Found this online from our swearing-in ceremony! Forgot to post it in the post before this, so be sure to read about my past few days in Kirovograd too. Enjoy!
http://usembassykyiv.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/beyond-certificates-and-statistics/
Who can spot me in the video? :) You definitely see me...clue: red dress.
6.20.2011
Quick post while I'm online...
Greetings all! At work right now..so I may be whisked away to meet somebody else any minute, but I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you about my whirlwind of the last few days here in K-grad (Kirovograd's short name...). So, without further ado...
Friday, first real day in Kirovograd. After Olena picked me upat 10 am, we took a marshrutka to work...which would probably be a 15 minute walk otherwise. Not too shabby. I met SO many people on Friday I definitely didn't learn a single persons name. There are 100 people that work in the Oblast Center for Creative Youth...which I am still trying to figure out how to explain what the organization really does. More about that in another post. We ate lunch in the cafeteria that is in our building...I had a mini pizza, salad (cabbage, carrots, and oil...quite yummy), and a juice box for 8 grievnas...aka around $1.00 USD. After lunch, we had a meeting with people in Olena's department. 8 or 9 Ukrainians...speaking Russian...for an hour and a half. I could understand parts of the discussion, but as soon as more than one person started talking I completely lost track of what they were saying. With time, hopefully I'll be able to follow :) After the meeting, we headed downtown to the post office to mail some PC documents and open my PO Box. I will post the address tomorrow hopefully...which means I can start receiving letters and packages :) The PO Box cost 28 grievnas for 6 months...less than $5.00 USD. How much does a PO Box in the states cost? I've never had one...
Friday night was a fun night because I got to go have dinner with some fellow k-grad PCVs. PC has a program called Adopt-A-Cluster that during your 3 months of training, you are assigned a current PCV who usually comes to visit your cluster city. The Oster Adopt-A-Cluster person is Julia ...who happens to live in Rivne, Ukraine...about 30 minutes to an hour away from me by bus! She comes to k-grad quite often I think, so that was fun to learn that we would be so close together. Julia was in town on Friday, so I got to go to dinner with her and two of her friends, Ricky and Alex. Ricky and Alex (a young married couple!) live here in k-grad and are both teachers. We ate at one of the pizzerias downtown...quite scrumptious. The three of them walked me home (super nice because I live on the complete opposite side of town) and helped me rearrange a few furniture pieces in my apartment. HOORAY :)
Saturday was a day of cleaning and organizing. I had made a few trips to the big supermarkets around my house, but some things are cheaper if you get them at the bazaar. So, I headed to one of the k-grad bazaars...which was maybe 10 minutes away from my house (opposite the center of town). I had NO idea what to be expecting at this bazaar...it is at least 10 times the size of the Oster bazaar, if not more. I was specifically looking for a dish drying rack, a mop and bucket, a pillow, and some dish towels. I think that day I ended up finding the pillow, mop, and bucket. However, I got lost in the giant maze of tents and vendors...and literally wandered around having no clue which way was out for a good 30 minutes. It was neat just to look at all of the stuff for sale...my mom wants to know more about the bazaar, so I will do a post about it another day. Sorry mom :) At one point, I ended up in a giant building which had every kind of piece of meat a person could want for sale. Lydia was not exactly a happy camper...but I managed to hold my breath and get out of there quickly. For those of you who don't me very well...eating meat is not always easy for me to do...long story. But I had managed to avoid the meat houses here in Ukraine so far lol so...I guess it was just in due time I would wander into one eventually. I survived :)
I was invited out again on Saturday night by two more Kirovogradska oblast PCVs, but I was so tired that I decided to stay in for the night. I cleaned and got more stuff unpacked and organized.
Sunday, I went to the bazaar again to try to find my dish drying rack. I couldn't really clean my kitchen until I had something to let the dishes dry on. I finally found one I liked for 140 grievnas...which was pretty expensive, but I wanted one that I liked. They had plastic ones for sale that were around 80 grievnas...but I ended up getting a metal one that I love :) pictures later.
