to know the culture and get used to a different way of life. The rest will come after countless hours of trial and error language learning. As long as you have a good attitude about it and can laugh at yourself - it will work out. I had a picnic the other day with my cluster mates and a school teacher from the local school and her boyfriend. Good time. We setup next to a river and cooked Шашлик (shish kabobs) marinated with mayo and had a well deserved beer & some homemade wine. Delicious. It was nice to relax and enjoy the scenery. We have all be extremely stressed out lately because we have so many deadlines coming up and little time to work on our projects. Training is definitely a stressful time. We need to learn enough to function on some sort of a proficient level in a business environment. This not only means learning the language but also to have an understanding of the culture so that you know how to operate effectively (i.e.. the proper way to schedule meetings, how networking works in Ukraine, the hierarchy system that they use, and acceptable ways to communicate with different groups of people). This is all very different to how things are done is the US and will take time to adjust but we only have 3 months of training (11 weeks) so we are busy sun up to sundown all week. It is hard to believe that we are over half way through training. Wow! Time flies. Over the next couple weeks, we will complete our project, go through numerous language tests / placement interviews, and find out where we will be living/doing for the next 2 years. Yeah - bit stressful. They call it Peace Corps boot camp for a reason. Well, I need to get back to working on stuff. Let me know if there is anything particular you would like to see in this blog. Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. The town water dries up from time to time in the summer so I have had to get used to now running water and to using an outhouse. I have never seen so many spiders in one place in all my life. I have had some interesting late night trips to the outhouse - lol. Lesson learned: Appreciate your running water. 2. Did some laundry and hung it up on the line. Always an interesting experience - I think I may have a decent strategy down now. 3. Don't shake someone's hand with a glove on or you will insult every fiber of his being and probably get punched in the face. 4. Don't whistle inside or you will piss off all the spirits. (Opening an umbrella inside is fine)5. Don't sit on a cold surface if you are a girl because you will freeze you ovaries/eggs and not be able to have kids. A babushka scolded my friend when she sat on a cold surface. lol6. http://www.peacecorpsjournals.com/ - Great site to view PC blogs around the world. 7. Attended my first Ukrainian birthday party. Good times. Amy I were thrown into the middle of a circle so that everyone can watch us dance. lol I busted out the "running man" and "the shuffle" Funny night. 8. We had our first English club on Friday - good time. We had over 20 kids show up so we split-up into groups and played Uno to get to know the kids and find out what topics they would like to cover. Ages 10-16. They all spoke some English.9. I found a restaurant that makes burritos! It was not your typical burrito but it was fantastic. 10. As a side project, I have decided to learn to read and write in Russian Cursive. Crazy. But after a long day of studying, it is nice to plug in the ole iPod and write the same letters over and over again.

Comrad ConOur Cluster + LinkBBQ Ukraine Style1200 AD Church

It is 11:00 pm on a breezy Ukrainian night as I lie in bed slowly falling asleep in my little house in my little village. While drifting to sleep, I hear the soft thuds of a horse's hooves as it pulls a cart by my bedroom window. I feel the breeze through my open window and with it the smell of the countryside and the ever-present hint of burning garbage that I have strangely grown accustomed to. I hear a pack of dogs in a nearby field fighting violently with loud growls and ferocious barks. The sounds come to an abrupt end followed by a series of loud yelps which slowly get softer and softer until the circle of life for that particular dog is completed. I think to myself, "Goodnight Ukraine." Ukraine is beautiful in it's simplicity yet complex at the same time due to the unfamiliarity of it all. I am 25 years old living in a small village in Ukraine - I couldn't be happier. Life is a trip - the destination is unimportant. I finally fall asleep while random Russian words swim around in my head to the tune of the techno beat that was playing on the crowded Mashootka ride home from the city. This is my life.

