An Erin by any other (nick)name...

Some of you might remember a post I did in February about names (and more names). I'm totally fascinated by Slavic names and am ALWAYS asking questions about them. I'll probably do more posts about names before my time here is finished, but I just wanted to fill you in on all the different names I've accumulated whilst living here.

I'm not a super nick-namey kind of girl. I basically have two: one that my sister has been calling me since she could speak, and "Brass" or "Brassy" (coming from my last name), which came into being once I went to college. Other than that, I don't really have nicknames. I mean, you don't really do much to the name Erin. It's rather short. If you assimilate into Ukrainian culture, however, the nickname result is something like this:
1. Erinochka
2. Erinichka
3. Erinka
4. Erukha
5. Irka
6. Irichka
7. Irka Americanka
8. Solnichka
9. Irka Ukrainka (if I've done something particularly Ukrainian that warms the hearts of my Ukrainian audience...this one is rare, but I'll claim it)

In addition to these modifications to my name, Slavic-style, you get the "unusual" pronunciations and spellings of my name:
1. Pronounced: "Eh-REEN"
2. Pronounced: "Ay-REEN"
3. Pronounced: "I-rehn"
4. Spelled: Irene
5. Spelled: Iren
6. In one case, spelled: Erril

As far as I know, there aren't separate personalities that match up with the names. I do feel like I'll be nicknaming everyone when I return to the States. Be forewarned: I might be adding an -ichka to your name, friend.

A Year in Review

This past Saturday was my official one-year-in-Ukraine mark. In honor of this anniversary, I thought I'd include some pictures of the special people and moments from this last year. Enjoy!

View of my neighborhood.

First friends: Tanya and Ira

Sweet Saturday Bible story-ers.

Hands-On 2009: Rachel and Hannah

Ukrainian winter. I like to call it Narnia.

Students.

Students.

Ukrainian past time: tea.

Relationship building with professors.

Time spent in Dnepropetrovsk with the Rays.

Friends.

Adventures with friends around Poltava.

24th birthday (and please let me remind you- this was a TINY fraction of the crew that was crammed into my house for the "surprise" part of the party! Oh man...)

Friend.

Quality time.

Sweet Nastia.

Time with friends in Greece.

Please compare this shot with the Narnia pictures above. They're really different...

Friend. The American kind.

Friend. The Ukrainian kind.

Summer friends.

Sister.

New life.

It's been a great year. Thanks for joining me for the adventure!

Erin: 1, Russian: 0

That's right. Today, I took on Russian and dominated.

This doesn't happen very often, by the way. The Russian language is terribly intimidating to me, and I blunder through it on a daily basis. I hate to blunder anything; I really like to be on top of anything that I undertake, so this has been a huge struggle for me. I was definitely challenged last week at my conference to be more intentional with my language learning and usage. So, today, I decided to use my Russian, even if the situation didn't necessarily call for it.

For instance...

Today, was Rent Payment Day. My landlord called yesterday to tell me he was coming.
Pause right here.
I REALLY need to give you a visual/mental image of my landlord:

His name is Emil, which, by the way, is a really weird name for Ukrainians. He is probably late 60's and is very Soviet. He has a summer outfit and a winter outfit, and he heavily relies on the idea that garlic will ward off any potential illness. He wears a HUGE fur hat in the winter that looks just like you would imagine a hard-core Slavic man's hat would. He frequently critiques my cleaning job around here and feels that it is his duty to admonish my usage of electricity and water. He has also given me talkings-to about not wearing socks when he thinks I should. He's a character.

On Rent Payment Days, he comes over, checks all the meters (water and electricty), tallies up all the numbers on a gigantic calculator, and shows me all of my charges. He requires me to pay the actual rent in dollars and then utilities in grieven. When I hand him the dollar bills, he examines them super carefully, looking for any stray marks or stamps. Here's a task for your week: check out all of the cash you have in your wallet (if you have any) and see how marked up our bills are. I never noticed until I got here! They won't accept bills unless they are brand-spanking new. It's annoying.

Over the past couple months, Emil has decided to learn to write the names of the months in English. It's really cute how painstakingly he writes out the month at the top of the bill. I thought that his efforts to use my language deserved a stronger effort on my part to use his. Unfortunately, I have to work extra hard because he's hard-of-hearing. Usually, if I'm not 100% sure of the pronunciation of a word, I can mumble it and people will figure it out. Not so with Emil. It has to be super clear. That adds to my stress level.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, I not only answered his questions, but initiated a few questions of my own about his family. I also made an effort to answer his questions with 3 or 4 sentences, rather than 1. He was very happy with my effort and didn't even critique my grammar. That is a victory.