I was invited to my counterparts house to swim and have a cookout on Sunday as well...Olena told me what bus to take to her house, and I hoped and prayed that I got on the right one! Luckily I did...and she was waiting for me at the bus stop. It was a good 20 minutes marshrutka ride on a nice, stuffy bus. I bought some chocolate pechenas (cookies) to take to her house, which started melting on the way there. She also told me to bring over laundry to do...which was incredibly nice. Upon arriving at her house, we put my laundry in the washing machine, put on our swimsuits and swam while her husband cooked shaskleek (chicken schish kabobs) for us. It was lovely :) we ate an hour later and had kasha (a type of grain that I love...kind of like cous cous?), salad (cabbage, tomatoes, green onion, dill), grilled zuchini (with mayonaise and garlic on top), grilled chicken, and bread. It was delicious and much better than anything I could have cooked up. We put my laundry up on the line and got back in the pool then, only to have dessert...ice cream with fresh strawberry puree. She gave me a manicure later after we got out of the pool, and got to have fun translating between Russian and English. Olena wants to speak better English and I, of course, want to speak better Russian. So she asks me things in English and I answer in Russian. Pretty funny.
We talked about the two camps that I will be going to here in a few weeks. Get ready for a laugh...
The first camp that I am going to is called Ushnee byug. It's on a river...and I will be CAMPING for a week. Lydia...outside...for a week. Can't wait to write about stories from that. :) The other camp I will be going to is called Brigantina and is in western Kirovogradska oblast where another PCV is living. It's a 3 week camp that 20 kids from my work will be attending. Should be fun. I'm excited for both...even the camping one :) it's supposed to be beautiful...we'll see!
Guess I need to get back to work since I've written a novel here. Hopefully post again soon :) with pictures. Love love
Friday, first real day in Kirovograd. After Olena picked me upat 10 am, we took a marshrutka to work...which would probably be a 15 minute walk otherwise. Not too shabby. I met SO many people on Friday I definitely didn't learn a single persons name. There are 100 people that work in the Oblast Center for Creative Youth...which I am still trying to figure out how to explain what the organization really does. More about that in another post. We ate lunch in the cafeteria that is in our building...I had a mini pizza, salad (cabbage, carrots, and oil...quite yummy), and a juice box for 8 grievnas...aka around $1.00 USD. After lunch, we had a meeting with people in Olena's department. 8 or 9 Ukrainians...speaking Russian...for an hour and a half. I could understand parts of the discussion, but as soon as more than one person started talking I completely lost track of what they were saying. With time, hopefully I'll be able to follow :) After the meeting, we headed downtown to the post office to mail some PC documents and open my PO Box. I will post the address tomorrow hopefully...which means I can start receiving letters and packages :) The PO Box cost 28 grievnas for 6 months...less than $5.00 USD. How much does a PO Box in the states cost? I've never had one...
Friday night was a fun night because I got to go have dinner with some fellow k-grad PCVs. PC has a program called Adopt-A-Cluster that during your 3 months of training, you are assigned a current PCV who usually comes to visit your cluster city. The Oster Adopt-A-Cluster person is Julia ...who happens to live in Rivne, Ukraine...about 30 minutes to an hour away from me by bus! She comes to k-grad quite often I think, so that was fun to learn that we would be so close together. Julia was in town on Friday, so I got to go to dinner with her and two of her friends, Ricky and Alex. Ricky and Alex (a young married couple!) live here in k-grad and are both teachers. We ate at one of the pizzerias downtown...quite scrumptious. The three of them walked me home (super nice because I live on the complete opposite side of town) and helped me rearrange a few furniture pieces in my apartment. HOORAY :)
Saturday was a day of cleaning and organizing. I had made a few trips to the big supermarkets around my house, but some things are cheaper if you get them at the bazaar. So, I headed to one of the k-grad bazaars...which was maybe 10 minutes away from my house (opposite the center of town). I had NO idea what to be expecting at this bazaar...it is at least 10 times the size of the Oster bazaar, if not more. I was specifically looking for a dish drying rack, a mop and bucket, a pillow, and some dish towels. I think that day I ended up finding the pillow, mop, and bucket. However, I got lost in the giant maze of tents and vendors...and literally wandered around having no clue which way was out for a good 30 minutes. It was neat just to look at all of the stuff for sale...my mom wants to know more about the bazaar, so I will do a post about it another day. Sorry mom :) At one point, I ended up in a giant building which had every kind of piece of meat a person could want for sale. Lydia was not exactly a happy camper...but I managed to hold my breath and get out of there quickly. For those of you who don't me very well...eating meat is not always easy for me to do...long story. But I had managed to avoid the meat houses here in Ukraine so far lol so...I guess it was just in due time I would wander into one eventually. I survived :)
I was invited out again on Saturday night by two more Kirovogradska oblast PCVs, but I was so tired that I decided to stay in for the night. I cleaned and got more stuff unpacked and organized.
