Surprise! Look who came to visit...

That's right, folks!  Mom and Pops graced Ukraine with their wonderful presence.  It was fabulous. Simply fab.

Their trip started off in Germany visiting some friends from our Alabama days.  Those friends now live in the picturesque, mountain town of Garmisch, Germany.

one of the views from their house...not too shabby, eh?

Soooo pretty.

After a few days in Germany, they came  to Ukraine and we were reunited for the first time in just over a year :) I ended up surprising them at the airport, which was a welcomed surprise because they didn't have any grieven {Ukrainian currency} yet and would need some to pay for a taxi.  I am still recovering from pneumonia and maybe mono as well {a whole 'nother story in and of itself}, so most of their trip, I sat around a lot of the time and let them do the exploring.  My energy levels are nowhere near where they used to be, but I'll talk about illnesses in a different post.  I'll let the pictures do the talking today.

One of the entire reasons for them coming--Ukrainian pysanka eggs {click here if you don't know what they are}.  Mom was in heaven when she saw this giant one in K-grad.

Visit to the host fam's home in Oster. 

Mom, Pops, Andrei, Gala, and Christy

Pops was most shocked at the amount of dishes I wash by hand on a daily basis. 

Mom got to go in the root cellar at the host fam's house.  I was never allowed to go down there because it was too cold...guess that rule doesn't apply to moms? :)

Pops was most excited to go to the post office in Oster and mail post cards.  I was less than thrilled on that dreary, cold day.

We didn't take much luggage to Oster.  Important things that were left behind when we needed them: gloves.  Mom and I shared a pair of mittens while walking around Oster on the coldest day of the trip.

One-mittened Lydia, outside of the gymnasia school where I taught during training.

dinner in K-grad with some of my fellow k-gradders.  

Angie, her mom Dorothy {who also happened to be in town for Easter!}, Mom, Lydia, Vicki, Dan, Pops, and Phil

this picture deserves a post in and of itself.  Photo credit goes to mom. See if you can find something that doesn't belong...

doing pysanky eggs at my office

obligatory pic with the map in my office, and counterpart, Olena

the kittens were born while my parents were here too.  

SO SO SO cute.

Easter meal at Olena's

"The Frost's Take Ukraine"--could be a book.

Pops needed a pic of me with my OU wall art.  

This is what I did most of the trip.  Rest.  

on their last night of the trip, Mom trimmed my hair...this was the first time I've had it cut {other than me chopping off my bangs} in over a year.  

good job, Mom!

Obviously, there's lots more to elaborate on, but this gives you a good overview of their stay :)  they arrived back in Oklahoma last night safe and sound.  Gotta get to work now...toodles!

One last thing...we got to watch some of the kids from my work practice in their dance class.  They are amazing.

Just your normal Ukrainian adventure...

So, I lost my PO Box key.  I normally do not lose or misplace things, but everyone has a slip up.  My post office is very similar to an American one in the way the PO Boxes work I think.  Well, kind of.  There are 5 or 6 big stands of post office boxes, and each of the stands has a big door that can open up (so the staff can put our mail in our boxes).  Then, there are individual doors for each PO Box.  Hope that makes sense.

Needless to say, I didn't think it would be a giant hassle that I lost my key.  I kind of lost it over a week ago...but have been waiting on Christmas/birthday packages to arrive in the mail.  And, I knew if I told my parents that I lost the key, they would think that me not getting my packages was somehow related to the missing key.  Totally not the case.  My mom is probably laughing and rolling her eyes at this knowing that I'm right... :)

The first time I went to the post office and informed the lady I lost my key, she opened up the big door and let me see in my box.  She informed me I needed to buy a "замок"...I memorized the word and ran home to look it up.  I was guessing that she told me I needed to buy a whole new lock, but when I google translated the word, it showed up as CASTLE.  Ha.  Not exactly a lock like I was thinking...

Then I got sick and barely left the house for a week (btw, just finished my last amoxicillin dose today!  yippee!).  I think I checked my PO box twice during that time.  Each time, the same lady was working and she got madder and madder at me that I hadn't bought a new "замок" yet.  I explained to her that I don't know Russian all that well and that I would be bringing a friend with me to help translate.  Then, it was Ukrainian Christmas and the post office was closed for a few days.  

