with a melted heart....

I write this. It has been a really interesting week. We have one more week of classes and then a week long break. I so need it. I was going to travel but I found out that as long as I am under the six month mark, I can get in and out of the country without a problem. I will be going home in June for a while (maybe a semester as student levels dramatically drop in the summer) and will return mid-summer. I tried to call the number for oxana to go and see my kids and it is not the right number. I have searched on youtube and google for some sort of lead as the where the center is. I have seen my kids in those videos being interviewed. It feels a little like part of me is missing. I really need to take the morning and go to the last location where they were (the were in the process of moving last sept.) and start asking questions. The metro stop is about an hour away and then there is the walk to the building...but it will be worth it. In other news, we did shots last friday with the doctor and they seemed to help. I stopped counting after the first one (which was lidocaine to numb the area). We did them at the base of the spine in my back and it does feel better. We are going to hit the front this Friday and hopefully....On a final, I spent the night with the boy on Sunday. We are learning to care about each other and bare our souls to each other. It is work every day because of the language barrier but it is so worth it to me. We stayed up late watching a movie in Russian and sitting next to each other on the couch. It was sweet. He was so honest and I so love him for that. It hasn't gotten physical (more than a brief kiss or an arm around me) and it probably won't for a while by our choice. He was falling asleep, so I sent him to his bed and I slept on the devan in his front room. This is so hard to explain....I feel like I am really getting to know him on such a deep level and that we have something to build on. The physicality will come later. Every day, I love him a little more. He worries that I will judge him for his past but I always tell him...we all have a past and it is what makes us who we are. Also, without our pasts, our paths probably never would have crossed and I am so thankful every day that they did. I so love this boy....:)

I suppose.......

that I should write. It has been a crazy week. We had mid-terms and I am just thrilled that they are over. We have another month and then I will have another week off. I am excited. The sun showed itsself two days ago but today it is pouring rain. I went to get pizza with my friend Julia and then we went and got all of my other little errands done. She is wonderful. :) I met up with Yura a Friday night and we talked for a long time about us. I am really in love and I feel like I have met my match. We match each other on intellect and the chemistry is definitely there. He asked some hard questions though like would I leave him and go back to America? It proved to me that he had thought about us. I understood everything that he said in Russian and I really just need to get busy reviewing russian. I went to two out of four lessons. The Ukranian roots are still there so I have a good foundation. On a final, I spoke to the doctor and the shots that he has prescribed me to give myself are a medicine that I have allready taken in America that did not work. I e-mailed him my x-rays and he has not responded. I have been researching bone graft sites and healing time and have not found much that is helpful. I am still praying about that one. Pictures soon as I am buying my new camera tonight...and I promise to update more...

boogers...I mean burglers....

I post about all of the silly things that my esl students say and tonight was no exception. We were studying the repetition drill where they must memorize a sentence to correspond with the picture. One of my students had a picture that said "I grabbed a vase and struck the burgler on the head" but he said booger instead. I started to laugh and told them why. When you are in situations like that....you have to explain. There is no such thing as a poker face. I love my students. I have had a lot of fun so far and we are almost to the half way point. In other news, I went and saw our doctor that American English Center uses for my hip. He was a funny little man. I showed him the norco bottle and the lidocane patches and he said that he had to look the drug up. He looked it up and said okay...I know what it is. He prescribed an over the counter with a codene base and then told me to call him in a week. He told me that the hip/harvest site was inflamed and it could have an infection. He told me to take my temperature tonight and then he told me to take the pills. Infection? After all of the antibiotics that I was on for so long just two years ago? He said that if that did not work, that he would like to try steroid shots with a little lidocaine. Okay...whatever works. Prayers that it will get better on its own...:) The language is coming along but I learned Ukrainian and my language is too good for the beginning class and sketchy for the advanced since russian and ukranian are a little different. Technically I feel like I fall somewhere in the middle. I learn fast though so maybe I will go to all four lessons each week and brush up on vocab in one and sentence structure at the other one. Alot of people here have given up studying the language but I really feel like I need to be studying to be happy here and communicate with my friends. On a final, the move went well and I had some great friends who helped and then hung out for the night. I have some amazing Ukranian friends here. I am getting settled. The landlord is coming tomorrow so that we can get things fixed around here for ex. the lock to the front door and the shower. I have a list of stuff to buy that we need for the house on Friday (my day off). This week is packed. I also have a meeting with Yura on Friday. He is doing better but I still continue to pray for him. I so love that boy. Stay tuned....