Friday, November 23, 2007

11.16.07 chores

Last night I hung out with my new host family for a while. It's funny and irrational, but there's this part of me that thinks: You shouldn't talk about your other family with this family. What can I say--I'm a one family kinda gal! I'm cheating on one family with another. ah ha haha. I know it's stupid, and I talk about them anyway.

It started snowing last night. It's still snowing. I walked in the deep snow with my host dad. He's a really nice guy and I covet his bag. It's like this tiny little briefcase. Big enough to stick letters and keys and money in and yet smaller than a woman's purse and bigger than a wallet. I covet it. He's a really cool guy. Last night he took me around town to run errands. I needed to get my pants mended, to change some money, go to the internet club, and to the post office.

First we went to get my pants mended. My pants were waaay too long. Seriously. The reason these women wear 10 inch heels is so their pants hems aren't dragging in mud! I'm a shorty and my pants were always getting muddy. So for a mere 12G I was able to get them mended. I never would have found this place on my own. First, it's out in nowhereland. By a big bazaar and around a corner. I think I saw Lady and the Tramp there. Not the movie, the actual dogs. That's how hidden it was. So we rounded this corner in an alley and walked up these dark stairs. Had I been there by myself I would have sworn the building was closed, that no one had ever been there, that it was abandoned. Nope. We walked through the dark, up a few flights of stairs and through a door and BAM, there was light. He asked for a woman and we were led through a hallway, passing open doors filled with women, clothes, and sewing machines. It was awesome.

We finally met the woman and she had me put on my pants-to-be-altered. She marked them with white chalk and I took them off, put on my jeans, and handed my pants to her. She asked me a question about the hem--how I wanted it to look, and I got to bust out with my favorite phrase: Vso ravno. It means everything is the same-or-I don't care. She smiled and told my host dad they'd be done in about 40 minutes. So we went to do other tasks.

We went to attempt to change money. I emphasize attempt. If you come to Ukraine, DON'T FOLD YOUR DOLLARS! Seriously. They have this super fancy checking machine that has stages. The first stage is to put it under this security camera. Then they run it through an auto machine. If it is too folded it won't even pass the first stage. If it's too folded and somehow passes stage one, it won't go through the auto machine. We went to two places. The first took two of my one dollar bills but not my 10. The second place took my other one, but not my 10. I'm going to try ironing it. Grrr. I covet my host dad's brief-purse.

So the next was the post office. You'll be happy to know that, just like in America, they're slow. It's like a slice of home life. We waited and waited. I finally sent something out. A letter to my best gal pal in the US, and one to my language teacher who is leaving our group. It said in Russian: Thank you. You are good teacher. After I get apartment, I want to invite you and your wife to be guests. I will cook!

I'm proud of my language skills.

So now I'm at work, in my short pants and ready for my workshop. More about that later.

11.15.07 English Clubs

Today I went to an English Club here in Zhytomyr. My host sister was going and invited me along. I was really excited about this opportunity because part of the site assessment is seeing what the resources are, seeing what's happening in the community, etc. My host sister mentioned it was religious and my first question was: Mormon? Of course!

So we walk to this apartment. It's just started snowing slightly, there's mud everywhere, and we're cold. We walk inside the apartment and it's even colder than outside, and the floors look like they have colored contact paper on them. It's very 70s. And no one takes off their shoes, hence the scotch-guarding. We meet the two elders: Elder Paulsen and (ack! I can't remember the Ukrainian man's name). My host sister and I are the only two there to start with, and I'm asking questions about Mormons in Ukraine (they're the only two in Zhytomyr) and about his service, how they advertise, how they don't make it seem sleezy (come to my apartment and learn English, young woman), etc.

There ended up being a total of four students and one grandfather who came. E.Paulsen did the "invent your own country" lesson, which I've done before. The group decides their name, what their business is, what their language is, etc. Afterward I couldn't help but do my job. Seriously. I couldn't just go. So I asked him my Teacher Trainer questions: What did you like about this lesson? What would you have changed about it? I gave him some suggestions as well: put the chairs in a circle so they can see each other when they are speaking. Read up on the communicative method so that it's more student focused rather than teacher focused. Have a section on the board to leave up new words. And point with a pen rather than your finger. Seriously. In Ukraine, the teachers don't point to the board with their fingers. I have no idea why. But his Ukrainian partner totally nodded. ha ha ha.

So yeah, scoping out my site and found the Mormons. Rulz.

11.15.07 coat shopping

I went on an adventure the other day. My host sister and I had looked at coats at the big bazaar and on Saturday night my mother called to tell me she had put some money in my account for me to use to buy a coat and boots. So on Sunday my host sister was working and I couldn't find a single person to go with me. I decided to go it on my own.

I knew the direction, and I knew where to catch the bus. I was able to ask the woman standing at the stop which bus went there (I was also able to understand her). It was getting pretty nasty out--my coat was covered in slush, because it was sort of snow-raining or rain-snowing or slushing. Take your pick. I learned that umbrellas are awesome when it snows. Who knew? So I'm waiting for the bus in the slush with my umbrella. I get on the bus and while on the bus I'm able to ask the bus driver if the next stop is mine (it was), and I get off the bus at the big church and bazaar.

I slush my way over to the bazaar, with a vague notion of which way the coat woman was. I pass by the mayo-pizza vendors, stopping to buy a potato perogie. I get into the bazaar and can't find the coat woman. I walk up and down the aisles, looking at the different coat fashions, for about half an hour.


The Ukrainian Bazaar in winter

Ukrainian coats are interesting. Ukrainian women LOVE fur or at least fake fur [They really do love their real fur]. They also love lots of buckles and shineys on their coats. It's great. They also love leather. Leather + fur + sparkley buckles = Ukrainian love. I really love just looking. I did find my way into a different section. I've decided that Ukrainian bazaars are a living thing. A shy living thing. Know how turtles hide their heads and feet and tail? Well the bazaars are a bit like that. Unless you know there's more there you think that's it. Then you wander for a bit--waiting, and the turtle pokes its head out and you find a big pocket of the bazaar you would have sworn wasn't there. Either that or it's fairies messing with me.

So I found the pocket with the coat lady. I bought the coat I'd been eyeing--it was 350 griven, then I found a boot vendor. The bazaar fairies were kind to me that day. Have I explained about Ukrainian boots? They are knee high, covered in buckles and sequins, and have 10 inch stilleto heels. Or at least that's how it looks. Also, the women have stick legs, small feet, and no concept of sore feet. So I happen to find the one pair of short boots with no heels and are big enough to fit me. It was a miracle. A Christmas miracle. They are full of fake fur, so my feet are WARM! And they were only 125g. Awesome.


Me with my coat

I then went over to the yarn booth. At home, buying yarn is a relatively straightforward thing. You do have many options, but in general everything is laid out for you and you can touch and see everything. The yarn booth at the bazaar is different. It's more like a drive through. All the yarn is behind the counter, the woman speaks another language, and it's a gamble. I told her I wanted yarn to go with my coat (which is red and black) and I wanted thick, not thin. This sounds like there were no problems. It took me 20 minutes between her helping other people and me grabbing my dictionary and looking up words. She picked out a somewhat fuzzy black/red yarn. I thought it was too similar and I asked if I should have a different color. She and the other Ukrainian woman were emphatic that THIS was the right color. ХОРОШО horosho, which means "good". So I bought two of them and went on my merry way.

Check and mate.

11.14.07 New Family, New Town

After six weeks, Peace Corps has all its trainees go for a site visit. During this time we meet the family we will live with for one month, we meet our Ukrainian counterpart (the teacher we will work with closely for the next two years), and we get to see our workplace. We are gone from our original site for about a week, we get to bond with one another and then go to our sites, then come back together for a few days and then back on to our sites.

I didn't realize how necessary this was. Mixing it up a little. Training is strange--you are in this small little bubble, you are learning language, you see the same people every day all day, you just need a change of pace. You need to see the friends you left at Orientation, you just need a break. Plus, you get to know where you'll be, and that's really exciting, or nerve wracking, depending on how you look at it.

Site placement is this big "hush hush" event. They keep it "top secret" until we all get together and they reveal it in front of everyone. That said, a handful of people will always know ahead of time--Peace Corps tells current volunteers who is coming to their areas, they have it in their office, etc. Some people are very upset that others know their sites, others, like me, don't care.

So yesterday I got up really early to go over to McDonalds, since that's where the marshrootka to Kyiv is. I was waiting for my friend--we were going to go together, and we were supposed to meet at 8. Well, in the hustle and bustle of packing excitement, host mom excitement, I ended up somehow leaving my house at 7am! I got there 45 minutes early. And waited in the freezing cold. yep, it was a great morning. Did I mention that there was about 4 or 5 inches of snow on the ground? Yeah.