Flash forward to Tuesday of this week.  Olena and I went to the post office to see about buying this new lock.  The lady not so kindly opened the whole door for us to look at what we needed to buy, and I got to look in my box and see that I had a package note waiting for me!  Olena asked the lady where we could buy this lock.  The lady (of course) had no clue.  She said she'd try the bazaar.  

So today, after working on my PEPFAR grant some (HIV/AIDS project grant), one of my EuroTrip travel buddies Zhenya (a high school girl in K-grad) was subjected to walking around the entire central bazaar looking for this mysterious PO box lock.  An hour and a half later, we had been to SEVEN stores, and not one of them had a lock.  Whyyy!?  

This is the pesky little item that I so desperately need...why does no one carry them?!

The post office is missing out on a prime opportunity to make some extra cash here.  After having tried 7 stores, I would have paid quite a lot to buy it from the post office if they indeed sold them.  But, they don't.  I don't remember ever taking a marketing class but that's a no brainer to me.  We ran out of time (and options at that bazaar) today...so tomorrow the hunt may continue.  Olena said we will go to the post office tomorrow and tell them they're no where in town.  Can't wait to see what the lady has to say about that...lol :)  just your normal Ukrainian adventure...

This is my weekly manicure, courtesy of Lyuda :)  I bought the nail polish in Poland for around a dollar.  

note the bedazzled ring finger...quite a popular trend here.

this is the longest my nails have ever been on their own...shocking, huh?

bling.  

I'm thoroughly engrossed in The Help right now.  I don't know what page I'm on (grr...that's my one complaint about the Kindle), but I'm 70% finished.  Itching to read some more tonight...that's for sure.

This is the second night this week my dinner consisted of homemade Chex mix.  This time, I at least poured it in a bowl so I would show a little self-control.  Then I filled it up again.  The peanut butter fudge my mom made was a hit at work on Wednesday.  I guess I'll have to be nice and share some of my peanut butter and make them PB&J's one day at work.  They won't know what hit them.

My last news for the day is that I'm trying to memorize at least one or two Russian words every day.  The blog may be my accountability partner for helping me go back through and remember past words.  Today's words included:

1)  замок--which can mean castle OR lock
2)  папка--folder (learned this word when writing stuff for my grant)
3)  найти--to find (verb).  As in, "Я не нашла ключ от моя почтового ящика," or "I have not found the key to my mailbox."


 It's almost Friday :)  maybe you should go get a blinged out manicure...they're quite the rave in Ukraine.


One more thing. No, two more things. 1) It SNOWED in Oklahoma, and not here?  What the heck is that about? 2)  enjoy the sneak-peak of a video from my work party.



Kym is dancing with a ribbon.
Mary-Kathryn is the other girl.
The guy in the red apparently works at my office, although I've never seen him before.
The guy in the suit is our orchestra director.
The guy in the red and black striped shirt is a great saxophone player/teacher.
We're dancing in the cafeteria, because that's where all great Ukrainian discos are held.

There's plenty more videos to post...slowly but surely :)

my pink rain boots and my first ukr. cossack performance!

I love my pink rain boots. And I especially love them here in Ukraine because when I wear them, I'm guaranteed good stories. Like this one time in Oster...we had an impromptu meeting with the school director. It was raining quite hard that day...the school was a good 15 minute walk from my house. Logical sense that I wear my rain boots, no? At the meeting, she shared with us that we would be giving a speech at the last bell ceremony. She laughed (somewhat joking, but not really) and said, "Hopefully Lydia won't wear those boots to the ceremony." Obviously, I know better than that. It was a running joke from that day on anytime I wore those boots. I'm also fairly certain that my host mom was not too fond of them. She was an amazing host mom, never criticized me for what I was wearing...except the boots. She ended up hiding them in the hall closet and would truly only let me wear them if it was pouring.
Let's flash forward to today. I saw the weather forecast...rain all day. I debated, do I break out the rain boots for the first time? I knew deep down that the looks and comments I would get would be great. I get stares just for wearing my black Teva flip flops...so pink rain boots are guaranteed a double-take.

