Less than 48 hours...

This will be a blog post with a LOT of pictures...and probably not as many (really long) paragraphs :) I say that now at the beginning of the post...but we'll see if it holds true. Also depends on how long my host sister is walking the dog, which translates to Lydia time on the computer. Without further ado...

So...where to begin. Yesterday (Friday) we went to Chernigov. We took the 8:50 am bus (the other option was 6:08 am...no thanks.) which got us to Chernigov around 10:30 am I think. We had our LCF (Russian teacher Zhenya) with us...who was going to ship a bag home to Crimea where she lives (google it...it's beautiful). The first stop was the ATM for all of us to get our allowances...but that was when things went downhill. Zhenya was the first to put her ATM card (and last I might add) because the machine wasn't working. They wouldn't give her her card back...and it turned into a huge ordeal where she had to go to a few other places around Chernigov. It ended up that our TCF (technical teacher Lyuda) who had stayed back in Oster to rest, had to go to Zhenya's apartment to get her passport (for identification purposes), take a bus to Chernigov, give Zhenya the passport, and then go back home to Oster. This is when you're glad you live in a smallish city because Lyuda could simply go to Zhenya's landlady and explain the situation at hand to get into her apartment. SO, long story short...After a few hours of getting bank stuff dealt with, Zhenya got her card back and money withdrawn. Phew. During that time, Jamie, Cassi, and I shopped in the megacenter (totally forgot to take a picture of this...). We were shopping for host family gifts, and I also stocked up on things that I know I will eventually need in the next month or two (a new toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo/conditioner, etc.). It is much cheaper to buy these things in a big city at stores than in a small magazihn (store) in Oster. And since I still don't know where I'll be living for 2 years (I find out in less than 48 hours! hence the title of the post...), I figured it'd be better to go ahead and get some staples like that. Moving on...time for pictures of Chernigov!

This is Red Square in the middle of Chernigov...modeled after Red Square in Russia! Not near as big...but still massive and open.

There is a movie theater in Chernigov (I asked my host sister where people go to the movies here...since Oster is smack in the middle of Chernigov and Kiev. She said they'll go to either one, but those are the closest...)

What movie is this!?! Robert DeNiro...and I can't tell who the girl is?

Here are Jamie, Cassi, and I at one of the monuments that every PCV has to take a picture on :) This is Т. Г. Шевченко (pronounced Shefjenko) who is the most famous Ukrainian poet.

Up on top of the hill are 12 cannons. The story goes that whenever a guy in Chernigov asks a girl out...and if she doesn't want to go...she tells him to meet her at the 13th cannon, which is nowhere to be found. About 10 years ago, they put a cannon in the downtown area because the story was so popular.



The view from the canons...the tall churches in the background are where the following pictures were taken.

After the cannons, we went to the church that has 1000 year old caves underneath it. There is also a bell tower (seen above) that you can climb up and see all of Chernigov...incredibly pretty!

The creepy stairs you have to climb up to get to the top (definitely kept wanting to quote National Treasure while I was in this building...).

This part isn't open to the public anymore (I'm basically looking straight up when I took this picture). Our teacher Zhenya is not a fan of heights...and I pointed out that at least they've updated from old rotted wood to metal stairs and such that we climbed up :)

The view of the church from the bell tower (yes, the bell towers are seperate in most of the churches here...)

View of the Desna river!

Chernigov :)

Couldn't resist this picture! Made me think of Mexico :)

Neat old bells!

еше (more in Russian) bells!

There was a steady stream of babushkas coming and going from the church the entire time...

After the church, we had to walk another half mile or so to get to the part where the caves are. This is carved on a wall on a building where the caves are. The caves were supposedly built to keep the monks away from civilization so that they could study.

A neat painting of the church...the covered tunnel thing is not there anymore, so I'm not quite sure what this picture actually depicts. The caves were actually closed for the day by the time we got there...no biggie. There are more caves in old churches in Kiev that I'm sure I'll get to see at some point in the next two years.