Greetings from Ukraine, A lot has changed since my last update. We have gotten the results back from the survey that we sent out to the community - I was happy to see a 85% response rate. We now have a basic idea of what we can start working on though with all the other stuff going on it will be hard to devote too much time. It is nice to finally have some goals in place in a culture that is not so goal oriented. In Ukraine, the process is more important than the results. We are trying to adapt to the differences but it has proven more difficult than we thought. For example, meetings are generally conducted over tea and coffee and sometimes the meeting can last for long periods of time without ever discussing the business at hand - resulting in yet another meeting being scheduled. Americans get to the point/business immediately but if you do that here, you might find yourself without any business partners/cooperation. Numerous current volunteers have told us that we better start liking tea because we will be drinking a TON of it. Which is cool with me because I love tea and I think I will enjoy a more casual business environment though if I ever have a time sensitive issue - that might be frustrating. Other than the project, I have obviously been studying Russian every day like a madman. It is an extremely difficult language. Я нужна изучать прусский Did you get that? It is fun to study though and hopefully one day I will have a clue as to what is going on around here. lol Hanging with my HM, HB, and their Ukrainian friends makes me want to study 24/7 because I have almost no idea what they are talking about. They are very friendly but I may or may not be the butt of some jokes that I am completely oblivious to. Its all good, I can take a joke especially when I don't know the details. The diet here is a ton of carbs and some fatty meats like well umm...raw fat. lol so for lunch (the only meal I have control over) - I try to eat light like a banana and yogurt for example. Apparently, only kids eat bananas and yogurt is bad for you. Go figure. So that makes me a 6'7" kid that eats bad food. I think they find that hilarious and disturbing at the same time. What can I say, I am the weird American. When I had an upset stomach the other day, it was immediately blamed on the banana and yogurt. I had some other thoughts as to what caused the upset stomach. I went on a tour of Chernigiv yesterday with some fellow volunteers and some kids from the local school. It was really neat talking to some of the kids - their English is way better than my Russian. We went to some of the historic buildings and monuments in the city and toured some caves that were beneath a 1000+ year old Monastery. Monks lived in the caves at one point and there were some skeletons - cool stuff though tall people were not meant to be in caves. After the caves, we had a picnic with the kids then split up. I ended up walking around the city for quite some time with a fellow volunteer - simply walking around a foreign city is one of my favorite traveling activities. You never know what you are going to see or what cultural gem you are going to uncover. The bazaar for example never ceases to amaze me. You can buy anything from fruit, eggs, meat, garden tools, to computers, motorcycles, pizza, electronics. It is crazy however, at one point someone was following a bit too close and eyeing my backpack - it pays to be careful. This coming week, we will be traveling to Kiev and seeing some of the sights. That will be awesome - I have heard nothing but good stuff about Kiev. So much history, culture, diversity, events, things to do, and everything else - awesome. I like living in a small village but it will be nice to be in a large city for a while. I wish I could post all my photos but unfortunately that would take forever. Well, I need to start working on the mass amount of work I have to do so take care all and keep me updated on what's going on.Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. Chipped my tooth on a piece of bone and filed the tooth smooth with the metal file in my Leatherman. 2. The name of the street I live on is similar to the Russian word for ice cream so I may have told some people that I live on Ice Cream Street. lol3. Found a Pizza Joint aka a little slice of heaven. Fantastic4. Going to see the Clash of the Titans in Ukrainian - it is an action flick so you don't really need to know what they are saying right?5. Running our first English club on Friday - curious to see how many people show up. 6. Went to a restaurant/bar/nightclub in Chernigiv and took a taxi back to my village. Fun evening7. Took a ton of awesome photos.8. A few volunteers have already gone home. Statistics show that we will lose 10% by the end of training and then another 20% will leave before the end of the 27 months.

