still no heat in my building...

Bits and pieces from my life, with a heavy focus on the Yukhymets kids (as usual):

~Vitaly (age 17) has taken to asking my opinion on various topics, generally religion-related, and sharing his thoughts with me as well. He's doing a lot of deep thinking for a high-schooler--highlights have included, "How would we have become Christians if God hadn't sent the Holy Spirit?", "Do you think it's wise that all children have a computer accessible at home?" (he's not convinced, due to many parents not providing supervision), "Do you think that money is evil?", and "Did you ever hear that some people believe we come from monkeys?" All of which have led into fascinating conversations.

~Vlada (age 14) really made my day last week. We were studying holidays in 8th form, and everyone had to say what their favorite holiday was and why. Vlada said, "My favorite holiday is Christmas because Jesus was born." That's the first time in two years of teaching that any of my Christian kids have made that bold a statement about their faith, and it made me so happy to hear.

~Oleh (age 13) is going to be one of our school's competitors for the 8th form level of the rayon-wide English Olympiad! I'm excited about this for several reasons. One, it's vindication to me that I've taught someone something over the last two years. Two, even though the olympiad material is going to be more advanced than Oleh's used to, it'll do him good to try and shoot high. Three, Nelya decided on her own without any imput from me to enter him as a participant...after she'd been considering more "academic" students. We've all come a long way in the last two years.

~On Saturday, I went to Barabashova, the largest bazaar in Ukraine (and one of the largest in Europe) to buy Kate's Christmas present. I found what I wanted at the price I wanted, and I didn't get lost. Go me!

~I didn't teach today, but instead spent the day at home typing up a lesson plan. Nelya and I are hosting a district seminar on the topic of debate at the end of November (the debate topic is the dangers of television), and we're also going to submit our lesson plan to an English-language newspaper for Ukrainian teachers. So I spent the day typing up affirmative and negative arguments about TV. Once I accept that it's simply not like it would be in the US, I feel better about it all, and I was able to work in information about AIDS and domestic violence, two huge problems in Ukraine. According to Amnesty International, 50-70% of Ukrainian women have suffered from domestic violence. Wow. I try and think about that, and my brain just refuses to comprehend, especially when I realize that means that 50-70% of women I know have dealt with abuse of some sort.

~Tomorrow I take the overnight train to Kyiv. From there, I'm going to be a mentor for a group of new trainees, do my COS medical, have a day or two unplanned, and then (hopefully) go to Zgurivka one last time to see the Malkos. So I won't be home for the next week and a half, but I'll still have Internet access at the office, so I'll try and post.

not my most interesting post, but bear with me, dear readers

Today was fun. Sveta, the English teacher for the primary kids this year, is apparently not around for the rest of the month (college classes of some sort, I believe), and I'm teaching the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th forms twice a week each. They're so much more fun than my older kids, and their behavior's better, too! (Well, not always...but writing in their daybooks or putting their name on the board--in English--in order to tell their class teacher about it proves much more effective with 8-year-olds than 16-year-olds.) They're all excited every time they see me (we're on week 2 of 3 together), and it just makes my day.

(It makes me cringe just a bit when I realize that probably my older kids were once this sweet and enthusiastic as well and that these kids will eventually develop attitudes and no longer automatically think of school as "fun". Sigh...)

Really, my life is fairly uneventful and I don't know what to post. I bought two books of the non-graphic-but-still-stupid-but-I-want-something-to-read-British-historical-romance-novel-variety at the second-hand store today. I've bought several of the genre by various authors over the last year, and I'm beginning to think that the defining characteristics are a) coal mining is involved, b) someone (not necessarily the protagonist) has an illegitimate child, and c) household maids will, in fact, end up marrying the master of the house after his first wife dies. I cannot wait to be in a country with a decent public library with books in English and interloan services.

Let's see...what else... Oh, I've been trying the Curly Girl method with my hair, with mixed results. I definitely get curls, but I'm so used to brushing them all out every morning that keeping it curly tends to look a little strange to me. But I've been having fun experimenting (I bought hair sticks!) and have gotten several positive comments from kids at school (plus Oleh Y's "How did you do that?" Me: "It's a female secret. I'll tell Vlada but not you.").

Tonight I experimented, not with my hair, but with cooking. I made pizza sauce, sauteed a very small onion, diced up kolbasa (hard sausage) and tomatoes, grated some mozzarella cheese, boiled penne pasta, mixed it all together with a bit more mozzarella and Parmesan on top, and baked it "until bubbly", as the cooking websites I checked out for baked penne said. (I also made garlic-cheese bread.) The result was really good, except that I misjudged the amount it would make and had more than I could eat. Nice hearty food for a cool autumn evening!

I really should go work on my statement of purpose for graduate school...

Teachers' Day

Today we celebrated Teachers' Day, which was actually on the first of October, but the rayon-wide celebration was today. I've become an old curmudgeon of a teacher at the age of 24, because when I heard that we had half-hour classes today in order to have a concert celebrating the holiday, my first reaction was, "Oh, why do we have to celebrate this? Thirty minutes isn't enough time to get anything done, and the kids'll be wild..."

It worked out okay, though. The morning was, of course, crazy, but the concert was nicely done (and I ended up doing a solo of "Yesterday"...without a rehearsal, as I was asked to sing twenty minutes beforehand). Then this afternoon, there was a rayon-wide concert for teachers at the Palace of Culture. It was also nice...better than last year, which had a Horoscope/Zodiac theme. This year didn't really seem to have a theme. But each school was given enough boxes of chocolates for the attendees (maximum 15).

Although I have to say that the best part of the concert at the Palace of Culture was listening to the recording of instrumental music being played before things got started. One of the songs seemed to have a bit of a country feel to it, which surprised me, as this country doesn't know much about country. Much to my amusement, as I listened more closely, I realized that it was a jazzy instrumental version of "Achy Breaky Heart". As good as it will be to come home, where am I ever going to have things like that happen in the US?

After the concert, our "jensky kolekteev", or "faculty that's 99% female and the one guy didn't come" went out to a cafe for dinner and dancing. The food was good, the dancing was fun, and even though I didn't talk much, it was neat to be with the other teachers in a social setting where they let their hair down. In my director's case, literally--she has waist-length brown hair that she always has up in a braided bun, and when we were dancing, she let it hang loose, much to our amazement (several pictures were taken for proof that this happened, but unfortunately, not by me).

