Fall cleaning, part one

With less than three months left in Ukraine, I have suddenly been struck by the need to start sorting through 2 years' worth of assorted clutter, so as to not be stuck doing it all at the last minute. I have four(ish) divisions: Throw Out, Keep, Give to My School, and Give to Anyone Who Will Take It (subtitled "Where Did I Get This?"), plus Things I Will Use Before Leaving But Won't Take to the US. I'm pleased to report that Keep is the smallest one so far...or at least, it was before I added a large number of Ukrainian language manuals to the pile. I just hate to pitch them, knowing that if I want to keep up with my language in the States, I'd have a hard time finding a lot of stuff.

Most random find: a yo-yo. I have no idea where it came from...maybe the box Brockway sent me last fall?

And of course, going through papers means a trip down Memory Lane. To begin with chronologically, my personal definition of being a successful PCV that I wrote at Staging back in Chicago almost two years ago.

"I will know that I am a successful Volunteer when I am looked at as a member of my community, rather than an outsider. I probably will never be fully integrated, but when I can start to feel at home, when my students see me simply as their teacher rather than that American who's teaching English, then I'll be on my way. When I've had a good day because my students wanted to learn, because I've had meaningful conversations in Ukrainian, because I begin to realize how much I will miss my host community when I am back in the US, then I will start to become, in my mind, a successful Volunteer."

Wow. By that definition, I've been successful here, because all those things have come true. Something for me to remember when I get frustrated by everything I haven't accomplished here.

Excerpts from the first few pages of the notebook I used during Pre-Service Training (flipping further through it, I was appalled at how bad my spelling was in Ukrainian). Many of these words of wisdom come from higher-ups in PC Ukraine giving us advice in the first few days. They're in order, although I'm skipping some.

• Read first 30 pages of med. book--administrative section [first note]
• voda bez gas--water w/o gas
• "Stop worrying. You just lost control of your lives for a while." Linda Wiley, PCMO
• Nobody learns a language in 3 months!
• being a PCV=like being in love--moods change, but hopefully you end w/feelings of victory
• during the 1990s, Ukrainians lost 60% of their income--during the Great Depression, the US lost 25%
• the Secret Police will know what I'm doing [in retrospect--really? if so, they were really secret]
• don't photograph gov't buildings or transportation [broken by every single PCV, self included]
• during training, think through whether or not I want to be here
• you have to learn before you can share
• babushka--old woman who knows everything

a "real" teacher, clothes, and directions

I'm part of a group of PCVs who are putting together a training manual for PCTs who will be teaching YLs (young learners, aka "little kids"). (How's that for acronymic?) I've been a bit slow on completing my part, for several reasons: I was supposed to collect info from other PCVs, none of whom emailed me back with lesson plans and ideas; I'm in charge of writing up the section about grading, which I don't really have much to do with at my school for the YLs, as Nelya grades the 3rd formers and the 4th form has been so out of control I can't say that I've had the time to spend on formulating an elaborate grading methodology...instead, I've concentrated on trying to keep them in their seats and not hitting each other; and plus, that I've been crazy busy with multiple things.

So last night, I dropped Tatiana, the lead specialist of the TEFL program, an email explaining some of why I'm getting the stuff to her a bit late. Part of her response made me grin wryly:

I know how much one could be busy at the end of the semester. It sounds like you're seriously treated as a Ukrainian English teacher and have to cope with all regular teaching and administrative duties. Patience, darling, a week or so and you'll take some rest (will you?)

I'm sure that it's great that I'm taken seriously as a teacher--on Sunday, I was talking to a PCV whose school pretty much ignores her and doesn't let her help with the year-end tests or want her to work in June or anything like that. But sometimes I'd like to be taken a bit less seriously, as far as the work load goes. :) That said, subbing this week's been going fairly well, although some of the 9th form told me yesterday that they would prefer Nelya as their sub. (This was because they didn't like their grades, and one of the boys pointed out that Nelya would quite possibly grade them lower. So they shut up about her and just kept complaining about everything else I do.) But the 6B form likes me because we play games if there's time at the end of the lesson.

I went to the second-hand store after school today and bought some clothes, although I suspect they'll be better for fall, as we've gotten quite the heat wave lately. For 10 hryvnia, I found a long-sleeved white blouse with pink flowers on it, and for 35, a high-waisted, short-sleeved denim dress that looks quite cute on me. However, when I looked at the tag, it was marked "maternity". This surprised me, as I never would have thought it was a maternity dress, so I asked the shop assistant what she thought about it, and we decided you didn't necessarily have to be pregnant to wear it. I supposed if I get the chance I should get my picture taken in it and post it so you all can tell me what you think. :)

As I was walking home from the second-hand store, a large tour bus stopped and a guy asked me how to get to the lyceum. I started to answer, but he caught my accent and asked (in English) if I spoke English. Apparently they were a group of people (students?) from the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland...why they were headed to the lyceum was something I was never told. So anyhow, the guy asked where I was from, and I said America. "You are from Corps [pronounced "Corpse"] of Peace?" he replied. So I gave directions (in English!) and as they pulled away, I could hear him say in Ukrainian to the other passengers, "And on your right is an American volunteer..." Glad to know I'm part of the tour of Balaklia!

a happy smile :)

It took 40 minutes each way to walk to the dentist's, uphill and down, through water, snow, ice, and slush (all on the street, the sky is precipitation-free today so far). It only took 30 minutes or so total at the dentist office itself.

They're very thorough...I felt as if I was being sandblasted at times. The woman told me, "It won't be painful, just maybe unpleasant." I was curious how she differentiated the terms. At any rate, no cavities but I need to floss regularly.

Courtney (who went to U of M), Susannah, Nathan, and I went out to Vesuvius Pizza last night. We decided to order two large pizzas (one onion/mushroom, one onion/olives), but they were HUGE when they came, and we failed to finish them. We had a good time talking about music and swapping stories about our sites. Then Susannah and I went to the Brat and discovered that, despite having cable with channels in Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, and English (one channel in English, mostly pop culture-ish news), there wasn't really much on.

Currently wasting time by looking on Travelocity at airfares and dreaming of world travelling...in warmer, drier weather!