*Click on the photo to see the large version*

Добре день! Я отлична! Как дела? Hello all! All is still well here in Ukraine. I feel like I have adjusted to all the big stuff though I still have a lot to learn about the culture and the way things work here. I think that by the end of my PC service (27 months) I will never feel uncomfortable in any situation ever again. Every day, we are forced to leave our comfort zones far behind and do something we have never done before. For example, interacting with the community without being able to speak. Brutal but fun and exciting at the same time - we won't get better if we don't try. Or talking to important government officials with the communication skills of a 2nd grader. Or having to explain to shocked Ukrainians that no, not all Americans are this tall and that I really don't know Brad Pitt or any other celebrities. The list goes on and on though I can already feel things getting easier as I learn the language, culture, and way of life. This week, in addition to the massive amounts of language training, we had to assess the needs of our little village. Since internet is not common in our community, we decided to send out a survey via the kids at the local school. This turned out to be quite the ordeal. First, we had to come up with 4 possible projects that would benefit the community (we already had some in mind). Second, write up the survey in Russian. This was my task which thanks to Google Translator - was relatively easy if not a little time consuming. We had someone proofread it a few times. Then we went to the neighboring city to print off some copies because our town does not have a printer or a copier. This is where we had some difficulties, we had to go to 3 different internet houses to find a place with both a printer and a copier. This might not sound that difficult but keep in my that we had to do this in Russian and using a USB drive that has all the folders in English. Luckily, I saw someone I knew that spoke both English and Russian so we were able to get the job done in about an hour. lol Anywho, that is done now and we should get the results back on Monday. That story probably is not as cool to you readers as it is to me lol my bad. Moving on....I have not had time to be homesick yet because there is too much going on to think about home but I have had some crazy dreams of home. For example, I had a dream last night that lasted hours where I was at work and trying to figure out a crazy trade with a client (thanks for your help Joel. lol). This was a long, vivid, and very involved dream where I may or may not have sleepwalked. lol That would be tough to explain with my limited Russian. Luckily, I don't think anyone saw me. That dream got me thinkin about work and all my former coworkers. We had some good times. Dan with his mastery of the passive aggressive phone call - lol. The Andrei and Todd show was always hilarious (don't shoot yourself in the face Andrei). Jeff with his clapping and random funny stories. Making fun of Lee with John. Tatton's conservative arguments. Ken when he gets a "live one". Instant messaging with the Wood-man. And the many fun times at the Skybox. Stef, Trev, Tanner, Jason, Hatch, Luke, and everyone else - I could go on but I think I will spare the 2 other people that actually read this blog. lol I definitely miss the Fam too - especially the L-man. Joining the PC is not without it's costs. You exchange memories with friends and Family, a stable job/income/life, and everything comfortable/familiar for adventure, self knowledge, the chance to do something for someone else/give back/make a difference, and the opportunity to learn more about the world/life in general. For me, I felt like I needed to do something like this. I would not be happy going down the route I was on for the rest of my life - at least not at this point. That was a bit of a ramble. Anywho, back to life in Ukraine. I can now speak in both future and past tense. You can't imagine how awesome this is unless you have lived in an environment without any English. I can finally say where I have been and what I am going to do. Language breakthrough. Right now I am at a café in Chernigiv havin a beer and attempting to skype with my parents - no mic - extremely frustrating - should have a mic soon. Sooooo, I will leave you with...Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:1. Just got back from a 3 hour walk out to the boonies. Scenic landscapes. Awesome2. Video skype with the fam3. Playing cards with my cluster mates and trying out the local brews4. Typing up a survey in Russian and distributing it to an entire village via school kids. 5. A Маняак was loose in Chernigiv (Maniac escaped from a insane asylum and beheaded 3 people) - they caught him. I am fine. Though my quiet little village made the perfect backdrop to a horror movie. lol6. I now know the public transportation to some degree. 7. The crazy dogs charged my friend - he made out ok but it is still an issue. 8. The extreme hilarity that results from learning the Russian language with a group of good friends that are going through the same challenges that you are. (it is hard to believe we have only known eachother for 3 weeks)

That is all for now. If I think of more noteables, I will post them.

