somethings weird with the milk

so I'm feeling really lazy, except full of energy and distracted. It's midnight in Ostroh, and I've spent the last hour getting distracted from writing in here.

Before I share some information of the fascinating stories of the last couple of days, I think I'll check-in:
- I think I'm really starting to miss people from home. Not all the time, but just when I'm buy myself or at my host families house, without any canadians around. Usually it doesn't last long because then I get absorbed back into the amazing people and place around me, but it's something I'm constantly analyzing - am I homesick or just normal. I also am crazy a bike ride or a swim - both are currently unreachable. I am really considering buying a bike for my stay here because they are only around $60!

Since I last wrote many things have happened, and it's been too busy to write - here's the interesting points:
Thursday - Went and visit Svitlana's sister's house, where her grandma, sister, bother-in-law, and nephew live. They have this beautfiul house on a patch of land surrounded by working gardens, meaning they basically grow all of their own vegetables and fruits there. Here grandma is awesome - I wish I had gotten a picture of her! She's so kind and full of complementary words, but in ukrainian because she doesn't speak english. I just smile ande laugh lots and say 'do-bry' lots which means 'good'. In fact, every word I knew how to speak in ukrainian I basically used with her, like counting to 10, and she couldn't believe, guaranteeing I could speak fluent ukrainian in three months...we'll see! Svitlana's nephew is so cute - about five and very very shy. He loves watermelon too, so we have something in common, but he's pretty scared of me because I speak a different language - sometimes he cries and runs away, but hopefully we'll become buds soon! Her sister has done the program before and we talked until late.

Friday - we went underground.... there is literally a crazy ancient tunnel network under the church at the ostroh academy that's two levels deep. A historian took us on a small tour of it, but supposively it goes up to 3 levels deep under the town. Orignally the one under the academy was a cemetery and they still keep some very small coffins with bones down there - I felt like I was in a video game. We also went on a scavenger hunt around the town, followed by the tedious yet important discussions about policies and our program. At the end of the day, we learned and decided on our work placements. What I'm doing probably won't surprise you - working at the town council on their solid waste city project. To tell the truth I'm really not that excited for it - probably because it doesn't appear new and exciting to me at first....I swear politics just follow me! What I really wanted to do was volunteer in this forest park and do research on different trees, and feed animals, and explore the country side, but it didn't work in my favour. I'm sure there will be lots to learn from this experience in town council and I'll probably be pretty stoked on the whole thing by Monday!

Saturday - more work in the morning. After Svitlana and I bought a watermelon in the market. I did the Hunter trick of knocking on the melons, and I thought that the ukrainian watermelon lady would think that I was crazy - apparently i was wrong, and this totally normal here! I still am a gawking mess in the markets and stores because everything is just so different and intriguing. The stores are filled with so much chocolate, bread, produce, and cheese and sausage, and alcohol, but very little milk or nuts. Everything is super cheap too. I bought quite a few groceries for svitlana and I today and it was around $7! svitlana and I basically lazed around in the afternoon and then went to the stadium in the afternoon.

The stadium and the lunet have become our groups main hang-out spots over the week. Our group's really active, and the stadium in basically an outdoor gym with an odd turf track, chin up bars, basketball court, and lots of room to do abs. I ran with John, the canadian, under a sea of stars - super beautiful, and something i could literally do every night. The lunet is like a convient store with an outdoor patio where lots of young people go to hang out in the afternoons.

Mom, here's the description of food: LOTS OF IT! breakfasts are weird - you are often served toast with meet, mustard, and cheese. On the first morning I was here, Svitlana's mom, Svitlana, made pancakes with apple slices inside them - they are probably one of the top ten things I've had while being here. lunch is usually some sort of borche ( there's hundreds of kinds), and bread or other random things. Sandwichs are also common. Dinner - a fresh vegetable salad with very little leafy greens ( more mexican ), some minced meat, bread, soup, buckwheat or rice, some other type of vegetable. leftovers are common and fresh food is the norm. A lot of chocolate, sweats, and fizzy drinks are consumed as well.

Despit all the food, ukrainians and usually very fit. Most don't drive, and many are out and about - active - throughout the day. The stadium is a popular hang-out for students at the Academy. But I have noticed that it's common for people past 30 to be a little larger. I think living in a university town has skewed this impression a bit, but all seem pretty fit and healthy to me.

Most Ukrainians are fairly good looking too, and they all dress up for shool at the academy. Extravagant outfits to the point of being tacky. luckily everyone knows of the "canadians' since CWY participants have been coming to this area for 13 years. So it's perfectly alright for us to stnad out as not dressed up. Overall, you get many smiles from individuals who hear you ramble on in english and many people swarm to meet you - some particpants descirbed feeling like movie stars. It's interesting to observed!

Well that's the update, from the now tired writer. Hope all is well with whoever is reading this, and want to let you know that I would love to hear from you this weekend!
love,
ellen