I'm back!

Thanks to my broken laptop which I could only get repaired in Ukraine for the princely sum of 3000 hryvnia (somewhere between £200-£300) and blogging from an iPhone being the biggest faff ever, it seems that I haven't bothered to write about my oh so interesting life in just over two months. I'm sure many of you have been left absolutely gutted about this, as I can imagine people enjoy reading about my life in Odessan student halls, hanging with the cockroaches as I'm washing my pants by hand when they want to feel better about their lives. So I thought I'd treat you and write a little bit abut my final few weeks in Odessa (miss you already, O).

Now it's come to this, I think I've forgotten everything that happened, or at least the interesting parts.

I spent a large proportion of my last month in Odessa teaching. English native speakers (especially British English it seems) were like gold dust out there, and I was like bloody hot property (exaggerating a little there). My job interview went a little like this though:

"Hi, you're English, yes?"

"Yes,"

"Have you taught before?"

"A little bit, nothing formal,"

"Here are the terms and conditions of your job."

The teaching work I did out there was so diverse, thus rather challenging at times. My students ranged from a diva of a 6 year old girl, who heard me speak Russian to here nanny and subsequently refused to speak any English to me, to a group of really serious, and initially quite intimidating, lawyers. It also brought on some slightly surreal moments, like singing Wham's Last Christmas with three generations of a rather affluent family in their living room, and showing a class videos about the Essex lion.

Teaching turned out to be a whole lot more fun than I thought, and my students all really inspired me, especially those of a similar age to me, as they could all speak three languages (Russian, Ukrainian and English) to such a ridiculously high level. I now just want to try to learn more and more languages so I can go somewhere and not have to do the super embarrassing 'sorry, do you speak English?' thing, which I really don't find too cool. So yes, I'm going to be multilingual in no time, of course.

Now, I'm going to be a typically British girl and talk about the weather, because we had a bloody hurricane, which was well exciting!! I absolutely love watching a dramatic storm from the comfort and dryness of my room, and this one was the best I've ever seen. The mess it left behind, however, was not so amazing. Pavements were coming up thanks to huge tree roots which had come up, and much of the town was without light or internet for a good few days after it happened. 

Me and my shocked face.

Surprisingly, I don't think anything too ridiculous happened during my last month in Odessa. The flush broke on the toilet, and nobody seemed to know how to fix it, which we were naturally all very pleased about. I was also expected to give the halls lady my bedding back 3 nights before I was due to leave, and she seemed quite shocked when I said I'd need them as I would like a sleep sometime in the 72 hours I had remaining in that hell hole.

Since being back in England I have missed Odessa loads, but it's been fun to see people who I went for months and months without seeing. Also, being the fat pig that I am it has been so good to eat and drink like a normal person again. 

I feel that at this point it would be very apt to write a list of foods I couldn't find/were simply too expensive to buy out in Odessa, so that anybody else who may go there (or anywhere in Russia/Ukraine) can take it with them, or just have a massive binge before they have to put up with borsht and meat of questionable origin...

- Gin
75cl of Bombay Sapphire cost around £20. You could try the cans of cheap gin and tonic that are available, but they are gross, and can apparently make your skin go yellow, mmm.

- Nutella
Again, depressingly expensive, with no great alternative. 

-Peanut butter

Never found any the whole time I was away.

- Sweet Potato
I eventually found some, they were stupidly expensive, and I didn't have the means to cook them properly. 

- Fresh fruit/veg
Generally very bloody terrible, unless you like mould. Not cheap either. Mushrooms and bananas were the only things I found in consistently good condition.

- Pesto
Unless you're prepared to spend a person's average weekly wage on it, just don't bother.

- Ready meals
Unfortunately these are non-existent. I didn't have a fridge or microwave anyway...

-Eggs

Of course, you can get eggs out there, but they were always covered in chicken poo, which put me off. (I'm aware you don't eat the shell, but still, poo = NO).

- Skimmed milk
Always a controversial subject as I regularly get lolled at for drinking 'white water', but the least fatty milk was 2.5%, which made it impossible to drink large quantities of.

-Hummus 

This is getting really specific now, as hummus is hardly a kitchen staple, but I missed it so much.

- BAKED BEANS (Heinz, ofc)

WHERE WERE THE HEINZ BAKED BEANS IN ODESSA?! I go to Nottingham University, we eat the most beans out of everyone ever*, but I could just never find these little babies :( :( I could talk about beans all day (protein, fibre, filling, low in fat etc), and being without them for nearly 5 months was just too much to handle.

So yes, if anyone's going to Odessa soon for their year abroad (everybody should do it, Odessa > Russia any day) there's a list of some of the things you may struggle to get hold of, at least at a reasonable price. Everybody studying Russian should go to Odessa for a bit though, because it's generally such a happy town, and it just has a certain charm to it, and a beach, and nice weather etc...

*I had to prove this to you all!