Everyone keep on keeping on. Walking in the forest a few min from our houses. (click on the photo to see large version)

Meeting with the Chernigiv libraryRelaxing after a long day

Hello All, This has been another extremely busy week. We have been working round the clock on learning Russian. It is a difficult language but when we actually communicate with members of the community it really pays off. Plus - most people in the community seem to enjoy listening to us speak even if they don't understand what we are saying. In order to become part of the community, we have been taking part in as many community activities as possible. Without integrating in the community - it would be almost impossible to pull of a satisfactory project. We planted trees on Tuesday with the kids from the local school. This was very cool and after a while the kids started talking to us and I think everyone had a good time. We had to haul water from a nearby river for the planting process and at one point a kid started to play music for everyone (System of a Down: Sugar). Good ole globalization - for better or for worse. Very random. It was nice to have some exercise, pitch in, and have a stereotypical Peace Corps experience. Earlier today (Sat), the community had a cleanup day called "Soobodenick" where members of the community met in front of the school and cleaned an area of town. We definitely scored some more points in the community by working hand in hand with the locals. It was fun and interesting. We cleaned out the old school buildings that have been vacant for a # of years and some of the buildings were almost 200 years old. At one point, I was lifting a heavy bag full of really old books with this older man and felt like I was getting a good workout. Then I looked over and the man was only using one hand to carry his half of the bag and was using his other hand to smoke a cigarette (without a filter). I was impressed. Maybe there is something to this whole eating raw fat thing lol Throughout the week we were in and out of the neighboring city with technical trainings and had a meeting with a town official to discuss possible projects. I am starting to feel comfortable with the public transportation and am glad I don't have issues with claustrophobia. The meetings/trainings were great - Informative stuff and it looks like yours truly will be conducting an English Club which should be fun. It will be interesting to see who shows up and will probably help me learn Russian as well. This is another way to get to know a community and thus better understand the needs of the community. We are still deciding on what our big Community Development project will be and with all the meetings/language class/ and community activities - we have not been able to draft a proper Project Plan. That will come in time. It is awesome to think about my job description. I have to 1-Learn Russian 2-integrate in the community 3-develop and implement a project that will benefit the community 4-cultural exchange 5-work any side projects I would like. Truly awesome! When I think about it, I have been working very hard and am gone just about from sunup to sundown working and am thoroughly exhausted at the end of the day but I absolutely love the work. Fantastic Before arriving in Ukraine I was warned by multiple people that have been to Ukraine or currently live here; about the vodka drinking. It is big part of the culture here and a big problem for most communities as well. As a PCT we need to make sure we keep up appearances and absolutely cannot drink too much. I spoke to multiple current volunteers that have been here for over a year and the consensus is that guys have to drink vodka from time to time in order to properly integrate. It can be challenging though because when someone opens a bottle of Vodka you are expected to finish the entire bottle (some bottles don't have a reattach able top). You need to have a strategy on how to politely turn down shots before the night begins. On Easter I did have a minimal amount of vodka with my host bro and some neighbors and I immediately saw the benefit. People don't talk to strangers here but after one shot of vodka - you are no longer strangers. I had neighbors that would not reply to my greetings when passing in the street the day before (not rude - just a cultural difference) - but the day after having one shot with them, they would stop, shake my hand, and chat. Lucky for me, I am quite large and can handle a shot or two. That's enough for now. I gotta study. Conor's Noteworthy Noteables: 1. Made some friends and changed some minds about Americans 2. Bought some pants using my Russian Skillz (They actually fit) 3. Walked out into the countryside and truly was in the middle of nowhere 4. Met an older gentleman that initially seemed to hate me just because I am American but after a drink and some conversation (in Russian) we were friends. He even invited me to his house next holiday (there are like 5 holidays per month) 5. Explored an old vacant school (200+ years old) 6. Met with more local government officials to discuss the needs of the community. 7. Cooked Borsch with my cluster mates (see photo) 8. Had to buy ingredients for Borsch at the bazaar: Carpoosta, Markove, and Kooreetsa (Cabbage, carrots, and chicken). Had to haul around a 6 lb cabbage all around the city and to my tech training lol The locals seemed to think it was normal though. Keep on keeping on! Peace!

