Staging... and Goodbye to America!

I arrived in Washington DC last night for Staging, after a whole day of traveling from California. I started out the day by waking up at 5:30am to head to the airport, then stood in line for almost an hour to check in my bags. But the line was worth the wait, for the United Airlines ticketing agent actually didn't even weigh my bags or charge me to check them (which was awesome because it saved me $60). There was a surprising large number of people at the airport for so early on a Monday morning, and I got to my gate just 10 minutes before boarding began. I've never cut it that close to a flight, and that was pretty stressful, but I made my flight and thats what counts! The middle seat, on the other hand, is another story.... but I managed to sleep most of the time and neither person sitting next to me was super overwhelmingly chatty so it actually wasn't that bad after all.

I love traveling across the country!

I flew from San Francisco to Chicago, and met up with another Peace Corps Volunteer named Nicole. Nicole flew to Chicago from Missouri and we actually lucked out and had seat next to each other on the flight to DC, which was awesome because then we just chatted and got to know each other the whole time. I've never been to Washington DC before, so flying in was a cool experience... you can see all of the famous national monuments like the Capitol building and the Washington Monument from the air! My friend Stephanie picked us up in DC and after touring around the city for a bit, we made it to our hotel near Georgetown. Stephanie unashamedly took this photo by sticking her hand out of the car window at a stoplight (while it was red of course), like a true tourist.

The Washington Monument!

Nicole, Stephanie and I met the other few PCVs that had flown into DC that night. Staging was actually today, but everyone coming from the west coast like California got to fly in a day early since it takes like a whole day to travel to the east coast (with the 3 hour time change and whatnot). Then we went out to dinner at a little restaurant downtown that served Spanish-style tapas. Here is our group from dinner!

Thanks to Nitai for the photo :)

I ordered way too much food (as usual), but it was delicious! I got some bruschetta-style bread with tomatoes and proscuitto, fried calamari and aioli sauce, and some papas fritas (spicy fried potatoes).

So many noms.

Staging was a really interesting experience, I got to meet the rest of my group that had been delayed due to visa/passport processing. There are 37 people headed to Ukraine with me tomorrow! We went over a lot of the Peace Corps' Core Expectations and some more country-specific information about Ukraine. We received information like what to expect from our host families and the language learning program in Ukraine. I am not sure if I will be learning Russian or Ukrainian yet, but I will find out really soon once I get to Ukraine.I learned lots of cool facts like how Ukraine is currently the largest country of service for the Peace Corps, with over 350 volunteers currently serving there in Education, Health Extension, and Youth/Community Development. Our Staging Director also pointed out that we will be in Ukraine for the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps, since the Peace Corps was started in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy (JFK).

President JFK with a group of the first PCVs in 1961. Image courtesy of The National Archives.

 We also discussed some logistics of traveling - I'm going to be one of the six "Group Leaders" to help ease the process of traveling to the airport on two charter buses, checking in at the gate, passing out everyone's plane ticket stubs and passports, and keeping track of all our luggage for all 37 people. I love logistics (the link is included for those of you who may not be familiar with the term logistics, I certainly had no idea what it was until I switched my major to Industrial Engineering). This may not be an example of traditional Industrial Engineering logistics of transportation and distribution, but traveling with large groups of people like this certainly takes some logistical organization. Whoops, I got off on a nerdy tangent since I love stuff like improving efficiency, reducing travel time and logistics.

Tomorrow is going to be a super hectic day! We are all checking out of the hotel around 12noon (I'm going to check out a little early to try to avoid the bottleneck there) and flying to Frankfurt, Germany then to Kyiv, Ukraine. So this is my last post from American soil for a while, and my next post will mark the beginning of my adventures in Ukraine : ) All of us PCVs are really excited about flying halfway across the world to start our journey in Ukraine!

My Last Weekend in the Bay Area (Version 2.0)

I originally thought last weekend was going to be my last weekend here in the Bay area, but plans changed and as it turns out, this is my last weekend at home. My family and I drove 2 hours to Lake Folsom, where my sister raced in an open water 5k. I used to love racing in open water events, though I'm not quite sure why... the water is cold, there are no flipturns, you get awful tanlines, and people kick and scratch you to try to break into the leader's pack. Maybe its just because I was a distance swimmer.

All the swimmers lined up between the starting buoys at Lake Folsom today.

 It cracks me up that Masters swimmers wear their BlueSeventy racing suits to open water swims, I guess they are afraid of the cold? The officials said that the lake was about 67 degrees today, compared to a normal pool racing temperature of 78 degrees. But it was like 90 degrees outside in the sun, so that should have warmed up the swimmers a bit. Or maybe the Masters swimmers were just trying to get that extra edge with the seamless technical suits...

