I finally bought new pants

I've needed to do it for...well, a long time. At least a couple of months. I meant to go last weekend, but the weather kept us indoors. (It was deemed too slippery to go out.) But today I managed it, and it wasn't as bad as I was afraid it would be.

My tutor went with me. I was really glad when she offered to go with me, not just because she speaks English (although I'm not sure how well she speaks, since we generally speak in Russian). Albina is young, maybe 29, and fun to talk to. She is married and has a 4-year-old daughter; she teaches English at School Number 1 (I teach at School Number 2). I didn't want to go alone, because--funny as it sounds--I don't really know how to shop in Ukraine. Customs are different.

We started off by going to the Rinok, or bazaar near my home. The Rinok is hard to describe; it's mostly a bunch of little shops with a wall surrounding them; most shops have roofs, and some have doors. Others are open in the front. I think the Rinok is a little confusing, like a labyrinth. Right now it's very wet; the weather today is a bit above freezing, and the snow and ice are melting. There are puddles everywhere. Last night I heard rain against my window.

We went to one shop at the Rinok. I went behind an itty-bitty curtain hung on the wall (more coverage than I expected, actually), and tried on several pairs of black pants. The first pair I tried fit, the second was too tight, the third too shiny. So I bought the first pair. They were 75 hr, or about $15. (But I don't like to think in dollars. It's misleading.)

Then to "Jeans World" (Djinsi Mir in Russian), which is actually a store downtown. (Going to a store, as opposed to a market, somehow makes me happy. And there weren't any jeans at the Rinok.) There I bought a pair of ridiculously tight jeans. I also tried on a more American pair, but was told by 3 people that they did not look as good on me. (I thought I looked less fat in them, but decided to yield to popular opinion. As one person said, "You're in Europe now. Not America.") Albina said the American pair were jeans you "work" in, not at all stylish. "They're for women over 40."

So I bought the super-tight jeans.

When I came home my host family wanted to see them, of course. They approve.

But everyone tells me I need to buy new boots now. With heels! (Not going to happen. Not the heels part, anyway.) You know the popular idea that when you're in the Peace Corps you are generally unstylish, not worrying about appearance or clothing? Well. Not in Peace Corps Ukraine. I worry much more about fashion here than I ever did in America.