Odessblehhhhh

So, six of us went to Odessa this weekend, and it was quite the trip! We really had a great trip. The train rides were...less than restful. Those overnighters are killers. We survived, though. Sound sleep is one hundred percent impossible on the third class overnight trains. We left at six and got into Odessa at about...six. But that didn't stop the train people from waking us up at quarter to five. Lame. The train always makes me feel sick, but as we left the train station, I felt particularly out of sorts. We went to McDonalds for breakfast (I can only manage McDonalds when I am in countries like China and Ukraine) and I kept feeling worse and worse. We didn't have a place to stay for the night, so we set out to find a place before doing anything else. We walked around quite a bit before finally finding the perfect place. It was relatively cheap and very close to the beach. It was called OK Odessa...heh. It was definately OK! Anyway, I still felt pretty nasty; my stomach was killing me. Walking made it worse, so thank heavens we took a break before heading back out! After a quick cat nap we headed to the beach. I felt pretty much right as rain until we'd been walking for a few minutes, and then my stomach started hurting like crazy again. I had to sit down for a minute because it was pretty overwhelming. We went to Arcadia Beach, and it was crow-how-ded! Sooo many people. We found a spot, way up on the sand and close to the sidewalk. We settled in only to find that we'd picked a spot right by some creeper guys. They were annoying for a while, but then a really nice Ukrainian English teacher next to us told them to leave us alone. She was super nice. So, we laid in the sun for a while. Some of us got in the sea (The Black Sea) but I didn't because I wanted to wait for my stomach to calm down. Well...it didn't. Pretty soon I knew exactly what was coming. I asked Haley if she knew where the bathroom was, and she said she thought it was just up around the corner and we could go try to find it. I said nope, I'm not moving until I know exactly where I'm going. I asked her to ask the English teacher if she knew, and she said she'd show us. So, we start walking. Well, to make the story a wee bit shorter, I didn't make it to the bathroom. I pretty much puked my guts out into a nice little dirt patch. Multiple times. And what happened when I tried to make it to the bathroom, which was about thirty steps away? Yep, did it again right outside the door. So, after making sure I wasn't going to do it AGAIN, Haley walked with me up the hotel, where I spent the rest of the day sleeping and resting. Sorta lame. When I woke up, several hours later, I decided that I needed to make the most of my hotel imprisonment. So, I went on a photoshoot in our little room. The girls all got back around five thirty, and told me we had tickets for the Opera and needed to get ready and go! We had a rather expensive dinner (35 grivin...which is like, five bucks...which is a lot here...) and then went to the beautiful, beautiful opera house (By now I was feeling lots better. Still a little unsettled, but pretty good, especially since we were going to the OPERA). The Odessa Opera House, apparently, is one of the most famous in the world. And rightly so. Ah, it was so, so beautiful! Haley and the girls told me that since we got our tickets so late, we had seats way far away. I totally bought it, and when we went and found our BOX SEATS...it was amazing. Those girls--that was an awesome surprise. The only tickets they had left were the best ones in the house. Haley and I got lucky--we were in different boxes, but they were right next to each other and our seats were only seperated by a wall. We saw Carmen, and it was awesome! Kind of a strange story, but the music was so, so beautiful! It was in French, but with a Russian accent, so I could barely understand anything, even when they were just talking. Oh well! The next day we slept in a bit. It was raining, which was a nice change from the heat. We went to the beach, and due to the rain, it was practically abandoned, which was AWESOME! We didn't swim because it was cold, but we did put our feet and legs in. It was so nice!...minus the garbage everywhere. It was really beautiful with the unsettled sky and the taller waves. And fewer nearly-naked people. We spent the rest of the day walking around beautiful Odessa. It's a really charming city with different colored buildings and fun streets. We had the most fabulous ice cream. Bubblegum, but not like Baskin Robins. This was...phenomenal. The best ice cream ever. We all got it twice because it was just so good. We walked down (and back up) the Potemkin Stairs, we saw all sorts of famous statues and monuments, and got a taste of what Odessa is all about. There definately is loads more that we didn't see, but we all felt pretty good about what we did see. The train ride back to Kiev was another doozy. We got on the train to find two rather large women sitting in our seats, with about eight bags between them. Something they had with them smelled awwwwwwful. Aubrie described it (remarkably well) as such: 525 fishes in a vat of rotten milk with a fat man with B.O. thrown in. We got in at six thirty this morning and took a bus back to Boyarka. We showered, got ready for the day, and taught for four hours. And then what? Took a three hour nap.