So long and thanks for all the fish

I have awesome former roomies. Lisa ended up driving me to the bus stop Sunday morning, mostly because she originally had insommnia but then decided to stay up even after it was over to drive me, and Brandi saw me off and gave me a money pouch, as I had forgotten to get mine from Lakeview.

Then a long day/night of travel. I don't like airplane food. It doesn't matter what it is, it doesn't taste good. (@Lisa: I ended up not eating hardly any of the pretzels on the plane for that reason...I want to want to eat them again!)

I made it to Ukraine safe and sound, although 4 hours too early to check into my hotel room. To fill that time, I have a) exchanged money, b) bought a cell phone, c) bought my train ticket to Balaklia tomorrow night, d) called Nadia (who sounded very excited on the phone, e) texted Sasha and Andrey, f) did a lot of window shopping (saw some lovely skirts I'd like to get at the end of the summer, depending on money), g) had lunch at McDonalds, f) gawked at how much prices have gone up in a year and a half (which makes sense with how the hryvnia's dropped), g) paid an outrageous price for Internet, and h) am anxiously waiting to go crash in my hotel room at 2 pm.

I was feeling a bit weird about the whole trip right before we landed, but it feels very natural to be here. Although I'm exhausted and really really just want to sleep right now, or at least be in a prone position. I did doze for a few hours on the flight though. And met a former PCV (before my time) on the plane who runs an English language school in Dnipropetrovsk, is willing to pass out my survey to teachers he knows and said that if I ever wanted a job, I should look him up but I'll probably be overqualified to work at his school, having an actual degree in TESOL.

Wow...jet lag is really kicking in. Time to finish this post and wait 45 more minutes for my room.