But the best part of Teachers' Day for me was reading the final drafts of a writing project that my 8th form has been working on for a week. I had assigned them in groups and given them an assignment: they had to write a story, minimum 10 sentences, on whatever topic they wished, but they had to use a list of words I gave them (which included vocabulary words, plus a few I threw in because I wanted to see what they'd come up with...yes, I am an evil teacher, thank you for asking). They turned in their rough drafts earlier this week, I corrected for spelling and grammar (trying to preserve their...um...interesting sentence structure while correcting verb tenses and such things), and they rewrote the stories. I think they're absolutely wonderful, especially because they came up with all the ideas themselves, so I decided to post them online for all of you. (So anyone who doesn't feel like reading them, the Sally-written part of this post just ended. Goodbye!)

~*~

During this summer holidays, the pupils of our form decided to visit the grave of Taras Shevchenko [a famous Ukrainian poet] in Kyiv. The senior pupil decided to take care of the pig this summer. Sometimes I watched TV. Also, I helped about the house. When the autumn came, we summed up our summer work. The harvest was very good. There were many fruits and vegetables. We were glad. We gathered together and ate shish kebobs. We liked our holidays. We had good results this year. We hope our next summer holidays will be so good.

Yukhymets Vlada
Obiznyi Artur
Melerska Natalia

[attached was an illustration of two children playing by a river]

~*~

My Last Summer

Last summer I was in Kyiv. There I went in parks and streets. And in one harvest I saw many pigs. They ate shish kebobs and watched TV. They decided that they do away with senior pupil. Then they summed up all the yeses and nos. They decided to put him in the grave and bury in the ground. I saw this all and went to the Kyivska militia. I told this all to the militiaman. He went with his colleague and they arrested all these pigs. In evening I saw this pigs on TV, in the rubric of criminal offenses. Tomorrow I will have from the militiaman a medal and a sign. Then I will come to Balaklia and tell about this but my friend won't believe me. But I will show them my medal and sign. I don't know where these pigs are. But I know I'm won't see some more of them.

~*~

"My Summer"

Summer is the favorite season of the year. This summer we decided to visit the grave of Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv. We visited it with the senior pupils and our teachers. I like this famous poet. The harvest was good this summer. We gathered many fruits and vegetables this year. Sometimes I watched TV. I saw many programrs, but my favorite was the program about the pig. When we celebrated my birthday we ate shish kebobs. When I summed up the summer holidays, I found that this holiday was very good!

With love: group #4
write--Oleh;
notion--Vitya;
head master--Maksym;
Sasha--did nothing.

The end

~*~

My Summer Story

In summer holidays I met with Katya and Dima. We went on a picnic. We ate shish kebobs with a big pig. The senior pupils helped us. We summed up and divided the collution [collection?] of the harvest. We made supper. We watched TV. We dug a grave and pulled a bird. We went home and amused ourselves. We played tennis and volley-ball. We played [a word they didn't know in English and I don't know either]. We listened to music. I spent much time with my friends.

Group N 1

~*~

My Summer Story

In summer I often met with Roma and Tanya. They are my friends and we want to just narrate our story. We watched TV. And we saw how to slaughter pig. From the pig they made shish kebabes. We summed up and decided to make sish kebabes too. Roma had a pig. We slaughtered the pig, and put the bones in a grave. But with meat we made shish kebabes. Senior pupils helped us. I and Tanya collected the harvest. And we made salad. We laid the table and we had supper. We ate well with shish kebabes. We had a good jolly time in the summer holidays.

[attached is an illustration of the grave, the shish kebobs being cooked, and the three friends at the table eating supper]

~*~

Let us tell you of Ilona, Dasha, and Alina's trip to New York

We have gone to New York for one year. It was at the end of September, when our parents gathered in the harvest. When we girls arrived, everyone was preparing for Halloween. We went to one of the New York schools and met people our same age. And we very strongly befriended one girl and also her brother, a senior pupil. She told us about her capital, and we told her about Kyiv. On the following day, she invited us to her home for shish kebabs. She regaled us with tasty tea and cookies, and we watched the television set. Then she brought us a dish of pork, pig meat. We went in a church and saw the grave of a holy saint. One day I quarreled with Dasha because of Judy's brother. Alina helped us decide our problem. We took plenty of videos. We very happy, but it was already time to go and we invited Judy to visit on her holidays. When we arrived home we often watched our film. This was an unforgettable trip.

I'm reviewing the situation*

Two funny anecdotes from this week about the problems of misperception:

On Tuesday, I was talking with Serhii Danilovitch, the music teacher at school. We were discussing everything from my fast-approaching departure to the European Union. He said to me, "Two years ago, when you came to Balaklia with a lot of luggage [suitcase, duffel, heater, backpack, computer bag, and I don't remember what else], we all thought, 'Oh, she brought all sorts of clothes...the latest in American fashions.' But instead, you had books and a laptop!" I laughed. "Yeah, I brought teaching supplies, because I knew it would be hard to find English books." "Who needs a lot of clothes anyway?" he said. It was funny, because anyone who knows me knows that when it comes to my priorities, books rank much, much higher than clothes...but that's not the stereotype that people here see in American pop culture. So that made me happy, that I've helped break down the idea that all Americans are highly fashion-conscious.

Although I do wonder if some of my girls were actually disappointed that I didn't have all sorts of new fashionable clothes.

The other story goes back to when Brandi was here. I was at school one day, when the secretary came down to the teachers' room and said, "Your landlady's coming by to get the key to your apartment." Land gentry (to use the term that Tif and I coined) in Ukraine can come into your apartment whenever they please...they don't have to give advance notice nor make sure that you're there. The landlady didn't come, and half an hour later, the secretary came back down and said, "You need to go home. The landlady called again and said that there's someone there who won't let her in." Knowing that Brandi was home, I thought that there must have been some sort of communication breakdown, so I headed home. Three-quarters of the way there, I met Brandi coming to school to get me. She had, in fact, told the landlady through gestures and a phrasebook that she and her male companion could come in, but the woman had seemed very upset about something. Brandi had tried to say that I'd be home soon and that she could go get me, but the woman didn't seem to understand anything that she was trying to get across. Brandi thought that perhaps I was getting evicted so that my landlady's son could move into the apartment.

By the time I got to the apartment, the landlady and her companion were gone. The across-the-hall neighbor assured me that I wasn't getting evicted, but I didn't understand what she said about what had actually happened. And therein ended Chapter One.