After all the churches, we had to take a mashrutka (city transportation) to the McDonalds (had some french fries and enjoyed the free wifi...) which is where we would catch a ride home. We ended up being in a Mercedes mashrutka (think kind of like a Sprinter van...). We'll see if Scott actually reads my blog because he's been wanting to buy some of those vans for youth trips. I will say that it was incredibly nice. I approve :) My mashrutka driver on the other hand reminded me of a typical Ukrainian driver. There were a few close calls when he would decide to pass somebody, but when that happens here, it just means that everybody kind of squeezes onto the shoulders and allows for it to happen. Unwritten rule.

Another interesting thing I've noticed while riding in vehicles here...if there is a cop ahead, EVERYBODY driving the opposite way madly flashes their lights at you as you pass. And it's not like a quick flash on and off...it's like they turn on their hazards but with their brights on too. Weird.

All in all, we walked over 7 miles yesterday. How do I know this? Because in the past few days I've been moving stuff around in my suitcases to re-pack (again) and I found my LONG LOST PEDOMETER that I thought I left at home. I was ecstatic. My feet were killing me after the long day of walking up and down narrow (not ADA) stairs...and I even wore tennis shoes yesterday! One of the things that we've come to realize upon living in Oster is that my feet will be eternally dirty for the rest of summer...and I just have to accept it. Since most of the roads are dirt, you simply can't not get your feet dirty if you wear sandals. So, yesterday, I splurged on a pedicure foot thing (to soften my skin) and some lovely shades of fingernail polish (didn't bring any with me...definitely should have). I gave myself a homemade pedicure last night that that made me feel quite girly and lovely to look down at my freshly painted tangerine colored toenails. It's the little things in life... :)

Today was our host family picnic. It went very well and it made it that much more real that we are leaving on Monday morning at 8:30 am. But, I can safely say that I know I will come back and visit and will always have a place to stay at my host family's house :) I can also safely say that I am ready for next Thursday to get here, when I will get on a bus or train with my counterpart and head off to my new home for the next two years. I am so, so excited. Enjoy your weekend! Hopefully will post pictures from the picnic tomorrow. Love love.

Time to Celebrate!

LPI's (language profficiency interviews) are over and done with! Hooray :) I was the last of our group to do my interview this morning which was fine because it meant I got to do some laundry at my house before that! The past few days have included lots of times for reminiscing (sp? Since I'm on a Russian computer, every word I type is underlined in red so I can't really tell when a word is mispelled!) so I thought I would share some of them.

On a cold Friday in May, a bus filled with other PC trainees stopped in Oster at the aftostantcia (bus station). It was SNOWING...absolutely freezing...and I had about 24980 things to carry. Not really, but it helps the story. I was super jet-lagged still (took me about a week or more to get fully used to this side of the world's time zone difference.) and just wanted to go to sleep (I think we arrived around 5 pm ish?). My host mom and host dad picked me up in a taxi (I'm not sure why, seeing as to how my host family owns a car...maybe because of the snow?). This is what one of the rivers looked like on that day...


Anywho, I sat in the back seat with my host mom and wondered what in the world I was going to say to them that night. I couldn't even ask if they had any kids. We drove for what seemed like a while (in reality, it was less than 3-5 minutes I would guess) and finally stopped. I couldn't see out the windows because they were completely fogged over. We stopped at a big metal gate (guess I should take a picture of that part of my house before I leave!) and started getting my stuff out of the car. My host dad wouldn't let me carry anything, so my host mom quickly shuffled me inside. At that point, two tall, blonde girls came bounding the stairwell and said "hello!" in English. I was ecstatic. I remember eating something that night with my family...don't know what, but it was almost immediate upon arriving. My older host sister, Katya, who speaks English very well, showed me where I would be staying, where I could put my stuff, shower, etc. All that I wanted to do was go to sleep...and if my memory serves me correct, I slept for at least 12 hours that night.

The next morning, all of our host families took us to our teacher's apartment (since we had NO clue where we were going...) for our first Oster cluster group meeting. I remember where everyone sat that day in our classroom. Those became "our seats" for quite some time until we rearranged the room. That mornings meeting was to go over all sorts of cultural integration steps that we might need to know when living with a host family. However, the biggest thing that stuck out to me was that I was dying of thirst. Our teacher, Zhenya, had just made tea. It hadn't occurred to me until that point that I would no longer be able to get water straight from the tap, for two years. Wow.