Long trip home

My time in Germany was wonderful. So wonderful, in fact, that I decided to visit it twice. In one day.

How does that work, you might ask.

Here's the story:
I left the conference center around 7:00 am on Friday morning. A very kind and compassionate carful of people gave me a ride to the airport, seeing as how I needed to get there before the shuttle was going to be going. I arrived at the airport at 8:40ish and got all checked in for my flight to Budapest, where I would have a 45 minute layover before continuing to Kiev. I was supposed to arrive in Kiev at 3:25 pm and catch a bus to Poltava at 5:30. If you'll notice, this travel description includes a lot of planned travel stops.

"Planned" being the key word.

The weather in Frankfurt was awful. Remember the plague of darkness? Yes, well substitute "fog" for "darkness" and you have a pretty accurate description of the weather. So, my flight was delayed by almost 2 hours. Obviously, by the time I arrived in Budapest, my flight to Kiev had left. I was given a voucher for lunch and was told I was being rerouted. To Munich.

Back to Germany. Good thing I like it.

I had a 4 hour layover in Budapest before heading to Munich. In Munich, my flight to Kiev was delayed by an hour and a half. By the time I arrived in Kiev, I was BEYOND ready to be done traveling. Oh...wait...one more surprise: no luggage.

I had the distinct privilege of filling out 4 different forms to register that my luggage was MIA. Through God's providence, 3 of my colleagues came to retrieve me, and we finally left the airport around 1 am. I stayed with my friend, Elizabeth, and was able to retrieve my luggage Saturday morning. I then caught a bus to Poltava at 3:45 and FINALLY got home at 9:15 pm Saturday night.

Now- before I dwell too long on the frustrations of all the traveling, please allow me to include a list of blessings. It's long:
1. My Friday morning ride to the airport was full of encouraging, exhorting conversation with a godly colleague from Western Europe, who also very kindly gave me one of her leisure-reading books because she heard me mention that my English reading supply is limited.
2. I sat by a man from Kosovo on the flight to Budapest who I was able to share with. At first, he didn't want to hear what I was saying, so I stopped for a while and just prayed silently for him. Lo and behold, he began asking me questions after a little while.
3. I was able to eat lunch in Budapest (a good one, too). With my original itinerary, I wasn't going to get a lunch.
4. Through a breakdown in communication, I ended up with a friend in Kiev to stay with, rather than chilling in the Kiev airport all night.
5. I was able to get my luggage the very next morning, rather than having to wait for a long time- or not receive it at all.
6. I got to sit next to a Ukrainian girl on the bus home. She was my age and spoke fluent English. We chatted the whole way to Poltava, I shared with her, she gave me her contact info, and I was invited to visit her in her city.

God is so faithful. I had such an adventure, but it wasn't a dreadful experience. It was such an encouragement to see Him at work in my life!

Germany

I realize that I've been remiss in my blogging duties for the past week. I have a good reason, though: I was at a conference in Germany! Yes, I have been scampering around Europe for two weeks.

My company held a conference for workers in our area who have been working for around a year. It was a REALLY wonderful week of training and encouragement. God is good to provide exactly what we need when we need it...even if we don't realize that we need it.

As usual, my picture-taking antenna wasn't fully functioning this week, so the pictures are random. I will add them anyway:

I found this and began a search for moose! I didn't find any...

Castle on a hill in the village. Just hanging out.

Street shot. So cute.

Sweet friend.

Must have a lamp post picture. Here it is.

I just liked this building. And, it's built crookedly. Please notice. Thank you.

This picture is for Karen. Apfelschorle. Just wanted to document it for you.

Oh Budapest, how I will miss thee!

Today was my last full day in Hungary. Take a moment and share my sadness, please.

Ok, so on the agenda today:
1. Grand Market. Inside the rather impressive edifice below, there is a massive market of food or souvenirs. It was fun. I enjoyed it greatly.

Grand Market Hall

2. Lunch at "For Sale" pub.

Yep. It's actually called "For Sale."

Inside the pub. There were all manner of paper products/items/etc. stapled to the walls and ceilings. I saw business cards, pizza restaurant flyers, receipts...crazy. Also, you throw the peanut shells on the floor, like at Logan's.

Goulash. It was great. It was like pot roast in soup form.

3. Walk down the "walking street". There were lots of shops and outdoor vendors. I talked Wendy into a scarf. I then bought one for me. It was very productive.

Ok. This is a manhole cover, but I thought it was CLASSY. You needed to see it.

Here's a cow I found. He was green.

