Second Draw Down

Ok. I’ve met a TONNE of new people… do you want me to list them?

Irina- first Ukrainian, I met her on the plane, she spoke English and works as a translator in Germany (German-Russian)

Sergy-first person I met in Ukraine @ airport. English not so great. He’s meant to be figuring out my accommodation… still @ Iuliia’s atm. Meant to have moved out like 2 days ago (just for Iuliia’s sake, I must be a pain)

Alex-second person I met @ airport. Went to Turkey for internship, took 40 packets of smokes, cos ciggies in Turkey are expensive apparently.

Nick- third person @ airport (he’s ginga which is really weird in Ukraine. And when I mean “ginga”, I mean like gingery-blonde. But any ginga in Ukr is weird apparently) Reminds me of one of the characters off those Canto cartoon vids we have at home. The one where there are two guys and the bear starts to chase them. The big one. Haha, he’s uber nice went to Romanian last summer for internship and got burnt the first day, and that’s how you know he’s a true ginga.

Iuliia- most lovely host ever!!!

Slavic- the Russian boyfriend of the most lovely host.

Lisa- Iullia’s friend who took me to Donestk on Saturday. She’s nice, really good English, went to France to restore a cathedral in the summer.

Tanya- has long dark hair, met her for like a second.

Diana- I love Diana cos she thinks I’m interesting AND she’s so cute, she says ok like “o-key” she has a black Canadian bf and likes Twilight. Has helped me learn Russian.

Roxanne- She loves the local football team more than the guys apparently and she likes cognac and will show me how to drink it with coke she seems really balls-y.

Iuliia- Appears to like to dance and fixed the viruses in my usb. Yay!

Artem- Local Committee President of AIESEC

Andrew-  helped me out buying a top up card. I now owe him 35 Grivna and he knows about NZ slang cos the kiwi girls taught him.

Dan- went to China last year to do his internship. Seems kinda down, like “I reflect the grey sky” but I actually spent heaps of time talking to him. Speaks some French.

Katya- cute lil Ukrainian who took all of the pics. Must hunt them down.

Katya- had awesome green shoes.

Oxanna (or maybe it was Roxanna?)- previous LCP.

Iuliia- yes, another Iuliia.

Phillip- reminds me of John Ballinger

David- Polish intern.

Joao- Portuguese intern, has a real latino attitude. I can say his name properly = good.

Sarah- has a Malaysian dad and I’m assuming Kiwi mum, possibly part Maori, she’s 23 and has the real down-to-Earth attitude. She’s from Auckland.

Tony- Ginga from Chch. She’s moving to Auckland next year.

Shelley- Asian from Auckland. Bit like you and me. Haven’t talked to her much.

Virginia- from Hong Kong, studying in Auckland.

Misako- I’m working with her, she’s from Japan. And she is cute-sy Japanese.

Olga- met her for the first time today.

Dmi- the guy who got me to Ukr (TN-manager, for anyone reading who understands what this means.)seems a bit busy that he hasn’t really organised or given us info about lessons and stuff…. hmmmm. I haven’t actually met him properly though.

And then there are the various other people that I have been introduced to, but barely rememer or the other people that I’ve simply forgotten.

The people I’ve seen every day since I got here are Iuliia and her bf, Slavic (spelling?), who pretty much lives here. He doesn’t speak any English which made for interesting conversations, or whatever you would call it

Heaps of people here smoke. Went to a restaurant for lunch and just chatting about the lesson with Misako in the smoking part of the restaurant and afterwards my hair smelled and my lungs were a bit annoyed/agitated. I’m teaching, on average, 5 ppl per class. All of the people who attend though are really enthusiastic. There were more ppl but after the quarantine people have stopped coming. All good though. I’ve talked about myself and NZ like more than I have in my entire in my life in the last couple of days. I went to a speaking (English learning) club the other day with the Kiwi girls and we started talking about sport in NZ. It was here I realised that I really have a passion for talking about NZ and learning about Ukraine and just sharing in general. Apparently it’s way more common for girls to smoke than guys. The women in Ukr are like GORGEOUS and take such good care of themselves. They also wear the HIGHEST heeled boots I have ever seen. And they wear them EVERYWHERE. I told Iuliia that she amazes me cos I would DIE just trying them on.

People kiss hello and goodbye here (and I have no idea why everyone thinks it’s just a French thing) despite the swine. No one is wearing masks. I’m not worried.

The cars are apparently driven only by rich people. No kidding there are cars that have been driven out of like the 70’s. The cars aren’t so flash. Neither are the roads.  Oh yeah, the other day I went with Iuliia and Roxanne to their classes it was cool. But we HITCHHIKED to uni… they were like, yeah it’s normal, they know like most of the ppl that drive into Donetsk (I think they were exaggerating) (I live in a town outside of Donetsk, takes only 40mins to get there, so it’s actually closer than Auckland CBD) so we just hopped into this dudes car (he looked pretty rich) and drove on the motorway where they don’t have dividers and the car doesn’t have any seatbelts in the back at 130km… O.o don’t tell Mum. They also drive on the opposite side of the road.

There aren’t many fast-food or even American influences here. They have McD’s which has managed to get everywhere except the Moon, but no other joints like no Starbucks. Oh and you can get beer in 2L bottles! >< and 500ml Ukr beer is like LESS THAN A NZD!!!!!!! I had a coffee today at the restaurant, paid normal NZ coffee prices, it was like a shot glass of coffee… Ukr don’t really drink coffee but you can get like those just-add-water coffees at like dairy-stall things in small plastic cups like the ones we have at Scholastic, not that you’d know what they look like. I don’t think you can get fries here… like as easily as NZ. People here don’t eat like all the time like in NZ. They smoke instead. Which is why they are skinny. I’m still going to get fat, too much potato :P Maybe I’ll take up smoking.

Took the bus home by myself for the first time. Didn’t freak out like I thought I would, cos I was sure that I got the right bus stop, and I did

Um. Still haven’t taken enough pictures worth uploading… like of the town and stuff… WILL DO THAT!