Sally's Peace Corps Experience in Ukraine

I've moved!

2008-01-07T19:18:00.000+02:00

Well, since I'm no longer in Ukraine, I figured it was time to start up a new blog. My new spot on the Web will be at http://www.bookaholicgirl.blogspot.com

It's been a lot of fun blogging here over the last two and a half years or so, and I hope you all keep reading. Happy Ukrainian Christmas!

Z novem rokum!

2008-01-01T16:54:00.000+02:00

Happy New Year!

I haven't been very good about updating this, mostly because I can't access Blogger at my parents' house and whenever I'm at the library, I have too many other things to do. But I'm still doing well...slowly adjusting back to life in the US.

The readjustment period has been, of course, strange, but I think it's going well. Tif and I went to Little Ukraine, a neighborhood in Chicago, this past week. One might think that we went out to a Ukrainian restaurant or a museum...no. We went to little corner grocery stores, found the same foods that we ate in Ukraine, and spoke Ukrainian to the store clerks. (Well, I did. Tif spoke Russian.)

I'm living at home full-time for the first time since I graduated from high school in 2001. It's great to be back with my family, but since the household is now four adults, it has a different feel than the one I left. I love being able to spend time with everyone, though...at least, when our schedules coincide!

Jason and I are enjoying having only a three-hour drive between our respective family homes, as opposed to half a planet. He came up to Lakeview to visit my family on the weekend before Christmas, and I've been in Livonia since Saturday visiting his family (heading back north this afternoon).

I'm as of yet unemployed, but I'mputting in applications to be a technical assistant at the Montcalm County Farm Service Agency or a substitute teacher. We'll see what happens. In January, I'm off to Milwaukee on the 12th, riding back with Jason so I can see Marquette, and from there, I fly down to Texas that next Monday to be a bridesmaid in my friend Melissa's wedding.

2007 was a great year. At some point, I want to do one of those "year in review" recap posts, but it's not happening today. So here's to a great year to come in 2008!

home.

2007-12-18T17:02:00.000+02:00

Yay! I can finally update my blog! (Thank you, Cheryl and the rest of the Tamarack Public Library.)

Wow...I've switched sides of the world since my last post. Last Thursday morning, I was at the PC office, checking my email for the last time before riding with one of the Peace Corps guards to the airport (he was off-duty and offered me a decent price to get me there, plus helped out with my luggage). I checked my flight info one last time...and found out that my New York-Chicago flight was canceled. Cue Moment of Panic.

So when I got to the airport, I went right over to the Delta window and asked them if they could do anything for me. I was supposed to fly out of New York around 7 pm EST, and they were able to rebook me for 7 am Friday morning. They also thought that once I got to New York, I could get a voucher for a hotel room.

The next obstacle arose when going through immigration services/passport control/whatever it's called. Because there was a mistake in my passport (the registration for my visa, although not my visa itself, had expired the day before), I was charged around $140 just to leave the country. Since I only had about $225 on me overall, this was sort of traumatic. Fortunately, another PCV who was on my flight gave me $30 to help me out.

The flight from Kyiv to New York was 11ish hours long and full of people speaking Russian. I helped the older lady sitting next to me with food requests, and the stewardess told me that I was very helpful. I would hope that after two years, I could translate, "Do you want tea or coffee?"

It was icy/snowy/messy in New York, so we didn't land until about an hour after the scheduled time. Once I collected my bags, I tried to find out about my hotel voucher. After talking to multiple people, I was told that they didn't give out vouchers for weather delays. So I was stuck in JFK Airport for 12 hours with two large bags, a backpack, and a computer bag. I rented a cart for $3 and traveled around the airport--from Terminal 3 down to Terminal 1 so I could get food, and then back. I called Mom and Jason and let them know what was going on, and I had Chinese food (of the food court quality) and Starbucks (Mom thought I needed coffee to keep me awake). I ended up with about 2 hours of dozing sleep on the floor of the Delta terminal, with my backpack for a pillow, my laptop bag under my arm, and my coat for a blanket.

Friday morning, sort of rested, I flew from New York to Chicago and was met by Jason, who pretty much hugged the living daylights out of me. Not that I minded at all. He'd spent the night in Chicago, so we went back to his hotel so I could have breakfast and get a shower, and then we hit the road a little before noon Chicago time and arrived back in Lakeview around 5 pm Michigan time. At long last, I was home in the US.

Since then, I've been slowly adjusting, both to the time change (I keep waking up around 5 am every day and getting really tired by mid-afternoon) and to life in general. I called the Yukhymetses on Sunday, and I see that Olha from church emailed me (but the library computers won't let me read Cyrillic font).

I'm sure I could think of a million things more to say, and I'll try and get back here in a few days to post some more. Blogger doesn't seem to work on my parents' computer, so I'm at the library now. (Does anyone know how I can find out if I actually have wireless on my laptop as opposed to wireless capability?)

and so it ends...

2007-12-12T16:07:00.001+02:00

The paperwork has been signed, the interviews have been held, my pink card (which gave me accreditation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) has been turned in, and I'm no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer. I was joking that I wasn't quite an RPCV (returned Peace Corps Volunteer) yet, since I'm still in Ukraine, so some of us decided that we are ILPCVs (In Limbo Peace Corps Volunteers).

It's been a wonderful twenty-seven months, and I wouldn't have wanted to have spent it any other way. It's not that everything was perfect, or that there haven't been times when I wanted to go home, or that I accomplished everything I set out to. That's not Peace Corps. But I learned two languages (more or less), taught some kids some English (and a lot more about different types of teaching), disproved a lot of stereotypes about Americans (and created a few more...my girls wanted to know if all US women wear skirts all the time), had a successful long-distance relationship, got a better idea of what I want to do with my life, and made some wonderful friends who, even with the distance, I hope to keep in touch with.

It's been a good life. And I've been so blessed. God is good!

I'll be starting a new blog at some point in the next few weeks, so keep checking back here for the address. I may also blog here a few more times, just about the trip back and the readjustment process. To all my readers, both those I know in real life and those I don't, thanks so much for reading...your comments have been the impetus I've often needed to keep writing my posts. I hope you've been amused, entertained, and perhaps, once in a while, inspired.

So...go change the world. Just a teeny teeny teeny tiny little itty bitty bit. That's what I think I did, just a little.

A night at the ballet

2007-12-12T10:58:00.000+02:00

The office is buzzing with people COSing, people in for mid-service medical, and people in for reasons I know not.

Yesterday, I went to the Kyiv Opera Theatre in the early afternoon to get tickets to a show this week. My options were to go see a ballet by Tchaikovsky (the title being a Ukrainian word I didn't know) last night or the premier of the opera Yaroslav the Wise, which is about Ukrainian history, tonight. The ballet won out, easily.

Came back to the office and looked up Tchaikovsky's ballets on Wikipedia and discovered that I had a $4 ticket to go see The Nutcracker! (I had the opportunity to buy a $20 ticket, and once I knew what it was, I regretted not doing so, but it was fun anyway.) Three other PCV girls who were in the office also decided to get tickets, so while we didn't all get to sit together, we entered and exited together. :)

The ballet was wonderful. It was the first ballet I've seen. I've always been a very verbal person, and it was fascinating to see how a story could be told only through instrumental music and dance without any words at all. And I hadn't realized how much of the music I already knew!

saying goodbye

2007-12-11T08:24:00.000+02:00

I don't live in Balaklia anymore.

Let me backtrack...the weekend was spent alternating between social functions (visiting a nearby town to meet pupils there, which grew out of the teachers' seminar a few weeks ago and Robert's birthday party), cleaning my apartment (self-explanatory), and saying goodbye (neighbor kids, Julia, church, and the Yukhymets family).

Sunday was a difficult day for me. It was my last church service in Balaklia, and we had Communion. At the end of the service, the pastor prayed for me and my travels. Afterwards, we all took pictures and everyone hugged me and wished me well. Yula and Serogia were visiting her parents, and I was glad to get to say goodbye to them as well.

I spent the afternoon at the Yukhymetses'. Nadia had asked me earlier what I wanted to eat, and she made borsch, chicken and mashed potatoes, sour cabbage, and a salad that I love (it includes chicken, pineapple, mushrooms, onions, boiled eggs, and mayonnaise, and it tastes much better than you might think from that description), plus there was cake for dessert. The older kids were all being unemotional, for the most part (not an overly sentimental bunch, but I know they'll miss me), Valera just sat quietly all day (note: this is highly unusual), and the little kids just didn't get it.

Ihor (age 6): When's Miss Sally coming back from America?
Nadia: She's going to live there.
Ihor: But how's she going to go to church with us then?

Alosha (age 3) only understood that something about me was going on, so he walked around saying, "I love Miss Sally!"

At the end of the afternoon, Nadia videotaped me playing the piano, first singing by myself, and then singing with the kids. We all did goodbye hugs, and Nadia and I both cried and cried. I'm going to miss her so much. Then Vitaly and Oleh walked me home and peppered me with questions about what it's like to fly on an airplane.

Yesterday, I spent the day mailing out the last of my books, dropping stuff off at school, and cleaning my apartment, which included scrubbing my kitchen floor on my hands and knees. Let no one say that the American girl leaves a dirty apartment!

Robert, my director, Nadia, and Nadia's brother Tolik helped me get my bags to the train station ( the Y's van is currently more or less non-operable, and we made it to and from church on Sunday simply by the grace of God). I rode with Nadia and Tolik, and Nadia was crying. Back in October, I'd signed her birthday card, "your American daughter, Sally", and she remembered that.

Nadia, Oksana Yaroslavivna, and I stood around and talked for a bit before I needed to get on the train. I found out that Dasha, one of my 4th form girls, is legally a social orphan now. Her parents are still alive, but they hadn't wanted her, so they gave custody of her to her grandmother. Her grandmother died over fall break, and now no one knows where Dasha's going to go...quite possibly to an orphanage. Please keep her in your prayers.

Robert and I went out to dinner in Kharkiv, and then he got me on the train. This morning, I got in around 7:30, took what seemed to be a horribly expensive taxi to the office (but was told later that it actually wasn't that bad), and am now checking my email and chatting with other PCVs.

When I checked my email, I found this from two of my 7th formers:

Greetings of Ms. Salli. We very much on you have become bored. Had not time to get used to Olga Ivanovne yet. And how are you doing, how have reached? Excuse that could not lead you on a train. We very much love you and we miss. All class sends the regards to you. Good-bye, yours faithfully Arevik and Laura.

I know it's time for COS, time to come back to my life in the US. But sometimes, especially last night and right now, it's hard to leave.

for your amusement

2007-12-08T09:58:00.000+02:00

Taking time out from cleaning my apartment to blog...

As I was scrubbing baked-on grease off of my stove (ugh), I was reminded of a childhood misconception I had, brought on by this passage from L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Windy Poplars:

How that furniture shone! No bought polish ever produced that mirror-like gloss. I knew it was Rebecca Dew's elbow grease.

This led me to believe for quite some time that elbow grease was, in fact, actual grease of a homemade sort that was used for cleaning (not made of elbows, mind you, but something that a good housekeeper would make every year, like jams or jellies or homemade soap). I don't remember how I actually learned the truth...

ooh, it's going to be fun!

2007-12-05T23:48:00.000+02:00

Ever since I got Internet this past spring, I've been keeping an Amazon.com wishlist of books I want to read and CDs I want to listen to...not necessarily that I'd be buying them off of Amazon at some point, but more just to remember them for later.

Tonight, I got on the Interloan catalogue for Tamarack Library. Probably at least two thirds (if not more) of the books I marked are available through the inter-library loan system. (Although very, very few of them are actually at Tamarack.)

Cheryl, as soon as I get back to the US and either find my old library card or get a new one, you all at the library will be seeing a LOT of me, as I catch up on 2+ years of books!

well then, let's all make frumpy faces on the count of 3...

2007-12-03T14:45:00.001+02:00

In my earlier post, I forgot to mention that Oleh Yukymets, with a face like a thundercloud (same face he had in class on Friday) told me yesterday, "You're leaving, so I'm not going to learn English anymore."

Which I think translates into, "It really sucks that you're leaving and I'm going to miss you, but as an eighth form boy I can't say that. Therefore I'm going to make you feel bad about leaving." I tried to point out that he could use English to communicate with me after I leave, but he didn't want to hear that.

I think Nelya's going to have a challenge there.

Which all makes me wonder--does this make me an effective teacher or an uneffective one, long-term? :)

the last few days (with side notes on the Romani and Harry Potter)

2007-12-03T09:27:00.000+02:00

Olympiad results, because I'm sure you're all dying to know:

11th form: Olena and Katya finished up somewhere in the middle of the pack, which is a distinct improvement over last year, where they were at the bottom.
10th form: Zhenya tied for 3rd place in the rayon, and Oleh B tied for 4th place. Yay!
9th form: After 4 1/2 hours of checking papers (and correcting the incorrect official answer key), I left before the teachers checking the 9th form papers were done. Since that was last Thursday and I haven't heard anything, I doubt we did spectacularly well.
8th form: Oleh Yukhymets came in last place. :( He hadn't prepped for the olympiad, since we hadn't known that he could compete, and he goofed up on his writing--he was supposed to write about a short story competition. Instead, he recognized the word "competition" and wrote a page about a running competition he was in last year. He also apparently didn't do well in speaking. My goal since Thursday night has been to try and avoid talking about the results with him beyond "you didn't do very well," because I can't find it in me to tell him just how badly he did.

Friday was my last day at school. My kids all wrote me goodbye letters, which I have somehow misplaced in the half-packed mess that is my apartment, and the only one I remember right now is Lyuba, one of my sweetest and shyest 11th form girls, who wrote that she was sorry for not listening to me sometimes. Of all the children I taught (how odd to put that in the past tense), she's one of them who least needs to write that!

We had an assembly on the first big break. The director made a speech, Nelya made a speech, Natasha, our school president and one of my 10th formers, presented me with a gift from the student body (which, as faithful readers remember, I picked out), the little kids sang several songs for me, and I said a few words in Ukrainian and sang "Yesterday," because the music teacher knows how to play it. And lots of people cried--the director, Nelya, various students (including Vitaly Yukhymets, who told me this later, adding, "But I don't know why"), me (when we started singing the school song), and a very large number of the 4th form girls, who were convinced that this was an awful tragedy that Miss Sally was leaving, which made me cry all over again. I especially feel bad for Dasha, whose mom isn't in the picture these days and who lost one of her grandmothers over fall break. She just bawled, and I know it's not just that I'm leaving, but this is one more Big Person who's leaving her. Of course, Valera Y was also standing there, saying, "This isn't the last time I'm going to see you. We've still got church. Can I see your digital camera?"

After school, we had a teachers' party in the cafeteria. Robert had helped me go to the supermarket that morning and buy enough food for sandwiches, fruit, candy, and beverages for 35ish people, and I had baked three cakes--a chocolate chip torte, a carrot cake with maple-flavored cream cheese frosting decorated with walnuts (let's not talk about what happens when a oil-based cake recipe baked in a pan with removable sides drips down into a gas oven...my smoke detector works!), and a sour cream cake with orange juice-and-vanilla-flavored cream cheese frosting decorated with ABC 123 sprinkles. Everyone liked the cakes and wanted the recipes.

Once again, lots of nice speeches and toasts, and the teachers presented me with a traditional Ukrainian rushnik, or embroidered towel. It's the sort that's used at Ukrainian weddings when the parents present the newly married couple with bread and salt, is probably at least three feet long and decorated in red and black counted cross-stitch, and is WONDERFUL. They also gave me three napkins embroidered in traditional patterns, and the grandmother of one of the fourth form girls had embroidered a--wall hanging, I guess--of a bird sitting in a tree. I love embroidery, and it's very packable, which gives it big bonus points these days, as I struggle to fit two years' worth of memories into a suitcase, a duffel, a backpack, and a computer bag.

On Saturday, I slept in (first time in ages) and in the afternoon, went to a concert celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Balaklia Music School. The music was good, and I was amazed how many people I knew there. Seriously. It was a good way to mark how much community integration I accomplished.

At church yesterday, we had a group from a Romani (traditionally known as gypsies) church near Kharkiv come for the service--they sang in Russian and Romani, preached, and gave their testimonies. My church has been doing a lot of outreach with the local Romani population over the last year. We had several Romani there yesterday who don't usually come, and two of them prayed to accept Christ at the end of the service!

[Let me interrupt this post to say how much I love my church here, and this is one of the biggest reasons. The Romani have a reputation of being shiftless and dishonest, and our church, as far as I know, is the only church in town where they attend. On any given Sunday, it's quite likely that you can hear people singing in Russian, Ukrainian, Romani, and English at our church. Quite multilingual for a small-town church!]

After church, I spent the afternoon at the Yukhymetses'. I gave the kids a bunch of my stuff, which I was pleased to see they all liked. Nadia unknowingly made two of my all-time favorite dishes of hers, plov (a baked rice and chicken dish) and a salad of chicken, pineapple, mushrooms, cheese, boiled eggs (?), and mayonnaise (of course). Then she asked me what I want for dinner next Sunday, and I was like, "Well, we had it all this week!" So I think next week is going to be borscht and mashed potatoes and meat.

In the evening I went to the Kotlars' church, where I hadn't been in a very long time, because I know a lot of people there and wanted to say goodbye. I was glad I did--everyone was really friendly, and the pastor prayed for me at the end of the service. I'm not sorry I stopped attending there regularly after my first summer--getting home afterwards was always a challenge, and they're more conservative and separate from the world than I'm comfortable with, but they've always been very kind when I've visited and never suggested that I'm not a Christian because I don't believe exactly like they do.

Afterwards, I went over to the Kotlars, which was a nice visit, with 7 kids all around. (Guisella wanted to know if the Y kids are better behaved. Humph. Not particularly...wait, make that not at all.) The only awkward moment was when they were talking about how bad the Harry Potter books are, how they were written by a Satanist in order to lure children to the occult, and I just bit my tongue in the same way I would in the States.

(Sally's Official Position on Harry Potter: I don't find fantasy novels inherently evil. The books, especially as the series go on, get too intense for little kids, but I would have read them at that age anyway. They're not the greatest writing, and I think the issues of respect for the rules and authority are at times more of a concern than the magic, but I've read them all except Book 7 [ah, the glories of the US public library!], and I enjoyed them. Rowling does a good job of creating a world, and her little details are what make the books so much fun. Okay, random moment over.)

Anyhow, it was a good evening, and I was so glad I'd gone over there.

This week includes: Vlad (last tutoring session), Shevchenkos from church (taking a load of clothes over for Tanya), Andrey (last tutoring session), Robert's birthday party, a visit to Chervoni Donetsk Gymnasium (a school in a neighboring town), cleaning, packing, and who knows what else!

Oh, gobble, gobble, gobble / Fat turkeys are we!

2007-11-28T21:46:00.000+02:00

It was a good day, and a productive one.

Today was our big seminar for area teachers, with a focus on extra-curricular activities in English. Nelya had organized a debate between the senior classes (pupils from 9th-11th forms...don't get too excited, I did all the research and wrote their speeches, but they did have to develop oratorial skills), and I presented a segment of one of my English clubs about Thanksgiving with some of the 3rd and 4th formers. It all went well, and the teachers liked it, although I think they thought that it would all be too much work to duplicate on their own. One woman came up to me afterwards and said that this was her first interaction with a native speaker, and another woman wants me to come speak at her school next week (no rest for the wicked and the righteous don't need none).

Pictures!

Inna giving her speech

Robert (who was on the jury for the debate) and I...the entire American population of Balaklia

I really wanted to post my little kids with their Indian headbands, but Blogger is being fussy, so it'll have to wait.

Afterwards, we all had lunch in the school cafeteria; Nelya helped me make my shopping list for my goodbye party on Friday (in Ukraine, you throw your own party), which will have 35ish people at it; and I came home. Since coming home, I have baked a chocolate chip torte (one of the cakes for the aforementioned party), finished (I think) my Statement of Purpose for MSU, have a decent draft of a SOP for UMBC, made up certificates for my 7th formers (our last lesson is tomorrow), talked to Mom, and collected another bag's worth of books and school supplies to donate to the English department at my school (am taking a bag or two of stuff every day...since I never wrote a grant to get them a resource center, I might as well give them one!).

I'm being productive, I think, which is good. There's a lot more to do.

To my faithful readers (and I'm pretty sure I've got lurkers who aren't replying), thanks so much for reading my blog over the last twenty-seven months! Hopefully I've entertained you and given you a small taste of what my life looks like. I've been giving some thought to the post-Peace Corps future, and right now I'm leaning towards continuing to blog (with a new site, as I will no longer be Sal in Ukraine), with a mix of posts on daily life, adjusting to the US, applying to grad school, and Deep Thoughts. We'll see.

roll call!

2007-11-26T14:42:00.000+02:00

Ooh! Two posts in one day! I know, you can hardly believe it...

This is just a "fun" post about blogging. I use StatCounter to see how many hits this blog gets, and I've noticed that I've gathered a small, faithful collection of regular readers. Now I know that I know a fairly large number of you (I'm assuming that the majority of Michiganders are people I know, and Milwaukee and Fayetteville also need no explanation), but this is directed to all those lurkers out there who read my blog, both those who know me and those who just stumbled across me somehow.

Who are you? How did you find my blog, and what led you to keep reading it? I'm really curious. I love reading random people's blogs, so I'm glad that you found me. Also, for everyone who knows me in real life, you can also leave a comment, because I'm not exactly sure who's still reading this.

Also, for your amusement, key words that people had been searching for when they found my blog this month...here are the highlights:

~lots of permutations on "Ukraine," "Peace Corps," and "experiences". No explanation needed (although there have been a lot of "bad peace corps experiences" referrals, which probably didn't get them what they wanted).
~ukraine boys (my opinions on the breed are those of a teacher; once again, probably disappointed the searcher)
~plakhotnyk kyiv-the capital of ukraine (this has to have been another PCV searching for lesson plans)
~wears slips (well, I do...)
~balaklia milk combinat (I'm the only search result...)
~ukraine luxuries (hot water?)
~peace corps had sex (once again, disappointment for the searcher)
~christian missionaries in the peace corps
~bite your head off babushka (Tif should appreciate that one)

update

2007-11-26T14:02:00.000+02:00

Since some of my friendly audience of readers have been asking me why I haven't been posting much lately, I figured it was time for a post. The short answer to why this blog hasn't been updated is that I've got two and a half weeks left before my Close of Service (COS), and there have just been too many things going on. Between school, Peace Corps, daily life, grad school applications, cleaning out my apartment, starting to say goodbye, and watching Doctor Who episodes on YouTube as a way of relaxing when I can't take the rest of it anymore, I haven't had a lot of time for blogging or a lot of brain power to write intelligible thoughts that aren't connected to my Description of Service for Peace Corps or my Statement of Purpose for my grad school applications.

We celebrated American Thanksgiving last Friday night (worked better for everyone's schedules). Robert, Andrey, and Ira all came over for an American-style dinner of roast chicken (which in true family style wasn't done on time), stuffing, mashed potatoes, applesauce, shrimp dip with crackers, and carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting. It was fun for the Ukrainians to try American foods, and I had the small pleasure of having Andrey say he possibly couldn't eat any more, which is always what happens to me at Ukrainian social functions. We then played a few games of Uno, and Ira went through the pile of things I'm giving away. She looked like Christmas had come early, and they left with three bags of stuff. Yay! (I keep giving huge amounts of my possessions away. This place should look much more empty than it does...)

On Saturday, I went to School 2 for the English Olympiad. We'd originally been told that 8-11th formers could compete, but then were told that it had changed to 9-11th formers. As Nelya had told Oleh Yukhymets that she was planning to enter him, I had been disappointed that he couldn't compete, but that was how it was. Well, when we got there on Saturday, we found out that eighth fomers were in fact eligible but that no one had called us to tell us that this had changed. Nelya looked at me and said, "Why don't you call Oleh?" So I called their house and Nadia said he wasn't completely up yet, but if I thought he was prepared enough to compete, she'd send him. He showed up half an hour later, saying, "You told me I wasn't going to compete, so I didn't prepare and I don't know what's going on..." We found him a dictionary, gave him a pep talk, and sent him off to compete. We don't have the results until Thursday, but he thinks he finished in the middle of the pack. Apparently his speaking topic was about a car of the future. Wish I could have heard it!