I went for it. Standing at my bus stop: pink rain boots, red raincoat (I know, it clashes, but it's all I've got), aqua blue umbrella. I stand out...there's no doubt about it. I'm fully okay with it though. When my marshrutka #134 came by, I flagged it down and got on. Lo and behold, a lady from work was on the bus with me. She spots the boots...and instantly comments on them...which draws attention from the other 20 people on the bus. No big deal. We walk in together, I head up to my office on the 3rd floor. I see two more ladies that work on my floor who, I kid you not, turn around to do a double-take at the boots. Then, Olena (counterpart) spots them.

"OOOOOOOh Lydia! Look at your boots!" (That sentence was in Russian).

Yes, they're rain boots. It rains a lot here in Ukraine, and I plan on wearing these. They sell rain boots at stores and at the bazaar...what I don't understand is why people don't wear them. Instead, all of the ladies in Ukraine still wear their normal three inch heals...dodging giant puddles and flowing rivers in the streets. Don't worry...I haven't gotten to the best part of the story for today.

Last week, Olena had a lady come to the office for chai. I found out she is a teacher at a school here in K-grad; she also runs the Euroclub at her school, which Olena runs at my center. The lady asked if I would like to come have chai at her school next week (this week), so being the polite Peace Corps Volunteer I am, I say of course. So, at 10:30 am today, Olena and I headed over to the school to meet Olga. As we open the doors to the school, I am greeted by four 10th form boys dressed in suits with name tags on and big, goofy grins on their faces. Olga is standing with them, dressed in a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt. And here comes Lydia, marching in with her bright pink rain boots on. Hysterical, to say the least. Oh, and also greeting us open entering the school? A professional photographer and a videographer. My outfit besides my pink boots was nice and up to par for Ukraine standards, but I giggled to myself the whole time thinking about how these boots always bring along a great story.

I was given a tour of what turns out to be one of the coolest schools I've ever seen. It's a boarding school that has students from all over the Kirovogradskaya oblast, who do not have to pay a penny (or a kopek in this case) for their school or boarding. Every student in this school (I think it's basically teenagers...not little kids) is there because they want to be. They have tested at a high enough level in English, math, science, etc., to make the cut for being at this school...and as long as they keep up their grades and attend classes, they can stay there. The school features dormitory rooms for kids that do not live in K-grad, but my understanding is that 1/4 of the kids at school do live in my city while 3/4 are from other towns and villages in our oblast. I was given the royal treatment as we went from the library to the cafeteria to the dance hall (they specialize in choreography classes...love it!) to the workout room to the computer lab to the dorm rooms.

Pause. The dorm rooms...I will have to go back and take pictures of. There are 2 bunk beds, which means that 4 kids stay in that room. I literally thought the room they showed me was like a "model" room for display because it was so spick and span. Nope. We then saw 4 more rooms...and I eventually asked the boys giving the tour if these rooms were actually lived in at the moment. Everybody's bed was made the exact same way; there is no clutter or dust on anything. I was so utterly shocked by this that they wondered if it was like that in America. They probably think American's are slobs now...but in Ukrainian standards, we practically are.

Resume story. So, while Olena and I got a tour of the building, the four boys narrated every room along the way (in very, very good English). It was so cute to see how proud they were of their school. The school director (an adorable old man who has taught at the school for 40 years) tagged along for some of the tour adding in his two cents to the boys memorized and well-rehearsed lines. I might add that the cameras followed us the entire way, for an hour.

The crowning glory of my tour was when we entered a math class room. As is customary, all of the students rose and greeted us. I then had to sit at the desk at the front of the room and tell the class a few things about me and what I'm doing here. They were so cute (and probably just a bit excited to have a break from math) and asked questions about my family and where I lived (all of this is being documented keep in mind...in my pink boots and all). Eventually, one of the four boys in charge of my tour handed me a piece of paper and a pen to write the students a letter. There's absolutely no telling what I wrote on the letter because I was so confused as to why they wanted it. I know I said something how great it was to see kids have a passion about learning and their education, which is true. It was a breath of fresh air to see students actually want to be at school and enjoying it. So, that was my time at the boarding school here in k-grad. I can't wait to go back under less formal visiting restrictions and actually talk to the kids to see what their every day life is like.