Yesterday morning, I ran into my friend Natalia at the bazaar. She apparently knows my landlady's family, and said that in fact, it had been my landlady's daughter-in-law who had come to scope out the place because they're moving in at some point after I leave in December. The daughter-in-law had never met me, and therefore assumed that Brandi was me. Apparently she said to Natalia that she was confused, because she thought I knew at least rudimentary Russian/Ukrainian, and she couldn't figure out how on earth I managed to teach the kids at school when I all I could say in Russian was, "I don't understand." I know that Brandi tried to let her know that I was at school, but if she had already made up her mind that Brandi was me, I guess Brandi's talk of school probably confused her all the more.

So there you have it...why you should always make sure of your facts before drawing conclusions!

*Bonus points to whoever knows what musical my post title is from.

Brandi's visit (and a bit about Oleh Y)

Recap of Brandi's visit:

~Saturday: We went up to Kharkiv, went out to lunch at my favorite Italian place, and wandered around the city. In the evening, we stopped by the Yukhemetses' house to celebrate Vlada's birthday (which was Tuesday). Unfortunately, Spunky, the Y's little yappy dog, didn't realize that Brandi is actually fairly harmless, especially to dogs, and bit her on the arm. She's fine, although she ended up with a bit of a nasty-looking bruise.

~Sunday: The two of us, along with a group from our church, went down to Saventsi (about half an hour away) for the ten-year anniversary of the church there. We sang "You Are My All in All" in English and sat through a three and a half hour church service. (When Viktor asked me later why we only sang one song, I told him that we didn't want the service to go any longer!) However, it was a nice service, and encouraging to hear how the church has grown from 22 to 45 members. Which, for a village in eastern Ukraine, is awesome to hear!

~Monday: School was not the best--my 11th form slacked off, and I had tears in both my 7th and 8th form classes. The 7th form girl cried because she didn't want to sit where I told her, and the 8th form girl cried because Oleh Yukhemets had hit her. I don't know who or what started it. That night, Viktor, Nadia, and I all talked with Oleh, and he denied it happening. He's really being difficult lately, and it's frustrating for Viktor and Nadia. Prayers for him and them would be deeply appreciated.

After school (Brandi stayed home and raided my bookshelves), we went over to the Y's to visit and do laundry. We played Uno and Go Fish with the kids. The kids, especially Oleh, really tried to use the English they know (I'm learning how you can be both disappointed in and proud of a kid all in the same day).

Yesterday and today, I've taught and Brandi's done her own thing during the day, and tonight we head up to Kharkiv and from there to Kyiv. If you think of us tomorrow, please pray, as Brandi begins her 33 hour bus ride back to Germany and I take the GRE!

massive update

Um. Yeah. I haven't posted in almost two weeks.

Would it help if I told you that I was at COS Conference and didn't have computer access, and then when I got back to Balaklia, I was trying to get ready for school and Brandi's visit, and now school's started and Brandi's actually here?

Yeah, I didn't think so. You're a tough audience, you guys.

[This blog post was interrupted by a conversation between Brandi and I about who would play me in a movie in which, similar to Joan of Arc, I heard crackers and peanut butter calling my name, led France (or maybe Ukraine) into battle, was burned at the stake, and was eventually canonized as a saint. My options were Angelina Jolie and Drew Barrymore. I voted for the latter. I'm sure it'll be a box office hit.]

So anyhow...when I last posted, I was in the charming city of Uzhgorod, on the Ukrainian/Hungarian/Slovakian border. While there, I went to an evening worship session of a conference about Messianic Judaism, complete with lots of dancing and songs in Hebrew. The next morning, I went to the Methodist church. I met an American missionary (from Traverse City...small world!), who told me that the church has two services--the morning service, which I attended, was geared more towards "recovering Orthodox", with an accapella choir, while the evening service had a lot of young people and was more charismatic in nature, which I hadn't expected from a Methodist church.

COS Conference...wow. I don't even know where to begin. Out of the 116 people who left Chicago to come to Ukraine (115 made it, we left one in Frankfurt when she lost her passport), 74 are still here. I saw people I hadn't seen since our swearing-in ceremony. We sat through all sorts of sessions on finishing up our service here and looking ahead to post-PC life (does it exist?), hung out past midnight talking, and tried to realize that our time here is coming to a close.

One of my favorite experiences from COS Conference was riding a chair lift up a mountain and back, 40 minutes each way. At the top, we got off and walked around, enjoying the view of more mountains with little villages tucked into the valleys. However, it started off less than wonderfully--Mona, the girl I was in the chair with, and I couldn't get our lap bar down for almost five minutes, so we were each trying to pull it down with one hand while holding on tight with the other. Fortunately, we finally got it down and then were able to properly appreciate the mountain beneath us without worrying that we'd fall out and make its personal (painful) acquaintance.

From the conference, I spent an afternoon in L'viv (as beautiful as ever), took a 22-hour train ride back to Kharkiv, and arrived home in Balaklia on Friday evening, just in time to go to the First Bell ceremony the next day celebrating the beginning of school. At First Bell, the students always give the teachers flowers, and at the end of the day, I had 28 roses and 7 chrysanthemums. Seriously. I doubt I'll ever get 28 roses on one day again!

School has been a bit topsy-turvey this week. Our zavuch, or assistant principal, decided to step down from her role that she's had for the last umpteen years and go back to only being a physics teacher. (She's seemed happier this week than I've ever seen her...just smiling and smiling...) The administration's known this all summer, but they hadn't found anyone to take over her responsibilities...such as making the class schedule for the school. So on Monday morning, we didn't have a schedule past that day nor anyone in charge of making it. However, by the end of the school day, Olha Ivanivna, who is the other English teacher and also the zavuch in charge of organizing parties and concerts, decided to take on the task for One Year Only, and one of the Ukrainian language/lit teachers took over her position. So we've had a day-by-day schedule for this week only as Olha Ivanivna is learning her new position and trying to do the permanent schedule, which is not computerized, but instead has to be all worked out on paper. And we all keep popping in her office to see what classes we're supposed to be teaching and when. Poor woman. She said today that she hasn't really been sleeping and she sees numbers in front of her eyes all the time.

Brandi arrived at 3:45 on Tuesday morning after traveling 48 hours by bus and train from Germany through Poland to Kyiv and then to Balaklia. We've had a good time catching up on each other's lives and discussing the pros and cons of our respective apartments--she has hot water, but I have high speed Internet; I have a lot more space, but she has hot water, etc. She's come to school with me and gotten acquainted with my kids. I have my 11A form 5 times a week (in hopes of getting them ready for exams), so today and yesterday I sent them out in the hall in small groups of 2-3 students to practice talking with a native speaker. I was a little worried, but apparently they spoke English (even the ones I didn't think knew how!) and were polite. Yay!

big update!

