Brocclichka!

finally, my littlest broccoli has entered the world. i couldnt be happier! actually if i was there i couldnt be happier. everyday there is a moment or two when i miss home. you know something reminds you of a person, or a specific memory. but usually it passes. now that shes here and so far away i miss home everyday and it lasts longer than a moment. luckily i live in the time of internet and can see pictures of her whenever i want. 

brocclichka, i love you more than words. <3

peace corps.

what did you think i do?

cont....

January!

in the month of january i think taught classes for a total of.......8 days. 

school was canceled the last week of jan due to the freezing temps. i cant say i minded not having to walk to school with the fear of losing my limbs to frostbite. 

besides that january also was the month of language refresher. pretty much it was a week camp for the volunteers to come and practice/work on their russian/ukrainian skills. or... be reminded that you have no language skills ( as in my case). though it was really nice to be the student instead of the teachers and i have to say the pc peeps put in a lot of work and it was a good time! not to mention that the facility had hot showers and free internet! also a week of free food... yes please!

also in jan is my bday. it happens like that every year it seems...

after language refresher a lot of the volunteers went to kyiv for the weekend. the original plan was for ballet and bagels with my friend who's bday is the day after mine. but.. after going out the night before it didnt really happen so we just settled for bagels. and that was just fine. BAGELS!!! we also went to a great falafel place that was discovered by another volunteer. the owner in fact speaks no ukrainian or russian and perfect english. he even claims to have lived in laguna hills! what!!!! yea it might just be my new favorite place. that and the bagels of course....

feb!

feb has also gone by really fast and that might be in part because i havent taught that much this month either! the first week myself, my counterpart and one my students went to a pepfar (presidents emergency plan for aids relief) conference. on a more serious note HIV is a huge problem in ukraine. it has the highest infection rate in europe. i would have said before that i knew a lot of hiv/aids but now i really feel confident in my ability to talk to others about it and educate and spread actual factual information. i can also talk about it in ukrainian now! hopefully my school and i will be starting a project in this field soon. 

since then i went to a sauna with some friends and gotten sick :( the temperature is rising and im hoping that soon it will be constantly above freezing and i wont need to wear 4 layers of tights and leggings and socks to go outside!  i cant wait for spring and sunshine and fruits and veggies! 

oh and im at 11 months! 

and now you have been...

UPDATED!

pow. 

oh hey 2012. 

there you are. 

its been 2ish months since i posted anything so heres a sum up of the happenings and hopefully the beginning of more frequent posts ( ill say it until it becomes a reality)

trips

BUDAPEST

budapest is an amazing city that i highly recommend to everyone! being that it was the first place we had ventured to while being here, we of course tried to soak all things hungarian and of course anything else we could find that is not available in ukraine. this led to .... many many bags of cheetos, subway ( as in sandwiches!) thai food, and spices! our many budapest(ian) adventures including: walking tour, the baths, underground(literally) club, a romanian band, ruin pubs, locals, london teenagers, and sandwiches! 

SERBIA and ROMANIA

the trip i took over winter was pretty awesome. first we flew to belgrade, serbia on the tiniest baby planes ever invented. if you know me and my "love" for flying then you can just imagine how fast my heart was racing and how much i must have sweat. but its winter so.. i considered it like exercise.... 

belgrade is an awesome city. i also highly recommend it! its alittle harder to get to but it hasnt become a tourist trap that other big western european cities. the people were great, the food was pretty good ( not for vegetarians though....) and we met some cool people in our hostel. there are still bombed out buildings from the war and hearing stories about it from our walking tour guide was unreal. 

we took the train from belgrade to romania and got stuck at the border for 3 hours! they ripped apart our train in search of cigarettes and alcohol. and they ended up finding like 1000 cartons. cigarettes are super cheap in serbia and romania is an eu country ( or becoming im not entirely sure where they are in the process) so cigarettes are much more expensive. needless to say smuggling is huge!

once we actually got into the country we we visited 4 cities. Romania is a beautiful country for sure! we went to dracula's castle (ooooooooooooooooh) and saw the narrowest ( or one of) streets in europe (highlight of the trip!) on our way back to ukraine we missed the one bus that goes between the 2 countries and had to hitchhike back. 

after that we headed to l'viv. there we met up with a few other volunteers, had some doughnut for ukrainian christmas then headed home!

and of course on my 8 hour train ride i got to share my wagon with a school field trip. 30 something 11 year olds running around on a train. gloriousssssssssss. 

potatoes!

In September my school gave me about 50 kilos of potatoes. 50 kilos... 100lbs? i think... anyways its alot. Now winter has hit and veggies and fruits here are at a minimum. That combined with my extreme laziness and i think you can guess what i eat for dinner every night!

You know the scene in Forest Gump when Buba is talking about all the things you can do with shrimp? Ive always thought that potatoes are the shrimp of the veggie world, yet i still find myself only eating maybe 3 variations of potatoes. 1. mashed. 2. roasted 3. boiled.

Why am i devoting so much space to potatoes? some deep, thoughtful metaphor, right? that maybe just maybe potatoes represent more than just what i eat for dinner every night. That potatoes represent Ukraine and why ive come here and what im doing, and overcoming?

......... no. i just eat a lot of potatoes.

As promised here is a pic. We made these for thanksgiving at Caitlyn's. Can you guess which one is mine?

