The many different lives of PCVs...

I've found that some of my best times of brainstorming future blog entries comes at inopportune times. Sometimes I'll make a note on my phone, or try to ingrain the idea in my brain, but it usually never comes to fruition.  As I was just cleaning up my kitchen, a topic flickered through my head.  I finished doing the dishes and decided to sit down right now and type it up.  I'm also {highly} procrastinating going out to run errands like I need to.

Late last night as I lay in bed (quite bored out of my mind), I decided to sign onto facebook chat.  I never use fb chat but decided to see if anyone was online.  One of my sweet high schoolers (Rachel) messaged me and even said, "Whoah! You're on facebook chat?!"  Ha.  See...I never get on that thing!  But as I looked through the people online...lo and behold, my favorite curly red-head was on!  I couldn't believe it.  The red-head I'm talking about is Mr. Darren Downing Gore. 

One of my last nights in Norman before leaving for the PC...

I met Darren when I moved to Oklahoma in 2001 and no matter the distance between us, I can always count on a good chat (and a good laugh) when I talk to him.  He has a rather hectic schedule right now because he is going to Physician Assistant school at Baylor and going through rotation's at the moment.  So, I was super excited to see him online at a time where we could both chat for a minute.  Turns out he never uses facebook chat either, so was it pure coincidence we both happened to be online at the same time?  I think not.  Somebody up above was looking out for us :)

I wasn't planning on making this a picture montage, but Darren and I have been on many an outing together and well, some of these pics are just too good not to be posted.  This is totally not the direction the blog post was supposed to go today, but I'll get to the point in a minute!  Let's call this a decade of Darren, shall we?

Probably gonna kill me for some of these, but I'm 5500 miles away, so he can't do very much :)

Darren, David, and Mark--circa 2001 BASIC retreat 

Anna, Darren, Lydia--circa 2002 choir tour to Florida

bored on the charter bus...who knew that a person could fit in the overhead compartments?

Yep, he'll definitely be mad about this one.  This was sometime during high school at youth one night. 

Dinner theater 2005--Darren, Karen, Lydia, Swenson

Prom 2005--Bert, Lydia, Amy, Karen, Anna, Rose, Darren

Graduation 2005--Darren, Rose, Amy, Lydia, Kevin (Darren's brother-in-law!), Anna, Swenny

Choir Tour to Disneyland--2005

Disneyland 2005--Darren and all of his girls :)

 

Mission trip to Seattle--summer 2005

Lady Liberty, Darren, and myself--summer 2006

 

Birthday celebrations--2007

Tacky Christmas Party 2007

Opies Reunion--2008

Happy New Year!  Love Amy cheesin' in the background--2008/2009

Mexico 2010

My hot date to Jacey's wedding--2010

And last but not least, he came to surprise me at my going away party...we're both doing the "Darren smile" :)

So, that photo montage was completely off subject, but I had fun finding all of those pictures on my external hard-drive and on my laptop.  Back to the topic of my chat with Darren!

Darren has a friend from college (Katie) who happened to leave for the Peace Corps about a month or two before I left.  She is currently serving in Tanzania, Africa, as a teacher!  The story for how I came across the fact that Katie was leaving for the Peace Corps is somewhat creepy (or really creepy as Darren would inform me).  I went to post something on Darren's wall in early 2011.  Katie had just written a note on his wall informing him of her blog and that he could follow her service through that.  She didn't mention the PC once in that post, but the lingo was some of the same PC lingo that is used worldwide.  I found her blog and facebooked her...never having met this girl.  Okay, okay...kinda creepy on my behalf.  BUT, I love reading about her adventures in Tanzania and thinking how utterly different every PC experience is.  

Katie must have a sense of humor very similar to Darren's because anytime she posts something on facebook, I typically laugh (or gasp if it has to do with an African animal encounter in her house...).  One of her more recent posts on facebook said: "not too happy about this bat that has taken up residence in my pit latrine...".  Wow.  She's fighting a bat in her "toilet," while I'm fighting to keep my apartment semi-warm with temps still in the negatives.  