He arrives at 8, as planned, and a few other volunteers came as well. We grabbed some snacks for the road and got in to the marshrootka. They told us to pack lightly, since we would be gone for 8 days and had to transport our own stuff. I was worried about my one bag + laptop bag + plastic bag. I stopped worrying when one volunteer showed up with a suitcase big enough to smuggle a small family across the border. We were all chatting and having fun, then settled in for the trip. Which involves being antisocial and listening to music. For me, it usually involves sleep.

I honestly can't remember if I slept. Yesterday feels a bit blurry. I remember looking at the scenery. Ukraine is full of amazingly bright colors. Blues and greens, reds and oranges. It's really pretty when all the fences are lined up and there is a parade of bright colors that passes you. It's a nice contrast to the snow everywhere. So maybe I slept. Probably I slept. But I don't remember.

We get to Kyiv and get on the metro and take it over to our stop, then transfer to another marshrootka. We end up at our little "soviet era" hotel. A couple of volunteers are on one of the balconies and we all shout greetings to one another. Several volunteers are down in the lobby, along with mail (I had no idea how much it FEELS like mail = love, but it does!), and check in. We get to choose our own roommates, but there are three to a room. I check in and put down Suzy as my roommate, as planned, and go up to the room to drop off my stuff.

The room is small but adequate. There are great big windows, so we got a great view of the snow, and a balcony, three beds, a small end table, a dresser for our clothes, and a bathroom. I staked out a bed and went on the balcony and saw Suzy's group. I shout to her, as I am an American and must let the world know, and run downstairs. The situation is now Social +3 and rising. We choose another girl to room with and all settle our stuff in.

That night we have our dinner and after dinner The Site Placement. Ukraine is a huge country, and we placed all 80something of us all around that country. One friend of mine got Odessa, another ended up in Crimea, and I got my site: Zhytomyr. They placed the rest of the groups, which was really hard to pay attention to, as my body was constantly reminding me that I'd had quite a bit to drink. Funny how ceremonies seem that much longer when you have a pressing need.

So, Zhytomyr. What did I know about Zhytomyr? Nothing. I'm a pretty ignorant person when it comes to world geography/politics/history, etc. Ask me anything about Joss Whedon or Battlestar Galactica, and I'm your gal. Ask me to tell you anything about parts of the world and I really don't know. I did find out many of the LCFs are from Zhytomyr, which is really neat, and our Adopt a Cluster person is about 30 minutes from there, and it's about 2 hours away from Kyiv. Score! The really funny thing is this: before I shipped out for Peace Corps--after I was given my job title and country, I looked up Teacher Trainer blogs online. And I came across one from a guy named Daniel. Sure enough, I have his old site. How ironic is that?

We received a piece of paper telling us a little bit: the name of the institute we'd be working at, the name of the person we'd be working with, the approximate population, etc. Suzy's was <5,000. Mine was 100,000-500,000. Or how I like to say it: it's 100,000 give or take 400,000.

We had a break and then met with our regional manager. She's an amazing woman and very funny. There are people who say things to you like: tell me if you have any problems, but the real feeling is that you wouldn't bother. Then there are people who tell you to report any problems and go on to say things like "if there is a problem with food, with family, with site, with X, with Y" and they really let you know that they want things to go well. This woman is the second kind. Which I really appreciate. You want to know that the person you'll be reporting to for the next few years really cares. I lucked out.

So during the meeting we met all the people who will be in our region--I think there are 10 or 12 of us. Thankfully I really like the people there. We also found out who our host families are going to be: names, ages, and pets. So my family consists of a mom and dad, both early 40s, and a 19 year old daughter and 17 year old son. Totally sweet.

The meetings were finally over and we were able to relax. One of the volunteers had contacted me earlier and mentioned she was having a Firefly withdrawal. Firefly is the name of one of the best tv shows ever made, and I'm a big fan. So I brought both the tv show and the movie that was made about it: Serenity. So we're downstairs waiting for one of our friends to get back. I start having a conversation about Star Trek with one of the gals, and we're geeking out chatting about Klingons and Next Generation and I invite her to watch Serenity with us.

We head up to my room and it's cold. Really cold. I set up my laptop and get the movie ready. My friend comes back with two beers for sharing, and we all huddle around the room. We are decked out with blankets and coats and flip off the lights and watch Serenity together. Really, this was a moment of perfect happiness for me. I've felt a bit isolated and like I haven't fit in, and this was a moment when I was doing what I loved and people were doing it with me because they wanted to hang out with me. It was really amazing. Plus, I got to do one of my other favorite things: introduce my favorite tv shows to new people. Three people in the room had never seen Firefly. It was awesome. When it was finished, B and I watched an episode of Angel. It was such a great night.

Sadly, sleep wasn't so amazing. Our room was FREEZING. I slept with my coat on. My warm winter coat and scarf. I had my cuddle blanket with me and I slept with it over my head. I woke up in the morning exhausted, yet in good spirits because I really like the gals I shared a room with. We were deciding on showers. We then decided we'd rather stay in our warm clothes than get undressed and take a maybe-warm shower.

I've learned a few things about myself since coming to Ukraine. First, I learned that I'd rather be stinky than be cold. Really. If I had to take a freezing cold bucket bath, I'd limit my bathing to once a week. Probably. Second, I learned that if you sleep in the clothes you're going to wear the next day it builds up heat and you can be warm throughout the day. I'd rather keep on the shirt I wore to bed last night than change into a freezing cold new shirt. It's a strategy. If I'm going to wear this long sleeved shirt under my sweater, I'll wear it at night in a freezing cold place. It's an excellent strategy. I also have learned that I enjoy comfort. I was listening to other people's stories, and while they're fascinating, I am so thankful that I don't have an "interesting" life, full of outhouses and bucket baths.

One of the women who currently lives in Chernigov with me is going to be living in Zhytomyr as well. She's studying Russian as well, and she's an older volunteer. I suggested to her that we have dinner parties in Zhytomyr, and her response was an enthusiastic YES! I also asked her if she were interested in studying Russian together, and again, a YES!

After having felt so left out of things in Chernigov, it was really nice to have my invitation accepted enthusiastically. When we left to go to Zhytomyr we started talking, and we were having similar experiences within Chernigov, and it was really nice to bond that way. I'm really happy that she's going to be in the same city with me. I'm really happy about it--she's very nice and kind, and has a very interesting life. Plus, she's totally interested in having Sunday brunches and doing trips to Kyiv, etc. I'm really excited.

So we get into Zhytomyr and I'm greeted by a beautiful young woman and a man. First I'm confused--I wonder if she's my counterpart or host family. She's my host sister and the man is my host father. Things are a little overwhelming and I forget all my manners--like saying that it's very nice to meet you. We're waiting for the other woman's people to meet her, so we're waiting around and unsure of what's happening, then her counterpart shows up and we hug goodbye.

Peace Corps Trainees get really nervous about host families. And it's natural. What's this family going to be like? Will they like me? Will they be nice? Where will I be living. It's easy to forget that they have the EXACT same thing going on. They get butterflies and nervous--will the volunteer like us, will she like our cooking, will she like our house, will she be nice and talk to us? It's just as stressful for them as it is for us. I am happy to say that I am really happy with my host family and where I'll be staying. It's one thing to feel like a guest and another thing to feel like family. Feeling like a guest means you feel apart. You are honored, but you are separate. I want something closer.

When I came into the house I was given a small tour. There is a really large living room with a tv in it, my bedroom has a desk and a computer and big comfortable hide-a-bed chair and large wardrobe. The walls are a bright cheery yellow, with small geometric designs on them. There is a large window and green and white curtains. The floors are hardwood with rugs over them. There is a washing machine in the bathroom along with a shower/tub. There is a toilet room, and the mother/father's room. The kitchen is near the front door. It's really nice. The mother was talking really fast in Russian and the daughter was translating. You could tell she was excited nervous and was trying to make a good impression. She was showing me where things were in the kitchen--honey, cooking things, dishes, etc. Then she did the thing that made me feel very included. She had me help set the table and put things on the table. She included me. It felt really nice. Then she said I was family. I don't think I could have asked for a nicer new family to stay with.


My Ukrainian family!