I got this picture by jumping off the tram when the doors opened, leaning around a sign, snapping a picture, and jumping back on before it pulled away. Fast footwork.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Budapest. I highly recommend it as a European destination. Thanks for looking at my pictures!

Pictures! Be proud.

Today was the day. Wendy took me out and about. Thankfully, the weather wasn't dreadful today, so we weren't miserable every time we stepped outside. For lunch, we went to the Red Latern Chinese restaurant (the laterns are actually orange, but they used to be red...and that's not it's actual name anyway). It was absolutely glorious, and we gorged ourselves. Naturally. After Chinese food, we set off in the direction of Castle Hill.

Two quick anecdotes (if you just want to see pictures, skip this section):
1. If you have ever listened to "Adventures in Odyssey," we passed a guy on the way to the metro that looks exactly like what Eugene Meltsner sounds like.
2. We were walking into the metro, and I noticed this guy coming out had words written on his hat. I was trying very hard to read what it said, not realizing that I was totally staring at him. I realized this fact after he started making flirty faces at me. I'm so cool.

Picture of Parliament while walking between the Red Latern restaurant and the metro.

Pictures from Castle Hill:

Church at the top of the hill. I liked the tile.

Guy with a horse and a ring around his head. Wendy's explanation of this statue. Works for me!

Part of the wall around the hill.

Wendy...without whom my Budapestian adventure would just not have been so fabulous.

Me imitating Samson. I'm so tough.

Aerial shot. Danube River, Parliament building, etc.

Me. And a lamp post. Matt, remind you of anything?

Ok, this wasn't on Castle Hill. This was in the metro. We couldn't figure out the meaning, but we found it very amusing.

Still no pictures...

I still have no pictures of Budapest. In my defense, it is simply too cold and WET to be doing much sightseeing. It has been raining, raining, raining. Hopefully, though, tomorrow will be the day. I'm feeling it...

Yesterday, we didn't get out too much until mid-afternoon/evening, which was excellent because the weather was nasty. We did, however, get Burger King for supper! It was so deliciously magnificent. After that, we went to see a movie. In English. It wasn't the most incredible movie I'd ever seen (My Life in Ruins), but it was in English AND "movie popcorn" was involved.

After the movie, though, Wendy and I had the privilege of waiting for trams and buses for lengthy periods of time- in the cold. Good thing I had invested in a hat and gloves. While waiting for the tram, I glanced to the right and did a double-take because there was a staggering drunk man who was wearing a Viking helmet- complete with horns. One of the horns, though, was askew, turning upside down. He didn't look too terribly scary. I wanted a picture, but I thought that might be pushing it. Please try to envision, though. It was funny.

Visa: Check.

I got my visa! Thanks for your prayers. It was a painless process but it was a COLD two-day process. Weather.com let me down...

Today was the first day that the sun has been out, which has been great...but it has also been very frigid. I had to buy a pair of gloves and a hat. Oh man. Winter is upon us.

A few facts about Hungary:
1. Budapest is divided by the Danube River into two parts: Buda and Pest.
2. The Hungarian language is "Magyar" in Hungarian.
3. The currency is the Forint.
4. Goulash is the national dish. I haven't had it yet, but it's on the to-do list.
5. Hungarian is not a Cyrillic language, and I have no idea how to read it. Frustrating.
6. There is a very efficient and user-friendly public transportation system here. I'm in love with it.
7. You do not have to take your own bag to the store.
8. You can hand money directly into the cashier's hand. I'm going to have a very hard time breaking the money-exchange-at-the-store habit. In Ukraine, you never hand money directly into the cashier's hand; there's a little dish thing that you put your money on. They take it and put your change back on the dish. You don't do that in Hungary.
9. You can flush the toilet paper!
10. So far, I haven't had to pay to use a public toilet. Yesssss.

I'll do some more studying up on Hungarian culture. I have only taken one picture since I've been here! I haven't done much sightseeing yet, so I'm blaming it on that. Hopefully, I'll remedy that soon.

Budapest is a magical land

I have now spent two full days in Budapest. It has rained for almost every minute of that time, but that is neither here nor there BECAUSE I had Tex-Mex today for lunch.

My Monday was quite full. The mission: begin the visa-acquiring process. I’m thanking the Lord quite persistently for sending one of my Ukraine colleagues (Wendy) to Budapest at the same time as me. She’s a veteran of trips to Budapest, so she knows pretty much all the ropes around here.