My last news of the day: I got to see my first Ukrainian Cossack dance!! Phil and I went to the Kirovograd Oblast Philharmonic performance tonight (thanks, Phil!) and it was one of the coolest performances I've seen in a while. It had everything from an actual philharmonic string orchestra to vocalists to an adorable little girl playing the violin to teenage dancers...and then they brought out the traditional Ukrainian Cossack dancers and musicians. People were filming and on their cell phones during the performance...so I guiltily took out my camera and filmed some and I'm so glad I did. Enjoy it :)

I don't think the video is going to post for some reason, but it's on my facebook account. Otherwise, stay tuned...I'll try to figure it out soon!!

A Typical Day...

I am feeling very unmotivated to do blogs about the things I actually have pictures of.  Don't know why.  So...hopefully soon I will get some motivation :)  but until then...I have two odd Ukraine stories that happened today.

I bought 2 zucchinis the other day at the store (should have bought them at the bazaar but the bazaar was closed by the time I got to go to the store).  I have been looking at different vegetarian/vegan recipes lately (that still sound weird to say...) and stumbled across this one:  Zucchini patties.  I purchased the other ingredients I needed (I'm embarrassed to say it was the first time I've actually ever bought an onion.  In my life.  Not just in Ukraine.  My mom is probably about to faint reading that.) and have been putting off making it...probably because I was a little scared.  I decided to add carrots to the recipe but skip the mushrooms.  Still can't eat those very well (texture thing).  So, this morning, I decided I was going to make them for lunch.  No way out of it.  And I did...and they were fantastic.  I was too lazy to take pictures of the process but believe me, it was one!  I planned on documenting the whole thing until I started cutting up the onion which made me start crying and at that point I was mad and didn't want to document it anymore.  So, I made little zucchini meatballs and zucchini patties...and for lunch I had a zucchini patty with tomato sauce on a piece of lavash (think tortilla) and a little feta cheese.  The feta cheese is not vegan but I bought it before and it needs using up.  The entire process of prepping, cooking, and cleaning up took at least an hour which meant I had to rush for work and ended up taking a marshrutka to work as opposed to walking.  This is where the weird Ukraine story number 1 takes place.

I got on, following a lady, and the only two seats open are at the back of the marshrutka.  I debated about even going back to sit down because it's a giant hassle to get out from the very corner seat and make your way up to the front of the marshrutka when 10+ people are standing in the aisle.  That's why the PCVs here call it marshrutka dancing.  So, I sat down.  And the lady next to me asked where I was getting off.  I told her at school #4 (in Russian).  She didn't know where that was...and when I couldn't think fast enough (in Russian) to think of another landmark by my work, she took that to mean that I had no idea where I was going at all.  She nudged the guy sitting on the other side of me and instructed him to alert the driver when school #4 was.  It was all incredibly embarrassing and I just wanted to blend in and not be the American.  It was very nice of the lady to make sure I knew where I was going, but when the ENTIRE marshrutka is staring at you...it can be a little stressful.

So, my other odd Ukraine story happened when I was waiting for my counterpart this afternoon.  I was sitting on a park bench in a town square waiting for Olena under a tree.  The tree is a typical one here in Ukraine that has these little balls with spikes all over them.  I was people watching with my sunglasses on...when one of these little balls (see picture below) fell on me and busted open.

I squealed because my first reaction was that it was a bug, but then I realized that it actually hurt a little bit.  After texting my friend Catharine and telling her this story, she said, "I don't know what is funnier--that one hit you and you screamed or that you didn't know it was a chestnut.  Guess they don't have them OK? :)" Ha.  We may have them in Oklahoma but I sure never noticed them before.  At that point I was laughing pretty hard.  But, this wasn't even my weird Ukraine story. The second part of the story is that as I'm sitting there waiting for Olena, a group of girls (around my age) came over and decided to take over the bench that I was sitting on...while they all were on their smoke break.  Only in Ukraine would this happen where it's regarded as strange not to smoke.  I eventually got up and moved, but waited a couple of minutes so that it wouldn't seem like I was moving just because of them.  

