The past couple days here in Oster...

A lot of things have been going on here in wonderful Ukraine...which explains my lack of posting! My host sister also has exams this week so she's been using her desk (where the computer is located) to study, so I have not used the computer as much as normal. This will be a recap with some pics of the past week or so of life. We'll start with yesterday (Monday) and work our way backwards :)

Remember the post where I told you that being a Peace Corps Volunteer means you have to be flexible? We joke now about how flexible one can be...but seriously, there is usually one issue/occurence a week where it shows again the need for being a flexible person. Jamie and I were supposed to teach our final 7th grade lesson on Wednesday the 12th. We were not informed that the students would be having a history test that day...it was by pure chance that I saw some of my students at the stadium on my way home. Then it was decided we would take their English class period and teach at 10:30 on Monday (yesterday) morning. Sunday night, our technical teacher, Lyuda, called us to let us know that we needed to switch again and would now be teaching at 8:30 am on Monday morning. Awesome. I actually am glad the way it worked out, but here are a few pictures of teaching.

We created a board game that was a great way to review the past 4 weeks of information that we taught the students. It was a LOT of work, but it paid off in the end and the students really liked it. I brought some silly bandz from home (thank you Target one section!) that each student received as a prize at the end of the game. Success!

Lydia (in the white) and Jamie to the right of me (we're probably trying to read a translation)

puzzle pieces made up vocabulary words for the students...

playing the game!

Here's a picture from the previous lesson...hopefully will upload video of me teaching soon!

On Saturday, we hopped on the local bus to visit our link cluster Kozelets for a technical session. After that, we headed to Chernihiv (about an hour by vehicle) which has all sorts of things appealing to us. Maria, our rotation language teacher is from Chernihiv and had offered to show us around for the day. The first stop was to get Brendan and Jamie to the parikmaherskaya, aka the salon. They hadn't had haircuts in about 7 or 8 weeks and it was driving them pretty crazy. I was also able to purchase a straightener...which I really wanted to be able to curl my hair. AND, more importantly, Cassi and I got purses at the bazaar that will finally "fit-in" here in Ukraine. It is NOT okay for teachers to wear backpacks, so I have to instead carry all of my items needed for teaching in a giant purse. I will try to snag a picture of it soon and post it. It was a great day in Lydia's world when she got to go purse shopping :)

After that, I got to see my long-lost friend Hayles :) she actually lives about 15 mintues away from Chernihiv and usually spends the weekends in Chernihiv. She came to lunch with us at a neat restaurant/cafe that Maria told us about.

My lunch consisted of borshct, some potatoes and chicken, an apple crescent roll/dessert and hot tea, all for around $3. Above is my borchst :) which I still love.

While at lunch, Maria (our teacher) asked us if we had let our host families know we arrived safely in Chernihiv. Whoops. We each texted our family to let them know we were safe and what time we would be coming home...this was not a normal text message though. It was in Ukrainian which took us about 5 minutes to type two sentences. It was quite comical. It's definitely easier at this point to pick up the phone and call and tell them what time we'll be home :)

SIDESTORY: I'm on a break right now in between Russian class and my tutoring time. I walked home after class to realize I had forgotten my keys in a different purse at home. This would not normally be a problem because my host mom is home on days when she doesn't work. However, she worked her 24-hour shift in Kiev yesterday and takes a bus home the next morning (today) around 8 am....and then sleeps since she didn't sleep the night before. I didn't want to call and wake her up, so I called my host dad who was out driving somewhere and had to explain that my key was inside the house and that I couldn't get in the gate. Whoops. BUT, he understood and came home :) I don't know the word for "forgot" right now...guess I need to learn that.

After lunch, we were planning on going to visit caves that are underneath some of the old churches in town. However, it was raining like crazy and we were not prepared for it. So, we headed to the train station as part of a field trip we had to do for class. Since I am learning Russian but Ukrainian is the official language of Ukraine, all signs in public places are in Ukrainian. While they are similar alphabets, some of the words are completely different.

The Chernihiv (that's what the red lettering says) train station...the backside of the building.

The interior of the train station. Kaca is cashier. LOVED the color of the walls in this place.

One of the trains out back...waiting for people to get on!

We headed to another bazaar to relax for a bit before our bus would leave at 5 pm. All in all, it was a great day and I truly loved Chernihiv. It is a big enough city with all of the amenities but not too big for an American to get completely lost in.

Backtracking one more day, let's replay Friday (May 14). It was our rotation teachers last day in Oster so we took a walk for the last part of our Russian language lesson. We walked by one of the rivers that runs through Oster and then went to do some speaking sessions in the shade.

Playing in the tall grass

Jamie and Mark

Oster cluster with Maria (our rotation Russian teacher)

Cassi and I

Lydia, Cassi, Brendan, Mark, Jamie, and Maria

Tomorrow we head to meet all of the other youth development trainees in Chernihiv for a retreat where we have sessions all together. Excited to get to see Chernihiv again :) talk to y'all soon!