So…We rolled out around 7:45 this morning, heading to the Ukrainian consulate. An hour and a half and three public transportation transfers later, we were there. The gates of the consulate were- very appropriately- painted a very shocking “Ukrainian” blue. If you’ve been to Ukraine, you are probably envisioning exactly the right hue of blue in your head. I had a very smooth time presenting my preliminary documents and visa picture. I filled out an application, and then we headed back into the downtown area to complete the financial transaction at a specific bank. Did that. Made it back to the consulate on my own, as Wendy needed to stay downtown to wait for an appointment. Things were in order, apparently, because she told me to return on Tuesday to have my visa glued in. Yesssss!

After the visa-ing, I got to spend an hour and a half roaming around a legit mall. It was phenomenal. I shopped a little, walked around a lot, and was totally, irresistibly drawn towards the movie theater. I didn’t go in to see a movie because we’re planning to do that Wednesday. I was totally thrilled just to be near a movie theater that shows movies in English. It warmed my heart.

The BEST part of the day, though, was lunch. Wendy introduced me to Arriba, a Moe’s-like equivalent. It made my soul sing. It was like partaking of a piece of Heaven here on earth.

Back at the Eden House (guest house where we’re staying), we had a really exciting event, post-dinner. There’s a family here waiting to have their fourth child. Today was the day! We had a “movie moment” wherein the mom stopped mid-stride and said, “Um, my water just broke.” Things turned into such a flurry, and there will be a baby soon!

Budapest is a magical land. Wish you were here.

Only picture from Budapest so far...Mexican restaurant!

Budapes(h)t

I'm in Budapest, Hungary this week. Why? Visa renewal time. I go to the consulate on Monday to get going on that...if you think about it, I'd really appreciate your prayers for that to go smoothly.

Things I like about Budapest already:
1. The buses are soooooo nice.
2. I had Subway for dinner (and Chinese and Mexican are on the horizon).
3. You don't have to purchase your grocery bag at the store.
4. There are lots of English signs.
5. H & M

I'm liking it already!

Epic adventure...get comfortable. It's long.

Reader's Digest version:
Kat and I had to jump on an (almost) moving train.

J.R.R. Tolkein version:
Have you ever re-read a book or re-watched a movie and- despite knowing exactly what's going to happen- you still tense up and start to worry that the hero is going to die or that the guy and the girl won't actually get together? Take that feeling, multiply it by 42, and that was my day yesterday.

Boy, do I have a mental image for you.

Yesterday, unfortunately, was Kat's departure day. The plan was to take the 7:40 am train, arrive in Kiev at 12:10, and get to the airport a little after 1:00, so she could make her flight by 3:30. Straightforward. Or...it should have been...

My friend who normally orders taxis for me was out of town this week, so I steeled myself to make the call to the taxi company myself. I had rehearsed it several times by the time Sunday rolled around. Apparently, Taxi Friend was quite worried about the taxi company actually understanding my request and sending a taxi at the right time. She asked Friend #2 to call for me. So, on Sunday, Friend #2 asked me for all of the information and said she'd take care of me. I was quite relieved.

I sent a text message on Tuesday to confirm the time, etc. Things were looking good for us to get into a taxi at 7:15 Wednesday morning.

Kat and I were totally ready and waiting BEFORE 7:15. I kept peeking outside to see if our taxi had shown up. I kept waiting, trying to be calm. I'd allowed 25 travel minutes for a trip that only takes 10, but you never know.

At 7:20, I called Friend #2, who said that the taxi should be there soon. We waited and waited. I was getting QUITE antsy. At 7:25, I had to do something. I looked down the street and saw a taxi waiting. Kat and I booked it down and across the street, and I got us the taxi.

Of course this would be the one taxi driver in the whole city who doesn't drive with the gas pedal slammed all the way to the floorboard, and of course, we caught every red light between my house and the train station. I must have looked at my watch 387 times. Halfway there, I created a contingency plan; I gave Kat her train ticket and told her that when we got there, she might need to head out to the platform and stall until I could pay the driver. I felt a little silly, a little paranoid, but I thought it was better to be prepared.

A few agonizingly long minutes later, Kat asked, "How long until our train leaves?" I told her that it was about two minutes. She followed that with, "How much longer until we get there?" I told her that the answer to that was also "about two minutes." Yikes. I was starting to sweat.

We pulled up at the train station, and Kat started getting out, while I handled issues with the driver. He took up some of my precious time by trying to make change for me. I kind of yelled at him, telling him to keep the change (yes, that phrase I totally know in Russian).

Kat noticed that our train was still there, obviously taking comfort in that fact. I told myself to calm down, but something in my head told me to RUN! I started running into the train station, through the station, and out onto the platform...poor Kat having to keep up with approximately 3785 lbs on her back.

