Vacation!

Yes, I have been at my new job for exactly two weeks and I am going on vacation! Actually, I’ve had the vacation planned for months, and my new boss very kindly agreed to let me keep my plans.

I am really enjoying this new position, I have to say. I wake up in the morning excited about going to work! While I enjoyed my work in the field with the Chornobyl Programme, I really didn’t care for the time in the office, which was mostly spent proofreading and editing poorly written English-language documents. It looks like I’ll have leadership on several new and really exciting projects as UNV Programme Officer, and well, frankly, I love being in charge. 🙂 And I love new and exciting projects.

But these first two weeks have worn me ragged! I wore my pedometer one day and tracked over 10 miles of walking – to different buildings for various meetings, up and down three flights of stairs about a hundred times, etc. I decided I didn’t need to count my steps for awhile; I’m definitely getting my 10,000 a day.

So, I’m looking forward to a couple weeks of rest. Dad arrives tomorrow morning and we’ve got some fun and interesting things planned. This is his third time in Kyiv, so I decided we’d travel outside the city as much as possible so we both can see some new and different places. First, we’ll go to Korosten so he can meet Igor’s family (eek!). Then we’ve got a trip to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. Then 5 days in the Carpathian mountains. I haven’t decided exactly where we’ll go after that, but I’m thinking some day trips to places not too far from Kyiv. We’ll play it by ear.

So folks, enjoy the next two weeks! I don’t expect to writing much until July.