text: world map progress // девятий день | borscht and babushkas
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  world map progress // девятий день
  Posted on October 25, 2012 by kristenahartman
  i'm SO close to being done with the map!!!!!!!!! so close i can feel it. unlike my fingers and toes at the moment. it's almost the end of october and it's getting colder. i worked from sun up to almost sun down today trying to get things finished. all of which was made more difficult with the chilly air. and a couple of maintenance men.
  i wore lots of layers but the cold still got to me and made me 10x more clumsy. i think i made 3 huge paint spills today. you can see them on the ground there. oops. but despite my 'cold weather induced arthritis' i barreld through and made huge progress. all the countries are painted. WOO! and now i'm going back and doing a second coat of ocean blue. which, is time consuming around all the boarders and islands.
  one of the biggest concerns for map on lookers was the color of antartica. i usually replied 'i don't know' since i wasn't to that point and kept putting off that decision. most said it should be white or at least a cold color because it's cold. obviously. but then i thought, um…why does it have to be white? i'm fairly certain no other country is painted an accurate color. but when it came down to it i painted it white. i just had a lot of white paint so white it was, despite my stubbornness to prove a silly point.
  i worked alone today but i certainly wasn't alone. the two school maintenance men made sure of it. they would stand and watch ask 20 BILLION questions: what color will this be? is this kazakstan? is that china? where's russia? how many continents are there? 5? 6? where's the north pole? why didn't you paint it? can you take me back to america? why not? kristina? kristina? kristina? …that must be what it feels like to have annoying little siblings. they almost made me lose it. i was enjoying the peace and quiet. they didn't get the hint that i wasn't enthusiastically answering their questions anymore.
  this went on all day. they'd come, bother me for a while, then do something, then come back. i'm sure they're just bored. and i tried to remember be as patient as i could. but when the creepy (one who i've been avoiding) came up from behind me and pulled my hair back for me. i wiggled away and said 'please don't touch me'. ain't nobody allowed to touch my do!
  that already got on my nerves. plus the fact that i couldn't feel my toes. plus the fact that i'm still working on this. so ALMOST lost and went hulk on everything when the other man came up asking more questions and picked up my binder causing all the pages to fall out. UUUUGH CAN YOU JUST GO AWAY? PLEASE. it was ridiculous. i couldn't help but find the situation hilarious (annoyance aside). i just got down off the ladder, picked up the papers, and said 'i'm going to the store, i need a break'.
  i think i'm too patient for my own good sometimes. finally around 3pm they left school and sighed relief thinking 'finally some quiet'. if anything makes me motivated to finish this project a.s.a.p., it's to not have to deal with maintenance men anymore. ha.
  but at least i'll have a little break from them and from the map. tomorrow i'll leave for a (warmer) week in turkey with a few fellow peace corps volunteers. we'll hit up the southern coast (that i just painted) and then a few days in istanbul. i think i'll be good to have a little mental and painting muscle vaca for a bit. who knows, maybe i'll come back with renewed patience to deal with my annoying fan club.
  things left to do once i return:
  clean the ocean of dripped paint debris
  outline countries with black marker
  label countries and bodies of water
  handprints of helpers (even though it's been mainly just me…)
  Posted in photos, ukraine, world map project	| Tagged map, painting, peace corps volunteer, ukraine, world map
  2 thoughts on "world map progress // девятий день"
  it's beautiful! Enjoy your trip to Turkey! too bad you're not there for Thanksgiving…get it..Turkey? haha