i am helping prepare some kids for the olympiads. the olympiads are similar to academic decathlons... i think... but they are a huge deal here. schools pride themselves if they have a student that does well and they will talk about it forever.

but as i was saying..

i am helping prepare some kids. and today we were working on an essay question. the question was something like pretend the fountain of youth was discovered and you could have any notable person live forever. who would you pick, why and what do you think the consequences would be.

my kids top choices for everlasting life were: Da Vinci, Shakespear, Aristotle, and Michael Jackson.

hmmm.

lets be real.

i had a whole different post up here before. i want this blog to be completely honest. not really for anyone but myself. I have a journal that i write in and im more candid there but i also want this space to be true to my experiences. when im having a great time i want it to show and when things are hard i want it to show too. up til now i dont think it does. granted i dont update all that often but still. so..

lets be real

and

lets keep it real. 

ive been at site for almost 3 months, and they have been difficult. sometimes really difficult. im really good at finding excuses as to why im not exactly happy here. sometimes they feel like real strong valid reasons and other times they feel like weak excuses. really though perhaps im just lonely and all those other reasons/excuses are just more concrete things to focus on. im hoping with school starting and my schedule getting busier ill be able get past these feelings and start to focus on my work and start enjoying my time here more. I know I'll be at the year mark, and at close of service before I know it. My friend received a letter from a volunteer in Morocco during our training and it was a list of things to remember everyday to keep you sane. The thing that stuck out the most to me was owning your feelings. so much is going on constantly here/as a volunteer that your feeling/emotions are not so stable. He told her to identify exactly what you are feeling and own it. Don't feel bad because you are not enjoying every second, or that you are frustrated with something, etc. Own it. So thats what im trying to do. Own it so that I can get past it. 

***********

School. 

i've officially been a teacher for a whole week now. im just doing observations for the first 2 weeks but its still exhausting. exhausting and confusing. the schedule seems to change everyday. my classes are small for the most part. I think the biggest class is 16. and the smallest is 6. im excited for those small classes. The kids seem somewhat timid at the moment but i know that wont last. ive also found a russian tutor so hopefully soon the language barrier between us will be very small. I also get free lunches at school! It will def be a help in saving my pennies for future travel. 

some of my students made me this card! i also got flowers on friday. i guess i now know who my favorites are. i also now know im married. thats my married name. 

I have more pictures of my classroom but ill post those next time. 

pictures!

i am lucky enough to have a friend who is willing to share her amazing internet with me. so i am taking advantage and posting some pictures while i can! just some from the summer.

here we go!

swearing in! this is my counterpart ill be working with for the next 2 years! say hello to the english department at school #2!

on my 3rd day at site my counterpart, her husband, a volunteer in the next town, and i ventured to this river! how pretty!

here is a picture of the house building project i volunteered at! all that work there? yea, not me.

one day at the house some of the americans decided to make vereniky! ( a delicious ukrainian dumpling like food.) we made at least 100!

here is picture of the protest in kyiv. ( wrote about it in the last entry)

While Kristin's boyfriend was visiting from the states I went over and we made burritos!!! any mention of any kind of mexican food gets me all excited. there were avocados, salsa and real tortillas! they were amazing. and obviously i used my coho skills to show them how to properly wrap a burrito. see i learned something in college.

heres some pics of my current room. look you can see me in the mirror!!

Bratslav day!! the sign reads Bratslav, city of Cossack glory. and there is a male singing group. traditional ukrainain clothes.

heres my future classroom! where i will mold the minds of Ukraine's youth.



here was the bulk of independence day activities i saw.

random selection, i know but ive been bad at taking pictures. im going to make an honest effort to take more! i promise!

5 months!

i think about updating this blog alllll the time. its true. but something happens between the thoughts in my head and typing on this webpage and pressing publish. its probably just my busy and exciting life of moving back and forth from my bed to my everything else table.....

to recap:

JUNE

mid month we left our training sites and headed to kyiv for swearing in! the lights and glamour of the big city! where we would find out our permanent sites and finally, and officially become volunteers. after a week of meetings and seminars we left kyiv for our sites!

* so because my blog is not password protected ( i could do that but i dont really want to) i cannot be as candid as I may want. i will try my best to "keep it real" though most likely anyone who is super interested already knows my feelings on most things.*

that week was chaotic. saying goodbye to people that i had come to know and see on a daily basis and head to a place where i knew only my counter part which i had just met. i cant say i was ecstatic. but this is what i signed up for. we found out some small details before we left about our town, our schools, and our living situations. i got a granny. and a room. can you tell how happy i was?

the rest of june i spent with my counterpart at her secondary job ( a private english language school) and in my town. if my internet wasnt super slow i would post pics. when/if i get faster internet i will.

JULY

i had spent the last 2 weeks of june just sitting around my town with not much to do and with no one to do it with so i decided to go to camps. this is what i really wanted to do all summer. i love summer camps! anyone who knows me knows that. so i found one that needed people. it was on the black sea outside Odessa. I was super excited. i went and stayed for a week and had a nice time. met lots of new volunteers and international students. got to play on the beach ( black sea!) and in a pool!!!! and got nice and tan :) following my week at camp i decided to explore Odessa with some fellow volunteers. we found a hostel ( very nice!) and explored the city and the beaches! (more black sea!) went to the biggest bazaar everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, slipped on some steps ( not the famous ones but got the biggest blackest bruise on my booooooty ever!) made burritos, and found the costco of ukraine. i was suppose to leave on a tuesday night overnight train but as would happen in most fiction novels to the young, naive narrator i got on the wrong bus, got lost in Odessa at midnight and missed my train but mere moments when i did get to the train station. of course i was out of money and had to rely ( and thank goodness they were still there) on the other volunteers to loan me some monies so i could take the same train the next night. this was of course after spending the night in the train station, alone, with some locals. best. sleep. ever....

i got home, finally, after making it on my train, and had time to arrange my next trip. another volunteer found an org that was building a house in a small village in the eastish/central ukrainian hillside and was looking for volunteers. so we went. i took a train the next day to meet up with the other volunteers going in southish central ukraine and the next day we took a 7 hour bus, well minivan to the closest big city and took another 2 hour bus to the village. i wish again i could post pics for you because the country side where this "building" adventure took place was gorgeous. so green and lush. hills, and orchards, and cows and a little pond. we stayed there 2 weeks and we helped in the garden, somewhat on the house, and buying the daily milk from the lady with the cows next store. imagine no plumbing, fresh food, camp fires, and pretty good company. oh and a million mosquitos. but that was just an added bonus. plus crazy kitties.

