Tomorrow morning at 10:35 PST, my 49-lb. bags and I will leave San Francisco, first flying to Minneapolis, then Paris, and then Kyiv. The layovers are a little tight, so I’m hoping to make the connections fine, with enough time to get a croissant in Paris. Alyona and Liliia from the embassy will pick me up at Boryspil Airport in Kyiv and bring me to a hotel for my first night, and then the next day a teacher (or two?) from my host university will pick me up and drive me the 2 and a half hours down to Cherkasy.  I am a little worried about making conversation during the drive, as I anticipate being quite tired.  But no, I’ve got to keep going, because then my very helpful contact at the university, Olga (one of the English professors there), will take me (in a car that another helpful English professor, Oleg, is letting us borrow) to some of the apartments that she has found, so that I can make a decision on which one to rent.  After I sign all of the papers and pay out of the wad of US dollars I am bring along, Olga has offered to take me grocery shopping.  At this point I anticipate being totally exhausted, so I’m not sure what I will end up coming home with!  Perhaps I will take a picture of my new groceries and post it.  I’m not entirely sure when I will be able to post next, but if you have clicked the “Follow” button on my site, you will receive an email when I do.

Do pobachennya!  (Ukrainian for “Goodbye.” I haven’t learned much Russian or Ukrainian yet; I’m hoping to take care of that on the flight over. 🙂

Jeanie