Those BlueSeventy suits are pretty expensive to be splashing around a lake in!

 A few years ago, I placed 3rd at the Clemson Grand Prix Open Water event with at time of 1:00 (1 hour and some seconds that I've since forgotten) but only the top 2 finishers from each Grand Prix event qualified for the USA Swimming National Open water meet.

This is from the Clemson race in 2008. Note to self - lake water also turns swimsuit straps brown.

My sister won the 5k today, finishing first on the women's side with a time of 1:02... and she's only 15! So she still has plenty of time to beat my best 5k time, what a baller :) Here she is running up to the finish line.

Theres nothing quite like running uphill for 25 yards when you've just been swimming all out for an hour.

While my sister was racing for an hour, I walked around the lake and snapped a few photos. The shoreline was rocky but really calm. Its probably rocky since its a man-made lake, there was a huge dam in the distance.

Definitely no lifeguard on duty.

The lake's shoreline reminded me of this Amazon Kindle tv commercial where the girl sits on a rock and reads her Kindle by the water. If I had a Kindle, maybe I would have just chilled on a rock and read books on it too. The new Kindle looks nice, and they've knocked the price down to just $139. However, I don't really have time to read a lot of books, so I didn't invest in a Kindle... so I just played with the 10-second timer on my camera instead. I've heard a lot of the Peace Corps Volunteers have them and absolutely love them though, they're probably way more convenient than reading actual paperback books while overseas.

Yes, I know jump pictures are so High School Musical. But not bad for the 10-second timer, eh?

 And here is another shot, I managed to get like 5 of these in a row where I'm still on the ground (and not jumping in the air). Oh well, this one turned out good enough and I just look really excited to be on a beach.

Thats right, I wear my Chacos on the beach. Especially when the beach is more rocky than sandy.

These extra few days at home have also given me some extra time to re-pack my suitcases. I updated my Packing List and adjusted some quantities of the clothes and items that I'm bringing to Ukraine. I took out some stuff like a pair of jeans, 2 workout tshirts and 2 dresses. I hate having to leave these clothes behind at home, but I know I'll definitely want to shop and pick up more clothes when I get to Ukraine. And I added some things that I had forgotten about packing, like my regular Nalgene waterbottle and a few more pairs of fluffy socks. I also crammed some little things like my deck of UNO cards, my 2 photo albums and my non-graphic calculator (don't judge, I am a true math nerd at heart) with the rest of my school supplies into my GT Speedo swim backpack for my carryon. My backpack is going to be ridiculously heavy to lug around the airport, especially with my huge laptop, but thats better than having to pay for overweight baggage fees.

I finally got both of the suitcases down to 48 lbs, which makes me feel so accomplished! I think I am set and ready to go for Monday morning, when I fly to DC to meet up with the rest of my Peace Corps group 40 1/2 : )

7 Russian Words that are Fun to Roll off Your Tongue

As you may know, the national language of Ukraine is actually Ukrainian. Russian was the official language for over a century, many Ukrainians still speak Russian, especially the older generation and the major cities such as Kyiv. Since Ukraine gained its independence in 1992, Ukrainian has been promoted as the national language across the country.

Ukraine's Independence day is on August 24th.

Every Peace Corps Volunteer serving in Ukraine will either be assigned to learn Russian or Ukrainian during Training. If you have prior Russian language experience, it is most likely that you will be assigned to learn Russian. I have no prior Russian language experience, so I picked up a copy of Rosetta Stone in Russian (a Ukrainian version is not available yet). I've been trying to learn some basic conversational Russian from Rosetta Stone, and so far I've just finished Unit 2, lesson 2 of level 1. I've learned a lot of basic household nouns like random foods and a smattering of other random things that might be useful like the numbers 0-12, the colors, and some family words (parents, mother, father, daughter, sister, brother, etc). Once I get to Ukraine next week, there will be an informal language interview that determines whether I am placed in a Russian or Ukrainian language learning group.

In response to Bianca's blog challenge to me earlier this week, I've come up with a list of 7 Russian words that are fun to roll off your tongue. If you are a student of Russian or a native speaker, please pardon my creative transliterations (I was never any good at pingyin). Here they are the 7 words, in no particular order:

• бутерброд (boot-ter-brod): sandwich

Rolling the double r's in this word was like a tongue twister when I first learned it, especially since I'm not great at rolling my r's (3 years of Spanish classes didn't help much with that).

