Homesick

We’ve now been out of the country for almost a month and to say that we are a little homesick is like calling Rosy O’Donald a big boned. Now I must confess the first week of our journey was a 4 night vacation in Paris and Amsterdam—it was wonderful, relaxing, fun, and stress free. As many of you know getting around in Western Europe with English only is no real chore. Despite what you hear about the French or the Dutch people could not be kinder if you approach them nicely in English and many of the sings are geared towards helping English speaking travelers.
Stepping onto Ukrainian soil has been a different story altogether. Once outside the airport the only English is on advertisements. Yet, seeing a sign reading “sports good” isn’t all that comforting-though we agree- sports are good. In the Ukraine it is my guess that 1 out of 200 people speak English. I’m including here those that know a few words they learned in school. Otherwise we’ve thus far only met 4 people who spoke English. Its those 1 in 200 however that we find most entertaining. They love to find us and practice—it is amusing. Oksana especially loves it.
Once we were on a bus heading downtown and a guy in his mid 20’s was elated to have stumbled upon us ‘Americanski’s.’ The problem was that he was 2-3 sentences into his speech before we realized he was speaking English. Russian is a very deep spoken language, especially for men, and on top of that it sounded like he had a mouthful of marbles or something. Now I know that it sounds like I’m making fun, ok a little, but I figure the overly sensitive people stopped reading a long time ago. But it wasn’t until Oksana said he is saying “Are you from America?” that we began to decode this strange English dialect. It reminded me of a cockney British mechanic we used to use. I would listen to him for about 2 minutes and understand about 2 things he said. As I would listen I would think, ‘Did he stop speaking English? Oh no, there, he said Volkswagon again and I think ja-ah is Cockney for Jetta.’ As we listened we gathered that he learned English in the University and had never heard of Tennessee, however he has heard of Texas. By the way most all Ukrainians have heard of Texas, it does not matter who you talk to when you say I’m from the United States they get excited and proclaim “Texas!” I’m starting to think they must run Dallas on cable or something… The conversation on the bus with this young guy was hilarious. Andrew had an easier time keeping and straight face or was just more desperate for a conversation with someone other than me. His heartfelt excitement to practice English was touching, but listening to him it was hard not to laugh. Oksana and I both sort of abandoned Andrew and stood watching as bystanders while Andrew used every muscle in his brain to listen and in his face to smile without laughing. It reminded me of a Youtube video my brother in-law Wes showed us. I know some of you know it. Its where this guy has a funny voice and the talk show host ends up laughing in his face. When our new “friend” stepped off of the bus Oksana and I just bust out laughing. She said people love to practice their English, yet she’d never heard English like that before. I’m not sure anyone had. However, now we’ve been here nearly a month if anyone would be as delighted to see talk to us as that young man, I think it may make us a bit less homesick.
Before you go thinking all Ukrainians speak English like our bus friend let me correct you—it is not the case. Although most of them don’t speak much those who try do wonderful with what they know. They know more of our language than we know of theirs—and we have a son fluent in only Russian—yikes!
Overall the Ukrainians are very nice people, quiet and reserved (like Yankees  ) but nice. Nevertheless, a month as a foreigner is a long time.
We’ve resisted thinking about the things we miss from home thinking that indulging in such thoughts would only accelerate our need to want to be home. It doesn’t help that the books I’ve brought to read keep talking about eating (American food of course). Like the other day I thought I read that the main character was going to Captain D’s when in reality it said nothing of the sort…strange. I’m not even that big a fan of Captain D’s which makes it even more strange.
The food here is ok. Andrew likes more than me… of course. We found a pizza place that we love and there are even a few people working there that speak a little English. Twice when we were sitting outside people have come up to us and spoke to us—in English! So we love that.
But I didn’t start this blog to talk about Ukrainian food, or English… I merely wanted to express my thoughts of being homesick. I don’t know why it makes me feel better to tell you all—but it does. Today has been my hardest day so far, and for no reason in particular. I’m just homesick, plain and simple. Andrew is too, but I suppose I’m the weakest link. Today I was sitting outside watching Yuri ride his bike—trying to pretend I wasn’t a foreigner for his sake (see previous blog for explanation) and doing a pretty good job until a young guy came by… I suppose I looked like I wanted to talk… He stopped and kept rambling until I finally gave in and said “No Peruski” (No Russian). It didn’t have the low key effect I was looking for because he exclaimed “Ah Americanski!” Next thing I know he keeps trying to talk to me and invites all his friends over, it was stressful and I felt bad for Yuri because he was watching as I tried to smile and shrug to show I didn’t understand. So strike one for me looking like a ‘Normal Mom’ for little Yuri…sigh. Finally I went inside to get Andrew and change shifts, but somehow after letting myself inside instead of asking him to go out and watch Yuri I just started crying. “I want to go home.”
Don’t feel bad for me, I’m fine and even if I weren’t it is all worth it and I would do it all over again. Like I said, just a bad day, a homesick day, that’s all. I miss my family, I miss my Dog Allie and my cat Otis. I miss joking with my friends and knowing what’s going on around me. I miss flipping on the TV to be lectured by Dr. Phil or flipping on the news and hearing the unnessisarily detailed weather report. (Is it going to rain or not?) I miss green grass and clean parks and even driving. I think I’m just about to the point I might even miss green beans! :o (all the Hardin’s and those who know me know how I hate green beens.)…. Emphasis on the word MIGHT. Haha
I will say just putting this into words has already made me feel better. Blogging is a strange thing… somehow knowing you all are reading this and sharing in our experience is very comforting. It means the world to us to read your comments and hear you say you feel a part of our journey. So thank you, thank you for helping me not feel so homesick today and laughing at us and with us and just being interested in what we are doing, we appreciate your support. Keep us in your prayers—2-3 weeks to go.
With love from Russia