These are typical days for me now :)  getting hit on the head with spiky plants and being constantly surrounded by a could of smoke!  I'm off to Kiev this weekend for my first Healthy Lifestyles Working Group meeting.  A lot of my friends are also running in the Kiev marathon...so it should be a big PCV get-together all weekend long!  

the банты

What is a банты (pronounced bun-tey) you ask?  Well, let me first show you a funny clip with a line that the Frost Family has always used.  You can fast forward to 1 minute in if you want.  This is from one of my childhood favorites, Milo and Otis.

The line that I am referring to is, "You call that a tail!?!  This is a tail!! ha ha ha :)"

So, what does this have to do with a банты?  Nothing really, except that I keep picturing little girls in Ukraine saying, "You call that a банты?  THIS is a банты!!"  Without further ado, I give you the банты.  

Okay, so really, a банты is a bow.  But it's not just any bow in Ukraine.  A банты is always pristine white, GINORMOUS, and there are so many variations of the банты here in Ukraine it really is mind-boggling to see all the different styles.  Girls wear банты's on special occasions...like the first day of school, aka First Bell Ceremony.  All of the pictures from this post are from the First Bell Ceremony at Rob's (another K-grad PCV) school.  I asked a girl at the ceremony what age they stop wearing bows for big celebrations...and I kind of forgot what she said :/  I will find out again though.  It is typically for the younger girls...however, when it is a girl's last year of school (11th form), at some schools here in Ukraine the 11th form girls will dress up like the little girls in 1st form (you'll see in pictures below) and will even wear банты's in their hair.  New tradition to take back to America?  Without a doubt, yes.   Enjoy the pictures :)  

SO

MANY

TYPES!!!!

This is the little girl who carried around the icon while the priest blessed all of the kids at the ceremony...and by blessed, I mean doused with water.  I'm working on a video of the ceremony that will give you a real perspective of what I mean!

I feel like the little girl on the left is pouting because her hair is too tight up in the bows.  

The vests that all of the kids are wearing are part of this school's school uniform.

This was an older girl (probably 7th grade)...but she was still sporting the small ones!

Even the little kids not school age wore them.  They were EVERYWHERE that day.  The stands at the bazaar that sell these bows must make a killing right before school starts!

That's my post for today :) I've been horrible about blogging lately but I have literally been out of town for over half of the last month.  SO...look for more updates soon!!

BTW, I somehow got signed up for an Amazon.com deal of the day where they let me know about one book a day (for my Kindle) that is on sale.  For 9/11, the book that was on sale that day was Thunder Dog, and I instantly downloaded it.  It tells the story of a man and his seeing-eye dog who worked on the 73rd (or 78th?  I forget...) floor of the World Trade Center Tower 1.  They descended the 1,463 stairs and made it out alive.  It's an easy and interesting read--where the author switches back and forth between stories of how he was raised and how those early events in his life helped him descend the 1,463 stairs.  Pretty amazing story.  Going to post and then read it some more...night night :)

Quick post while I'm online...

Greetings all! At work right now..so I may be whisked away to meet somebody else any minute, but I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you about my whirlwind of the last few days here in K-grad (Kirovograd's short name...). So, without further ado...

Friday, first real day in Kirovograd. After Olena picked me upat 10 am, we took a marshrutka to work...which would probably be a 15 minute walk otherwise. Not too shabby. I met SO many people on Friday I definitely didn't learn a single persons name. There are 100 people that work in the Oblast Center for Creative Youth...which I am still trying to figure out how to explain what the organization really does. More about that in another post. We ate lunch in the cafeteria that is in our building...I had a mini pizza, salad (cabbage, carrots, and oil...quite yummy), and a juice box for 8 grievnas...aka around $1.00 USD. After lunch, we had a meeting with people in Olena's department. 8 or 9 Ukrainians...speaking Russian...for an hour and a half. I could understand parts of the discussion, but as soon as more than one person started talking I completely lost track of what they were saying. With time, hopefully I'll be able to follow :) After the meeting, we headed downtown to the post office to mail some PC documents and open my PO Box. I will post the address tomorrow hopefully...which means I can start receiving letters and packages :) The PO Box cost 28 grievnas for 6 months...less than $5.00 USD. How much does a PO Box in the states cost? I've never had one...

