Stepping on Toes

God has a creative way of doing things.

Here in Ukraine, the appearance of your footwear is VERY important. Your shoes should be polished and shined prior to leaving your house--every time. I haven't learned its full cultural significance, but it's obviously important in this country.

Well...walking in the winter weather and riding on crowded public transportation don't always make it easy. In fact, I've committed the "sin," at least twice, of stepping on someone's shoes as I try to jockey for a position on a packed bus as it rapidly pulls away from the curb. I have learned the Russian word for "to apologize," so I try to use it as I absorb the penetrating stare of disgust from my offended bus companion.

So, the second time I did it, I was quite surprised when the offendee responded with "That's okay." Yep. English. :) I waited a minute as I formed the question in Russian -- "do you speak English?" and then delivered it to her. Her answer was "yes," followed by a conversation about my reason for being in Kiev and more. We both happened to get off at the same bus stop and she was interested in talking further, so we exchanged cell phone numbers and promised to connect. Which we did.

Long story short -- she's now my language helper. I am very grateful for Liza and truly feel that she was given to me inspite of stepping in the wrong place. (I'm just really glad I didn't put my foot in my mouth, too! :) )

Sponginess

Just how much can a sponge absorb?

Just how much can "I" absorb?

What does saturation do to me?

While I wouldn't say that I am "overwhelmed" (at this point) with living in a new culture, I do think that I can more quickly reach my saturation point. It seems that my brain has to re-process everything from the ways it knew back home in Indiana. Even the simplest of things is "new." For instance, you can't just turn on the faucet for a drink of water. Here, you need to turn the faucet on, pull out the little stopper-thing, and wait for the filter to process the water for you to drink. And then the filter doesn't stop when the faucet is turned off, so it's easy to overflow your cup. Another example -- when I return home, I don't just turn the key in the lock or press the garage door opener button. No, I use the magnetic key to get me into the building, take the elevator to my floor (but one of the two elevators doesn't stop at my floor which means going up or down a flight of stairs next), use the key for the door to my hallway, and THEN use the key to my apartment door (and turn the lock twice, not just once). These situations definitely take a bit more time...and that's barely leaving home! :)

Now grocery store shopping is another challenge. Thankfully there are pictures on many packages but you can't always go by the pictures either! So, if I really want a specific item, I must look up the word for it in Ukrainian (because things are usually printed in Ukrainian here and not Russian), write it down (because I'll never remember by the time I actually get to the store) and then go try to find where a Ukrainian grocery store would shelve such an item and even recognize the packaging when I find it. My spongy brain just got soaked a bit more.

There are many more examples I could give, but the point for me is to figure out when I've reached saturation and when to let the sponge dry out a bit before going back for more. At least for me, the drying out process seems best achieved by sleep. Sponges dry out when they lie flat and don't do anything; so I guess it's the same with me. :)