You can find Katie's blog here, with the most recent post detailing a snake encounter in her house.  Oh, Ukraine...I'll take your cold weather any day over the bugs and animals of Africa :)

Darren is probably shaking his head at the fact that I would post all of this, and I hope Katie isn't too weirded out since I have never actually met her.  BUT, what else could I write about on a Sunday afternoon?  Congratulations if you read all the way to the bottom.  Молодец!  Or good job... :)

Russian Language Refresher

I've been the laziest person ever today (literally: eating, reading, and watching tv shows.  kind of embarrassing).  BUT, everyone needs a day like that now and then in my opinion.  I chose today.

part of my lunch today: a modified version of this recipe 

That recipe called for Italian seasoning and parmesan cheese, neither of which I had.  Instead, I used lemon pepper spices, garlic salt, and regular salt.  Pretty delish.  And simple!

Back to the topic at hand: Russian Language Refresher.  A week ago, I was in the snowy city of Chernigov with 50-some Peace Corps Volunteers.  The goal?  To practice, improve, and motivate our Russian at site.  I enjoy speaking Russian in Kirovograd.  Well, in Ukraine for that matter {sidenote: if someone had told me 15 years ago that I would be studying Russian and enjoying it, I would have laughed in their face.}.  So, I was very excited to get to go to language refresher.  It's a great time to see your friends who lives far, far away, and I was hoping that it would be motivation for me to actually study Russian at site.

Every day consisted of a few lessons of your choosing.  I chose a class on perfect/imperfect verbs (very helpful), gerunds and verbal adverbs (horribly unhelpful to me because I can't even tell you what those are in English...), and verbs of motion (incredibly helpful and needed!).  OH!! And one of my favorite classes: Russian cursive.

Russian (and Ukrainian) cursive is truly an art.  Students learn cursive starting in the first form and study is for SIX MONTHS.   Generally, it is incredibly uniform (for boys and girls alike!) and simply beautiful.

The reason it is hard for us to learn is because many of the cursive letters look the same with a crazy amount of loops.

This picture floated around facebook for a while and made most PCVs here in Ukraine laugh and shake their head.  The first word says Militsia (police).  I can't tell you what the second word says.  Maybe something about listening?

This is my attempt at writing some words in cursive.  As my sweet teacher told me, "Your letters are dancing..."

Every letter is supposed to be at the same height and at the same slant.  And then you have to remember "connectors" which separate similar looking letters.  Sigh...in time :)

During the evenings at language refresher, you could choose different "fun" classes to attend.  Arts and crafts, jewelry making, chess, dancing, etc...and all of these lessons were taught in Russian.  I chose to remember how to do knitting and re-learn the art of cross-stitch.

My turtle! 

The last morning of language refresher, Catharine (a fellow K-grad oblast volunteer!), Jenny, and myself were working on our cross-stitch projects.  One of the PC staff members came over and asked Catharine if she had just started hers the night before.  In all actuality, Catharine had started hers three days before but hadn't had time to work on it outside of class.  It gave us all quite a good laugh :)  This picture was taken moments after that minor slip-up :)

Catharine, Jenny, and Lydia

Courtney and Anne in the back 

much better!  Anne is working on her knitting as you an see...

Also offered as one of the "fun" classes was a basket-weaving class.  One of my sweet friends Theo took the class and worked on her basket on the marshrutka ride back to Kiev...

The inside of a nice marshrutka {note: this is not what the city marshrutkas look like in K-grad)!  Meredith (with the brown curly hair) is also working on her basket :)

The last night of refresher a small talent show was held.  I'll let these videos speak for themselves.  On the video below, if you click on the red part that says "youtube" you can watch a larger version of the video. Enjoy!

 I honestly can't tell you what they're saying in this video, but this is a very common Ukrainian song :)

As a joke, someone signed up Nathan and Richard to count to 1000 in Russian.  They were pretty good sports about it...

Word of the day:
turtle--черепаха

Success!!

It's the little things in Ukraine that bring us (PCVs) big amounts of joy.  I already posted an entry today, but I was too excited to share my small (yet large!) success with the blog so that I could read it again later and remember how elated I was.

