Ukrainian Conor

Hello all!

Ok...Today I am updating the blog. Finally. I should have done this a month ago but to be honest, it has been a bit difficult here lately and I just have not been in the mood to update anything. It has been a number of things that are causing this; the weather has been overcast for almost 2 months, it is always difficult to be away from family during the holidays, I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to plan what I want to do after Peace Corps, and most importantly my Grandma will be passing away soon and I am a million miles away and unable to be there for my Mom and my family. Brutal to say the least. Skype just is not enough sometimes. I want to go home but I simply can't afford it and the only other alternative is to end my Peace Corps service early so that Peace Corps will pay for my plane ticket but I have come so far here and so many people are relying on me that that would be devastating. My family insists that it is not necessary but (no offense) I don't believe that they would tell me that they want me to come home even if they did because they know I have come a long way here and they don't want to stop me from doing anything. It is probably a combination of all the things I stated earlier that makes me think this but I can't help but worry.

Anywho, what have I been up to over the last two months? I will try to keep things positive because I have had many great experience since I last posted even though things are a bit difficult now so let me explain. After my last post, I went on an amazing trip with my Uncle. It was great to spend time with my uncle and to catchup. The adventure started at 4:00 AM in my sleepy, cold, little town in Eastern Ukraine. I got up early to catch the first bus to Donetsk so that I would have plenty of time to catch my flight to Kiev and then to Athens. Given that public transportation is not always the most reliable thing in Ukraine, I wanted to make sure I had plenty so that I wouldn't be Ukrained (A term used by peace corps volunteers when unexpected events occur in Ukraine that stops our plans – it happens often). So, I catch a bus at 5:00 am and am surprised with how packed the bus was and was delighted to have found a seat on the bus. There was probably 50 people on a bus that was built for only 30 so I got a few stern looks for having my big suitcase with me. Lol When I arrived in Donetsk, I called a taxi only to find out that the first 3 out of 4 taxi numbers I have were not working. Lol Nice try Ukraine but I came prepared with 4 different taxi numbers. I got to the airport 3 hours early and proceeded to wait. Everything went pretty smooth from here. The flight to Kiev was a bit late but I still had a comfortable amount to time to catch my flight to Athens however they tried to make me pay extra money because my bag was overweight but thankfully, I could see how disorganized they were so when they demanded that I go to a specific person to pay a fee, I simply got on the plane. Lol I don't think my bag was overweight anyway. When I arrived in Athens, the person that was supposed to be waiting for me was nowhere in sight. No big deal, if I can get around Ukraine, Greece will be easy. I eventually found someone else that was working for the same company and insisted that they take me to where I would meet my uncle. It was great to see him again and after a brief greeting, we headed off to eat some sushi with some other people that will be our dinner mates for the rest of the trip. It was amazing! My palate has been so deprived lately, I felt like I was in heaven eating ambrosia and chasing it down with angel tears. Fantastic. I am pretty sure I gained 15 pounds on my vacation with Bob. We had a nice conversation with our table mates who were a group of ladies from Maine - married, friendly, and fun to talk to. We departed from Athens that night and headed to Santorini Greece. I remember being here many years ago but it was still breath taking. Beautiful little town on the cliffs, whitewashed, and picturesque in every direction. Bob and I took a tram up the cliff and into town though I remember walking up last time though there was lots of Donkey dropping in the path. We walked around the town, had some delicious coffee overlooking the sea, and took many beautiful photos. At around lunch time, Bob headed back to the boat so I decided to walk out of the town and into the less touristy areas. I tried to do this at every port we visited because the touristy areas are definitely beautiful and interesting but it can be difficult to get a feel for the culture and what life is really like if you don't venture out of these areas though I did get lost a few times.