I was on the jury for the 10th form, where we heard many, many speeches about the Harry Potter books and movies and that English is the language of shipbuilding. O-kay, then.

Today at school I had a conversation with my director, which, as usual, was not the highlight of my day. I got the impression that my landlady had had a lot of issues with the way I kept the apartment, but my director kept saying, "Don't worry, we'll fix the place up after you leave." I hadn't been worrying, honestly. Yes, I could have kept the place neater at times. But apparently she didn't like that I had hung posters up (with sticky tac). So why didn't she tell me this? If it bothered her, I didn't have to have them up! She apparently also was bothered that the wallpaper had peeled in spots, which has nothing to do with me and more to do with the pasting job of whoever put it up. And as I have no idea where one would buy wallpaper paste (or do they just mix flour and water?) and all the loose paper was up by the ceiling where I didn't interact with it (can one interact with wallpaper?), I hadn't done anything about it.

The director also told me (we have such cheerful conversations) that there had been an anonymous letter circulating at one point that I was here to teach her daughters English for free. As I met her girls maybe four times during two years and I don't believe we ever spoke English to each other, this seems laughable. She also told me that the secret police had kept a file on me during my time here. The head of the department for our area had shown her a paper where comings and goings of my visitors (particularly those from out of the country) were recorded.

This all left me with mixed reactions. One, it's a little weird to me to realize how little privacy I had. (How did they find out Jason's last name? Were people keeping track of who sent me mail? Who were the people gathering this information? What all did they know?) Secondly, as an American, it's weird for me to think of regarding foreigners with that much suspicion (okay, yes, I forgot the Patriot Act), but I realize that this comes from the Soviet legacy. However, my sense of humor helps--I can't help but feel that if they were expecting to find some nefarious American spy, they must have been disappointed. I taught school, made a few friends, and went to church (which was probably the weirdest thing I did here). I can honestly say that my conduct as a PCV was above reproach, and I had nothing to hide.

I leave Balaklia in two weeks. I fly home to the US in 17 days. These twenty-seven months have gone so fast...

randomness

2007-11-15T22:05:00.000+02:00

Go to Wikipedia and look up your birth day (excluding the year).
List three neat facts, two births and one death in your journal, including the year.

March 9

3 Events:
1796 - Napoleon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Josephine de Beauharnais.
1862 - American Civil War: The first battle between two ironclad warships, a five-hour battle near Hampton Roads, Virginian between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (originally known as the Merrimack), results in a draw.
1959 - The Barbie doll debuts.

2 Births:
1814 - Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet
1934 - Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut

1 Death:
1566 - David Rizzio, Italian secretary of Mary I of Scotland (Mary, Queen of Scots)

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev

2007-11-14T15:43:00.000+02:00

Today, I'm asking all my faithful readers for advice. As you probably know, I'm coming back to the US in four weeks (eek!). As you probably also know, I'm a voracious biblophile. So now I'm debating the best way to get my books back to the US. I probably have 20-25 books I want to ship back, many of them fairly small. The majority of them are in Russian or Ukrainian and would be hard to obtain in the US, and the remainder are ones that I particularly love or have sentimental value to me.

So...shipping. Because I really don't want to haul them in my suitcase, nor will I have room. I seem to have two options. The first is to go through EMS, a shipping company that some of my fellow PCVs used. They have a branch office in Kharkiv, so I'd have to haul my books up there, but it's closer than the main office in Kyiv. They charge a flat $40 to begin with, plus $4.17 per kilogram after that. It seems likely that I would have no worries about my box getting lost.

The other option is to go through my local post office. They said that the price goes up for each kilo, so they couldn't/wouldn't tell me how much things would cost exactly, but it would be roughly $30 for two kilograms. I'd only have to haul my books to the center, rather than two hours away. I've never had a package I sent to the US get lost, although some of them have taken their own sweet time in getting there (and let's not even talk about the postcards from Odesa, shall we, Mom and Tif?). However, if anything happened to my books, I would be a sad Sally.

(I would also, at my post office, have a very good chance of having to deal with the Mean Post Office Lady...Tif, I'm sure you remember her. She's one of the people in Balaklia who irritates me the most, not so much for her perpetual grumpiness and lack of helpfulness exactly, but that she goes to Andrey's church and is, as far as I know, a Christian and is STILL grumpy. I always want to say, "You know, we're sisters in Christ here. Can I get a smile?" It's not just me...she's like this with everyone. I think she must really hate her job.)

So...what do you think? Do I take a day to travel to Kharkiv and pay extra, or do I go to the post office and hope for the best?

~*~

I was at the copy center at the library today, this time for my own projects for the teachers' seminar, and Serhii Danilovich, the music teacher from my school, came in. He said that he'd seen how nice the booklets for the teachers' seminar I'd had printed at the library came out, and he also wanted some done the same way. (Except that he already had a dummy copy set up that just needed to be copied and the covers laminated.)

I'm not sure if the copy center ladies are going to hate me for sticking them with more booklets or love me for drumming up more business.

~*~

Serhii Danilovich and I had a nice chat after we got our copies done--a month or so ago, he'd requested a CD of American songs that dealt with topics other than love. I'd really gotten into the project and made him one with songs as varied as Alabama's "Forty Hour Week," Elvis Presley's "In the Ghetto," the Weavers' "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?", Nina Simone's "Work Song," and Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire," plus a few more. Translating them is a bit beyond my skill, but we sat down one day and I told him a few sentences about each song.

Well, the current topic in the 8th form curriculum is "Modern Music," and apparently all the kids were like, "Ukrainian music sucks and is boring but music in English is cool." Serhii Danilovich played segments of the songs I gave him and asked the kids what they thought the songs were about. "I don't know but it sounds cool!" was a popular answer. So he told them what the songs were actually about--social problems, the working class, etc.

He said that the kids looked horrified and are now avoiding conversations with him, as if talking to him will somehow make all their other "cool" music turn into musical political statements.

I love it when stereotypes are broken down!

Wuthering Soviet-style apartments...nope, doesn't have the same ring to it

2007-11-11T22:36:00.000+02:00

The literary character I most identify with tonight is Catherine Earnshaw. No, I'm not planning to haunt anyone, and Jason is definitely not Heathcliff (thank goodness). It's more that the wind is decidedly wuthering around my apartment building tonight, and thanks to my drafty windows, I get to experience this more fully than I'd prefer. (It doesn't help that in order to use the Internet, I have to have my laptop on my desk, which is right by the window.)

This past week was mostly spent working on a booklet for our teachers' seminar, which meant that I did a lot of typing in English and Ukrainian (so much fun typing in a different alphabet...note sarcastic tone) and made several trips to the copy center at the library. I think the one woman there sort of groaned inwardly whenever I walked in the door, because the teachers at my school wanted it all just so, but of course they sent the American to try and explain what they wanted when they hadn't told me clearly to begin with. I'm still not sure why they kept sending me...because the files were on my flash drive?

Went to Kharkiv on Friday for a goodbye party with the other oblast PCVs, as all the rest of Group 29 that's out here is leaving this coming week. Before the party, Robert and I went to the art market and I bought my going-away gift from my kids (which will now be given to them to give to me). I found a bread board with a Ukrainian cottage painted on it, which was what Nelya had suggested as a nice gift, and also a set of three paintings of flowers to hang as a set. I like them and they seem packable, which is a huge plus. Teresa came to the party straight from her goodbye party at her school, and she showed us the foot-and-a-half-tall ceramic vase that her school had given her. It was pretty, but I'm glad it's not my job to transport it back to the US!

32 days!

what the kids AREN'T giving me as a goodbye gift!

2007-11-05T16:04:00.000+02:00

I'm home again from my travels, although it's starting to sink in that Balaklia's only going to be "home" for the next five and half weeks. So much to do before that point...

I had a nice visit with the Malkos, visiting with Mama Luda, wandering around Zgurivka by myself and my memories of two years ago, and watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in Russian with Sasha, which was entertaining not just for the movie, but for Sasha asking me at several points to explain what was going on. Neither of us had seen the movie before, and it had been several years since I'd read the book, so I got a kick out of him asking me to explain a movie that we were watching in my third language.

My arrival home got off on the wrong foot (literally), as yesterday at 3:45 am at the train station, the combination of a heavy bag, poor lighting, uneven cement, and the urge to get to a taxi quickly (and therefore home) resulted in me falling, scraping a knee and twisting my ankle. So yesterday was spent resting at home.

Today, I taught my 7A form, and then had the rest of the day free to work on a booklet for our (yes, it appears to now be a plural possessive rather than just Nelya's) seminar, as out of the two of us, I'm much more computer literate. So instead of trying to drill English into kids' heads, I get to be home, keep off my foot, and listen to country music while typing. Today was just creating the bibliography for the debate I wrote before fall break (if I'd been thinking, I should have made a link folder of everything I referenced, but going back through my computer's history accomplished the same thing, even if it took longer), but I think tomorrow is going to be typing the introductory pages...in Ukrainian. But I have my little cheat sheet that tells me the key equivalents, so while it'll be tedious (I'm not nearly as speedy in Ukrainian), it'll be doable.

The kids at school have been collecting money to get me a going-away present which will be presented to me by the school parliament. It's supposed to be a big secret that I don't know about, but Nelya's been keeping me in the loop, mostly so she can get my feedback on what I'd like. We've decided on something of the handicrafts variety, and it looks like she's going to secretly give me the money this week so that when I go up to Kharkiv to have a goodbye party with all the oblast PCVs (Group 29 people are already starting to leave next week), I can go to the art market and buy something that I'd like. Then I'll bring it back to her, she'll give it to Natasha, the school president, and Natasha will present me with it on behalf of the school. I will be suitably surprised and pleased, and we will all be happy. Wow, Nelya and I are sneaky!

Plus, this means that I can choose something that will fit in my suitcase, which judging by the pile collecting in my room, is filling up quickly. I'm trying to limit the majority of my "stuff" to mementos, souvenirs, and gifts, but somehow that's a large pile in itself.

"What did the children suggest getting me?" I asked Nelya. We're agreed that some type of traditional arts/crafts would be the most appropriate, but I was curious what the kids had wanted to do.

Nelya rolled her eyes. "A large stuffed animal, like the teddy bear you use in class, only bigger," she said, gesturing with her hands to show a two-and-a-half-foot-high stuffed animal. (Family--remember Kate's Mr. Turkey? He could have a Ukrainian twin!) Picking out my own present sounds better all the time... :)

The English Olympiad is scheduled for Saturday, November 24. I don't have to miss church!

Don't Be Born Beautiful

2007-11-01T13:30:00.000+02:00

Six weeks from today! Wow...

Today I went on a DVD-finding mission to Petrivka, the biggest book/CD/DVD bazaar in Kyiv in order to find Ne Rodis Krasivoy. For those people who aren't aware of my mild obsession with the show, it's the Russian version of Betty La Fea, an Argentinian soap opera which the current US show Ugly Betty was based on. I watched it every night for six months, both when I lived with Marina and later on when I had my own TV. It was how I practiced both my Ukrainian and my Russian, since there were Ukrainian subtitles. And I just really liked Katya, the main character, who had brains but not beauty (although, of course, she had a makeover before the end...).

So anyhow, I decided to get the DVDs. A word of advice to Ukraine PCVs--if you find a show you like and you want to find the unlicensed DVDs (cheaper and also devoid of region settings), don't wait a year until after it goes off the air! I ended up finding episodes 101-200 (out of 200 total) for 50 hyrven, but wasn't able to get the first half, which are the episodes I haven't seen yet. One guy offered to sell me episodes 17-48 for 30 hryven, but that just seemed like it would complicate matters later on. One woman offered to sell me the entire series (after I had already bought 101-200) for 270 hyrven, but I would have had to come back and get them on a different day. So I think I'll either try Ebay or buy the licensed versions at Target in Kharkiv if my budget will allow it and hope that I can find a program for my laptop that lets me ignore region settings.

Off to Zgurivka tonight to visit the Malkos one last time!

cooking is fun

2007-10-31T14:48:00.000+02:00

Discovered while reading over Sean's shoulder at the office: a blog devoted to Soviet propaganda posters!

Last night, the five of us in our apartment (me, Erin, Jessica, Robert, and Matt) went on a shopping trip to a HUGE western-style supermarket to buy fixings for dinner. It was quite the experience, whether running around looking for the best deals on Parmesan-esque cheese, trying to decide between chicken vs. shrimp, and the ongoing discussion about whether or not olive oil was worth the exorbitant price that was charged. (We decided against it, which made the cheapskate in me happy. And I still don't think our food was lacking in any way.)

So then we came home and cooked. We did a big pot of vermicelli, and I made sauce--sauteed onions and garlic in butter, then added tomato paste, a little water, and Italian herbs, and chopped tomatoes. At the very end, after that had all simmered, we added in a small container of shrimp (the amount of which were very "shrimpy" in comparison with our huge amounts of pasta and sauce). Also, we found garlic/dill bread, which was a nice side dish. Yay cooking!

Today, we slept in, made omlets for brunch, and now I'm at the office. I officially don't have TB, if any of you were in the least concerned. (I wasn't.) I'd hoped to get an apartment with people again tonight, but it didn't work out, so I'm at the Bratislava tonight. Oh, well. At least they have hot water.

Tif, Harry Potter 7 is out in Russian. :)

russian lpi result

2007-10-30T15:36:00.000+02:00

Intermediate High on my Russian LPI!

Basically, that means that my spoken Russian is okay and I can carry on in full sentences and thoughts, but I slip into Ukrainian sometimes. Which isn't surprising. I just wanted to do the Russian to see what I've managed to do just from hearing Russian for two years but never formally studying it.

kyiv, the money pit

2007-10-30T14:35:00.000+02:00

I'm in Kyiv, doing my COS medical, shopping for Christmas presents for everyone I hadn't gotten yet (I'm quite fond of the t-shirts I found for various male relatives, having been able to match interests and shirts), hanging out with friends, and just generally feeling poor, as it seems to be impossible to do or eat much in Kyiv for less than 25 hyrven.

Facts of interest:

~a group of us have a very nice apartment just off of Maidun Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), which has worked out to about $17/night/person. Not bad, especially for Kyiv. If my sofa-bed didn't fall apart quite so easily, it'd be even better (and I thought I lucked out when I was the only person with my own bed!).

~COS medical was not a particularly pleasant experience, at least not the parts that I generally find unpleasant when doing a physical. However, Dr. Sasha was nice and gave me Valium to help me relax. I hate to think what it would have felt like without it.

~Related to that, when you're on Valium, don't try and find your way up Andrievsky Uziz (a twisty, turny little street with lots of art stands) by yourself to meet friends, especially when they think they're at the bottom of the hill but they're really halfway up. It's confusing.

~Last night, I went out for coffee (okay, hot chocolate and tea) with John, a guy I was a camp counselor with six years ago. Since then, he's converted to Orthodoxy and for the last three months, he's been in Ukraine serving as a short-term missionary at an orphanage for severely disabled children. We'd been hoping to connect up while we were both in the country, but hadn't been able to until last night, the night before he was leaving to go back to Michigan. It was neat to see how his experience here has compared to mine.

~I'm going to go take my LPI in Russian now. I'm still a little loopy, so this should be fun...

ta-da!

2007-10-25T09:25:00.000+03:00

Announcing my new haircut, which shows off my new curly look...

In my apartment, taken by me.
In my neighbor's apartment, showing off my new scarf.

I wanted my hair trimmed, but I hadn't expected it to be quite this short. However, I've quickly grown quite fond of it.

In an unexpected happening last night, I got stuck in an elevator an hour and a half before I was supposed to catch the elektrichka to Kharkiv in order to come to Kyiv. Fun stuff. I called Katya, a sixth-form girl who is the only person in the building whose phone number I had. She didn't understand and asked if she could come over and play. I called Robert, who headed over. In the mean time, I kept yelling, "Help! I'm in the elevator and can't open the door!" over and over until I got someone's attention. The elevator people came and got me out, and I made it to the elektrichka in plenty of time. Still, an experience I don't want to repeat.

still no heat in my building...

2007-10-23T17:51:00.000+03:00

Bits and pieces from my life, with a heavy focus on the Yukhymets kids (as usual):

~Vitaly (age 17) has taken to asking my opinion on various topics, generally religion-related, and sharing his thoughts with me as well. He's doing a lot of deep thinking for a high-schooler--highlights have included, "How would we have become Christians if God hadn't sent the Holy Spirit?", "Do you think it's wise that all children have a computer accessible at home?" (he's not convinced, due to many parents not providing supervision), "Do you think that money is evil?", and "Did you ever hear that some people believe we come from monkeys?" All of which have led into fascinating conversations.

~Vlada (age 14) really made my day last week. We were studying holidays in 8th form, and everyone had to say what their favorite holiday was and why. Vlada said, "My favorite holiday is Christmas because Jesus was born." That's the first time in two years of teaching that any of my Christian kids have made that bold a statement about their faith, and it made me so happy to hear.

~Oleh (age 13) is going to be one of our school's competitors for the 8th form level of the rayon-wide English Olympiad! I'm excited about this for several reasons. One, it's vindication to me that I've taught someone something over the last two years. Two, even though the olympiad material is going to be more advanced than Oleh's used to, it'll do him good to try and shoot high. Three, Nelya decided on her own without any imput from me to enter him as a participant...after she'd been considering more "academic" students. We've all come a long way in the last two years.

~On Saturday, I went to Barabashova, the largest bazaar in Ukraine (and one of the largest in Europe) to buy Kate's Christmas present. I found what I wanted at the price I wanted, and I didn't get lost. Go me!

~I didn't teach today, but instead spent the day at home typing up a lesson plan. Nelya and I are hosting a district seminar on the topic of debate at the end of November (the debate topic is the dangers of television), and we're also going to submit our lesson plan to an English-language newspaper for Ukrainian teachers. So I spent the day typing up affirmative and negative arguments about TV. Once I accept that it's simply not like it would be in the US, I feel better about it all, and I was able to work in information about AIDS and domestic violence, two huge problems in Ukraine. According to Amnesty International, 50-70% of Ukrainian women have suffered from domestic violence. Wow. I try and think about that, and my brain just refuses to comprehend, especially when I realize that means that 50-70% of women I know have dealt with abuse of some sort.

~Tomorrow I take the overnight train to Kyiv. From there, I'm going to be a mentor for a group of new trainees, do my COS medical, have a day or two unplanned, and then (hopefully) go to Zgurivka one last time to see the Malkos. So I won't be home for the next week and a half, but I'll still have Internet access at the office, so I'll try and post.

my new favorite time-waster

2007-10-18T21:29:00.000+03:00

I follow some online journal communities about applying to grad school. Today on one of them, a link was posted to FreeRice.com as a way to practice vocabulary.

This site is cool. It's a basic vocabulary quiz--you are given a word with four choices for synonyms. For every word you get right, 10 grains of rice are donated to a hungry person through an international aid agency. Apparently the idea is to support learning and fight hunger. I like this combination. 10 grains isn't much, but it does add up...I'm up to 2,000 grains donated today! (And since I'm supposed to be writing my statement of purpose for grad school, it's likely to increase before I go to bed...)

Also, it's fun to see how well I can do. There are 50 levels of difficulty, but apparently it's almost impossible to get beyond Level 48. I've ranged between 39-45, mostly around 43ish.

So all of you people trying to boost your vocab/waste time/make a difference...go play at FreeRice!

not my most interesting post, but bear with me, dear readers

2007-10-17T19:48:00.001+03:00

Today was fun. Sveta, the English teacher for the primary kids this year, is apparently not around for the rest of the month (college classes of some sort, I believe), and I'm teaching the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th forms twice a week each. They're so much more fun than my older kids, and their behavior's better, too! (Well, not always...but writing in their daybooks or putting their name on the board--in English--in order to tell their class teacher about it proves much more effective with 8-year-olds than 16-year-olds.) They're all excited every time they see me (we're on week 2 of 3 together), and it just makes my day.

(It makes me cringe just a bit when I realize that probably my older kids were once this sweet and enthusiastic as well and that these kids will eventually develop attitudes and no longer automatically think of school as "fun". Sigh...)

Really, my life is fairly uneventful and I don't know what to post. I bought two books of the non-graphic-but-still-stupid-but-I-want-something-to-read-British-historical-romance-novel-variety at the second-hand store today. I've bought several of the genre by various authors over the last year, and I'm beginning to think that the defining characteristics are a) coal mining is involved, b) someone (not necessarily the protagonist) has an illegitimate child, and c) household maids will, in fact, end up marrying the master of the house after his first wife dies. I cannot wait to be in a country with a decent public library with books in English and interloan services.

Let's see...what else... Oh, I've been trying the Curly Girl method with my hair, with mixed results. I definitely get curls, but I'm so used to brushing them all out every morning that keeping it curly tends to look a little strange to me. But I've been having fun experimenting (I bought hair sticks!) and have gotten several positive comments from kids at school (plus Oleh Y's "How did you do that?" Me: "It's a female secret. I'll tell Vlada but not you.").

Tonight I experimented, not with my hair, but with cooking. I made pizza sauce, sauteed a very small onion, diced up kolbasa (hard sausage) and tomatoes, grated some mozzarella cheese, boiled penne pasta, mixed it all together with a bit more mozzarella and Parmesan on top, and baked it "until bubbly", as the cooking websites I checked out for baked penne said. (I also made garlic-cheese bread.) The result was really good, except that I misjudged the amount it would make and had more than I could eat. Nice hearty food for a cool autumn evening!

I really should go work on my statement of purpose for graduate school...

rain, rain, go away

2007-10-13T18:56:00.000+03:00

Yes, I know I haven't posted all week. It's not been that interesting of a week, honestly. I teach, I come home tired, and then in the evening I either tutor someone or work on grad school stuff/spend time on the Internet. Oh, and I tried a brown sugar scrub for my hair (you mix brown sugar and conditioner and rub it into your scalp), which would have worked well except that I managed to break a tea cup in the bathtub during the process.

Today was a dreary, rainy day. I'd thought about going shopping in Kharkiv, but stayed home because Nadia said that today was a good day to come over and do laundry. Since it intermittently poured and drizzled all day, I'm glad I did so. It really hit home that I'm leaving in exactly two months, and that once I leave, it's not like I can just stop over whenever I want.

Oleh decided today that since I learned Ukrainian in three months, he's going to use the next two months to intensively learn English. Both parents pointed out that he'd already had almost two years with me, and why hadn't he put more of an effort in earlier? He told me today that he wants to be a translator. I could see it happening, if he ever put any effort into learning some grammar. We had a half-hour conversation in English today, all about Bible stories (Noah and Samson), school, my relationship with Jason, and Yanna, a girl he is friends with who lives on the other side of the country (they met at a wedding, he doesn't think they're related, and she is NOT his girlfriend...or so he says).

I'm coming home two months from today. That seems so weird to me, and closer than I'd realized. Not bad, just surprising.

Teachers' Day

2007-10-05T21:25:00.000+03:00

Today we celebrated Teachers' Day, which was actually on the first of October, but the rayon-wide celebration was today. I've become an old curmudgeon of a teacher at the age of 24, because when I heard that we had half-hour classes today in order to have a concert celebrating the holiday, my first reaction was, "Oh, why do we have to celebrate this? Thirty minutes isn't enough time to get anything done, and the kids'll be wild..."

It worked out okay, though. The morning was, of course, crazy, but the concert was nicely done (and I ended up doing a solo of "Yesterday"...without a rehearsal, as I was asked to sing twenty minutes beforehand). Then this afternoon, there was a rayon-wide concert for teachers at the Palace of Culture. It was also nice...better than last year, which had a Horoscope/Zodiac theme. This year didn't really seem to have a theme. But each school was given enough boxes of chocolates for the attendees (maximum 15).