For dinner I had borsch (they'd had some borsch already), and we all ate potatoes and cucumbers and bread. I told them I love to try everything even though I don't enjoy all foods. So I tried all her food and really enjoyed it! We had some wine and shots of vodka. Apparently it's a Ukrainian tradition to have every third toast to be for women. So the father and the brother stood up and toasted to the women, orating nicely. It was really great. After food I brought out my atlas and was showing about Washington. We were talking about differences in America. Apparently Daniel had been to or was from Florida and said that crocodiles/alligators weren't so scary, etc. I said that that was normal for him, but I live in Washington where these don't live and they're very scary to me. I feel like part of my "job" here is to show the diversity of America. They asked me if it was a tradition that Americans don't talk while they eat. I told her it might be true in some houses, but in my house in America we always talk and eat. "How was your day? How was work?"

I grabbed my laptop and started showing pictures. I showed pictures of Chernigov and the mother said "you should take pictures of more pretty things." This was in response to taking pictures of "normal" or "not so pretty" things, like the route I walk to work. I thought I gave an excellent answer. I told her that I wanted to show my friends and family things they can't see in a book. I want to show them my every day life. I want them to feel like they are there. And sure enough, after all the pictures the daughter told me that the mother had said that even though she had never been to Chernigiv she felt like she had been. I told her that was exactly what I wanted.

The room I'm staying in here is the brother's old room. While I live here he's living with his grandmother, who lives close. He's currently a student. The mother said he is enjoying his independence! The daughter sleeps in the living room, and the parents in the other bedroom. I've really learned a lot about Ukrainians in the six weeks I've been here. I've learned that if you are in their inner circle, they will share everything with you. Even their last piece of bread. It's a true "we" culture, and they take care of people. Of course, it's also expected that this be reciprocated, so getting things for the family or giving gifts, or buying food to share is a great way to give back. Chocolates or wine, or small gifts really go a long way. I love buying flowers--it makes me feel like I'm giving to everyone. I've also learned that Ukrainians are very tidy. Their spaces tend to be smaller, so it's usual for someone to sleep in the living room or to get beds that turn into chairs/couches. Because of this, it's essential to keep things tidy--because everyone shares space. Along those lines, everything has multiple uses. Chairs are also storage spaces, knives are potato and carrot peelers, that Hugo Boss plastic bag is used for carrying things to work, etc. I've also learned that Americans generate a LOT of trash. In a Ukrainian home there may be one garbage can (or two--one in the bathroom for toilet paper) and it's SMALL. It's about the size we'd use as a bathroom trash can. Bedrooms don't have trash cans. I also found that I generated as much (if not more) trash than the entire family combined. And I have no idea how.

10.14.07 poop

I'm not as mature as you'd think.

Today I helped my host mom make borsch. Well, she made it and I watched, wrote down directions and took pictures (recipe to follow!!!). Part of the process is making chicken broth, which involved chopping up a whole chicken into about five or six sections and boiling it in a pot of water and skimming off the scum. While she was stirring it up I noticed something funky--it was a part of the chicken that looked green. I pointed at it and she said "poop."

I'm totally not kidding.

A smile involuntarily erupted on my face and I said "Poop?" trying to hold back laugher. She said it again "POOP." and then pointed at my belly and said "JULIA POOP".

That's when I lost it.

I started laughing and couldn't stop. She started speaking in Russian and her speech was riddled with Poop. This was how it sounded to me:

"ajigojaijgPOOPjaiojigoajPOOPjapogijpsPOOPajogaiopPOOP."

At this point I was bent over and tears were streaming out my eyes and I was practically convulsing with laughter every time she said POOP.

Turns out POOP means belly button, but when talking about Chickens, it means the stomach.

10.14.07 Miles and miles of mayo.

Really--people in Ukraine LOVE their mayo. White creamy sauces are their favorites. If it's not mayo it's sour cream or whole milk.

I was in the store and I couldn't believe how many different kinds of mayo were available. So I took a video of all of it. I call it "miles of mayo".

If you ever come to eat in Ukraine, ready your stomachs. You will get your dinner on a plate or a bowl, finish it and think you are done. But no. You will then get a second plate FILLED with food. You look in dismay at how much food is on the plate, but you steady yourself for this marathon eating event, with the end goal in sight. Finally you cross that finish line and think you are done, but NO. There's one more plate there, set in front of you with JUST as much food.

By this time you have eaten some food that is great, some that is okay, and some that you would be happy if you never ate again. Whatever you've eaten, at this point you feel like they could roll you out of the room, and they're pushing the plate toward you saying EAT EAT EAT in a loud voice. You think you're going to be sick from eating SO MUCH FOOD, but you don't want to be rude, and everyone keeps insisting regardless of the "help me" look in your eyes, so you slowly start to eat. You can't attack it with the gusto you had to begin with, because your stomach is screaming at you "what the hell! Are you trying to kill me!?" and you MAYBE finish. And finally you're done.

Nope. Now there's the blintzes (pancakes that you eat with sour cream) and chai and cookies and cakes.

I'm not lying to you. That's how almost every one of my dinners has been. I noticed that my host sister wasn't expected to eat nearly as much as I was, so I said "HEY--Why doesn't she EAT EAT EAT" and she says (and I'm so not lying) "You are eating for two" I yell HEY, I'M NOT PREGNANT!!! What her meaning was: I was eating supper and dinner--so I was eating two meals at once.

Yeah, losing weight while living with a host family is IMPOSSIBLE. At least tonight I was able to totally refuse the hot dog. I also told her I'd try a little of everything on Tuesday (her birthday), but I'm trying to steel my stomach for all the mayo dishes.

I just hope they don't make me eat "poop". (see the "poop" post)

10.14.07 interNOT

Sometimes we think we know what we hear, but really we don't.

When we were at our tech meeting, we were all talking about the different kinds of schools in Ukraine. There are gymnasiums, which focus on humanities, and lyceums, which focus on scientifics, and someone in our group said "and there are also internet schools, too, right?"

He was really impressed that Ukraine had internet schools--what he pictured to be high tech, wired schools.

Instead, what it's called is interNOT, which is a school for orphans. Just a little bit different. Still really funny and it took a good five minutes to restore order to our group.

10.13.07 Red, Blonde, Pink.

Those are the colors that 80% of the women in Ukraine have as hair color. It's almost hard to find brown or black hair! And when I say red, I mean Very Bright like a brilliant burgundy or fire engine red. And pink. Like pink. And apparently these colors are totally appropriate for teachers to have. Wild! I may end up dying my hair red if it's not too spendy.

My house: Okay, first of all it's on the fifth floor. I think I climb 60 stairs to get up to it. I already mentioned about the wild locking mechanism, and after you open the door, there's an inner door that's padded like a vinyl seat cushion. The dog then greets you--well, she greets me and would bark at you because she doesn't know you, of course!

You walk into a room and there's a...I can't remember the English word for it...it's like a small dresser that comes up to about your knees and has three tall mirrors on it so you can see your hair from all sides. On that dresser is the phone. Your shoes go to your right.

To the right is the kitchen, forward is the living room/my host parents' bedroom. To the left is the hallway and the first door on the left is the toilet room. Just a toilet. It's got a padded seat, which is going to be super nice when it's freezing and I won't have to set bare skin on subarctic temperature porcelain! The next door on your left is the bathroom. There's a bathtub, a mirror to your left, and a small washing machine to the right.

Straight down the hall is Tanya's room, and to the right is my room. My room has wallpaper on it--a grey/black floral design. It looks very 80s to me. My bed is pretty large, and there are massive cabinets every where. I have a table and chair for studying, and there's a balcony in my room where the laundry is often hung.

My routine: In the morning I wake up to my alarm. It's the Superman theme. Then I tell it to wake me up in 10 minutes. Then I tell it wake me up in 5 minutes. I then get up and fold my blanket and put it in the cabinet, I fold my sheet and cuddle blanket and put them in the cabinet, I put my pillows in the cabinet, shut it, straighten the decorative blanket on the bed and put on the decoration pillows. By this time my host mom has gotten up and peeked her head in to say good morning and has started breakfast. I put my stuff for class on the bed along with my bag. I pick out my clothes and change from my yummy fleece pajamas to long underwear, black pants, formal shirt and sweater. I then go eat too much breakfast. Always have coffee or chai. I sit on the side of the tub and brush my teeth using the bathtub as a sink. I then apply makeup, throw my crap in my bag and leave for my lesson.

Dom Dva. I have hit the jackpot. It means "House 2". Think Top Model meets Big Brother only with more rolling in flour (thank you, Amy, for giving me this description). Thanks to the power of my camera, I have recorded bits of Dom Dva for your viewing pleasure. Sadly, I missed most of the part where the model was attacking her boyfriend--I did catch the tail end where she was flailing her fists at him and crying. This is High Drama. Think the Puck season of Real World. Exactly--this is Real World, Russia! The commercials are pretty damn funny as well--I took a video of those.

