The waiting begins tomorrow

Today I drove down to Olympia. My job in Korea requires I have a background check done and have an apostille. What is an apostille? I'm glad you asked. It's a bit like notarizing a notary. So after I went online to do a criminal background check for $15, I then had to print out the "your name does not match any known criminal names" page. After that I had to get it notarized by the Washington State Patrol. I could do this online, sending in payment there and then having it mailed to me, or I could go in in person and have it done within about an hour and a half.

I picked the faster route and drove down. I got there around 1pm, turned in my form, paid the $5, then sat down and read my book until it was finished (the paperwork, not the book). Next, I drove to the Secretary of State building and paid them $15 to sign a piece of paper. All done!

Tomorrow I FedEx all my paperwork in to Korea!

I've been getting very excited about this. I signed up at two different expat forums and started making connections, including meeting one very nerdy girl who will play boardgames with me. I also contacted the KOTESOL organization and talked to them about being a part time Teacher Trainer with their organization. I looked at another organization called KATE (Korean Association of Teachers of English) and they have a call for publications, so I will be writing a paper in hopes they will accept it! I also have decided I'd like to volunteer at a thrift store on the army base. 20 hours a month volunteering=free pass to get on the army base, which gives me access to free sewing lessons!

I am very excited about this. I am very much looking forward to doing well in my career.

The cat costs will be high, though. I was looking online and some of the fees were as much as $250 for taking a cat on the plane. Sigh. She's coming with me, regardless. Because how can you refuse a face this cute?

The next, new adventure: Seoul!

Since January I have been applying to various ESL jobs. I had a few criteria I was aiming for:

1. A salary of around $3000 per month
2. Adult students, 18+
3. Located in Korea or the middle east
4. Airfare and housing paid

I had an interview in January, shortly after applying for a teacher training job in Seoul. This phone interview went very well. I knew I would be working with the woman who was interviewing me--we would be colleagues, so I intentionally strove for a balance of professional and personal. For example, I asked questions about turnover rates in the company, and I also asked if the staff socialized in their off hours. I showed an interest both in the job and in the staff. We spoke for a very long time, and I was thrilled at how wonderful it seemed to go. She told me I should hear from her within a week or two.

So I waited. Nothing.

One important thing I learned from Ukraine is that the world moves at different speeds and urgency doesn't always translate. This is neither good nor bad, just important to note. While America often is very schedule and deadline focused, many other countries have a lackadaisical approach that seems to lack urgency. Knowing this, I was not concerned when I did not hear from them.

For the next month I heard from the woman twice to tell me that the director had not yet made up his mind (great idiom, right?), but that she would let me know as soon as she could. So I waited, but began applying for other jobs.

I've been unemployed since coming back to America. Money runs out, sadly. I had my heart set on the Middle East for a while, applied to several jobs there and waited to hear back from anyone.

I got a job offer from South Korea and Saudi Arabia on the same day. This was unexpected, but it gave me a lot to think about. I know I would like to live both places within my life, both are very appealing to me, so I made a mental list:

PRO - Saudi Arabia           PRO - South Korea
good food                    some of my favorite food
better money                 more freedom
extra plane ticket home      allowed to date
                          friends and family can visit
                          better job

Ultimately I ended up with South Korea, and I am excited about my job! Here are some of the nitty gritty details:

1. 20-25 hours a week teaching TESOL certification courses
   
2. 30 hours a week in the office
   
3. 4 weeks paid vacation
   
4. free housing
   

Additionally, I'll be right on the metro line only 4 stops away from my work. Convenient, convenient, convenient. I am very much looking forward to this new adventure!


_{Miau Miau will get to rack up some frequent flier miles! Ukraine to America to South Korea!}

For now I am waiting on paperwork. In order to proceed, I need to submit a Fedex package consisting of:

1. 3 visa sized pictures (35mm x 45mm)
   
2. my original diplomas (this is very normal for Korea)
   
3. current resume
   
4. 2 official transcripts from each school
   
5. criminal background check with a special signature from someone in Olympia, WA
   
6. signed contract
   

Thankfully a few weeks ago I contacted my schools and asked for 2 official transcripts already. I have all but one of them, and I expect the final ones tomorrow or Tuesday. I need to print the visa pictures, and I need to drive to Olympia tomorrow for the autograph. Beyond that I am finished. They'll fill out the paperwork and I'll make an appointment with someone in the Korean consulate in Seattle.

I could leave in as little as 3 weeks. This is amazing.

