First Excursion Day with the girls!! (And random musings about my stressful schoolwork)

Wednesday was my first day back at the internat after my trip to Poland. I arrived in Ternopil at 4:00 am, like I mentioned before, and I slept for a few hours before going to see the girls. Jen, Jessica and I had planned to take a few of the girls on a small excursion to the park, so no matter how tired I was I did not want to miss it for the world!! I called Jen in the morning and asked her what time we were supposed to meet, as I did not have the details. She said maybe we would take them at 1:00 pm so I could stay home and sleep in a little. That unfortunately did not happen because as it turned out the staff had told the girls we would take them at 10:00 am, so Jen called me back and suggested that I met them at the university (in front of which is the park) at 11:15 am. That was nice as it let me sleep for at least one more hour :P She called me soon after though, since they got to the university 1/2 hour earlier than accorded, but unfortunately by that time I was in the shower and it was too late, so even though I took a cab and tried to make it as soon as I could, I still ended up being there at 11:15am! I felt bad that they had to wait for me, but there was nothing I could do. The cab ride was kind of sketch and the driver took me on this weird, long, complicated ridiculous ride all around the outside of the city... which DID NOT need to happen, and I think he did it just to charge me more. He probaly assumed I did not know how to get to the university and he jipped me! :( Even though he spoke a bit of English, fact that he was accompanied by another man in the front seat made me a little nervous, since I we ended up going rather far and I was alone... Finally, and 20 hryvina later, I made it to the university, and the girls received me with a chorus that Jen and Jessica taught them, saying "Finally!" :S Oh well... from then on, the day went pretty well.

We went to the grocery store, where the girls each got a bar of ice cream, curtesy of the Students for Development grant hahaha! They were having a great time! A few of them also had a bit of their own money, so they bougth themselves some weird tasting corn puffs. Something we found funny (but also very sad at the same time) was that Jessica had a banana that got horribly squished in her backpack, and when she was about to throw it out, Alina 'Boss' went, "Noooooo!!!!", and then she took the banana from Jessica and proceeded to eat it, sharing half of it with another girl... They took it like it was some kind of delicious candy, licking the peel till there was not even the banana strings left on it! (you know what I mean, right?) Considering the kind of food these girls have to eat every day, it doesn't half surprise me. That teaches us North Americans a lesson: Do not waste food!! For these girls, a snack constitutes a couple slices of plain semi-hard bread. No butter, no jam, no anything. So think about it twice next time you open your fridge and think "There's nothing to eat!"

After the ice cream, we finally headed towards the park, and we came across an awesome little zoo, kind of like the one that is at Waterloo park, except it had some pretty awesome HORSES!! (I LOVE HORSES!!!) The girls started to pick up grass and feeding the horses, and I of course, joined in!!! I also got to pet them, which was awesome! They were beautiful!! Did I mention I love horses?? Hahahaha! I think I was having even a greater time than the girls were!! Hahaha. Ok, I am getting carried away. Back to the story. I took a few pictures, and the nice thing is that Luda allowed me to take pictures with her too! Luda did not like us (the Canadians) when we first arrived and she used to be mean, cold and standoffish with us, but even since the face painting day she opened up, and at the park she was in an awesome mood! It was sweet!











We walked along, with one of the horses following us, asking for more food, hahaha, and on the other side of the same zoo cage there were some sort of albino-looking raindeer. They were so cute! Further down we came accross a set of really large swings and a bumper car station. Two of the older girls went on the bumper cars, and the other five went onthe swings. They were having a great time, and that made me very happy. After taht, we walked back to the university, took a really crowded bus back to the internat, and shorty after we went home. Jen, Jessica and I talked about making plans to go to Poland, and afterwards each of us went home.

I spent that entire evening working on an assignemt for my logic course, trying to hand it in before its due date, which was at midnight, Ontario time. I worked up till 4:30 am, but I still couldn't finish. I was so exhausted that I couldn't concentrate very well on the material, which I find rather difficult. So the next day, when woke up at 8:00 am I was feeling really really really crummy, and I ended up not going to the internat at all. I called Jessica to let her know, and then I slept for one more hour before I got up to continue with my schoolwork. I was hoping to finish my assignment soon so that I could work on my budget, as Jen and Jessica have been putting a lot of pressure on me to spend the money of my grant. Particularly, they want to spend the money on excursions and that sort of thing, but I have to be careful how I spend the money because even though it souds like a lot, it is incredibly how fast the money can slip if I am not careful (especially considering how much of it is had to go to my ticket, insurance, the Ukrainian lessons, room and board, etc). I have a few projects in mind working alongside the churches, but I will have to use a translator for that, and I am not sure how much that is going to take. So I have to be careful. So anyway, those were the sort of things that were on my mind and that I wanted to take care of.

