Borderland Edition

Found this on the BBC website:

Michael Palin explores 20 countries that were once off-limits behind the Iron Curtain - Michael Palin’s New Europe Series

Palin traveled through the region to show the dramatic changes in the years since the fall of communism.

It’s Sunday morning here in Ukraine. I just went to church where the sermon was given in English and translated into Russian. Now I’m sitting in a coffee shop drinking 4uah tea (about 0.80$) and using the free wi-fi. 4uah is expensive for hot water and a tea packet, but the other Internet cafe charges 7uah/hr and here I get to use my own computer. The guy running the counter told me the total in English. Last week a girl came up to me and asked, “Where y’all from?” with a perfect Texas accent. She had studied abroad last year. Her English is better than mine. Well, except for answering every question with “okie dokie”.

Welcome to Peace Corps Ukraine.

Today in class I came across the following in one of the student’s projects:

Screws
More than 800 different positions
Always available

They were creating advertising for metal supplies and equipment. I about fell out of my chair at first, but then I had to try and explain the error to a classroom of Ukrainian girls. I was told that the Russian system for the indexing of screws, bolts, etc translates to ‘position’.

Additionally, I’ve been debating with Sasha for a couple of weeks now on whether to use ‘commonest’ or ‘most common’. The students have decided to go with my suggestion of ‘most common’ but I can’t find a difinitive answer. The American Heritage Dictionary allows it as a superlative of ‘common‘ but the rules of superlatives go as follows:

One Syllable Adjectives

Place ‘the’ before the adjective and add ‘-est’ to end of the adjective (Note: double the final consonant if preceded by a vowel)

Example: cheap - the cheapest / hot - the hottest / high - the highest

Two, Three or More Syllable Adjectives

Place ‘the most’ before the adjective

Example: interesting - the most interesting / difficult - the most difficult

Two Syllable Adjectives Ending in ‘-y’

Place ‘the’ before the adjective and remove the ‘y’ from the adjective and add ‘iest’

Example: happy - the happiest / funny - the funniest

There are exceptions to the above rule, for example: good, better, best.

Thoughts?

It appears that I’m not alone in my addiction.

A survey asked 1,011 American adults how long they would feel OK without going on the Web, to which 15 percent said a just a day or less, 21 percent said a couple of days and another 19 percent said a few days.

When I signed up for Peace Corps I thought I’d be leaving the Internet behind. But, it turns out that the Internet is not so easily forgotten. I definitely spend less time on the Internet here in Ukraine, but still have broadband at work, dialup at home, and even Wi-Fi at the coffee shop.

Therein lies a problem I have. When I have the Internet and spend a lot of time working on this site and others, I remember how much fun web development can be. But, when I spend a couple days, or weeks as during PST, without Internet I spend more time on the Russian language and enjoy Peace Corps much more. Perhaps Peace Corps and the Internet are not compatible for me. A friend told me that he also has two interests, playing the guitar and eating seafood. He also finds it difficult to do both at the same time.