Hello everyone!First of all - I now that I am a PC trainee - I need to make sure all my blog material is culturally sensitive and appropriate for all audiences. That said, I will try to accurately describe some of the awesome experiences I have been having so that you guys have an idea about what's going on in my life. And thank you everyone for your nice comments on my previous blogThis is the first time I have had access to internet in Ukraine and my battery is dying lol So I have to make this quick. I live in a tiny little village outside of Chernihiv, Ukraine - I cannot give the name of the exact village for security purposes. Everything is going great - I have been speaking Russian / pointing and gesturing every day. Everything is new and exciting. We arrived in Ukraine 9 days ago and stayed at a old Soviet Era retreat / resort. Ever since we arrived, it has been nonstop Russian, Cultural, and tech training. We stayed at the resort for 2 nights while we went over some of the basics of PC life and met each other. The PC staff is great. They are extremely supportive and helpful - I feel lucky to be part of this program. The resort itself was very interesting with only about half the rooms remodeled and the other half still vacant (the entire resort was left abandoned for a # of years after the collapse of the USSR). After the resort it was time to move into our home stays (HS). This was pretty stressful with all the unknowns and limited vocabulary. I now live in a small village in North East Ukraine with chickens / cows / goats / farms the works. Very cool and peaceful - perfect community to learn Russian and try out some community development strategies. I live with a Babushka in a quiet little house with a large garden in the back that provides an estimated 95% of what we eat. Her son comes to visit from time to time and is quite the character (in a good way). We all get along great though communication is definitely a challenge. The son mentioned that was in the army and served in Iraq for 8 months in the beginning of the war - I would have liked to discuss this with him in detail but PCVs are not allowed to discuss politics in any capacity (understandable). The first weekend we were with our HS was Easter weekend which is a huge deal in Ukraine. I woke up at 2 am Sunday morning to walk to church with my host mom where I would spend the next 3 hours. I assumed my cluster (the 4 other trainees in the same community) would also be there but I ended up being the only one. This was one hell of a cultural experience for my 4th day in Country. The entire village was there and I was the first and only American most of these people have ever met and nobody spoke a single word of English. It was awesome! I did not know half of what was going on so I tried to "blend in" as much as possible lol or I should say - I tried not to make an ass of myself because everyone was watching "the huge American". After an hour or two of listening to the priest (the only other bearded person in the church) the packed church went outside and circled the church with candles. The Priest then walked through the crowd with incense and a brush like instrument to fling holy water on the people of the community (probably a better way to phrase that-:-)) It was a very interesting experience and I tried my best to thank the community and my HM though I am not sure if the message was clear or not. Definitely need more Russian skillz. My HM definitely appreciated me going and I earned some brownie points with the community (integration points if you will). I was at the church from 2 am tell around 6 am then walked home and went to sleep tell around 9:30. My HB (host bro) came over this point and drove me around Chirnihiv which was very cool of him. We then proceeded to chop firewood for a good ole fashioned BBQ, Ukrainian style. My HM, HB, and neighbors seemed to get a kick out of "the American" chopping firewood but so did I so it was all good. It is important to me that they see me making an honest effort to help and to get to know everyone. Lots of laughter and little understanding of what was going on but I am sure that will come with time. Some of the misunderstandings we have had so far have been downright hilarious for all parties involved. We finished up the BBQ by having a shot of Vodka in Ukrainian tradition. The week following the BBQ was full of extensive language class and technical training. The PC definitely does not mess around - we have been extremely busy from sun up to sun down. With the help of a translator, we have already started the community mapping process where we assess the needs, resources, and general information about the community (this town has been around since at least the stone age complete with stone age artifacts). We have even had a meeting with the town administration and the Principal / teachers of the local school. We have quite a few possible community development projects in mind and will probably meet with the town leader next week to hammer down the specifics. Well, I have been going on and on for a while now and I feel like I have not even scratched the surface on what is going on but alas I have work to do. So I bid you ado and leave you with my latest installment of Conor's Noteworthly Noteables: 1 - One word "Salo" (uncooked pork fat) I ate a pound of is the first night I was here. That night I could hear my heart beat (keep tickin little feller)2 - Vodka with my HB next to a really old painting of Stalin. (Only had 1 shot)3 - Rode a Mashootka (public transportation) during rush hour and now know what a sardine feels like4 - Walking around the Soviet Resort one crisp Ukrainian morning and just taking it all in - lots of history.5 - Trying all the fresh, homegrown, and delicious Ukrainian food.6 - Getting tons of caring emails and messages from my peeps back home.7 - Being constantly amazed at how awesome it is to be a PCT (Peace Corps trainee)8 - Having to walk everywhere and loving every minute of it9 - Sending a text to my bro, uncle, and sister from a farm in the middle of nowhere (I think only Fer got the message)10 - Watching a Steven Segal movie with my HM in Russian - awesome! (It was probably better if I don't know what they are saying)