My host mom gave me a shirt. It's so Ukrainian! It's a light blue/grey color and it's ANIMAL PRINT! Sweet! I've never owned anything animal print and now I do. I'll be the most fashionable PCV here! heh.

Today I had a tiny bit of a tough day. I've noticed that Ukrainians have their personal volume set about two notches higher than Americans. Or they're doing what we do when people can't speak English--you speak louder. ^_^. My host sister often tells me what to do in a very matter of fact way "Julia, EAT. Julia, GO TO BED. Julia, GO TO BATH."


My first host sister

Which is fine and I take these as a) a rite of passage b) temporary c) a way of showing care. But still, there's a lot of loud directed my way and I absorb it well, I think. So my host sister and I went out to the 75th anniversary celebration of Chirnihiv being made capital city of this Oblast, and we were going around to food vendors and I was asking her what things were, and she yelled at me "I DON'T KNOW." I kind of lost it internally and held it in. A little later when I thought I was composed I said "Please don't yell at me for asking you what something is." Only my stupid eye started leaking and she said "please don't cry--I'm sorry." I have no idea why it got to me all at once, but it did. I think every once in a while things just overwhelm, and there's enough here that's NEW and DIFFERENT that sometimes really small things can tip over the internal order that was much more precariously perched than you realized.

10.12.07 I'm culturally sensitive and appropriate!

You have no idea how relieved I am to know that the posts I'd bookmarked for public entry in my other blog were approved! The director even remarked that my writing was very interesting!

Trying to talk about differences without sounding like you are making judgments is more difficult than you would think. Take the salo. It's literally a slice of pig fat you eat on bread. When you describe it, what words would you use? Whatever you thought about it, however much you are turning up your face at it right now, be aware it is "Ukrainian Narcotic." They love it and can't get enough of it. I tried it and didn't think it was bad.

Thankfully I've had the experiences of being an ESL teacher, and I've had the opposite experience: telling students to try something and they turn their face up at it. They judge it before they try it, they refuse to try it, they make faces. And here I am telling them about a wonderful thing! I wonder how they describe what I was talking about.

More about Ukraine!

First thing is first: When you enter the home, TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES! Really. This means always wearing your best socks. Unless you're in school, you will constantly be taking your shoes off. And since you wash your socks and undies by hand, make sure you don't get white. Nothing says "gross!" like dingy white (now grey) socks. Second: WASH YOUR HANDS! My host mom is constantly motioning for me to wash my hands. Ha ha! I've beat her at her own game and so far have had my hands washed by the time she's said it to me. Thirdly: if you're visiting, BRING A GIFT! Btw, it's okay to leave the price tag on here! I was giving my host mom a small dessert and, while walking, I was starting to tear off the price tag and my host sister looked at me strange and said "what are you doing?" Well, duh! It's rude to give a gift with the price tag on. Not here. In the US I've received gifts with the tags on and the person noticed, grabbed it out of my hand after I'd seen the price, pulled off the price tag and handed it back to me. Okay, to be fair, I've done that as well. Here, apparently not a big deal. Oh, and lastly: remember that if there's a trash can in the bathroom, put your used paper in there. I've probably mentioned it a few times already and will probably mention it a few times more, but it would be really embarrassing to forget and have the toilet back up and have someone talking in loud Ukrainian or Russian about your bathroom business. I'm not speaking from experience. I swear. Really.

Today: Today was a great day. I went to bed WAAAY too late last night. I was writing a huge long email to friends and had to read a lot of pages for my homework. I woke up in the middle of the night because my door was squeaking open. I swear I would kill for some beeswax and WD40. Really. Okay, not really. So I got up and threw a sock over the top of the door and it shut tight. Ah. My host mom, in the morning after I pantomimed the squeaky door (by the way I will TOTALLY PWN AT TIME'S UP when I finish my two year stint here), she said "JULIA" and walked me into my room and locked the door from the inside. Okay okay, but I only like to lock my door if I really need people to stay out. Is that strange? So I've now sacrificed a nowgrey sock to the door gods.

Breakfast was big, as usual. And dinner-like, as usual. I don't think most cultures have such clearly defined parameters for "breakfast food" as in the United States. Really. Don't believe me? Try serving cold cereal to your guests for dinner. Or pancakes and eggs and sausage for lunch. From what I've seen, most cultures don't delineate specifically "breakfast food." Of course I come from the one culture that does, and I wonder if I'll ever get used to it after 30 years of specific breakfast foods.

After breakfast, on to language. Yesterday we started learning how to use the present tense! Hooray! (I'm still hung up on wanting past tense!) So now instead of "Julia to wash" and pointing at the dishes, I can say "I wash" and point at the dishes. Rules! Also I can say "I study Russian!" and "I speak little Russian" (Ya gavaryou tchoot-tchoot Pa-Russky). I feel like a pro. And during language class I was able to match all the correct endings with the correct subjects. SCORE!

Today we started our unit on food. We activated prior knowledge and named all the foods we could. We got a lot, actually! We also got a lot of homework! Yai yai! After our lesson I had a tutoring session. I asked about some words. I'm such a language teacher--I'm constantly saying "that ending means that word is an adjective, right?" and things to that effect. For me, knowledge of the language is as important as learning phrases. Well, for my longer term goal. Of course I want to know how to say things like "Repeat please", but I do want to understand the cogs and inner workings of a language as well--it's the language teacher in me. I got a Russian magazine called "Good advice". My teacher helped me read through part of it. We looked at the recipe section and through the index. I'm really excited about the words I can recognize. Even later today when I heard people speaking out of context and I was able to connect that with meaning, it was so exciting!

After the lesson I made my way to the bazaar. I found my host mom's booth--she sells shirts and jackets, and I took oodles of pictures of the "Ukrainski fashion" for my "Amerikanski padrooga". I was able to ask them if I could take pictures ("Harasho?" and pointing at the camera) and able to indicate that in the US we don't bling out our jeans and don't usually wear runway model boots. So yeah, most of my pictures from the bazaar are of jeans butts (they were laid out and folded, not on people!) and boots. I got some great pictures of the bazaar as well--some booths and a great shot of the church overlooking the bazaar.

I also relearned the sneaky way of taking pictures. Looking like you're "Just holding" the camera down by your waist, but you're serruptitiously snapping pictures with your thumb. It's not that I'm trying to be all Cloak and Dagger, but people look at you strangely enough just because you're American, so having them not stare MORE is a good thing.

In the center I found a woman selling magazines outside. I bought a Russian Cosmo and told her I speak a little Russian and that I'm studying Russian. I saw she had a Harry Potter and was going to buy it but she said no and showed me that it was in Ukrainian! Good save!

I found a bookstore and blew my personal wad on a bigger Russian/English dictionary and a Russian Harry Potter. 45G!!! Wow. That's not a lot US, but it's a LOT here. But it's the one Russian book I really wanted to buy. My Russian Cosmo, Good Advice, Fantastic Four comic, and my Harry Potter are really all the Russian reading materials I need.

After the bookstore I went into the 2 Geese cafe. I bought some food and sat and internetted for over an hour. Did I mention I love the internet? I love WiFi. I like internet cafes, but I LOVE being able to use MY computer with its English default language that I can read all the warnings and 404 pages and understand all the menus. I really do.

I bought a Life :) card, but apparently it doesn't work! Argh. My host sister wants to go to the center with me tomorrow to talk to the boy who sold it to me. Okay okay. She was looking through my Cosmo and found a sample of this "untinted" foundation. Apparently "untinted" in Russia means you have quite the tan. After she smeared it on my face I smeared it on hers. It was very girlie. I'm having a lot of fun bonding with her. Apparently I translate the same to teenagers. All my teenage "friends" regardless of country end up mock punching me. What's up with that? It's fun and cute.

It was really nice to be able to talk to my host mom a little. I can REALLY see an improvement i my Russian. The first day I wasn't able to say ANYTHING to her, and today I was able to ask her if we were going to make borsch on Sunday (okay, I said "tomorrow tomorrow" for "the day after tomorrow", but still--communication!). I was also able to say "I wash" when she took my dish. hooray me!

Tomorrow is Chirnihiv's 75th birthday of being made the capital of this oblast. There are going to be lots of festivities in town. I'm pretty excited about it. It should be lots of fun.

Monday, October 15, 2007

My life has invaded my dreams!

Last night I didn't just fall asleep. "Fall" is too gentle of a word. It was more like I was bitch-slapped asleep. I started dreaming while I was still aware of my physical presence. I could feel what position I was sleeping in, I could feel my pillow, I was aware of the time, but I started dreaming other people were in the room. I dreamed Cindy and E and Larissa were in the room and we were having another Russian lesson in my room! In my dream I was actually laying on some of the Russian papers with phrases written on them (Like "otkooda vwieu") and they were talking to me in Russian and expecting a reply. In my dream/real life I tried to answer but was too exhausted. (I really wouldn't be surprised if I really did try to answer irl) I was also thinking to myself "Why are we having a language lesson this late!?"