New language goals: read and speak Korean. Let's hope it doesn't mean I forget all of my Russian.

Hope you enjoy my new adventures!

Changes to my blog

I will be making changes to my blog.

1. MORE UPDATES! I had a very difficult time with Peace Corps's policy about blogging. All my blog postings had to be first sent to my regional manager who had to approve them. For some reason that step caused a huge mental block for me. Every entry I submitted was approved, but the fact that I had to take the step prevented me from posting as much as I would have liked. My goal will be to blog at least once per week. I also plan on adding more stories about Ukraine.

2. MORE PICTURES! I went back and put a few pictures in to nearly every entry. I plan to upload and post pictures relevant to the journal entries. Pictures make things more interesting, break up the monotony of words, and are fun! Plus, it means I'd be uploading my pics to the Internet. Sadly, after coming home, my hard drive failed and I lost every picture I took in Ukraine. :( Uploading them will help prevent that from happening.


_{See how much more interesting this is? :) It is I, at Beth's!}

3. MORE ADVENTURES! While I do love sitting around and watching tv more than your average bear, it doesn't really make for interesting blog posts. So to remedy that, I shall have more adventures.

4. MORE INFORMATION! I'm an English teacher and I find language fascinating. I find that in general most people don't have a strong level of awareness about their language. For example, if I asked you which idioms you use most, could you tell me? I know many of the ones I use a lot, such as "yanking my chain" or "on the fence" "pick you up (in a car)" or even "change my mind." They seem like "normal" English to most Americans, but they are idioms and their meanings are unintelligible unless you learned it as a phrase. I find this very interesting.

5. MORE TAGS! Tags are useful and should be used!

I hope you continue to read as I continue to write! Thank you again!

Goodbye, Ukraine

I am no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer. I am now a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. Those four initials, RPCV, will follow me for the rest of my life. I will forever be an RPCV.

I finished my Peace Corps service in November, 2009. I haven't written about it because I felt like my emotions have been too close to the surface.

Leaving Peace Corps is not quite as simple as it should be. First, there is all the paperwork. They give you two papers that must be filled with signatures. These items range from: closing out your bank account, to getting your final dentist checkup, to receiving your plane ticket home. This is impossible to do in a single day. I started mine very early and thankfully finished very early.

I am happy to say that before I left I was able to go to Lviv, finish my host sister's wedding cloth, and go to her wedding.

Here is a picture of the finished wedding cloth. I had an incredible time finishing it. I had to teach myself hardanger (cut work) for the ends.



Here is a picture of me and my host sister at her wedding. Isn't she beautiful?



Okay, back to the leaving part:

Then there's the process of packing all your belongings. Difficult to do, but then begins the more difficult task of deciding what comes and what goes. You end up with so much STUFF. Thankfully there was a wonderful PCV who took ALL my clothes. You have to remember who gave you what so that you don't accidentally offer it back to the person. You lug the extra stuff to the Peace Corps office to leave for other PCVs. You say goodbye to your friends and colleagues. I ran around asking people about letters of recommendation.

Then it's time.

My final day was spent with my best friend in Ukraine, Maryna. My friend Ira and her helped me do the final packing and cleaning. The night before I'd gotten maybe 4 hours of sleep and I was exhausted. They let me sleep while they cleaned. It was amazing. We hung out, packed, weighed suitcases, repacked them, weighed them again, and finally finished.

Going home, I was traveling with my cat. We went from Kyiv to Moscow, Moscow to New York, and New York to Seattle. My first flight was at 8:30am, so I hired a friend to drive me, Maryna, and Miau Miau to the airport. He came at 3 or 3:30 am and picked us up. We got to the airport, and Maryna waited with me until it was time for my flight. It was really great being with someone special on my last day. We really tried to stay positive. I miss her!

Finally I got on the flight and sat with Miau Miau the whole way home. It was such a long ride. She was fairly scared, so she stayed in her carrier the whole way. She only drank a little bit when we got to New York, and she ate a TINY bit of salmon on the way to New York. Overall it was not so stressful. Traveling with a cat means you have to have the vet check her over, she has to have her vaccinations and have a kitty passport :) Getting her through customs was a breeze. Total cost for kitty: $150.

Since "graduating" I've been living at home. I moved into my parents' house, stayed in Colorado for a month with friends, visited my grandmother and dad's side of the family for a week or two, and have been doing my best to see all my friends. I haven't been working, just living off of parents and Peace Corps funds. I have been going through my belongings, repacking, reducing, recycling, and selling. It's really nice to get rid of things, and amazing how much STUFF I've managed to save up over the years. I am enjoying and also stressing out about this process.