Do you remember this blog post from a while back?  Well, I have tried to make chocolate chip cookies about 4-5 more times since then and every time, they haven't been like home.  Maybe it's wishful thinking that they would taste exactly like the break-n-bake cookies that I've made faithfully for the past 5 years.  I could get the cookies here to taste good, but they simply don't fluff up like my cookies in the states did.

I found this recipe on pinterest the other day.  Since schools are "quarantined" right now (ie, too cold for kids to go to school), I told myself I would try to make these cookies sometime before Monday.  Mission accomplished!! And man, was the mission accomplished well!

I present to you, my snickerdoodles :)

I might have eaten three {or four} for dinner...with a giant cup of {almost too cold} milk.  

It's a guessing game anytime you cook or bake in Ukraine.  Until you master a recipe, there's always room for error.  This recipe, I'm proud to say, I mastered on the first attempt: a rarity!  I did have to alter the ingredients and oven temp and time in the oven though.  I'll explain that in a minute.

First though, I need you to drool a little bit.

Good?

So, Lydia's PCV alterations to snickerdoodles.  Cream of tartar was nowhere to be found in K-grad.  After googling "substitutes for cream of tartar," I learned that there is not really a substitute.  Well, crap.  The tartar acts as an acid which activates the baking soda in these cookies...which makes them rise.  It suggested adding baking powder instead of baking soda and cream of tartar altogether.  There was a formula you had to do for how much...but this is what I ended up putting in:

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

And it worked lovely! I baked these in between 150-175C (closer to 150C) in my toaster oven for about 5 minutes.  Then, I rotated the tray and baked them for a few more minutes.  When they started puffing up, give 'em a minute more and voila!

 I want to take these on the ski trip. We'll see if they last that long... :)

Making trax...

I had to venture out of the house today.  I had my usual for breakfast, read a lot, watched the newest episode of the New Girl (hysterical), then had leftover chili and cornbread for lunch (in my new lime green bowl my parents got me for Christmas!): 

It's been on my mind lately to try a few new recipes from pinterest.  I am currently in the process of making homemade "Lara bars" (recipe here).  I wanted these bars to eat as a skiing snack for next weekend when I'm shooping my way down the mountain. But first, I had to get a few ingredients.  So, off to the store I went.

After my dad posed the question, "What are you walking on most of the time now?"  I decided to document it today.  The answer is ice or black ice, 98% of the time.  The main roads are cleared.  Sidewalks?  That's a negative.  So, for the first time ever, I decided to bust out my YakTrax (care of the Carruth fam!).  Talk about inventive!  

I didn't slip or slide once on my 20 minute walk.  I watched other people slip and slide, but not yours truly.  I did get a few funny looks (as always) because of my attire, but that could have been because I was wearing light brown boots, which are NOT labeled as "winter boots" in Ukraine.  Or because I had on a white and teal ski hat, a pink scarf, and a red purse.  I kind of looked like a rainbow exploded on me.  And my mittens (these babies) always get stares.  However, I was toasty and that's all that mattered.  

Along the way, I stopped and took a few pics.  You're welcome :)

The frozen river...I've seen men ice-fishing on this all week but I guess these temps have made them go inside...

This is one of the icy paths.  Sometimes the sidewalks are covered in a layer of sand or dirt, as I think they've done here.  However, it doesn't alleviate the fact that there is still an inch+ of ice...

A close-up of the ice.  Every one of the divots you see in the ground is from a Ukrainian ladies high heeled boot.  My YakTrax made quite an interesting impression in the ice as well but I forgot to take a picture...

I couldn't find cream of tartar sauce on my excursion today :(  hope that I can make snickerdoodle cookies without it!  I also managed to buy prunes instead of dates to make my Lara bars.  BUT, I'm still making them with the prunes.  Fingers crossed the turn out decent... :)

And if you are interested in another article/video about the weather here, BBC did a story on it today. Watch here.  Happy Friday! And good luck, Team Hobart!  Missy is ready to greet everyone at the Frost household tonight :)

the call

It was -30C (-22F) when I woke up this morning.  Brr!!

