Thursday 8/27



8/27/09

Today was the best day I had in Ukraine by far! I got the night practice off, got my internet working, which has been huge after not having it for nearly a week, hung out with Sasha, went out on the town for a while, had a good beer, ate some McDonald’s and caught up with everyone at home. It started by finding out that we were only going to have a morning practice, and the night off. It was a quick two hours and done for the day.
My schedule looks like this…
Wake up 9:00am
Make Breakfast 9:15am
Get picked up for practice 9:45am
Lift 10:15am-11:00am
Practice 11:00am-12:30pm
Make Lunch 1:00pm
Nap, Movie, Internet, Etc 1:30pm-5:00pm
Get picked up for practice 5:25pm
Practice 6:00pm-8:00pm
Make or Go Out For Dinner 8:30pm
Café, Club, Movie, Internet, Walk Around Etc…
So my days tend to go by very fast and I can not believe I have already been in Ukraine for almost a week. It has flown bye. Still don’t know if we get full days off yet, we have still yet to have an actual entire day off, but we will see, keeping my fingers crossed. The thing that’s so wild about our club is that there are always 30 or 40 swoll dudes just walking around the place. There is also a boxing gym so guys are training right next door all the time and they are walking in and out of the gym all the time. However, there are about 40-50 people that work at the club as well, like bodyguards, cleaners, security, drivers, secretaries, and hit men. Everybody works for the President of our team and he is a big 6’3 of 6’4 buff ass 37 year old who runs all of Ukraine, and he looks like he could tear your head off in one second. Whenever he goes out to eat he is accompanied by like 3 or 4 bodyguards. He does it so big, its unreal, and he has us taken care of and at a snap of a finger he could have guys wherever we need them to pick us up, help us with something, or take care of someone haha, but seriously.
Then Sasha came over and helped me set everything up. We had tea and coffee, some bread, and kicked it for a while talking about Ukraine and home and showing pictures of our friends and family. It was so different than what happens back in the states because we sat and just talked for two hours! No cell phones, no T.V., the internet and computer for about 20 or 30 minutes, but for the most part just good conversation and some food and drink.
After that I went out on the town with Kevin and Jerel and we walked around for a long time in two different parts of the town. It was cool getting to see the other guy’s places as well. They live in really awesome set ups as well. All of us have similar apartments but they are unique in their own way, making it good to kick it at all places. It was wild though because we went out to eat at McDonald’s and it is very expensive for Ukraine. Its actually more expensive in dollars here than back at home, but it’s a huge hit. There was a line for about 5 minutes and it was packed to capacity! After that we took a taxi to a café where we tried a Ukrainian beer which turned out to be very good. There were lots of pretty ladies at the café and it is amazing how fast I am picking up words just because of the fact that most people don’t speak hardly any English and in order to communicate with these beautiful young ladies you must speak some Russian. I would say I learn about 5 words a day and I am up to about 25 words now, which helps me to at least be able to pretend like a know a few things. Walking around the two different parts of the city was amazing though because we were able to get more and more comfortable with our surroundings. Each day we go a little farther and learn a little more. I am beginning to feel even more settled knowing where nice restaurants are to eat at, or cafes to drink at, or stores to buy things like groceries, appliances, etc.
Tonight it felt so good to connect with everyone back home and I Skyped for literally 4 hours with family and friends. Felt so good to see familiar faces. It makes it a whole lot easier being away and I contribute Skype about 90 percent of why I have not been home sick at all yet. Thank You Skype!
Pictures:http://www.flickr.com/photos/41583656@N03/sets/72157622163256494/

2 comments:

  1. I should leave law school for a week and kick it out in the big U. Sounds like fun brotha!

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  2. Keith, just came across your blog. Wanted to wish you the best out there. I'm an SC Alum, so I've followed you throughout your days at SC. I wish you great success.

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