I guess I never showed y'all what my house on the inside looks like...whoops. I took these pictures a very long time ago, but it just slipped my mind that I never posted them. I think they're on facebook...but I know everyone doesn't use that. So, enjoy!

Part of my living room/dining room. We've eaten at the dining room table for Easter...and that's it. Just like the U.S.!

The other half of the living room!

This is the laundry room where our clothes get hung up to dry! And my suitcases that I don't need are stored in here...

This is the upstairs bathroom! There is a half bath downstairs which is where we brush our teeth.

My bedroom! I believe this used to be my older host sisters room (who is now married and lives in Kiev).



The door into my room is on the left, and the door with the clothes hanging on it leads out to a balcony which is where we hang our clothes to dry in the summer!

In other news, I started watching Glee Season 2 last night. Just watched the Britney episode today. I was a die-hard Glee fan the first season or so, but then I became busy and never got a chance to watch all of the shows I had DVRed. BUT, rest assured, now I can watch them :) There were some pretty epic Sue Sylvester quotes in these two episodes. However, I'm too lazy to look them up online.

Today for lunch, Mark, Cassi, and I hit up the pizzeria here in Oster (one of the two or three restaurants we're aware of...). On my pizza, I had chicken, pineapple, black olives, and tomatoes, which I'm still trying to learn how to eat. It's a texture thing...we'll see if I ever like them.

The last thing I'll leave you with is my SDL :) enjoy it!

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!

A post because I can...

It was a good Saturday here in Oster. We had our last session with our link cluster (Kozelets). Today's technical session was on what our workload is supposed to look like when we get to site (10ish days!) and how we have to learn how to say no to doing things once we get there. We each had to do a little mini-presentation of this speech that we've been trying to memorize since week 1. It tells who we are, where we came from, what we studied in college, that we work for PC, what PC is, what we have done during pre-service training (teaching and assisting, etc.). All in all it's probably 25 sentences...which is a lot to memorize in any language...let alone a foreign language! But, we've all got it more or less memorized...which will come in very handy when we meet our counterparts for the first time on June 14 and they more than likely will not speak any English.

This is a little preview of the requirements of PC when we get to site:
-1 hour of class observation every day for the first semester
-3 hours of misc. activities in a school, daily
-2 hours per week assisting an English teacher
-3 different extracurricular activities regularly each week

Seeing those numbers down on paper for the first time today was good. I like having a routine...and I learned this past week how much I depend on a routine to make my life better and easier. Because we had summer camp Monday-Thursday, we had Russian language classes in the afternoon. It was just a jumble of not normal meeting times for me...and I completely forgot about my individual tutoring on Tuesday morning...even though I talked about it the night before. I was even awake plenty early Tuesday morning to get ready and go to tutoring...but it just slipped my mind because things were so out of the norm. I'm trying to adjust to this...but it's definitely hard for Lydia's OCD brain.

As pre-service training is coming to an end and we are all trying to cram as much Russian in our brains as can possibly fit, we also have to finish our SDL (self-directed learning) projects. This was something that we were supposed to have been working on all of pre-service training...but in reality it got put on the back-burner for the past few weeks. Since it is due sometime this week, I decided to work on it some today. I am making a picture slideshow of my time during pre-service training with Russian blurbs on each picture. Now all I needed were a few Russian/Ukrainian tunes to go with the slideshow. Cue music video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC7sE-lhVLg

This song gets blasted ALL around Oster. It is so catchy and upbeat that it was instantly the only song we have really been able to recognize. I've been dying to learn it and put it in the video slideshow...and I was finally successful today! Oora (That's Russian for hooray)! I told my host sister how excited I was about it and she of course died laughing at me. All of the kids here LOVE Lady Gaga and it then occurred to me to show my host sister a few of the music videos from Glee. She liked them and was quite intriqued by the idea of it! Sold :) another person addicted. One of my students actually asked me the other day if I listened to Lady Gaga and I said yes. She then asked me what Judas was...I explained that it's a name. At that point, I had no idea that was Lady Gaga's new song out right now...I am COMPLETELY out of the loop on what songs and movies are coming out. Feel free to let me know if there are new songs or movies that I need to download.