• хлеб (huleb): bread

This word is interesting because I've found that you have to say it really quickly, otherwise Rosetta Stone gives you the voice recognition fail noise. And for some reason, it reminds me of saying the word tulip.

• яблока (ya-bla-ka): apple

Say it three times fast - yablaka, yablaka, yablaka! It just sounds so playful. This word is very similar to the Russian word for dog - собака (sabaka).

• велосипед (vil-lo-sih-pee-ed): bicycle

This word probably has the most syllables of all the Russian words that I've learned so far... and I think it took me a few days before I could say it confidently enough to pass the Rosetta Stone voice recognition thing for this word. 

• рыба (riba): fish

I've found that words that begin with the rolled r sound are easier for me to pronounce if I add a little ah sound before the r, thus this word becomes arriba! And Rosetta Stone's voice recognition seems to find that pronunciation of fish just fine :P

• шляпа (schleppa): a fedora-style hat

I just like saying this word... and don't really have a good reason why. Schleppa!

• их (ni-gh): their

This word is hard to transliterate, it basically sounds like "ni" with a little bit of an h sound added to the end to make it sound more guttural. I like saying this word because it reminds me of the Knights of Neep, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

With all the random words in my Russian vocabulary, I'm still working on how to put these nouns and things together in complete sentences and still struggling with the pronunciation on some of the words. Good thing I have a few extra days to practice before I'm totally immersed in the language in Ukraine!

"Life is Calling, How Far Will You Go?"

I got home this afternoon from the North Face Outlet store in Berkley, and saw that I had a new email from the Peace Corps Ukraine people in my inbox. The North Face's "sample sale" was absoutely out of control, worse than a Labor Day sidewalk sale at an outlet mall. And everything was in size Medium, so I didn't end up getting anything except for a blue/teal beanie for $5. Plus I didn't see anything that I really needed, so I just bought the hat on a whim (still waiting until I get to Ukraine to find the furry Russian hat and winter boots). And its not like I should be trying to pack more things into my luggage since they're both like right at 50 lbs.

I'm going to need a hat like this to survive a -30 degree winter...

 Anyways, guess what? My fears have been confirmed... my Staging date has been changed to September 28th, due to delays in processing my passport and visa. Good thing I checked my email and was able to call the travel agency before they closed at 5pm on the east coast.... otherwise I might have gotten on my flight to DC tomorrow morning!

Everybody loves lolcats... see the original image here.

 "Rest assured that the delay in processing your passport and visa does not imply that you are at fault, nor will it affect your ability to serve in Ukraine... The list of invitees that are experiencing delays do not follow a logical pattern of invitation date, last name, etc." - Lenny Bankester, Peace Corps Ukraine  

So I had to call the travel agency and reschedule my flight to DC for Monday morning, instead of tomorrow morning... what a nightmare. The first travel agent that answered the phone had like no clue what I was talking about, since they apparently hadn't been notified of the date change. But the second one did, and he was able to help me switch my flights successfully (though he booked me in middle seat for SFO to Chicago O'Hare, which does not make me happy).

This departure date change just serves to remind me that with the Peace Corps, things may not always go as planned and you just have to take what life throws at you and roll with it! I'm still super excited to be this close to leaving for Ukraine. Apparently delays like this are not that uncommon, since it happened to last week's Ukraine group as well. They just took advantage of the extra few days to go sightseeing in DC and dubbed themselves Group 39 1/2, according to my fellow PCV Tammela Platt. So I guess that means I'm now part of Group 40 1/2, and now I have another weekend in the Bay area!

In other news, my friend Becca at nostalgi'art presented me with one of her blog awards! Many thanks, I am excited that other people actually read my blog...

 

According to the rules, I have to:

1. Accept the award. Post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2. Pay it forward to 10 other bloggers that you have newly discovered.
3. Contact those blog owners and let them know they've been chosen.

Here are the 10 bloggers whom I've recently discovered and decided to nominate for this award!

• Awkward Sex and the City
• Bianca and the B-Sides
• Crazy with a side of Awesome Sauce
• Fool.in.the.Rain*
• I Crane, Ukraine, We all Crane for Ukraine
• Intimate ramblings of a girl with a multitude of disguises
• Notes from a Lab Princess
• Red Means Go!
• Sandy and the 1000 Paper Cranes
• We hate you. Love, us

Congratulations! Your blogs will certainly keep me entertained when I move to Ukraine :)

Why did the turkey cross the road?