Yeah, I'm still alive. My apologies to all of my faithful readers who keep checking back and wondering why I haven't posted recently...it's a combination of general busyness, Tif's visit, and three days when the Internet didn't work. However, my Internet guy has put my connection on a different channel (I don't know exactly what this means in English, but it seems good) and now my connection is a lot faster...and I can upload photos! (See previous post.)

Let's see...going back about two weeks now, before Tif came. My friend Andrey's church did a series of evangelistic tent meetings for four nights in an area of town where a lot of my kids live. Each night, they would have a general meeting explaining the basics of Christianity with music and a sermon, which was then followed by a meeting that was more youth-oriented on topics like AIDS, alcoholism, and drugs. At least 25 of the kids from my school were there (we only have about 280!), whether sitting and listening or occasionally drifting over from the cafe/bar across the road. I don't believe that anyone got saved during the meetings, but hearing the Gospel is a rare occurence over here, and I simply pray that seeds were planted that will come to fruition later. I know that the mom of one of my seventh form boys really enjoyed the meetings and wants to start attending church regularly. I myself really felt convicted to pray for my kids...the barriers of language, culture, and my role as a PCV limit my ability to witness to them in words, but going to the meetings regularly and praying fervently for each child by name were things that I could do in spite of those barriers. It was a boost for my own faith.

Tif arrived last Friday, and we've had a grand time! She knows the language and the area, so a few days she was off visiting people she knew from before and finding souvenirs, but we've been together a lot, especially in the evenings...cooking, listening to the music she brought, and having random conversations on any and all topics. Oh, and finding out that the cafe on the corner has a lot of good food at cheap prices! I enjoy eating out once in a while, but I would feel odd doing it by myself here in town.

Sunday was Yula and Serhii's wedding...I had wanted to do a huge post about that event alone, but I think I'll just leave it with all the comments I wrote about the pictures in my last post. If you have questions, let me know.

Monday we bummed around town, took pictures by the statues of Lenin and Taras Shevchenko (Ukraine's greatest poet), and stopped by to visit Robert, the new PCV in my town. He works at a non-profit organization that helps invalids, large families, and families with invalid children. The organization had gotten a LARGE donation of used clothes from Canada, and the director had invited me over to look through and see if there was anything I would want. Most of it wasn't anything I would/could wear, but I ended up with two sweaters.

Last night was the school-leaving ceremony for the 11th form (US graduation). It involved lots of music and dance numbers, including small children dancing (very cute), a harem dance (weirdly fascinating and not what I would consider appropriate for the occasion...Tif caught some of it on video), and me singing "Fly Me to the Moon" in English. It was a very nice ceremony, and the kids were all dressed up--the boys in suits, the girls in prom-type dresses. After the ceremony, there was an all-night dance for the kids...last year I stayed, but we were planning to go to Kharkiv today and so we left after the ceremony.

Woke up this morning at 7 am to a severe thunderstorm and me having a sore throat and feeling exhausted, so we stayed home and are planning to go to Kharkiv tomorrow, as we thought it better that I rest today rather than keep pushing and get very sick when we go to L'viv next week. So I went back to bed and slept until after 11. Then we had pork stroganoff on toast for lunch (don't ask, we invented the combination earlier this week and it's really good), and Tif went off to go exchange money and look for Harry Potter books in Russian to complete her set, while I attempt to catch up on blogging.

Next Monday, we head for L'viv in western Ukraine, which is supposed to be a beautiful old city reminiscent of Prague or Krakow. It'll be about a 24 hour trip from Balaklia to L'viv, but we're up for the adventure. Then we get back to Kyiv on Thursday and Tif flies out on Friday morning. We're planning to go out to McDonald's that morning for her birthday, but we'll see how that goes. I think I'm going to visit the Malkos in Zgurivka next weekend, then come home for a few days, and then I'm off to Donetsk again.

Tif's back, so I'll close for now. :)

sorry so late...

Please note: This was written on Monday, but then Blogger had issues and wouldn't let me post. And I was out of town yesterday. Please, don't lynch me for not updating in over a week. Mom says that it's like having her own personal serial to watch, reading my blog, so assume I was preempted by the Movie of the Week or something.

Well, I know it's been a week since my last post, but since Mom hasn't mentioned that people have been asking her why I wasn't posting, I think I'm in the clear. :) For those people who want to know, a) it was in the mid-90s most of last week, leaving me without the ability to think clearly, let alone type; b) while playing badminton last Monday, I somehow pinched a nerve in my right arm, which made extended computer time, especially typing, challenging (much better now); c) the end of the school kept me busy; and d) I just wasn't in the mood. :)


But now my arm is back to normal, the temperature has dropped to the mid-70s (perfect!), and "praktika", the Ukrainian version of summer school, is in full swing. It's different from US summer school...each homeroom of kids has certain subjects that they're supposed to come to school for (and it's not just the slower kids), and each day is only one subject, which is usually supposed to last 5 hours but never does. And part of the time, the teachers take the kids on field trips instead of book stuff...Nelya took her class to the town museum today, and last Friday, I ended up helping as a chaperone with the 1st-5th formers, taking them to a concert at the Palace of Culture for Children's Day and then going with the 5th formers and Olha Ivanivna afterwards to go swimming/wading in the river. (So nice, especially as last Friday was very hot.) I have my oh-so-unmotivated 10-A class twice this week, and the topic I was given was "listening comprehension", so I think that on Wednesday, we're going to listen to music and on Friday, we'll watch one of my DVDs. I spent this afternoon looking up song lyrics and translating the difficult words into Ukrainian. As a result, I ended up with a cheesy pop song that has versions in both Russian and English stuck in my head. Have been playing soft, pretty music like Fernando Ortega to scrub out my brain.


While at the supermarket today, I found something resembling ranch dressing. At least, it resembles my faint, far-off memories of ranch dressing. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of consuming, while not a huge amount, more than my stomach could easily handle, so then I got to follow it up with Pepto-Dismal-type tablets, cherry flavored (yes, the D for B is intentional).


Well, Blogger ate the second half of this post earlier when I tried to post it, so let me see if I can remember what I posted...


Yula and Serogia's wedding plans are progressing...they had hoped to keep the guest list down to about 100 or so, but apparently as soon as all the extended family heard that Yula was getting married (before the invitations were sent out), they all started calling Nadia to tell her that they were coming...and had already bought their train tickets! It looks like the Y house is going to be filled with people, as they are the family members who have a true gift for hospitality. Nadia says she keeps telling people that they'll fill up all the floor space, and she doesn't know how she's going to feed everyone! (Viktor suggested tents out in their huge garden and letting people cook their own food over campfires...)


