Dominoes.

Every day, come rain or shine, there is a group of older men who gather in my courtyard to play dominoes. They are very dramatic and emphatic with the playing of a domino, making it come crashing down on the table. I enjoy watching them from my window, with the view seen below.

The black shaggy dog always sits there too. I took this picture a month or two ago, creepin' from my balcony. I have yet to actually get up the courage to go talk to them while they're playing. I simply nod and give them a "здравствуйте" {hello} while trying to act like a Ukrainian (who is actually an American) as I pass by. Pretty sure they can see through the act. It's probably the pink rain boots that give it away.

I wonder when they decide to call it quits for the winter. With a foot of snow? Maybe two? I'll keep you posted :)

Until then, have a happy Friday...and happy Teacher's Day here in Ukraine! Ukrainians have no shortage for holidays...that's for sure. Toodles :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pooped.

I am exhausted.  I don't know how teachers do it.  I know I'm a little out of practice (albeit the 8 or 9 times I taught during pre-service training), but man...standing at the front of the classroom and yelling speaking very loudly takes it out of you.  Today, I taught at the Kirovogradskaya Oblast Teaching Training Site on the subject of HIV/AIDS.  For almost three hours...I tried to cram about 15 lesson plans into a two lesson time block.  The teachers were incredibly receptive before lunch; after lunch was another story.  But, I don't blame them.  They're full, sleepy, and tomorrow is their last day of the three week training...they're ready to go home.  I really don't know how my teacher friends (both here in Ukraine and those in the states) do it.  Brav-oh.  :)

So, what did I do as a little reward when I got home from teaching today?  I watched two episodes of the Glee Project.  I must have already been in Ukraine when this show began to air.  But, nonetheless, I discovered it over here.  Basically, the directors of Glee knew that there would come a day when the shows main characters would need to graduate from high school.  The object of the show was to find some hot new kids that could potentially become cast members.  Over 40,000 kids auditioned...12 made the show.  One of the episodes I watched today featured this number.  It starts off a little slow, but keep watching til around 1 minute.  I promise, your jaw will drop.

Oh, and btw, that's a guy singing.  Impressive, huh?  He dressed up as a woman for a previous episode and the producer of the show wanted to see it.  I could talk about Glee all day...but I won't bore everyone who doesn't watch the show. 

I'm going to go take a relaxing {scalding hot} bath to warm up before I crawl in bed for the night and pass out :) fare thee well blog world.  Night night!

A friend comes to visit!

My apartment is straight up cold.  There are a few reasons for this: 

1)  It gets no direct sunlight due to the courtyard that my apartment looks over.  This was great during the summer because it meant it was cool and I didn't even have to open my windows.  This is not great when I want clothes on my balcony to dry in less than 2 full days.  

2)  This is an old apartment building made out of cement.  As soon as you walk into it, it has got to be 15-20 degrees cooler than outside.  

3)  My apartment is on the first floor.  Warm air rises, cold air sinks.  You do the math.

I could probably turn on my electric heater that PC gives us, but I feel like a baby because it's still September.  So, instead I just bundle up.  This morning when I crawled out of bed, I put on my North Face "light" long underwear bottoms (the same ones I've sweat in all week when I've jogged.  nbd.), a pair of studio pants (lounge pants) over them, a t-shirt, and my Eastern Europe 2004 long sleeve tee on top.  And I was still cold.  You can see your breath outside in the mornings now just to give you an idea (fyi: highs have been in the 70s, lows in the 40s or 50s lately).  Anywho, just had to have a pity party because as I sit here at 10 pm, I'm cold.  

In other news, a friend of mine visited K-grad today!!!!! It was gloriously fun to see Theo, whom I met at Camp Bereg.  I also got to spend a week with her at the environmental training I went to in Kiev (which I still have on my list of things to blog about.  give me a little more time...).  When I describe her to people, I often use the words, "I want to pick her up and put her in my pocket."  She's adorable...AND, she just chopped off 10" of her hair to send to Locks for Love.  

Her counterpart took tried to get the flower stands in the background...kinda missed.  

Theodorable :)

Theo lives in Smila which is about 2 hours north of me.  She went on a photo excursion a while back with another PCV in my city, Karin, and today was the day that the photo exhibit began featuring some of their pics.  So, Theo came to K-grad with 4 of her students in the 11th form (seniors) and her counterpart.

We ate at my new favorite pizza place in K-grad called Mania's.  Their veggie pizza (never thought I'd say those words) is to die for.

I'll leave you with one more Lydia factoid: The best news I've discovered lately is that I can go three days without showering.  Count it. 1. 2. 3!  I only do this when I haven't gone jogging.  However, since my apartment is fairly freakin' cold (refer to the beginning of the post), I FREEZE when I get out of the bath.  And actually, I freeze while I'm in the bathtub.  So, to discover that my hair can last for 3 days without having to get wet was a miracle.  Now, I'm in no room to complain because I actually have an incredibly luxurious PC set up which includes: hot water, running water, and a bathtub.  So, how do I go 3 days without shampooing?  Curls and a braid, which also conveniently fool Ukrainians into thinking I spent a lot of time on my hair.  I'll go more in depth on this discovery another day...just had to share the news :)

El fin!