After Santorini and many large and delicious meals later, we arrived at Ashdod, Israel. Israel was definitely one of the highlight of our trip. Israel has so much history, conflict, and energy that it was amazing to simply walk around, see the sights, and see everything in person. Israel has been in the news a lot so it was great to be able to see it first hand. We were in Israel for only two days but they were full days and we tried to get the most out of every minute. We toured around Jerusalem, swam in the Dead Sea, and went to the Holocaust museum. We saw many young soldiers at the museum holding large assault rifles which was weird to see because they looked like mere children but there service in the army is definitely a big part of the culture. Their training in the service not only includes extensive army training but it is also mandatory to go to the museums and learn about the history of the country and about the many different cultures and religions that reside in Israel. The Dead sea was amazing. It is the lowest land point on the planet being over 1,300 feel below sea level. It has the appearance of a desert climate and you can see Jordan from across the sea. Very beautiful but the best part was swimming in the sea. It was a very strange sensation. I would lay down on my stomach in the sea with my feet, head, and arms above the water and I wouldn't sink. You could just push off and float on your stomach, it was incredible and almost felt like flying. You could also just stand in the water without touching the ground and just float with your hands above your head with the water only coming up to your waist. It was really funny because sometime people would roll on the stomach and they would not be able to right themselves. Lol Good times.

After Israel, we headed to Limassol, Cyprus. This was another beautiful town. Followed by Iraklion Greece, Mykonos Greece, Kusadasi Turkey, and then Istanbul Turkey. Bob and I went on a quad excursion in Iraklion that was incredible (small 4 wheel individual vehicles). There was a large group of us (15 people) that went and I am sure we all had a great time. It was really fun to see the sight while doing doughnuts in a quad. Lol Good stuff. I almost tipped the quad at one point but thankfully, I am quite tall and was able to push with one leg to right myself before I tipped. Bob was hauling ass in the quad as well. I tried to follow him but he was zipping around too fast. It was great. We even stopped at a small waterfall to swim and relax for min. The waterfall was probably about 25 feet high and for some reason or another, I decided to jump off the waterfall. Probably not the smartest thing I have ever done but definitely worth it. When I hit the water, my feet touched the bottom – that could have been bad. It was weird to be back in Kusadasi and Istanbul because I was there only a few months earlier with some Peace Corps friends traveling via public transport and staying in hostels which was just a little bit different than the five star accommodations my uncle and I were staying in. lol Overall, the trip with Bob was wonderful. Some of my favolite times were when Bob and I would simply lay back in a cocktail lounge sipping on martinis or eating sushi together at the sushi bar while talking about love, life, politics, family, memories, and the meaning of the universe. Bob, if you are reading this, thank you so much for the wonderful experiences, memories, and adventures that you have been so kind to take me on over the years. I hope to someday be able to return the favor.

Upon returning from the trip with Bob,it was a bit of a shock adjusting back to my life in Ukraine. I love my life here but going from amazing trips, food, sights, and experiences with family to coming back to Ukraine where the winters are cold & dark (sun sets at 3:30) - it took some time to readjust but obviously it was well worth it. There was some good news to help with the adjustment when I returned – the grants I had writing were approved! :-) We will now be starting a newspaper for the youth in my community and we will implement an extensive HIV/AIDS project in Ukraine that will involve many different organizations, schools, and people throughout the community. I am really looking forward to starting these projects but I am a little nervous that something will go wrong because we are relying on so many different people and organizations to come together to accomplish these projects and schedules, appointments, and being on time is not a cultural strong point in Ukraine though things do tend to workout fantastically here somehow so I probably shouldn't worry. I have also been selected to be a volunteer manager for the Euro 2012 football championship in Donetsk in June! This is huge news because they had over 10,000 people apply. This will be a great experience and I really hope to include the organization I work with in my community to assist with the championship somehow. We shall see.

Thanksgiving was nice a quiet. There was a big gathering of PC volunteers in Donetsk but Danielle and I are kind of over big PC gatherings. The volunteers are great but every 6 months a group goes home to the US so every gathering has new volunteers which makes these gatherings seem a bit impersonal. I decided to take Danielle out for a nice meal at one of the few restaurants in town. We had a very nice evening and we even danced a little. It was nice and there were no other customers at the restaurant so we had the entire place to ourselves.