Sunday, I went to the bazaar again to try to find my dish drying rack. I couldn't really clean my kitchen until I had something to let the dishes dry on. I finally found one I liked for 140 grievnas...which was pretty expensive, but I wanted one that I liked. They had plastic ones for sale that were around 80 grievnas...but I ended up getting a metal one that I love :) pictures later.
I was invited to my counterparts house to swim and have a cookout on Sunday as well...Olena told me what bus to take to her house, and I hoped and prayed that I got on the right one! Luckily I did...and she was waiting for me at the bus stop. It was a good 20 minutes marshrutka ride on a nice, stuffy bus. I bought some chocolate pechenas (cookies) to take to her house, which started melting on the way there. She also told me to bring over laundry to do...which was incredibly nice. Upon arriving at her house, we put my laundry in the washing machine, put on our swimsuits and swam while her husband cooked shaskleek (chicken schish kabobs) for us. It was lovely :) we ate an hour later and had kasha (a type of grain that I love...kind of like cous cous?), salad (cabbage, tomatoes, green onion, dill), grilled zuchini (with mayonaise and garlic on top), grilled chicken, and bread. It was delicious and much better than anything I could have cooked up. We put my laundry up on the line and got back in the pool then, only to have dessert...ice cream with fresh strawberry puree. She gave me a manicure later after we got out of the pool, and got to have fun translating between Russian and English. Olena wants to speak better English and I, of course, want to speak better Russian. So she asks me things in English and I answer in Russian. Pretty funny.
We talked about the two camps that I will be going to here in a few weeks. Get ready for a laugh...
The first camp that I am going to is called Ushnee byug. It's on a river...and I will be CAMPING for a week. Lydia...outside...for a week. Can't wait to write about stories from that. :) The other camp I will be going to is called Brigantina and is in western Kirovogradska oblast where another PCV is living. It's a 3 week camp that 20 kids from my work will be attending. Should be fun. I'm excited for both...even the camping one :) it's supposed to be beautiful...we'll see!
Guess I need to get back to work since I've written a novel here. Hopefully post again soon :) with pictures. Love love
6.17.2011
first post from Kirovohrad!
Greetings friends and family!
I made it safely to my new city around 10:15 pm last night...yesterday was an INCREDIBLY long day...with lots of hurry up and waiting happening. But,the important things that could be noted are:
1) I am a PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER. Officially :)
2) I have an apartment all to myself (for the first time ever...both to live in an apartment and to live really by myself).
3) All of my baggage is here, safe and sound
4) I have an amazing counterpart
5) My work seems amazing at first glance (currently on the computer there...)
6) I have running water and even better, HOT water at my apartment
7) I could keep numbering, but I think I'll go back to paragraph form now...
As I said, I am sitting on the computer in the library of the Oblast (think state) Center for Creative Youth. My counterpart, Olena, came to pick me up at my apartment this morning at 10 am. I met the director of the organization (which seems rather large...gonna have to figure out some stats some point soon) who is incredibly nice and handed me a GIANT flower arrangement. That should be interesting to carry home on a marshrutka ride...bouncing all over the road. But it was incredibly sweet and I can't wait to put them in a vase and make my apartment smell lovely.
It was dark last night when we got to my apartment, but I met my landlady and her husband. They showed me how to turn on the gas to make the water hot. My apartment is actually a 3 bedroom apartment, but I do not have access to 2 of the rooms which is completely fine because I don't know what I would do with that much space. I have a bathroom with a tub and a toilet...and the tub also has a moveable shower spiggot (sp?). In the kitchen is a table with 2 booth-style seats, a sink, a stove/oven that doesnt work, but that is used as a prep space. I have an electronic hot burner that they showed me how to use last night. My counterpart is getting me a chainick (tea kettle) of some kind from work. Awesome! Then, the living room/my bedroom. Quite a large room. Twin size (ish) bed, a schkaf (things to put clothes in...it's got shelves), a love seat (ish) couch, a coffee table with 2 small stools (we're going to have ask to get the dining room table from the extra room because I don't really have a workspace that I can sit at. There is also a kitchen chair in the living room. Off the living room is a balcony that has my refrigerator, and I assume that is where I will place my clothes to dry. I'll post pics as soon as I can.