As I lay in bed this morning all nice and toasty, I didn't want to get out of bed and into my cold(er) room.  Last night, I used one of my brother and sis-in-laws Christmas/birthday presents.  A hot water bottle!

I have the red one :)

I've never had one of these things, but holy cow was it phenomenal!  When I get in bed, my toes are usually freezing...so I tucked this down at my feet and let it warm up my toesies while I read my book (Chasing Harry Winston).  More on the book in a minute.  

I conducted my morning like normal.  Made hot water for my instant coffee.  Cut up a banana and ate it with yogurt (note: had to thaw the yogurt first because my fridge is frozen...).  Turned on my computer and checked email and facebook.  And then, my phone rang.

It was Olena, my counterpart, on the phone telling me the most glorious news ever: I didn't have to come to work today!  "See you Monday," were the last words we spoke.  Yippeeeeeeeee!  That meant that my day became a LOT more productive, at least in the scheme of things that needed doing at my apartment.

Important things first...I tried this video that my brother posted on my blog yesterday.  Turned out to be an epic fail from my window, but it's still cool to watch the lady do it!

Eventually, I started making veggie chili (I base it off this recipe but definitely can't follow it to a tee.  Half of the ingredients aren't available here...).  Tastes pretty darn good if I do say so myself!  Watched the newest episode of Glee.  Cleaned up the apartment.  Thought about showering and then decided it was too cold.  Then decided it was time to go to the store.  But first, let's take a look at the weather (this is tonight and tomorrow's forecasts, but they were basically the same):

current temp right now: -24C

gonna get down to -29C in the morning but it will feel like -30C. Wowzers.

So, I decide to go to the store.  Kishenya is my favorite store in Kirovograd but it's a marshrutka ride away.  I wanted to go yesterday but didn't think I could physically wait for a marshrutka in these temps, so I opted for the grocery store that's across the street from my apartment.  I'm pretty spoiled, I know. 

There are a number of marshrutkas I can take to get out to Kishenya.  Instead of waiting for one that I was positive would go there (I had already been standing outside for 2-3 minutes), I saw the #5 that I knew went out to another store nearby.  I assumed that it would go down the street that Kishenya is on. 

I assumed wrong.  

Let me state that marshrutkas are not easy to see out of to begin with.  But, when the windows are completely iced over on the inside of the mashrutka, it makes it really hard to see out.  It was literally like riding in a big box with a tiny hole to see out of the front.  I had to guess where we were half the time.  We stopped a few times and let people off and more people got on.  Eventually, I figured we had to be getting close.  And then, we stopped.  Everyone started filing off the bus and I could tell that we were at the end of the line...and nowhere near Kishenya.  

I had to laugh at myself for not waiting for a marshrutka I knew would go to Kishenya.  At this point, I was by some apartment buildings and could see EpiCenter about 500 yards away.  Head down, hood up, hands in my pockets, I started walking.  Let me add that the first breath you take outside literally makes you cough because it's so cold.  My eyes were tearing up.  I wasn't all that cold, just feeling incredibly stupid because I wasn't patient :)  I stopped in EpiCenter and looked around, mainly just to warm up.  EpiCenter is kind of like a Home Depot, while Kishenya is like a Wal-Mart/Target.  

Not sure how far EpiCenter and Kishenya are away from each other, but I had a revelation sometime along the walk (it's probably half a mile if I had to guess).  I had heard talk of people saying their eyelashes froze...but I didn't understand what they meant.  About halfway through the walk, my eyelashes felt weird and wet.  And then they started sticking together.  It is SUCH a weird feeling.  It must come from the fact that my eyes were tearing up like crazy and I'm sure the wind doesn't help the situation either.  Whatever the scientific reason, by the time I got to Kishenya, my eyelashes were icy and white-ish.  I didn't have a camera or I would have taken a picture of this phenomenon. 