On December 1^{st (World AIDS day)}, my organization and I organized a HIV/AIDS awareness concert complete with a mobile testing unit from an organization in Makeevka. It was great and we attracted a lot of people. There was not as many statistics mention at the concert as I would have liked but it was still good and there was a good turnout and we were featured in the local newspaper again.

Last week I was a guest speaker at a Globalization conference at a University in Donetsk. They asked me to prepare a presentation for the conference so I decided to talk about Globalization and how it affects cultures. I gave many examples from my travels around Costa Rica, Guatamala, and South America. When I arrived at the University, I found a large banner saying “Globalization and Culture” which was comforting because I was worried that I may not have understood everything that was said over the phone. There was over 150 college students at the conference including many professors and a few deans. I was the first to give my presentation which was fine – I am now more or less comfortable in these situation so I proceeded to give my presentation (15 – 20 min) and I felt it went very well and then I got Ukrained. All of the other presentation made by other people was only about culture. People gave presentation about the American culture, some people from Nigeria gave a presentation about their culture and nobody talked at all about globalization which was the main topic of my presentation. Lol So I checked again and indeed the large banner hanging over the podium definitely said Globalization and Culture so I asked one of the professors and she confirmed that the presentation is only about different cultures. Lol Not a big deal – my presentation did have a lot of information about different cultures, everyone still enjoyed my presentation, and they thought it was interesting - I was even invited back this Saturday but I can't help but laugh about the whole situation. Current score: Ukraine 4,258 – Conor 2

This Christmas will be more laid back than last Christmas (I was in Cairo). Danielle, Johanna, Gene, Charlie, and I will meet in my community for a quiet Christmas amongst friends. It will be nice and Danielle is doing everything she can to get everyone in the Christmas spirit which includes Christmas lights, traditional X-mas food, stockings, and a makeshift Christmas tree. My Ukrainian friends will celebrate Christmas on January 7^th so while I won't be able to celebrate with the fam this year, I will have 2 Christmases! :-) We are also planning a celebration for New Years (which is bigger than X-mas in Ukraine) with the kids in my community (btw...I keep referring to my city as “my community” because I am not supposed to write the name of the city in my blog).

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:

1. I received a care package from my sister and parents and I have one on the way from my loving aunt Kelly. Thank you so much!
2. Two of my Ukrainian friends had babies recently which mean huge celebrations. I am still recovering from one of them now. :-) Good times.
3. I bought Danielle a toilet seat for X-mas. Lol her's has been broken for months and she has not had the money to fix it. I will also get her something else too so don't worry. :-)
4. I sent a bunch of X-mas cards so hopefully it won't take 3 months to get there this time.
5. I have a few cards and presents from family back in the US which I will wait to open until Christmas. Thank you for your support and love. You all rock!
6. We have started to train a group of 50 new kids in my community at the volunteer center. They are good kids hopefully we will start a new project with them soon.
7. I am trying to start something with the kids from the orphanage but there seems to but a lot of red tape to get through first. It seems like we have to convince people to let us help. We already took the kids to the planitarium in Donetsk a few weeks ago and I thought it went very well. These kids have had some tough lives so I really hope we can help somehow. We are looking into starting a “Big Brothers Big Sisters” like program. Bob, I may call you soon to discuss this Idea with you.
8. My idea to start a woman’s rights project might be a no-go. Nobody seems to think it is an issue and I don't want to try to start a project that will push my cultural values on someone else's culture.

Bob and I in Santorini

Soldiers at the Holocaust Museum

Dead Sea

Masada Fortress & Dead Sea

Bob in the Dead Sea

Quads in Iraklion

Who is taller?

