Happy Easter!

Hello wonderful blog readers :) Sorry to have been out of touch this week. It was a very long and tiring week with little time spent doing things that were not on my to-d0 list. I'm uploading pictures on facebook as I type this of the surprise going away party that was held at McFarlin before I left Norman. I still have tons of pictures to upload to the blog, but I will do today's blog post on Easter and perhaps do other entries about stories and pictures that need explanations!

Yesterday (Saturday) was spent in Kozelets meeting with our link cluster...we had a technical session where we talked about the lesson plans we have all taught in classes here in Ukraine. After our technical session, we had a chai break (this happens a lot here!) and we had some Easter bread before Easter...one of the Kozelets group members stopped and got it at the bazaar before our meeting. Super nice of her! Remember that it is customary in Ukraine to take a small token (a box of coffee or tea, cookies, candy bar) to a guest that you are going to their house.

The Easter bread is shaped much like a giant cupcake...and some of them have hard icing on top, while others just have sprinkles.

After missing our bus in Kozelets, we sat at the bus stop for an hour and lesson planned for this weeks teaching at the gymnasia and the schkola. This past week I taught the 11th grade class with Jamie and one of the 7th grade classes with Brendan...so this week it is Brendan's turn to double up and teach both classes. More about those lesson plans in another post.

After arriving back in Oster on Saturday, I came home to find my host mom cooking in the kitchen...which had to have been 90 degrees. She was making homemade Easter bread in addition to other Easter dishes. I've mentioned before that she works once every 3 days for a 24-hour shift. That 24-hour shift I think goes from 8 am-8 am...and I think she works in Kiev (which is about an hour and half bus ride away). She usually goes to a super grocery store in Kiev (think Wal-Mart) after she's done with her work shift and picks up things like drinkable yogurt that is TO DIE FOR. She's gotten it now 2 weeks in a row...and there must be 10 different flavors of it...strawberry, peach, apricot, blueberry, grape, etc. I could drink it all day long, but have to limit myself! She also gets some other staple items (cheese, meat, cottage cheese, sour cream) and then heads home. She worked a 24-hour shift on Friday...and when I came home Saturday she was slaving away in the hot kitchen, not having slept in over 36 hours. I kept her company for a while until I had to leave to go finish lesson planning with Brendan. We met at the stadium and then headed to our technical teacher Lyuda's apartment to get our lesson plan okayed for this upcoming week.

While I was finishing lesson planning on Saturday early evening, my host sister went to church and got the Easter bread, meats, cheese, and hard-boiled eggs blessed (this is my understanding at least. Please correct me if I'm wrong!).

Saturday night I treated myself to a movie...first time in Ukraine! I watched 127 hours. Pretty incredible film. I definitely want to read the book at some point...hope it's available on the Kindle!

Breakfast this morning began around 9:30 am. We sat at the dining room table (first time for that!) and had quite the spread...


the store bought Easter bread

the spead! Juice, Liquor, 4 different kinds of meat, fish, hard-boiled eggs, apples, cheese, and the Easter read of course

A cross-stitch napkin that went in the basket that my host sister took to church

Lunch today was about the same as breakfast...with the addition of whipped mashed potatoes and a potato and rice soup. Super good!

After lunch, I studied some and went on a walk with Mark around Oster. Looking forward to dinner which will probably be soon :) happy Easter everyone!