Did you know...

...That the entire annual budget of the Peace Corps is less than the budget of the army marching band? 

Or that more money is spent in Iraq in a 5 hour time period than is spent supporting the over 8,700 Peace Corps Volunteers around the world in one year?  

Or that the Peace Corps is one of the few agencies that both Democrats and Republicans both vote in favor of?

I didn't either.

This is a neat little video (less than 3 minutes--watch it!) that gives a little insight into the world of Peace Corps and how it began and where it is now.  Click here >> Peace Corps 

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps being signed, sealed, and put into action.  At the moment, I know 3 other people that I went to high school with who are currently serving in the Peace Corps.  One, Hali, is in the South Pacific and is about to finish up her 2 year service.  Another, Kyle, is about halfway done with his service in Albania.  And the last, Whitney, was serving in Ecuador.  However, I just looked at her blog and realized that she had to go back to the states because of safety and security issues in Ecuador.  She left for Ecuador about a month before I left for Ukraine, so just when she felt she was getting her feet on the ground and getting adjusted to life in a new country, she had to go home.  I can't imagine having to do that.  

I made veggie burgers for the first time ever. They are pretty good and will last me through the week for meals!  I love love LOVE my toaster oven....almost more than a microwave (gasp). It heats up instantly and I can warm a veggie burger now and melt cheese on top of it.  Or, I could eat it cold, which I also love. Ha :)  I truly like some food items cold rather than hot.  Weird, I know.  Pizza.  Rice/beans/corn mixed with cornbread.  I can't think of other things right now, but there are definitely items out there.  

I need to sort through some teaching materials for my lesson on HIV/AIDS this week.  I am also going to promote my English clubs at 3 different group meetings this week.  I also hope to make a trip to the orphanage here in K-grad in the next week or two.  Happy Sunday :)

If I only had a picture...

It's been a typical Saturday here in Kirovograd.  I stayed up late last night skyping with Miss Katie Allison, so I somewhat slept in (til 9ish).  

Mary K!

Then, I did laundry by hand, watched a couple episodes of Monk, worked on a video from the HIV/AIDS training a couple weeks ago (get ready for it...it's almost done.  3 words for ya:  Ukrainian dance contest.  Hopefully will finish it tomorrow.), cleaned up the apartment some, cooked a little, etc.  Just my normal domesticated Saturday in Ukraine.

So, at 6 pm I decided I'd finally go for a jog since I had been putting it off.  Today was the first day where it actually felt like fall outside, so I put on a pair of leggings underneath my Nike shorts to run in.  If I had gone out in shorts, the STARES I would have received from the babushkas would have been enough to make me go back inside. It was probably 70 degrees out, so I would have been fine in shorts, but that's not the point of this post.

There is a school behind my apartment that has a small (janky) track.  It is actually paved, but there are trees surrounding it, causing the pavement to crack.  There are also numerous fruit tress (apple, apricot, and maybe pear) in addition to nut trees (chestnut, which I now can identify!) that cover the track.  That means that I am constantly dodging squashed fruit and nuts that I could probably break my ankle on.  So, yesterday, as I was jogging, I noticed a cat creeping in some tall grass by the track.  (For my family, it reminded me of a gray cat, Maxi, that lived in the Downs in Alabama, who was notorious for creeping up on chipmunks and attacking them.  My dad and I would watch her slowly creeping through the grass nearly every morning before school.  Back to the original story...).  This was a peculiar site to me because in Ukraine, there are cats and dogs everywhere.  However, you don't see them ready to attack very often.  I jogged around the track again and it was still slowly creeping...I watched it do this for a good 5-6 minutes.  Finally, on the next lap around, it skittishly crossed in front of me...

WITH A MOUSE HANGING OUT OF IT'S MOUTH.  

The tail was pretty much the only thing I could see, but still, you got the idea of what was in there.  It proceeded to eat the mouse in the center part of the track, looking at me ever so wearily, like I might take its' prized dinner away.  Don't worry Mr. Feline.  I promise I don't want to have anything to do with you.

If only, I had my camera.

Let me tell you a story...

I'm still playing catchup with old blog posts, so try to keep up as I switch from summer camp to current happenings to environmental trainings, etc.!  Today's story is about a special little camper named Tanya.