Although I have to say that the best part of the concert at the Palace of Culture was listening to the recording of instrumental music being played before things got started. One of the songs seemed to have a bit of a country feel to it, which surprised me, as this country doesn't know much about country. Much to my amusement, as I listened more closely, I realized that it was a jazzy instrumental version of "Achy Breaky Heart". As good as it will be to come home, where am I ever going to have things like that happen in the US?

After the concert, our "jensky kolekteev", or "faculty that's 99% female and the one guy didn't come" went out to a cafe for dinner and dancing. The food was good, the dancing was fun, and even though I didn't talk much, it was neat to be with the other teachers in a social setting where they let their hair down. In my director's case, literally--she has waist-length brown hair that she always has up in a braided bun, and when we were dancing, she let it hang loose, much to our amazement (several pictures were taken for proof that this happened, but unfortunately, not by me).

But the best part of Teachers' Day for me was reading the final drafts of a writing project that my 8th form has been working on for a week. I had assigned them in groups and given them an assignment: they had to write a story, minimum 10 sentences, on whatever topic they wished, but they had to use a list of words I gave them (which included vocabulary words, plus a few I threw in because I wanted to see what they'd come up with...yes, I am an evil teacher, thank you for asking). They turned in their rough drafts earlier this week, I corrected for spelling and grammar (trying to preserve their...um...interesting sentence structure while correcting verb tenses and such things), and they rewrote the stories. I think they're absolutely wonderful, especially because they came up with all the ideas themselves, so I decided to post them online for all of you. (So anyone who doesn't feel like reading them, the Sally-written part of this post just ended. Goodbye!)

~*~

During this summer holidays, the pupils of our form decided to visit the grave of Taras Shevchenko [a famous Ukrainian poet] in Kyiv. The senior pupil decided to take care of the pig this summer. Sometimes I watched TV. Also, I helped about the house. When the autumn came, we summed up our summer work. The harvest was very good. There were many fruits and vegetables. We were glad. We gathered together and ate shish kebobs. We liked our holidays. We had good results this year. We hope our next summer holidays will be so good.

Yukhymets Vlada
Obiznyi Artur
Melerska Natalia

[attached was an illustration of two children playing by a river]

~*~

My Last Summer

Last summer I was in Kyiv. There I went in parks and streets. And in one harvest I saw many pigs. They ate shish kebobs and watched TV. They decided that they do away with senior pupil. Then they summed up all the yeses and nos. They decided to put him in the grave and bury in the ground. I saw this all and went to the Kyivska militia. I told this all to the militiaman. He went with his colleague and they arrested all these pigs. In evening I saw this pigs on TV, in the rubric of criminal offenses. Tomorrow I will have from the militiaman a medal and a sign. Then I will come to Balaklia and tell about this but my friend won't believe me. But I will show them my medal and sign. I don't know where these pigs are. But I know I'm won't see some more of them.

~*~

"My Summer"

Summer is the favorite season of the year. This summer we decided to visit the grave of Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv. We visited it with the senior pupils and our teachers. I like this famous poet. The harvest was good this summer. We gathered many fruits and vegetables this year. Sometimes I watched TV. I saw many programrs, but my favorite was the program about the pig. When we celebrated my birthday we ate shish kebobs. When I summed up the summer holidays, I found that this holiday was very good!

With love: group #4
write--Oleh;
notion--Vitya;
head master--Maksym;
Sasha--did nothing.

The end

~*~

My Summer Story

In summer holidays I met with Katya and Dima. We went on a picnic. We ate shish kebobs with a big pig. The senior pupils helped us. We summed up and divided the collution [collection?] of the harvest. We made supper. We watched TV. We dug a grave and pulled a bird. We went home and amused ourselves. We played tennis and volley-ball. We played [a word they didn't know in English and I don't know either]. We listened to music. I spent much time with my friends.

Group N 1

~*~

My Summer Story

In summer I often met with Roma and Tanya. They are my friends and we want to just narrate our story. We watched TV. And we saw how to slaughter pig. From the pig they made shish kebabes. We summed up and decided to make sish kebabes too. Roma had a pig. We slaughtered the pig, and put the bones in a grave. But with meat we made shish kebabes. Senior pupils helped us. I and Tanya collected the harvest. And we made salad. We laid the table and we had supper. We ate well with shish kebabes. We had a good jolly time in the summer holidays.

[attached is an illustration of the grave, the shish kebobs being cooked, and the three friends at the table eating supper]

~*~

Let us tell you of Ilona, Dasha, and Alina's trip to New York

We have gone to New York for one year. It was at the end of September, when our parents gathered in the harvest. When we girls arrived, everyone was preparing for Halloween. We went to one of the New York schools and met people our same age. And we very strongly befriended one girl and also her brother, a senior pupil. She told us about her capital, and we told her about Kyiv. On the following day, she invited us to her home for shish kebabs. She regaled us with tasty tea and cookies, and we watched the television set. Then she brought us a dish of pork, pig meat. We went in a church and saw the grave of a holy saint. One day I quarreled with Dasha because of Judy's brother. Alina helped us decide our problem. We took plenty of videos. We very happy, but it was already time to go and we invited Judy to visit on her holidays. When we arrived home we often watched our film. This was an unforgettable trip.

Valera's Thoughts on Christian Marriage

2007-10-02T09:10:00.000+03:00

Conversation between Valera, Liza, and I at the Yukhemetses' on Sunday afternoon.

Liza: How old are you?
Me: 24.
Valera: But you can get married at 22! [not sure where that figure came from] Why aren't you married?
Me: Um...it hasn't happened yet. I'm waiting. So when are you getting married?
Valera: I'm only 10!
Me: Well, I meant later anyway. And who are you going to marry?
Liza: He's going to marry Lilia [a girl in his class]!
Valera: [horrible face] No, I'm not! She's not a Christian, and you can't marry non-Christians, right?
Me: Right.
Valera: And you can't marry your sisters, either.
Me: Riii-ght.

Good to know he has the basic requirements for Christian marriage down. :)

Not much is going on these days...well, actually, I'm quite busy, but none of it's huge. School has more or less settled down into a routine, I'm tutoring four people this semester outside of school hours--Julia, Andrey, Andrei-who-fell-off-the-roof (who is much, much better but not going to school this year, so we provide home-bound instruction), and Vlad, who is a manager for a grain elevator in a village near here run by Cargill, which is apparently a huge international company. We talk farming, which is fun for both of us and good practice for what he actually needs English for--to advance in the company. In addition to all of this, I'm working on grad school apps and cleaning out my apartment.

In case any of you want to know what sort of country I live in, here's a description, courtesy of a site devoted to romantic phrases in Ukrainian (perhaps for wife hunters?):

Ukraine is the land of love. The people have ledgendary [sic] beauty and are raised in a dreamy snowy naturalistic landscape far from the distractions of the west. Most people here have a classical education that is rich in literatire [sic] and romantic classical music. I beleive [sic] that when you grow up with less stimulation, such as in Ukraine, your mind develops its own stimulation in the form of fantasy and dreams. This is why Ukraine's people are true romantic and love is possible.

Sounds like a great country...I'll have to check it out sometime!

I'm reviewing the situation*

2007-09-27T08:09:00.000+03:00

Two funny anecdotes from this week about the problems of misperception:

On Tuesday, I was talking with Serhii Danilovitch, the music teacher at school. We were discussing everything from my fast-approaching departure to the European Union. He said to me, "Two years ago, when you came to Balaklia with a lot of luggage [suitcase, duffel, heater, backpack, computer bag, and I don't remember what else], we all thought, 'Oh, she brought all sorts of clothes...the latest in American fashions.' But instead, you had books and a laptop!" I laughed. "Yeah, I brought teaching supplies, because I knew it would be hard to find English books." "Who needs a lot of clothes anyway?" he said. It was funny, because anyone who knows me knows that when it comes to my priorities, books rank much, much higher than clothes...but that's not the stereotype that people here see in American pop culture. So that made me happy, that I've helped break down the idea that all Americans are highly fashion-conscious.

Although I do wonder if some of my girls were actually disappointed that I didn't have all sorts of new fashionable clothes.

The other story goes back to when Brandi was here. I was at school one day, when the secretary came down to the teachers' room and said, "Your landlady's coming by to get the key to your apartment." Land gentry (to use the term that Tif and I coined) in Ukraine can come into your apartment whenever they please...they don't have to give advance notice nor make sure that you're there. The landlady didn't come, and half an hour later, the secretary came back down and said, "You need to go home. The landlady called again and said that there's someone there who won't let her in." Knowing that Brandi was home, I thought that there must have been some sort of communication breakdown, so I headed home. Three-quarters of the way there, I met Brandi coming to school to get me. She had, in fact, told the landlady through gestures and a phrasebook that she and her male companion could come in, but the woman had seemed very upset about something. Brandi had tried to say that I'd be home soon and that she could go get me, but the woman didn't seem to understand anything that she was trying to get across. Brandi thought that perhaps I was getting evicted so that my landlady's son could move into the apartment.

By the time I got to the apartment, the landlady and her companion were gone. The across-the-hall neighbor assured me that I wasn't getting evicted, but I didn't understand what she said about what had actually happened. And therein ended Chapter One.

Yesterday morning, I ran into my friend Natalia at the bazaar. She apparently knows my landlady's family, and said that in fact, it had been my landlady's daughter-in-law who had come to scope out the place because they're moving in at some point after I leave in December. The daughter-in-law had never met me, and therefore assumed that Brandi was me. Apparently she said to Natalia that she was confused, because she thought I knew at least rudimentary Russian/Ukrainian, and she couldn't figure out how on earth I managed to teach the kids at school when I all I could say in Russian was, "I don't understand." I know that Brandi tried to let her know that I was at school, but if she had already made up her mind that Brandi was me, I guess Brandi's talk of school probably confused her all the more.

So there you have it...why you should always make sure of your facts before drawing conclusions!

*Bonus points to whoever knows what musical my post title is from.

Beowulf and the little pig (Fall cleaning, part 2)

2007-09-19T15:36:00.001+03:00

The formatting on my previous post turned weird, so I had to split this up into two posts.

Next up for your reading pleasure is a poem about Beowulf that I wrote for my 8th form practicum class that I worked with during Pre-Service Training. If I recall correctly, they had been learning about Beowulf in their textbook, so I wrote this poem for them and cut it up into couplets. They had to put it back together using their knowledge of the story.

Beowulf was a hero,
He was a very brave knight.
He came to Denmark to help his friends,
Who asked him if he'd please fight.
So he fought the monster Grendel
And killed it with his sword.
Then he went back to the castle
And became king as a reward.
Later Beowulf fought a dragon,
But sadly, both of them died.
"Take care of my country," he said,
And all his country cried.

That was obviously when I was a rookie teacher and much more ambitious in lesson planning!

Although on the subject of lesson planning, I had a really good lesson with my 11a class yesterday. The topic was "Love and Marriage", and we matched up famous couples, ranked various traits in potential partners from 1-10 (moderately appalled both at how high "beautiful/handsome" and how low "religious"were marked, but these are Ukrainian teenagers), had a discussion about relationships, and brainstormed romantic phrases in English. The kids participated really well, even some of the boys who usually do nothing. Their hometask was to write a love letter in English, and four girls actually did so (with several others telling me that they had written love letters in Russian but weren't sure how to translate them!). The results were highly entertaining, and if I get a chance later this semester, I'll snag their copybooks long enough to post some excerpts. My favorite was Vika's, who began, "my dear little pig", which apparently is a term of endearment in Ukraine. I explained to Vika that in the US, it probably wouldn't be appreciated quite as much.

Fall cleaning, part one

2007-09-19T15:09:00.000+03:00

With less than three months left in Ukraine, I have suddenly been struck by the need to start sorting through 2 years' worth of assorted clutter, so as to not be stuck doing it all at the last minute. I have four(ish) divisions: Throw Out, Keep, Give to My School, and Give to Anyone Who Will Take It (subtitled "Where Did I Get This?"), plus Things I Will Use Before Leaving But Won't Take to the US. I'm pleased to report that Keep is the smallest one so far...or at least, it was before I added a large number of Ukrainian language manuals to the pile. I just hate to pitch them, knowing that if I want to keep up with my language in the States, I'd have a hard time finding a lot of stuff.

Most random find: a yo-yo. I have no idea where it came from...maybe the box Brockway sent me last fall?

And of course, going through papers means a trip down Memory Lane. To begin with chronologically, my personal definition of being a successful PCV that I wrote at Staging back in Chicago almost two years ago.

"I will know that I am a successful Volunteer when I am looked at as a member of my community, rather than an outsider. I probably will never be fully integrated, but when I can start to feel at home, when my students see me simply as their teacher rather than that American who's teaching English, then I'll be on my way. When I've had a good day because my students wanted to learn, because I've had meaningful conversations in Ukrainian, because I begin to realize how much I will miss my host community when I am back in the US, then I will start to become, in my mind, a successful Volunteer."

Wow. By that definition, I've been successful here, because all those things have come true. Something for me to remember when I get frustrated by everything I haven't accomplished here.

Excerpts from the first few pages of the notebook I used during Pre-Service Training (flipping further through it, I was appalled at how bad my spelling was in Ukrainian). Many of these words of wisdom come from higher-ups in PC Ukraine giving us advice in the first few days. They're in order, although I'm skipping some.

Read first 30 pages of med. book--administrative section [first note]
voda bez gas--water w/o gas
"Stop worrying. You just lost control of your lives for a while." Linda Wiley, PCMO
Nobody learns a language in 3 months!
being a PCV=like being in love--moods change, but hopefully you end w/feelings of victory
during the 1990s, Ukrainians lost 60% of their income--during the Great Depression, the US lost 25%
the Secret Police will know what I'm doing [in retrospect--really? if so, they were really secret]
don't photograph gov't buildings or transportation [broken by every single PCV, self included]
during training, think through whether or not I want to be here
you have to learn before you can share
babushka--old woman who knows everything

perhaps biting off more than I can chew, almost literally

2007-09-17T08:52:00.000+03:00

Mom and I were talking last night about people making irrational/poor/not well thought out decisions. Well, here's my decison of the week that has the potential to fall into that category (although not necessarily).

For the harvest festival at church next Sunday, I signed up to bring enough cookies for 100-110 people. (According to Mom, 12 dozen should be about right. I think that's gross. Yes, I like puns.)

I volunteered at church yesterday, and then afterwards, when I got to the Yukhemetses', Nadia, who had stayed home with the little kids, was basically like, "You're crazy. Call Tanya (the woman who's organizing the food for the harvest festival) up and tell her you've changed your mind." But I have to remember that this is coming from a woman with 10 children, who would be crazy if she tried to bake 12 dozen cookies (at least, over and above what she already cooks).

Vitaly put in a request for no-bakes, and I found a no-peanut butter version. Making cookies that don't involve peanut butter, chocolate chips (although I can cut up chocolate bars), and much brown sugar (I have maybe a cup and a half left, and getting more would involve going to Kharkiv) makes life challenging. I'm leaning towards half no-bakes and half either applesauce cookies or something to be determined. Does anyone have easy cookie recipes that make a lot?

wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles

2007-09-14T20:38:00.000+03:00

GRE scores:

740 Verbal
710 Quantative (Math) !!!!!
Analytical writing: still unknown for the next few weeks

Many thanks to everyone who prayed for me and was supportive. I'm really excited about my results, and I'm thankful to God for enabling me to do this well.

LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) results:

Advanced Mid in Ukrainian, which basically means that I can carry on conversations with people who aren't used to talking to non-native speakers but that I'm not quite to the level of being able to rant for ages about theoretical topics. Also cool.

I spent the afternoon visiting Rita, a PCV friend of mine who lives about an hour and a half away from Kyiv. In her town, there's a really nice outdoor museum that includes a building about Sholem Alecheim, who wrote a collection of stories entitled Tevye's Daughters, which was later made into the musical Fiddler on the Roof. This is what prompted me to go, even before I knew that Rita lived there, but actually the rest of the museum was more interesting. We saw 500-year-old stone crosses, climbed a rickety wooden ladder to ring a bell, and chatted in Ukrainian with some old ladies who worked there and convinced them to sing a folk song for us.

And now I'm headed home again!

countdown: 4 hours, 15 minutes

2007-09-13T09:45:00.000+03:00

In Kyiv...left Brandi at the bus station and came to the office...GRE is at 2 pm.

Eeee!

Gulp.

Hmm.

I think it'll be okay.

Brandi's visit (and a bit about Oleh Y)

2007-09-12T15:54:00.000+03:00

Recap of Brandi's visit:

~Saturday: We went up to Kharkiv, went out to lunch at my favorite Italian place, and wandered around the city. In the evening, we stopped by the Yukhemetses' house to celebrate Vlada's birthday (which was Tuesday). Unfortunately, Spunky, the Y's little yappy dog, didn't realize that Brandi is actually fairly harmless, especially to dogs, and bit her on the arm. She's fine, although she ended up with a bit of a nasty-looking bruise.

~Sunday: The two of us, along with a group from our church, went down to Saventsi (about half an hour away) for the ten-year anniversary of the church there. We sang "You Are My All in All" in English and sat through a three and a half hour church service. (When Viktor asked me later why we only sang one song, I told him that we didn't want the service to go any longer!) However, it was a nice service, and encouraging to hear how the church has grown from 22 to 45 members. Which, for a village in eastern Ukraine, is awesome to hear!

~Monday: School was not the best--my 11th form slacked off, and I had tears in both my 7th and 8th form classes. The 7th form girl cried because she didn't want to sit where I told her, and the 8th form girl cried because Oleh Yukhemets had hit her. I don't know who or what started it. That night, Viktor, Nadia, and I all talked with Oleh, and he denied it happening. He's really being difficult lately, and it's frustrating for Viktor and Nadia. Prayers for him and them would be deeply appreciated.

After school (Brandi stayed home and raided my bookshelves), we went over to the Y's to visit and do laundry. We played Uno and Go Fish with the kids. The kids, especially Oleh, really tried to use the English they know (I'm learning how you can be both disappointed in and proud of a kid all in the same day).

Yesterday and today, I've taught and Brandi's done her own thing during the day, and tonight we head up to Kharkiv and from there to Kyiv. If you think of us tomorrow, please pray, as Brandi begins her 33 hour bus ride back to Germany and I take the GRE!

massive update

2007-09-06T22:20:00.000+03:00

Um. Yeah. I haven't posted in almost two weeks.

Would it help if I told you that I was at COS Conference and didn't have computer access, and then when I got back to Balaklia, I was trying to get ready for school and Brandi's visit, and now school's started and Brandi's actually here?

Yeah, I didn't think so. You're a tough audience, you guys.

[This blog post was interrupted by a conversation between Brandi and I about who would play me in a movie in which, similar to Joan of Arc, I heard crackers and peanut butter calling my name, led France (or maybe Ukraine) into battle, was burned at the stake, and was eventually canonized as a saint. My options were Angelina Jolie and Drew Barrymore. I voted for the latter. I'm sure it'll be a box office hit.]

So anyhow...when I last posted, I was in the charming city of Uzhgorod, on the Ukrainian/Hungarian/Slovakian border. While there, I went to an evening worship session of a conference about Messianic Judaism, complete with lots of dancing and songs in Hebrew. The next morning, I went to the Methodist church. I met an American missionary (from Traverse City...small world!), who told me that the church has two services--the morning service, which I attended, was geared more towards "recovering Orthodox", with an accapella choir, while the evening service had a lot of young people and was more charismatic in nature, which I hadn't expected from a Methodist church.

COS Conference...wow. I don't even know where to begin. Out of the 116 people who left Chicago to come to Ukraine (115 made it, we left one in Frankfurt when she lost her passport), 74 are still here. I saw people I hadn't seen since our swearing-in ceremony. We sat through all sorts of sessions on finishing up our service here and looking ahead to post-PC life (does it exist?), hung out past midnight talking, and tried to realize that our time here is coming to a close.

One of my favorite experiences from COS Conference was riding a chair lift up a mountain and back, 40 minutes each way. At the top, we got off and walked around, enjoying the view of more mountains with little villages tucked into the valleys. However, it started off less than wonderfully--Mona, the girl I was in the chair with, and I couldn't get our lap bar down for almost five minutes, so we were each trying to pull it down with one hand while holding on tight with the other. Fortunately, we finally got it down and then were able to properly appreciate the mountain beneath us without worrying that we'd fall out and make its personal (painful) acquaintance.

From the conference, I spent an afternoon in L'viv (as beautiful as ever), took a 22-hour train ride back to Kharkiv, and arrived home in Balaklia on Friday evening, just in time to go to the First Bell ceremony the next day celebrating the beginning of school. At First Bell, the students always give the teachers flowers, and at the end of the day, I had 28 roses and 7 chrysanthemums. Seriously. I doubt I'll ever get 28 roses on one day again!

School has been a bit topsy-turvey this week. Our zavuch, or assistant principal, decided to step down from her role that she's had for the last umpteen years and go back to only being a physics teacher. (She's seemed happier this week than I've ever seen her...just smiling and smiling...) The administration's known this all summer, but they hadn't found anyone to take over her responsibilities...such as making the class schedule for the school. So on Monday morning, we didn't have a schedule past that day nor anyone in charge of making it. However, by the end of the school day, Olha Ivanivna, who is the other English teacher and also the zavuch in charge of organizing parties and concerts, decided to take on the task for One Year Only, and one of the Ukrainian language/lit teachers took over her position. So we've had a day-by-day schedule for this week only as Olha Ivanivna is learning her new position and trying to do the permanent schedule, which is not computerized, but instead has to be all worked out on paper. And we all keep popping in her office to see what classes we're supposed to be teaching and when. Poor woman. She said today that she hasn't really been sleeping and she sees numbers in front of her eyes all the time.

Brandi arrived at 3:45 on Tuesday morning after traveling 48 hours by bus and train from Germany through Poland to Kyiv and then to Balaklia. We've had a good time catching up on each other's lives and discussing the pros and cons of our respective apartments--she has hot water, but I have high speed Internet; I have a lot more space, but she has hot water, etc. She's come to school with me and gotten acquainted with my kids. I have my 11A form 5 times a week (in hopes of getting them ready for exams), so today and yesterday I sent them out in the hall in small groups of 2-3 students to practice talking with a native speaker. I was a little worried, but apparently they spoke English (even the ones I didn't think knew how!) and were polite. Yay!

a lovely little place

2007-08-25T16:00:00.000+03:00

Yesterday was Ukrainian Independence Day, and Uzhgorod was apparently the place to be. Wandering around for a while, I found an outdoor concert of traditional Ukrainian music and dancing, with performances from groups from all over Zakarpattia. I watched for a while, eating shashlik and cotton candy. Western Ukraine definitely does the traditional stuff well.

Slept in a wonderfully comfortable bed last night, the best I've had in quite some time (and the bathroom here is in the top five I've seen in Ukraine). Breakfast comes with the price of the room, so this morning I had homemade blinchiki (thin pancakes) with domashnii syr (sort of like cottage cheese), sour cream, and fruit preserves. It's a great place, but it's a little odd for me, after having host families, to have Ella ask, "So what time is best for you for breakfast in the morning?" I'm used to Mama Luda or Marina saying, "Breakfast is at ______," and then I make sure I'm up on time. :)

Today, I met up with Oksana, the secretary at Wesley Bible College, and she showed me around. It's quite small...they were originally in Kyiv but moved to Uzhgorod a year ago due to a fire in Kyiv, and last year they only had 5 students. But the facilities are nice, and Oksana and I hit it off well (she's a couple of years older than I am). We had tea and cookies and got to know each other a bit. She lives with her parents part-time but tends to have a lot of several-month-long house-sitting jobs, which I could relate to. The church she goes to (not the Methodist one here, but another evangelical church in town) is hosting a seminar on Israel this weekend, and she invited me to come tonight--apparently there's going to be music, perhaps dancing, and preaching. Should be interesting.