Ihor Y (age 5) asked me on Sunday why I don't have kids. This is the second time he's asked me something along these lines...I think he really wants more kids to play with! Or maybe he just can't comprehend an adult without kids. :)

On Saturday, I'm going with a group of PCVs on an "excursion" to visit an Orthodox monestary just over the border into Donetsk Oblast. I'm looking forward to it, and then on Sunday and Monday, Erin McS, a PCV friend of mine, is coming to visit me. Yay for company!

and a little child shall lead them

The Y's van isn't working again. Apparently, it broke down last Sunday just as they arrived back home from visiting another church in the oblast. (The Baptist churches in various towns and villages around here are taking turns visiting each other this summer...I wasn't able to go this time, as I was in Kharkiv with the other PCVs.)


Serojia Y's birthday was this week (he's five now). At our church here, when it's your birthday, you go up front, you pray, the pastor prays for you, and then everyone sings "Mwe Vam Bazhayem," which is a song where you wish someone happiness, peace, joy, and love in Christ. (We don't just sing it for birthdays...it happens whenever you want to congratulate someone for something.) Anyhow, Serojia's prayer was, "Dear God, thank you for Mama [Nadia] and church. Amen." I don't think I could have put it better myself.



Mom said that I should post about why I didn't have to teach the 11th formers on Friday, so I will. It is perhaps a sign of how much I've adjusted to living here that I didn't think about it as a blog topic until she suggested it. Anyhow, guys in Ukraine generally serve two years in the army after finishing school, as best I understand it. (I have yet to figure out how this connects with university, as they don't wait until the two years are over to finish...I should ask Sasha the next time I'm in Zgurivka.) So when I got to school on Friday, I saw most of the 11th form guys outside talking to the music teacher (the one male teacher on staff, who also teaches the older boys how to do military marches, in addition to teaching the younger kids how to sing)...and they were all in fatigues carrying guns. Apparently Friday was "Anton Get Your Gun" Day. As I entered the building and was walking down the hallway to the teachers' room, I saw Sasha, one of my 11A boys, in the hallway with his gun slung over his shoulder, talking to a teacher. After that, I didn't see the 11th formers (guys or girls) for the rest of the day. Still not quite sure about what happened. But apparently you don't get expelled here for having a gun on school property!



Nor is there apparently any disciplinary action when a 9th form boy tickles a teacher (me). This is a kid who I've been wanting to strangle the entire two weeks I subbed for his class. On Friday, they were taking a test, and Ihor was blatantly copying something out of his notebook. I requested that he give me the notebook, and he refused, putting it in his bag. Having had him for two weeks now, I knew that as soon as I looked away, he'd have it back out again, so I repeated my request. He handed me a different notebook. I took his schoolbag and started to remove the actual notebook in question. He started trying to play tug-of-war with me for it, and in order to make me let go, tickled me under my arm. This is NOT COOL. I was appalled. I never did get the notebook, but he didn't try and copy anything more out of it...instead, he took the notebook of the girl he was sitting with and started copying her work. After class, Ihor came up to me and tried to offer me free Avon samples (he sells Avon in his free time...don't ask) to get back in my good graces. Nope. Didn't happen. After school, I tried to explain what had happened to Nelya...i.e. that it is not okay for a student to tickle a teacher. It took a bit of explaining to make her understand what had happened, and her response was, "Don't worry about it. Ihor's rather strange."



Still...it seems strange and wrong that something that would get you suspended in the US has absolutely no repercussions here. And for the record, people who currently have tickle privileges (granted, some of them can't take advantage of them right now, as I'm here) are all Y kids from Valera on down (Liza and Valera know "tickle" in English, although it's strictly an outside-of-school thing), Jason, and any immediate family members who would want to tickle me. The list can expand if need be, but it's not going to include my older students!



FYI, my mint iced tea was very good. I made a liter jar full and drank it all in less than a day.



Yula and Serojia's wedding is June 24th. Tif, I said I'd help decorate for the reception on Saturday if they need help...you can either join me or sleep off jet lag, if you haven't by that point. And yes, I'll take the skirt. :)

the life of a substitute teacher...yes, me, not my parents

No real updates on Andrei...the kids at school told me he's doing a little better and is going to live, but what I could understand of the conversation in the teachers' room today seemed a lot less hopeful, both for his chances and then for what condition he'll be in if he makes it.

I'm spending this week and next week as a substitute teacher for Olha Ivanivna, who had to go to Kharkiv for teacher training. This is a challenge, because not only am I substituting, it's also right at the end of the school year and I have to give the year-end exams. Which I also have to write. For students I don't teach, which means I don't really have a good idea of what they've covered or the level they're at. I also got the fun job of giving the sixth forms English tests from the Ukrainian Ministry of Education...they're experimenting with standardized testing. Yesterday was grammar, which almost everyone flat-out bombed. Out of 25 tests or so, on a 1-12 scale, I had an 8.5, two 6s, a 4.25...and everyone else was lower. I feel bad for the kids...the material wasn't new, but it involved a format that we haven't really worked with and often they had to choose what tense to put a verb in rather than just being told which tense. Some of the girls wanted to know their grades, so I told them. Fortunately, there were no tears (which I half expected), and they don't seem to be blaming me. :)

After a year and a half of being the only American (or native English speaker, for that matter) in my rayon, another PCV is coming to Balaklia to work at a non-profit organization in town. His name is Robert, and he's 46 and was previously a PCV in Namibia. He's coming for site visit tomorrow through Sunday and then moving here in late June. He sounds like he'll be interesting to get to know. Also, another small town about 30-40 minutes towards Kharkiv from me is getting a youth development volunteer, and my friend Mike is also getting a YD PCV in his town (yes, Tif, School #2 finally caved in). So there'll be 3 new PCVs within an hour of me. Wow. It's gonna get crowded! :)

Funny moment from the 6B class I'm subbing for today: Today they had to translate a page of text about the USA into Ukrainian as a year-end test. One girl wanted to know how to say "second" in Ukrainian. Once she figured out what it was, she said, "Oh, second hand!" Used clothing stores are known as "секондь хенд", or "second hand" here, and they're sort of looked down on here. Then she asked me, "Miss Sally, do you go to the second hand stores?" The majority of my clothes are used (from such diverse sources as Nadia, Tif, the PC office, and the infamous second hand stores, which I love), and today's outfit, a light pink sweater and a knee-length denim skirt with front pleats, was from Nadia and the PC office. So I said, "Yes, and what I'm wearing is second-hand" (granted, not from the store, but still used). The kids all stopped, looked at me, and one of the girls said, "Well, it sure doesn't look like it!"