While my Peace Corps adventures have come to a close, my life adventure has not. I am, after all, an ESL professional with a passion for living around the world. This blog has changed from "PC Ukraine" to "Where in the World?" It is no longer simply a chronicle of my journey through Peace Corps, but a journey throughout my career. As such, I changed the format of this blog just slightly, and I hope you will continue on with me. Thank you for all your support.

Ukrainian party vs. American culture party

Party expectations in Ukraine are very different than they are in America. It's good to know this before you arrive to your first Ukrainian party, or before you invite your first Ukrainian to your party. The first is that Ukrainian parties are ALWAYS dinner parties, and they will expect a full meal.

Arrive to the party with some sort of edible/drinkable gift, such as juice, chocolate, vodka, wine, etc. In the main room there will be a huge table in the middle set up with chairs/sofas/stools around it. All the food will be set on the table.

Food that will always be present:

* a veggie plate with slices of cucumbers, tomatoes and sometimes green peppers
* a platter of cut sausages and cheese
* at least 2 kinds of mayonnaise based salads (such as krab+corn+chinese cabbage+mayo, or cabbage+peas+sausage+mayo, or eggs+onions+cheese+garlic+mayo, or apples+shrimp+egg+mayo) (oh, and those are real salads--I called my host sister up just now and asked her to tell me the ingredients for some standard mayo salads, so I wasn't being crazy with those).
* Pickled herring
* Sandwiches, consisting of single, small pieces of bread with any of the following on top: butter+cheese, butter+sausage, butter+sausage+cheese, caviar, mayo+small fishies
* Shuba (a layered salad with the following ingredients in descending order: chopped egg, mayonaise, beets, egg, carrots, onion, and pickled herring).


_{Don't be fooled! Thar be fish in that thar salad.}

* Flattened, fried chicken or fish
* Galuptsi (meat rolled up in cooked cabbage leaves)
* Hot chicken or cutlets
* Some hot potato dish, such as mashed potatoes
* Bottles of vodka, a pear soda which they call "water," congac or wine


_{The food keeps coming and you keep staying in the same place}

At the beginning of the party you would choose your spot around the table. This will be your place for the entire evening, so choose your companions wisely! You will then sit, eat, and talk. That is the party. Food would come out in stages, there would be tons of toasts, you'd be totally full, tipsy, and have made great friends.

Near the end of the party, your hostess would ask if you would like coffee or tea (black or green). Along with your coffee or tea you'd get sweet dishes, which may include cake, chocolate, or cookies. You will NEVER be served sweet things without coffee or tea. According to my Ukrainian friends, they're just not tasty without tea or coffee. So your slice of birthday cake (well, they don't really do "birthday cakes") will be accompanied by tea. :)

That's the standard Ukrainian party.

My parties, however, are nothing like this. As an American English teacher, I like to have parties that are high on culture and low on drinking. My parties are a great place to practice English, learn a little about American culture, and do some fun activities! My parties in Ukraine have been very successful, and they're something I plan to continue in whatever country I'm in, so I thought I'd share my party prep ideas.

Step One: Choose a theme
This step is crucial. If you're doing a holiday party, the theme chooses itself. Go all out and embrace that holiday. If you're doing a birthday party or a non-holiday party, it's important to select a good theme. It will drive everything else: the music, the food (to some extent), the costumes (if you're doing that), the games, etc.

My theme this year is Flora and Fauna.

My party is a costume party. Everyone is expected to come in costumes and bring food and drink to share. In Ukraine none of these are typical, so I make sure to tell them via sms. I also teach them the word "potluck" :)

Step Two: Choose the decorations/your costume
For my party this year I'm dressing up as a lounge jaguar :) I have my awesome jaguar-print pjs, will do makeup and make ears and a tail to go along with this and I'm done. For decorations, I bought some self sticking, dark green scotch paper that I will cut into long, wavy grass and stick on the walls, along with flowers, butterflies, etc. I'm making a bumblebee pinata, and the like.


_{First time doing cat makeup! Pretty darn good if I say so myself!}

Step Three: Choose the activities
For me, this is what really drives things. This is the part I very much enjoy, and something that makes my parties stand out. If you have an awesome theme and awesome decorations, sure you can just let the party be, but if you want something great for non-native speakers, something that will give them a chance to practice English/learn about American culture, this is super important. Plus, it's fun for native speakers as well.

