in pictures

school is done, my grants are submitted and here i am with 3 days with a short to do list before i start my summer adventures. ive been lacking pictures lately so here are some from the last few months. 

THINGS I SAW WITH MY EYES. 

 in the beginning of may i went on this amazing jewish tour of bratslav. i knew there was a rich history but it blew my mind. this is part of the old jewish cemetery. 

 my lovely easter paska (easter bread) clearly my love for icing and sprinkles couldnt wait til after i took a picture.

 the lovely spread for our passover seder

happy bday kristin! cake from a box and icing from a can! delicious! oh and a shot of whiskey. pretty much america. 

 we had a miss school pageant. with 3 contestants. and 1 of their tasks was sewing a button...

a view from my friend cait's site. 

 11th form graduation. they dance with their parents/teachers. 

the beautiful park in uman 

 i got my kids to do an art exchange with kids from all over the world. we sent in 25 pieces about ukraine and then we will receive 25 pieces from kids all over the world! i just got our art. and i appreciate the thank you on the envelope :)

 most of my lovely ladies from the 5th form

 the 2nd form at the orphanage........i think about 24 students....

 .... compared to the 2nd form at school #2. ...  

 last bell! the lovely 4th formers... moving up to the big time!

 the 9th formers at last bell. you can leave school after 9th or 11th form

 this is puppy dog ( he doesnt speak english dont worry about it) hes my landlady's dog. he might be the sweetest pup ever. he walks me to school, the bus stop, and the shop. he even gives me hugs. 

home sweet home

some lovely flowers i got from students at last bell

and probably the cutest 3 year old ive ever met. a student's little sister. she even calls me ms. elyse. and she gives me her cherry pits. 

may 9th is victory day. the day the soviets beat the nazis. our very own bratslavian veteran!

 my 7th form boys!

 my first time fishing! some of those fishies in there are mine!! 

right after i posted about march and april i knew i left something out. but i couldnt put my finger on it. it bothered me for a second. then it came to me a few days later. march marked my 1 year anniversary in ukraine. i couldnt believe that i forget that. it did and still does seem like such a landmark. since being here i feel like i have a lot more landmarks/milestones/time markers then before. Every month is an x month anniversary, every week feels like more than just a week. i have activities scheduled months in advance, just because thats how it has to be done. people are busy, start booking. there is always something to look forward to, something to get through...


so a year. where to start. ive thought about it, this, many times. since my language skills dont allow it, most of my deeper conversations are had with myself. and ive thought, and thought what does it mean, how do i feel, what have i done, whats next. and i do really want to put it to paper, or whatever this is but now im finding it rather difficult...


what i do know, is that its not all about me. why im here, what i am doing this for. sure a little is. i dont think its very truthful for anyone to say its not but it wasnt my main reason. i really just want to be able to walk away when its over and feel like ive done the best i could do and maybe that i did something that was of value for them. after one year i dont feel that i have done as much as i could, but i think its good that i know i havent succeeded yet, this time, right now failure isnt really failing. though with time on the clock thats easy to say. i guess the biggest conclusion i can make is that after one year im not ready to leave yet.


a year ago i couldnt even imagine myself now. and i cant even begin to imagine myself a year from now. 

for zboat

giant and radioactive.

March & April

Spring is here! but really spring here means a lot of rain and still the occassional snow. but more and more everyday i see green popping up and that atleast, makes me happy, even if i still have to wear multiple layers.

much has happened in these past 2 months, so lets see what i can remember.....

MARCH

• the 8th of March is international women's day. which is celebrated in pretty much every country except for the USA. mmmmhmmmmm. yea. we got days off from school, students bring you presents, you eat a lot of cake. might just be the best holiday ever. to celebrate this marvelous day i ventured to a neighboring PCV's site where the 5 of us lovely ladies celebrated our womanhood ( read: booze, food, and science experiments)
• I tried to stay low key for most of march because spring break i went to istanbul!!! i went with 2 other PCV's (Kimberley and Kristin) and we met up with some more there. Istanbul is a beautiful city with so much culture! beautiful mosques everywhere, delicious food, friendly people. We ventured to the asian side of the city and found this great bazaar and even did a turkish bath. pretty much a turkish bath involves many half naked people, hot stone tables, and shampoo. ill leave it at that.
• and of course i had my usual routine of teaching and clubs. 

APRIL (first half-ish anyways)

• April started off great with Emma! my first niece was born! yay! 
• Pesach:
• i was invited to go to kyiv to celebrate Passover with friends of some PCV friends i have. we celebrated the first 2 nights with 2 completely different seders. one was super orthodox and strict the next was super ukrainian and liberal. both were equally enjoyable!
• after the seders i got to go back to my friends super tiny village ( 650 people!) and experience his village. the highlight: milking a goat! or at least attempting too. its not as easy as it looks. 
• last week was ukrainian easter ( they are orthodox and run on a different calendar). i experienced this last year and this year was pretty similar. i woke up at 3 am to go to church with my counterpart and her family. after standing in the rain and getting blessed by the priest we went back to their house and had breakfast. but its not really breakfast when you are drinking wine and eating all kinds of meats and veggies right? then i came home and slept for hours only to wake up and feast some more with my host baba and her family. 
• ive also discovered the "sercret" jewish population of my town! im pretty excited. and when i say "secret" i mean it was a secret to me because i didnt know they existed before now. oh and one of the woman of the group ( yea theres a group) reassured me that there are some young unmarried nice men in this group. so i guess our fears of me returning old and alone are no longer!! 

this weekend we are holding a seder for volunteers in kyiv and im pretty excited. hopefully it turns out well, especially since we are cooking all the food ourselves. but dont fear, ive already volunteered to only boil the eggs. i think we are safe. 

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.