Only 1 Month Left!

Wow, the time is really getting away from me now. I've got so much work top do and no more time for it. Every day is filled by something that's got to get done TODAY (yet facebook still seems to take up all my time, that's the devil's website). So I'm closing out my grant, writing my resume, looking for jobs, writing my DOS (Description of Service) and trying to sort out what's coming back with me and what's staying in the closet for the landlords to discover after I'm gone (suckers!).

Have I told you about our plans for coming home? We're jumping on the train from Kyiv north to Moscow. Spend a few days there and then the adventure begins! East from Moscow on the Trans-Mongolian Railway! Should be the trip of a lifetime. We aren't taking as long to do it as I'd like becasue my friends have some committments back home but the plan is thus: from Moscow we go to Yekaterinburg, the first city in Russian Asia. That should take us about two or three days and we'll spend at least a day in the city before jumping on the next train all the way to Lake Baikal, one of the most beautiful places in the world. It should take us three days to get there, and we hope to spend two or three days camping by the shores of this amazing lake (the fish there are supposed to be amazing). From there we turn south to the capital of Mongolia, Ulaan Bataar. In Mongolia we've made contact with some of our PCV colleagues and will be hopefully staying with them for around three or four days, living in a tent on the stepe, awesome. And then it's on to China. We'll go to Beijing and fly home when the money runs out. Great Wall, horrible pollution and a billion people here we come!

Dog Days

To continue Robert's recent run of amazing luck: two days ago I was walking down the street in a neighboring town. On my way to pick up some buttons I had had printed for local Anti-AIDS programs. Two little yipping and yapping doggies run up behind me. I, intrepid and fearless, turn and stare them down. "Pansies," I think to myself. Turn around and continue on my merry way. Out of the doorway in front of me comes the leader of the pack, unhappy with my treatment of his fellows. Runs right up to me and takes a bite out of my leg. Bites me through my pants, socks, and long-johns. Then runs right back to his hideaway. Unbelieveable. So instead of enjoying the Mukachevo Wine Festival and then going to Budapest, I'm in Kyiv on rabies prophylaxis. Five shots on the first day, another on the third, then the seventh, continuing for a month. So that's what I'm doing. Rabies, also apparently fatal, who knew?

Happy New Year!

So what it's a few days late. Just wanted to tell you (if anyone's still reading) that I apprectiated those gifts you sent for Christmas (even though I uniformly recieved them after Christmas). I'm taking it easy right now, relaxing before that last little bit of work begins again. I spent Christmas in a place called Kolomyya about seven hours away by bus. It was great, hung out with some other Volunteers in a hostel (I was surprised they actually exist in Ukraine too) that was rally cosy and well run. Then I came back and finished out the rest of the days before the holidays. Celebrated New Years in style with my host family, shot off fireworks and stayed up until around 4 welcoming 2008. It was great, one of my last times to celebrate with them before I go. So now I'm just chillin whithout much to do until everything re-opens after Orthodox Christmas on the 8th. I'm not sure what I'll be doing then but the plans are to be in Budapest for Orthodox New Year on the 14th which should be awesome. If you ever have the chance please go there. It's the most remarkable place. I loved it. I'd live there if I could understand the devil-speak that come out of their mouths in that part of the world! Gibberish. Merry New Year to you all.