as i wrap up my first real weekend here in oster...i have many things to write about on many different subjects. so...go with the randomness of this entry as my mind flits fromone subject to the next.
it was a great weekend. why? i got to watch both home alone and home alone two in ukrainian. there i senlgish still softly underneath the ukrainian...but i didnt need it because i could quote the movies in there entiriy with my eyes closed. saturday night the first one was on...and i watched it with my host sister christy. then home alone two was on today...so my host mom nd i watched it together. grea bonding time for everyone. harry potter one was also on last night...which is currently the book im reading!so that was also cool.
the five pc vlunteers of oster (myself included)went to the bazaar today. we met at ten am...and walked over together. didnt take any pictures of it...mainly because i didnt want to be the typical american. the first thing i lad eyes on were chickens and hens in cages. in the trunk ofthe vendors car were little baby chicks in a box. all that i could think of were friends tv show quotes about the chik and the duck. the end :) the bazaar reminded me of a giant market for foods and a fla market for other things. i think you are supposed to haggle with the prices..which im def not comfortable doing in russian yet. so ill go back and purchase things later. i did see rain boots for sale!good to knw for future peace corps volunteers sttioned in ukraine. the other interesting site at the bazaar? pigs head...for sale.
to answer a blog question from a family friend who was a pc volunteer in ukraine around ten years ago...yes we do get a cell phone allowance from peace corps now. i believe it was around 200grievna...which my phone cost 209 grievna ((around $27 american money). we are the first pc ukraie group to get a cell phonne allowance i believe adam! toexplain how my cell phone works seems logical to explain now...
i bought an actual phone with the carrier 'life.' this is basically tmobile or att. then i purchased a sim card for 15 grievna (two bucks) and a 35 grievna minutes card. you activate the minutes card on your phone and can now call anywhere in the world. i think i paid about a dollar american money to activate the world calling as it is called...which you have o activate every month i think. it costs around .40 grievna to send a twxt message to another life cell phone ere in ukraine. and i think it costs me around 1.40 grievna (20cents americanmoney)to send a text to e united states. im not sure how much it costs for you to receive it in the states th...let me know if you would like for me to text you... i am more than willing to :)
yesterday...both my host mom and host dd were working. so it was me and my host sister home all afternoon and evening. i had a cross cultural lesson with our link cluster fromkozelets (the grop that is closest to us... about a thirty min bus ride). so christy and i had just finished harry potter and home alone.. i headed to my desk o make some notecards that i had been putting off doing all week long. and then i heard three bangs. in my headm...they sounded like gunshots or small explosions. my heart started racing...i was in my room with the door shut (to keep the cats out of my room since apparently im allergic to one of them...) and christy was in her room with the door shut. i didnt hear her door open...so i stayed put wondering what to do. after what seemed like an eternity...which was prob all of five seconds...i heard more explosions. i goot up...and walked into the hall...and was about to knock on her door. from the hall, youcan see outside across the street from us. the explosions were fireworks...that were literally being shot off across the street from me. i laughed...watched them for the next couple minutes...and went back to my room to call one of my cluster mates. he lives a good fifteen min walk away and i wondered if he had heard them. while we were on the phone with each other (it is free to make calls froma life phone to another life phone btw)...more fireworks went off at another location. how odd! people were hooting and hollering in the street outside my house(which is by no means a main road). i should also mention that these were legit fourth of july big fireworks...not roman candles. so theres my funny story from saturday night...
i will end with my schedule for this week. every peace corps volunteer says that the pre service training which is wht im doing right now is the hardest part of your service. i now understand why. we have to have 25.5 hours of russian language a week...in addition to cross cultural learning...fielld trips...tutoring...etc. and although four hours of russian language a day doesnt sound like much...let me try to put it in perspective for you.
think back to high school or college. your absolute hardest class...that made your head spn after you were finally able to escape the classroom. and try to picture it if it wwere all 100%new to you. we typically have two hours of russian and then a thirty minute tea break. the first two days... i didnt understand why. now i do. my brain needs that time to decompress...and take in everything that was just thrown at me. so here is what our schedule is like this week. enjoy!
monday
russian class from 9-11 and 11:30-1:30
cross cultural lesson from 2:30-4:30
tuesday
go to kozelets...be at the bus statio at 7:20 am
meet with a school administratin from 9-10:30 am
russian class from noon to 2 pm and 2:30-4:30
wednesday
crosscultural lesson from9:40-10:50 am
observe at the gymnasia from 11:10-12:50 pm
russian from1:30-3:30 pm and 4-6 pm
thursday
russian from 8:30-10:30 am and 11-1 pm
peace corps admins come visit
private tutoring from 2-3:30 pm
friday
russian from 8-10 am
link cluster comes for health day class...10-1 pm and 2-3:15
safety and securitylesson from 3:30-4:30 pm
saturday
catch a bus to kozelets at nine am
the end!btw i absolutely still love that i am here. i just tought people might want to know what my schedule was like.
3 comments:
Text meeee!! I miss you!!!
Oh dear... You just wait until you are teaching 3 days a week :).
Thats funny, down here in Boguslav there was a night where people were randomly lighting off fireworks! I instantly thought gunshots too, i dont know why. Im happy you had a good first week!
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