To follow the rest of the wild turkey family to the other side! This is crazy, there is a family of like 10 wild turkeys that randomly wander around my neighborhood. This should not be normal, considering that I definitely live in a suburb and nowhere near any turkey (or chicken) farms haha. The car in front of me stopped suddenly and started honking to get the turkeys out of the way, and luckily I had my camera in the front seat next to me to snap this photo of the turkeys!

Mom, dad... wait up for us! We're still in the middle of the road!

I had a great last weekend here in the Bay area! I went downtown to a couple places on Polk Street and met up with Saethang and Priya, a few of my friends from Georgia Tech that were here visiting family for the weekend.

We represent the diversity of Georgia Tech really well :)

My friend Samantha is actually going to law school at UC Hastings. UC Hastings is in downtown San Francisco and pretty close to the Union Square area.

Me and Samantha.

And then my friend Kseniya invited me to attend her going-away-party! Her family is awesome, they are from Latvia and they all speak Russian. Kseniya is another Peace Corps Volunteer heading to Ukraine with me. We are actually on the same exact flight to Staging, flying out from the San Francisco airport ridiculously early this Thursday. Her parents decorated their back yard in yellow and blue (the colors of the Ukrainian flag) and made tons of Russian food.

The two vegetable dishes were delicious with string beans and eggplant. And the pierogie things were also great, they came with a cabbage/mushroom filling and a pork filling.

I kind of already forgot what the names of all the foods were in Russian... mostly because I would just point at it and say, "что это?" (schtoy etta), to ask what is that? So much for learning useful Russian nouns from Rosetta Stone, it doesn't help if I can't string together phrases in Russian. 

The garden salad came from Kseniya's backyard and the purple dish has 3 layers of  fish on the bottom, then beets, then hard-boiled eggs and pomegranate seeds.

 So I'm wondering how similar Ukrainian food will be to Russian food. And I've heard a lot of dishes have mayonnaise, which is one of my least favorite foods (along with peanut butter, curry, and soymilk). I guess I have 2 years and 3 months to find out what the food is like over there.... so stay posted! 
 
Kseniya's бабушка (babushka, or grandma in Russian) was super nice, I sat next to her at lunch to practice some of my Russian words and so she could practice some of her English words : ) And then she had me try on her traditional red scarf-thing. I'm sure this has a proper name in Russian and translated into English, but I've yet to learn it so I'll just stick with scarf-thing for now. Which reminds me, I can't wait to buy a Russian furry hat with ear flaps for the winter! I hope they are cheap in the Ukrainian bazaars!

Kseniya, me and Babushka.

I hope my Ukrainian host family is as nice and welcoming as Kseniya's family! I can't wait to meet them when I get to Ukraine on Saturday! Only 3 more days at home until I leave for Staging in DC!

Another Press Release and my Winter Boot Crisis

I forwarded the press release from the Peace Corps San Francisco newsletter to the Georgia Tech sports information office, and they released a short article about it on the Sting News today!

And I'm having a winter boot crisis! My North Face Nuptse snow boots are apparently out of stock, so they canceled the order that I placed online and did not notify me... good thing I inquired about the order. The bad news is that now its too late to order another pair of boots online (like the Merrell Spire Peak waterproof boots I originally wanted).  Plus those Merrell boots are expensive!

So I called REI, Any Mountain, Sports Authority and the North Face outlet store downtown by Berkley and they don't have any winter boots in stock yet either... I guess I will be buying my winter boots in Ukraine! I really wanted to just bring some from home (so I'd be guaranteed of their quality in the the -30 degree winter, plus that way my mom could pay for them). But I've heard that they sell lots of boots there in Ukraine, and Sasha (my peer advisor) said that she bought a nice pair of fur-lined winter boots there for about $80 USD. I've heard mixed things about whether I should bring rain boots or not, so I think I will just pack my rain boots in my luggage - they will use the space that was previously allotted to my winter boots.

What? I'm actually moving to Ukraine?

I spent the day running around, trying to take care of a bunch of stuff before I leave for Ukraine. Its scary to think that I'm actually moving my life from here in the United States to way over there! Taking care of these seemingly everyday things like my bank account and phone just makes it seem more real that I'm leaving... It hasn't really sunk in yet, but I'm leaving for Staging in a week!

I've been trying to close my Wachovia bank account every day this week. I was actually told over the phone by a customer representative that I could not simply just transfer the funds in my account to my Wells Fargo account, they recommended that I just withdraw all the funds and deposit it into my Wells Fargo account then call them back again and try to close my account. Thats what I was hoping that they could do with a few clicks of the mouse! This bank is ridiculous. Ever since it merged with Wells Fargo, the people at the local Wells Fargo here in California cannot access my Wachovia account - simply for the fact that it has not yet been "converted" over to Wells Fargo. Apparently they started "converting" accounts in California and are gradually working their way to the east coast, but I opened my Wachovia account in North Carolina so mine won't be "converted" until December 2011 or something equally ridiculous.