* Songs. I like to pick some songs to teach that fit with the theme. For my V-day party I picked "The Riddle Song," "Love Me Tender," "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" and "All You Need is Love." I print lyrics, my friend plays guitar, and we all sing together. For my Flora & Fauna party I think we're going to do "Jeremiah was a bullfrog," and not sure which else yet.

* Crafts. This is something new for me, but it worked really well at my Valentine's day party. I gave everyone the tools for making V-Day cards. That way we could hang out, people could chat, work on crafts, and have something to show for their night. For the Flora & Fauna I'm doing origami!

* Games. I like doing things like scavenger hunts or pictionary or taboo. For V-day we did a kissing game--one partner had a bright lipstick on and had to kiss their partner on the face as many times possible within 15 seconds. We then counted kiss marks. Another game was for a partnership to open a candybar together with their hands behind their backs. :)


_{The girls are counting how many lipstick marks Daniel has on his face}

* Food. By asking people to bring food/drinks to share, you ensure that you will have enough food, but not TOO MUCH food. I like to provide something theme-y like heart shaped cookies or red/pink foods for V-Day, or traditional Thanksgiving food for T-Day. You can do fun things like serve eggnog or spiced wine at a Christmas party, green beer at St Patty's day, etc. The more "traditional" or theme related, the more fun it is.
* Etc. For Halloween I'll do things like bobbing for apples, pumpkin carving and the like. On Valentine's Day, we composed proverbs about Love--I provided the word LOVE+a random word. They came up with gems like "LOVE is a HOUSE I want to live in always" and "LOVE is like WINE--it makes you feel good and you want more."

I teach people the word "mingle" and show them how to do it (really, they don't usually do it amongst themselves). I also occasionally like to have prizes to encourage certain behaviors. Want people to have fabulous outfits? Give a prize for best costume. Want people to put lots of effort into a game? Give a prize to the winner. It helps to let people know that ahead of time. Also, if you really want everyone in a costume, provide for those who have come without costume--for my party I'll have animal hats/masks for them to wear.

I make sure to tell people early, then a week before, then a day or two before. People are very forgetful, so it helps to have an initial invite and then two reminders. I also don't have drinking at my party. If someone wants to bring alcohol, they can, but I ask them to bring nothing stronger than wine, champagne, or beer. I like showing them how to make mimosas. :)

That, my friends, is something that takes up a fair bit of my energy in Peace Corps. So far I've thrown about 6 of these parties, and they get better and better. At my Valentine's day party I even had my English club put on a play! :) As you can see, it fits Peace Corps's 2nd goal very well, which is to teach host country nationals more about America and Americans. I put a fair bit of time and myself into these parties, and I've even seen results--I went to a girl's birthday party and she'd pushed the table to the side of the room and had activities! It was really great. People were surprised, but they had a great time.

Other things I've learned: If your party is big, it can be a great idea to have responsible friends take on this role: emcee, dj, bartender, even host. If you do want to have a bar, I recommend making a SINGLE party drink based on a SINGLE kind of alcohol. For my "high school stereotypes" party in America, we made a punch. For my "runway models" party in America I made the mistake of wanting a full bar, and as a result, half my budget went to alcohol. If I did it again I would serve just mimosas, and invite people to bring other alcohols. I also like to give people the opportunity to do different things. If the space is large enough, I like to have a quiet room for conversations, a louder room for games, a dance floor, etc.

Enjoy!

I designed a Ukrainian wedding cloth!

Okay, so I'm really excited: my host sister is getting married this fall. It is common for the bride to stitch herself a breadcloth--a long table-runner looking thing, with decorations on the two edges. I offered to do her bread cloth, and she was very excited. Then she said she'd rather me do their "good luck" cloth, or something like that. It is used during the wedding--laid on the floor and the bride and groom run to see who is the first to step on it. Whoever does will supposedly have the control in the marriage. I am so thankful for the links to Ukrainian patterns, because tonight the both of us came up with some designs for her cloth! Yes, yes, that is the Tree of Gondor on the top of one. We're going to see which her fiancee likes, but I'm REALLY hoping for the geeky version ;)

This is a rough draft mockup. It was us piecing together designs, so the proportions aren't exact, but it gave us a good idea.