AUGUST

after more eventful train rides i made it home again with one day to spare before i was to be off to Kyiv for a training with my counterpart. so by this point i had only been in my town for about...3 weeks after being "at site" for almost 7. but as a TEFL volunteer thats what summers are like. the general thinking here is that you are a teacher and its summer. you should be off on holiday. so. off is where i went. also after about almost 4 weeks not at site i hadnt really done laundry. thats a lot of dirty clothes.

the next morning my couterpart and i headed to kyiv, a day early, for our training. we arrive after a 5 hour bus ride and i meet my roommate who is from the group before me. we venture into the city to find some protests ( we were going to shop, of course). If you have been keeping up with your Ukrainian politics which i know you have you know that the protests are about a former politician who is being put on trial for corruption but she has admitted to the charges and has gained more fans/followers because of it. thats all ill say about the actual situation, im not an expert so i dont want to give out inaccurate info. the protests seemed tame at first. just some speeches and flags. as we were leaving though the police came out in full force and the yelling got louder and the crowds seem to double if not triple. i have pics of that too but you know, when i get better internet...blah blah.

the week in kyiv, the training, was pretty informative, we got a free flash drive! thanks pc, us gov't, and of course the us taxpayer! it was really nice to see volunteers and be together and hang out. obviously, it was quite tame, we are americans afterall.

ive been back at site for almost a week. i went to visit mila in the oblast center and kristin in her town ( we made burritos! totally used my coho skills) and kristin and john came to see my town. i gave them the tour....

ive met some more teachers and we had a meeting. sunday is our town day so that will be interesting and wednesday is independence day! we start school on the 1st and after that i should be pretty busy.

i still have my fingers crossed about a place of my own and hopefully once school starts and people are back in town ill meet some more people. it always takes me awhile to get settled in a place so i know how i feel right now isnt permanent. i have lots of plans for the next 22 ( less than!) months that im pretty excited about so we will see.

this has been a pretty long update. hopefully i will be better and update more and hopefully ill have some more exciting things to share. if my life gets too exciting i may just have to put up that password....

OH! and i gotten my first care packages and they have been amazing! i have awesome friends and family. the ladies at the post office know me and have been super nice about holding my packages. i think i should get them some chocolate.

just call me struggles.

i could definitely use some sunshine.

spasibs and pajals.

2 weeks! less than really.

less than 2 weeks!

in 2 weeks:

i will leave my host family :( im pretty sad about the cat.

i will know where i will spend the next 2 years of my life!

i will be an official PCV( peace corps volunteer, pc is all about the acronyms. its a little ridic actually)!!!

i may live on my own or with a host family or even in a dormitory. I may be the only volunteer at my site or i could be joining other volunteers.

i am really hoping to get my own place for multiple reasons and i told pc that during my interview so hopefully i get that. the next 2 years will be interesting to say the least if i have to eat salo, fish, and ridiculous amount of butter all the time. but there are pros and cons to every situation and like a true pcv i will make the best of my situation. of course though having a penthouse apt in crimea wouldnt be the worst thing.... we will see. who knows!?

i know these next 2 weeks will go by really fast, especially since we are super busy. we have our summer camp, community day, a report to write, our language proficiency exam ( which i am pretending to study for now... da, nyet, da, ...), thank you visits and more im sure.

this past weekend i ventured into kyiv, for possibly my last time for awhile, and we found a beach! i know, a beach? thats crazy! but yes a beach. its actually an island in the middle of the Dniper River with a bunch of beaches and food and drink stands and babushkas in bikinis. its fab. only i didnt know thats where we would end up so i didnt really get to go into the water. but ill be prepared for it next time. so instead we just hang out on our blankets had some drinks and snacks and a grand old time.

heres some pics to make you jealous...

southern california beaches you've got nothing on these bad boys. except well cleaner waters, free bathrooms, drinkable drinking fountains, less speedos, and well a current. oh well ill take what i can get!

fritters

its been almost 3 weeks since ive posted anything. i wouldnt even know where to begin if i was going to recount everything. so i wont.

theres been some holidays. they are crazy for holidays here. which meant no school which for me meant less work. so i appreciate that. there was of course more meat jello. more vodka. and as always more chai.

we are more than halfway through our training. which is hard to believe. in a little more than 4 weeks ill be at my site and (hopefully) on my own. in my own place. weird. ive never actually lived alone so it odd that ill be doing it for the first time here.

i feel good about being here now. though honestly i cant say that everyday. things here look the same as they do at home yet they are completely different. plays tricks with your mind.

i really need to do laundry but i dont want to.

i should really clean my room but i dont want to.

my host mom thinks im sick so ive been banished to my room to drink hot chai and sleep. i tried to tell her it was allergies but she didnt buy it for a second. i told my host sister it was allergies. allergies to what she said. she didnt buy it either. not to mention she is in medical school so needless to say i lost that battle.

and because every post deserves a picture...