Friday night was a fun night because I got to go have dinner with some fellow k-grad PCVs. PC has a program called Adopt-A-Cluster that during your 3 months of training, you are assigned a current PCV who usually comes to visit your cluster city. The Oster Adopt-A-Cluster person is Julia ...who happens to live in Rivne, Ukraine...about 30 minutes to an hour away from me by bus! She comes to k-grad quite often I think, so that was fun to learn that we would be so close together. Julia was in town on Friday, so I got to go to dinner with her and two of her friends, Ricky and Alex. Ricky and Alex (a young married couple!) live here in k-grad and are both teachers. We ate at one of the pizzerias downtown...quite scrumptious. The three of them walked me home (super nice because I live on the complete opposite side of town) and helped me rearrange a few furniture pieces in my apartment. HOORAY :)

Saturday was a day of cleaning and organizing. I had made a few trips to the big supermarkets around my house, but some things are cheaper if you get them at the bazaar. So, I headed to one of the k-grad bazaars...which was maybe 10 minutes away from my house (opposite the center of town). I had NO idea what to be expecting at this bazaar...it is at least 10 times the size of the Oster bazaar, if not more. I was specifically looking for a dish drying rack, a mop and bucket, a pillow, and some dish towels. I think that day I ended up finding the pillow, mop, and bucket. However, I got lost in the giant maze of tents and vendors...and literally wandered around having no clue which way was out for a good 30 minutes. It was neat just to look at all of the stuff for sale...my mom wants to know more about the bazaar, so I will do a post about it another day. Sorry mom :) At one point, I ended up in a giant building which had every kind of piece of meat a person could want for sale. Lydia was not exactly a happy camper...but I managed to hold my breath and get out of there quickly. For those of you who don't me very well...eating meat is not always easy for me to do...long story. But I had managed to avoid the meat houses here in Ukraine so far lol so...I guess it was just in due time I would wander into one eventually. I survived :)

I was invited out again on Saturday night by two more Kirovogradska oblast PCVs, but I was so tired that I decided to stay in for the night. I cleaned and got more stuff unpacked and organized.

Sunday, I went to the bazaar again to try to find my dish drying rack. I couldn't really clean my kitchen until I had something to let the dishes dry on. I finally found one I liked for 140 grievnas...which was pretty expensive, but I wanted one that I liked. They had plastic ones for sale that were around 80 grievnas...but I ended up getting a metal one that I love :) pictures later.

I was invited to my counterparts house to swim and have a cookout on Sunday as well...Olena told me what bus to take to her house, and I hoped and prayed that I got on the right one! Luckily I did...and she was waiting for me at the bus stop. It was a good 20 minutes marshrutka ride on a nice, stuffy bus. I bought some chocolate pechenas (cookies) to take to her house, which started melting on the way there. She also told me to bring over laundry to do...which was incredibly nice. Upon arriving at her house, we put my laundry in the washing machine, put on our swimsuits and swam while her husband cooked shaskleek (chicken schish kabobs) for us. It was lovely :) we ate an hour later and had kasha (a type of grain that I love...kind of like cous cous?), salad (cabbage, tomatoes, green onion, dill), grilled zuchini (with mayonaise and garlic on top), grilled chicken, and bread. It was delicious and much better than anything I could have cooked up. We put my laundry up on the line and got back in the pool then, only to have dessert...ice cream with fresh strawberry puree. She gave me a manicure later after we got out of the pool, and got to have fun translating between Russian and English. Olena wants to speak better English and I, of course, want to speak better Russian. So she asks me things in English and I answer in Russian. Pretty funny.

We talked about the two camps that I will be going to here in a few weeks. Get ready for a laugh...

The first camp that I am going to is called Ushnee byug. It's on a river...and I will be CAMPING for a week. Lydia...outside...for a week. Can't wait to write about stories from that. :) The other camp I will be going to is called Brigantina and is in western Kirovogradska oblast where another PCV is living. It's a 3 week camp that 20 kids from my work will be attending. Should be fun. I'm excited for both...even the camping one :) it's supposed to be beautiful...we'll see!

Guess I need to get back to work since I've written a novel here. Hopefully post again soon :) with pictures. Love love

Let the countdown begin...

Really, the countdown has already begun. Last week (I think) Cassi made a paper chain out of some of our old posters for class...one for each of the days until we leave Oster. I keep meaning to take a picture of it, but also keep forgetting and it is definitely getting shorter as Monday approaches!

