Would typhoid really be that bad?

Just kidding... I know typhoid would be awful.

However.

My arm that got shot up with typhoid innoculations is about to fall off. It hurts VERY badly today.

I thought I would give everyone a little Ukraine information. It has recently come to my attention that many people know very little about Ukraine. Let me enlighten you:

*Ukraine is not a part of Russia. It used to be a part of the Soviet Union. However, Ukraine gained its independence on August 24, 1991. So, yes, there are ties to Russia, but it is not in fact a part of Russia. The surrounding countries are Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova.

*Not to add more confusion, but there are two primary languages spoken in Ukraine: Ukrainian and Russian. No, they are not the same. They are similar (more so than, say, English and Ukrainian), but not everyone speaks both. They both use the Cyrillic alphabet. Ukrainian is used more in the west and Russian in the east. I'll be in the east...guess what I'm going to learn.

*The capital is Kyiv. In English, we typically spell it Kiev and pronounce it "Kee-ev." Really, though, it should be "Keev." Other major cities are Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Dnipropetrov'sk. That last one is the largest city nearest me. I just recently mastered pronunciation. Scary...I know. Yalta (as in the site of the post-WWII talks) is located in Crimea, which is an "autonomous republic" attached to Ukraine, jutting into the Black Sea.

*Mark Twain visited Ukraine when making his tour through Europe. When writing Innocents Abroad, he wrote about Odesa: "I have not felt so much at home for a long time as I did when I "raised the hill" and stood in Odesa for the first time." I thought that was neat that Mark Twain liked it enough to write about it.

There's so much history to Ukraine and so many stories that the Western world knows very little about. Never fear: I have taken it upon myself to educate you. Get excited!