However, I did not end up having any time for working on my budget. The material for this assignment was 3 times as much as I had originally expected in terms of how long the lecture notes and the readings for them were, and the material itself was very difficult, since I don't think the notes were clear at all... If I had known how much work this was going to be, I would have done a lot more of it while I was in Poland! (I did do some work , but clearly not enough!!) So in the end, I ended up spending the WHOLE day working, did not get any rest, and ended up pulling an all-nighter. That is to say, I did not sleep at all until the next morning... and still, I handed in the assignment what would have been 2 days late... that SUCKS! That is 20% taken off right of the bat, and since I think I did very poorly in it, I probably failed the assignment... THAT will be a first! :( However, it is over now and I whatever happens, happens. I have always been a good student, so I guess I can take a hit for once in my life. I will just have to make up for it... I am just worried about the final... I will have to study very very hard for it!

So anyway, Friday I went back to the internat, and it was fun. I brought some of the toys Chopin's family had sent, and played with the little girls for a bit. Then, the nice old man who works at the internat and who is in charge of the little auditorium room, let us go inside of it and play music on the stereo! I had brought some of my old-school 90s dance music, and so we had an awesome dance party! Some of the girls prentended to be singers, and Rosa even tried to do a bit of break-dancing for us! It was hilarious!! Hahaha....







After that, I went with Jen and Jessica to the unversity to use the internet and find out a bit about our Poland trip. I found and awesome tour company that does tours to Auschwitz and the Salt Mine, but the girls did not seem that interested in booking it ahead of time. This company does not ask for prepayment though, so I think it would still be a good idea. Since Chopin is also coming, I will discuss it with him and see what he wants to do :) He said he would be love to go to the mines, so I think him and I might take a little side trip while the girls visit Krakow. Even still though, I thnk it will be cool to go to Auschwitz with them! It will be a group experience :D

Taking 3 full courses, plus the one that requires me to blog (which I enjoy :) ) is a lot f work and a lot of pressure when you are also volunteering and trying to get events going. However, when Jen asked me if I would have rather not done it, I cannot say that that is the case. I enjoy my schoolwork, I just don't enjoy the fact that I am always playing catch up because of how far behind I fell when I was preparing for my trip... I am the type of person who loves being busy, and I love school and learning, so it is not so bad. Plus, I REALLY want to graduate by December, and this is going to allow me to do that. If I had not been able to take courses, I might not have come to Ukraine in the first place, as the courses I am taking right now are requirements for my Master's, which I hope to begin in the Winter term. I haven't applied yet because the application process starts in November, but I talked to the admissions director and looking at my academic record she said that I would be just fine to start in January, even if my official graduation transcript did not come in until after classes had already started.

Some of you may be wondering how am I going to graduate by Christmas if I am only taking 4 courses this Summer (including the one I will receive as part of my placement and which requires me to blog and to make a presentation in front of the university community when I come back). Well, since I took Choir Ensemble on top of my other subjects one term, and that counts as .25 credits, that means I only need 5.5 more courses to graduate after this Summer term (that is 3 full credits, considering each course is .5 credits) , in the Fall I will be taking 5 courses, plus Choir Ensemble once again, and that will allow me to graduate in time! :D I just hope I don't ruin my average with my grades this term hahahaha. I will have to be very diligent, especially if I am to go to Poland again and to my host family's village, which they have asked me to do this upcoming Friday. So if you pray, pray for me; and if you don't, wish me luck! :D

But you may be asking if I take any breaks at all! Well, I do. Otherwise I would go mental. I have a few friends who call me and talk to me on msn quite regularly, so that is very nice and at times even comforting. In addition, for every 2 or 3 hours of work, I take about a 10 to 15 minute break, in which I usually check facebook and watch YoutTube videos.

Aside from that, sometimes I go for walks around the town and I often go to Church, especially on Fridays. They have Adoration from 3-6 on Fridays at my church, and after that there is Mass, so it works perfect for me. Bloging and posting pictures is also a bit of a passtime, although posting pictures and labelling is a big job... it take a looooooong time :P So anyway, I think I will leave it at thatbecause I think you guys will have a very hard time catching up, hahaha. Love you all, miss you all. God bless!

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