Then I came back to the center and wandered around. I sat on a bench and listened to an old street musician play his violin, bought myself a new black skirt for winter (on sale), and went to "Tortilla" for a late lunch. "Tortilla," despite its name, isn't really Mexican at all. I had the Hutsul-style pork (the Hutsuls are an ethnic group from this area) with homestyle fried potatoes. It ended up being a pork steak stuffed with hard salami, mushrooms, and what was either some sort of cheese or boiled egg white, all under a white sauce. It tasted very good, but it's so hot out and the food was heavier than I'm used to, being more Central European in style, and I couldn't manage to finish it. But it was good!

Polish numbering, Carpathian mountains, and a Ukrainian Greenfield Village

2007-08-24T17:26:00.000+03:00

The most pleasant train ride yet of my journey was the Odesa-L'viv journey of 12 hours last night. I shared a compartment with a young woman who'd been volunteering at a children's camp in Turkey and spoke English, and a mother and son (college age). The three of us young people spent much of the evening chatting, teaching each other card games, and playing Battleship on grid paper.

Funny story about the train. I was in Car 17, but the train only went up to 14. Asking a nearby conductor at the Odesa station, she told me, "It's the last car down there, past Car 1." Bemused, I went down there, trying to find Seat 96 when the seats only went to 36. Since my conductor had told me I was in the last compartment, I figured it out. Later on, someone else in my compartment asked the conductor why the numbering was strange. "It's the Polish way of numbering," the conductor answered, to which the questioner replied, "They count differently there?" Jason, feel free to chuckle. I thought of you.

I'd been a bit concerned, because the woman at the train station in Kharkiv where I'd bought my tickets had told me that I'd have to change trains in L'viv, and I knew I only had 20 minutes. As it turned out, I didn't have to change trains. The train changed numbers (from 108 to 107--more Polish numbering?), and I had to change compartments, as I had a second-class ticket for the first part and third-class for the second. I don't know why the woman couldn't have told me earlier that I'd be on the same train...I understand that apparently there weren't spots for one class or the other that were free the entire trip when I bought my tickets.

The ride from L'viv to Uzhgorod was beautiful. We went through the Carpathian mountains, which were full of hamlets composed of cottages, haystacks, and little Orthodox churches. I made the mistake of starting on a practice GRE before we really got to the mountains, with the result that neither got the attention it deserved. But I loved the mountains. The train went through several, via tunnels!

Uzhgorod is actually on the other side of the Carpathians, as best as I can tell. It's a charming small city that reminds me of when my missions trip to Cologne two summers ago (is that all?) took a day trip to a German town. The streets are hilly and cobblestoned, and the buildings are beautiful, with several old churches. This afternoon, after a lovely shower at the place I'm staying, I went up to an old castle, which now houses a historical museum of the Transcarpathian Oblast. After that, I went to an outdoor museum composed of various houses and other buildings from various cultures that have lived here--very much a Greenfield Village sort of place, except that the people didn't wear costumes.

Tomorrow, I'm meeting the secretary from Wesley Bible College, and on Sunday, I'm leaving late enough (there was only one train available, so it wasn't like there was a choice, unless I left at 4 am) that I can attend the Methodist church here.

Odessa Theological Seminary

2007-08-22T16:04:00.000+03:00

The concert last night was great! It turned out that it was a group of strings from the music school here for a tour group from the US, Germany, and Italy on a cruise around the Black Sea. The music was not spiritual as much as classical, with a lot of Mozart and Sousa, among others. (They did "The Stars and Stripes Forever" with only strings...and it worked!)

After I got back home, I hung out with some of the other people in the hostel--a guy from France who wanted to practice English, and some students from Sweden, who had me translate "vegetarian" and "vegan" for them (the latter just ended up being "I don't eat x, y, and z").

Today I went out to Odessa Theological Seminary (which felt like it was slightly past the end of the universe), where Ray Trantham, an American professor there, gave me a very nice tour. Then I got to spend 45 minutes browsing through the library (Five Views on Sanctification and Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot) before lunch at their cafeteria. Came back here, got a strawberry slushie (so good! real strawberries!), and came to the Internet cafe to get roughly 101 things done. Hope I've remembered them all!

a muggy August afternoon

2007-08-21T14:48:00.000+03:00

Kherson will hereafter be remembered by me as "the city where people make weird noises walking down the street." Seriously. I was walking down to a pizza place for dinner last night (in hopes of a non-squat toilet, which did not materialize), and a man was walking down the sidewalk in the other direction, screaming every few yards. He didn't look like he was in pain, so I have no idea why he did so. And then on the way back, a man barked at me. I'm not joking. It freaked me out just a bit.

To continue on with the noise theme, one of the women in my train compartment snored very loudly all night. One of the other women was kind and gave me ear plugs. This is at least my third train ride where I've ended up near a snorer. Sigh...

Got into Odesa around 6 am and took a marshrutka to the hostel, where I promptly fell back asleep until 9. Got up and had breakfast with a boyfriend and girlfriend from Vienna, who had thought about going on vacation to Italy but instead did Hungary and Ukraine. They were about the same ages as Kate and her Jason (both of us are dating Jasons, in case that wasn't clear...yes, it's confusing; no, neither of us are willing to find a new boyfriend just for clarity's sake), and that really just struck me. Kate and Jason went camping up around Mackinac (that's right, isn't it? or just up north?). Susannah and Mark went to Ukraine. Wow.

After breakfast, I headed out walking, and within forty minutes, had already been to two bookstores and the Presbyterian church, which is holding a free concert of spiritual music tonight for American foreigners. At least, as best as I could understand. I couldn't tell if it was for all American foreigners or just a special group of them, but the woman thought I could come. Although she also thought I was Polish at first. At the bookstores, I bought two kids' books of Disney stories in English and Russian for my English club, decided not to spend almost $40 for Harry Potter 7, and eyed a Russian textbook for English speakers, just to brush up on grammar. We'll have to see.

Then I wandered the streets, walked down the famous Potemkin Stairs (have any of you seen Battleship Potemkin? Dad?), took the furnicular (little tiny railroad thing) up, bought a silk scarf that was on sale (I may have to go back and get more as Christmas presents, as they were a good deal), and went to a nice pizzeria for lunch. I had a pizza with shrimp, broccoli, spinach, onion, garlic, and mozzerella cheese, plus incredibly good garlic bread with minced fresh vegetables on it. Which should tell anyone who knew me growing up how far my tastes have expanded.

Oh, I almost forgot...Odesa is humid. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Skadovsk was warm, but there wasn't the humidity I've noticed here. So I'm just taking it slow. I think I'm going out to the seminary tomorrow, and for the rest of the day today, I plan to keep wandering the streets, visit the literary museum and whatever else strikes my fancy, and go to the concert in the evening.

You know, I could get used to this vacation thing!

final day in Skadovsk

2007-08-20T12:43:00.000+03:00

My back itches from sunburn. Very annoying.

Daisy, a new PCV in the oblast, just called me to ask about the logistics of sending candy to the US (Tif, do you have any tips? I never tried it.). The following conversation ensued:

Daisy: So what are you doing right now?
Me: I'm at the Black Sea eating soft-serve ice cream.
Daisy: You punk!

*giggle*

The Yukhemetses left yesterday morning, planning to stop in Dnipropretrovsk to visit family on the way home. They left a day earlier than originally planned, but I think Nadia considered the vacation a success overall...at least, she kept saying that she thinks they'll try it again some time. Brave woman.

I went to church yesterday morning, which was nice. Also nice was having a seat by the window, as it got quite warm. Also nice was that they had the hymn lyrics projected on transparencies, because in Ukrainian churches, you bring your own hymnal, and since at least a third of the congregation was from out-of-town (at best guess), it was a nice touch.

After church, I met a couple who are Presbyterian missionaries in Kherson. He's originally from Holland, MI, and she's from Russia. During the service, I guessed that he was American, because he had a goatee and a wedding ring on his left hand (Ukrainians do the right hand). So I went up and introduced myself, and yes, indeed, they were from the US.

This afternoon, I take the marshrutka back to Kherson, and from there I go by overnight train to Odesa. I found out this morning that I could have taken a bus straight to Odesa, but I had no way of knowing that beforehand. Yesterday, I called some American missionaries who teach at the seminary there, and they gave me directions and offered to show me around the seminary when I get out there (it's about an hour from the city center--45 minutes by bus, plus a 15-minute walk). My Uzhgorod plans are also coming together, although I haven't heard from the Bible college out there yet. I realized yesterday that Friday is Ukrainian Independence Day, so there may not be anyone around at the college, but we'll see how it goes.

Itch, itch, itch...I'm putting some cream on my back when I get back to the house!

fun and sun and sand and little kids and sunburn

2007-08-18T19:34:00.000+03:00

(Apologies to those of you who got an earlier version of this yesterday, but I'm saving time once again by taking the basic text and editing/updating it. So I recommend reading it again because there's more to it this time.)

The Black Sea is wonderful. I've spent a great deal of time over the last few days at the sea, either just being out in the sun or playing in the water with the Yukhemets kids. I have learned the word for jellyfish (there are a lot of them here, which the boys like to use to freak out Vlada and I by threatening to throw them at us) and have taught the kids the English word.

I'm staying with a young couple who make a living renting rooms here. (They say that the only professions around here are landlord, accountant, and salesperson!) They're Christians (his dad's the pastor here) and also some sort of cousins to Nadia. (Me to Nadia: "Are all evangelical Christians in Ukraine related to you?" Nadia: "We do have a big extended family...")

I'm definitely a bit sunburned, especially my back. SPF 30 is good, but it has its limits. Nadia and Vlada use some sort of cream, but it didn't appear to be sunblock. I've discovered that Ukrainians have a thing about getting very very tan. They think it's healthy for you.

Which leads to one of the more surprising cultural things I've noticed: 98% of females here wear bikinis, regardless of age, shape, or weight. This includes Nadia and Vlada (Liza and Snizhanna just run around in bikini bottoms, as do most small girls). I understand that it's part of the culture here, but it surprised me that the evangelical Christians also wear bikinis. I'm not saying that it's horrible or anything, just that women in the churches here tend to dress fairly conservatively--they're well-covered-up, with little to no jewelry or makeup, so I assumed that they'd be like conservative evangelical Christians in the US, where women generally wear one-piece suits (and I remember wearing t-shirts over our suits at some church functions growing up). Several Yukhemets kids have asked me where my swimsuit is (I have a tanktop and shorts combo made out of swimsuit material), and they give me weird looks when I say I'm already wearing it!

I'm really glad I'm here, and even more so that I'm with the Yukhemetses (although also glad that I'm not sharing an apartment with them...they have 12 people in the apartment sleeping on a bed, a couch, two chairs, and the floor, plus two out in the van...actually, according to Nadia, they aren't particularly sleeping). I go "way out" in the water with the older kids (but on the children's beach, "way out" is still only chest-deep, if that!), pull the little kids around on their floaties, and am the prime recipient of Valera's "Watch me, Miss Sally!"

Valera and I today, playing in the water:
Valera: Why do all the kids in my class like you so much?
Me: I don't know. Why do you?
Valera: Because we're always doing stuff together.

I thought that was really sweet. Of course, he also enjoys dunking me in the water.

I've quite easily resisted the temptation to do much souvenir shopping, as it's a lot of junk, and easily breakable junk at that, but I did get myself a brown-with-white-polkadots headband and a shell that says "Skadovsk 2007" in Cyrillic letters. I liked a crocheted scarf/shawl thing (cream-colored with pretty flowers), but then I saw it had sparkly beads sewn in. Not so much my thing.

accomplishments

2007-08-13T23:19:00.000+03:00

Things I've accomplished today:

~bought my ticket from Kharkiv to Kherson
~got ahold of a PCV in Skadovsk who knew how to get from Kherson to Skadovsk
~filled out my Peace Corps Activity Report for the January-August period
~booked hostels in Odesa and Uzhgorod (there's your links, Mom)
~bought a navy blue tank top for 5 hryvnia at a second-hand store in town, originally thinking it was black (due to poor lighting in the shop) but being pleased to discover its actual color
~made homemade granola
~hung out with Andrey for English conversation
~registered for the GRE

I'm tired. And SO thankful that I have Internet in my apartment! I can't imagine trying to do all of this at the post office!

Black Sea, here I come!

2007-08-13T13:04:00.000+03:00

Most fascinating way I've found to waste time today (no, really): watching YouTube clips from/homemade music videos of "Ne Rodis' Krasivoy." Which are in Russian, of course, but randomly are mostly labeled in Spanish.

However, I don't have time to waste time, because...I AM GOING TO THE BLACK SEA TOMORROW!!!! (Sense some excitement?) I'd really been regretting that I'd never made it to the sea while I was here, but I didn't want to go by myself...not nearly as much fun. But the Yukhemetses and Nadia's brother and his family are going this week, and I'm going to sorta-kinda be part of their group. (They're driving, I'm taking the train--which I think is a better plan because I would be Person 16 in the van for at least 12 hours.) We're renting apartments down in Skadovsk, a town in Khersonska Oblast on the Black Sea (not quite Crimea, but cheaper). They don't have room for me in their apartment (once again, I'd be Person 16), but Nadia made a few calls and I'm going to be sharing an apartment with some cousins of hers. And really, we're planning to spend all our time on the beach anyway. :)

I'll be down there until Monday-ish, and then have a few days free until Sunday the 26th, when I need to be in L'vivska Oblast for COS Conference. There's no point in coming back to Balaklia when I'm already partway in the direction I need to be, and besides, I have a lot of vacation days I've never used. So I came up with the crazy idea of travelling in the direction of L'viv through the south-western side of Ukraine, stopping in cities with Bible colleges/seminaries, and visiting them. I really liked my time in Donetsk, and it made me curious what other Bible colleges in Ukraine are like. Besides, I don't plan to spend all my time visiting the colleges...there's also just a lot to see. The current thought is to go to Odesa (Odessa Theological Seminary) and Uzhgorod (Wesley Bible College), although I may go straight to L'viv from Odesa. Don't know yet...still putting it all together!

(And, by the way, both "Odesa" and "Odessa" are correct spellings. A single s is the Ukrainian version, and a double ss is the Russian version.)

So today is my day to get all my ducks in a row--figure out housing, plan where and when I'm going, pack, write a resume for a workshop at COS Conference, register for the GRE, make homemade granola for the trip, hang out with Andrey tonight (his English conversation partner--me--just keeps going out of town!), and fill out my Peace Corps Activity Report. Tomorrow I do whatever I didn't get done today, and head for Kharkiv. I leave from Kharkiv tomorrow night, get into Kherson on Wednesday afternoon, and from there take a bus down to Skadovsk. It's an adventure!

Well, then...time's a-wasting! I'd better keep going...

a week of math. what fun!

2007-08-09T21:05:00.000+03:00

Tif told me to update, so here I am.

It's not been a very exciting week...lots of GRE prep and looking up various MATESOL programs online. MSU's still the one I like the best (I'm familiar with the area, I really like the English Resource Center where I would hopefully be a TA, and their website's easy to navigate...a big plus after reading 20-some sites!), but a few other places have caught my eye (if they offer Ukrainain classes, should this be a factor?).

I dunno. It all seems very complicated, and there's the question of whether or not it's a good idea to only apply to one grad school, in case I don't get in or the financial aid isn't as much as I'd like.

(And then there's the random programs unconnected to TESOL that catch my eye, such as Kansas University's MA in Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies, which really has no practical application for me, but just looks really cool.)

The GRE prep is paying off...I took another practice test yesterday, and in a week of studying math, both the math and the verbal went up 70 points each. It's interesting...as I look up GRE stuff online, apparently it's more common to have a higher math than verbal, and I'm the other way around. Huh.

Last Saturday, I went back to the village where I'd been on Sunday, this time to celebrate my friend Andrey's 28th birthday. Once again, we went swimming in the river and ate shashlik. Before that, Andrey and his friend Alosha fixed the light bulb in my bedroom, which had been burnt out for quite some time. When I'd tried to change it, I'd found that the metal part of the bulb had corroded and was therefore extraordinarily difficult to remove, and in trying to do so, I'd made it harder. Andrey's comment (with a smile) was, "Next time, don't try and fix things yourself. Ask someone who knows what they're doing." Point taken.

That whole "I'm not going anywhere until COS Conference" idea seems to be out the window, but I'm waiting until I know for sure (tomorrow?) to post details. :)

I found a baguette (spelling?) at the store yesterday, so I made French bread pizza. It was good. I also made applesauce tonight to use up some apples Nadia gave me.

the beginnings of the GRE saga, plus a lot of other stuff

2007-08-02T13:35:00.000+03:00

Happiness is seven new CDs of music--one of a Ukrainian rock group "Jeremiah's Tears" that I bought in L'viv, three country/oldies mixes from Tif, and three of Ukrainian/Russian Christian music that I got from my neighbors in the dorm at DCU. I'm still uploading the latter group into iTunes, mostly because it takes a while to get the Russian and Ukrainian song info typed up correctly (yes, I am a stickler for properness and like it to be in the correct alphabet; yes, I have a little cheat sheet for what the computer keys become when I put the Ukrainian settings on; no, I can't type as fast in Ukrainian as I can in English...not yet, anyway, but I've gotten much better at it). Currently I'm listening to a choir from Kyiv singing hymns in Russian (the current one is "We praise Thee, O God"); I'm excited because I've known pretty much every song they've sung so far, but a teensy bit sad that they're in Russian and not Ukrainian and I know the Ukrainian versions better. Guess I'll have to break out my Russian hymnal and practice.

Please keep the Yukhemets family in your prayers--I called Nadia this afternoon to see if I could go over and do laundry and she told me that Viktor is taking Valera to Kyiv for a couple weeks for treatment on his eyes (he doesn't see well but neither does he like to wear his glasses). So both prayers for them traveling and for Nadia with the other nine kids at home. And Nadia suggested that another day--any other day--might be better for me to come over. :)

~*~

Update on where I'm at these days, life-wise:

Basically, I'll be around Balaklia (as far I know) until the last week of August, when I head out west for COS (Close of Service) Conference for PC, where I'll get to see everyone who's left from Group 29 and get info about finishing up my time here.

I start teaching at the beginning of September, which is also going to be a busy month, company-wise, as Brandi's coming to visit me for a week or so, plus another friend from college might be visiting (more on that later if it actually works out).

My official COS date is December 13, and I assume I'll be coming home around that time, give or take a few days either way for the best deal on plane tickets (PC offers either a ticket to your home airport--Grand Rapids, not Lakeview!--or money for you to get your own ticket; it's usually more cost-effective to take the latter) and if Jason and I can time it so I could fly into Chicago when he's on his way back to Michigan from grad school in Wisconsin and drive back together (tickets are much cheaper into O'Hare than into any Michigan airports).

Then, I have Christmas and adjusting-back-into-US-life time, which will probably involve trying to spend time with lots of people and finding a car and learning how to drive in Michigan winters all over again. My current plan is to live with my parents for a few months and substitute teach (one could say I'll be joining the family business, almost). After that, I'm looking into going to grad school for my Master's in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), most likely back at MSU.

So where does that leave me right now? Studying for the GRE, which I'm hoping to take in Kyiv in September. I took a practice test yesterday before I started reviewing, just to give me a sense of where I am, and, to no one's surprise (I expect), my verbal score was pretty high and my math score was not bad, but fairly mediocre, because I haven't even though about most math beyond the absolute basics since senior year of high school, and definitely not since statistics class in my first semester of college. So that's August's major plan: study for the GRE (in between neighbor kids coming over to play cards, which keeps happening).

home again, home again, jiggety-jig!

2007-07-31T17:56:00.000+03:00

Okay...home and back in the swing of life, so it's time to blog!

The program at DCU finished up with a talent show/graduation ceremony on Friday afternoon. Everyone who'd scored a 70% or higher in the morning classes (which were graded) received a certificate of completion. For the talent show end of it, we had lots of singing in English, Russian, and Ukrainian, plus a Greek dance. I was part of a choir of some of the Americans singing "Wonderful Grace of Jesus" in four-part harmony acapella. I also sang two songs in Ukrainian by myself--"Ти ж мене підманула," which is a folk song that goes through the days of the week and the reasons why a girl stood her boyfriend up each day (it's probably the most popular folk song in Ukraine, and half the audience was singing along with me), and a Ukrainian translation of "You Are My All in All." I was applauded vigorously--I think after two weeks of putting in a lot of work to learn English, the Ukrainian students were happy to see someone trying to do something in their language.

Earlier that morning, Stephanie, Lana, and I had gone into the center of Donetsk to do some shopping. We were amused by how many people asked us for directions. On our way back home, as we were walking down the street from the trolley stop to the university, a guy a little younger than us asked us a question in English. Assuming that he was a Ukrainian wanting to practice English, I answered in Russian. After a minute or two of confusion, it was determined that we had, in fact, met an American looking for DCU. His name is Brian, and he was a Christian visiting a Russian friend of his who works in Donetsk, and having some free time, had decided to look up what sort of Christian organizations/institutions there were in the area. So we showed him around a bit and he was our photographer during the talent show. In the evening, the four of us went into the center and walked around, swapping stories. We went out to dinner at a place called (in translation) "The Three Fat Guys", which had good food. I had a barbequed pork steak with grilled onions, french fries, and a coleslaw-esque salad. After dinner, we walked down to the river and met up with his friend Kostya and Kostya's girlfriend Nastia. It was a nice evening and a good way to end the program.

Saturday, I went back out to the Good Shepherd children's home, said goodbye to lots of people, made one last trip to the Very Nice Supermarket, and boarded a train home around 9:20. The train ride home was much more pleasant than the ride to Donetsk had been, since I was no longer sick with a fever.

I got home around 3:45 Sunday morning, slept until 8 am, and then got up and went to church. I'd really debated whether or not I wanted to go versus sleep in, but I had really missed being at church over the past month, and I was glad I went. Inna, our usual pianist, was on vacation with her parents, so I ended up playing piano. I guess this makes me the official assistant pianist! Yay, I have a responsibility at church! Yula and Serhii were up visiting her parents (they live in a different town now), so I was able to catch up on how they're doing (went to the Sea of Azov for their honeymoon, she's waiting to get her in-country passport [it's like an ID card] updated so she can get a job).

After church, I came home, napped for an hour, and then went with Robert, the new PCV in town, to a picnic with my friend Natalia and some of her neighbors. We drove to a little village a few kilometers away and spent all afternoon and evening there. We swam in the river (wow, I'm out of shape...my arms ached yesterday!) and ate shashlik. For those sad individuals who don't live in countries where shashlik is popular, let me explain: it's sort of like a shish kebob. Anya, Natalia's neighbor, had marinated chunks of pork in mayonnaise with salt, pepper, and onions sliced into rings. Then, she threaded the pork and onions on metal skewers and roasted them over a fire. It was incredibly good. Who's up for trying it in the US next summer?

The last two days have been quiet, just settling back into everyday life--lots of trips to the bazaar and stores, as I had almost no food in the house; researching grad schools on the Internet; wondering where all the tiny black fly-type critters came from while I was gone and how to get rid of them.

My most interesting experience happened yesterday when I went downstairs to return a couple plates to Oleg and Lesia. Oksana, a former classmate of theirs, was over and they were recording a song that Oleg had written in Russian. However, Oksana also wanted to record an English version, so I ended up translating the song into English, rewording things so it flowed with the music, and helping Oksana with pronunciation. Lots of fun, and one of those experiences that makes me love my crazy, unexpectable life here.

This post is turning out to be horribly long, and I really do need to go over to Robert's to pick up his GRE book, but first, a quick recipe of what I had for dinner tonight, created by yours truly from various online recipes, my imagination, and the contents of my fridge/cupboard.

