Spider-Man and Slippers

Yesterday was the biggest combinations of a fun and awkward day I've ever had — I moved in with my host family that I'll be living wit for the next three months!

I'll start off by saying that I was so anxious and nervous that hardly got any sleep Friday night. I was nervous about communicating, I only know a few words and phrases — what was I going to say?! I pictured me just awkwardly smiling and saying hi over and over again for a few hours. I was also nervous about eating; what if I didn't like the food my host mom made me, I'm not good at hiding when I don't like food. What if she wanted me to eat cucumbers and tomatoes (my most hated foods.) What if they made me drink too much alcohol? What if they didn't pick me up from the bus stop? What if I did something horribly offensive and had no idea? The "what-ifs" kept me up all night.

Saturday morning I found out I would be living in Oster a village of about 6,500 people located in between Chernihiv (where I was the first few days in country) and Kiev (the capital of Ukraine.) I also found out my host family had never had a Peace Corps volunteer before (many have) and that made me even more nervous because I didn't want to be a disappointment since I had no idea what their expectations were.

I got off the bus and my language instructor pushed me toward my host mother and father. They have their own car, but with my three suitcases and the three of us, the car was full. We arrived at their house and went inside, where I met their 23-year-old son and two cats.

In Ukrainian culture you do not wear shoes inside, only slippers. I didn't immediately take my shoes off and was scolded (I think - I could not understand what she was saying, but I could tell by her tone.)

They showed me to my room, which is huge and much larger than my room in the States. My room has floor to ceiling green floral wallpaper that is covered in glitter and I love it. I pretty much put my suitcases down and they quickly herded me into the kitchen and pointed for me to sit down.

My host mom pulled out all kinds of food: chicken, soup, mashed potatoes, pickles, biscuits, cheese, and meats. And there was so much of all of it. Now at this point it was about 4:30pm and I had eaten lunch at 1 so I wasn't hungry. I didn't want to be rude so I just smiled, nodded, and said yes. The soup was amazing. We had a shot of some kind of wine or schnapps. She pulled out cucumbers and tomatoes and held them up saying something I didn't understand. I just shook my head hard and said no. Thankfully that message got across.

I showed them pictures of my family, friends, and pets. We were quickly searching through our English-Ukrainian dictionary to communicate. It was a struggle and I'm sure many things got lost in translation, but it wasn't horrible, as I had been expecting. My host mom used a translation app to tell me we were going to a festival with some other host moms she was friends with and their volunteers.

The festival was a town celebration of some sort, but it sounded like from other new trainees in different villages that they were happening all over. We met up with my new friends Emily, Jason, Mia, and their host parents. We listened to some music before they took us to the grocery store. The store in our town is apparently a good chain. Most of the brands I did not know but there were some that I recognized from other grocery stores from Europe. They bought some food and we walked to Jason's host home.

We all squeezed around a table and not long after sitting down did they begin pouring shots. I said no to the vodka, but agreed to a homemade wine - which was also taken as a shooter. The food was good and the communication was fun. Mia is pretty good at Ukrainian and can pick up on a lot of words and Jason's host parents could speak some English. It was a lot of laughing, shots, and fun! I was so happy that everything was going well and we were having so much fun.

They asked us our favorite movie stars, foods, and things to do. At one point Mia said she thought they were asking us our favorite superhero so I smiled and loudly said "Spider-Man!" They all started laughing super hard and we had no idea what was going on. It turns out they were asking us our favorite soccer team, that mix-up was followed with a lot of shots and laughter.

My host parents held my arms the whole walk home and I quickly fell asleep when we got back. It was an awesome day and makes me laugh at how nervous I was! I'm even more excited now to start learning the language better and can't wait to see what this week holds!

"You'll never get anywhere if you go about what-iffing like that" - Roald Dahl

-M

#volunteer #peacecorps #hostfamily #food #PST