kiev, ukraine

i don't know what i will be able to write in 4 minutes from this internet cafe in a soviet-like suburb of kiev, in the basement next to the building i am being hosted in there is this place, the best kept secret of this area, full of teenagers playing games online, it could be in france, italy, germany, or the states, anywhere really...i saw two H2 today...yes the car...here the traffic is bad, the smog is worse, since there are still way too many cars from the 60s, trying to race with the newest bmw's and mercedes...but tonight on the independence square it was magical, strong and cold breeze, lots of people and lights, and i was thinking about what happened during the orange revolution on that same square...i also saw the dinamo kiev's stadium and some churches that blew me away....soooo much gold!!!

i got here in lviv, ukraine today after a 21-hour train ride from bratislava, which i enjoyed very much despite the cheap,drunk and loud british tourists.i went back to my beloved tescosupermarkets,so that was cool too. today i got into ukraine and then rode till here, where i am staying in yet another big and anonymous soviet-style building in the outskirts of town. i had the luxury of potato pierogies (sp?) and minestrone soup thanks to the kindness of O. at whose place i am staying. walking around the city makes me feel like i am in some kind of WWII movie. i don't know what it is about it, but it just feels and looks very different from any place i've been to so far...and this city has so many churches it's not even funny...it makes italy almost look like an amateur...tomorrow i will get a better look at them...it's interesting because they have the same style but they represent many different cults: greek orthodox,protestant,ukrainian orthodox (of 2 different kinds), armenian, and even greek-catholic,a mixture of orthodox calendar and the acknowledging of the pope. this is the most nationalistic part of ukraine, so people don't seem to want to speak anything but ukrainian,even though they do understand russian...so i can't really use my basic russian, although i entered the cyrillic-written side of the world today and i've been practising my reading skills...so i try to read every single sign like a little child who just learned how to read, because it takes me a minute or two for just a simple sign...
oh,when i got to bratislava i waited till the next morning to take a shower, and when i woke up there was no water at all...so when i got here i was going to take a shower, but there is no hot water, and there is no water whatsoever between 24:00 and 6:00...i guess i will wake up for a cold shower tomorrow...

some people call it luck...

yesterday on my way to the laundromat i found a $ bill on the ground, picked it up and put it in my pocket thinking it was a ten...i just realized right now going through the crap in my pocket that it was a HUNDRED $ bill!
i am also leaving tomorrow to italy/europe, i will be home for a good 2 weeks before i do some traveling...i am really excited although i am not done with finishing up what i have to take care of here...so i am still stressing out, and will be till i sit on my plane tomorrow...

-7

minus a week, just a week and i will be home...the insane amount of things i have to get done before i leave is daunting and i better not stress out too much, because i should be enjoying this time of the year...summer is about to start, fun is about to be had!

there's hope!

today i got notified that my H1B petition (H1B = work visa) got accepted, so i will receive my I-797 soon, with which i can apply for an actual work visa on my passport for the next 3 years...which means that SMU owns me...wow, is that what i am thrilled about? i guess so...but H1B has always meant hope, it's a huge step up from the student visa i have now...i used to think that the H1B meant being very close to residency, which i just learned is not true...plus it costs a heck of a lot of money! so i am happy to think that there's hope for other people like me...or rather, for the ones who pay! the other day i saw a bumper sticker that read: "we don't live in a democracy, we live in an auction". which means everything has a price...everything can be bought...think of bailbonds...think of immigration lawyers...it's interesting how all of this doesn't constitute corruption, because it's official and institutionalized...