Me and Bobo

Our Dinner Mates

Istanbul

Me, Olga, and Daniella

Kids from the Orphanage

Volunteer Center Kids

HIV/AIDS day

Globalization Conference - Donetsk University

Livin, workin, & Lovin.

Привет всем!  Hello Everyone!

Wow, 2 months without posting.  Oops.   There is a lot to recap.  I have been really busy lately with a couple of new projects in my community.  I wrote 2 grants which I submitted yesterday in order to start a volunteer newspaper and an HIV/AIDS awareness project.  I am really excited about these projects and can’t wait for them to start.  Basically, with the help of the grant money, the NGO that I would with will start a newspaper to promote volunteerism and NGO participation in the area.  We are recruiting volunteers that are interested in Journalism from the Volunteer Center that we started last fall and from local schools in the area.  The volunteers will write articles, interview people & NGOs, and will design, distribute, and publish the newspaper themselves.  It should be great.  We will have some professional journalists come and train the volunteers and my friend Sergey and I will conduct the trainings on volunteerism.   We submitted the grant and we will find out on Nov 15^th if we won or not.  The HIV/AIDS project is also very exciting – we will have professional trainers from Kiev come to our town to train local doctors about HIV/AIDS (many do not understand HIV or are unaware of the situation in Ukraine) and also to train 20 of our volunteers about HIV/AIDS.  HIV is a huge problem in Ukraine with almost 2% of the population being HIV positive and most don’t know what HIV is, how it is transmitted, or what treatments are available if you have HIV.   After the initial trainings, we will send our newly trained volunteers to all of the local schools in our town to train the kids at each of the schools and after all of the trainings, we are going to organize an HIV/AIDS awareness concert in the center of the town to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and to encourage people to get tested at our mobile testing unit with will be stationed nearby.  We will also find out on Nov 15 if we won that grant.  I don’t think there will be any problems with wining the grants though.   We should receive the money in early January and will start both projects in February.  Wish us luck! 

From the last time I posted, I took my friend and coworker Sergey to Kamyanets Podilsky (A small city in Western Ukraine) to attend a HIV/AIDS conference put on by PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Action Plan For AIDS Relief).  It was a really good experience.  There were 25 PCV and 25 Ukrainians there to attend the 5 day conference.  The conference made me realize how lucky I have been to be able to travel and experience as much as I have in my life.  My counterpart had not spent too much time traveling and being away from home for extended periods of time so I think he really enjoyed the experience.  It was a bit of a hassle to get to the training venue because we had to take 2 overnight trains and spend 15 hours in Kiev.  We left Khartsizsk on Saturday evening and arrived in Kiev at 7 am on Sunday where we met up with a couple of Sergey’s friends then spent the entire day (15 hours) walking around Kiev and seeing the sights (it was Sergey’s first time in Kiev) before catching yet another overnight train to Kamyanets.  It was a really nice day in Kiev and I am glad I was able to spend so much time with Sergey and his friends.  We were exhausted by the time we arrived and were happy to have a couple hours to shower and clean up before the conference began.   The conference was held at a resort about 20 km outside of Kamyanets in beautiful area next to a river.  It was an amazing location – PEPFAR definitely has more money than PC.  The trainings at the conference were extensive and ran from 8 am tell 8 at night every day but by the end of the conference, we had developed a pretty awesome project plan.  I was very impressed with how well organized the conference was and it was very nice to be able to spend time with the other volunteers and their Ukrainian counterparts.  After the conference, Sergey and I decided to spend an additional day in Kamyanets to explore the city and tour a famous castle.  It was nice to spend a little extra time traveling with Sergey – he is a great guy and it was good to get to know him better.   There were a few other volunteers that wanted to spend an extra day in Kamyanets so we all went out together and had a great time.  It was funny because it was a group of Americans hanging out so Sergey was able to see how Americans interact with one another and he told me later that he understands what it is like to be the only one in the group that does not speak the language fluently though we all had a great time.  It was very interesting to see some of the rich history Ukraine has to offer.  Most of the historical sites in Ukraine were destroyed by the USSR in order to erase all record of previous cultures and get people to believe only in the tsar which is a shame because Ukraine is a bridge between Europe and Asia and has been conquered by almost every major world power at least once over the last 2,000 years so it would have been a historical and cultural goldmine. 