While at Kishenya, I bought a rolling pin.  I have really been wanting one (instead of using a bottle of hairspray in a ziploc bag) and decided that I will truly use it in the next 17 months.  I plan on making homemade wheat thins sometime tomorrow or Saturday (recipe here!).  We'll hope they turn out well :)

Back to the book I'm reading.  This is the first book book I've read since I have had my Kindle.  I picked this book up in the Peace Corps office last weekend and thought I would give reading a real, physical book a shot again and give my Kindle a rest.  

It is SO weird to be reading a real book.  My fingers instantly try to hit the "next page" button.  Or even worse, there are words every page that I want to look up the actual definition for.  Can't do that with a real book :( Don't know how I feel about this because I absolutely love having real books on my shelf and picking them up to look at them.  Read the plot.  See what other books the author has written.  It's so strange now to have it all electronic.  BUT, I'm very thankful I do have the Kindle because without it, I wouldn't have read as many books as I have (somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-50 since I've been gone?).  

I am tired and cold and ready to curl up with my hot water bottle and my real book :)  goodnight blog readers!  

Way-Back-Wednesday #18: Team Hobart

For the past 7 years (at least, maybe even more), my dad has competed in a sports trivia contest in Norman.  I can remember dragging Amy Carruth to the first one I went to when it was held at Step-Brothers restaurant by McFarlin.  They no longer hold it there because too many people wanted to come.  The first year my dad did the contest, he was on a team with a bunch of random guys and they lost.  The next year, my dad was ready.  The amount of sports trivia that this guy knows is ridiculous...and apparently it's not just him that's interested in it.  Go figure! :) 

The second year he competed (I think the first year Amy and I went), he gathered 5 guys from his hometown of Hobart, Oklahoma.  The requirement to be on their team?  Graduate from Hobart High School and have an incredibly large amount of sports trivia knowledge.  

The team members have been fairly consistent throughout the years and the team usually consists of my dad, two brothers (Wes and Brad), their uncle (Jim), Bill, and one of the Webber guys (depending on who's available).  For my dad and Jim, sports trivia is no joking matter.  In fact, my dad sends out friendly reminders to the team encouraging them to practice.  Somehow I think only he and Jim actually practice though...

Something must pay off thought, because they've won a ridiculous amount of years (something like 5 or 6 out of 7?).  There is always a team picture after the contest.  However, I don't have all of them on my computer.  Bummer.  BUT, I do have a gem from 2008 and another from 2011.

Team Hobart 2008

Team Hobart 2011 (missing Jim!)

A few years ago, the small town of Hobart got wind of the competition and it turned into a reunion of sorts.  People drive from all over Oklahoma (and maybe Kansas?) to come cheer on Team Hobart, which usually results in a few snide comments about how many people are there rooting for the (usually winning) team.  Shirts were made a couple years ago and given out to the people who come from far and wide, letting everyone at the contest know who they're rooting for.  

The after party is held at my parents house to continue the celebration and this will be the first year I'm not there to see everyone!  Sending good vibes and lots of knowledge to the 2012 Team Hobart team from 5800 miles away :) And a little Boomer Sooner never hurt anyone...

-25C

It's cold.  No ifs, ands, or buts about it.  This is the coldest weather I believe I've ever been exposed to.  People in Ukraine ask me what the weather is like in Alabama and Oklahoma.  "Not like this..." is all I can answer.  I'm a misfit because I'm not wearing a wolf (true story), mink, squirrel (also true story), or fox fur coat.    BUT, I can thankfully say that I am dutifully prepared now as of February 1st, 2012.  

Why, today, you ask?  Because of my most recent care package (still Christmas and birthday package...only 6-7 weeks late) that arrived today.  Behold, the Snuggie. 

It's not just a Snuggie.  It's an OU Snuggie.  

The fur hat also completed the look (relax, it's not real, PETA).

