Oh, great goddess I am SSSOOOOOOOOOOOO hungry!!! Yes, I am eating but I need real (what I'm used to) food!!!!!!!! Argh!!!
I have to exercise great will power after the walk to school this morning. There are two puppies wandering around an area that I walk by. They really, really need a home.
We have another trip to the bigger shopping store this afternoon, tomorrow the Canadian Embassy is having a party, and Saturday there is a trip to the American commissary where we can buy American food.
Our half day of school today went fine.
It has finally been cooler the last 5 days.
There is a pack of dogs near my apartment that love to chase cars.

Hi everyone! I have very busy since Wednesday when we started orientation.

I'm going to take some time to fill you in on a bit of what I have been doing.

I'm setteling in well in my apartment. I bought two small house plants which really helped in the living room. The school had one of the busses take us to a big shopping complex similar to Costco (w/o the cheaper prices). I purchased a fan (what a relief!), the plants, an iron, a stockpot (for making soup), a pillow, and a few other things.

On Friday we were finally able to get into our classrooms. The construction and cleaning is behind schedule so wern't able to get into the classrooms. My classroom has lots of windows on two sides which provides wonderful light! I have started to go thru supplies so I know what I have to work with. I haven't yet gotten my schedule or lists of students.

It is very hard figuring out what is on the groderiy store shelves. I can't find chicken broth, plain oatmeal, walnuts, flour, baking soda and powder, or brown sugar.

To my relatives; I can feel at home here cuz Granny's infamous "bamboo" plant grows all over here and creeping charlie!

I don't have time to post pictures yet. Once I get my classroom computer I can figure out doing that.

Friday, one of the administrative people had a bar-b-que for everyone. They live in a house on the outer edge of town. It was a nice evening. I took pictures of the HUGE vegetable gardens their neighbors have.

On Saturday we were given a 4 hour tour of Kyiv which was very interesting. I will tell more about that when I can post pictures.

Sunday A group of us went downtown to watch the independence day parade; a display of their military personnel and equipment. More on that when I can post pictures. Afterwards we went to TGI Friday's which felt a bit like home. The food was very good. We purused a market, had ice cream cones then went home.

Most American women would die of shoe envy if they could see what women wear over here!

And men wear pointed shoes and carry bags. Some men even carry their wives purses for them!

There many kinds of American cars over here. I have seen a Dodge Truck, Lexus SUV's, Chevy cars, and a new Ford Mustang.

You can buy alcohol at any kiosk and you don't get carded. People drink all over in public.

Hi everyone! I made it safely. I slept for at least 36 hours once I got here. I feel that I lost a day in the confusion. People from the school picked me up in a bus from the school (not a long orange one). It was a wild ride from the airport. I'm glad I won't be needing a car here. People are crazy drivers. People also park on the sidewalks and anywhere else they can find!!

My luggage arrived with me! (Which is a happy note for me since I once spent an 8 day vacation w/o my luggage and had to buy clothes to wear.) I had a bottle of shampoo leak. The 5 articles of clothing that soaked it up are all things that have to washed by hand. What fun.

My apartment is very nice and bigger than what I had imagined. I have three porches; two are narrow and the other one extends out. The apartment faces west and has big windows. The cielings are high. The toilet is in its own seperate room. The living room and bedroom are very spacious. The kitchen is good sized.

I have been out for groceries once. You have to pay for the plastic grocery bags to put your groceries in. I'm glad I am somewhat in the habit of bringing my own cloth bags. Ice cream comes in bags. I can't quite figure out their cheese. A woman from the school says there cheese is much stronger tasting than ours so I haven't bought any yet. A person has to buy big jugs of water since you can't use the tap water for drinking or cooking. I use bottled water to brush my teeth. And whatever you buy you have to carry home so you have to be conscious of how much you buy at one time. There are little stores all over for buying groceries. Next week the school busses the teachers to a shopping area to do major shopping and then drops everyone off at theei apartment so you don't end up making lots of trips carrying lots of things home.

The toilet paper that was in my apartment is like the brown paper towels in the dispensers at schools. I bought a package of other stuff and it is so full of perfume it almost makes me gag.

I have been staying in my apartment mostly due to the heat and I do not have fans or A.C. I can work up a sweat sitting in my apartment w/o walking around outside. I have also been sleeping lots. It is hard to adjust to the time change.

I have noticed that people have house plants so I am on a quest to find some. The west windows in my apartment are perfect for plants!

There are many fresh fruit stands around the city. Today I am going to get a watermelon and see how it is.

There is some kind of woodpecker in the pine trees outside my apartment.

I was told that it doesn't rain here in the summer. The only "lawn" I have seen is the sports field at school. It is very dry and lawn areas consist of weeds. Flowers are planted but not given any upkeep.

Some negative things I have noticed so far are:

There are lots of stray dogs everywhere. You don't hear them much in the day but come late afternoon and early evening they start roaming and then they bark all night and get into fights.

There is garbage every where! I'm shocked! And dumpsters are full and some overflowing.

That is going to be it for today.

I wrote that earlier that I sent a package to myself and how much it cost...well, I was not given the proper information about sending packages...I was told that packages could only be sent by Express Mail. THIS IS NOT TRUE. A 25 pound package ships for apx. $50. Insurance will be extra

I had bon voyage parties this weekend and thank you to every one who came to them. It was very nice. I have gotten lots of stuff into storage; I'm glad I got rid of so many of my possessions. So much less to move!

O.K. 10 days till I leave and NO I am not ready! I said good by to Louis on Thursday. We meet his grandparents in Duluth (the camp kids were on a field trip) and it nearly broke my heart. Alan, Steven, Zeb and I went to the Science Museum to see the Star Wars exhibit last weekend. We went to Sebastian Joe's for ice cream afterwards and perused some shops in the Up Town area. It was sad to part with Alan and Steven afterwards. I got my hair cut (gasp; ouch) on Wednesday! Huge step for me! My job has ended and now I can concentrate on storing and packing.