After the PEPFAR conference, I have spent most of my time writing, organizing, studying Russian, and discussing our new projects with people in the community.  We have met with the doctors at the local hospital, one of the leaders in the local government, and with another NGO in Makeevka to get access to a mobile HIV testing unit.  My Russian is getting better but it is still nowhere near where I thought it would be by this time.  I have started seeing new Russian tutors which has been great.  They work at a small foreign language school in town.  We met every day, 5 days per week – it is a great situation because I help them for one hour to improve her English and then they spend an hour helping me with Russian.  Hopefully I will be speaking better real soon.   

Well, It is getting late and I still need to pack for the trip so I need to go.  My bus leaves tomorrow at 5:00 am so it is going to be a long day but this time tomorrow I will be eating awesome food with Bob.  I can’t wait!

Conor’s Noteworthy Noteables:

1.        Heading to Greece tomorrow to travel and spend time with my Uncle Bob.  I can’t wait to spend time with Bob and eat some great food.

2.       Finished my grants!  Awesome.  Now I finally have some free time again.  

3.       Spending more time with Danielle which has been nice.  It is great to have a site mate. 

4.       Had a farewell party in Donetsk for one of the German volunteers.  It was great but kinda weird to see someone head home to the real world. 

5.       Started my English club again.  Great times – we have a good group of people. 

6.       Went to the movie theater in town and watched a movie in Russian.  I actually understood more or less what was going on. 

7.       Picking up some much needed shoes, jeans, and a coat from Bobo in Greece.  Finally!  I can’t find clothes my size in Ukraine!   I was starting to look like a bum. 

8.       Internet and hot water stopped working.  ;-(    I have gotten used to it though.  I heat water up on the stove to take bucket baths.  Lol  I am amazed how much I get done when I don’t have internet at home. 

9.       I interviewed to be a volunteer with the Euro 2012 football championship.  I hope I get it- we will know on Nov 15^th.  I will probably be a volunteer manager and if that is the case, I will try and get the volunteers from our volunteer center involved.  

Adventure: Turkey, Romania, & Bulgaria!

Hello!

Ok, so I finally have time to post about the last month.  Where to begin?  Sooo much has happened over the last month that I have probably forgot quite a few blogworthy things but here goes it.  I will begin where I left off in my last post.  After my last blog entry, I took an overnight train to Kiev for a Russian Language Refresher.  It was nice to see old friends from training (17 months ago!  Wow) and to speak English in the evenings.  This particular language refresher was more for the volunteers that are English teachers and I am a Community Development Volunteers but it was still good.  They actually had us organize a musical in Russian and those of you that know me, know that that is simply not for me.  I would have preferred more language classes and less nonsense.  I didn’t learn much Russian but I had a great time.  I was able to meet up with some friends in Kiev the weekend before the refresher and the weekend after.  We had a great time in Kiev.  We spend the evenings lounging in outdoor cafes on the main drag in Kiev just talking about life, Peace Corps, and Ukraine.  Good times with good people. 

After Kiev I made my way back to my site.  I have been trying to start a new project all summer but it is almost impossible to organize anything in the summer in Ukraine.  I have been trying to tell everyone that if we want to start a new project in the Fall, we need to start planning and writing the grants now so that we have the funds ready by the time the project starts.  I met with my counterparts in my community and we decided to start a journalism center!  I am really excited about this project.  We have been working really hard writing the grant that is due next week (cutting it a bit close).  I am just happy to have something to work on and a project in the pipeline.  We will train some of the volunteers from the Volunteer Center that we started last fall on different topics of Journalism and have them write articles about volunteering, the community, and pretty much anything.  Everyone seems to be very excited about the project so I really hope everything works  out ok.  We will partner with a Journalism club from the “Pioneer House” and have a representative from the local newspaper conduct some of the trainings.  The participants (age 16+) will write articles, interview community members, take photos, design the newspaper, sell add space, and distribute the paper.  It is going to be awesome – should start around February if all goes well.  I just hope we can get everything ready in time.  