Really, I think the prejudice against used clothes here is silly. According to Guisella Kotlar (who has a new baby, Raphael!), "everyone shops there but no one admits it." I like the used clothes shops here because I can find more Western-style clothing that's better quality for the fraction of the price I'd pay at the bazaar. Plus, they sometimes have English books!

Please pray.

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST:

Andrei, one of my sixth form boys (who is also my neighbor), fell off the roof of our apartment building (9 stories) yesterday. A bunch of boys were horsing around up there (the roof is flat) and runnng, and apparently he was running and didn't look where he was going. From what I understand, he broke quite a few bones, had something happen with his stomach, and has had/will have 12 operations.

All of us at school, especially the sixth form, are pretty shaken up by this. Everyone was a little quieter than normal, and as I said, the sixth formers were upset to the point of tears. At English club this afternoon, one of them got a call that Andrei had died, but apparently there was a miscommunication and he hadn't died yet, although I guess it's a distinct possibility. They're moving him from the hospital here in Balaklia to Kharkiv this afternoon.

I've been impressed with the kids here and how soon they started collecting money to help with hospital bills. My neighbor boys came around yesterday evening asking for donations, and the first thing my sixth formers said when they saw me (after, "You heard about Andrei, right?") was, "Are we going to take up a collection for him at school?" For a country where money is often tight, that says a lot to me. We also made him cards in English club, although the general consensus was that, since Andrei doesn't really know English, we should write them in Russian or Ukrainian.

Please keep Andrei and his family in your prayers.

~*~

Random semi-humorous thing I heard in the store today (not directed to me): "Why are you so serious? You're like Lenin in October."

a slice of democracy in action...7th form style!

Current Music: "в моем сердце" ("In My Heart") by Краеугольный Камень (a group that sings worship music in Russian)
Current Mood: Cheerful

Reason #235ish (or thereabouts...this is unscientific) why I love my 7th form (usually):

We're doing the last unit in the textbook right now, which is about the history and politics of Ukraine. And frankly, the textbook stunk more than it usually does...I had 20 vocabulary words and one two-part text to work with, plus a few translation exercises. For two weeks worth of lessons.

So I borrowed a leaf from Katharine Anderson's US government class back in high school and turned my class into the Verkovnya Rada of Ukraine (Ukrainian Parliament). On Tuesday, I put them in their regular groups and told them that for class today, they needed a party name and a party platform. They presented their platforms today, and then each group came up with a bill to try and pass. The class voted by secret ballot on their bills. On Monday I'll tell them the results, give them a diagram of the Ukrainian political system (Nelya's helping me out with that part), and then...we're going to have presidential elections, complete with campaign posters and speeches.

I've been pleasantly amazed how much work the kids put into their political platforms. Dictionaries were obviously used, and every group had a platform. They also got into the bill part of the lesson. We had a staff meeting a few months ago talking about the importance of student government and self-government, and I look at these lessons as a chance for the kids to understand how the democratic process works just a little.

And, since I'm quite proud of my kids (with an exception that will be noted), here are their political platforms. Spelling and grammar are unchanged; if I think you all will be totally confused, I'll "translate" in brackets.

National Patriot Party
1. War attr: to amend war attr force [I never did figure out quite what they meant...]
2. Economics: to amend industrial and egricultural country
3. Education: to amend knowledge foreign languages
4. Language: not correction

[When I asked them how exactly they planned to make these "amendments" they told me it was a secret. True politics--promise to change everything and not say how!]

Killer Party (later changed to Patriots Party after severe objections from Nelya and me)
1. We want to also countries what been in SSSR reunite again and our big country destroy Europe and USA.
2. We want to abolish also lessons.
3. We want to diminish cost on also product.

[This is unfortunately what happens when you have the top student in the class and the biggest troublemaker in the same group. Nelya and I were appalled, particularly at the party name and the destruction involved, and she gave the entire class an anti-terrorism lecture. The boys, I'm pretty sure, were just joking, but we gave them bad grades for the assignment. What gets me is that there really are political groups here with something of this mindset.]

Blue/Yellow Party (who made a pretty pamphlet with different colors and designs)
1. I'd like economical, politikal and cultural relationships promoted the union. It assisted the further development of Ukrainian people.
2. I want that was we have wide relations with Canada, the USA, and Great Britain in policy, ekonomics and culture. [Sort of the antithesis of the previous group...]
3. That in Ukraine medical help is available in hospitals, polyclinics, and also in medical centres in such places as factories and schools.
4. We whent [want] that pupil fulfil all obligation.

Defend Children Party
1. Secured every children house, education.
2. Free hospital.
3. Go to school in winter.
4. Free study.

Vynderkinder [From the German for "Clever Children"...it's a commonly used phrase here]
1. We want pease in Ukraine. [I know they mean "peace"...but I can't help but think "peas."]
2. The pupi stude [study] in institut.
3. the people make timely salary. [People get paid on time.]

So then each group suggested a bill and we voted on them. Here are the bills and the results.

1. Vynderkinder: Minimum salary of 2,000 hryvnia/month ($400). Passed, 13-3
2. Defend Children: All children have the right to a voice [I think this means have the right to be heard, not a physical voice.]. Passed, 13-3
3. National Patriot: 3 years of military service mandatory. Failed, 2-14
4. Blue/Yellow: 50 hryvnia fine for bad words. [my personal favorite!] Tied, 8-8
5. Patriots: 100 hryvnia fine for the group who thought of #4. Failed, 5-11

I can hardly wait until Monday to see what they come up with next!

odds and ends, with an odd end

Current Music: "Secret Ambition" by Michael W. Smith, courtesy of Live 365 On-line Radio (a very cool thing I just found)
Mood: tired

Funny moment of the day--when I gave my open lessons on Wednesday, I used that blue sticky-tac stuff to hang things on the board. This is something I always do, and my kids never fail to be fascinated by the stuff, as it isn't available over here in stores. A lot of them want to know if it's edible, and multiple pre-adolescent boys have asked for "just a little piece," to which my reaction is, "Not on your life!" I shudder to think what sort of mischief they could get up to with it.

