post 5 november

Let me tell you what I am proud of today [where today means Tuesday, although I'm posting on Thursday].

1. I turned on the hot water heater this morning without causing any sort of gas explosion. All I caused, in fact, was hot water, as well as a reason for early-morning wandering-into-the-kitchen concern on the part of at least one family member.
2. I went to the post office and sent a letter to America. Half of the writing on the envelope was in Ukrainian, and half was in English. All of the language used in the associated dialogue was in Ukrainian.
3. I checked my coat at the library. Apparently this is what you’re supposed to do. Otherwise, all control breaks down! J
4. I bought a new month of credit for my cell phone from a vendor at the bazaar. All Ukrainian again.
5. I lit the burner on the gas stove and made coffee. Not a big fan of coffee without milk, but it worked, and again, no explosions.

I ended up sharing some of these accomplishments during dinner today. Lacking speed behind the right verbs on occasion, I ended up announcing that “Today, I cooked tea.” Great. You’re right, it wasn’t even tea, but somehow that’s what I ended up saying. Genius.

I laughed and patted myself on the head to demonstrate my own awareness of how hilariously inadequate this particular accomplishment might appear to be.

I will not tell you how many times I used the wrong case endings during our language lesson today.

I will not tell you how many errors there were on the written test I reviewed with my language teacher during my tutoring session.

I will not tell you how little I understood of a fairly developed conversation with my host sister about why there are so many internet clubs and what really goes on inside of them.

I will say, though: Today, I cooked tea. Sort of.