A lot of my PCV friends have Snuggies that have been sent to them in care packages.  I think friends and family send them thinking it's a funny joke, but in all actuality, it is the warmest thing I'm wearing at the moment.  I am now part of the CK (only a select few will understand that acronym) club of proud PCV Snuggie owners.   Thanks Mom and Pops :) 

It is so cold in Ukraine that schools basically throughout the country are closed until Monday.  The schools do not have the money to pay for the heat and it's too cold for the kids to work in a classroom.  I had one kid come to English club today.  There are lots of sad stories and articles online about this cold spell that is wreaking havoc all over Eastern Europe.  Say a little prayer for the people (and animals!) that are left outside in this weather.  It is truly miserable.  Read about it here.  I wanted to go to my favorite grocery store (a marshrutka ride away) but could not stand outside waiting for the bus.  I haven't seen any dogs the past few days...hope they're huddling together somewhere :(

In other news, my fridge (on the balcony) is completely frozen.  Good thing there wasn't any American food of high importance in there (like Velveeta!).  

Today's words of the day:

норка-mink

лиса-fox

You can probably guess why... :)

Goodnight Ukraine.  See you in the morning when it's going to feel like a balmy -30C (-22F).  Yep.

Better late than never :)

I am home safe and sound after a long hiatus of marshrutka rides, metro rides, bus rides, long and incredibly cold walks in the snow/ice, a visit to my wonderful host family, and most importantly, Russian language refresher!  I arrived home last night and made myself my first bowl of easy mac :)

 

It was phenomenal (thanks Hayley and 'rents!).  It tasted just like home.  

I went to work today and got our summer plans started for numerous summer camps and Europe trips and English clubs. However, today, the subject of the post is on a small victory I obtained:

I finally have a new PO box lock!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has only taken a month for them to find and install a new lock.  The good news?  The key works and I didn't have to pay for it! The bad news?  They only gave me one copy.  I'll be going to get a copy made very soon :)

Waiting for me in my PO box was a package slip (for a package from my bro and sis-in-law!), a letter from my Pops (complete with Zits cartoons and a $5 bill that I plan on showing students tomorrow), and a large squishy envelope from an address I didn't know.  I would normally not be able to contain myself from ripping into all of the packages, but since I had two other things to open, I managed to save my brother and sis' Christmas/birthday package to be opened on a skype date late tonight or tomorrow.

Upon getting home with my loot, I remembered that sweet Lyndsay had told me to be on the lookout for something in the mail.  The mail is still WAY backed up over here and I wondered how long it would take for it to get here.  This is Miss Lyndsay Jain, who in my phone is also known as Tarzan from a summer camp we did together in Toronto :)  Get it?  "Me Tarzan, you Jane."    

 Lynds and I on Senior Recognition Sunday (2010)

Also taking part in the package sending was Lyndsay's sweet boyfriend Matt Schlegel (or Schlegel as I have always called him!).  I have known Schlegel for a long, long time...like maybe since 2005?  I was trying to think back and remember the first time we met and I honestly couldn't remember.  Pretty sure the first trip we traveled on together was Choir Tour 2006 to Washington D.C.

3-d movie...Matt's in the blue striped shirt.

Ever since that trip, I have been all over the United States and Mexico and Canada with him...and Lyndsay accompanied us on a lot of those trips the past few years!

"The date train's a comin', the date train's a comin'..."--Juners 2008

caught in a bit of downpour in Glacier National Park (in Canada!)

at the double Quincieniera in Mexico (with Chris!)

surprise going away party, when I was about to leave for Ukraine...

Anywho, you see how much these two mean to me.  I could continue on, but let's just say that they are two of the sweetest and most genuine people I know.  They both have a love for life that is simply contagious and makes you always want to look on the positive side of things.  So, as I opened up my package, this is what I found...

I instantly recognized their own separate handwritings and was so excited to read their sweet HANDWRITTEN notes inside :)  And boy do they know me well...pics from home and Reese's Pieces?  

Inside the large red envelope (which was the last thing I opened) was one of the sweetest surprises ever:   

a Christmas card signed from a lot of my kiddos and friends at church :)

it made me laugh out loud and smile from ear-to-ear as I read each and every note on it.

Thank you LJ and Schlegel for going to all of the trouble of getting everyone to sign it.  And thank you to everyone who signed the card!  It absolutely made my day!  And let's just say that the Reese's were an added bonus :)