NOW, there is one thing "wrong" on this. I plan to do the ends in a handstitched lace, which would REPLACE the greenish border at the bottom, but would be essentially the same design. Whichever design is chosen will be stitched on both ends of a long cloth. In the middle will be a ukrainian saying meaning: for happiness, for love (or something like that).
With the tree:

From Stroke of Midnight

Without the tree:

From Stroke of Midnight

[edited to add the following]

The wedding cloth was finished, though a little later than I'd hoped. Still, it was finished in time for the wedding. It turns out that the wedding cloth is what the bride and groom stand on as they are getting married. It literally covers the wedding altar, and as such, it has a very special place in the hearts of the couple; here is a picture of the final piece. I taught myself hardanger for this. Hardanger is the cutwork on the ends that makes it look like lace:

A fairly normal day in Ukraine (but a bit spendy!)

Today was a really fun day. On the docket for the day: picking up my boots, getting my clothes repaired (oh crap—now I am forgetting my English—do we say “repaired” for clothes?)

My boots are pretty sweet. I found a place that does custom boots. They will make nearly anything you want for a decent price—for me a “decent price” is less than $100. This is one price I absolutely compare with American prices, because I’m planning to take these puppies home with me! So this pair is knee high with the Battlestar Galactica logo stitched into the sides—specifically the phoenix/angel from the logo.


_{The boots in question}

So my friend Maryna and I plan to meet at 11:30 near the tank. Every town in Ukraine as “A Tank” as a monument to some war or victory or historical event. History isn’t my strong suit. We were both late, as usual. I had a baba bag with me—a very large, plastic, zippered bag that the locals carry. It had all my clothes to be repaired in it. I was wearing a pair of black slacks and tennis shoes and my winter coat because the weather didn’t look too bad. Man was I wrong.

While waiting for Maryna, I was happy to spot my favorite lady near the tank. She sells Piroshki. These are amazing. They’re (I think) potato dough with cabbage, potatoes, or meat inside, that are then deep fried. OMG DELICIOUS. I like the potato ones. So I ate that while waiting for Maryna.

It was then I realized that a) I hadn’t called the lady to confirm that I was coming b) I didn’t have her number c) I didn’t have her address. Oh well. We’d been there before and decided to wing it. We knew which marshrutka to take (a marshrutka is like a cross between a van and a short bus), so we waited. While waiting we saw a poster for So You Think You Can Dance, the Ukrainian version (something like Танцюють Всi). Turns out they were performing in Zhytomyr the next day!!!! I LOVE SYTYCD, and even though I had never seen the Ukrainian version, I knew it would be just as good.

So we get on the marshrutka and make our way to the boot lady’s house, only to find out she wasn’t there. Maryna had the woman’s daughter’s number, so we called and the lady said they would be ready on Tuesday. *sigh* So we made our way to the tailor.

Maryna thinks I’m lazy, I think, because I don’t repair small holes that happen in the seams of my clothes. J Whatever. I’d rather have a professional do it. I dropped off a bag of mine that had been splitting open, my jeans that needed to be hemmed, two sweaters with holes in the armpits, a coat whose zipper kept popping open and whose pockets needed mending, a pair of pants that had a hole, and my coat whose liner was literally in tatters. Total price 185 griven (around $20). Not too bad. SPENDY for a Peace Corps budget, but that’s what I get for waiting and having them pile up.

We went to the bazaar and I got one of my favorite foods—galuptsi with carrots. It is usually meat that is wrapped in cooked cabbage leaves, but this kind is basically spiced carrots wrapped in cabbage leaves. DELICIOUS. It was around this time that it REALLY started snowing. BIG FATTIE FLAKES. And the ground was solid mud. I’m in the city, but do we have awesome, mud-free sidewalks here? Nope. So it was snowing really hard and completely muddy. The snow felt a bit like rain, as well. I departed from Maryna and walked to the theatre, where SYTYCD would be performing, and met Tanya. By this time my right foot was COMPLETELY soaked. Blarg.

I found out that not only were there seats available, but there were GOOD seats available! So I bought a ticket—just one, because sadly my friends were unavailable. It is nice to have a friend there when you’re negotiating something like that—I did negotiate the ticket sale myself, but I had a backup translator.

Tanya went with me on the marshrutka home, and I had to walk across this nasty mud field to get to my house. By the time I got home, both shoes were covered in mud, my socks were soaked through with mudwater, and my pants were really wet at the bottom. Lovely. And tomorrow night—I’ll be going to see AWESOME DANCING!!!! WOOT!