This morning I had to be up at 6 am (don't worry, the sun rises at 4:30 or something like that here in Ukraine during the summer...so I was already semi-awake) to get ready to go say thank you to the city administration in Kozelets. Our bus left at 7:30 am which made us arrive in Kozelets a good 30 minutes early. After many formal thank you's (in Russian and Ukrainian...the Kozelets group is learning Ukrainian...which makes communicating with each other in our new languages INCREDIBLY difficult), we had our FINAL technical session debriefing with Lyuda (tech. teacher). Sad day! But also exciting because it means we're that much closer.

We have our FINAL RUSSIAN LESSON today! If I could make that font any bigger I most definitely would because there have definitely been times in the past 3 months when I thought that day would never come. Half of today's class is going to be spent presenting our SDL's (self-directed learning projects) that we were supposed to have been working on the entire time of pre-service training. Most of us (or maybe all of us?) may or may not have done over half of the work last night or the past few days. Don't worry, our teacher is fully aware of this :) I worked on my SDL every week for the first month...but then we became busy teaching and planning lessons and community projects...and it was basically put on hold for 2 months. However, I am quite excited to show you my SDL...which is a video slideshow with Russian explanations of each picture...with some amazing Russian/Ukrainian (not really sure) pop music. My host sister helped me with the final Russian grammatical errors that I needed correcting last night...and she definitely like it. I will hopefully be able to post it tomorrow.

TOMORROW...is our LPI (Language Profficiency Interview!). In case you haven't figured it out, PC has a bajillion abbreviations that for the first few weeks of being a PCT (peace corps trainee ha) made me want to pull out my hair. However, you get used to them and I find us using them in our everyday life. If my memory serves me right, there was even a packet given to us at one point early on that had all of the abbreviations we would need. It's ridiculously long, take my word for it. Our LPI is from 10-noon tomorrow morning. EEK. For 20-25 minutes, each of us will be tested on our language skills, all verbal. The person giving the test will ask open ended questions that I have to be able to think quickly of an answer in Russian and be able to talk about. I will basically be talking the entire time...which is quite overwhelming to think about. There are different levels that we will be ranked, but the one that they tell us to shoot for is intermediate-mid. We'll see once we get to Kiev what profficiency I am! Wish me luck!

On Friday, our cluster is headed to Chernihiv to hopefully be able to do a few of the touristy things there. There is an old, old church that we want to visit, and equally old caves underneath the church. (Trivia time. What movie is the following quote from? "Who wants to go down the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first!?") Not sure what else will be on the agenda for Friday, but it will definitely be a day of celebrating and spending time together!

Saturday is our host family goodbye picnic. We are going to the Desna and maybe cooking out/having a potluck. Details are still being decided. You can bet that that post will come with pictures :)

Sunday is our last day here in Oster. There are a lot of things that I've meant to take pictures of the whole time I've been here, but I also try not to be the American tourist. For instance, every Saturday and Sunday morning, people line up outside the milk factory that is just up the road from my house. It is fascinating to see how many people will wait there...easily 20-30 each time. Is the milk/butter/whatever else they sell really that good? I also wonder why they get there so early...in my (American) head, if it's a dairy factory, they're not going to run out of products. Maybe when my Russian matures I will be able to ask my host family about this when I come back and visit.

Besides the LPI, the other thing on my mind right now is PACKING. AGAIN. I don't have Mitchell here to help me this time...however, Jamie and I did go buy big babushka bags (McFarlin people think Mexico mesh-y bags that you buy in Nuevo Progresso) at the bazaar on Sunday. We have about 15 pounds of Russian & Ukrainian books that we have to find room for, in addition to a medical kit. I also don't plan on using all of my space saving bags quite to the extreme like I did on the way over here. AND, once we leave Kiev on next Thursday, we will also be given a fire extinguisher, carbon dioxide and smoke detector, and a space heater that will load the bus or train with us when we depart for site! Luckily, our counterpart (the person who will be our contact at site) will be assisting us with all of our luggage. Mine will probably faint when they see how much I have :)

Okay...need to go to my LAST RUSSIAN CLASS!!!! YIPPEEEEEE :) Happy Wednesday!

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!