Anyhow, apparently my director had never seen sticky-tac before, so she corralled me into her office to ask about it today--what it was, where I got it, why I had so little of it (!), and could she have some. I gave her some, but if Mom can please send me a thing of it just for her, that would be a nice touch.

Afterwards, Nelya, who hadn't been around for the conversation, said to me, "The director was interested in your [I forget how she termed it]." She grinned. "She seemed like a child about it."

"Yeah," I added, "like my 7th form boys."

*giggle*

~*~

After school, I came home and then went for a walk to the train station because a) it was a nice day, and more importantly, b) I had to refund a train ticket because I had thought I was going to Kyiv this weekend but it won't be for a few weeks yet. I'd been apprehensive, because the train station ladies are notorious for not understanding my accent, but the lady I got was very friendly and helpful. She asked me, "Are you the American who was here a while back or are you a new one?" so I explained that there's just me, and that I'd been going to Kharkiv to buy tickets, but since she was so helpful and friendly that I just might start getting my tickets in town. In this country, I figure that when you get good customer service, it's worth encouraging.

~*~

Played Hide-and-Go-Seek and a variation on Monkey in the Middle with my neighbor kids this evening. I think I'm going to teach them Capture the Flag one of these days.

~*~

Quote of the Week from Viktor Y: "What do PCVs without a church family do in their free time?"

Good question.

~*~

We have school tomorrow (Saturday) because next Tuesday and Wednesday are national holidays for Labor Day (former Soviet Republics celebrate on May 1st), so the powers that be decided that we'd all have Monday off but go to school on Saturday to make up the extra day. I guess this is a good thing, because it gives us four days off in a row. Still, Saturday school is weird.

it's over! and I'm alive!

Oh, I'm so glad today's over!

For people who weren't aware, today I presented two "open lessons" at school. That is, I taught two carefully prepared, methodologically correct lessons to good, quiet students while about 10 teachers from other schools in town watched me. And my vice-principal. And my director.

My topics were "The Ukrainian Diaspora in English-Speaking Countries" (8th form) and "The Life and Creative Work of J.K. Rowling" (11th form). I'd spent the last two weeks preparing...the Internet came in very handy, as I found newsletters from Ukrainian scouting organizations in Canada and Australia, not to mention downloading the Order of the Phoenix trailer onto my computer on Monday when I realized that my HP3 DVD that I wanted to show a clip from to start class was in Kharkiv at Kathryn's.

The research was fun...for instance, did you know that Kazakhstan has the 2nd largest number of Ukrainians outside of Ukraine, after Russia? (The USA is #3.) I've made so many photocopies in the last week that I'm surprised there's blank A4 paper left in town.

So this morning, I got up, put my last few materials together, dressed up (earrings! polished boots! favorite sweater, skirt, and scarf! Peace Corps pin!) and caught a marshrutka (it's the size of a kindergarten van) to school, as I had my purse, my tote bag, and my laptop bag. Spent the first two class periods in the teachers' room being nervous. Then the teachers showed up and it began!

My 8th formers were awesome...they're great kids anyway, and the pressure of all the extra people in the room meant that my smart kids decided to show off how much they knew (although one group of boys just went silent for 45 minutes). Natasha, however, got so nervous she felt sick and asked to be excused, but she pulled herself together, came back, and did a good job. However, after the lesson, Firyuza was peeved at me because while I had already given her an 11 (a very good mark...usually the highest I give is a 10), I changed my mind and bumped Zhenia up from a 10 to an 11 as well. Somehow this made her mad at me (because she wants to be the BEST), so she snapped in Russian, "Give me a 2!", turned on her heel, and stormed out of the room. Honestly. Teenage moods!

My 11th form wasn't quite as stellar as my 8th form, but they were also good. We had a group activity where I separated them into the four houses at Hogwarts...Slytherin won. Since I'm not supposed to be political as a PCV, I'll let my readers who are familiar both with Ukrainian politics and Harry Potter to draw their own conclusions.

After the second lesson, we had a short question-and-answer period, and then we had lunch in the school cafeteria (not school lunch, much better!) so the director could show off that we have one (it only predates me by a year or so and apparently not all schools offer lunch). Then I collected all my stuff, Nelya gave me tulips, the director told me I'd done a good job, and I caught the bus home. Played on the computer a little, and then fell sound asleep for about two hours!

I was starting to wake up when the phone rang...it was my friend Natalia calling to tell me that two people had already called her and told her that I'd done an awesome job with my presentation, so she was calling to congratulate me and suggest that I should lie down and relax. So I told her I'd already been doing that. :)

It's over...слава Бого (thank God)! But I hope that the teachers who saw it really did get some new ideas, that it wasn't just showing off the American teacher at School #3. Because that's more important.

And now I have to write a test for my 7th form for tomorrow and plan an English club. A teacher's work is never done! (And I do hope that Firyuza will improve her attitude!)

not quite Tom Sawyer, but still whitewashing

So this morning was actually a lot of fun.

The 8th, 9th, and 10th formers gathered at school this morning (11th form had to go take tests connected to finishing school)...that is, the ones who showed up, along with the staff. The girls had buckets and the boys had bicycles. We went along Novoselivka Street and the girls whitewashed the bottom two feet or so of the treetrunks white while the boys hauled water to mix with the whitewash. (Apparently the whitewashing is done in order to a) keep the bugs from taking over and b) it makes the trees prettier.) Us teachers spread out and did varying jobs...mine was to watch for traffic (it's a main road) and yell at the kids walking along to stay on the sides of the roads. No one died, so I figure I accomplished my job.

We finished up around 10:30 am, which meant that I was only there for two hours total, and we didn't even get started until 9-ish. So I'd say we made pretty good time.

bother!

Last night, due to the good weather, Maksym (21-year-old college kid I help out with English occasionally who wants to move to Canada, an acquaintance of a teacher at school) suggested that we go for a walk during our conversation practice. So we walked around the center, eating ice cream. He's definitely loosening up a little as far as being willing to speak English...his comprehension is good, but he was scared at first of making mistakes. And it was a good conversation, about ethnic food and Tajikistan (he was born there) and how he thinks that Balaklia is SO boring and I don't.

However...apparently my downstairs neighbors were in a cafe and saw us, and called me to see if I wanted to come hang out, and I said no, as Maksym really did want to practice English. But the music teacher at school is Oleg's dad, and now I'm just waiting for it to get on the gossip mill that I was hanging out with a young man. My bet is that I'll have heard about this from someone (not Oleg) by the end of the day on Monday, allowing for the weekend.

At least I didn't run into any students.