It was definitely weird to go to bed last night. I took a shower/bath in my tub...after having unpacked a little. I really want to go buy some cleaning materials and shelf liner before I truly unpack, even though the landlady cleaned everything. That is just my OCDness taking over. I think it's also the fact that I can finally have a place to call my own and to do whatever I want with. I can't wait to rearrange the furniture in the living room. Hopefully tomorrow :)
Looks like Olena and I are going to eat now, so I will try to write more later whenever I get a chance :) love love!
I made it safely to my new city around 10:15 pm last night...yesterday was an INCREDIBLY long day...with lots of hurry up and waiting happening. But,the important things that could be noted are:
1) I am a PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER. Officially :)
2) I have an apartment all to myself (for the first time ever...both to live in an apartment and to live really by myself).
3) All of my baggage is here, safe and sound
4) I have an amazing counterpart
5) My work seems amazing at first glance (currently on the computer there...)
6) I have running water and even better, HOT water at my apartment
7) I could keep numbering, but I think I'll go back to paragraph form now...
As I said, I am sitting on the computer in the library of the Oblast (think state) Center for Creative Youth. My counterpart, Olena, came to pick me up at my apartment this morning at 10 am. I met the director of the organization (which seems rather large...gonna have to figure out some stats some point soon) who is incredibly nice and handed me a GIANT flower arrangement. That should be interesting to carry home on a marshrutka ride...bouncing all over the road. But it was incredibly sweet and I can't wait to put them in a vase and make my apartment smell lovely.
It was dark last night when we got to my apartment, but I met my landlady and her husband. They showed me how to turn on the gas to make the water hot. My apartment is actually a 3 bedroom apartment, but I do not have access to 2 of the rooms which is completely fine because I don't know what I would do with that much space. I have a bathroom with a tub and a toilet...and the tub also has a moveable shower spiggot (sp?). In the kitchen is a table with 2 booth-style seats, a sink, a stove/oven that doesnt work, but that is used as a prep space. I have an electronic hot burner that they showed me how to use last night. My counterpart is getting me a chainick (tea kettle) of some kind from work. Awesome! Then, the living room/my bedroom. Quite a large room. Twin size (ish) bed, a schkaf (things to put clothes in...it's got shelves), a love seat (ish) couch, a coffee table with 2 small stools (we're going to have ask to get the dining room table from the extra room because I don't really have a workspace that I can sit at. There is also a kitchen chair in the living room. Off the living room is a balcony that has my refrigerator, and I assume that is where I will place my clothes to dry. I'll post pics as soon as I can.
It was definitely weird to go to bed last night. I took a shower/bath in my tub...after having unpacked a little. I really want to go buy some cleaning materials and shelf liner before I truly unpack, even though the landlady cleaned everything. That is just my OCDness taking over. I think it's also the fact that I can finally have a place to call my own and to do whatever I want with. I can't wait to rearrange the furniture in the living room. Hopefully tomorrow :)
Looks like Olena and I are going to eat now, so I will try to write more later whenever I get a chance :) love love!
6.13.2011
the big news!!!
my new city for the next two years....drumroll please!
kirovohrad!!!!
wikipedia it. then come back and read the blog.
done with the wiki article?k...so heres what i know.
population...250,000
the number of current pcvs living there...7
my job...working at the oblast center for creative youth
my housing...an apartment
does my counterpart speak english...negative ghostrider
what my job description says...working with multiple people in the community. 50%of my time must be spent at the primary organization...then i get to distribute the rest of my time in between other partner organizations. m primary site work might include hosting clubs, facilitating interest group meetings, planning and co.organizingevents, ensurng outreach to other community stakeholdrs, and creating advocacy for the centers activities. i will aso work at summer camps and work with other ngos in the community.
i am so so so happy and excited for my placement. you could feel the excitement in the room before the sites were announced. it was ridiculous. in a good way. they divide ukraine by regions...which each region has a few oblasts in it. i am region 7 which includes the kirovohradska oblast in addition to the odessa oblast. my cluster was split as following..jamie is incredibly south in the odessa oblast...cassi is north of crimea...and mark is in the east in the donetska oblast. more about their stuff later when im not typing on my kindle.
i went into todays announcement thinking i would be placed in a small village teaching at a school. none of that is now true. so weird but so cool. feels wonderful to finally know where im going. love love
6.12.2011
Less than 24 hours now!