I worked on the new project for a week then hoped on a train to Kharkov to meet up with my fellow travelers.  I arrived at around 8 pm so we all went out for dinner and to explore Kharkov for a while until our flight at 3:30 AM.  It was a very long day.  We flew to Istanbul arriving at 6:30 AM and immediately caught another flight to Izmir arriving at 8:00 am then a series of busses to Selcuk 11:00 AM and the adventure began.  We were all a little taken back by how outwardly friendly the people were.  Don’t get me wrong, people in Ukraine are friendly however it is not common to express emotion especially around strangers so when people were friendly, smiling, and offering to help us with directions or anything else, we immediately were skeptical and thought they wanted money or something.  This was not the case, people were just more expressive and friendly to strangers and not only in Turkey but in Romania and Bulgaria as well.  We had a great time in Selcuk.  It was a beautiful clean city full of history, ancient monuments/buildings, and great food.  After we arrived, we browsed the bazaar before taking a FREE shuttle to our hostel a few kilometers outside of town.   The hostel was amazing!  Less than $15 buys you a bed, dinner, breakfast, and free use of a pool!  It was great; we saw all the sights like the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, The Temple of Artemis, and explored the port city of Kusadasi.  (There are a few stories I would like to post here but cannot so if you are interested, send me an Email).  One day, we took a bus to the coast and received a few tips from the staff at the hostel about a private beach that is kind of hard to get to but very beautiful so we took a small buss outside of town and hiked down some pretty steep trails until we found the beach.  It was beautiful!  One of the photos posted below is from that beach.  It was really nice to spend all day exploring and seeing the sites then taking the last shuttle back to the hostel for a free delicious dinner, to lounge by the pool, and to talk to all the other travelers staying at the hostel.  There were people staying there from all corners of the globe, from every different background and they were all very friendly and great to talk to.  After Selcuk we caught an overnight bus back to Istanbul.  I didn’t sleep a wink but at least the bus had WiFi  lol.  That was an out-of-Ukraine experience for sure. 