I also suspended my Verizon cell phone and cell phone number today. Call me selfish, but I've had the same cell phone number for 6 years (while I've lived in 4 different states). So I really want to keep my same old number. Luckily, Verizon allowed me to just suspend it for free under their military suspension policy. The down side to this is that I have to give up using my beloved blackberry and revert back to using the ghetto old Motorola RAZR. The up side to this is that it will mentally prepare me for using the even more old school Nokia phone (no color screen) while I'm in Ukraine.  

Side note~ I can't believe such a similar Nokia phone is listed on Amazon, the online reviews of it said it was only sold in developing countries... which means I guess Singapore is a developing country? They also sold the same exact phone in China for about the same price that I bought it for in Singapore.

At least the pink case makes the old school Nokia phone look cute next to my Blackberry.

I called United Airlines today to try to see if I could weasel my way into qualifying for the checked baggage fee waiver that they give to active military personnel.That didn't go very well, the representative that I spoke to over the phone flat out told me that the Peace Corps did not qualify and that my best bet would be to email their Customer Relations department and explain my situation. Plus I'm only flying United to DC for Staging, I've heard we are on Lufthansa for the flight overseas to Ukraine (meaning I don't qualify for their "international continuance" baggage policy). So this guy made it sound like it would be highly unlikely for them to grant me the fee waiver. Other PCVs in my group have also been trying to get the fee waivers with other airlines, but I don't think anyone has been successful yet. Maybe I'll just bring my official Invitation letter and some other official-looking documents to the airport with me and plead with the agents at the check-in counter at 5:30am to give me a fee waiver.
Here is something more exciting for you: I'm featured in the September issue of the Peace Corps San Francisco regional newsletter! Hooray for being a minority PCV and representing diversity.

Check out the original article here.

And just to remind you that Americans are the only ones that don't use the metric system, here is a fun comic from xkcd.com :) I'll have to get used to measuring things in meters, grams, and liters... so maybe my 2 calculators will come in handy after all!

I love xkcd comics about life, love and nerdy math jokes. The original comic can be found here .

Updated Packing List!

Today I met up with Kseniya, another PCV in the Bay area.We went to lunch in downtown Livermore, which was a quaint few blocks of shops and restaurants that reminded me of Athens, GA. Kseniya is super cool, she just graduated from the University of Hawaii with a degree in Psychology. She is actually a native Russian speaker so I got to practice a little Russian outside of Rosetta Stone with her and her mom.

Kseniya and I went to the local Dollar store for some random stuff, the store turned out to be a treasure trove of goodies with an aisle dedicated to teaching supplies, all for just $1! I bought some small picture frames and framed some postcards, like Sasha (my Peer Advisor) recommended... they look super classy!

Sorry about the flash.

I also picked up a nice map of the United States. I'm not sure why it has all the interstate highways on it, but at least it shows the states and capitals. I trimmed the blue border a little so it fits flat in my suitcase perfectly.

Like the purple shag carpet on the floor of my bedroom?

And since I didn't order the Oatmeal's Semicolon Poster (see this previous blog post), I also bought 2 posters with parts of speech and punctuation for my future classroom.

So in a frenzy of excitement, I sorted though all the clothes that I plan on bringing with me to Ukraine this evening and extensively updated my Packing List!  I reduced the number of button up dress shirts that I'm bringing, so I don't have to iron as much, and added some dresses instead (I'll be more comfortable in those anyways). My dresses are solid colors, knee-length and classy enough to wear to go to work (and then maybe out later that night). Here are my piles of clothes all over my bed. 

Thats right, working at American Eagle Outfitters taught me how to fold clothes into organized piles.

It is going to be fun fitting everything into my 2 suitcases! The good news is that I can basically fit all of my clothes into my red duffel bag (I tried), but I also have the black suitcase to spread out my clothes and other items like my yoga mat, sleeping bag, school supplies, toiletries, and my fleece blanket.

I hate how my luggage is UGA colors... I feel like a traitor. To Hell with Georgia! Okay, now I feel better. 

