12 | June | 2012 | borscht and babushkas

there’s nothing worse than having to travel across country with a heavy camping backpack on freshly sunburnt skin. well maybe having to travel across country with a camping backpack on freshly sunburnt skin and getting attacked by bees. but let’s hope i don’t have to suffer that much. for now, i’ll just whine about my sensitive lobster red skin because it wasn’t even my fault! i swear!

normally when i fry like this i give up every right for a pitty party. but this time i used a bucket of sunscreen. it just happened to be sunscreen made in korea and given to us by cheap-o peace corps. tryin to cut budget costs with shitty sunscreen. but regardless of my quickening creep towards skin cancer, the summer is off to an awesome start.

school summer camp is over and ended with me receiving an award signed by all the campers, applaud for all my work, AND a chocolate bar. i almost started crying it was so sweet. (yea idk what’s wrong with me, maybe i’ve been away from the lifetime channel too long to keep my emotions at bay). then right after that, my pcv friend brian (who lives up north and has nothing to do for a good month or so) came and stopped by my place on his ‘tour of ukraine’.

we made it to the beach yesterday, since the azov sea is only a sweaty 40ish minutes non-ac bus ride away. we had a picnic on the beach with superb weather and all the thong and teeny tiny swimsuits sightings (both men and women) anyone could wish for. we were only there for 3 hours or so before we headed back, realizing despite preventative measures we were fried. BUT it was the beach. so i don’t regret it. and there’s no better way to start the summer than christening your skin with the first sunburn of the season right?

so now with nothing to do for two weeks before camp big bang, i decided to head up north today where my friend jenny is having an environmental day camp, then down to poltava with megan for a little fun, then with megan to our friend catherine’s site, then to camp big bang where i’ll work for 3 weeks, then back to site for a week (and going to an aquapark with my landlord and family WOO!), then germany for a few days, and then AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it’s going to be close to 40 days and 40 nights of sweaty nomadic wandering around the country (mostly without internet) until i leave for america cherez (through) germany. summer in ukraine is best. pretty sure i’ve said this before. but there’s no other time when we can just wander around for months (well this is sort of true. we’re to report where we are at all times and if we’re not working it counts as vacation days). so despite the fact that my sleeping bag is MIA — i guess i’ll be cuddling up next to stray cats for warmth — and i’m not really a fan of traveling in non-air-conditioned-anywhere-land-and-no-opening-the window-because-drafts-make-babies-sick in the heat of summer (can’t you just tell i love being hot. you’d never guess i’m actually from arizona), i can’t wait to get out of my village, be with pcv friends, camp in the forrest, and play with awesome kids.

and then by the time i get back it’s time for a short visit to america. until then this will be my anthem. : )