While at Camp Bereg, a summer camp for kids about 2 hours south of Odessa, there were numerous other camps going on at the same time as our English camp.  Also staying at the sanatorium (think old Soviet style dormitory) was a group of orphans who live in Chernigov during the year.  My clustermate Jamie lived in the city where Camp Bereg was and we would catch up on the phone throughout the summer, seeing what each other was up to (this was before I went down to Camp Bereg).  The English camp had 4 summer sessions, but the orphans were at the sanatorium all summer.  Jamie would often tell me that he played with the orphans which was a bit confusing because he was not in charge of them--they just flocked to him.  So, when I went down for my week at Camp Bereg, I finally got to meet some of these orphans who he's hung out with all summer.  They are precious and simply want to be loved.  That's it.

That is Jamie (clustermate) who got to hang out with these sweet kids all summer.  Zhenya is the little boy in the green shirt and Valera is the boy in the middle.  From what I heard from the other camp counselors, the orphans are in charge of washing their own clothes at camp.  I think Valera is 11 years old and Zhenya is 7.  They wore those outfits the entire week that I was there.

Zhenya on Jamie's shoulders...too precious.

Valera playing on the beach

From what I could tell, the orphans could basically do whatever they wanted during the day at camp.   They went to the beach in the mornings with us, but after that, I would just see them sporadically throughout the day.  This is where Tanya comes into the picture.

Did you notice that the boys both have shaved heads?  Lice started going around in the orphans wing of the building.  Their solution?  Shave all of the kids heads who had lice because the lice can't stick to a buzz cut.  So, one day, Kym and I were trying to make friendship bracelets with some of the other camp counselors and kids during afternoon activities.  I was sitting on the couch with some kids when Tanya came into the room.  I believe she's 7 years old (but looks like a 5 year old because she's so tiny).  She was incredibly timid and started picking up the scraps of yarn that other kids had discarded.  One of the other camp counselors knew her and asked her if she wanted a bracelet.

Her face lit up.

I could see the excitement as she thought, "You mean I get to pick my own colors?"

It made me wonder when the last time she actually had a choice about something was.

She was so proud of the pink and yellow bracelet the other counselor made for her.  At that point, I had messed up on my bracelet but could fix it for Tanya's tiny wrist.  I asked her if she wanted it and her face lit up again. While I finished working on it, she came and sat next to me on the couch.  The next thing I knew, she was standing on the couch playing with my hair.

You see, little Tanya was one of the kids who had to have their head shaved because of lice.

She played with my hair for an hour and a half...braiding it, putting it in ponytails, putting it on her head like it was her hair.  One of the other camp counselors, Kristen, snagged this picture of her playing.

She was the reason I was at camp that week, and a confirmation why I'm here in Ukraine.  Thanks for that, God :)

Way-Back-Wednesday #11: Boomer Sooner baby

So, technically this post isn't very far back.  However, I had been meaning to write about this topic for a couple weeks...and I didn't have any other way-back-Wednesdays to post about!  Let's see...where do I begin this post?  We'll go with chronological order :)

Sooner football season has officially begun!  And with that, a slew of pictures sent to me from my mom's phone involving football season and all that it entails!

Guess who is using my season football ticket?  You're welcome, Mitchy! 

The "family" that sits in front of us at home games.  We've watched the little boys grow up for 10 years.  They have a feisty grandmother that also sits with them who gets very into the games.  Adorable.

Student section and the band...this was at the first game versus Tulsa.

What can you spot in this picture?  

 So, after OU's victory over Tulsa a couple weekends ago, my parents headed south to Bama to see friends and family, but also to see the Sooners (ranked #1) take on Florida State University (ranked #5).

Mom and Pops at FSU

SOOO many OU fans at the game.

Since the OU vs. FSU game was on at 8 pm eastern time, which meant it was in the wee early hours of the morning for me, I went on to bed.  I was also sick then...so I was anxious to get up the next morning to see what the results were!  I quickly logged onto Facebook knowing that everyone in OK would have posted something about the game, regardless of whether we won or lost!  My friends didn't let me down :)  There were "boomer sooners" left and right, and then I spotted this picture that Jill was tagged in from the "OU Boston Group."