11- A mouse got to my only American chocolate that I was saving for a rainy day. : ( Oh well, Ukraine has some pretty awesome chocolate.

12- I walked a fellow PCT home and after she went inside, the puppy that was following us got mauled by two large dogs. The Pup lost a lot of blood and I thought for sure it was not going to make it. I called a fellow PCT for help figuring out the word for "Vet" but after a few min a babushka came by and picked up the dog. I tried to explain what happened with hand gestures and my limited vocab - I think she understood. I was happy to see the pup the next day still alive and well if not a little shaken. The dogs here can be a bit brutal.

PS My clustermate John also has a blog if you want to see a different perspective. THATVG.COM

Also, I had to change the comment settings on my blog so that if you leave a comment I first need to approve it before it will be published on the blog. This is to prevent any inappropriate material from finding its way to my blog. My Cell Phone # +38 0636926021 (Skype is the most popular way to get a hold of me and is free for me: -))

PHOTO 2 - My Cluster (Me, Amy, Kim, Cassie, John)

Hello All! I am at the DC Georgetown Holiday inn. The flight and shuttle went smoothly - all is well. I just got back from having a beer with a fellow volunteer. I just wanted to check in and let everyone know all is well. The following was written on sunday after a few hours of walking around DC.

This is officially the beginning. Right now I am in Georgetown DC (Sunday). My Peace Corps adventure has officially begun. I am excited, vervous, happy, thrilled, and ready for anything. Gottcha life! - I am going to squeeze every F*&%ing drop out of you! It is 6:30 & I have already checked in at the Holiday inn and am now at a restaurant called Chadwicks having a Burger & Beer. Just trying to enjoy all things american before I go. Impressions of DC: big, Diverse, openminded, and feels like a foreign country when compared to Utah. Now that it has all begun, I find myslef thinking about everyone and eveything I am going to miss. My family and friends have been more supportive than I ever thought possible. I can't help but feel honored by everyone that have supported me over the years. I will not let them down. I am going to be the best damn Peace Corps volunteer possible. Infinate possibilities, opportunities, and experiences ly ahead. To say I am excited grossly understates the situation tho it is also a very stressfull situation which makes it difficult to step back and take it all in.

Written today (Monday):

This morning we (6 fellow volunteers and I) went for a 3 hour walk around the reflection pool then had breakfast. After that, we just went though 7 + hours of orientation which had made me even more excited about PC in general. Everyone is friendly and outgoing - I am sure we are all going to be great friends. We have a very diverse group of people in Group 38. There is a total of 77 people in the group with half doing Community Development (my field) and half doing Youth Development (lots os social work backgrounds). We have people fresh out of college and people with 30 + years of experience. We have people from all over the country, from a variety of backgrounds, and about 15 people over the age of 60. Everyone gets along great and i am excited to get to know everyone better. After the orientation, a group of 9 of us all went out for one final meal at a nice Italian restaurant (PC gave us $140) then we went to a houka bar and ended the evening with one last american beer at a cozy little bar on the popular "M" street. Awesome day but I am beat so don't get on my case for spelling/grammar/orgainization : ) Well, It is 2 am and I need to get some sleep. We fly out tomorry to Germany then on to Ukraine & we have to get to the airport ooober early due to the mass amount of people we have. Also, I volunteered to be a "team leader" so I have to help ogranize some of the crazyness so I better be rested. Cheers!