The dream then morphed into a great one. I dreamed I was in Ukraine and met this great guy. We were speaking in Russian and I found out he was an ex-pat and had been living in Ukraine for the past few years. He really liked me and as we were talking I asked if he liked the show "Friends" and he said "No, I prefer Stargate." He then proceeded to show me his stargate tattoo! I practically flipped out in my dream.

Back to reality. I went to bed at 8pm and woke up just before 9am. I only woke up once in the night to use the bathroom. Amazing and rested I was! My host sister made me breakfast (The host families agree to make breakfast and dinner for us) and I washed all our dishes. She and I watched some music videos together (her: Enrique Iglacias is so good looking!) We also were looking out the window and giggled together at the two guys looking out their window in the apartment down the way who weren't wearing their shirts. She walked me down to the bazaar to buy some toothpaste (pasta) and some other things. Her shoes are amazing.

After we finished with our purchases (she helped me pick out an appropriate Ukrainian hair scrunchie. It's very blinged out with the sparkles) I went on to the center of town.

My frustration today: I lost the back of my phone! How the heck does that happen?

The center is about a mile and a half from my house. It was a nice walk and I started noticing different businesses and trying to memorize where things are in my community. I met up with Cindy at McDonalds (it's the only McDonalds here in Chirnihiv, so it's a great recognizable landmark). We started searching around for the internet cafe, and spent a good half hour looking for the sushi place, which we knew to be near the internet cafe. We stopped in a restaurant and bought some food and then found the library and studied for a while. I think I know my numbers. I at least can recognize them. I can produce about 80% of them.

When we got to the library a woman stopped us. Apparently you can't take your bags upstairs in the library, so there's a bag check at the front. I had to take out all my study materials and leave my bag. The great thing was that the lady had a piece of paper already prepared in English that had that rule as well as things like "Unfortunately you cannot check out materials because you do not have documents"

Upstairs there are all kinds of card catalogs and paintings on the wall and tons of desks/tables. We went to a room filled with tables and chairs. Great place for studying! Apparently in Ukraine it's not cool to study at a cafe or restaurant. It's kind of weird. I met a few Ukrainian students (I needed them to write "21" in Ukrainian for me). They spoke some English and Andrew introduced himself. They were history students!

Cindy left while I was studying and went to the internet cafe. I stayed for another half hour? and made my way over to the internet cafe as well. She was in line for internet. The internet cafe we went to has 26 computers. You give them XXX Grivnyas (their dollars) and they give you a receipt with a number on it. You go to that computer and when you are finished you hand the operator the receipt and she gives you money back. I gave her 20 grivnyas. Apparently it was only .70 or so an hour (that would be $.14US. Awesome.

I spent a good three hours in that internet cafe. I emailed my friends and family, I chatted with my best friend Selene, and spent a good two hours reading blogs. It was great. It totally recharged me. Remember the smoker analogy? Well, I got my full pack in and was able to leisurely smoke it. Ahhhh. That's what it felt like to me--slipping into a warm bath and not having any pressures. My host mom called when I had almost finished up and I had the guy next to me talk to her. I bought her some flowers on the way home--3Grivnyas ($.60US) and bought a ton of baby pears for only 2.5Grivnyas ($.50US). I waited for the bus and experienced my first EEK moment. I knew where my bus stop was and tried to get off, but the bus took off and I was like "what?" I got off at the one down the corner, but it's very frustrating not to be able to say "WAIT! It's my stop!" when you need to say "wait! It's my stop!"

Got home and gave the flowers to my host mom (I swear to you that if they're always that cheap I'm buying fresh flowers for myself every week in my apartment). She made me a great soup with potatoes and carrots and onions in it and flavored with dill. Mid eating that she brought me a plate of seasoned rice, two hot dogs and a tomato. While eating that she brought out a purple dish. It was very pretty--it looked like frosting or sour cream on the top which was purple from beets, there was a design in the top made of carrots, and a beet flower in the top. I told her I'd try a tiny bit (tchoot-tchoot) and in it was chicken and sour cream and maybe rice? Some was hard to identify. I told her it was so-so and thanked her for it.

When you eat in a Ukrainian home, understand that an empty plate means "Please give me more." So if you're done eating, leave food on your plate. Trust me.

My host mom and I then chatted for a bit. By chatted I mean drew pictures and looked up words in the dictionary. I read her my paragraph about my family. Here is my paragraph:

This is my family. I have a mother. Her name is Deana. I have a father. His name is Joel. My father is a carpenter. His hobby is repairing radios. My mother is a librarian. Her hobby is church.

Nice job, me! I asked my host mom about her family, and we figured out both our families between the dictionary and pictures, and she helped me with Russian spelling of names. Then into my room for studying and writing of blog. And now you're up to date.

10.06.07

I'm trying very hard to keep up with my journaling. It's Sunday night and I'm writing Saturday's entry. Not too bad. So far I've only gone a full day without writing.

We were given a task to complete yesterday. We had to go on our own to School Number 1 by 8:30. I totally had it planned out and was going to walk in the morning, but my host dad insisted on going with me. First I thought he just wanted to leave at the same time and he was on his way to work, but nope, he totally went with me. That was cool, though, because I already knew how to get there, so it just reconfirmed what I already knew.

Met everyone at 8:30am and started our Technical Training at 9am. We learned about what we're going to be doing in and for Ukraine.

As a teacher trainer, these will be my tasks:

--travel to schools outside the Oblast Center in order to conduct techer-training events.
--Conduct one day teaching seminars at Institute on English Language and on active teaching using communicative TEFL methods.
--Development of scopel sequence of teacher recertification seminars.
--Continue professional development and support of PC secondary school TEFL volunteers; peer technical support during site visits.
--Organizing/facilitating summer TEFL camps for teachers/students
--Participating in the development of English Olympiad materials
--Organization and facilitation of English clubs for teachers
--Development of teaching materials (visuals, cards, audio, video materials)
--Grading
--Classroom management
--Teaching in Ukrainian Schools
--Secondary Community projects

Our ultimate goals will be to:
--Work effectively within a Ukrainian educational environment demonstrating ability to implement current teaching methodoogies and techniques
--Use teaching skills to positively influence educational community development

During these three months we will end up doing about 10 lesson plans, teaching about 10 classes, and additionally teach three classes to our peers. I'm signed up to teach Lesson Planning, Extra Curricular Activities, and PDM intro (I have no clue what that is). We also have 4-5 hours of language training five days a week and homework every day (which I love! seriously!). It's pretty intense--like being back in school.

While we were in our lesson, I noticed my socks were getting wet. This is a "slipper society". Because it is so muddy during the wet times and the streets are not pristinely paved, your shoes get dirty and so every house you immediately take off your shoes. I thought I had spilled my water, so I looked around and noticed that the floor was REALLY wet. I looked behind my chair and between the carpets I saw a river of water in the hallway. Apparently this is one of the negatives of having a first floor apartment in Ukraine--when people flush toilet paper it can back up the systems, and it screws over the people in the lower floors. So her plumbing was backed up and we had to relocate.

After all our tech training we had a cross cultural breakdown. We have an hour each week to chat with the LCFs--Language/Culture Facilitators. We talk about what's happened in the last week, we ask questions, and they try to explain. Having someone break down culture is awesome. Being able to ask questions without offending is really great. We covered bathroom etiquette, housekeeping, food, etc. A few things that popped out were: apparently Americans drink a LOT of water. One of the ladies said that Americans laugh at Ukrainians for not drinking any water and Ukrainians laugh at Americans for drinking too much water. Their philosophy is that they get enough liquids from their soups (because borsch is practically manditory every day!) and so they don't drink water during meals at all. Another thing they said was that my earrings would have to go. They didn't exactly say that, but really, I have to take out my earrings. Big sigh. No zero gauge stretching these next two years. They also said that after 3 days someone staying in their house becomes family or "that weird person living in the house." heh. One way to distinguish between guest and "family" is--who does the guest's dishes? If the family insists on doing the guest's dishes, then the person is a guest. If they let the person do their own dishes, that person is family. Needless to say, that night I insisted on doing my own dishes.