This weekend i "rearranged" some furniture in my room and i feel revitalized! 

i dont know what happened to november. it was here and gone before i realized it. I have a post written about Budapest but ill wait til i can upload it with pics and then there is thanksgiving too! 

ive discovered a favorite ukrainian candy and also that i have the ability to skype! pretty good things for the cold dark winter nights that have descended. 

the semester is over in less than 3 weeks and that seems crazy to me. im approaching my 9th month in Ukraine and i feel like i just got here. The next group of volunteers get to site in a few weeks and i will no longer be a newbie. I will be expected to actually know how things work here...though i dont think that will ever happen. 

i think every time i post something i say something to the effect that ill try and be better about posting. but... i dont really think that will happen.  

so heres to potatoes, positive attitudes, and 2012! 

im not doing so well at this updating thing.
here is my new and improved vow make updating this a regular event!
here here!

so since school has started i have actually been busy! go figure! the summer me would have never thought the day would come where i would actually have things to do!!

my school bus

my school schedule is set and i am teaching 18 hours a week. it doesnt sound like a lot but when you add prep time it for sure adds up. and technically i am suppose to have 3 hours a club a week and i havent really started that yet. im hoping to at the beginning of nov ( after fall break). I have actually tried to start a teachers english club but no one comes :( its very sad.  for the most part the kids are good. perhaps not totally motivated but overall pretty well behaved. i, of course, have had the occasional cussing, which i dont even think they really know what it means, but i am trying to nip that in the bud. the kids, i think, are warming up to me. they see me around school and they stop and say hi, or good morning, even if its 2 in the afternoon.

i told them to work in groups...hmm.....

also last week i did my first project. oct 16 is world food day so with the help of my lovely vanessa i signed my school up for hike4hunger! (hike4hunger.org) pretty much you raise the awareness of world hunger through all different activities and of course, with a hike! We had a lesson all about the causes and effects of hunger, who and where are most affected, how everyone can make a difference! Ukraine actually has a history with famine so the kids know all about that. the hike organizers sent us a banner, these cool necklaces, and a disposable camera ( which i dont think my counterpart had even seen before!). after the lesson we had our hike which was to a park in a neighboring village. we even caught the eye of some locals who offered us money for our cause. i thought it was a nice gesture :) all and all i think it was a good first project, with this hike we are also in the running to win some money from the company who sponsors the event. that would be amazing and my school would definitely put that money to good use!


oh and ive also started a pen pal project with a friend/pcv in Peru! im really excited to have my kids make new friends in new places! i think it will be awesome :)

my weekends have been busy too.

i went to kyiv the last weekend in sept for a working group meeting. its like a focus group/club for volunteers that deal with important subjects in Ukraine and for our projects. since people come from all over the country and that can take hours and hours some volunteers rent apartments for the weekend. so i stayed in one with about 18 other volunteers. let me recap for you one of the most interesting events of the weekend:

3 am on sunday morning. the apartment is quiet, filled with sleeping volunteers. suddenly there are loud crashes and bangs. then silence. then what sounds like water.
" what are you doing?"
"dont worry about it go back to sleep"
"no what the fuck are you doing? you are peeing on the floor!"
" dont worry about it, its been decided. there is a meeting"
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? YOU JUST SHIT ON THE FLOOR!"
"its ok its ok go back to sleep"

so that happened. somehow it got cleaned up with minimal yelling. and you thought pc volunteers were classy?

the next weekend was jewish new year and some fellow volunteers planned an amazing event in Dnepropetrovsk. its a huge city about 12 hours from me so i hopped on the train fri night and woke up there. there was food, people and a nice walk to the river to boot! i was told that there was boba in this city, and i would be lying if that wasnt a main reason for me going, you know besides all the jewish stuff and whatnot. so we find the stand and just when we head over there they are out of the bubbles. it was rough. i was heartbroken. but really it was nothing a few shot of vodka couldnt fix. to top off the night we went bowling and im going to brag or anything but if anyone of you out there has seen me bowl than you know what i bring to the table and lets just say i brought it.


the next weekend a fellow volunteer in my oblast had arranged a 527 project. in ukraine the problem of human trafficking is pretty big. people get trafficked many different ways and many of them are preventable. there is a free number here (527) and people can call it when they are applying for jobs abroad, study abroad, or pretty much anything else that might take a person out of the country. they can check to make sure the company is legit and safe. so we had the seminar and then we hit the streets to educate the people!! after that was done i stayed in the city for the night with some friends and got the see the biggest fountain in europe! holla! it has lights and music and even a lazer or two. jealous?

last weekend i stayed home and did nothing. which was fabulous. i got to sleep and read and watch movies. its getting really cold ( in the 30's) so ive plugged in my heater and put on the layers.

next week is fall break and i have a week off! yay!!! myself and 3 other volunteers are heading to budapest! i am so excited! 1. i get to travel on trains with people! i have thus far only traveled solo. 2. i get to leave the country!! 3. i am staying in a hostel so i get to take actual showers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 4. and you know i get to see budapest which im sure is lovely.

notice one of the main ingredients. appetizing no?

so thats about everything. oh to prepare me for the winter my school decided to give me some potatoes. and by some i mean.....50 kilos. yea. i will never have to buy potatoes ever. in fact if you need any potatoes let me know.