I wake up and I find Iryna's message on the fridge, it's a very sweet gesture and it makes me feel welcomed, 'maybe we'll become close friends' I think.
She accompanies me in the bus to the city centre where I'll meet her friend Anton, ready to guide me into Ternopil's city for the first time. Buses here are very little and dirtier than italian ones and the bus driver joins all the money on a towel near its seat, ensuring that every person buys a ticket, which costs just two grvinas. Iryna is very kind and serious as well, it's difficult for me to understand her attitude towards this internship.
Anton helps me buying a sim card in Kyivstar shop(the main mobile operator here), and in changing my euros to grivna. I can't understand the value of money here but I feel I'm very rich somehow.
Maybe it's because of the big amount of cash in my hands now, I don't know.
They are colorful and new to me, I'm confused and hyperactive, like a little child constantly turning his head to explore a brand new world.
The currency exchange shop is underground, little and dark, and not so crowded at all: few men are standing near the wall, all of them with serious faces. They don't talk and I am attracted by a little tv on a shelf up on the wall: it's broadcasting some ukrainian pop songs and they're so cheerful, mixing pop with accordion melodies and typical songs that make me think about some gipsy - folk parties of eastern Europe.
I'd like to dance, I say to Anton.
That's why I'm here: it's years that I've been fascinated by folk , balcanian and eastern Europe peculiarities and they're like a Pandora's box to me: big and misterious and I'm determined to open it up somehow.
to be continued...
