now you see her, now you don't

On a flying trip home between IST and camp...

The original plan was to leave IST this morning, buy my bus ticket to camp while in Kharkiv, catch the elektrichka home mid-afternoon after hanging out in Kharkiv, do my laundry at the Ys tomorrow morning, and head off for camp on Friday.

That was the original plan.

Original plans don't always work.

The only bus that goes to the town where the camp's at doesn't get to the camp until 8 pm at night, and I needed to be there by 4 pm at the latest on Friday. So I will now spend tomorrow on a bus, not doing laundry. And then, because I won't be in town tomorrow, I needed to go to the bank today, but the one window that deals with foreign currency closes at 3 pm. I got into town at 2:45.

I like taxis. And I made it in time. :)

I then bought phone minutes, lots and lots of yarn for God's eyes and warm fuzzies (yarn necklaces), and ran other errands. It baffled the woman at the yarn shop why I didn't care what type of yarn it was, as I wasn't going to knit or crochet with it...I told her I just wanted a lot of cheap yarn.

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IST remarks:

Tif, I owe you a phone call/letter to get you updated on a lot of news that won't be relevant for anyone else.

It's a very small world...I met two new PCVs in my oblast (similar to a state) who know people I know in the US. One of them, Meredith, went to GVSU and was in a campus fellowship with Jen and Heather Bennett (you girls still reading this?), and another one, Ed, is also an MSU '05 grad (IR and poly sci) and had a class with Jason. *whistles "It's a Small, Small World"*

I took a language proficiency interview (LPI) yesterday and found out that I've moved up to Advanced Low. Yay! Apparently I need to improve my grammar if I'm ever going to get higher. And Brandi, I'm studying Ukrainian, not Russian, although Russian speakers can generally understand me and vice versa.

Last night we had a 4th of July party on the beach where we were staying. There was a competition between 5 guys and 5 girls (I wasn't one), which, among other things, involved the best pickup line, girls trying to tie ties on guys, and (my favorite) guys trying to braid girls' hair.

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I expect to be not-on-line until the 18th or so, so I'll type to you all then!

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For tomorrow: Happy Birthday, Tifanni! :)