I also measured my luggage, after seeing an online discussion about the PCV's restrictions on the linear dimensions of our luggage. We are permitted to bring two suitcases with a combined linear dimension of 107" (sum of length + width+ height) and a total weight of 100 lbs, 50 lbs per bag. Apparently they will reimburse us for the checked baggage fees for the flight to Staging if we aren't able to convince the airlines to waive those fees. I haven't called United Airlines yet, but I saw on their website that they do waive their checked baggage fees for military personnel, so maybe I can talk them into waiving my fees. And yes, I know I'm not technically military personnel but if Verizon Wireless will suspend my phone under their military personnel exception, its worth a shot with the airlines. The only reason that I'm suspending my phone instead of canceling it for 2 years is that I want to be able to keep the same phone number (I've had the same number for the last 6 years and I love it).

Sasha reminded me to update the virus protection on my computer, just in case my computer gets infected with any files. Viruses are apparently common in Ukraine, she said that she unfortunately got a virus from a file that was on a flash drive (when her computer wasn't even connected to the internet!). I spent $20 and ordered the backup discs from Acer (for my Acer laptop) a few weeks ago and should be okay to reboot everything if needed (all my documents are backed up onto my external hard drive anyways since my old laptop crashed last year). I've got the installation files for Microsoft Office on my external hard drive with the product key too, so that is good to go as well. Hopefully I can avoid having to re-install everything, just because its a huge hassle. But spending $20 to have the backup discs just in case is better than having to run a pirated version of Windows... in Russian.

A Taste of Ukrainian Etiquette and Customs

I sent Sasha, my Peer Advisor, a list of questions about basic etiquette and cultural customs in Ukraine, since I researched these very same things before traveling to Singapore and China last summer. I googled Ukrainian Etiquette, and wasn't able to find all of the answers to my questions so I am glad to have such an awesome Peer Advisor to answer my questions!

1. Do they tip in Ukraine? Like are tips expected at restaurants, bars, taxi drivers, etc?

Yes, you usually tip around 10%. Not everyone does it, but the custom is appreciated. Depending on the place, tips could already be calculated into the wages... but really, throwing down an extra 50cents for a tip to make sure they have a good impression of Americans is worth it. 

 

Hryvnias are the official currency in Ukraine. 

 

2. Do they serve ice cubes in drinks? 

 

The tap water in Ukraine is not safe to drink, and ice cubes are typically made with tap water. They do not serve drinks with ice cubes there; so bring your own ice cube tray. People believe that super-cold drinks give you a cold or a sore throat, so you won't see ice cubes often (or ever). Anything they serve in restaurants will be safe to drink. 

 

Kvas, a traditional Ukrainian non-alcoholic brewed drink based on bread.

 

3. Is it considered polite or impolite to finish all of your food on your plate? 

 

This tends to vary by culture, like some people are offended if you don't finish your plate and some people find it offensive if you do finish your plate (meaning you are still hungry or something). You'll find that it's often impossible to finish everything on your plate! Ukrainins LOVE to feed their friends/family, so often times, they'll put a ton on your plate. So you may often leave a bit on your plate, simply because you can't stuff any more food into your stomach! 

 

I have no idea what this is-this is one of the results I got when I googled "Ukranian Food".

 

4. Is it common for people to buy a Brita water filter to filter their tap water into drinking water? Is that filtered water safe enough to drink? 

 

Many PCVs in Ukraine just boil water every night, let it cool overnight, then put it through the filter in the morning. It's a great system, and saves lots of money. Peace Corps calculates water in your living allowance, but you can save that money for travel or other expenses like shopping :-)

 

 

This looks like the water filter that I had while in college, loved that thing. 

 

5. Since many people smoke in Ukraine, will I be peer pressured to smoke? (I've never smoked a cigarette in my life and plan on avoiding it if I can.) 

 

If you don't smoke, you don't smoke; they'll understand. And along those lines, if you just say you don't like to drink, you won't really have to drink. So don't feel pressured to engage in anything that you wouldn't normally!

 

I'm definitely a non-smoker. 

  

6. Can you stream videos on Hulu or Youtube in Ukraine?  

 

It's totally possible to stream videos here! Many volunteers use skype to keep in touch with fam and friends. Internet works differently in different towns; your host family may not have internet, but most PCVs have access to the internet regularly at their permanent sites after Training. 

 

The Ukrainian Parliment is frequently on the news in Ukraine. 

Only 10 more days until I leave for Staging in Washington DC! I hope my North Face snow boots and Swiss Army Knife arrive in the mail this week. And I guess that means I need to go find somewhere to get a flu shot soon... apparently we are supposed to get our flu shots (with H1N1 vaccine) before we arrive at Staging. 