I read a book today on my Kindle (can I just say again how absolutely fantastic that machine is). It's called "Heaven is for Real," can't remember who it's by. I had seen it listed before but hadn't downloaded it...but one of my dear and sweet friends Britney told me it was worth downloading. Definitely a quick and uplifting read. It reminded me of the book 90 Minutes in Heaven...also a good one to download (or actually purchase a real copy of, ha).

I'll end with something I figure people might find interesting. Money. Money here in Ukraine is given to us by PC in a bank account each month. We have to travel to a big city to use an ATM (in Russian, bankomat) to get the money out using a debit card. We have a few ATM's here in Oster but it's not suggested that you use them. We give our host family's a monthly allowance for the meals that we receive in addition to the utilities that we use while living with them. It will be so different when we get to site and are completely in charge of our own bills, our own meals, etc. For pre-service training we receive what's called a "walking around allowance" that is for the purchasing of water and other misc. things we might need (a snack, school supplies, etc.) . I think that we get 15 grievnas a day...which is just over $2.00 USD. I can buy a large bottle of water (1.5 liters) for a little over 5 grievnas...just as something to judge by. If I buy a bag of cookies (enough to last my family for 3-4 days)...that might cost around 8 grievna. Just fyi! For lunches (which we as PCVs are in charge of) we receive 15 grievnas. Some clusters have been able to eat at their school cafeteria each day, other clusters eat on their own, while our cluster decided to pool our money together and get sandwich stuff for the week. We each chip in 50 grievnas every week or so to purchase meat, cheese, bread, chips (I would like to think that I contributed to the fact that everyone in my group now eats chips on their sandwiches like little kids...pretty amazing), cookies, coffee, tea, and sugar that is all communal food until we run out. If we want some yogurt or fruit, we each buy that ourselves (a banana or an apple usually costs around 3 grievnas, aka around 40 cents maybe). We also receive a travel allowance each month (not sure if we still will get that when we go to site). I think it was around 90 grievnas this past month...which is supposed to equate for our trips to Kozelets for technical training sessions, a trip to Kiev or Chernihiv, etc. A few prices to note for bus tickets:

one-way bus ticket to Kiev: around 20 grievnas (less than $3.00)...maybe 2 hours?
one-way bus ticket to Kozelets: around 5 grievnas (less than $1.00)...30 minutes
one-way bus ticket to Chernihiv: around 27 grievnas (less than $4.00)...around 2 hours as well

Chernihiv has a very good inner-city bus transit system. I think it costs around 2 grievnas (maybe a quarter USD?) to take a bus around town, and they are constantly going. Kiev has a metro system which I have only navigated once and was still completely overwhelmed by. It also cost 2 grievnas I think.

The exchange rate for the dollar to the grievna is usually around $1.00 (USD) for $7.95 (UAH-aka, grievna). I have exchanged money here in Oster at one of the banks which was a good cross-cultural thing to check off of my list. I think I've talked enough now so I'll go ahead and submit. Enjoy your weekend! Relax a little :) love love.

Oster Summer Camp continued...

Since I was lazy yesterday and didn't want to upload pics from my camera, here are the pictures from our 4th and final day of Oster Summer Camp at the gymnasia.

Jamie and I teaching his lesson on being active during the summer.

Me with our technical teacher Lyuda

Game time! Make yourself a mummy...

Sack race time...

and leap frog! Mark and Jamie...

The Oster cluster with our TCF (Techinal teacher). L to R: Mark, Brendan, Lyuda, Cassi, Lydia, Jamie

Me with some of the 7th grade girls. So cute :)

The Gymnasia teachers (Lydia, Brendan, and Jamie) with the 7a class. Can you find Cassi and Mark too?

In other news, there are only 3 days of Russian language class left for us. That is mind boggling...and I don't think my brain could handle much more Russian at this point. The Peace Corps really knows how to run these language programs...and 3 months is about the limit that my brain can hold information wise. We had a visit today with a person from the PC Ukraine office telling us about our last week here in Oster and the tests that we have to do, saying goodbye to people, packing up, departure, and then what all will be happening at the swearing-in retreat in Kiev (June 13-16). It all really hit home for the first time that come June 16, I will be completely alone in a city knowing no one...and not speaking the native language. It's not like this was news to me, it simply sunk in that I really need to enjoy these last 10 days with my cluster here in Oster. We have been pretty blessed to have a supportive group of 5 complete strangers that more or less get along everyday and actually enjoy being with each other. I know some people's experiences during pre-service training can be pretty miserable if you don't like your group members (keep in mind you're with these people a minimum of 5 or 6 hours every DAY for THREE months). Enough being sappy now...