After all that, my language group decided to meet at 3pm for a picnic with our families. There were about 15 there: T&M and their host mom and host brother, E with her host mom and host sister, Cindy with her host mom and host brother, me and my host mom and Larissa, our language teacher. E, Cindy and I all brought desserts. We walked for about half an hour through the forest and finally came to this really great area with fires burning. These two guys had left a fire burning unattended, but it was set up okay--on vodka bottles. What a great use of glass! The moms laid out the tablecloth and food and we all hung out and ate and toasted and drank. It was finally my turn. After all the "eat eat eat eat eat"s from host moms, I pointed to our desserts and said to the host moms "eat eat eat eat" (pronounced "yest"). ha ha ha It was really funny and they all laughed.

After food we played some games to help with our Russian. We had to stand in a circle and introduce the person to our left, us, and the person to our right, then the person to our right would introduce us, then themself, then the person to their right, etc. We also were randomly given names, we had to find the people and ask where they were from, what their hobbies were, and what their occupation was. I've decided that kids are a lot of fun to learn language with, because somehow they have infinite patience, can repeat the same thing over and over, and aren't hung up on understanding every word you're saying if you slip into English.

After all the games, we walked home. I'm starting to figure out Chirnihiv. There's basically one main street and a few minor streets, then some footpaths. It makes it easier to navigate, and I'm connecting dots, as it were.

When we got home I did some homework--copying some of the verbs I'm learning into my notebook, recopying the notes I took in class, then I about split my head open with my yawning. I was EXHAUSTED. I went into the bedroom and made the bed, then laid down and started reading my homework. When I finished that I was plumb tuckered out and I went to sleep at the crazy hour of 8pm. All the insomnia was finally catching up with me and it kicked my butt.

10.05.07 Same as it ever was

Am awake with insomnia. Apparently my body isn't doing as well with the 10 hour time difference as I thought. While it's 2am and change here, it's 4pm and change there. I'm pleased to report that your tomorrow is looking good. Except for the first night when I was EXHAUSTED, I haven't yet slept an entire night through. This is the third day waking up at 4am, 3am, 2am.

Today was a good day! Let me break it down thematically

Food: Breakfast was marvelous. The food I've eaten has been very rich, and while it is extremely tasty, I'm a little worried that I won't be able to leave at the end of two years because I will be too big to fit on the plane. I've had so many bready-foods. This morning it was delicious pancake rolls--they were about the size of a deck of cards, they were sweet like pancake batter, and perfectly cooked to a slight crispy on the outside and warm and doughy on the inside. I put applesauce on mine and was immediately chided by my Mama. (It was great, though!). I also had a savory pancake type dish, which was flatter and had less sweet and had bell peppers in them. First I thought they were apples, so the savory flavor surprised me. So this morning--Mama has 4 of the pancake rolls for me, a large savory pancake dish, and sweet chai (tea). You see my dilemma! Delicious food = more of me to love, no delicious food = no delicious food. But, we were running late, so this is also the first time Mama didn't continue to tell me Eat Eat Eat Eat in Russian. For dinner I had BORSCH!!! It was seriously the MOST DELICIOUS THING EVER. Holy crap it was so good. Mama Ala said she would teach me on Sunday. I also had applesauce filled blintzes. YUM!

Going places: This morning we all met at the center of town (McDonalds--there's only one here) and took another bus to the consolate building (I think that's what it was). We got back to our language teacher's apartment without her help! Hooray!

Language: I was able to ask for and buy sugar at the store! Hooray! Also, feel like I'm keeping on pace with the class. I do have hours of studying ahead of me, but that's how I keep on pace.

Relationships: I feel like I'm really bonding with Cindy. We have things in common, we have fun together, it's just good. I also bonded with my host mom's granddaughter. She helped me with learning my numbers. It's crazy to me how patient 5 year olds can be sometimes, and she has so much more of the language than I do. So seriously, we spent a good 30-45 minutes doing numbers. She's also started hugging me a lot. I'm not used to kids hugging me, and it's strangely nice!

Daily life: I successfully washed my own delicates today. My host family has a washing machine, but it's only for pants/sweaters, etc. Any smaller items (bras, undies and socks) get washed by hand, and so I washed my first "load" by hand today. The 5 year old kept me company and I was trying to teach her "Row Row Row your boat. I'm also starting to get into a routine, which I love. I love routines. Wake up, take off the pillows, fold the blanket, fold the sheets. Put pillows, blanket and sheets in the cabinet. Put decorative pillows back on the bed. Get dressed, eat, fix face (I'm actually trying to do makeup every day. In Ukraine it's things like that that show people you care. Seriously.), take vitamins, leave.

And of course: a new simcard! I can finally send and recieve messages! The nice thing is that receiving phone calls is FREE! Woot!

But, of course these accomplishments cannot come without trials. Here were my trials for the day:

Food: I am a big girl! It's hard not to turn down delicious food. In addition to feeling like I'm putting someone out by not eating their food, I love delicious food! I did manage to say "Excellent but diet!" and I scraped off the loads of sour cream she poured over the blintzes. I am totally willing to try everything, but it's hard when you don't know how to say things like "I did enjoy that slice of pork fat on my bread, but it's not something I can eat everyday."

Language: I don't think I have ever really had a full appreciation for how frustrating it is not to be able to express yourself. I'm so into clear communication and emotional conversation and I'm reduced to nouns and pantomimes. I can't say "Today I learned..." I have to just show them the pages from class. I can't say "I want to take a shower first and then eat" I have to say "doosh" (Russian for "bath") and hold up one finger and say "Yest" (Russian for "to eat") and hold up 2 fingers. Having a master's degree and not even being able to say "It's really beautiful here and I really appreciate how much work you've done for me to be here" instead I say "Spaceeba" (thank you) and "harasho" (good) a lot. It's like being a gymnast and being paralyzed from the waist down. You, of course, rejoice that you can move your big toe, but on some level you think "it's just a toe!!!"

Dope moments: I dropped money for a new phone and sim card. I'm an IDIOT--I had a triband phone and was completely caught up in the heat of the moment and spent over half my cash on a new phone. It was the cheapest and I REALLY REALLY hope that one of the other volunteers will take it off my hands. On the up side, my cell phone works now!

Being an addict is hard! Thankfully my addiction is to technology and internet and the only real physical hardness I have to worry about is actually physically bonding with my couch. The only true benefit an addict like me would have in going to a mud hut in Africa (most people's first thought about Peace Corps) is that the technology just isn't there in the villages. It's not even an option. Here, however, in my building I feel like I have all the cigarettes I want but no lighter. That's right--wireless network, I can connect, but CAN'T GET ON THE INTERNET. The times I have been able to get online have been a 5 pack a day smoker's equivalent of getting a few drags in while someone is watching you. A few minutes here, a few minutes there, the class is waiting, the person is waiting. I'm looking forward to Sunday when I can relax on the internet. heh.

The plusses really do outweigh any minuses which come from not being able to speak a language and not really knowing a culture. I love it here. I have wanted to be in a situation where I'm learning a new language in a structured setting for several hours a day, and in this case my expectations were far exceeded--only five people in my language class! AND, after the 3 month language training period I can have a personal tutor. My entire two years in Peace Corps! That absolutely amazes me.

10.04.07 First day in school

First day back in school

Last night I went to bed a little early and woke up around 4am. I kept hearing these noises. At first I thought they were the heater--a sort of metallic thwanging. I opened up the door to my balcony in my room and it was rain.

It was just light enough to make out the silhouettes. The city I'm from is huge and you can't but see hundreds or thousands of lights when you look outside. Outside of my apartment there were 40. Yes, I counted. The sound was rain hitting the metal roof. I was pretty wide awake, but really didn't want to be up at 4am, so I plugged in my iPod and earphones and put in Battlestar Galactica OST, which I often listen to before bed. I was able to fall asleep.

I got up at 8am and got dressed, hung out a bit, then my host mother, Ala, made me breakfast. I had a tomato-garlic-vinaegrette salad, cheese blintzes which were amazing!, tea with sugar, and was full. I was chided for drinking water with my meal, but I was uncertain why, regardless of how many words she used. Through her pantomimes I think she was saying that drinking water with this food would bloat my stomach?

Off to school!

We were a tiny bit late, but thankfully I wasn't the last person there. X and Cindy were already there, and we were waiting on Tom and Mary. We chatted about host moms and our host dads and the food and our rooms until they showed up. Then on to the lesson!

My studying paid off and I did pretty well on the reading! We did a lot of practicing phrases like "how are you?" "What do you do?" "Where are you from" and we even got to practice with one of the host families on the phone! It was a little scary and yet fun!