Танцюють Всi! (Ukrainian "So You Think You Can Dance")

On Saturday I found out that Tantsuyut Vsi (Танцюють Всi) was on tour in Zhytomyr and was performing on Sunday. Next day. Tantsuyut Vsi is Ukraine's So You Think You Can Dance. I lovelovelove SYTYCD So much, and I was really bummed that in America tickets always sold out very quickly. Day before I figured I didn't have a chance of getting a ticket. Well, I was wrong, and I got a fabulous seat--4th row! It was 200 griven (a little more than $20). A lot for my Peace Corps budget, but well worth it. I've come to the conclusion that some things in life are worth paying a little extra for--tickets for a close row to something you love--worth it.



Here is my play by play of Танцюють Всi along with videos from their website!

I dressed in my Wonder Woman gear--Wonder Woman boots that I had custom made for me here in Ukraine, red/white purse, and white undershirt/red overshirt. I found my way to the fourth row, and sat next to Alla, a woman I met right then and there. We talked about dance, she told me her daughter wasn't interested in coming, and that this was her second event. We had a fun time talking.

It was supposed to start at 7pm, but it was closer to 7:15 when they actually started.

Everyone came out dressed like the Nut Cracker--the red and white soldier outfits. It was really exciting to watch, and the host participated in the dance! It was so different seeing in real life--you could focus on whomever you wanted, and you could really get the energy from the dancers! This video shows a show opening that looked exactly like what we had.

The dance after that was a 2-guy dance with Oleksander and Sasha. It was a swing/tap dance number if you only watch a few, this is completely worth watching. I could completely see Tranji doing it.

After that, they transitioned to a freaking sweet Argentinian tango piece with Colya and Toni. Amazing. She came in sweeping the floor and he was a douchey customer at a table. RED HOT!This one is way hotter than any other Argentinian tango I've seen on the American SYTYCD. Actually, it may just be regular tango.

This was followed by a pretty, contemporary dance with Michael and Dasha.

Sasha and Mariam did a really fun hip hop number to Rama Lama Bang Bang.

There was a super sweet number here using a table--I originally thought it would be a rip off of the table dance from the American version, but it wasn't--and it kicked ass, but I can't find any video.

A group number! This is one of my favorites: GLADIATORS! If you only see one number, this is the one to see

Max and Olya did a pretty cool contemporary number where she has a mirror and he's trying to get in the way of her mirror.

Olexander and Tonya did my favorite swing number!

Zhenya and Maria did an emotional waltz. Not sure if I totally got the story, but it looked like she received some letter saying he was going off to war.

A super fun and funky group contemporary number where everyone was dressed as bugs. They came out from the audience! It was really cool!

Masha and Denis did a fun modern dance number where she was dressed as a violin and he was the violinist.

Max and Toni did this really cool "voodoo horror" jazz piece. They made fun use of a cauldron and voodoo doll.

I'm really bummed that I can't find these next two dances as videos. The first was a women's only number. They were dressed as flappers and they danced to All That Jazz.

Then the men came out, dressed as 30's gangsters and did a dance to Wild Wild West.

Dasha and Michael did a Broadway Vampire number to KISS by Tom Jones.

Sasha and Vika came out and did a cool JIVE number that started out on a couch

Olya and Olexander had a super emotional modern number that has what appears to be a cool storyline: he dies in a car crash and she is left to mourn him.

They had two other cool numbers in here. The first was a group number that was set to the sound of wind and it was a contemporary number. Pretty sweet.

Then there was a really really strange number with these aliens? two people were dressed in blue latex and danced with dress forms. I didn't really understand it, but it was entertaining.

Olya and Colya did a freaking amazing jive to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B.

Dasha and Michael did a super sweet contemporary horror dance. Very fun! The song was "Remember horror number?"

Another fun group dance! This one was a sort of "Adam"/garden of eden story? Maybe? It's weird and totally fun and done to Santogold - You'll Find A Way (Switch & Sinden Remix)

I WISH I COULD FIND THIS VIDEO! It was AMAZING! It was a quickstep to Puttin on the Ritz.

Zhenia and Mariam danced a Jazz number that was--no joke--her cast as a Dominatrix.

This group dance was MUCH BETTER in person...The entire beginning is LOST in this video! What you can't see is that everyone is lined side by side, and one by one they start doing very mechanical movements. AWESOME dance, but poor videography.

Masha and Denis did a very dramatic modern number about a prince and a princess on their wedding night! VERY dramatic!

Victoria and Martin did a really cool smooth contemporary dance number. She started out sitting on a chair, but her partner was under a sheet, and so she stood up and started dancing with her partner covered in a sheet. Very cool effect.

