Of course, even though I say the line is blurred between Ukraine and home, never for a second to I say, "well I'll just stay here forever." Ain't happening. Though I did have an interesting conversation with my teachers today about it. They say "look, your life here is so easy and care-free, we'll set you up with one of your daughters and you can live here forever!" The easy and care-free part is true, but there is also the reality of intense, searing boredom. It's both more interesting and less interesting than you might imagine.

It's also very saddening. On Friday I headed to my town's disco to "Обшаюсь" a verb which is pretty difficult to translate, but basically means to have an informal chat. So I arrive and pull out my sunflower seeds and start talking to anyone and everyone. I'm trying to promote this idea of going and not smoking and drinking to the rest of the village, although I don't know how well it goes over. The most common question I get is "why even come if you aren't going to drink and smoke with the rest of us?" My answer is simply that I'm bored at home and that I want to meet people and talk with them and work on my Russian in the process. Unfortunately simply because I go I become associated with what usually goes on there. So my compromise is to go and make it clear that I'm not drunk and I have no intentions of drinking. It's kinda so-so, but eh, I guess it keeps life interesting for me, I'm not the best at developing routines and following, I'd much rather be constantly mixing it up, which has both positives and negatives. In Poland it was different. Bars, clubs, and discoes are much more respectable there, in Ukraine, it's literally the opposite.

It's a tough place to be in, because I want to feel like I'm a part ofthe community, but I'm not very comfortable with just showing up at people's private houses uninvited, but that is the norm here.