Gifts for My Ukrainian Host Family and Friends

Almost every Peace Corps packing list has advised us to bring along some gifts for our host family in Ukraine, and for the friends that we will meet along our journey. Many PCVs also give gifts to their Ukrainian counterparts at their school or in their workplace. The packing lists that I have read have recommended small things that are made in the USA or souvenir-type trinkets like shotglasses, magnets, postcards, puzzles, hats, ties, small scented body lotions, stickers, etc.The gifts are expected to be generic, and apparently Ukrainians really enjoy things from your hometown or with pictures of life in the United States.

So I went down to Chinatown here in San Francisco last weekend to do a little souvenir shopping. You really can't beat Chinatown's prices for things like this... shotglasses that were $1 in Chinatown would sell for like $4.99 just a few blocks away in Union Square. And Ukrainians love shotglasses since they are useful and some people even collect them as a hobby. I bought some San Francisco shotglasses, magnets and keychains. I also bought a bunch of postcards and I have some New York City postcards from our family trip as well. Sasha, my Peer Advisor, recommended that I go buy a few cheap frames to frame some of the postcards. She says that framed postcards actually look classy and are nice gifts - she gave one to her coworker and Sasha's coworker keeps it on her wardrobe in her living room!

While I was downtown with my family, we ate dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. I forgot the name of it, should have grabbed a business card or something. My sister ordered a Create-Your-Own-Pizza dish, which she thought meant that she just picked the toppings for it. She picked tomatoes, meatballs, and mushrooms. To her surprise, our waiter brought out the raw pizza dough, tomato sauce, cheese, and toppings for her to actually put the pizza together herself! She was really excited and here is a picture of her pizza creation!

I picked up some cheap puzzles and flashcards at Target. One of the puzzles is a map of the United States and the other one is of a $1 dollar bill. The flashcards are US History and Presidents.... two things that I need to brush up on myself! I can use these in the classroom for activities and games with my students. Its also recommended that we bring some dice and the card game Uno to play number games with.

My sister wanted to go to the Niketown store in Union Square, so we went inside. They were giving away some free Nike Silly Bandz to promote something, so I grabbed a handful of those to give to the high schoolers (or kids) that I teach in Ukraine. I have no idea if they are popular there, but I'm sure they will be since my sister is in high school and pretty much obsessed with them.

We also saw a Rolls Royce outside of Chinatown. There was a wedding at a church on Grant Street, and the drive had rolled out a red carpet leading from the church doors right up to the Rolls Royce. So fancy :)

 Another exciting thing is that my Russian/English Pocket Dictionary came in the mail yesterday! It is not as pocket-sized as I thought it would be... its about 2 inches thick. But the reviews of it online said that it was a good dictionary to have. Plus I bought it pretty cheap on Amazon.com, so I think it will be worth its size and weight that it takes up in my luggage. I was proud of myself when I was able to translate the Cyrillic font on the spine to "Anglo-Russki".

Representing the Diversity of Americans in Ukraine

One of the things that worries me about moving to Ukraine is how my Peace Corps Placement Officer asked me if I would be able to handle any racial stereotypes or prejudice against Asians. I am looking forward to representing the diversity of Americans in Ukraine. Diversity is such a huge buzzword everywhere now, from schools to the workplace. One of the core expectations of the Peace Corps is to show the world that Americans are not all white (pardon me for saying that straight up rather than using Caucasian, the more politically correct word), and I am proud to have that opportunity during my service.

I read online that I might frequently get stopped by police and asked to present my documents (just like profiling in Arizona). So I need to be prepared to explain my Asian heritage and how I was born and raised in the United States. Questions like "where are your parents from" and "what kind of Asian are you" are not new to me. In fact, questions like these are fairly normal, I get them all the time in the States. I also get classic questions like "do you speak Asian" and sometimes I got lots of stares from people when I'm in the South... cultural attitudes in the South are still very different from living in California where there is plenty of diversity. Of course, some people in the South also tend to assume that all Californians are super crunchy liberal greenpeace hippies but that is a whole other story.

Sasha, my Peace Corps Peer Advisor, reassured me that the prejudice and discrimination in Ukraine towards Asians is really not that bad. Since all volunteers have to keep their documents on their person at all times, presenting proper identification shouldn't be an issue if I do get stopped by police. However, she mentioned that I probably will get stopped more often than the "white" volunteers. Other times, I might be confused for a Chinese exchange student. This is pretty understandable since if you've never been exposed to diversity, it will be hard for you to expect anything outside of the norm. Apparently Ukrainians overall have a relatively positive outlook toward Asians and Americans, so I think it really won't be that bad.

I think it is interesting when people stereotype me... like when I'd walk around the Athletic Association building at Georgia Tech and the football players would ask me if I was a math tutor (or a cheerleader). Stereotypes are just stereotypes, and I'm always glad to show people that they are not necessarily true.