Tomorrow is our last cross-cultural session with our link cluster, Kozelets! Weird. They will be coming to Oster. Oh, and to answer a few of the questions my brother always asks about in the comments spot:

1) yes, English shirts are everywhere here. So are belt buckles. I actually had a student come up to me at the kid's protection day in the park on Wednesday and ask me what her shirt said... it made NO sense at all in English.

2) It is advised that PCVs here in Ukraine do not drink the water. It is suggested that you filter it and then boil it (or vice versa...can't remember). My host family drinks filtered water at home, but I have 2 or 3 pitchers of water that my amazing host mom keeps full all the time of my special boiled water. The large bottles of water that you see in the pictures cost around 5.5 grieven which is maybe 75 or 80 cents? However, that adds up rather quickly. They do not recycle the bottles in small cities (like Oster). I have seen recycling bins in Kiev I think. However, bottles get reused for other purposes (other than water). For instance, my host dad made homemade rootbeer the other day (he saw the recipe for it in the newspaper and tore it out...and made it later that day in a GIANT pot. wish I liked root beer to try it...) and had saved up 5 or 6 big water bottles to put it in. People also keep water bottles to store water in for when the water goes off without you knowing it's going to be shut off. That leads me to a third point...

3) It is garden time right now in Ukraine. My neighbor (who is probably in his late 50s or early 60s) gardens all day long. I know that some of my cluster mates host families do the same. My host family has cucumbers in their garden, onion, and I think tomatoes (sidenote: we now have a salad every night that consists of cucumber, tomatoes, green onion, and maybe dill? with salt and vegetable oil. I like the cucumbers...but it's still hard for me to eat the tomatoes...especially when they're dripping in oil.). But, with all of the gardening being done, it means that water is being used around the clock to water these intense gardens. At Jamie and Brendan's houses, from 5 or 6 pm until 11 or 12 at night, they may not have any running water at their houses because everyone is using water to garden. I know that Cassi sometimes has issues with water pressure as well at her house in the evening. So, there's something to chew on.

4) I have switched from drinking tea to coffee now. I usually have one cup in the morning (instant...they don't have coffee makers here) with two small spoons of sugar. And if I'm feeling super beat in the afternoon and we have 3 or 4 hours of language, I might have another cup then. However, our classroom gets the afternoon sun in it and is INCREDIBLY hot during that time of day. My bedroom at home also gets the afternoon sun...and my great host family surprised me by putting up a new piece of fabric that must block light in some way because when I came home today and saw it in my bedroom...my room was at least 10-20 degrees cooler. Amazing :)

5) Gonna go ahead and hit publish post. Happy Friday and happy weekend! Thinking and praying for the JUNERS group as they head to Chicago for 2 weeks. Sad I'm not with y'all!

Oster Summer Camp!

Today marked the final day of our Oster summer camps. The camps (one at the school and one at the gymnasia) were very successful...took lots of time and energy...but all in all we're very happy with how they went. Here is a run down of what they looked like with pictures to tell the stories :)

Day 1: Community Project on Volunteerism (students painted benches in the park)

some of our 7th grade kiddos painting...

7th grade girls painting...

7a class from the gymnasia with one of the benches we painted :)

Day 2: Healthy Lifestyles (anti-smoking and active outside games)

Mr. James with Flat Vlad (one of the visuals that Cassi created...in our American eyes he was Flat Vlad because he was on a piece of paper. However, the students know a flat as an apartment. Oops...)

A view of the classroom (I think we were put in a physics classroom to use that day. Definitely science of somekind...). By the way, it's completely normal not to use lights in the classroom, at home, anywhere really unless you truly need them. You always have natural light pouring in.

Playing a game in the front yard of our school. Cassi came over to play with us at the gymnasia after her summer camp at the shkola was over.

some of the kids in our class after having gotten out of the balloon (shariki!) game.

Mr. Brendan, Miss Lydia, and Mr. James outside of the school. Hot and sweaty after playing outside all morning.