I knew that on OU game days, there is a bar about a block away from Fenway that houses the "OU Boston Group" and that Jill usually goes to it.  So, I was looking for Jill in this picture (in the middle--blonde hair, white t-shirt)...finally found her...and then I started looking for Ashley or Kathryn who also live in Boston (remember my road trip with Jill and Ash?).   THAT was when I discovered my sister-in-law standing to the left of Jill (the other blonde).  And THEN, I discovered my sister-in-law's sister standing to the left of her (another blonde with a baseball hat on).  At this point I knew that my brother had to be in the picture somewhere too.  Sure enough, he's in the back left (super tall) second from the left.  When I skyped with my brother on Monday, he informed me that sure enough he and Tina (my sister-in-law) got a table at the bar early...then Jill and Kathryn showed up...and more Normanites...and then Tina's sister and her fiance...and then Tina's parents too!  My favorite part of the story is that neither Jeremy nor Tina went to OU but are both die-hard Sooners fans.  So, when somebody new would come to the table, they would ask them what year they graduated from OU, or where they used to live in Norman, etc.  

My brother's answer to his affiliation with OU? 

"I'm the only one in my family who didn't go there for college."  ha :)  We'll forgive you Jeremy.  

You're also the only one in the family who doesn't know what Здравствуйте means.  :)    

excited to be using his new HD webcam (see the wood-burning stove in the background?   I helped chop wood for that with an ax!)

I don't think your headphones are big enough...

That, my friends, is my update about OU football.  In other news, I will teach a lesson on HIV/AIDS next week to a group of Ukrainian English teachers.  I'm also finally getting some good response to English clubs at my site.  My last news: I tried to make chocolate no-bake cookies tonight without peanut butter.  I used this recipe online but ended up adding more oats at the end because the mixture was way too soupy.  They're not too shabby for no peanut butter!! I have to save my precious PB for emergency use only :)  I have gone through 2 jars in the 3 months I've been at site and have one left.  If you feel like sending a care package, peanut butter is always welcome :)  Until tomorrow...night night!

6 month mark!

Today marks the day when I left good ol' Norman, Oklahoma, to start the next chapter of my life: the Peace Corps.  What a day it was too!  If you want to read a funny entry about my delayed flights, screaming children, etc., click here!

I know I've been slacking on blogging lately...there are two real reasons why I started this blog: I wanted a convenient way to update friends and family back home, and I wanted it for my own memory so that I could go back and remember funny stories that would otherwise probably be forgotten.  So, please forgive me for slacking the past week! I was sick for a few days with a stomach bug, but am getting back in the swing of things now :)

I thought it'd be fun to see some of the things I've done since I left home...so let the pictures speak for themselves!  Since I have been in Ukraine, I have.

Learned the Russian alphabet!

Met my loving host family in Oster

Met my crazy and fun-loving cluster group :)

Taught classes in Russian to 7th and 11th graders

Spoke (in Russian) at the Last Bell ceremony in Oster

Was officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteer!

Survived a week-long camping trip...

Cleaned and cooked chicken for the first time in my life...

Swam in the Black Sea!

Missed my train to camp... 

Saw my first fortress in Ukraine! 

Experienced my first Ukrainian summer camp

Attended a First Bell ceremony in Kirovograd

Learned what a jewel-weed is!

Made homemade tortillas :)

Traveled 3124 kilometers (or 1936 miles) by train!

Saw my second fortress/castle in Ukraine in Kamyanets-Podilsky!

The new group of Peace Corps Trainees will be coming to Ukraine today/tomorrow. That means that I'm no longer the newbie :)  which is a great feeling.  They all met for the first time yesterday in D.C. and probably enjoyed their last real American meal last night.  So, happy 6 month mark group 41ers and welcome to the Peace Corps group 42ers!  

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 :)

Just a quick note!

I'm on my way home to kgrad but wanted a quick tally! I have been out of town for the past week at an HIV/aids training that was absolutely amazing. Do people enjoy the videos of pictures or would you rather have pictures posted by themselves? I know sometimes Internet won't allow videos to play. Leave ne a comment or shoot me an email with what you like better! :) Posts soon! :)

It's a small world...

I'm home for all of 16 hours on this Sunday before I pack my bags for another trip--this time to Kamianets-Podilskyi which is in the western part of Ukraine.  I left on Friday night at 11:40 pm for Kiev (arriving at 5:40 am on Saturday morning) for an Environmental Working Group meeting which basically occupied most of the day on Saturday.  Had to fit in a run to McDonald's though (duh) and enjoy fries and...get ready for this: a cheeseburger.  I can't believe I ate one either.  It goes against EVERYTHING I am as a human being to eat meat like that.  I honestly don't know when the last time I ate one was (maybe elementary school when Happy Meals had mini-Beanie Babies in them and I had to have every one of them?).