Conor (the now Peace Corps Trainee) Steffey

PS...We were told that we will have "limited internet access" over the next week or so as they say "no news is good news"

World of Change

Well, Needless to say – a ton has changed over the last couple months and I am sure it is only the beginning. I have been invited to and have accepted an invitation to serve in the Peace Corps in Ukraine in the area of Community Development. I have quit my Job at Fidelity Investments where I was working as an International Equity Trader on the retail side. I moved out of my apartment. I have been studying Russian and Ukrainian as much as possible and to top things off – I just got back from a cruise through the Panama Canal with stops in Miami, Ocho Rios Jamaica, Cartagena Columbia, Huatulco Mexico, Puerto Vallarta Mexico, Cabo San Lucas Mexico, San Diego, and Los Angeles. Awesome. And in two days I will be heading up to Montana to spend time with my sister and her family - then it is off to Wyoming to spend time with my old college buddies before I leave for staging in DC on the 29th and finally Ukraine on the 31st. This is kind of strange to be posting on a blog. I don’t know what to say and I have no idea who (if anyone) will be reading this blog. Lol

Anyways, here is my first installment of “Conor’s noteworthy noteables” from the last month (no particular order):

1. Spending time with friends and family (I would assume this is a given but just in case)

2. Taking tons of cool photos with my new DSLR camera.

3. Swimming and riding a dolphin (yes – I did say ride…gangsta)

4. Being surrounded by so many really really old people that I now know what superman feels like.

5. Margaritas on the beach

6. Snorkeling with some amazing sea life

7. Attempting to speak Spanish to people only to find a few Russian words popping up – mass confusion.

8. Cocktail parties w/ my Uncle. (Top shelf Martinis - shaken not stirred & straight up with 3 green olives)

9. QUITTING MY JOB!! & getting together with my coworkers for one last time at the Skybox. They were awesome and scheduled a surprise meeting for me on my last day where they all pitched in for a universal iPod adapter & iTunes gift card.

10. Finding out that there is very cool person from Salt Lake City that is going to PC Ukraine. AND she even works for the same company as me just in a different building. Small world. Very cool.

11. Exploring numerous port towns and cities. I love traveling!

Well, You are all probably bored of my rambles by now (if you made it this far). So I bid you adu and leave you with a few photos. Please bare with my while I get used to this whole blogging thing as I will try to update this blog regularly once I am in Ukraine. Let me know if there is anything specific you would like to see on this blog.

Peace!

Hello All!

So, I have had some time to digest my invite for Peace Corps Ukraine group 38 and I couldn't be more excited! Whoohoo! This is going to be awesome! I will be working in the area of Community Development which means I might end up doing just about anything which is just fine by me. I also don't know where in Ukraine I will serve which is strangely ok with me. At this point, I am down for whatever. I just can't wait to start experiencing new things, learn a new language, meet awesome people, and just start living life to the fullest (as cheesy as that sounds). Working at Fidelity investments over the last 3+ years has made me realize how easy it is to slip into a routine and become content with life even though you might not be doing what you want to do with your life. I am done with that. Never again! That's not to say that I don't value my time spent at Fidelity - its just past due for some change.

Right now I just got home from buying a new laptop for the Peace Corps. Awesome. Now I can Blog-a-log all I want. Who knows, maybe someday I will tell my friends and family about this blog. lol So far I have not told anyone because I was not sure how I felt about blogging. Post a personal journal on the web for everyone to see? huh...kinda pretentious. But strangely cool. Good way to keep in touch anywho.

I don't leave tell March 29, 2010 but I have already started to study Ukrainian and Russian so that I am not a complete idiot when I arrive. Wow it is tough though. Spanish was a walk in the park compared to this. But considering that I will need to help and work with a community that will expect a lot from me, I better get started now. Anywho, I am off watch a Ukrainian movie.

Cheers!

-Conor

Wow! Ukraine! ... Wow...little overwhelmed at the moment. I need some time to digest this then hopefully I will have something more to say on this blog than simply "Wow"!!!

Things are going to get very interesting. Hello adventure! How's it going opportunity? What's up "next chapter of my life?"

Awesome!!!