Day 3: Kid's Protection Day (in the park...we didn't really plan any of this)

some of the bystanders...all of the little kids had adorable hats on because it was so bright and sunny outside :)

Me with some of the 7th grade girls at the concert

Lydia with Yulia

good timing Cass :)
Lydia with Olya

Lydia and Olya

Jamie and Tania

The pounds and pounds of Milka chocolate bars. Ya hachu (I want!).



Some of the little kids with their prizes :) balloons, chocolate bars and ice cream.

Day 4: Healthy Lifestyles (being active during the summer helps you both physically and mentally)

I will have to post pictures from today another day :) too many of them to choose from and I haven't uploaded them yet! I have no homework to do tonight and nothing really to prepare for tomorrow...and I am ECSTATIC. 4 more days of Russian left. That seems CRAZY. My brain is about on overload though so I am glad that it's almost over. Going to sign off and submit this now. Happy blogging :)

Kid's Protection Day!

The past few days have been a COMPLETE and utter whirlwind of events. With our summer camp going on, and 3-4 hours of Russian each day...it makes for a very tired Lydia when I finally get home. This is not to say that I'm not enjoying myself, but my eyes ache to be shut right now.

Today is a big holiday in Ukraine (the running joke right now is that every weekend in May is a 3 or 4 day weekend because there are SO many holidays crammed into that month. I'm fully aware that it's not May today by the way...). It is June 1...also known as Kid's Protection Day. We celebrated with our kids from the school and the gymnasia in the park. I also need to explain how school works here in Ukraine...so let me back up a little.

School starts in September. I'm not quite sure how long their winter break is, but I know they have one. The last day of school was Friday, May 27 (remember the last bell ceremony?). On Monday (May 30), the kids start a 2 week "camp" where they go to school from 9 am-noon. I forget what this is called at the moment. Whoops. The idea is that they are outside of a classroom environment more and doing fun things. Sometimes they will take a bus to the river and have class out there. Other days, like today, everybody took part in Kid's Day activities at the park.

When we got to the park around 9:30(ish) this morning, there were supposed to be races going on. We had absolutely NO idea what the agenda was today. That's a common theme here in Ukraine...and we're learning to embrace it. The races didn't start until 10:15 am (another theme...flexible time schedules), and at that point we were merely observing. We saw some kids from our classes...said hello to them...and somewhat awkwardly observed from the sidelines. At some point, more students started coming to say hello to us. Remember that some of the kids here literally scream hello at us because it is the only word that they know in English. It is hard not to laugh at this because they put a strong emphasis on the "o" and kind of make their voice rise up at the end of the word. At one point, there were probably 10-12 girls crowded around talking to me...asking about holidays, birthdays, any words that they could think of in English and that I could respectively answer in Russian. Funny how they want to use English and I want to use Russian.

Around 10:30 people started gathering around a make-shift stage to watch a concert that was about to be put on. It started with a musical/play put on by kids age 12 and younger...wish I could tell you what it was about :) it was pretty cute. Then, more kids performed doing solo dance numbers, singing, etc. I went across the street at one point to get a bottle of water and came back to find that a new event was taking place. Cassi ran up and gave me her purse and Jamie's camera bag (by the way, I now know what it feels like to be the mom or dad who has to hold all of the purses while kids are running around playing games. Not fun.)...and I quickly followed her to see what was going on. They were forming teams and of course all of the girls we know had grabbed the two of them to be on their team. I had one of my seventh grade girls with me who doesn't enjoy playing games...so she stayed with me the entire time while we watched Miss Cassandra and Mr. Jamie play on the team (she talked to me in Russian the ENTIRE duration of the game...which was great practice. I learned that her favorite movie is Titanic and all of the Harry Potter's. Solid). Anywho, each team was made up of maybe 20 people...and the kids had to go to different stations in the park (sidenote: each station was situated at one of the freshly painted benches that we did as our community project. pretty cool!) and perform random tasks. In between each station (there were maybe 10 total?), the kids RAN from station to station holding hands in a long line. It was unbelievably hot outside (maybe not Oklahoma hot...but it definitely will be) and as their prizes at the end, everybody got ice cream and a bar of chocolate (there were boxes and boxes of Milka chocolate bars sitting waiting to be passed out. I had to restrain myself from taking one...). The station/team competition lasted for nearly 2 hours I think....and then we got to have Russian all afternoon!