Just for fun, here is a list of things that I actually do that are really "asian":

1. Take my shoes off when I walk into a house. But many other cultures do this as well, like Ukraine!

2. Play the violin. Okay, I know this is almost equivalent to playing the piano but my hands weren't quite big enough to span an octave on the piano when I was 5, so my mom started me on the violin instead.

3. Save all the plastic grocery bags that I've ever gotten from places like Walmart and hoard them underneath the kitchen sink. I probably reuse about 10% of those bags for the mini trash cans in my room and then always throw the other 589446812 of them out when I move out of an apartment.

4. I date white guys. Here is a great article about this stereotype, from a book by Christian Landers' (adapted from his blog) called "Stuff White People Like".

5. Spin my pen or pencil around in my right hand during class. If you've never seen this, you need to pay more attention to the Asians in your classes. Watch closely, they all know how to do it.

Image courtesy of ehow.com's "How to Spin a Pencil Around Your Thumb".

Honorable mention to the above list: I majored in engineering. I tried to switch to Public Policy once my freshman year (when I decided I wanted to be a lawyer) and my parents refused to keep paying for me to attend such a strong engineering school. Then I switched to Industrial Engineering, which was actually a great fit for me and my interests in working with people and yet still crunching numbers. So now I'm considering pursuing public interest law after the Peace Corps, rather than IP (intellectual property) law. And I'm one of the only PCV's in my group that has an engineering degree, everyone else has liberal artsy stuff like American Studies (what is that? is that like history?). Anyways, only 14 more days until Staging in Washington DC!

Getting back into shape

Since I ended my collegiate swimming career in March, I've been slacking off in the fitness department. Over the summer, I lifted or swam like once or twice a week in Singapore. Their pool was gorgeous but nauseatingly hot, since it was outdoors and they did not have any sort of aerator system to cool it off. Plus it was long course (50 meters), and I hate long course with a passion.

 

 While I was in China, I swam a few times but never ventured into the weight room... mostly because I didn't want to get judged and stared at by creepy asian guys while they worked out. Note~ if you have never been to China, girls do not work out or play sports. In fact, they don't even like to ride bikes and prefer sitting on the back bumper thing and letting a guy ride the bike. So it was already interesting to them that my friend Christine and I were working out. Apparently biking to class and everywhere around town is enough of a workout for the local girls.

In order to use the lap swim lanes at Tsinghua University's pool, we had to pass the deep water swim test. The deep water swim test was swimming a 200. Communicating the information on my deep water swim test ID card was interesting, because I do not read Chinese and the lifeguard there did not speak English. I had a little difficulty figuring out what the little card meant by "faculty", since I wasn't familiar with that Chinese word. Luckily, a student who spoke some English came into the lifeguard office and translated "faculty" as what major we were studying at the University. Here is a picture of my ID card that says I passed the deep water swim test - the first line written in blue ink is my name in Chinese, and the second line in blue ink says Industrial and Systems Engineering, which was the whole "faculty" debacle.

So since coming home to California, I've been trying to get back into shape and work out more than I did over the summer. I've been to Crossfit Pleasanton a few Saturdays in a row for their "free drop-in session," and its not too bad. Actually, I've lost so much strength since I stopped lifting that I've been getting my butt kicked by 35-year-old moms that work out there... last Saturday's workout included 50 reps of a Thruster, which is a signature Crossfit lift that is essentially a dead lift to overhead push press. I was barely able to handle the 45 lb bar, and had to pause and take a break after every 10 reps and the mom working out next to me just cranked out almost all 50 in a row. And its been a while since I've done pullups, so I was struggling to learn how to do the "kipping" pullup and the mom next to me cranked out 30 pullups in a few minutes.  Overall, the Crossfit Pleasanton gym was pretty nice and the group workout of the day was great since it pushed me to work harder than the moms. I would definitely be a regular if it wasn't so expensive to work out there.

Image courtesy of CrossfitPleasanton.com

Being a student athlete in college really spoiled me, because now I tend to only do Olympic-style lifts at the rack and with the free weights. I went to lift today at another gym in the area called Gainspeed, which specializes in training high school athletes. The owner was really nice and let me work out for free, which was a sweet deal.

This is how I knew I was really out of shape - I'm terribly ashamed to say this but I was able to hang clean more weight than I could squat. I need a few more weeks to get back into reasonable lifting weights, but by then I will be leaving for Ukraine! Oh, the life of a swammer. I'm looking forward to finding a swimming pool and weight room to lift in when I get to Ukraine.