Well...nothing new from the Peace Corp at the moment but I thought I would post for the hell of it. A lot has happened this summer while I have been patiently waiting for the Peace Corp to come to fruition. So far this summer I have visited my sister, her husband, and 18 mo old baby in Montana - which was awesome though for the life of me I cannot convince my sister that I had a great time because she seems to think there was too much idle time because her baby (Logan) was a bit sick so we couldn't go out much. Erin - if you are reading this, I sincerely had a great time and I will always enjoy spending time with you guys regardless of what we do.

After Montana I visited my Bro in San Diego for his birthday and to support him in his first Marathon. Another great time tho I was surprised how expensive San Diego was - for 2 beers downtown it cost $16. Shiza

After that, I flew to Kansas/Missouri to spend a week on a lake with my family which was also awesome to see some family members that I have not see for quite a while and nice to have a full week away from work and the stock market. We will have to do that again real soon.

Then to get away from the riggers of spending time with family jk : ), I drove up to Wyoming to camp for 5 days with some old friends from college for July 4th. Always great to spend time with those guys - It makes me realize how much I have changed and forces me to just cut loose and be myself which usually gets me a few cuts a bruises along the way. Truely an unforgettalbe time and if any of you guys are bored out of your mind and reading this post(you must be bored if you have read this far), I miss all of you. We need to get togeather more often. Make sure you comment so I know someone is actually reading this thing.

It has been an awesome summer so far even if work has kinda got me down lately and virtually all of the 3 weeks of vacation is used up- it was worth it. : ( The constant daydreaming of serving in the Peace Corp will hopefully be enough to get through those long days at work. How can you possibly beat having a job description of like that of a Peace Corp Volunteer? Absolutely awesome. Come on PC! Lets get this ball rolling!

Well, other than the last few trips that I have taken, I have still been kickboxing a few times a week which I am really enjoying despite the sore Jaw, burst ear drumb, and bruised ribs, legs and feet. It is a good time and I absoluetly love being in a ring with a buddy and seeing what I am made of. Good stuff. I have also been volunteering with the IRC (International Rescue Committee) and have been enjoying it emencely though it is making me want to be in the Peace Corp right NOW! I have been working with a Bhutanese family helping them with whatever they need or want. I has been really fun - expecially learning a little bit of their culture. I am teaching the Mom and Dad how to drive and will be going to a Hindu temple with them tomorrow. They are great people and I look forward to getting to know them better.

Ok, well I have rambled on long enough for one post. I will try and attach some pictures.

Peace!

-Conor

Hello all,

Well, nothing much to report at this time. I mailed the results of my medical and dental evaluations on 3/11/09 and am waiting to hear back from the PC at this point. It took a good 5 weeks to complete the medical exams - complete with 10 hours of dental work. Ouch! I have pretty good teeth however my dentist wanted to fill everything just to be safe. Definitely a good idea. I was nominated for Eastern Europe/Central Asia with an estimated departure of 3/2010. Awesome! Though far too long to wait : ( So while I have been waiting for the PC, I have moved into a new place and will soon be studying for the GMAT so that I can go into grad school after the PC. I have also been progressing nicely in kickboxing and am getting in pretty good shape. Well, that is all for now. I just wanted to give an update and hopefully I will hear back from the PC soon. Reading blogs from current PCVs is making me very anxious to start my adventure.

This is my first blog। My intentions are to document my travels, experiences, and to post whatever is on my mind - nothing more nothing less। I hope this will keep my peeps up to date on what I am doing and perhaps more importantly it will help me weave a more consistent strand of thoughts throughout my experiences. Last week I applied to be a volunteer in the Peace Corp. I see it as an opportunity to live life to the fullest, leave a positive note in someone's reality, and to grow as person. The application process is a long long process and it typically takes 9 - 12 months before you are actually serving in a foreign country. So in the meantime I will continue working as an International Trader and do whatever it is I do - which at the moment is Kick Boxing at http://www.thaiboxutah.com/ Hopefully I get accepted into the Peace Corp cuz if not, this is going to be a pretty lame Blog.