Then off to the market! We all went outside and were so happy to have Larissa, our trainer with us. We went in some local Ukrainian stores. They are so filled with sausages and desserts and liquors! We made our way to the bus, and I'm glad she was with us, because they were very different than the busses I'm used to. First, they are very tiny and are more like a van. The number appears on the side and the front on a yellow card. People squish in (Cindy and I wonder how long before we'll be able to squish as efficiently, because we're not so good at it) and pass their money up to the front and a lady gives change. There is no buzzer or bell, you simply wait until the next stop and get off at the right place.

We ate at a cafeteria style restaurant. For just about $4US I got a sausage, a tomato/cucumber/cheese salad, a bowl of mushroom rice and a coke lite. I split the sausage with Cindy, who split her chicken/egg patty with me. Yum!

Then off to the stationary store! I bought more school supplies. The store people are very nice. I was surprised that index cards seem to be unheard of, and that the paper type of choice is graph paper! Seriously--finding a regular college-lined notebook is difficult. I also bought rechargable batteries. Now I need to buy the charging unit, which is about $20.

Back to our teacher's house. We took the bus again and landed back by her house. Her house is right by a local market, and outside there are many babushkas selling potatoes and fresh veggies and fruits. At her house we were given our textbooks and homework. Did I mention I love homework? I really do--chances to practice in a controlled setting. She also gave me my second key of the day.

Ukrainian keys are wild. I've never seen anything like them. They remind me more of big toothed saws than of keys, and if I were to collect something new I think I would collect Ukrainian keys. To lock our apartment door from the outside, you must first open the door. Once it is open, you trip the double lock from the inside--they're two long pieces of metal bent near the ends, that when unlocked face up and down. When you pull them together toward the middle, they spring forward and lock. Once you've tripped the lock, you insert the key. No turning, just shove it in. Shoving it in springs the locks back, and with the key still in the door, you close it and then remove the key. Done! Door is successfully locked.

Vasa, my host father, picked me up and walked with me to our apartment. He tried to initiate some conversation with me, but my Russian is so poor that he and I ended up awkwardly smiling, but knowing that the other wanted to talk but couldn't. Same in the apartment. He showed me some pictures of his family--his brother and his mother. I showed him some pictures on my camera of my parents, but it's sad how few pictures I have of them! Mom--send more pictures soon!

When Ala got home she made me dinner. An awesome potato/pasta soup flavored with dill, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs with an extra dab of mayo on them, slices of pork fat to eat on your bread, blintzes, and cole slaw. Seriously. I had a little bit of wine with my food, and while I was eating, my host mom's other daughter, her son-in-law, and her two grandchildren showed up.

The family was really nice. Ala's son in law spoke a tiny bit of English, and he was very jovial and friendly. He shook my hand and introduced himself, and joked with me most of the evening. Joking can be hard to do when you don't really speak the language, so I totally give him props for making me feel included. One granddaughter was maybe months/a year old (how old are kids when they usually start to walk?), and the other was 7. I gave the 7 year old some Pop Rocks and a candy necklace. The daughter also talked to me a bit. Very nice family.

Then on to studying. I almost know the entire Russian alphabet, but I still pause on a few of the letters! ИЙУ always get me, and sometimes EЁ get me too. Grrr. I know, be easy on myself.

To study, I wrote out the alphabet three times. I also rewrote the conversations from class, and the vocabulary words. I got my host sister to record on my camera the conversations so I could listen and repeat a few times. I also practiced reading out loud.

I want to succeed, and I know that if I keep studying hard I can do it.

10.03.07 On My Way to Chirnihiv

We packed up and left Kyiv today. Packed all our things back in bags and finished our pre-training. I'm going to be in a big city with internet! Hooray!

Our bus left at 2:45 (though it broke down before getting to us, delaying our leave by an hour or two). We all stood around and hung out, played Mad Libs, and bs-ed until the groups left. Our bus was late, so we went to the store. I bought a bottle of Georgian semi-sweet wine (my favorite!) for my host family, and I bought some yummy milk chocolate for myself.

The store was great! There were a lot more American brands than I thought. It seemed like a regular grocery store except with different brands and you couldn't read the signs. They sold everything from liquor to fruit to Tide with bleach. The Ukrainian dollar is about 5.05 per US$1. Candy bars were ukrainian $3-$6, and the good wine was anywhere from Ukrainian $40-120.

We waited more and I had to use the bathroom. I'd heard about the "squatty" toilet in the main building, and I had to go pretty bad, so I decided to try it out. Thankfully I had two ladies with me to walk me through it.

First, I rolled up my pants legs, then walked into the stall. In order to get in, you open the door and walk up two stairs onto a platform with a porcelain sink in it with porcelain sides to step on. You are supposed to face the door, so you stand on the porcelain, face the door, pull down your pants to your knees, squat down and hold your pants out of the way. I was concerned about my hair fallin in it because my hair is really long, but I think I got through it okay. After wiping you throw the toilet paper in the trash and then flush. Success!

Finally got on the bus and loaded my many suitcases (I have THE most luggage from anyone in our group!). I immediately fell asleep on the bus. I woke up when we stopped, and I looked out the window. There were trees everywhere, and everything had an orange and brown color to it. Then you realized it was because of the autumn trees. Leaves were everywhere and to my right was a sort of tree park, and the trees seemed to go on forever. We were in a very old style village, and the host families were there to greet their volunteers. Everything felt like a Hans Christian Anderson story--it was absolutely gorgeous.

Peace Corps Policies

Today was medical and I had to get a series of immunizations. Now I feel like I was punched in the arm and it makes blogging difficult. Do you see what I deal with to get you the news? Pushing through the pain.

Blogging policies are that if someone posts anything publicly that they must be reviewed by a Peace Corps person to make sure they are culturally sensitive. This makes total sense, but since I am a very prolific blogger, it means blogging very differently, which means that for the most part most of my posts here will be friends only and not for public consumption. Anything posted publically will have been reviewed and okayed for publication. Really and truly the only reason for the friends only will be because I like the instant gratification of posting, not because I have a plan to write terrible things about Ukraine.

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It's like you're 5. I am going to be writing about my successes. Small things are really what get you through the day and through two years and being able to celebrate them with people is important. I plan to post daily/weekly/monthly successes and please, cheer with me!

My success: I was able to ask for my room key in Ukrainian and be understood! "Trista pedisyat david" means that my 359 room key is handed to me.

We were given our assignments today, and I am so happy with my results. I am learning Russian and I'm going to a big city: Chernihiv. There are a total of five people, including me, in our cluster and for the next 12 weeks we'll be learning Russian together for 4-5 hours per day.

My first Russian lesson! I learned how to say "My name is...", ask someone else's name, and say "pleased to meet you." We also learned to say "I want/I don't want..." and "Where..." (they taught me to say "where internet?" so I should be set!)

After class we went to a Ukrainian past and history and I don't think I realized how tired I was until I opened my eyes at the end and had a crick in my neck and the lecture was over. We then ate a wonderful food. One of the volunteers told me what it was, but I can't remember the name. It was rice and meat wrapped in a thin dough with a thin sauce over it. It was so delicious! Along with that we had cucumbers and tomatoes and bell peppers. I love their cucumbers so much!

The city I'm going to is Chernihiv, and it's the capital of the oblast with the same name. An oblast is basically the Ukrainian equivalent of a state. The city I'm in is huge and has several universities and museums and ballet and ballroom dancing. I'm crossing my fingers that they have swing dancing!

So I made up my Russian flashcards and am going to go play some games with my clustermates. I'm very excited and can't wait to learn more!

10.01.07 First Impressions

So I spent Saturday night packing until 3:30am. We had to be downstairs at 8am with our luggage, and I didn't totally finish packing things up until 7:50am. Thankfully I made it down to the lobby in time. Thankfully also, one of my group members only had one check in baggage, so she let me "use" her and she offered to check in one of my bags. Thank you, Kelly!

Went out to breakfast with Emily, my roommate. Well, we searched. We did stop in at Walgreens to pick up some shoe insoles for me, since I apparently ate through my old ones. Got some snackies for the road as well.

On the way back to the hotel we passed a vendor. Score! I ordered a breakfast sandwich and a kielbasa. I didn't plan to eat them all, and in fact, gave half of my breakfast to another volunteer. The vendor's name was Muhammad. Very nice man and I think he probably undercharged us.

We got on the bus and headed for the airport--JFK in NYC. It was my first trip to NY and I got a bunch of pictures from the bus. My first time seeing the Statue of Liberty! MFI (my first impression) of the Statue of Liberty: It's VERY green! Also it must be really cool to be able to see that daily, the way in Seattle we see Mt. Rainier or the Space Needle daily. Something touristy for tourists, but an integral part of daily life for residents.

MFI of NY: The apartments are JUST like the Cosby show! Shoved up against one another, different colors, yards pressed up and gardens in the back. I think it would really create a cool sense of community. Also, I didn't realize people actually play handball! ha ha. I felt like I was watching a movie.

