Week 1: uKATEnglish

Oh the roller coaster ride that my life is. The title of this blog suggests the language I have been speaking this past week. It is a tiny bit of Ukrainian with a lot of English and some Kate mixed in. I am a natural roller coaster of emotions but this past week has been an extreme low followed by a extreme high then low then high then low. You get the picture. Many days I have left English class so frustrated in a bad mood but then I think to myself. Week 1, I just got to put my head down and keep working.

The task of learning a language in catch up style will be the greatest mental challenge of my young life. It is one thing to learn a language but Ukrainian. It is a tough bird. With the complex alphabet, I feel like I have to deprogram the English I know and quickly upload Ukrainian. Through all my struggles this week my fellow PCTs have been wonderful. I could tell when I got here that I was coming into a tight group but they immediately welcomed me as part of the group. I have no idea what I would do without such a great group.

The new crew is Jon from Colorado, Laura from Washington D.C., Cindy from Texas, and Allison from Evanston, IL. Today after class, we walked to the local store bought some junk food and a few beers to distress after the long week. Hanging out at Laura’s host family’s house with no one else there made me almost feel like I was somewhere in the states just hanging out with friends.

Tonight has been the first time all week that I could come home and not immediately get to homework. I’m enjoying rocking out to my favorite playlist and typing up this blog. I thought graduating college my homework days would be behind me, but only now do I find them to be ten times more important. Because if I ever want to communicate more than “how are you?” and “good afternoon,” I need to get on the ball with learning.

So yeah life here in Ukraine is not drastically different than home, but just a lot of small differences. Here are a few examples: going into their small store you have to ask the cashier to pull the items that you want from behind the counter, when passing people even if you make eye contact it is still strange to smile at them, there are a lot of others that I’m sure I’ll pass along in my time here.

It seems like I have already been here awhile now and it has only been a week. I’m sure that the time will fly and soon enough I’ll be sad about leaving my small village, host family and fellow PCTs. Well I’m going to keep trudging on, counting it all joy and embracing the small daily victories. Please send letters; I haven’t received anything yet. PC personally drives them out to the different sites so I’m not quite sure if it’s cause they haven’t delivered or you people called my friends haven’t written any. I’m hoping the first. And keep the prayers coming for a servant’s heart and persistence for learning this difficult language.