"Vacation"

Or "How Volcanic Ash Thwarted My Plans And Left Me In Ukraine After All".

I've had quite the adventure this week. Before I start with the misadventures, let me quickly list the things I am thankful for:

1. I was not stuck somewhere in transit through Europe during all this volcano fun.

2. I was able to hang out with Elizabeth and later the Rays, who made the disappointment process way more fun.

3. I was able to face my week being thankful that no one was hurt by the volcano and that things are clearing up...slowly but surely.

That being said, here's how I started Phase 2 of my "vacation":

My original plan was to meet my friend, Breanne, in London. We were then going to Salzburg, Austria for the "Sound of Music" tour. Let me tell you- I was SO excited! I haven't seen Breanne in ages, she had planned out a fantastic Austrian adventure, and then we were going to do some of the London sights post-Austria. It was going to be fantastic!

I left Dnepropetrovsk (where I had been with my supervisors...it's about 3.5 hours south of me by bus) on Thursday, headed to Kiev where I would stay with Elizabeth until my flight on Friday morning. Needless to say, I never did get on my flight.

In a magnificent effort to cheer me up and give me a "western culture" experience, Elizabeth devised a plan. We had dinner at T.G.I.Friday's. SO good! Later, we had tea (in her fancy china) and cookies (er...biscuits). We watched "Sherlock Holmes" (so British, right?) for the good British accents. I hummed songs from "Sound of Music" along the way. We took an extended (2-car) trolley bus to the bus station; Elizabeth pointed out that it's sort of like a double-decker bus. We realize that was a stretch, but hey, what's a girl(s) to do?

I then headed back to Dnepropetrovsk to spend a few more quality days with the Rays, which included a viewing of "The Godfather, part 3", a Sunday out of the city, and lots of quality conversation. I'm sorry that I couldn't spend my quality time with Breanne, but I'm glad I had friends who were willing to take me in and take care of me in my blue state-of-mind.

Me, Sveta, and Elizabeth. Sveta is Elizabeth's language helper, but oddly enough, she was actually one of my very first Ukrainian friends 3 years ago. It was so cool to get to see her- which would not have happened if I'd made my flight!

Oh, the fanciness! The tea was fantastic, and the china made it much more elegant.

Ok, this picture probably will not mean much to many of you, but here's the story. Ever since I arrived here, Ukrainian friends have gotten me to attempt to pronounce the name of this city. It's RIDICULOUSLY difficult to say, but slowly, I have mastered it. I was on the train the other day and glanced out the window at one of our 2-minute stops, only to see this sign! I had to snap a quick picture. If I were to spell this name out in English, it would look/sound something like this: Dnyeh-pro-dzehr-zhinsk. It's 16 letters long. Yeah. It's hard. You can be impressed, if you want.

More to come! Stay tuned.