Dasha and Michael danced a tango that started with them standing on two chairs! Cool use of the chairs!

Finally, they had a big band number that was really fun, and again, no video.

The absolute last thing they did was bring out a cake to celebrate Oleksander's 21st birthday--and they smashed it in his face, then they had a cake fight on stage.

It was really really amazing and I'm really glad I went.

What the heck do you do in Peace Corps?

I teach at a Teacher Training Institute. This last year I’ve taught such classes as:

Creative Writing, Teaching Speaking, Teaching Reading, Teaching Writing, Teaching Listening, Teaching Country Studies, Teaching Young Learners, etc.

My students are all English Teachers from Ukraine. Every five years they are required to take recertification courses at my institute. The first time they go, they are there for one month. The next time they go, they go for three different weeks spread throughout the year.

So what do I do? These are teachers of English, with experience in teaching English. I do feel qualified to teach them because I have had methodological training in school. And, more importantly, I have life experience—a lifetime of classes in American schools, where the teaching is approached differently. I also know such songs as "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" and "Goin' on a Bear Hunt" and "There Was an Old Lady" and "The Wheels on the Bus." So for me, my role here is to give a little bit of methodology, and give a lot of new ideas that they can adapt and use in their classrooms.

So here’s an example of a class I’ve taught and will teach again: Teaching Country Studies.

Teachers Will Be Able to:
Participate in experiential learning activities for teaching Country Studies to their Students
Modify and Adapt activities for their classrooms

Those are the basic TWBATs I have for all my classes. I’m a big fan of experiential learning, which means that you learn by experiencing it rather than just talking about it.
Warm up: Finish the sentence
Each Teacher gets a slip of paper. They will anonymously finish the sentence:
Is it true that Americans_______________________
Trainer will collect. Trainer will sort and read and answer at the end of the session.

For this class I try to give them a little information that they can’t get in the classroom, as well as a taste of several kinds of activities, so I set up three “booths” with samples of the activities. During my class they are not expected to finish all the activities, merely get a taste of them. I emphasize that so that they don’t get frustrated about not having enough time 

Station Activity 1: Map Work

ACTIVITY 1A: Spell and Find

Teachers are given their own un-labeled map of the US that they are to write on, a reference map labeled with all fifty states, a reference sheet of the fifty states and their capitals, and the following Scrabble Tiles:
A-2, C, D-2, E-2, G, H, I-2, L, M, N-3, O-2, P, R, S, T-2, U, V, W, Y

Teachers must:
a) form as many states’ names as possible using those tiles.
b) color in the state on HO1 (unlabeled map), using a blue highlighter

ACTIVITY 1B: Name that Shape

Teachers are given a labeled map of the United States, a reference sheet of the fifty states and their capitals, and shapes of unidentified states.

Teachers must
a) identify the states by shape
b) mark where the capital is on their map
c) write in the name of the capital.

Why did I pick these activities? For me, it’s just showing different ideas of things you can do with a map. Even more, it helps prevent training “answer robots,” students who simply look for the answer and repeat and cannot put together two pieces of information logically. It also uses different strengths: linguistic strengths (spelling words), as well as special intelligences (picture smarts).

ACTIVITY 2: Design a flag and quarter for Washington State

Teachers will design a flag and quarter for Washington State, using important symbols and information about Washington State.

Here, teachers are reading about Washington state, using art to show understanding, and putting together information. Again, moving away from being Answer Robots.

ACTIVITY 3: Seattle Festivals Logic Problem

Teachers are given a logic problem I created about four different festivals in Seattle: Gay Pride, Bumbershoot, Folklife, and The Freemont Solstice Festival. They are to fill in a chart telling which friend went to which festival, which month it was in, and what sort of festival it was.

Here, I’m using a logic problem to teach about the different festivals. The idea here is that they can put together information and have students read about it in creative ways. Again, using a different strength, this time logic and reasoning.

ACTIVITY 4: Jeopardy game

Now teachers play a small Jeopardy game based on information given in the class. This is not so they can play, but rather so they can learn HOW to play a Jeopardy game.

ACTIVITY 5: Is it true that Americans _________ followup

At this time I address all the questions that the Ukrainian teachers have put down about Americans. Most of the questions I get are based on food, personality, and work such as

Is it true that Americans have only one or two weeks of vacations?
Is it true that Americans don't like to speak about their problems (they do it with doctors or psychologists only)?
Is it true that Americans always smile?
Is it true that Americans eat fast food 3 times a day?