P.S.  There is a cat meowing INCREDIBLY loudly outside in the hallway.  Totally normal in my life here.

Cat's outta the bag...

I got up this morning, went for a jog around the school track, came home, took a bath/showered, made and ate breakfast (and by "made" I mean: yogurt with granola and coffee), worked on my HIV/AIDS lesson for Wednesday, answered emails, did a little Facebook creepin', and worked more on lesson planning.  I then put lunch in the oven (baked potato with one of my veggie burgers) to warm up, ate lunch, got finished getting ready for work, and was out the door by 12:45 pm.  There are 7 stairs outside of my door (I guess I'm kinda on floor 1.5?).  Somehow in the process of going down the said 7 stairs, my ankle gave out/rolled which meant my knee gave out and I basically ended up crumbling on impact.  I'm completely fine because this is a somewhat normal occurrence for me (maybe once a month?).  I was more mad at how DIRTY my pants now were from the horribly graceful fall.  {sidenote: the stairs have probably never been cleaned in my lifetime.  Luckily, I was wearing jeans as opposed to my black pants that I almost put on today.}  Back to the story...

I don't understand why I have weak knees and ankles, but I do, and I've gotten used to it in my lifetime.  My friends in high school used to knock the back of my knees under and I would instantly crumble to a heap in the middle of the commons.  They quickly learned that they had to be ready to catch me, which they did (and for that, I'm very grateful!).  I'm pretty sure Darren or Bert loved doing this.  Also during that era, I would be in the middle of bell practice, and Bennett or Cameron (maybe?) would do it WHILE I WAS PLAYING.  Not very funny when you have 4 bells in your hands.  I'm pretty sure Kyle Haskett also did it at church events.  It was a fun game for everyone though and I laughed...as long as they caught me :)  

So, when I moved to Ukraine and was thrown into a group with people I don't know, you don't want the first words out of your mouth to be, "Hi, my name is Lydia and I have a tendency to fall, even while simply standing."  I managed to keep this lovely Lydia factoid a secret until our first trip to Kiev.  In big cities in Ukraine, there are not crosswalks above ground; instead, you go down a staircase, cross under the street, and then go up another set of stairs.  During that lovely first group field trip was when my secret slipped out: my ankle gave out when I was about 4 or 5 steps from the bottom.  Luckily, Mark was in front of me and I managed to grab ahold of him instead of crashing straight to the floor.  Pretty sure Jamie was right behind me too and tried to make an assist.  It was an epic,

"Ohmygoshwhathappenedareyouokay?" 

moment where I was thoroughly embarrassed but had to laugh about the situation because the cat got out of the bag!  We still laugh about that moment to this day.  And, my loving cluster embraced my clumsiness (if you can call it that) and probably stood a bit closer to me after that day just incase another episode occurred.

Today, when this happened, my first thought was that I was going to be late for work.  This isn't a big deal, but if I am going to be late, I like to let them know.  But how do I explain why I'm going to be late?  I came back in, turned back on my computer, opened up google translate (lifesaver) and typed in an explanation that I hoped Olena would understand.  I called her and tried to get the message across...but I'm pretty sure she thought I broke my ankle or something of the like.  I kept saying that I was fine, I just needed to find my ankle brace, and that I would be late.  I finally emailed her what was going on in English, she google translated it to Russian, got the idea, and wrote me a message back saying: rest, don't come to work today, get well, and eat more foods that contain calcium.  Loved the calcium part :)  I laughed, called her back, and told her that I really was fine to come into work.  So, here I sit at home doing some work from here for the day.  I'm going to go into work for a club meeting in a few hours during which word will probably have spread that I broke my leg or something like that. If I were still in Oster (my small training village), every babushka in town would already know what happened.  Just another day in Ukraine :)

Did you know...

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

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

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

I didn't either.

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

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

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

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

If I only had a picture...

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

Mary K!

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

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

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

WITH A MOUSE HANGING OUT OF IT'S MOUTH.  

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

If only, I had my camera.

Let me tell you a story...

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

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

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

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

Valera playing on the beach

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

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

Her face lit up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Way-Back-Wednesday #11: Boomer Sooner baby

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

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

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

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

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

What can you spot in this picture?  

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

Mom and Pops at FSU

SOOO many OU fans at the game.

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

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

My brother's answer to his affiliation with OU? 

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

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

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

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

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

6 month mark!

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

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

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

Learned the Russian alphabet!

Met my loving host family in Oster

Met my crazy and fun-loving cluster group :)

Taught classes in Russian to 7th and 11th graders

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

Was officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteer!

Survived a week-long camping trip...

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

Swam in the Black Sea!

Missed my train to camp... 

Saw my first fortress in Ukraine! 

Experienced my first Ukrainian summer camp

Attended a First Bell ceremony in Kirovograd

Learned what a jewel-weed is!

Made homemade tortillas :)

Traveled 3124 kilometers (or 1936 miles) by train!

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

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