Simple Summer Pizza

Pour a small bit (2 T or so) of sunflower oil into a cup. Mix with 2 cloves of crushed garlic. Spread over pre-baked pizza crust (mine was probably about 8 inches in diameter). Add 1-2 chopped fresh tomatoes (I removed the seeds but kept the skins on) and a little bit of chopped-up hard salami. Sprinkle with oregano. Add a thin layer of grated cheese (I used a marbled cheese from the supermarket, but if you live in a country where mozerella doesn't cost an arm and a leg and is only available in large cities, I'd recommend that instead) and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese (also costs an arm and a leg but keeps longer). Bake 5-7 minutes in a hot oven until the crust has browned a bit on the bottom and the cheese is melted. Enjoy!

cat-astrophe

2007-07-25T19:37:00.000+03:00

My best story from today is, in fact, not my story, but rather that of Joni and Shauna, two college students who have also been afternoon teachers at DCU this summer. Shauna related it to me over McDonald's this morning, as we were both running errands in Donetsk (she got her hair cut, I finally was able to access my US bank account!).

So anyway...Joni and Shauna have a soft spot for cats. Last night, they found a pregnant cat who had been in a fight and looked pretty rough, so out of compassion, they took her in. The cat thanked them by having three kittens in the middle of the night, all over the bathroom floor and more specifically, on Joni's pillow which she had given to the cat as a bed. I guess it was a rather traumatizing experience, to hear them retell it.

quick update

2007-07-24T12:09:00.000+03:00

I'm sad to report that the family from the Kharkiv area who's immigrating to Pennsylvania who were all beginners in English didn't come back for the second week. There wasn't a teacher for Elementary 1 and so they were all in Elementary 2, which was too advanced for them, so they decided it wasn't worth the money and went home. Which I understand, but it was disappointing. We exchanged contact info, and I might try and meet up with them before they leave for the States in September.

This morning (it's around noon now), part of our group went to Good Shepherd, a children's home out in Makeevka. It's partly a shelter where children stay for up to three months while the government decides where they go, and partly a long-term children's home for kids from dysfunctional homes. It's very well done, but seeing it, and realizing that this is one of the better options for kids in those type of situations, made me really happy that the Yukhemets kids have a real family and home to be part of.

I made friends with some of the little kids, who finished off my water bottle and were fascinated by the ice in it. :) There's a chance I might go back on Saturday, since my train doesn't leave until the evening, and I hope it works out.

new diet strategy: advice from strangers

2007-07-23T17:25:00.000+03:00

Odd moment of the morning: I was walking from the dorm over to the academic building for devotions, sweet roll in hand for a late breakfast. A man, probably in his 50s, who I hadn't met, stopped me and said in Russian, "Why are you eating that? You need to lose weight." I mentally sputtered and then explained that it was my breakfast. He replied in English, "Lunch," and so I said, "No, breakfast." Then we went our separate ways.

I'm used to random comments from people about various things in my life, but this one seemed a bit uncalled for, since it was a complete stranger about something quite personal. Ironic, since most Ukrainians tell me to eat.

there's within my heart a melody

2007-07-22T20:12:00.000+03:00

The hymn-sing just now was wonderful. It was the group from Virginia, an older couple from Alabama (the wife is British), and an older man from Colorado. Apparently there is a tradition of a capella singing in Mennonite churches (should have realized that if I'd thought about it), although it's not as common nowadays, and everyone was singing parts without needing a piano. I loved it! We did, among other songs, "The Solid Rock," "And Can It Be," "In the Garden," and "Wonderful Grace of Jesus," just to give you a sample. I can't remember the last time I got to sing hymns with other people in English. I think we're going to do it again sometime this week. Bonnie commented that I must have been a Mennonite in another life (don't think about the theology involved there!) because I knew most of the songs and I sing out.

This morning, Stephanie, Lana, Ervie (a professor of ESL, linguistics, and German from Eastern Mennonite University) went with Dave and Laura (American staff members at DCU) to their church in the next town over (which is actually closer than going into the center of Donetsk...we're right on the city line). I liked it a lot...it was bigger than my church in Balaklia, but had the same feel to it as far as service structure. I've been a bit homesick for my church, because I haven't been there all month, and being at Dave and Laura's church helped with that. But my church sings more! I'm beginning to think that I have the singingest church inUkraine, and that makes me so happy. :)

sweltering heat

2007-07-22T18:05:00.000+03:00

It's really hot here...I don't know how many degrees exactly, but it's just hot.

Yesterday, a group from DCU went up to Sviatohirsk Monastery. It was my second trip this summer, but this was much nicer and more laid-back (i.e. no one was forcing me on long walks to look for monks' graves or constantly urging food on me at lunch). We drove up to the top of the mountain by the old Soviet statue of Artem (a Soviet hero) and took pictures (Stephanie took one for me on my camera of my feet in my new flipflops!). Then we came down, toured the monestary, and had lunch.

After lunch, part of the group hiked the mountain to go up to the upper churches, but since I'd done that once this summer, Stephanie, Lana, and I had "twenty-somethings bonding time", which meant a long discussion about polygamy, particularly how it relates to some fundamentalist Mormon sects, and then we went shopping in the bazaar for scarves.

Lana wants to change her name to Sara so we'll all have names beginning with S. I suggested "Svetlana" because it's Ukrainian and sort of sounds like her name anyway. :)

I wanted to post about church today, but we're going to have a hymn-sing this evening (in English), and so I'm off to that.

new shoes

2007-07-20T09:12:00.000+03:00

So my Tevas flipflops officially wore out last night. They've been falling apart all summer, but last night they acquired a visible hole in the bottom. Since I wore them for two years (bought mid-summer '05), I think I got my money's worth out of them.

So last night, when our students took us on a walking tour of downtown Donetsk, we stopped at a store and I bought new flipflops. They're blue and white with accents in a lot of bright colors. Hopefully they'll break in easily. Everyone else's comment was, "Wow...colorful!" Well, it seems impossible to buy plain black flipflops for women here.

Afterwards, Lana, Stephanie, and I went to McDonald's for twenty-somethings bonding time, which was much fun. Then we attempted to come home, which involved a) missing the right trolley because I couldn't understand the conductor; b) getting on a trolley that had the number of the route on it that we wanted but in fact went somewhere else; c) watching another correct trolley toodle past our stop without stopping; d) calling Dave at DCU for the correct route number for the marshrutka (mini-bus); e) riding a very crowded marshrutka home. We eventually did get home!

I found out yesterday that half of our beginner class is related. It's an older woman, her son and daughter, and the daughter's husband. All of them, plus the daughter and son-in-law's three little girls, are immigrating to Pennsylvania in September, and they've just started learning English. The classes are going too fast for them (this program is INTENSE!), so they've started showing up to my conversation sessions because I can help them in Ukrainian. They joked yesterday about filling up all my time slots. :)

not much news, I just keep teaching English

2007-07-18T18:24:00.000+03:00

Funny moment from yesterday: the student in one of my classes who thought that I was a Ukrainian who had lived in the US for several years (apparently losing my fine-tuned grammar skills but still remembering the language). Everyone is amazed that I only had three months of actual lessons! One of the guys today told me that my Ukrainian is better than my English...not sure what that says about my English, because while my Ukrainian is okay, if it's better than my English, I have no business as an ESL teacher!

Today I went with some of the Virginia group to the big Western-style supermarket. I like Stephanie and Lana--Stephanie bought a Russian cookbook and Lana, who's an elementary school librarian, bought Charlotte's Web in Russian, even though neither of them could read their purchases. I understand. :) They've convinced me to go on the trip to Sviatohirsk Monestary on Saturday. I hadn't been planning to go, since I'd been with some PCVs back in June, but hanging out with them for the day will be fun.

I taught my classes the Um Game today! For anyone who doesn't know it, Sally Ingles taught it to my sixth grade class to improve our speaking skills--you are given a topic and you have to talk about it until you say "um...," "ahh...," or other such sounds. The students thought it was hilarious!

Other than that, no big news...Mom, my debit card simply will not work in the ATMs here, so I'm going to try the bank at some point this week when I have free time to go into the city center. Aargh.

I am an English teacher. And a Ukrainian/Russian translator!

2007-07-17T18:14:00.001+03:00

Two days of teaching done, and am I tired! I love teaching though...we were planning lessons this morning, and I smiled when I realized how happy I was to be trying to figure out how best to present the material. Today we did a lesson with the pre-intermediate group about travel and one with the beginner group about food. The beginners are so much fun--they know that their English is bad, but they don't get all self-conscious about it.

My students are fascinating and varied people, and their reasons for learning English are varied as well. There's Ben, one of 12 kids in a family in Odesa, who's living here with a sister for two weeks so he can learn English well enough to visit his sister in England over the winter holidays. There are Ivan and Anna, siblings ages 17 and 22, who, along with Anna's husband and three daughters, are moving to Pennsylvania in September. There's Angela, whose husband is an Orthodox priest; and Galyna, who works at an orphanage in the next town and is here "so she doesn't get bored while the kids are off at camp". And so many more people...

We do conversations with 3-4 students every day to give them one on one practice...I'm amused to notice that a lot of the beginner students sign up for my slots. I think it's because they know I'll understand them and can help translate. For myself, I find it hard not to just go off into Ukrainian with them!

As a side note, the students all like that I speak Ukrainian/Russian, the DCU staff members are pleasantly surprised, and the other Americans are happy because I can translate things...like how not to save your password on the computer! I'm useful!

Emmalea: yes, they tried to play the Mennonite Game with me, but I saw a prime example of it when we all went out for dinner with a missionary here who is a Mennonite. Oh, and I'm supposed to ask you what Jeremy's dad's name is. And do you know Gordon and Bonnie Zook? I guess he used to be a Mennonite pastor in Lancaster County.

doing better, thanks for the prayers!

2007-07-15T18:31:00.000+03:00

First off, the obligatory health update:

Yesterday, my stomach hurt off and on, but I felt fine most of the day. By mid-afternoon, I could feel that I'd exhausted myself and I had a slight fever in the evening, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Today, I haven't had a fever all day and am finally feeling more or less back to normal, although I'm still taking it slow so as not to relapse (skipped out on the chance to go to a Kyiv/Donetsk soccer game tonight, even though it would have gained me major Cool Points with my older boys this fall).

Yesterday we had orientation. It started off at 9 am with an hour-long Russian language lesson, all of which I knew, but I didn't mind sitting there and I was able to help out the people around me. The teacher started them off with "hello", which is pronounced "zdrastvuitye", more or less. It's one of the more challenging words to pronounce (Peace Corps never even taught it to us...we learned "hi", "good morning", and "good afternoon" instead, all of which are a lot simpler!), so I've been helping people review it ever since.

Then we had an overview of our curriculum. I swear I'm on resource overload! (Yes, Tif, that's an in-joke for you!) They have so many books and resources here--good books, that are put out by British and American companies. We have a schedule of the classes we're teaching and the times when we teach them; we go to the schedule, find the topic, then go to the sheet for the course level, and there's a list of possible activities and lessons to choose from. I'm overwhelmed by how little there is for me to do as far as coming up with ideas! Don't get me wrong--there'll still be lesson prep, and we can tweak things to add our own spin on it. But for the last almost two years, all my lessons, while based off of a textbook, have basically been done from scratch and whatever resources/ideas I could scrounge. When I worked at camp last summer, I was told, "Hey, you'll need to do two lessons on culture, one on crafts, two on writing, etc..." It's a little weird to have so much of the work pre-done, although it makes sense, since there are people here from all over and not everyone has an ESL background. Mom says I should look at it as a vacation!

The other people working at the program are very nice. The ones I've hung out with the most are a group of Menonnites from Virginia (not the conservative Mennonites with the little prayer caps like we tend to see in mid-Michigan, but more along the lines of evangelical Christians with a strong emphasis on pacifism, social justice, and simplicity...Emmalea, I know you at least know what I'm talking about!). One of the women from the group has a daughter and son-in-law who are PCVs in Mauritania (Africa), there's a retired pastor and his wife who will be my co-teachers for our sessions (three native speaker teachers in one classroom!), and a couple other people more their age than mine, plus Stephanie and Lana, who are good friends and a couple years older than me. Stephanie works for the Rosetta Stone software company and Lana is a children's librarian at an elementary school. They're teaching the children's curriculum at the English program, and yesterday, Stephanie said, "You know, we could teach them, 'My God is so great...'" and Lana and I chimed in, with hand motions, "'So strong and so mighty / There's nothing my God cannot do!'" So then we sang camp songs for a bit. :) We had a rousing game of Apples to Apples last night.

There are also some other older people here as well as a missions team from Minnesota and two college-age girls from Moody and Calvin, but I haven't gotten to know them well yet, as I spent
a lot of time in my room recovering.

And reading! I've re/read A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, Catherine Marshall's Christy, and part of Bodie Thoene's Warsaw Requiem (which isn't is good as I remember...or maybe my tastes have just changed). Currently I'm reading Soviet Evangelicals since WWII (published around 1980), which is pretty much what the title says. A horrendous amount of the book deals with church politics and splits and unions and is rather tedious, but there's some interesting information about the church services and the difference between registered and unregistered churches during the Soviet period, and when I think about it in terms of Nadia and Viktor's lives, it becomes more interesting (and gives me a whole bunch of questions I want to ask them when I go home!). On deck are Shadow of the Almighty, Elisabeth Elliot's biography of her husband Jim, and a novel about Russian Mennonites in the early part of the 20th century. Basically I'm scrounging books from everyone who will lend them to me!

Today I went to church at Tserkva Nadezhda (Hope Church), a church in the center of town that's pastored by a man who's a friend of friends of the Virginia group. The songs were in Russian and one sermon was in Russian and one in English with Russian translation (which the VA people appreciated!). As it was my first English sermon since sometime this past winter, I was looking forward to it; it ended up being part of a series on the Ten Commandments, specifically "You shall not kill." It was a fine sermon, just an odd topic for my introduction back to church in English!

After church, all of us plus the pastor went to a very nice restaurant for lunch. I had ribs barbecued with honey-mustard sauce, a baked potato, and vegetables. The latter items were okay, but the ribs were great! And I didn't spill anything on my blouse, either! The pastor was telling us a lot about Christianity in Ukraine during lunch, which was really interesting.

And now I think I'm off to lay down, read a bit, and eventually take a shower. Ahh, hot water...the luxury never grows old!

tired, even though I keep sleeping

2007-07-13T18:57:00.000+03:00

Found out that Internet is, in fact, available more often than in the mornings, but in the office, not the library. So I thought I'd blog some more.

Disappointment of the day: only fiction books can be checked out from the library...the rest must be read there. :( I discovered this after collecting an armload of titles about evangelicalism in America and the Church during the Soviet Union. Sigh...guess I know where I'm hanging out when not lesson-planning.

Happy point of the day (one of them, at least): finding an empty room, a piano, and an English hymnal all together and sitting down to play for half an hour. I hadn't thought of some of those songs in ages!

Interesting conversation I will have with my Russian-speaking suitemates this evening: "Is it possible to move the watermelon that's in a plastic tub in the shower so I can shower tonight?"

Fever's back down to normal, but my stomach and neck keep giving me pains. Ugh.

here, more or less

2007-07-13T11:55:00.000+03:00

In Donetsk.

Still sick, with a temperature that has fluxed between 97.7 and 103 degrees Farenheit over the last 24 hours.

On antibiotics, ibuprofen, and Theraflu.

I think it's going to be a wonderful program filled with many interesting people once I'm feeling well enough to appreciate it!

ps I think I'll only have email access on weekday mornings, so if I'm not updating, don't assume I'm deathly ill or anything like that!

my writing style suffers when I'm sick...I apologize in advance

2007-07-10T18:36:00.000+03:00

Ugh. I'm sick.

I'd had a sore throat/runny nose/lots of coughing the first week Tif was here, and while it got somewhat better last week, it never really went away. Add to that the 46 hours or so I spent on public transportation (electrichkas, passenger trains, buses) last week, and I have pretty much no immune system left. Today it all hit, with exhaustion, chills, over-heatedness, and a fever. I ran a few errands before it all struck, but when I came home, I went to bed and stayed there for about 4 hours. I want to get healthy enough that my first few days in Donetsk aren't spent in bed recovering, so today and tomorrow I guess I'm taking it a bit easier than I had originally planned.

I think my body's been trying to tell me to slow down for the last month or so, and I haven't really been listening. Oops.

Anyway, I loved L'viv. It was small enough that we could walk everywhere easily (although we did take the 50-kopek tram from the train station to the center once, which ended up giving us a nice little tour of the outskirts). The architecture was beautiful--it really hit me that when you build something, you have a choice. It can either be simply utilitarian, like much Soviet architecture (or large and grandiose), or it can be pretty. For example, a concrete balcony versus a wrought-iron one. I'll try and work on posting pictures if my Internet connection is happy with me in the next day or so.

I also liked staying at the hostel. First off, of course, there was a hot shower and a bathtub with even better water pressure than the shower. :) But really, one of the neatest parts of the experience was meeting people from all over who were also staying there. While we were there, there were people there from Great Britain, the US (other PCVs!), Finland, Switzerland, Spain, Canada, and Australia. Most of them knew little/no Ukrainian or Russian, so I helped some people out with understanding their train tickets. It was interesting to hear some of their stories--the guy from Switzerland, who was probably my age or a little younger, had spent the last six months in India and China, just backpacking around. He had then gone to Kazahkstan and flown to Ukraine (to avoid having to get a Russian visa), and was now going to travel around Eastern/Central Europe a bit, although he said he was a bit tired of travelling by now.

[Side note: Tif didn't end up shooting an AK-47 after all, as it was more expensive than she'd hoped for. You can all breath a sigh of relief/regret (take your pick) now.]

Tif and I also had a good day in Kyiv, although Andriivski Uziz, a street that usually is packed with souvenir stands and art booths, was pretty much deserted, and we couldn't figure out why. We met up with my friend Tanya and went out for milkshakes, which were very good. The only bad part of the day was that we had been planning to get a hotel room at the train station, but there weren't any available. The receptionist, who spoke English, wasn't very polite about it all. It was raining, and we didn't know where we'd end up. I was on the phone with Tanya, who was looking up Kyiv hotels online and sending me the info. Kyiv is notorious for being expensive, and we were trying to keep costs down, which added to the frustration. We ended up renting an apartment for a night (a common practice in Ukrainian cities, as apartments are generally nicer than most hotel rooms...PCVs often chip in together as a way to cut costs), which ended up costing us the same as if we'd stayed at the train station, plus the landlady was very friendly and impressed that as young American women, we could speak the language and were capable of taking care of ourselves in a strange country. :)

Friday morning, I said goodbye to Tif, who took the bus to the airport to begin her long journey home, and after lunch, I headed out to Zgurivka to see the Malkos. Sasha had left for L'viv the day before (trains passing in the night?), but I had a good visit with Mama Luda and Tato Kolya. Saturday, I took the train home from Kyiv, and I got back to Balaklia around 3:45 am Sunday morning. No, I didn't try and go to church later on...I was asleep!

The one thing I'm sorry that I didn't get to do on my vacation was go to "Festival of Hope", the Franklin Graham crusade in Kyiv last weekend. I wanted to, and I considered taking a later train Saturday night that went to Kharkiv and then taking the elektrichka home Sunday morning, but I decided that really, I was tired and needed to get home. Based on how lousy I feel today, that was a smart choice, but I still wish I could have gone.

This week has included being interviewed by a 14-year-old for the local newspaper, dealing with a burned-out lightbulb that appears to be corroded and impossible to remove from the light fixture, trying to get money off my US debit card, and hanging out with my neighbors last night. Today was mostly spent in bed. Hopefully I'll feel a bit better tomorrow and can get a few last-minute things done, and then tomorrow around midnight I get on a train to Donetsk for the English-language program down there.

I think I'm going back to bed now!

L'viv, Day 2

2007-07-04T14:00:00.000+03:00

Today we got our train tickets to Kyiv (only upper bunks, and a bit more than we'd hoped for, but still okay), and then went back to the center and wandered around. We bought more of the linens we'd liked (off-white with crocheted borders and ribbon embroidery)--I now have a dresser scarf, two smaller doilies, and a case for a throw pillow. I think I'm on my way to having a pretty guest room at some point.

The lady at the linens stall at the art market remembered us and said that we'd brought her good luck yesterday. Somehow we got to chatting and I mentioned that I lived out east, near Kharkiv, and then she completely switched over to Russian, and how old was I, and wasn't I just a clever little thing for being only 24 and having moved over here and having learned two languages.... She still wouldn't give us a discount on the linens, because we were buying the smaller pieces (she was willing to haggle for the larger ones, but we couldn't afford them), but she was nice anyway.

We also saw the Church of the Transfiguration and the Armenian Church. I was fond of the sign tacked to the door of the latter, which asked us to please keep the door closed to preserve the warmth between God and humans. :)

Then we ate lunch and walked home, stopping at a clothing store where I found a good deal on certain items of female apparel that I've been needing to replenish. Mom would be proud.

So now we're just hanging out at the hostel, enjoying the amenities. It's been a really great place to stay, and the people are interesting as well. The owner is Norwegian, married to a Ukrainian, and there have been people here from the US (all PCVs!), England, Switzerland (a guy who had spent the last 6 months backpacking around India and China!), Japan, Austraila...

I haven't changed countries? Really?

2007-07-03T17:45:00.000+03:00

We survived the train ride, which actually wasn't that bad, although a little hot during the night, because we couldn't open our window because it was an emergency exit. Yeah, that made sense to us, too...

Our hostel is wonderful...the shower is heavenly, we can do laundry, the people are nice...and reading the hilarious phrases that the Lonely Planet phrasebook provides for those people wanting to know Czech made for 10 minutes of entertainment. And did you know that the Czech equivalent of "up a creek without a paddle" is "not even holy water will help him"?

L'viv itself is beautiful with a shabby Central European charm...old architecture, little cafes, cobblestone streets, and even a few street musicians. Today we visited several churches, the pharmacy museum, the art market, the used book market, and mostly just wandered the streets. Tomorrow we'll plan out what we haven't seen yet, and then we're off to Kyiv on the overnight train.

Pictures will come once I'm home again in Balaklia.

ps Mom, I got the email. That sounds good...sorry, I didn't have enough time on the computer to email you seperately.

and we're off! (but we've always been a little off...)

2007-07-01T22:05:00.000+03:00

Well, we packed our bags, took out the trash, washed the dishes, and we're off to L'viv tomorrow!

We've found what appears to be a really nice hostel to stay at, complete with satellite TV, a hot tub, free Internet, free laundry, and the chance to learn how to shoot an AK47 (Tif's hoping to, I'm not). We've joked that we just might stay at the hostel the two days we'll be in L'viv rather than go explore the city...but we're mostly kidding.

(There is a story told of a group of Ukraine PCVs who went on vacation to Germany and spent all their time at their hotel. When I first heard it, I was shocked, but I definitely understand now.)

However, the bad part of the trip is that I haven't been feeling very well the last few days...I seem to have picked up a possible head cold/sinus infection/whatever makes you have a sore throat and a runny nose. But I'm packing medicine and plan to rest on the 20 hour trip from Kharkiv to L'viv. Please keep us in your prayers.

~*~

For anyone who wants to write me while I'll be in Donetsk (hint, hint), here's my address. Letters generally take from 8 to 14 days to get here, and I'll be there from July 12-28, so plan accordingly.

Sally Behrenwald
Donetsk Christian University
Prospect Ilicha 106A
Donetsk, 83059
Ukraine

big update!

2007-06-29T13:23:00.001+03:00

Yeah, I'm still alive. My apologies to all of my faithful readers who keep checking back and wondering why I haven't posted recently...it's a combination of general busyness, Tif's visit, and three days when the Internet didn't work. However, my Internet guy has put my connection on a different channel (I don't know exactly what this means in English, but it seems good) and now my connection is a lot faster...and I can upload photos! (See previous post.)

