life is good :)

It's the Weekend!! Slava Bogu (Thank God). My schedule during the week is pretty crazy, and I quite literally have no time for myself: I have to get on the metro by 8:45am in order to make it to my 9:30am Russian class. Class goes until 12:45, when I go out to Lunch at a nearby cafeteria, and make it back to school around 2pm. I have to teach class at 5pm, so I plan my lessons from 2-5 and I teach for four hours... making it to the metro just after 9pm and getting home at 10pm for dinner. After dinner I take about an hour to myself (to digest, to plan for the next day, do some homework) before I fall asleep completely exhausted at midnight. Repeat four times, and you have my week.

BUT I don't teach on Fridays! I was totally zoned out in morning class and then came home with J (the new intern from the US, more well-adjusted than the other guy) to plan ahead for our lessons, finally go grocery shopping, and buy her some Ukrainian-appropriate items (stylish boots, large purse to replace her backpack, hairdryer with a European plug, etc.)


Once again fate has re-directed my plans, probably for the better: I was planning to go to a village on the outskirts of Kiev, a tourist spot to view old-style architecture and lifestyles, with some of my classmates today. I overslept and had to miss out, but because of that I got to spend some time with my roommate over brunch and meet our landlady who came to visit. Our landlady is Ol'ga, she is a total sweetheart, and very talkative. She told us all about her feelings on post-soviet life, about her granddaughter in New York, and where to get clean drinking water for 10x cheaper than the grocery store. I also found out that in the tourist village, there is a huge religious festival on Oct. 14th, so my roommates and I will wait until then to visit. Awesome!


On another note, I'm getting a lot better at grocery shopping and making my own food, but it's hard to really get produce here. I have bananas... and apples... I drink a lot of coffee/tea, and eat a lot of sandwiches and eggs. But the restaurants I go to for lunch are fantastic, usually traditional dishes for really cheap. I bought some more complicated ingredients at the store yesterday, so maybe next week I won't be living off of macaroni, omelets and Russian grilled cheese (although they are extremely delicious).

Off to meet a couchsurfer for lunch and go for a walk in the park!

Love,
Sarah