The Break In

Thursday, August 16, 2007 11:57 AM

Hello all,
    I've taught another class and everything went well. My own classes starts on monday. My schedule will probably be 4-6 PM level 3, 6-7 PM Conversation club, 7-9PM level, M-Thursday. Then on Sundays I will have class probably from 10-5, teaching level 1 and also conversation clubs. I'm a little intimidated now but once I get everything figured out I should be fine.
     On sunday, we observed some classes and then I went home to relax. A couple hours later my friend called me from her apartment which is in the same building as mine. She was crying. She said that two men had broken into her house and she had locked herself into her room. She could hear them moving around outside the door. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't call 911 and we weren't even sure if the Ukrainian police department would care. I ran over to her house and started yelling to her landlady (babbushka) that I needed help. She said (in Russian) she didn't understand english so I called Gayla, a uUrainain girl I know, and asked her to translate. The line cut out so I ran to the elevator and was planning on beating up the guys who had broke in, when the elevator door opened and Gayla was there. Gayla went over to the landlady and I ran onto the elevator.
    When I got to my friend's door, I didn't know if the guys were still there so I banged on the door and yelled, "Are you okay?" my friend opened the door and was crying and clearly very upset.
     Apparently while she was sleeping she heard some keys rattling outside her door and the doorknob turn. Expecting her roommate home any day, she unlocked the door and two guys barged in. She yelled at them but they pushed her out of the way and she ran for her bedroom. When she had locked herself in she realized that her purse was in the kitchen so she ran for it. The guys cornered her and yhe only thing she could understand was Coffee, so she grabbed the coffee can and pushed it in their faces while running for her room. She got to her room but a guy tried to push his way in. She was stronger.Once in her room, she called Gayla and then me. The guys were gone by the time Gayla got there which had to be 5 minutes later.
     Gayla called the police and they came. They caught the guys because the landlady didn't see them leave the building so we knew they were still there. The police dusted for fingerprints and took pictures of the apartment, it was very CSI. While Gayla and my friend were downstairs talking to the police I stayed in the apartment. After a little while I heard a knock on the door and looked through the peephole to see a man and a woman. They kept knocking and finally I yelled, "Who is it?" The woman said, "I am your neighbor, open the door." Well, I wasn't about to open the door so I yelled, "What do you want?" "Open the door." she yelled back. I ignored her. She kept knocking and yelling "open the door" and I refused. Finally she said, "Look, is this your's?" she held a plastic bag up to the peephole. "I don't know," I yelled back. "Open the door and look." "Just leave it outside the door and I'll look later."
      Meanwhile I called Gayla and she said, "Do not open the door, I will be up with the police in a minute." The woman kept knocking and yelliing but finally she left the bag outside the door and went into her apartment. I waited some more and in about 15 minutes she was back at the door knocking. "Is this your's?" "No." I yelled and she left. A couple of minutes later
Gayla came back upstairs followed by Carolin and the police. Gayla knocked on the neighbor's door and the neighbor lady said that she had found a plastic bag full of stuff by the elevator. We looked through it and thought maybe it was the roomate of my friend's stuff, whose room was open. The cops took everything to the station with them. The roommate is away and should be coming back this week, we haven't been able to get a hold of her, so she's in for a surprise.
     Other than that nothing too exciting has happened. I was lost in Kiev for a while, roaming around, but luckily I found some people who spoke English who could guide me. We were supposed to go to a new school to observe some classes but I had never been there so I asked T2 to go with me, because he had been there. He stood me up, which I figured would happen, he's a bit of a jerk and is starting to piss some people off.
     Anyway Gayla tried to guide me by phone but it is a hard place to find. I was very proud of myself for finally getting there. Everybody else has had a guide to take them to the school, I found it on my own.
     Today I went to a huge second hand clothing store and bought a lot of nice clothes. They had a lot of H&M stuff for cheap. Tonight Olga and my friend and I are going to watch a movie. Jason, one of the new teachers, is leaving o go teach in Odessa so we might also go out with him. I'm starting to feel accustommed here and am having a good time. I'm excited for when more people arrive. I miss everyone and hope all is well.
Love, Jacy