More Winter "Fun"

Happy 12/12/12!

So I am now in the midst of the busiest week I've had in Vinnytsia so far. And in true Ukrainian form, these plans weren't altogether presented to me until Saturday. I already had committed to teaching a class today (Wednesday) afternoon and my regular class on Saturday afternoon... and this week, the Peace Corps is organizing a training for English Teachers in Vinnytsia and I was asked to present. That is tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. Then last week Svitlana asked me to cover her class for her since she will be out of town, which is three hours long and is on Friday. Then Oleg's students accosted me in the hallway and asked if I would come back to their class. When I brought this up with him, he said that the only chance to do this would be on Friday morning. Then he scheduled a Russian lesson for me with Lena on Monday, and she asked me if I would also cover her three-hour evening class last night (Tuesday). Ack!

On Sunday, though, I was free to go out and have some fun with Tanya and her husband. We went out to the Mega-Mall and went bowling. The bowling alley felt just like being in America, right down to the carpet. The only real difference? They give you not just shoes here, but also socks! Interesting.

After bowling we went shopping, and I was finally able to buy a fleece blanket to wrap myself in when sitting around my apartment, as well as a good sharp knife. Tanya and her husband also bought me a beautiful Christmas ornament, which I look forward to putting on my tree back in the States!

Then we drove around town a little to look at the Christmas decorations, which was a lot of fun. I have a deal with Vasa-- I try to speak Russian and he tries to speak English, and Tanya helps us both-- so I got in some language practice, too :) Then we went to a Ukrainian restaurant for dinner.

The wooden building in the snow made me feel like I was in the Carpathians for real :P

We ate a dinner of fried potato dumplings stuffed with mushrooms; salat made of eggs, cucumbers, green onions, and ham; and shashlyk. Mmmmmm so tasty!!!

Mmmm... Shashlyk with dipping sauce. Дуже смачно!

So at least I had an enjoyable and relaxing evening before embarking on this crazy week!

Then today, my power went out around 11:30 am. I thought nothing of it, since power has gone out a couple of times before and the weather is kind of crappy (it just keeps snowing and snowing and snowing!) But then I went out to the grocery store, and discovered that I could not take my trash to the dumpsters down the hill because the sidewalk beyond my building had been roped off. There was an ambulance and some construction equipment, and even a TV news crew. When I got to the end of the street, I discovered there was a policeman blocking it-- the whole street was closed. I did not realize what had happened until I got back from my trip to the grocery store: under the weight of the snow, THE NEIGHBOR'S ROOF HAD CAVED IN.

Holy. Crap.

So my power (and thus my heat) was out all day. I left early for my class, wanting to charge my computer at the university... but there was a car accident and the tram was stuck for quite a while. I barely arrived in time for the class.

Like an idiot, I decided to walk home in the dark and the driving snow. The whole way I kept praying that my electricity and heat would be on when I got home. The street was open again, which was a good sign. But when I got to my building, it was dark. So I stopped outside to turn on the flashlight which is built into most Ukrainian cell phones (for pretty much this exact reason), because it was pitch black in the staircase. But literally right as I stepped in the door, the lights came back on. Thank God!

So, that's more than enough adventures for me today. Tomorrow I present at the Teacher Training. Never a dull moment around here!

Also, 9 more days until Turkey!