Istanbul was amazing.  I was there many moons ago with my Uncle and being there again brought back some good memories of traveling with him.  We stayed at a hostel that was maybe 500 meters from the Blue Mosque.  Excellent location to see all the sights.  It seemed like you could walk 5 min in any direction and be blown away by an amazing sight.  We visited a few of the big mosques, the royal palace, wandered around the city, got lost in the bazaar, and went to a dance show.  I was especially impressed with Turkish food.  One night we went to a restaurant on the roof of a building in a not-so-touristy area in downtown Istanbul and had amazing food, good conversation, and tried all the local beverages.  After Istanbul, Laura and Lydia went back to Ukraine and Jessica and I caught a flight to Sofia Bulgaria.  It was sad to say goodbye to Turkey and half our group but it was nice to be back in a former soviet country.  Bulgarian has many similarities to Russian and I could understand more or less what people were saying and I could read all the signs.  In Sofia, Jessica and I split up because we have different ideas on what we wanted to see and do.  I was impressed with how developed Bulgaria seemed to be.  The streets were relatively clean, people were smiling and friendly, and it was easy to get around.  I took a walking tour of the city, ate a sandwich from Subway, and spent the night at a bar with some fellow travelers.  I even met a PCV the works in Bulgaria.  It was interesting to hear a fellow PCV’s opinions of the situation in Bulgaria however I hear that Peace Corps will soon be ending their operations in Bulgaria because they are too developed.  Sofia was very interesting a full of history but like any other big city, they all seem to have the same flavor.  I mean I ate at a Subway!  It is hard to experience the culture of a country from the big cities so I decided to go with Jess to Veliko Tarnovo which is a small city of around 80k people in North Central Bulgaria.  It was a beautiful city – I stayed at the “Hikers Hostel” which got its name because of the roads you have to climb to get there.  It was well worth the climb though because it had a view of the castle and the city that was breathtaking.  Veliko Tarnovo was one of the highlights of my trip not just because of the beauty but because of the people I met there.  I was only their for 2 days and 1 night but I spent a lot of time with the staff at the hostel and some of the travelers that were staying there.  During the day I would explore the town and the sights and at night I would eat with the people from the hostel.  It takes a certain kind of person to want to see the less know sights and small cities.  I met a young woman from China that has been traveling alone for over a year and a half.  We talked about everything, we are both into photography, and we had a really good time just enjoying the view from the hostel.  I took the photo of the castle (posted below) at night.  The shutter was open for 6 seconds with a 5.6 aperture so it looks like day time with a bright sun but that was actually from 1 in the morning.  The Bulgarians that worked at the hostel were also very fun to talk to (photo also posted below) and they had a nice Cocker spaniel that reminded me of my dog back home.  We exchanged Emails and this time I hope to keep in touch.  I left the hostel at almost midnight of the second day amidst a barbeque, karaoke, and some traditional drinks to make the hike back down into town to meet up with Jess (she was staying at a different hostel due to booking issues) and we took a taxi to a neighboring town in order to catch a train at 1:30 am across the border into Bucharest Romania.  We played some Russian card games and had a beer at the train station while we waited for the train to arrive.  It really paid to know some Russian when dealing with the train station people, the conductor on the train, and the customs officials.  It would have been very difficult if we didn’t know any Russian.  When we arrived the next morning in Bucharest, Jess continued on to Ruslov and I stayed in Bucharest for a couple nights before coming back to Ukraine.  I had an enjoyable time in Bucharest though I was tired of seeing all the old buildings.  To be honest, I travel more to experience the culture and meet people than to see the sights.  My lack of planning usually works out great for me in terms of unique experiences and meeting interesting people however, this time it backfired.  I had to be back in Ukraine by the 18^th however in order to do so, I would have had to take 2 overnight trains, a 6 hour bus, a couple marshrutkas, and a taxi so I decided to bite the bullet and buy a plane ticket back home.  It was more money than I wanted to pay but it worked out in the end. 

Well, I am back at site now and very busy trying to get this grant for the Journalism Center done in time so I need to go.  I hope all is well back in the US. 

Conor’s Noteworthy Noteables:

1.       1.   More summer travels.  Good travels with good friends:  Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria.  I learned that you can’t lump together all former soviet countries.  They are all extremely different form each other. 

2.      2.  I bought some hot spices from the spice market in Istanbul!   Everyone please welcome flavor back to Ukraine  ;-)  .  I plan on giving some to all my Ukrainian friends. 

3.     3.   Heading to a PEPFAR conference on the 3^rd of September (Presidents Emergency Plan For Aids Relief) in Kamianets-Podilskyi!  It will be nice to finally see Western Ukraine. 

4.       It is already getting cold here!  I am not ready for winter. 

Secluded beach outside of Selcuk

Veliko Tarnovo Bulgaria

Bazaar in Selcuk

Mosque in Istanbul

View from "Hiker's Hostel" in Veliko Tarnovo

Port city of Kusadasi in Turkey

Fortress in Selcuk

Bulgarian staff from Hiker's Hostel

View from St John's Basilica - Selcuk 

Istanbul Bazaar

View of fortress in Velico Tarnovo at night w/ full moon

Hostel in Selcuk

Beach in Kusadasi

Start of the journey at Kharkov Airport 3:00 am

Bucharest Romania

Ancient Greek city of Ephesus

Ancient Greek city of Ephesus

Hostel in Selcuk

Downtown Istanbul

Turkish spices at bazaar in Selcuk