We got to the airport and it was a fiasco. We were split into groups of about six, complete with a group leader. My group got split up and Kelly and I were the last two to catch up. Got in the most massive line. Thankfully there was beautiful eye candy and German arm porn! This guy had the greatest arms and no sleeves. I had a little line crush going on!

At the front of the line the woman made me check in my carry on. GRRR!! $105 later and three trips back and forth and I finally have my boarding pass. Another line. Take off shoes, coats, belt, pull out laptop, oops, left a coke in there, drink it quickly, walk through metal detector, oops, left on my belt, finally success. Redress and repack and on my way.

Flying from New York to Frankfurt takes a long time. It takes several conversations, a book, naps, stretches, and even then you've still got a few hours left! My seat mate was Keith and we chatted about movies and tv shows and books. He is a big heavy metal fan and we had fun talking about everything. I was wearing long johns under my pants, and where I was sitting didn't get much air. I was so uncomfortable and sweating so much that I got up and changed out of them. I finally got a little sleep, but spent most of that time reading someone else's copy of Stardust.

Touchdown in Frankfurt! All the pilots threw down the football and did a dance. We got there late, but thankfully in plenty of time for the plane trip to Kyiv. MFI of Frankfurt: The men are delicious. I went to McDonalds in the airport (fast familiar food), and holy cow they have McRib! I got that, a coke, and a box of water. Seriously--a box of water. $9 and went back down and waited. We boarded and saw the most awesome posters.

The posters were four pictures, two repeated. There was a picture of Mars by a picture of the moon by the same picture of the moon by the same picture of Mars. The first said Madness, the second Romance, the third Romance, the fourth Madness. One had a woman's heel and a jalapeno with the captions: pain pleasure pleasure pain. Tattoos and henna: traditional trendy trendy traditional. They were amazing.

MFI of Ukraine: WOW! You could immediately tell the women residents by their SUPER pointy high heeled shoes. The woman who checked me in looked like a model--smoothed back hair with a rhinestone headband, glitter eyeshadow, mascara. Gorgeous.

The Ukrainian airport had a Heinekin machine instead of a Coke machine! Seriously! We got outside and it was SO HOT! We were greeted by Peace Corps people and they were so friendly and helped us out to our bus. We walked up these TALL stairs and onto a burning hot bus, which thankfully had curtains. I sat next to one of my favorite people: Anastacia. We were given instructions and walk around money and headed over to the compound for our training.

We were given a room with a roommate. My roomate is another teacher trainer. Very nice person and although we have little in common we're getting along really well. We had a Ukrainian greeting ceremony and dinner, a small orientation ceremony then went to bed.

MFI of our rooms: very practical. Small beds, very warm wool blankets, tiny bathroom. Everything in the bathroom is very tall. The toilet paper was unexpected--it is unbleached brown paper with no roll. It's just rolled up but no cardboard tube through it. The shower is very small and missing a small part of the door. I took a shower and it, apparently, takes a dexterity check of 12 to successfully take a shower. I think I rolled an 11.

Taking a shower in this building takes a few steps. Because the room is very small, you have to decide where to undress because there's not really enough room to do it in the bathroom. First step complete. Then the question is: where do you put the shampoo/soap. I ended up putting them on the sink ledge. Check. The third involves a combination of soaping up while balancing the hand held shower nozzle on the water control, then putting the soap down and grabbing the shower and turning it back on and rinsing off. I think half my water got on the floor and I completely blame my lack of dexterity.

Dinner consisted of a sort of chicken omelete--a thin piece of chicken cooked in an egg. It was very tasty. We also had cucumbers and tomatoes and a carrot/apple/strawberry juice.

I relaxed in the room and watched a few episodes of Weeds until I was falling asleep too much to follow the episode and I went to sleep.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

I'm definitely going to Ukraine!

I'm so excited about this! I found out today that my passport came through! I'm so glad I sent them. The guy sounded doubtful, but I said "Let's send them anyway and see what happens." And it did!

Up until this point I'd been very ambivalent--maybe I was going, maybe I wasn't. It was hard to get too geared up for things because I wasn't sure if I was going or not. Now I know I am. And now I'm feeling a bit of crunch time panic! Ack!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Behind on paperwork

I am so behind. I was supposed to turn in my Pre-Service TEFL test report by August 31, my learning style by August 30, and my passport papers by, oh, five years ago (it feels like).

I sent the two emailable reports tonight, and I am going to overnight the passport papers tomorrow.

There is a small chance I could not go this September if they are unable to process my paperwork. This would mean I'd be going later. *sigh*

All the moving pushed these deadlines to the back of my thoughts, and with the holiday weekend it didn't make it any easier.

Wish me luck.

Friday, August 17, 2007

My Peace Corps essay

I wrote this as one of my initial Peace Corps essays about my mission statement. There are some grammar mistakes (whoops!), but overall it really captured my enthusiasm and spirit as well as professionalism. Enjoy!

9/11/12 Updated to add: 
Yes, I did get into Peace Corps. I served in Ukraine from 2007-2009. 
 Most questions I get are asking for advice on how to get into Peace Corps. I wrote a new blog post about that here: 
Questions I've Received about my Peace Corps Essay
Please note that most of the questions you have will likely be answered there - I don't have much in the way of any more advice about applying, but I do have advice about the Peace Corps experience here:
Advice about Peace Corps from an RPCV  



Tonight was one of the best nights of my life, and it was exactly the reason I went into teaching ESL. I was invited to dinner by one of my former students. I went expecting a sit down dinner, with maybe four or five people, perhaps six, and instead was treated to an awesome Saudi Arabian dining experience. We had tons of amazing food and engaging conversations. Because we were outside of the classroom it gave us an opportunity to relate as people in an informal setting. It was a chance for them to show off parts of their culture they are proudest of to one of their teachers. I got to see a slice of Saudi culture that I would not have otherwise.

I have a true sense of wanderlust. No way would I ever be content staying in the same city, the same state, or even the same country while the world was out there to explore. I know in my heart that just being a tourist would never give me the satisfaction of really being a part of a culture. I am not content with the experience-equivalent of a fast food restaurant; I want to savor my experiences. When I first heard about the Peace Corps years ago, I knew it was exactly what I was looking for. The exchange of culture and ideas is what really breaks down prejudices. Until I started teaching ESL I was not aware of how many prejudices I had, and I am so grateful every day to break down my own stereotypes and the students’ as well. I want to know people outside of what the media tells me, not as a tourist, but as an honored guest. People like me, and organizations like the Peace Corps help dispel myths perpetrated by media and tourists. The Peace Corps would give me the chance to experience a people in a way that I would not normally get to and would provide a profound life experience—there is something important that happens during a volunteer experience, doing something out of love rather than out of need for money.

I have wanted to teach ESL for about as long as I have wanted to join the Peace Corps, and the reason why I have not tried to do either until now is that I wanted to do them right. They are so important to me that I wanted to make sure I had all the qualifications, all the degrees, all the preparation out of the way. At this point I have finished my Master’s degree, and am completely qualified to teach anywhere in the world, and I am pausing in embarking on my career for the chance to join the Peace Corps, because I want to start my career by doing something important and significant and not based on how much money I can make. Sure, money is important, but right now for me, the experience is more important, and I would be honored and excited to be accepted into the Peace Corps.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

I have a Picasaweb album!

Julia's Picasaweb Album

I'll be posting all my Ukraine and Peace Corps pictures in there eventually. For now there are random pictures, like my birthday party, a ren faire I went to, a luau I attended, and a Mariner's game. Plus, many more!

Friday, August 10, 2007

Welcome

Welcome to my adventure. Joining the Peace Corps has been a dream of mine for well over 10 years. It's finally coming true. I ship out on 9/28, headed for Philadelphia, and then off to the Ukraine on 10/01/07 until 12/21/09.

I'm in group 33 (if that means anything to you), and I'll be doing Teacher Training. From what I've determined, people with Bachelor's degrees teach EFL, and people with Master's degrees teach English teachers. Hmmmm. Interesting.

Right now I'm gearing up for going. I'm moving out of my apartment and in with my parents for a month. From there I'll be doing my Ukraine packing. Right now it's just put things in boxes and sort it out later. I'm also realizing I have TOO MUCH STUFF!!! heh I have to do some important paperwork this weekend--like send off for my passport, finish my resume, send in my statement.

One more week left of work (well, I told them I 'd help out for three days after that). Then PACK PACK PACK.

Again, welcome. This blog will ONLY be updated with items pertinent to Ukraine and the Peace Corps, so posting here will be minimal until the end of September.