Let's see...going back about two weeks now, before Tif came. My friend Andrey's church did a series of evangelistic tent meetings for four nights in an area of town where a lot of my kids live. Each night, they would have a general meeting explaining the basics of Christianity with music and a sermon, which was then followed by a meeting that was more youth-oriented on topics like AIDS, alcoholism, and drugs. At least 25 of the kids from my school were there (we only have about 280!), whether sitting and listening or occasionally drifting over from the cafe/bar across the road. I don't believe that anyone got saved during the meetings, but hearing the Gospel is a rare occurence over here, and I simply pray that seeds were planted that will come to fruition later. I know that the mom of one of my seventh form boys really enjoyed the meetings and wants to start attending church regularly. I myself really felt convicted to pray for my kids...the barriers of language, culture, and my role as a PCV limit my ability to witness to them in words, but going to the meetings regularly and praying fervently for each child by name were things that I could do in spite of those barriers. It was a boost for my own faith.

Tif arrived last Friday, and we've had a grand time! She knows the language and the area, so a few days she was off visiting people she knew from before and finding souvenirs, but we've been together a lot, especially in the evenings...cooking, listening to the music she brought, and having random conversations on any and all topics. Oh, and finding out that the cafe on the corner has a lot of good food at cheap prices! I enjoy eating out once in a while, but I would feel odd doing it by myself here in town.

Sunday was Yula and Serhii's wedding...I had wanted to do a huge post about that event alone, but I think I'll just leave it with all the comments I wrote about the pictures in my last post. If you have questions, let me know.

Monday we bummed around town, took pictures by the statues of Lenin and Taras Shevchenko (Ukraine's greatest poet), and stopped by to visit Robert, the new PCV in my town. He works at a non-profit organization that helps invalids, large families, and families with invalid children. The organization had gotten a LARGE donation of used clothes from Canada, and the director had invited me over to look through and see if there was anything I would want. Most of it wasn't anything I would/could wear, but I ended up with two sweaters.

Last night was the school-leaving ceremony for the 11th form (US graduation). It involved lots of music and dance numbers, including small children dancing (very cute), a harem dance (weirdly fascinating and not what I would consider appropriate for the occasion...Tif caught some of it on video), and me singing "Fly Me to the Moon" in English. It was a very nice ceremony, and the kids were all dressed up--the boys in suits, the girls in prom-type dresses. After the ceremony, there was an all-night dance for the kids...last year I stayed, but we were planning to go to Kharkiv today and so we left after the ceremony.

Woke up this morning at 7 am to a severe thunderstorm and me having a sore throat and feeling exhausted, so we stayed home and are planning to go to Kharkiv tomorrow, as we thought it better that I rest today rather than keep pushing and get very sick when we go to L'viv next week. So I went back to bed and slept until after 11. Then we had pork stroganoff on toast for lunch (don't ask, we invented the combination earlier this week and it's really good), and Tif went off to go exchange money and look for Harry Potter books in Russian to complete her set, while I attempt to catch up on blogging.

Next Monday, we head for L'viv in western Ukraine, which is supposed to be a beautiful old city reminiscent of Prague or Krakow. It'll be about a 24 hour trip from Balaklia to L'viv, but we're up for the adventure. Then we get back to Kyiv on Thursday and Tif flies out on Friday morning. We're planning to go out to McDonald's that morning for her birthday, but we'll see how that goes. I think I'm going to visit the Malkos in Zgurivka next weekend, then come home for a few days, and then I'm off to Donetsk again.

Tif's back, so I'll close for now. :)

these pictures are each worth a thousand words that I haven't been able to post

2007-06-28T23:44:00.000+03:00

Yeah, I know I never seem to post anymore. But my Internet didn't work for most of this week, so I wasn't able to even check my email all that well. But now my Internet connection is faster than ever, and I was actually able to upload photos. So, for your viewing pleasure, Yula and Serhii's wedding!

Also, Tif and I are having a great time and are headed to L'viv next Monday. Yay us. :)

Quotebook, Internet-style

2007-06-25T17:49:00.000+03:00

Random things said during Tif's visit:

T: "What's this card that says 'ghosts'?"
S: "That's my Apples to Apples game."
T: "I thought that Apples to Apples had little apples with it that you put on a tree."

~*~

T: "It spreads like wildflowers...wild flower...wildfire!"
S: *giggle*
T: "Well, wildflowers do spread!"

this is not a post

2007-06-22T06:23:00.000+03:00

Yes, I know that this is not a real update post. I promise one at some point. Hopefully soon.

Right now, I'm just fascinated that all pages connected to Blogger are now in Ukrainian on my computer. It used to be that just all the dates and such on my actual blog were in Ukrainian, which I chose because I thought it was cool. Having, for instance, the page I'm typing on now be in Ukrainian is sort of annoying. I'll have to think about this.

Tif comes today! I'm meeting her at the Kharkiv airport this afternoon!

Now, off to do my last bit of cleaning before she comes!

Iced Tea (when you don't have ice)

2007-06-15T23:00:00.000+03:00

Because Mom asked, my recipe for iced tea (makes 1 liter):

3 strawberry-flavored tea bags
1 mint-flavored tea bag
1 liter of water
sugar to taste (I use 2-3 tablespoons)

Bring the water to a boil. Pour into 1-liter jar (or, for those people not dependent on the metric system or with a better equipped kitchen, a medium-sized glass jar or pitcher). Tie tea bags together by the strings and place in hot water. Stir in sugar. Leave the jar on the counter for an hour or so to let the tea steep. (I usually leave the stirring spoon in the jar to weight the tea bags down so they don't float on top, but I don't know if it really makes a difference.) Put the jar in the refrigerator. After a couple of hours, your tea is ready! I suppose you could add ice cubes when serving, but my freezer doesn't keep things cold enough for me to make ice.

~*~

Anyone have good ideas about what to do with goat milk? My friend Natalia gave me some, and I'm not crazy about the flavor when I drink it straight. I've been using it in strawberry shortcakes this week, but I'm open to new ideas. (As much as I hate to admit it, there may be a limit to how many times a week a girl can eat strawberry shortcake.) Googling "goat milk recipes" got me lots of ideas about cheese and fudge, but they generally either called for ingredients I can't get (rennet, corn syrup, marshmallow cream, etc.) or involved cooking thermometers.

Evangelicalism in Ukraine--links

2007-06-13T11:42:00.000+03:00

I decided to post these links that I've recently found while poking around the Internet in hopes that you all (or at least Mom and Mrs. Green) might find them interesting and that they can shed some light on what evangelical Christianity looks like over here--the ways in which it is similar and dissimilar to evangelical Christianity in the US.

Protestants in the Former Soviet Union: What Survey Findings Reveal: Fascinating, but also troubling in spots--the average pastor's salary from the church work he does is roughly $70/month (for the percentage that answered the question on the survey). Most people I know have an average monthly salary of $100-$120 and think that it's difficult to live comfortably on that amount.

Ukrainian Evangelical Culture: This site is primarily designed for people coming on short-term mission trips, but there's a lot of interesting information about the structure of church services and the lifestyle of many Christians here...it's interesting for me, because I learned most of what's written there over a period of observation and interaction, and here it is all written out!

appropriate both for my students and for me

2007-06-13T10:59:00.000+03:00

"The Learner’s Task"

Some say it isn’t any fun
to imitate another’s tongue;
while idioms and turns of phrase
can often baffle and amaze
the novice who must learn their ways.

Loquacious speakers seldom pause
to rest their ever moving jaws;
and so the learner simply gapes
as useless input fast escapes--
these speakers might as well be apes!

Nor can one recognize the words
that stampede forth in growing herds
arranged in patterns quite opaque
and grammar strange enough to make
it clear that there’s been some mistake.
(Such is the learner’s sorry stake!)

But lest the learner, in dismay
abandon hope, I haste to say
that there remains one certain way:

To learn a language, girls and guys,
you simply have to memorize.

~Keith Slater

the strawberry post

2007-06-12T10:18:00.000+03:00

Ahh...I went to the bazaar this morning and came back with a kilogram of fresh strawberries, a kilo of onions, a bunch of dill, and a bunch of tiny new carrots. I love summer produce!

~*~

Yeah, I know I haven't posted in several days, but I was out of town this weekend. So here's my recap.

Thursday night, I visited the Shevchenkos, a family from my church who had invited me over for dinner when they saw me buying strawberries at the bazaar the previous Saturday. They told me there was no need for me to buy strawberries when they already had them in their garden. I went, but I also bought my own strawberries. :) We had borscht, strawberries with sugar, and varenyki (similar to ravioli, dough with filling that's either boiled or steamed) with cottage cheese and strawberries, with a side of sour cream. There are two little girls in the family, Maharita and Nastia (just finished 4th and 5th forms), and although we've been going to the same church for over a year, we got properly acquainted that night. At first, I was worried, because the girls seemed shy, but very soon that turned into, "And this is our room--this is Nastia's side and this is my side and this is my photo album and this is a picture of my best friend and do you want to put together a puzzle and here are our dolls and this is the cupboard where they live and Mama made these doll clothes but we made these ourselves..."

I really liked seeing that the girls made doll clothes...I love the Y kids to pieces--they're my family here--but I could never see any of the girls there sitting down to sew doll clothes. Someone else would go over to them and destroy the partially completed project, and then they'd start arguing, and in the meantime the needle would get lost and someone would step on it... I think the next time I go over to the Shevchenkos, I'm taking an old skirt lining I have and we'll learn how to make drawstring skirts for dolls.

Friday evening, I took the elektrichka an hour south to visit some other PCVs. The PCV down there had had a camp last week, and on Saturday, the counselors were all going on an excursion to Sviatahorsk (Holy Mountain), an Orthodox monestary just over the border into Donetsk Oblast. My friend Erin McS was coming to visit me after camp ended, so I had the chance to go on the excursion also. Friday night, we all (1o or so of us) went out to a cafe in the town and went dancing. Some of the American guys had had a bit much to drink (to put it mildly), and they were very active dancers to begin with...they were trying to dance with Ukrainian girls, but the girls were somewhat freaked out and pretty much kept fleeing the dance floor. Entertaining for those of us who were sober. Also fascinating was that in the center of the dance floor, there was a post with mirrors on all sides of it, and when the Ukrainians danced by themselves, they all watched themselves in the mirror. Cultural differences...

We got home around 1 am and then I got to take my first hot shower since February or thereabouts. Ahh, bliss...

Saturday morning, we got up and took a van down to Sviatohorsk. I had looked it up in my guidebook the day before and knew that, as a woman, I had to have a headscarf, but we stopped by the bazaar to get scarves for Erin and Jessica, the other girls. We had to have our heads covered, something on our shoulders (no tank tops), and skirts that were knee-length or thereabouts. The bazaar had all sorts of filmy-type scarves, and many people there were wearing scarves wrapped around them as a skirt, if they'd come in shorts or something. The guys were supposed to have long pants.

We saw the lower monestary and were able to go in for the end of the service that was going on, which, as always, was beautiful with everything being sung acapella. Then we went on a short tour and had a picnic lunch on the other side of the river. It was an interesting comparison, because everyone had to be so covered up at the monestary, but in the picnic area, the same people would strip down to bikinis and Speedos.

After lunch, we were feeling overwhelmed by Ukrainain hospitality and over-organization of what was supposed to be a relaxing day, so us girls took off to the bazaar by ourselves to go shopping. I bought two headscarves, a filmy white one and a navy blue one with gold flowers, and two candlesticks made of clay that I was told was from the mountain and glazed dark blue. The candlesticks, unfortunately, broke on the way home, but they were only about 40 cents each USD and since they broke cleanly, I think I can glue them back together.

Then we went on a hike up the mountain and back in the fields to a grave of one of the monks from long ago...during Soviet times, the monestary had been a hospital for psychiatric patients (I think...), but this grave had been hidden and wasn't discovered. Then we went to the upper part of the monestary, where we could see all the way back to the town where we'd been staying, a forty-minute drive away.

Facing the monestary on a different cliff was a huge Soviet-era statue of the first Party secretary, or someone like that. One of the Ukrainians who was with us commented that he found it poetic justice that the area around the statue is eroding, while the churches are being rebuilt.

Then we all went back to the town where we were staying, went out to a cafe for dinner, hung out at one of the houses where some of the guys were staying, and then went back to the cafe where we were the previous night. Our apartment decided not to stay late, so we had french fries and then went home for more hot showers.

One of the really neat things about the weekend was that Ethan, one of the PCVs who was in the apartment I stayed at, is a Christian, which is always encouraging to find out here. He went to Liberty University, where he majored in biology. We've had dissimilar experiences here--unlike me, he was involved with a church in his town during training and made some good friends there, but when he got to site, there's no Evangelical church there, so he hasn't been able to go to church for five months. We were able to chat a bit about being believers out here, which was really cool.

Sunday morning, Erin and I got up and took the train back up to Balaklia. We had a fun time--the highlights included watching the brass band in my town rehearse while a dad and his two little girls danced on the outdoor stage by the Palace of Culture; making the ultimate sacrifice when the electricity went out and we had to eat a half kilo of vanilla ice cream with strawberries; making homemade pizza; and watching Walk the Line.

Yesterday we went up to Kharkiv, got Erin her train ticket back to Kyiv, and then went out for Italian food (yes, food was an important part of this visit!). We wanted to go to the second hand store I really like, but it closes early on Mondays, so we went to a bookstore instead, where I found a children's jigsaw puzzle that's a map of Ukraine and Erin bought an armload of ESL story/fiction books in English to use with her kids.

So it's been a great weekend, but I'm tired.

yesterday, today, and this summer

2007-06-06T14:00:00.000+03:00

Once again, posted a day later than I wrote it because Blogger wouldn't let me post. Not sure what's wrong with Blogger...

Yesterday was fun. I didn't have anything going on at school, so I hopped the 11:50 elektrichka to Kharkiv after making photocopies for my lesson today. When I got into the city, I went second-hand shopping at the store I went to a couple of weeks ago, but this time I actually had more than 15 minutes to look at and try on things. I found three books, all more-or-less mediocre but in English and quite cheap, and three shirts--two tank tops (one is white with a teal flower and the other is pale blue with some Old-West themed writing and design) and a light purple dressy summer blouse with embroidered flowers on it. All together, I spent about $15, which is a bit stiff for used clothing over here, but it's all really good quality and I needed some more summer tops.

After shopping, I hung out with Mike, who was also in town. We sat on the cement steps near the opera house and talked, complete with beverages (I found bottled lemon iced tea!). Later, we were joined by Marie, a French girl who's been studying at a university in Kharkiv for the past year but is going home on Thursday. I was planning to take the 6:50 train home, but we went out for supper and the pizzas we ordered took FOREVER and showed up less than 10 minutes before my train would have left. So I just took the next train. (Yes, Tif, the infamous 8:20 out of the main station!) The pizza was pretty good...pepperoni and red pepper slices. The crust on the edges was REALLY good, crisp on the outside but chewy within, and with a good flavor, but in the center it was too thin and the pizza was a bit greasy. But overall, good.

~*~

My summer plans are being formed, and I'm amazed how quickly my calendar's filling up.

Now-End of June-ish: Praktika at school

June 22-July 6: Tif's visit

July 14-July 29 (tentative, pending application approval): working as an assistant at the Summer English Intensive Program at Donetsk Christian University. I'm really excited about this opportunity. I was looking up evangelical weddings in Ukraine the other night (prompted by Yula's upcoming wedding), and ran across a mention of DCU. At the time, I thought that one of Nadia's cousins who I'd met at New Year's had studied there (it turns out he actually studied at a Bible college in Dnipropretrovsk...I knew it was something with a "D" in southeastern Ukraine), so I checked out their website and found the summer program. They still have a few slots open for workers, and I cleared it with PC, so hopefully everything will work out!

Early August (no definites, many possibilities): Brandi's visit? / Crimea with the Ys? / Lithuania with Kathryn? / Odesa with the oblast girls? / Krakow on my own? We'll see...

August 26-30: Peace Corps COS (Close of Service) Conference in L'vivska Oblast. Scary how soon all of that's coming up...

September 1 (most likely September 3, since the first is a Saturday...but you never know here): School begins again!

~*~

It's funny...I was not at all thrilled about working at praktika (summer school), but several PCVs have said that they're sort of jealous of me because I have something going on right now...they're bored. At least two people were like, "My school doesn't include me with anything like that." Mike also added that no one tells him when staff meetings are and he's not expected to show up for them...if I don't show up to ours, the director grills Nelya about my whereabouts and then I hear about it from Nelya that I really do need to come.

And I've been having fun. It's more laid back, and I'm not teaching every day. Half the time, I come, check papers for an hour, and go home; and yesterday, I got the day off. But today, I did music with my 10A form and we had a lot of fun. The kids complained about the music choices--"When are we going to listen to music that's popular in Ukraine?", but they had fun. And I picked several songs that they were at least slightly familiar with. I didn't, however, include rap or heavy metal, which is very popular, because a) I don't have any, b) you can't hear the words, which defeats the purpose, and c) the English-speaking artists that are the most popular here tend to have very profane/vulgar/obscene lyrics, which aren't appropriate for school.

Our playlist today:

"Honey" by Tina Karol
"Don't Know Why" by Norah Jones
"Oxford Town" by Bob Dylan
"Don't Worry, Be Happy" by MadHeads XL
"The Great Lakes Song" by Lee Murdoch
"Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer

sorry so late...

2007-06-04T21:00:00.000+03:00

Please note: This was written on Monday, but then Blogger had issues and wouldn't let me post. And I was out of town yesterday. Please, don't lynch me for not updating in over a week. Mom says that it's like having her own personal serial to watch, reading my blog, so assume I was preempted by the Movie of the Week or something.

Well, I know it's been a week since my last post, but since Mom hasn't mentioned that people have been asking her why I wasn't posting, I think I'm in the clear. :) For those people who want to know, a) it was in the mid-90s most of last week, leaving me without the ability to think clearly, let alone type; b) while playing badminton last Monday, I somehow pinched a nerve in my right arm, which made extended computer time, especially typing, challenging (much better now); c) the end of the school kept me busy; and d) I just wasn't in the mood. :)

But now my arm is back to normal, the temperature has dropped to the mid-70s (perfect!), and "praktika", the Ukrainian version of summer school, is in full swing. It's different from US summer school...each homeroom of kids has certain subjects that they're supposed to come to school for (and it's not just the slower kids), and each day is only one subject, which is usually supposed to last 5 hours but never does. And part of the time, the teachers take the kids on field trips instead of book stuff...Nelya took her class to the town museum today, and last Friday, I ended up helping as a chaperone with the 1st-5th formers, taking them to a concert at the Palace of Culture for Children's Day and then going with the 5th formers and Olha Ivanivna afterwards to go swimming/wading in the river. (So nice, especially as last Friday was very hot.) I have my oh-so-unmotivated 10-A class twice this week, and the topic I was given was "listening comprehension", so I think that on Wednesday, we're going to listen to music and on Friday, we'll watch one of my DVDs. I spent this afternoon looking up song lyrics and translating the difficult words into Ukrainian. As a result, I ended up with a cheesy pop song that has versions in both Russian and English stuck in my head. Have been playing soft, pretty music like Fernando Ortega to scrub out my brain.

While at the supermarket today, I found something resembling ranch dressing. At least, it resembles my faint, far-off memories of ranch dressing. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of consuming, while not a huge amount, more than my stomach could easily handle, so then I got to follow it up with Pepto-Dismal-type tablets, cherry flavored (yes, the D for B is intentional).

Well, Blogger ate the second half of this post earlier when I tried to post it, so let me see if I can remember what I posted...

Yula and Serogia's wedding plans are progressing...they had hoped to keep the guest list down to about 100 or so, but apparently as soon as all the extended family heard that Yula was getting married (before the invitations were sent out), they all started calling Nadia to tell her that they were coming...and had already bought their train tickets! It looks like the Y house is going to be filled with people, as they are the family members who have a true gift for hospitality. Nadia says she keeps telling people that they'll fill up all the floor space, and she doesn't know how she's going to feed everyone! (Viktor suggested tents out in their huge garden and letting people cook their own food over campfires...)

Ihor Y (age 5) asked me on Sunday why I don't have kids. This is the second time he's asked me something along these lines...I think he really wants more kids to play with! Or maybe he just can't comprehend an adult without kids. :)

On Saturday, I'm going with a group of PCVs on an "excursion" to visit an Orthodox monestary just over the border into Donetsk Oblast. I'm looking forward to it, and then on Sunday and Monday, Erin McS, a PCV friend of mine, is coming to visit me. Yay for company!

and the rest of the day...

2007-05-28T21:51:00.000+03:00

So that batch of strawberry iced tea? Didn't last more than an hour after I finished typing the last post, as my little neighbor girls came over for Go Fish and a tea party. We ate most of the junk food in my apartment, which is good because I can't snack on it, but bad because I don't have junk food.

I currently have a batch of strawberry-mint iced tea brewing. Yum.

Also this afternoon, I installed my first window screen from the kit that someone sent me in the Brockway box last fall. We'll see how it works...it stays up by this tape stuff that's sticky on one side and like velcro on the other. You take the window netting and stick it to the velcro. I think that the kit was designed for people with smoother window frames than mine, but we'll try it. If it means I can have my windows perpetually open without fear of bugs, I'm all for trying.

It was a bit cooler today, and the evening was very nice, so I went for a walk. I was walking through the park, when I heard what sounded like Christian music in Russian. On my way back from my walk, I investigated, and it was a group of young people from Andrey's church (he's the guy I hang out with and help with English, in case you forgot) playing volleyball and badminton. I joined them and ended up playing badminton with one of the girls. I'm not particularly athletic (is this a surprise to anyone? I doubt it), but by the end, I was hitting the birdie a bit more regularly. Apparently they do this fairly often now that the tweather's good, and I think I'll try and join them occasionally. I could stand the exercise, and they seem like an unintimidating group to make an idiot of myself in front of.

Conversation between Andrey and me at the end, in Russian/Ukrainian:

Someone had asked where I live.
Me: On [my street name], in the swamp. [This is literally how the taxi drivers describe where my building is.]
Andrey: *laughs*
Me: What's so funny? That's how the taxi drivers say it!
Andrey: You know who lives in the swamp?
Me: Who?
Andrey: Shrek!
Me: [pause] Well, I'm Princess Fiona!
Andrey: I can see the resemblance.
Me: First movie [when she looks like a princess] or second [when she looks like an ogre]? Never mind, don't answer that!

a kindred soul, somewhere in cyberspace

2007-05-28T12:43:00.000+03:00

Found while surfing the Internet:

Nobody who can read is ever successful in cleaning out an attic. (Anonymous)

This explains my cry of horror when Jason told me a couple of weeks ago that he was going through his bookshelves and getting rid of a few books.

"You can't! I'm not coming back until December! You can't just get rid of books without giving me the chance to browse through them and borrow them!" I then explained how that, when I was growing up, Mom, Kate, and I all had to get each other's approval before getting rid of any books...which often just meant a transfer of ownership rather than any books actually leaving the house.

Jason assured me that the books he was getting rid of weren't anything I'd have any interest in reading, and since he is a trustworthy individual, I'm going to believe him.

~*~

Today's batch of iced tea is strawberry-flavored. If it turns out well, I think I'll combine these two attempts and have my third batch be strawberry-mint. The weather's a bit better today...still warm, but there's a good breeze.

and a little child shall lead them

2007-05-27T17:42:00.000+03:00

The Y's van isn't working again. Apparently, it broke down last Sunday just as they arrived back home from visiting another church in the oblast. (The Baptist churches in various towns and villages around here are taking turns visiting each other this summer...I wasn't able to go this time, as I was in Kharkiv with the other PCVs.)

Serojia Y's birthday was this week (he's five now). At our church here, when it's your birthday, you go up front, you pray, the pastor prays for you, and then everyone sings "Mwe Vam Bazhayem," which is a song where you wish someone happiness, peace, joy, and love in Christ. (We don't just sing it for birthdays...it happens whenever you want to congratulate someone for something.) Anyhow, Serojia's prayer was, "Dear God, thank you for Mama [Nadia] and church. Amen." I don't think I could have put it better myself.

