Victory Day, Viruses, and Parties

It's been too long since my last post! So much has happened since then, some good and some not so good. I'll start with the not so good. Last week I caught some sort of crazy Ukrainian virus that comes with a fever and painful stomach pains. So that was fun. My babucya was franticly taking care of me, which was very nice. She even tucked me into bed! Luckily, I got better in time for Victory Day!

In case you don't know, Victory Day in Ukraine is when people celebrate Nazi Germany's capitulation in World War II, or The Great Patriotic War as it's called here. We went to the center of the village at night where there is a monument to the village's fallen soldiers. The children did a fire walk where they walked with torches and then they read some poems. I think it would have been much more interesting if I actually understood what they were saying, but nonetheless it was pretty cool. After that we hiked up this hill where they have another monument to the soldiers. It's actually where 600 of them are buried. They have some tanks there and a trench that you can explore. After that we had Ukrainian class and then I went home and saw how people really celebrate Victory Day. With vodka, of course. We had some vodka and dinner with the neighbors and my host brother and the neighbor proceeded to sing the entire Ukrainian national anthem at the table.

Speaking of vodka, let me tell you about the party I went to last night/today. It was my host brother's and sister's joint 30th birthday celebration (host sister's birthday was just a few weeks beforehand), so the family rented out the canteen where the school normally feeds the students and had a catered party. With lots of food and lots of vodka. I think I can say now that I have mastered the art of drinking vodka in Ukraine and not dying of alcohol poisoning. There are a few options. One, you can refuse to drink completely (normally, by saying that you are sick or on medication or something like that). Two, you can drink every shot they give you and probably not remember much of your service in Ukraine, or possibly not survive it. Three, you drink about 1/3 or 1/4 of every shot that they give you, because you know that your glass will be full regardless of what you say. I believe the birthday couple went for option number two last night. Nevertheless, everybody had a great time with lots of dancing and eating very good food.

This morning I woke up around 8:30am (yes, mom, shocking I know) and got showered (a REAL shower!!! with hot water!!) outside and dressed and at around 11am family started showing up for the party part II! Ah, moonshine in the morning.

(Note: my family normally doesn't drink at all, only on special occasions!)

I've really enjoyed my time with this family and I'm really hoping to keep in touch with them. They always keep an eye on me and involve me in whatever they are doing. I'll be sad to leave them!

I can't even believe that I've been here for almost 7 weeks already. I'm still pretty worried about my Ukrainian language skills because it's just so much to learn in a short amount of time. The grammar and sounds are just so different. I'm also super nervous about where I'll be placed. Most likely it'll be a small village in Western Ukraine, but it'll be so different doing it alone! Well, I'll know in just under a month.

Also, we finally had our lesson on the post office, so I'll try and get some post cards out when I can. Sometimes the post office here doesn't work and we're not really sure why?

Ok, that's all for now!