Our Day of Reckoning came when we reached the platform. Yes, technically the train was still there, but we noticed a few other details:
1. The steps into each car had already been stored.
2. The cabin attendants for each car were all holding out their "all-clear" signals for the conductor.
3. The engine was starting up.

I glanced at Kat's ticket and realized with dread that our car was the first one...and we were near the end of the train! I spat that information out to Kat, who then snapped into action.

"PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE!" Kat started yelling in English, running at the closest car. All the attendants seemed to realize what was happening and started yelling at us in Russian. Thank the Lord, I understood what they were saying. One very kind soul was telling us just to jump into her car. Kat bounded up into the car (with her huge backpack), and I jumped up after her...AS THE TRAIN BEGAN PULLING OUT! I am not even exaggerating about this: my foot left the ground, and the train started moving.

I fumbled for my ticket but could barely get it out because my hands were shaking so badly. I finally found it, and Kat and I were able to begin our journey from the back of the train to the front. You know how train cars are held together? We got to maneuver across many of them to reach our seats.

For the rest of the day, we continued to feel that dread of "Are we going to make the train??"- despite the obvious fact that we were, in fact, traveling via train. Thankfully, the rest of our travels were way more boring than our morning's journeys. I think I aged 6 years, though.

It was quite a day. For Kat's account: kataroundeurope.blogspot.com

Literary device: the fall of the hero

I was an English major in college. I love literature. Truly. Something that English majors discuss ad nauseum are literary devices. There are approximately 1398756 different kinds of literary devices, but one that I have been extra aware of after moving to Ukraine is the Fall of the Hero. Aeneas. Oedipus. Pretty much any primary character in Shakespearean tragedies: Hamlet, Romeo, Julius Caesar. The pattern is often that they have attained something, have earned some level of pride, and then have a fall. Keyword: pride. If you'd like a way to remove any pride issues from your life, may I suggest moving to Ukraine?

Here are a few of the great "opportunities" I've had to help beat the pride right out of me:
1. Going to the grocery store. I frequently get yelled at for not having exact change or for being slow on the uptake when they ask me a question about my purchase. Let me paint this picture for you: she asks me while her head is bent down and while she is not even really opening her mouth to enunciate. I usually have to ask her to repeat, at which point she fixes me with an incredibly annoyed face and raises her voice to a yell (at which point she attracts the attention of everyone in a 10 ft radius). A humiliating moment.

2. Riding the bus. The humbling part actually starts before I get on the bus. I spend much more time than anyone else, craning my neck and staring at the signs on the buses to make sure I catch the right one. Then, I spend many bus rides trying to sift through the various grumbles and complaints sent my way for sitting in the wrong place or not moving out of the way fast enough. I'm 24 years old...I should be able to get from one place to another without making 17 people mad, right? Wounded pride.

3. Going to church. This is horrible, I know. But please imagine that you go to church- somewhere that's supposed to be full of rejuvenation and encouragement- and you bumble through every conversation you try to have with everyone. You watch each person you talk to put on a very patient, bless-her-heart-she-can't-get-a-completely-correct-sentence-out kind of look. On top of that, you can't understand very many complete thoughts during the sermon because a) it's too fast or b) the pastor is preaching in Ukrainian and you study Russian. Very humbling.

I can't think of a single area of my life where my pride hasn't been bruised since moving here. I never realized how terribly much I think of myself and my abilities. I never knew how much I took for granted: being able to read (and immediately understand) instructional signs, knowing what everyone around me is saying, understanding how systems (transportation, post office, legal offices) work, or even that you're not supposed to get your own ice cream cone out of the freezer in the convenience store.

All the moments of humiliation and embarassment, all the times that I've wanted to cry with frustration at my struggles with learning Russian, all of the situations in which I've wanted to yell at any Ukrainian who crossed me have taught me more about my God. In "my" culture- the one where I know how to do things- I don't need Him as much. I pretty much never find myself praying that the Lord would just inspire me with the basic ability to call my landlord and tell him the electricity is out. I just go to the breaker and fix it. I don't ask Him to "pleasepleaseplease bring the bus I need or I might dissolve into a puddle of tears." Here, though, my communication line with Him is always on red alert. I'm constantly depending on Him, and shockingly enough, I'm seeing His great and mighty power to direct my steps and answer my prayers- in His timing.

I'm not crazy about the learning process, but I am thankful for this time of refinement. Heaven knows that I'm completely worthless in this society. But I hold to this as my encouragement:
"Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all ages now and forevermore." Jude 24-25

Happy Birthday, Amiee!

Today is my sister's birthday! I thought that, in honor of her special day, I'd include some very Amiee pictures for your enjoyment:





Love you, Amiee! I hope that your day is/was fantastic!