Mom said that I should post about why I didn't have to teach the 11th formers on Friday, so I will. It is perhaps a sign of how much I've adjusted to living here that I didn't think about it as a blog topic until she suggested it. Anyhow, guys in Ukraine generally serve two years in the army after finishing school, as best I understand it. (I have yet to figure out how this connects with university, as they don't wait until the two years are over to finish...I should ask Sasha the next time I'm in Zgurivka.) So when I got to school on Friday, I saw most of the 11th form guys outside talking to the music teacher (the one male teacher on staff, who also teaches the older boys how to do military marches, in addition to teaching the younger kids how to sing)...and they were all in fatigues carrying guns. Apparently Friday was "Anton Get Your Gun" Day. As I entered the building and was walking down the hallway to the teachers' room, I saw Sasha, one of my 11A boys, in the hallway with his gun slung over his shoulder, talking to a teacher. After that, I didn't see the 11th formers (guys or girls) for the rest of the day. Still not quite sure about what happened. But apparently you don't get expelled here for having a gun on school property!

Nor is there apparently any disciplinary action when a 9th form boy tickles a teacher (me). This is a kid who I've been wanting to strangle the entire two weeks I subbed for his class. On Friday, they were taking a test, and Ihor was blatantly copying something out of his notebook. I requested that he give me the notebook, and he refused, putting it in his bag. Having had him for two weeks now, I knew that as soon as I looked away, he'd have it back out again, so I repeated my request. He handed me a different notebook. I took his schoolbag and started to remove the actual notebook in question. He started trying to play tug-of-war with me for it, and in order to make me let go, tickled me under my arm. This is NOT COOL. I was appalled. I never did get the notebook, but he didn't try and copy anything more out of it...instead, he took the notebook of the girl he was sitting with and started copying her work. After class, Ihor came up to me and tried to offer me free Avon samples (he sells Avon in his free time...don't ask) to get back in my good graces. Nope. Didn't happen. After school, I tried to explain what had happened to Nelya...i.e. that it is not okay for a student to tickle a teacher. It took a bit of explaining to make her understand what had happened, and her response was, "Don't worry about it. Ihor's rather strange."

Still...it seems strange and wrong that something that would get you suspended in the US has absolutely no repercussions here. And for the record, people who currently have tickle privileges (granted, some of them can't take advantage of them right now, as I'm here) are all Y kids from Valera on down (Liza and Valera know "tickle" in English, although it's strictly an outside-of-school thing), Jason, and any immediate family members who would want to tickle me. The list can expand if need be, but it's not going to include my older students!

FYI, my mint iced tea was very good. I made a liter jar full and drank it all in less than a day.

Yula and Serojia's wedding is June 24th. Tif, I said I'd help decorate for the reception on Saturday if they need help...you can either join me or sleep off jet lag, if you haven't by that point. And yes, I'll take the skirt. :)

Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing cuccu!

2007-05-26T12:39:00.000+03:00

Not having any big plans for the day (it's too hot), I went to the bazaar this morning in search of fresh produce. I was hoping for strawberries, but it's a little early yet...a couple of stands had them, but they looked small and squished and were an outrageous 25 hryvnia/kilo. However, I did find baby potatoes, radishes, fresh dill, honey, mushrooms, and two hair clips (a black claw clip and a big pink barrette).

Then I came home and boiled the baby potatoes and then added melted butter, garlic, and a bunch of the dill. Yummy.

It's so hot here...it's been up above 90 for the last several days. I need to go do laundry at the Y's, but the thought of lugging a big bag of laundry over to their house, plus coming up with the energy to be social for the two hours it takes the washing machine just seems like a lot. I might do it on Monday, although I need to find out if this upcoming holiday (Trinity Day) means that people don't do any extra work around the house.

Or, I might just make a liter jar of iced tea and sit around the apartment doing not much of anything until I go tutor Julia at 5 pm.

a "real" teacher, clothes, and directions

2007-05-23T14:42:00.000+03:00

I'm part of a group of PCVs who are putting together a training manual for PCTs who will be teaching YLs (young learners, aka "little kids"). (How's that for acronymic?) I've been a bit slow on completing my part, for several reasons: I was supposed to collect info from other PCVs, none of whom emailed me back with lesson plans and ideas; I'm in charge of writing up the section about grading, which I don't really have much to do with at my school for the YLs, as Nelya grades the 3rd formers and the 4th form has been so out of control I can't say that I've had the time to spend on formulating an elaborate grading methodology...instead, I've concentrated on trying to keep them in their seats and not hitting each other; and plus, that I've been crazy busy with multiple things.

So last night, I dropped Tatiana, the lead specialist of the TEFL program, an email explaining some of why I'm getting the stuff to her a bit late. Part of her response made me grin wryly:

I know how much one could be busy at the end of the semester. It sounds like you're seriously treated as a Ukrainian English teacher and have to cope with all regular teaching and administrative duties. Patience, darling, a week or so and you'll take some rest (will you?)

I'm sure that it's great that I'm taken seriously as a teacher--on Sunday, I was talking to a PCV whose school pretty much ignores her and doesn't let her help with the year-end tests or want her to work in June or anything like that. But sometimes I'd like to be taken a bit less seriously, as far as the work load goes. :) That said, subbing this week's been going fairly well, although some of the 9th form told me yesterday that they would prefer Nelya as their sub. (This was because they didn't like their grades, and one of the boys pointed out that Nelya would quite possibly grade them lower. So they shut up about her and just kept complaining about everything else I do.) But the 6B form likes me because we play games if there's time at the end of the lesson.

I went to the second-hand store after school today and bought some clothes, although I suspect they'll be better for fall, as we've gotten quite the heat wave lately. For 10 hryvnia, I found a long-sleeved white blouse with pink flowers on it, and for 35, a high-waisted, short-sleeved denim dress that looks quite cute on me. However, when I looked at the tag, it was marked "maternity". This surprised me, as I never would have thought it was a maternity dress, so I asked the shop assistant what she thought about it, and we decided you didn't necessarily have to be pregnant to wear it. I supposed if I get the chance I should get my picture taken in it and post it so you all can tell me what you think. :)

As I was walking home from the second-hand store, a large tour bus stopped and a guy asked me how to get to the lyceum. I started to answer, but he caught my accent and asked (in English) if I spoke English. Apparently they were a group of people (students?) from the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland...why they were headed to the lyceum was something I was never told. So anyhow, the guy asked where I was from, and I said America. "You are from Corps [pronounced "Corpse"] of Peace?" he replied. So I gave directions (in English!) and as they pulled away, I could hear him say in Ukrainian to the other passengers, "And on your right is an American volunteer..." Glad to know I'm part of the tour of Balaklia!

tak, ya mozhy paracladate (yes, I can translate)

2007-05-20T21:19:00.000+03:00

My favorite moment of the day happened at McDonalds, as Julianne and I had an early supper after the PC ~~beerfest~~ get-together to welcome the new PCTs. We were discussing how we love McDonalds here but don't really care for it in the States.

Julianne: It's our homeland.
Me: Yeah, Homeland Security food.
Julianne: *rolls eyes and groans*

Glad to know that I haven't completely lost the pun touch.

~*~

Update on Andrei: he's doing a bit better, I'm gathering, and his condition has stabilized. On Friday, the kids said that they'd talked to him and he said to tell me "Hi". Thanks for all the prayers...and don't stop! He's got a long, difficult recovery ahead of him.

~*~

I spent Thursday through today, except when I was at school, helping Robert, the new PCT who'll be in my town starting in June, with language stuff and general acclimation. They've only have language classes for six weeks before site visit (I remember those days...), so I did a lot of translating for him and his organization, as his director/coordinator doesn't speak any English. We also hung out with his host family, who are very nice and told me I need to come back and visit them even while Robert's still in training. I was amazed how many of the same people I knew that they knew as well. Really, it's not that large of a town.

Today, I missed church (*sad face*) and went with Robert up to Kharkiv, where us oldies had a welcoming celebration for the newbies at an outdoor cafe. It was nice to chat with everyone, and I have leads on a couple of trips people might be taking this summer to Odesa and Lithuania, which I might be able to join up with. Plus, I met Daisy, a girl volunteer who'll be about 30-40 minutes away from me by train, and we're planning to hang out. The other girls in the oblast all live on the other side of Kharkiv, so when they have "girly nights", it's hard for me to be able to go.

It's really hot...yesterday it was in the 90s, and I think it was today as well. This does not bode well for school this coming week. Friday was bad enough...the last class (11th form) decided to just go crazy and throw paper wads, and all my yelling in Ukrainian had no results. I look forward to someday working in a country with a better discipline system with a more clearly defined set of consequences and punishments.

the life of a substitute teacher...yes, me, not my parents

2007-05-16T16:12:00.000+03:00

No real updates on Andrei...the kids at school told me he's doing a little better and is going to live, but what I could understand of the conversation in the teachers' room today seemed a lot less hopeful, both for his chances and then for what condition he'll be in if he makes it.

I'm spending this week and next week as a substitute teacher for Olha Ivanivna, who had to go to Kharkiv for teacher training. This is a challenge, because not only am I substituting, it's also right at the end of the school year and I have to give the year-end exams. Which I also have to write. For students I don't teach, which means I don't really have a good idea of what they've covered or the level they're at. I also got the fun job of giving the sixth forms English tests from the Ukrainian Ministry of Education...they're experimenting with standardized testing. Yesterday was grammar, which almost everyone flat-out bombed. Out of 25 tests or so, on a 1-12 scale, I had an 8.5, two 6s, a 4.25...and everyone else was lower. I feel bad for the kids...the material wasn't new, but it involved a format that we haven't really worked with and often they had to choose what tense to put a verb in rather than just being told which tense. Some of the girls wanted to know their grades, so I told them. Fortunately, there were no tears (which I half expected), and they don't seem to be blaming me. :)

After a year and a half of being the only American (or native English speaker, for that matter) in my rayon, another PCV is coming to Balaklia to work at a non-profit organization in town. His name is Robert, and he's 46 and was previously a PCV in Namibia. He's coming for site visit tomorrow through Sunday and then moving here in late June. He sounds like he'll be interesting to get to know. Also, another small town about 30-40 minutes towards Kharkiv from me is getting a youth development volunteer, and my friend Mike is also getting a YD PCV in his town (yes, Tif, School #2 finally caved in). So there'll be 3 new PCVs within an hour of me. Wow. It's gonna get crowded! :)

Funny moment from the 6B class I'm subbing for today: Today they had to translate a page of text about the USA into Ukrainian as a year-end test. One girl wanted to know how to say "second" in Ukrainian. Once she figured out what it was, she said, "Oh, second hand!" Used clothing stores are known as "секондь хенд", or "second hand" here, and they're sort of looked down on here. Then she asked me, "Miss Sally, do you go to the second hand stores?" The majority of my clothes are used (from such diverse sources as Nadia, Tif, the PC office, and the infamous second hand stores, which I love), and today's outfit, a light pink sweater and a knee-length denim skirt with front pleats, was from Nadia and the PC office. So I said, "Yes, and what I'm wearing is second-hand" (granted, not from the store, but still used). The kids all stopped, looked at me, and one of the girls said, "Well, it sure doesn't look like it!"

Really, I think the prejudice against used clothes here is silly. According to Guisella Kotlar (who has a new baby, Raphael!), "everyone shops there but no one admits it." I like the used clothes shops here because I can find more Western-style clothing that's better quality for the fraction of the price I'd pay at the bazaar. Plus, they sometimes have English books!

Please pray.

2007-05-14T16:04:00.000+03:00

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST:

Andrei, one of my sixth form boys (who is also my neighbor), fell off the roof of our apartment building (9 stories) yesterday. A bunch of boys were horsing around up there (the roof is flat) and runnng, and apparently he was running and didn't look where he was going. From what I understand, he broke quite a few bones, had something happen with his stomach, and has had/will have 12 operations.

All of us at school, especially the sixth form, are pretty shaken up by this. Everyone was a little quieter than normal, and as I said, the sixth formers were upset to the point of tears. At English club this afternoon, one of them got a call that Andrei had died, but apparently there was a miscommunication and he hadn't died yet, although I guess it's a distinct possibility. They're moving him from the hospital here in Balaklia to Kharkiv this afternoon.

I've been impressed with the kids here and how soon they started collecting money to help with hospital bills. My neighbor boys came around yesterday evening asking for donations, and the first thing my sixth formers said when they saw me (after, "You heard about Andrei, right?") was, "Are we going to take up a collection for him at school?" For a country where money is often tight, that says a lot to me. We also made him cards in English club, although the general consensus was that, since Andrei doesn't really know English, we should write them in Russian or Ukrainian.

Please keep Andrei and his family in your prayers.

~*~

Random semi-humorous thing I heard in the store today (not directed to me): "Why are you so serious? You're like Lenin in October."

Weekend update/picture post!

2007-05-13T22:32:00.000+03:00

It's been a good weekend. Yesterday, I went to Kharkiv for a going-away party for one of the PCVs in the oblast. We had a picnic out in the woods in one of the larger parks, and it was a nice chance to visit with people. Over 20 people showed up, a mixture of oblast PCVs, visiting PCVs from other oblasts, and foreign exchange students who live in Kharkiv. I took no-bake cookies, which were a hit. Pictures are here.

Question for all of you: do you know what no-bakes are? A lot of people yesterday (Americans) hadn't heard of no-bakes before, and I hadn't thought that they were a regional thing.

Today, I was the pianist at church because our regular one, Inna, was at a wedding with her mom (who is also our best soprano...we were slightly lacking today). I started out rather shaky, but felt moderately confident by the end.

The weather was gorgeous today, and I took pictures of various Y family members after church, including Nadia, who's never let me photograph her before. Pictures are here.

Oh, and for people who like to keep up on news, Yula and Serogia are officially engaged now and getting married at the end of next month. The date's not set yet, but they have two possible weekends.

a slice of democracy in action...7th form style!

2007-05-10T13:35:00.000+03:00

Current Music: "в моем сердце" ("In My Heart") by Краеугольный Камень (a group that sings worship music in Russian)
Current Mood: Cheerful

Reason #235ish (or thereabouts...this is unscientific) why I love my 7th form (usually):

We're doing the last unit in the textbook right now, which is about the history and politics of Ukraine. And frankly, the textbook stunk more than it usually does...I had 20 vocabulary words and one two-part text to work with, plus a few translation exercises. For two weeks worth of lessons.

So I borrowed a leaf from Katharine Anderson's US government class back in high school and turned my class into the Verkovnya Rada of Ukraine (Ukrainian Parliament). On Tuesday, I put them in their regular groups and told them that for class today, they needed a party name and a party platform. They presented their platforms today, and then each group came up with a bill to try and pass. The class voted by secret ballot on their bills. On Monday I'll tell them the results, give them a diagram of the Ukrainian political system (Nelya's helping me out with that part), and then...we're going to have presidential elections, complete with campaign posters and speeches.

I've been pleasantly amazed how much work the kids put into their political platforms. Dictionaries were obviously used, and every group had a platform. They also got into the bill part of the lesson. We had a staff meeting a few months ago talking about the importance of student government and self-government, and I look at these lessons as a chance for the kids to understand how the democratic process works just a little.

And, since I'm quite proud of my kids (with an exception that will be noted), here are their political platforms. Spelling and grammar are unchanged; if I think you all will be totally confused, I'll "translate" in brackets.

National Patriot Party
1. War attr: to amend war attr force [I never did figure out quite what they meant...]
2. Economics: to amend industrial and egricultural country
3. Education: to amend knowledge foreign languages
4. Language: not correction

[When I asked them how exactly they planned to make these "amendments" they told me it was a secret. True politics--promise to change everything and not say how!]

Killer Party (later changed to Patriots Party after severe objections from Nelya and me)
1. We want to also countries what been in SSSR reunite again and our big country destroy Europe and USA.
2. We want to abolish also lessons.
3. We want to diminish cost on also product.

[This is unfortunately what happens when you have the top student in the class and the biggest troublemaker in the same group. Nelya and I were appalled, particularly at the party name and the destruction involved, and she gave the entire class an anti-terrorism lecture. The boys, I'm pretty sure, were just joking, but we gave them bad grades for the assignment. What gets me is that there really are political groups here with something of this mindset.]

Blue/Yellow Party (who made a pretty pamphlet with different colors and designs)
1. I'd like economical, politikal and cultural relationships promoted the union. It assisted the further development of Ukrainian people.
2. I want that was we have wide relations with Canada, the USA, and Great Britain in policy, ekonomics and culture. [Sort of the antithesis of the previous group...]
3. That in Ukraine medical help is available in hospitals, polyclinics, and also in medical centres in such places as factories and schools.
4. We whent [want] that pupil fulfil all obligation.

Defend Children Party
1. Secured every children house, education.
2. Free hospital.
3. Go to school in winter.
4. Free study.

Vynderkinder [From the German for "Clever Children"...it's a commonly used phrase here]
1. We want pease in Ukraine. [I know they mean "peace"...but I can't help but think "peas."]
2. The pupi stude [study] in institut.
3. the people make timely salary. [People get paid on time.]

So then each group suggested a bill and we voted on them. Here are the bills and the results.

1. Vynderkinder: Minimum salary of 2,000 hryvnia/month ($400). Passed, 13-3
2. Defend Children: All children have the right to a voice [I think this means have the right to be heard, not a physical voice.]. Passed, 13-3
3. National Patriot: 3 years of military service mandatory. Failed, 2-14
4. Blue/Yellow: 50 hryvnia fine for bad words. [my personal favorite!] Tied, 8-8
5. Patriots: 100 hryvnia fine for the group who thought of #4. Failed, 5-11

I can hardly wait until Monday to see what they come up with next!

the best laid plans of mice and men and sal...

2007-05-07T21:23:00.000+03:00

I'm sad.

I baked my salmon fillet with a little bit of butter, fresh dill, and lemon slices. I made a small batch of rice to go with it. I grated up some radishes and added a few drops of oil and vinegar for my side salad. I even added a couple slices of bread on the side.

And my salmon wasn't fresh...it was preserved in brine (which I hadn't known prior to baking). It was too salty to eat, and half an hour later, my mouth is still puckering from the thought.

I was going to have such a nice supper, too!

~*~

Today at school we had an outdoor assembly for Victory Day, which is on Wednesday and celebrates the ending of WWII. In Ukraine, which was a major battle ground, the Soviet Army were the winners, so everyone had red flowers and we had a red star with candles around it. In some ways, it was if we were celebrating the triumph of Communism over Nazism, which seemed a little odd to the American. But it definitely would have been the better choice in 1945.

Anyhow, we had our assembly with our veterans--one old man in an army uniform with a chest full of medals, and two babuskas with head scarves. All the classes either had to present a musical number or draw a poster. The results were varied, but interesting.

Yesterday at the Ys, Vitaly, who was not blessed with an artistic gift in the slightest, was trying to draw the 10-B poster, as none of his classmates had volunteered. (Viktor asked me, "Do you know how to draw a star so that all of the angles are exactly even?" Since I take after my mom more than my dad, the answer was no. Nadia's comment was that Vitaly shouldn't bite off more than he can chew...or at least, the Ukrainian equivalent.)

We had various musical numbers--mostly Soviet war songs, I think--by the kids. My favorite was my 8-B form, who apparently had raided all the available attics. A group of them came out in various costumes based on old army uniforms--we had Alyona as a nurse, Slava in a long khaki trenchcoat, Alosha as a sailor, Vitaly with a parachuter's helmet, Zhenia in an army jacket with a bloody bandage around his head, and Firyuza looking like a guerilla fighter who had acquired everyone else's castoffs (my personal opinion). Plus Olena, Vita, and Natasha, who weren't in costume but were there for vocal support. They sang a verse of a song and then had a little skit. I liked that they didn't do the same sort of thing as everyone else.

The other performance that I found notable was that of Maksym and Andrei, two of my 6-A boys. With the music teacher accompanying them on his accordion, they belted out two Soviet army songs with more noise and energy than accuracy. The first song was a lively one with a traditional "Russian" sound about partisans out in the forest, and it hit me that during WWII, boys that age would have been involved in the war in various ways and singing the song in much the same way. It gave me goosebumps.

And I got some of the extra tulips that were left over!

something fishy is going on

2007-05-07T19:26:00.000+03:00

Today when I was at the supermarket, I picked up a salmon fillet for supper, as I wanted something different from my usual fare.

So of course, I've been looking up recipes to figure out how to best use up various things in my fridge to go with it.

And what should I find but "Cooking Salmon in a Dishwasher." I can't try it, of course, since I have no dishwasher, but I really want to know who thought of doing that in the first place.

And I'm also greatly amused that they specify that no detergent or soap is to be added...

a long post to make up for the lack of them this past week

2007-05-06T19:58:00.000+03:00

I have a webcam!

Greg and I had a shopping day at Target (not the US Target, but the biggest grocery/department store in Kharkiv) on Wednesday. Greg found blue cheese, a mop, sticky-tac (apparently you can find it in Ukraine!), and a bunch of other random stuff, and I got my webcam, white-out, two copy-books, and peanut butter, which comes in little packets apparently, rather than jars. I haven't tried it yet, as I keep using my bread for other things (ie sandwiches), but I hope to soon.

So now when Jason and I talk with each other on Skype, we both have webcams and can see each other (although he generally looks sort of like a Monet painting, a little fuzzy around the edges, and when he moves quickly, the resemblance is closer to Picasso's work). It's almost (but not quite) as good as being able to actually go on a date. :)

~*~

My 10th form topic this week was "Making Suggestions." For their Thursday night homework, I asked them all to brainstorm three problems that they had in their lives. On Friday, I put them into groups and had them come up with answers to these problems. Below is a sampling, with suggestions in italics.

~No money (a very common problem): Need to work
~I get bad marks: Need to study
~My CD player doesn't work: Throw it out, buy a new one (which went back to "No money")
~I'm lazy: To overcome it (I was very proud of Natasha, as she looked up "overcome" in the dictionary to answer Olexi's problem)
~I live in Vilavatka (a village south of us) and I have to take the train to school (because the school there closed due to lack of students and the kids have to come to our school now): Move to Balaklia (to which Olena replied, "No money!")
~No boyfriend (from Lyuba, a very sweet girl who gets mediocre grades but works very hard for them): Yura, the class clown, said that he was available. Lyuba smiled in a way that said, "Not on your life!"

~*~

The highlight (perhaps "main event" is a more appropriate term) of yesterday was trying to fix the lock on my outer door. It hadn't been oiled since I moved in (or ever?), and yesterday, the key finally stopped turning...that is, when I could actually get it in the lock. Lena, my second-floor neighbor, told me that I needed car oil, what the container looked like, and that I needed to go to the hardware store. I went to the hardware store, and the following conversation ensued.

Me (holding up an empty oil container lent me by Lena): Excuse me, do you have car oil?
Shop-assistant: No, we don't.
Me: Where can I get it?
Shop-assistant: At a hardware store.
Me: Aren't you a hardware store?
Shop-assistant: Yes, but we don't have it.
Me: Well, at what hardware store can I get it?
Shop-assistant: At the bazaar. [which was already closed for the day by that point]
Me: My problem is that I can't turn my key in the lock. Do you have anything that would help me?
Shop-assistant: No, we don't.
Me: Thank you. Goodbye.
Shop-assistant: Goodbye.

At that point, I really missed Cantwell's in Lakeview.

I then walked down to the bazaar, on the off-chance that it was still open. It wasn't. Neither was the other hardware store right by it. So I did what I usually do when in a dilemma, and called Nadia. Valera answered the phone, which meant a bit more talking to do before I could convince him to go find his mom. When I got ahold of Nadia, she asked me to call back in a few minutes (I think so she could go look for oil).

I walked home, was met by the neighbor girls (who have been visiting me quite regularly with bouquets of weeds and grass all week), and decided to ask my first-floor neighbors, an older couple. It turns out that "Uncle Misha" (the girls said that since he was "Grandpa Misha" to them...no relation...he would be "Uncle Misha" to me) is a very good fix-it man who took my lock out of the door, oiled it, and put it back in, all while chatting with me about why on earth I speak Ukrainian instead of Russian. He prefers Russian. However, he told me he was glad that I'd asked him when I had a problem and that he helps out everybody in the building when they have problems. So I'm going to bake him cookies or something as a way to say thank you, I think.