Pause.  As a sidenote to the Beanie Babies story: it cost all of 50 cents more to buy an entire happy meal (with fries and a burger) as opposed to buying just the Beanie Baby itself.  We fed all of our neighbors in the Downs the day that they came out...and our dog, Panda, got to eat fries and hamburgers for what seemed like weeks.  Oh, the craze that was Beanie Babies.  

Anywho, back to McDonald's meat.  Mmm...so, I ate a cheeseburger.  Want to guess what book I'm reading right now also?  The Kind Diet, by Alicia Silverstone.  Want to know what the book is about?  I'm sure I'll have many posts in the future about it, but basically it's her lifestyle change of becoming a vegan and the reasons why our body doesn't actually need meat to survive.  Shocking, I know.  It really is pretty crazy to learn about.  And yes, I ate a cheeseburger after reading about cow farms in America, being fully aware of how the animals are treated and raised on these farms.  I don't think I can become a vegan while I'm in Ukraine (soy products are WAYYYY expensive here and my PC living allowance does not allow for that).  And it's not feasible to say I won't eat meat while I'm here in Ukraine because sometimes you have to eat whatever is placed in front of you.  However, when I cook for myself for the next two years, I want to try to have a more grain-based diet as opposed to one filled with meat (that takes 72 hours to go through our digestive system).  I didn't mean to go off on this tangent, so I'll get back to the title of this blog! :)

Last night (Saturday night) I headed to the Kiev train station around 8:30 pm for my 9:23 pm train.  I found my seat and got my bedding ready when a man came and sat in my compartment with me, letting me know that he had the top bunk above my bottom one.  He was probably in his early 30's and asked if I wanted to go have a smoke break before we left (no, thanks), and it was at that moment that he asked me my name.  I try to avoid talking to people on the trains because I really like to just relax and watch some tv shows on my iphone or read my Kindle.  And sometimes if I know I'll never see a person again, I tell them my name is Anna or something like that.  But, when he asked me my name, Lydia came out before I knew what was going on!  He left to go smoke, came back, and started getting out the shmorgasborg (sp?) of food that he had just bought at the EcoMarket supermarket store.  He had everything from salo (pig fat), to beer, to cucumbers, to cabbage, to tomatoes, to bread, to 2 or 3 different kinds of sausage (mmm), to desserts, and then he pulled out Cognac to top it all off.  Now, for the Americans reading this, this is a totally normal thing to do on a train.  And it is custom that you share the food with your neighbors.  The only thing going through my head at this point was that I was exhausted and wanted to go to sleep and that if he was going to drink Cognac and beer, that I was in for a long night with not much sleep.  I kept reading, waiting for the time when our train would leave, and a few minutes before we were to take off, the other two people in our little "compartment" showed up.  I glanced up from my book and lo and behold I KNEW the person standing there.  Her name is Yana and she is my NEIGHBOR who lives across the hall from me.  I nearly fell out of my seat.  She squealed my name (which is when I was VERY glad I told the man my real name) with delight and we hugged and started talking about our adventures of the day.  She had gone to Kiev for the day with one of her guy friends to go shopping and they had actually been on my train that morning from k-grad.  Such a small, small world.  Yana speaks basically perfect English and I was SO glad to have her company for the rest of the ride home.  We even got to take a taxi back at 4:30 am when our train arrived in k-grad.  If I hadn't been so tired, I would have turned on my laptop and searched for the SOONERS playing Tulsa (since it was only 8:30 pm Central time) but I decided that sleep was more important.

I need to start and finish packing for my train that leaves this evening!  Whoops :)  I will be meeting up with two of my cluster mates (Jamie and Mark--whose birthday is today! Happy birthday Marky Mark!) and 2 of my link-cluster mates (Kym and Maria).  Couldn't be more excited for our reunion at the HIV/AIDS training that we will all be doing.  Happy Sunday :)

Camp Bereg: Beach time

On the third day of Camp Bereg, we finally got to go to the beach :)  we were all incredibly excited (at least the PCVs who were new to camp!--some had been at camp a month) and luckily, Kym (my link cluster-mate from Kozelets!) has a waterproof digital camera.  If I ever live by the water someday, I would definitely invest in one of those...to be able to capture moments in the water is awesome and hysterical at the same time.  She took video of us getting in for the first time and it was SO COLD, but completely worth it.  Your body gets used to it after a while.  This is a compilation of our beach time at Camp Bereg.