In less than 24 hours, I will know where I'm living for the next two years! HOORAYYYY :) the time has almost come! Not every PC country (sidenote: I think there are around 70 countries with PCVs in it now around the world) does pre-service training the same way. It depends on the programs that are in that country, how intensive the language training needs to be, etc. That also means that there are different ways PC countries announce their site information. PC Ukraine has been around for almost 20 years and I feel like they have a lot of the kinks worked out of the system, although I'm sure there's always room for improvement. It was explained to us a few weeks ago why we don't find out where we are going to live for the next 2 years until right before the swearing-in ceremony. PC Ukraine used to inform trainees where they would be living in the middle of their pre-service training. However, what does everyone do when they find out something like that? You google it. Or wikipedia it. And the information isn't always correct, and it will either make you REALLY excited or REALLY bummed about where you'll be living for the next 2 years. So, on Monday when we find out where we're going for 2 years, we will be super excited. And on Tuesday, we will meet our counterpart who is actually FROM the city where we'll be living and can tell us all about it. It makes perfect sense in my opinion.
Yesterday was our farewall picnic with our host families. It turned out to be quite a nice day to do a little picnic-ing...not too hot. Although the bugs were out like crazy and my feet are still covered in mosquito bites from the other day.
My host sister, Christy, on the left with our teacher Zhenya on the right...starting the fire!
Our technical teacher Lyuda...getting rid of an envelope we saw for the past 3 months. It says "Tech. Training: feedback of yours is very welcome :) "
Some of the group...Lyuda (tech. teacher), another Lyuda (Jamie's host mom), Cassi, my host sister Christy, Lydia, Mark, and my host mom Gala.
Cassi and Lyuda
Mark, Zhenya, and Lyuda (Jamie's host mom)
Zhenya and Lyuda, who played the guitar for us!
The Oster River...if you look past the tree (click on the picture to make it bigger) you can see the beach area where kids always play...
My host mom getting the shashleek (shisch kabobs) situated on the fire.
She made great shashleek for us all!
Cassi's host mom (left) Natasha and Jamie's host mom (right) Lyuda
The spread! All of the plastic bags you see is how we buy things here...
Christy, Gala and I :)
Cassi and her host mom and sis (her sister, Zhenya, was in my 7th grade class at the gymnasia!)
Part of the group with the certificates that are given to the families from Peace Corps.
Lyuda (Jamie's mom, Jamie was sick...), Zhenya, Mark, Lydia, Christy (host sis), Gala (host mom), Cassi, Zhenya (Cassi's host sis), Natasha (Cassi's host mom)
The end! I am almost done packing...it's amazing how much stuff I have...but I need to go finish. I want to go walk around Oster one last time and take some pictures around here. The next time I post on here I will be letting you know WHERE I'LL BE LIVING FOR THE NEXT 2 YEARS! :) toodles
Yesterday was our farewall picnic with our host families. It turned out to be quite a nice day to do a little picnic-ing...not too hot. Although the bugs were out like crazy and my feet are still covered in mosquito bites from the other day.
My host sister, Christy, on the left with our teacher Zhenya on the right...starting the fire!
Our technical teacher Lyuda...getting rid of an envelope we saw for the past 3 months. It says "Tech. Training: feedback of yours is very welcome :) "
Some of the group...Lyuda (tech. teacher), another Lyuda (Jamie's host mom), Cassi, my host sister Christy, Lydia, Mark, and my host mom Gala.
Cassi and Lyuda
Mark, Zhenya, and Lyuda (Jamie's host mom)
Zhenya and Lyuda, who played the guitar for us!
The Oster River...if you look past the tree (click on the picture to make it bigger) you can see the beach area where kids always play...
My host mom getting the shashleek (shisch kabobs) situated on the fire.
She made great shashleek for us all!
Cassi's host mom (left) Natasha and Jamie's host mom (right) Lyuda
The spread! All of the plastic bags you see is how we buy things here...
Christy, Gala and I :)
Cassi and her host mom and sis (her sister, Zhenya, was in my 7th grade class at the gymnasia!)
Part of the group with the certificates that are given to the families from Peace Corps.Lyuda (Jamie's mom, Jamie was sick...), Zhenya, Mark, Lydia, Christy (host sis), Gala (host mom), Cassi, Zhenya (Cassi's host sis), Natasha (Cassi's host mom)
The end! I am almost done packing...it's amazing how much stuff I have...but I need to go finish. I want to go walk around Oster one last time and take some pictures around here. The next time I post on here I will be letting you know WHERE I'LL BE LIVING FOR THE NEXT 2 YEARS! :) toodles
6.11.2011
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.
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.
6.09.2011
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!
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!
6.08.2011
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!
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!
6.04.2011
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.
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.
6.03.2011
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!
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!
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