~*~

Yula, Viktor and Nadia's oldest niece on Nadia's side of the family, was back in church this week. She'd been living with extended family and working as a nurse in Zhytomer, in western Ukraine, since just before New Year's, and the original plan was that she was going to settle out there. However, just before moving out there, she had met a guy (I can sympathize), and after a few months there, decided to move back home. It looks like Yula and Serogia are probably going to get married...they'd been thinking this summer or early fall, but Nadia told me today that it might be as early as next month. On Saturday, apparently, his pastor and close family members are going to meet with the adults of Yula's family (which includes aunts, uncles, and grandparents...her grandfather is also our pastor) to discuss the feasibility of this. So Yula's side of the family was going to get together this evening to talk it all over. It's very different from the US, with such a high degree of family and church involvement.

From what I've read, traditionally at such meetings between both sides of the family, if the girl wasn't interested in marrying, they'd give the guy a pumpkin. Yula's definitely interested, but I want to know where they'd get a pumpkin this time of year if she wasn't.

happy Soviet Labor day!

2007-05-01T16:53:00.000+03:00

Wow, it's a small world.

I'm chatting on MSN Messenger with a guy I worked with almost six years ago when I had just finished high school. We were camp counselors together and debated theology in our free time.

It turns out that he has converted to Orthodoxy (which he was considering back when I knew him) and is moving to Ukraine this summer to work as a long-term missionary in an orphanage out West. Small, small world...

~*~

Today's been sort of chilly, so I've been cooking to keep the apartment warm (and so I don't go hungry). I finally got around to making pizza with onions, mushrooms, and chicken, which was good except that the dough didn't really rise, since the apartment's not all that warm. Then my little neighbor girls came over and we made carrot bread with the last of my carrots...they got to grate the carrots, crack the egg, and stir things, which they enjoyed greatly.

(Tim, this fits in with my suggestions to you of things to do. Invite your neighbor kids over, cook something, and then blog about it. See, I can combine them!)

It is now 15 times cheaper for me to call the US!

2007-04-29T22:24:00.000+03:00

Please pray for the Y family...their van broke down this week, leaving them without transportation, which is a problem when you have 10 kids. I didn't quite get the details, but it isn't running at all right now, so they're going to have to try and get it fixed, I think. Nadia told me last week that they'd really like to sell this one and buy a new one, but I don't know how that works out financially.

Went to a concert at the Palace of Culture today, which was very nice. A lot of Ukrainian concerts feature flashing lights and large troops of scantily-clad children dancing to songs with random English lyrics, but this was a lot of love songs in Russian (and Italian!) with flowing piano accompaniment. And no flashing lights.

I am deeply impressed by the MSU Credit Union. I used my debit card tonight for the first time in close to a year to put some money on my Skype account. Apparently within an hour of doing this, someone from MSUFCU called my parents' house to confirm that I was, in fact, the person using the debit card. I'm amazed that a) they deal with this sort of issue this quickly and b) especially on a Sunday. As Mom said, they seem concerned about the security of my money.

Decided to clean out random things in my fridge tonight and ended up making a dip for crackers out of cream cheese, sour cream, imitation crab, green onion, and a little bit of Worcestershire sauce. When I told Grandma about this on the phone, she wanted to know if I was having company. Nope, but maybe the neighbor kids will help eat it. Tomorrow's cooking plans include pizza with chicken, onion, and mushrooms. Or maybe a couple stuffed mushrooms with a little bit of the cream cheese and crab that didn't go in the dip. I like cooking! (And I like reading recipe sites online now that I have Internet...but so many things call for ingredients like Mozerella cheese, which is only available at one store in Kharkiv and is rather expensive, comparatively speaking.)

As I mentioned, I put money on my Skype account, so now I can call US numbers (and maybe Germany also?) for about $0.02/minute, as opposed to the $0.30 I was paying before. Am trying to catch up on calling everyone...if you want to be considered part of everyone, let me know.

odds and ends, with an odd end

2007-04-27T21:59:00.000+03:00

Current Music: "Secret Ambition" by Michael W. Smith, courtesy of Live 365 On-line Radio (a very cool thing I just found)
Mood: tired

Funny moment of the day--when I gave my open lessons on Wednesday, I used that blue sticky-tac stuff to hang things on the board. This is something I always do, and my kids never fail to be fascinated by the stuff, as it isn't available over here in stores. A lot of them want to know if it's edible, and multiple pre-adolescent boys have asked for "just a little piece," to which my reaction is, "Not on your life!" I shudder to think what sort of mischief they could get up to with it.

Anyhow, apparently my director had never seen sticky-tac before, so she corralled me into her office to ask about it today--what it was, where I got it, why I had so little of it (!), and could she have some. I gave her some, but if Mom can please send me a thing of it just for her, that would be a nice touch.

Afterwards, Nelya, who hadn't been around for the conversation, said to me, "The director was interested in your [I forget how she termed it]." She grinned. "She seemed like a child about it."

"Yeah," I added, "like my 7th form boys."

*giggle*

~*~

After school, I came home and then went for a walk to the train station because a) it was a nice day, and more importantly, b) I had to refund a train ticket because I had thought I was going to Kyiv this weekend but it won't be for a few weeks yet. I'd been apprehensive, because the train station ladies are notorious for not understanding my accent, but the lady I got was very friendly and helpful. She asked me, "Are you the American who was here a while back or are you a new one?" so I explained that there's just me, and that I'd been going to Kharkiv to buy tickets, but since she was so helpful and friendly that I just might start getting my tickets in town. In this country, I figure that when you get good customer service, it's worth encouraging.

~*~

Played Hide-and-Go-Seek and a variation on Monkey in the Middle with my neighbor kids this evening. I think I'm going to teach them Capture the Flag one of these days.

~*~

Quote of the Week from Viktor Y: "What do PCVs without a church family do in their free time?"

Good question.

~*~

We have school tomorrow (Saturday) because next Tuesday and Wednesday are national holidays for Labor Day (former Soviet Republics celebrate on May 1st), so the powers that be decided that we'd all have Monday off but go to school on Saturday to make up the extra day. I guess this is a good thing, because it gives us four days off in a row. Still, Saturday school is weird.

Movie Meme

2007-04-25T21:00:00.000+03:00

I ran across this while blog-hopping, and it looked like fun.

"Head to IMDB.com and look up ten of your favorite movies. List three plot keywords for each movie, and then see which of your friends can guess what movie you're talking about."

No fair looking up the answers!

1. child bride/1550s/corporal punishment
2. hidden camera/royal romance/press conference
3. ~~battle of wits/giant rat/kissing~~, The Princess Bride, guessed by Tina
4. ~~subliminal message/terraforming/government cover-up~~, Serenity, guessed by Liz
5. ~~spinster/Africa/river~~, The African Queen, guessed by Mom
6. ~~concert/drug addict/marriage proposal~~ , Walk the Line, guessed by Tim
7. ~~fish out of water/linguist/horse race~~ My Fair Lady, guessed by Tina
8. culture clash/sister-sister relationship/dance...Tim said Pride and Prejudice...not quite right, but SO close!
9. ~~milkman/dream sequence/wedding reception~~, Fiddler on the Roof, guessed by Liz
10. ~~monk/uprising/thunderstorm~~, Luther, guessed by Pastor Dave

it's over! and I'm alive!

2007-04-25T20:23:00.000+03:00

Oh, I'm so glad today's over!

For people who weren't aware, today I presented two "open lessons" at school. That is, I taught two carefully prepared, methodologically correct lessons to good, quiet students while about 10 teachers from other schools in town watched me. And my vice-principal. And my director.

My topics were "The Ukrainian Diaspora in English-Speaking Countries" (8th form) and "The Life and Creative Work of J.K. Rowling" (11th form). I'd spent the last two weeks preparing...the Internet came in very handy, as I found newsletters from Ukrainian scouting organizations in Canada and Australia, not to mention downloading the Order of the Phoenix trailer onto my computer on Monday when I realized that my HP3 DVD that I wanted to show a clip from to start class was in Kharkiv at Kathryn's.

The research was fun...for instance, did you know that Kazakhstan has the 2nd largest number of Ukrainians outside of Ukraine, after Russia? (The USA is #3.) I've made so many photocopies in the last week that I'm surprised there's blank A4 paper left in town.

So this morning, I got up, put my last few materials together, dressed up (earrings! polished boots! favorite sweater, skirt, and scarf! Peace Corps pin!) and caught a marshrutka (it's the size of a kindergarten van) to school, as I had my purse, my tote bag, and my laptop bag. Spent the first two class periods in the teachers' room being nervous. Then the teachers showed up and it began!

My 8th formers were awesome...they're great kids anyway, and the pressure of all the extra people in the room meant that my smart kids decided to show off how much they knew (although one group of boys just went silent for 45 minutes). Natasha, however, got so nervous she felt sick and asked to be excused, but she pulled herself together, came back, and did a good job. However, after the lesson, Firyuza was peeved at me because while I had already given her an 11 (a very good mark...usually the highest I give is a 10), I changed my mind and bumped Zhenia up from a 10 to an 11 as well. Somehow this made her mad at me (because she wants to be the BEST), so she snapped in Russian, "Give me a 2!", turned on her heel, and stormed out of the room. Honestly. Teenage moods!

My 11th form wasn't quite as stellar as my 8th form, but they were also good. We had a group activity where I separated them into the four houses at Hogwarts...Slytherin won. Since I'm not supposed to be political as a PCV, I'll let my readers who are familiar both with Ukrainian politics and Harry Potter to draw their own conclusions.

After the second lesson, we had a short question-and-answer period, and then we had lunch in the school cafeteria (not school lunch, much better!) so the director could show off that we have one (it only predates me by a year or so and apparently not all schools offer lunch). Then I collected all my stuff, Nelya gave me tulips, the director told me I'd done a good job, and I caught the bus home. Played on the computer a little, and then fell sound asleep for about two hours!

I was starting to wake up when the phone rang...it was my friend Natalia calling to tell me that two people had already called her and told her that I'd done an awesome job with my presentation, so she was calling to congratulate me and suggest that I should lie down and relax. So I told her I'd already been doing that. :)

It's over...слава Бого (thank God)! But I hope that the teachers who saw it really did get some new ideas, that it wasn't just showing off the American teacher at School #3. Because that's more important.

And now I have to write a test for my 7th form for tomorrow and plan an English club. A teacher's work is never done! (And I do hope that Firyuza will improve her attitude!)

u gotta read nwz artcl, its v intrstng...understand?

2007-04-23T14:50:00.000+03:00

I ran across this article today on Yahoo...it's funny, because I never thought about texting when I lived in the US (I didn't even have a cell phone), and now I text quite a bit, since it's cheaper than calling people. I can even text in Ukrainain, sort of.

I'm definitely not up to the speed of those kids, though...but I can text without looking with a very small percentage of errors. (This was discovered last summer on a day when I was really, really bored...)

gooooooogling

2007-04-22T18:03:00.000+03:00

Thought for all of you to ponder: do the verses in I Corinthians 14 prohibiting speaking in tongues without an interpreter also apply nowadays to people singing in a foreign language in church? I don't mean once in a while, like if you have guests from a different country, but on a regular basis. My pastor here occasionally asks if I'll sing a solo in church (part of the weekly service is devoted to special music in small groups, duets, trios, and solos), and I don't know what language to sing in. If I sing in English, I can accompany myself on the piano and know that I'm pronouncing everything correctly...but no one can understand me. If I sing in Ukrainian, it's harder for me to read the words of the song and the piano notes at the same time, especially as I don't get to practice playing the piano often...also, my accent's noticable enough that I don't know how easy I'd be to understand if I sang a song people didn't already know.

Either way, I feel awkward. I love singing in our "older group" (i.e. anyone over 18 who can carry a tune...we sit together and function as sort of a very small choir), because I'm part of it, just another member of the church. If I sing a solo, everyone looks at me, and no matter which language I sing in, everyone's reminded that I'm the American. I spend my life over here being the American...at church, I just want to be another Christian. But my pastor keeps asking me to sing, and I don't think that trying to explain all of this to him would help.

~*~

In other news, the Y kids and I watched E.T. dubbed into Ukrainian this afternoon, which was a lot of fun...I hadn't seen that movie in ages!

~*~

These are the best of what comes up when I type "Sally needs" into Google:

*Sally needs a suitor who is capable of tending to her dreams and is willing to be second priority so that the people can come first. (I followed the link...it's about Sonic the Hedgehog, of all things!)
*Sally needs to be reminded to multiply before adding
*Sally needs to learn how to stay on task during independent work
*Sally needs to increase her positive interaction with peers
*Sally needs $50000 to buy a Pete's Postage Post franchise
*Sally needs to get a real gun
*Sally needs to work in such an unfulfilling job
*Sally needs sunshine
*Sally needs to make her best underwater documentary film in order to attract backing for future projects
*Sally needs a hug

not quite Tom Sawyer, but still whitewashing

2007-04-21T16:44:00.000+03:00

So this morning was actually a lot of fun.

The 8th, 9th, and 10th formers gathered at school this morning (11th form had to go take tests connected to finishing school)...that is, the ones who showed up, along with the staff. The girls had buckets and the boys had bicycles. We went along Novoselivka Street and the girls whitewashed the bottom two feet or so of the treetrunks white while the boys hauled water to mix with the whitewash. (Apparently the whitewashing is done in order to a) keep the bugs from taking over and b) it makes the trees prettier.) Us teachers spread out and did varying jobs...mine was to watch for traffic (it's a main road) and yell at the kids walking along to stay on the sides of the roads. No one died, so I figure I accomplished my job.

We finished up around 10:30 am, which meant that I was only there for two hours total, and we didn't even get started until 9-ish. So I'd say we made pretty good time.

bother!

2007-04-21T07:43:00.000+03:00

Last night, due to the good weather, Maksym (21-year-old college kid I help out with English occasionally who wants to move to Canada, an acquaintance of a teacher at school) suggested that we go for a walk during our conversation practice. So we walked around the center, eating ice cream. He's definitely loosening up a little as far as being willing to speak English...his comprehension is good, but he was scared at first of making mistakes. And it was a good conversation, about ethnic food and Tajikistan (he was born there) and how he thinks that Balaklia is SO boring and I don't.

However...apparently my downstairs neighbors were in a cafe and saw us, and called me to see if I wanted to come hang out, and I said no, as Maksym really did want to practice English. But the music teacher at school is Oleg's dad, and now I'm just waiting for it to get on the gossip mill that I was hanging out with a young man. My bet is that I'll have heard about this from someone (not Oleg) by the end of the day on Monday, allowing for the weekend.

At least I didn't run into any students.

~*~

Off to school today for Earth Day...we're going to go paint the tree trunks white!

a week's reprieve

2007-04-18T20:27:00.000+03:00

Current Mood: annoyed by lower back pain and internal discomfort
Current Music: "Strawberry Wine", Deana Carter

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

Anyone know where this quote is from without using Google? (I'd add that it was one of my favorite poems when I was six or so, but that really wouldn't help most of you except Mom...and it would get me some weird looks.)

~*~

Okay, so apparently having Internet in my apartment doesn't make me post on my blog more. I have a good excuse, though. Today was supposed to be a rayon-wide teachers' seminar where I presented two "open lessons" (i.e. I teach, my children are angelic and clever, and thirty-some people stare at me), so I was doing heavy-duty prep work. As it turns out, the seminar got postponed until next week because no one had thought to let the teachers know about it until Monday, and it might not be a seminar after all, but only the inspector for foreign languages and literature coming to watch me (Nelya says that she's a foreign lit teacher, which basically means Russian lit, and that she doesn't know English...neither do my director or my vice-principal, who will also be watching). And apparently if it's a seminar, someone has to give a presentation on theoretical material (hopefully not me). The director seems to have a big grandiose idea about how she wants this to go, but no one (Nelya, me, vice-principal, other vice-principal who is also an English teacher) seems to know what it is. The solution to this seems to be everyone telling me how I'm supposed to be presenting, what I'm supposed to be doing, and everything I've forgotten. I occasionally try and stick in my own ideas, but have resigned myself to the conclusion that this really has nothing to do with how I teach.

For those of you who are interested, the lesson topics are the life and works of J.K. Rowling (11a) and youth organizations in the English-speaking Ukrainian Diaspora (8b). And I did get to pick my own topics, based on the curriculum available.

~*~

The best music I've found since getting on the 'Net...Laura Bates and Brandon Foote are a folk/bluegrass duo who are apparently connected with Riverview now and sing in one of the worship bands. They just released an album, Jubilee, recently, and four of their songs are up on MySpace. I really like their sound and also how while the songs on the site aren't "Christian music" like you'd hear on Family Life Radio or Smile FM, they operate within a Christian vocabulary and mindset, which I almost like better. Currently debating whether to try and order Jubilee trans-Atlantic or just ask for it for Christmas.

TEFL

2007-04-12T22:07:00.000+03:00

From EnglishDroid.com, the Maxims of English Language Teaching (my favorites are in bold):

1. If it moves, teach it. If it does not move, put it in the resource files. If you cannot put it in the resource files, switch it off.
2. The success of a classroom activity is in inverse proportion to the time and effort spent preparing it.
3. Most activities take longer than planned, even when you allow for this in your plan.
4. The best lessons happen when the Director of Studies is not present.
5. If the lesson seems to be going well, you must have overlooked something.
6. If they do not understand, try again, then give up.
7. If a language point is really not worth teaching, it is not worth teaching well.
8. A bad teacher blames the students. A wise teacher blames the previous teacher.
9. An activity in the hand is worth two in the resource files.
10. Do every listening exercise and you will never need to cue the tape.
11. Faint heart never taught TOEFL.
12. He that laminateth materials and storeth them shall reap the benefits thereafter.
13. He that preppeth not is a genius or a fool.
14. Hi-tech, lo-learn.
15. If you are late, the Director of Studies will be in the corridor.
16. If you are late and the Director of Studies is not in the corridor, you are late for a teachers’ meeting.
17. If you phone in pretending to be sick, the following day you will be sick.
18. Other teachers’ students are prettier.
19. The photocopier will jam a minute before class. (Or you could work at our school, where we haven't had ink for the copier for over a week...)
20. You will usually be one handout short.
21. The recording is always on the other side of the tape.
22. Whatever interests the teacher will bore the students (and vice versa).
23. Better jobs in other schools are advertised the month after you renew your contact.
24. How to identify the type of class you are meant to be teaching:
If students are looking bored, it is General English.
If students are looking bored and wearing ties, it is Business English.
If students are sitting in silence, it is Conversation.
If students are looking desperate, it is English for Academic Purposes.
If students are running around screaming and damaging the furniture, it is a children’s class.

I find these hilarious (and mostly true!)...you might have to be an ESL/EFL teacher to truly appreciate them, though.

I am a goldfish.

2007-04-12T21:55:00.000+03:00

While I've spent a great deal of time online this week, reading sites on all sorts of topics (mostly pointless), I don't seem to be blogging all that much more. Time to remedy this.

Tuesday night was my friend Natalia's birthday party. About a dozen of us were at a cafe near her house...a mix of her friends (mostly teachers) and former students. A lot of her former students spoke English a bit, and once they got over staring at me and being shy, we had a nice conversation. It was a fun party...good food, watching Natalia do an impression of a popular Ukrainian singer while dancing, and just a nice chance to be social.

However, around 9 pm, as the bar crowd was starting to collect in the front of the cafe, two of my 10th form girls came in. They were with older (ie mid-20s) guys and drinking beer. One of them, Maryna, is one of my wilder girls, so while I was disappointed to see her, I wasn't surprised. But the other girl, Natasha, is a "good girl"...does her homework, behaves, etc. She's the sort of pretty, romantic girl who wants a boyfriend and so is willing to settle for the first relationship she can, whether or not it's the right one. Sigh...

Four different students had seen me over the course of the evening, and so yesterday at school, kids kept asking me, "Miss Sally, were you at the cafe in Novoselivka (the neighborhood where Natalia lives) last night? Why? Did you like it? What did you drink?" I felt, as I often do, like a goldfish in a big tank. I have no private life, it seems.

Dealing with allergies and sinus headaches this week. Ugh.

I stopped at a shop on the way home today and found cinammon bread with raisins, which is very similar to a cinnamon roll, but the size and shape of a loaf of bread. Yummy. :)

neighborhood fun and an Easter recap

2007-04-09T15:49:00.000+03:00

Okay, time for an actual post, as opposed to the "Oh my word! I have Internet!" postings that I've been doing the last couple of days.

First, Friday afternoon. I had some of my neighbor girls over after school to dye eggs with a kit Tif sent me. It ended up quite the experience...five girls by the time we ended with brownies and Go Fish, donated eggs that we thought were boiled but weren't (fortunately, we didn't break them...but we'd already dyed them), and a cooking pot that will always have a tinge of green from now on. I felt slightly like Miss Hannigan by the time we finished (Little girls, little girls / Everywhere I go I can see them / Little girls, little girls / Night and day, I eat, sleep and breathe them), but really, it was fun. I have pictures, but I'm having problems uploading them...not sure if it's Blogger, my computer, or my Internet. Will try again later.

On Saturday morning, I went to church for what I thought was a pre-Easter service, which made me think about what it must have been like for the disciples on the day after Good Friday, how that must have been almost a sadder day for them as it truly sunk in. However, it turned out that the service wasn't for Easter Saturday but instead for the Annunciation (when Gabriel told Mary that she would have Jesus), which apparently is more of a holiday over here (and falls at a slightly different time than in the US). I confess I was very confused at first why all the Scriptures and sermons seemed to be about Luke 1, but it eventually clicked.

Yesterday was Easter...Kathryn came down from Kharkiv to visit me and we went to church with the Ys. She and I sang a duet for "How Great Thou Art" with me on the piano, and I sang "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" acapella, as I don't have the piano music. Afterwards, we went to the Ys for dinner. When she went home, I came back to my apartment and found out just how nice it is to have Internet at home. Talked with Greg and Jason on Skype, which is just about the coolest thing since sliced bread (which you have to specifically ask for here).

Today my neighbor boys gave me a soccer (football, over here) lesson. They taught me different ways of kicking the ball and how to aim to compensate for being left-footed. It was a lot of fun...I'll never be a great athlete, but I did okay, and they were very encouraging and patient. (Although Dima asked at one point, "Do people in the US play football?", so I had to explain that yes, they do, but I was a nerd back in school and didn't play sports.) We also had a teachable moment that while the Russian word for having black skin is very similar to the n-word, it's not appropriate to say in English. I think I'll play again sometime.

And then, of course, because there was no school (Easter Monday), who came over this afternoon to play Go Fish and Uno but...little girls (and one boy)!

Some women are dripping with diamonds
Some women are dripping with pearls
Lucky me! Lucky me!
Look at what I'm dripping with...
Little girls!

Seriously, though, I love having my neighbor kids over. (During the writing of this post, three little girls showed up to borrow Go Fish for the evening.) It's fun to interact with kids that don't see me as a teacher.

sing, ye heavens and earth reply

2007-04-08T07:55:00.000+03:00

Христос воскрес!

Or, if your computer can't read Cyrillic, "Kristos voskres!"

Or, if you can't understand Ukrainian, "Christ is risen!"

Happy Easter!

Public Announcement

2007-04-07T20:42:00.000+03:00

I HAVE INTERNET IN MY APARTMENT!

(After the guys were here for three and a half hours trying to install programs in various languages, dealing with an obnoxious firewall, and other such inconveniences. But it's all good now.)

:) :) :)

I also have Skype...will be emailing my contact info out in the next few days.

Happy day-before-Easter! (Which is also Vitaly's birthday, the Annunciation according to the Ukrainian calendar, and my 1 year anniversary of knowing the Y family!)