Intro

I was 20 years old when I had my right hip replaced. I had just returned from a semester abroad and was in excruciating pain. I had been diagnosed with Arthritis at 16, a side effect from the radiation treatment and chemotherapy I had received as an infant. I'm not exactly sure how I survived my travels in Europe while I was studying abroad, I must have been going on pure adrenaline. Four months of traipsing around Europe, and when I got back home I could barely make it upstairs to the living room. When I got back to the states I went to a local doctor, hoping he would prescribe me something slightly more powerful than the Advil my doctor at Mayo Clinic had prescribed me prior to my trip to Europe. The local doctor took one look at my x-ray and told me I should have gotten my hip replaced when I was diagnosed with Arthritis, 4 years earlier. Since then I've gotten my left hip replaced. And, since then, I've traveled the world many times over. A world traveler, who sets off metal detectors everywhere she goes. In 2007, I traveled to Ukraine, where I spent 9 months teaching English as a Second Language. Then, in 2009, I moved to South Korea, spending 14 months teaching ESL once again. These are the emails from my past and, since I won't be stopping any time soon, my present travels.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Not Getting Lost in Translation

Sunday, September 9, 2007 6:33 PM
Hi everybody,
    So, lately my luck with jumping on a bus and getting to the place I need to go has run out. Today I had to take three different buses to get to someplace not that far away. Maybe its an omen I should start walking more. Once I finally got there, I went to my favorite second hand store to see what wintery things they have because it is actually very cold right now. I was going through the goods on the table, when the owner came up to me and started talking. I had headphones in so I had to take them off. He spoke Russian which I clearly didn't understand so he left me alone for a little while.
      I continued my search and found some sweaters I liked, when he came back over to me. He started gesturing to my ring finger (in Ukraine the ring finger is on the left hand and I wear a ring on it). I said, "Ya ne gavaroo pa-ruski" which means, 'I don't speak Russian', but he ignored me and kept gesturing to the ring and then pointing at himself and then at me. I kinda figured what he was trying to say, but feigned ignorance for as long as I could. Finally he said "Angliski?" and I said, "Yes," He said, "Married?" I said, "Yes, I am in fact married." He didn't believe me. He continued to speak Russian to me and I figured out he was asking me how old I was so I said, "25." "How old is your husband?" "27." "Do you have any children?" "No". "Why are you in Ukraine?" "To teach." The conversation continued like this for an excrutiatingly long time.   
      Most of the time he would speak to me in russian and I would say "Ya ne panimyu," (I don't understand), which he would ignore and continue speaking to me. He asked me if I would like to trade English lessons for Russian lessons and I said no. He asked why and I said I was very, very busy. Finally I put all my stuff down and walked out, which he made a squeak about, but I did not turn around. I was very sad about this occurence because I liked buying stuff there and all the other shops are too expensive. Also it 
is pretty close to my house, the other second hand shops are a metro ride away.
       When I got back home, I decided to try to make a pizza in the oven, which has to be lit by match. I wasn't about to stick my hand down there so I lit a piece of paper on fire, turned on the gas and dropped it in. The over went Whoosh and fire shot out at me but it did not ignite. I realized that our oven doesn't work at all. However, in the process my hand was burned (it was the closest part of me to the flame that tried to attack me). For the rest of the day I sat and watched TV with my hand in a pot of cold water. It is still really sore, and blistering, and red but I think it will be okay (I'm typing with it right now and it isn't too painful). It's frustrating though, because J had just brought over some typing I could do to earn extra money. But on the bright side I got to watch a show on the Queen Mother of England. I miss all of you. Love, Jacy

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