~*~

Off to school today for Earth Day...we're going to go paint the tree trunks white!

a week's reprieve

Current Mood: annoyed by lower back pain and internal discomfort
Current Music: "Strawberry Wine", Deana Carter

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

Anyone know where this quote is from without using Google? (I'd add that it was one of my favorite poems when I was six or so, but that really wouldn't help most of you except Mom...and it would get me some weird looks.)

~*~

Okay, so apparently having Internet in my apartment doesn't make me post on my blog more. I have a good excuse, though. Today was supposed to be a rayon-wide teachers' seminar where I presented two "open lessons" (i.e. I teach, my children are angelic and clever, and thirty-some people stare at me), so I was doing heavy-duty prep work. As it turns out, the seminar got postponed until next week because no one had thought to let the teachers know about it until Monday, and it might not be a seminar after all, but only the inspector for foreign languages and literature coming to watch me (Nelya says that she's a foreign lit teacher, which basically means Russian lit, and that she doesn't know English...neither do my director or my vice-principal, who will also be watching). And apparently if it's a seminar, someone has to give a presentation on theoretical material (hopefully not me). The director seems to have a big grandiose idea about how she wants this to go, but no one (Nelya, me, vice-principal, other vice-principal who is also an English teacher) seems to know what it is. The solution to this seems to be everyone telling me how I'm supposed to be presenting, what I'm supposed to be doing, and everything I've forgotten. I occasionally try and stick in my own ideas, but have resigned myself to the conclusion that this really has nothing to do with how I teach.

For those of you who are interested, the lesson topics are the life and works of J.K. Rowling (11a) and youth organizations in the English-speaking Ukrainian Diaspora (8b). And I did get to pick my own topics, based on the curriculum available.

~*~

The best music I've found since getting on the 'Net...Laura Bates and Brandon Foote are a folk/bluegrass duo who are apparently connected with Riverview now and sing in one of the worship bands. They just released an album, Jubilee, recently, and four of their songs are up on MySpace. I really like their sound and also how while the songs on the site aren't "Christian music" like you'd hear on Family Life Radio or Smile FM, they operate within a Christian vocabulary and mindset, which I almost like better. Currently debating whether to try and order Jubilee trans-Atlantic or just ask for it for Christmas.

one of those weeks...

I'm in the mood for a bit of irony today...

...that while I've been lectured lately by Nelya for not keeping my apartment clean enough (which she didn't see, but heard about from my director, who heard about it from my landlady, who came in when I wasn't home because that's legal here), my 6th formers (and many, many other people here) see nothing wrong with throwing their candy wrappers and chip bags on the ground outside because "someone will pick it up later." At least when I don't clean my apartment it doesn't cause an eyesore for everyone who walks by.

...that I was wearing an ankle-length skirt with a back slit to the knee today, and Nelya was upset because my slip showed. "The children will notice," she said. This in a country where I don't think anyone wears slips and where my girls come to school in very short, tight skirts...and tight, low-cut tops with suggestive phrases on them in English. Honestly, I don't think it matters much if a very small portion of my slip shows through the slit in my skirt.

I keep trying to track down my landlady at the school where she works to ask about Internet. I haven't talked to her yet, but today my director came up to me and asked what was up. I have no idea how she knew that I'd been there...sigh...I live in a fishbowl. I left it at "I have a question for her," because Sally Getting Internet doesn't have to be everyone's business. Then again, in Ukraine, maybe it does.

Palm Sunday is called Willow Sunday in Ukraine, and no one knows why

I'm in Kharkiv...spent the night at Kathryn's and am going to have lunch with Greg. Last night, Kathryn, Janice, and I were at the main square in Kharkiv after Kathryn finished her Windows on America presentation (about ballads!), and we saw Hare Krishnas walking around and chanting, plus a theatrical performance by a travelling troupe that involved people reading newspapers, people walking on stilts, and lots of fire. We didn't understand it...and since they weren't talking, it had nothing to do with the language. We decided they were just trying to be artistic.

It's been a good week...I worked at school or went to meetings in the mornings (I got to spend a lot of time doing Internet research at school!), and in the afternoon, I spring-cleaned (got about half my apartment done as far as going through cupboards and closets, and then got busy...at least what I worked on is clean and all visible areas are good) or hung out with people. Spent a lot of time at the Y's...I've got a story about them, but it hasn't finished happening yet, so it'll wait for a future post.

Oh, and I have the chance to get high-speed Internet in my apartment!!! Assuming, of course, I can get ahold of my landlady (the phone number I have for her is the wrong one, so I'm trying to track her down at her school) and she says it's okay...which, as it won't involve anything more than a tiny hole in the windowframe and I'll be paying it myself, I really hope will be okay. Just think how often I could post! (j/k) But seriously...Skype...AIM...my phone bill might even shrink!

spring has sprung

It's officially spring...I saw my first dandelion yesterday!

It's better for me mentally if I just think of this week as "Teacher Inservice Week" rather than Spring Break, I've decided. I feel less gypped this way. :)

Today we had a three-hour long staff meeting...I think one of the focus issues was teaching across disciplines, which the music teacher and I demonstrated at the close of the meeting by singing "Do Re Mi" in English, which I'd taught him at his request. I gave a short "presentation" on the poetry book my 7th formers had made, which, for being told just before the meeting started that I'd be presenting at some point during it, went pretty well. The book got passed around from teacher to teacher, and I don't know what they thought about it, but they looked at it.

Yesterday was a good day. After having lunch with the Y's after church, Natalia and I went for a Walk (the length is what gives it the capitalization) all over the center of town. It was a gorgeous day out (granted, a little windy), and she told me all sorts of stuff about the history of Balaklia that made me wish my language was better so I could fully appreciate. Then we walked out to her place on the edge of town...we cut across the fields to get there, and it's on this little dirt road with old houses and a well that some of them apparently get drinking wanter from. She said it's a nice neighborhood to live in. We were "just going to have tea", but her mom is a true Ukrainian baba, so that meant a big bowl of borsch, bread, fried eggs, fish, candy, three cups of tea, and I don't remember what else. I felt like it sort of defeated any exercise I got from the walk. :)

I really like hanging out with Natalia...she taught as a volunteer teacher in Germany, so she has some idea what it's like to live away from home. She's also a reader...she told me yesterday that she underlines things in books and hates to lend them out except to people who are as passionate about reading as she is. She likes traveling, is helping her students with an environmental project, and is also appalled at the cheating that is so common among kids (and agrees that it's in part due to a lack of moral values). I just wish that we had more language than my Ukrainian/Russian in common...but I don't speak German!