I need to prepare for our last day of camp tomorrow. It's definitely been fun, but a lot (a LOT) of work and it's really hard to concentrate in Russian class when you've been hot and sweaty and running around with kids all day. I have a ton of pictures and video from today, but don't have time to upload them now. Will hopefully be able to at some point soon :) night night!

My random musings...

This morning as I walked to school for our lettni lager (summer camp), my mind was spinning with blog entries. And I haven't had a chance to write any of them down yet or type any of them out...so this blog entry may be a bit random as my brain works to sort things out. And it also may end abruptly when my host sister tells me she wants the computer. This is going to be a post with no pictures...and lots of words...so if those don't appeal to you, no need to keep reading :)

Today is Monday. This was the first day of our summer camp and also the day of our community project. It was also the day that I was in charge of the lesson plan being written, translated, and printed and ready to go for both the school and the gymnasia. This week we are conducting two summer camps: one at the school (Cassi and Mark) and one at the Gymnasia (Lydia, Jamie, & Brendan). The school camp is from 9-11 am...the gymnasia is from 10 am-noon. As part of pre-service training, the youth development PC volunteers have to 1) conduct a 3-5 day summer camp, and 2) conduct a sustainable community project. Easier said than done. We ended up painting benches in the city park...pictures to come. Too lazy now to post them. Let's just say there were a lot of uncertainities come 9 am this morning...but the benches got painted and the lessons were a success. I'll try to do a blog post about the community project later. Onto more Lydia thoughts...

I cannot believe that my time in Oster is almost over. I absolutely love this city and the people...even though I have only been here a little over 2 months. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when I will be leaving my permanent site after working with those people for 2 YEARS. Jamie, Brendan, and I were talking with our technical teacher yesterday over coffee about moving to site and all that it entails. On June 13, we will pack up and get on a bus that takes us to Kiev. We have to be in the city by noon that day and will find out at 1:30 where we will be placed for the next two years. It is a huge, huge ordeal...especially with 106 volunteers that are in this group of PC volunteers (group 41). Some people will go north, some will go south...some east, some west. We have absolutely no idea where we're going...and I'm completely okay with that. I wouldn't know what to suggest even if I were to request an area or region. I know that wherever I end up is where I'm supposed to be, and that I will undoubtedly grow to love that city and the people. Brendan brought up a very good point during our conversation with Lyuda (technical teacher). Everything we've been working to towards now has been focused on making it through pre-service training and getting to the swearing-in ceremony (June 16). But what are we going to focus on after that? I know that new dates will appear and will give me things to strive towards...but the swearing-in ceremony is something that I've been thinking of for months...even back in the states.

One of the biggest reasons why I was so hesitant to apply for PC was because of the food. As trivial as that is, I wondered if I'd be able to make it. And the answer is yes, without a doubt. I'm not sure what I'll end up eating when I get to site...because up until now, my big meal of the day (dinner) has been prepared for me by my host mother. But I know that I will not starve. The amount of fresh fruit and vegetables that is readily available most days is amazing. There have been some days that for lunch I might eat a banana, an apple, and a yogurt. And then have another apple or banana for a snack. And I love that. We have a favorite fruit stand here in Oster...with an older lady who owns it (or at least she does in my mind). She asked us early on what we were doing here in Oster and we explained to her. I try to frequent her store at least once a week, if for no other reason than to get a big hello from her. One time, her granddaughter was in the store with her. Jamie and Brendan were outside having already paid (the store itself is maybe 10 feet by 10 feet), and I was paying at the cash desk inside. The owner told the granddaughter to give us each an apple (of course I couldn't understand this at the time). I was confused and thought she was trying to get us to buy the apples...but the little girl walked outside and gave Brendan and Jamie each an apple and it was one of the sweetest things ever. Definitely a good business-lady because I've gone back ever since :) It's little stories like that make me love Oster. And I know that will be the case wherever I go...but I've already become attached to this city and the idea of leaving the people I know is incredibly sad. But it's something that must be done.

I can't remember what other things I wanted to write about...but I think I better go ahead and submit this and save some other thoughts for new posts :) hope everyone had a lovely Monday...talk to you soon.

Love, Lydia