So you can see, when I’m teaching, I’m not simply teaching ABOUT America, I’m giving techniques for teaching about them—ones that many of them have never seen. And yet I’m still giving some extra information, such as: that handout on Washington State. And addressing common questions they usually have about Americans.

My job is tricky, because I’m not just teaching, but I’m teaching about teaching. It’s made it very interesting—not duplicating teaching techniques, how to give different information, how to collaborate, etc. I’d never done teacher training before, but I’m getting great experience doing it. And it does help that I do the same lessons again and again.

The final thing I do is that I make all my lesson plans and information available to all teachers, which is very time consuming. It’s one thing to make a lesson plan; quite another thing to write it in a presentable way for teachers taking your classes. I have to make the directions understandable to Ukrainian teachers, not just myself, so vague notes on how to do it are not acceptable, and neither is simply writing down “Do the Hokey Pokey”—because most Ukrainians have never played The Hokey Pokey and I need to write down directions for how to do it, since it’s not just for me. I’m also often giving lesson plans to teachers who have been doing this for 10-20 years, so I’d better have something great so they don’t feel like I’m wasting their time.

So that’s what I do for my Peace Corps “job.” I do teach less than most of the other volunteers, but as you can see, my time is really put into developing materials and presentation of said materials. There are more bits and pieces, but that’s my standard daily job. Hope you enjoyed it!

One year in Ukraine

Wow. It doesn’t seem like yesterday that I arrived, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been a year.

October 1, 2007 I stepped off that plane into blistering hot heat. We were greeted by a sign in English saying “Welcome to Ukraine,” and we were greeted by friendly smiles from Peace Corps staff, friendly smiles that are still dear to my heart. It was unseasonably warm in Kyiv, and we were all dying while waiting on the bus. We were herded, eyes unseeing, ears unhearing, into our pre-training site. Everything was strange, the faces, the policies, the billboards. It was all novel—the Cyrillic signs, people speaking in an unfamiliar language, people selling things by the side of the road, the cars driving like they were in the Pole Position game, the layouts of the stores, the prices, the inability to communicate.

It was all novel because it was all new and interesting and WOW this was why we signed up for Peace Corps.

We were given our languages—I was given Russian, and some people rejoiced, while others complained. Our first day of language class—given the letters of our names and asked to make it into our names.

Д Ж У Л И Я

None familiar but that little Y, which wasn't a Y, but an OO. I couldn't spell my own name: Джулия. Overwhelming! Being taught to say “My name is” and ask “What is your name?” Running to the really cute security guard and asking him “Как вас завут?” KAK VAC ZAVOOT? Then giggling like crazy fangirls when he told us, then promptly forgetting because our brains short circuited at having spoken to a really good looking dude in a foreign language.

One year ago. Rumors of who was going where. Whispers of “So and so already knows about her family.” Talk of possibilities. I vaguely remember the presentation. I remember Vova’s funny talk about the Village with Town-like qualities, and Larissa’s talk of Chernigov with bellydancing. I remember being told I would be in Chernigov.

I remember how much luggage I had. WAY more than anyone in our group. A comical amount of luggage. I remember hauling it to the busses. I remember finally getting on our busses. I remember really really really having to pee and everyone filing into an LCF’s apartment to use the bathroom before heading to Chernigov. I wonder what the babushkas in the building thought—20 Americans stomping up the stairs and waiting in a line to go into this little apartment.

I remember getting to Chernigov. My host mother, Alla, was there. She was a large, stern-looking woman. I remember being intimidated and timid and so I stayed on the bus and helped people get their luggage. Finally got to her and felt embarrassed about all my luggage. Proudly said Меня завут Джулия MENYA ZAVOOT JULIA and her saying her name, then having literally nothing else to say other than hello. So I stayed silent. She seemed so serious, and I wondered what she thought of me. I wondered if she was happy to see me, because she didn’t smile. I wondered if she was irritated by my luggage, since we had to STUFF it into the taxi. I wondered if she was weirded out by this stranger living in her home who didn’t speak a lick of the language.


_{My host mother, Alla}

I remember the first meal. Some of the food was good, some was not so great, but there was too much of it. I remember feeling overwhelmed, and wanting to make a good impression, and forcing myself to overeat because I didn’t know how to say no politely. My host sister was shy, but she spoke English, which helped. Perhaps a bit too much. She was 17 and from the village, and only now do I believe I understand who she was in relation to my host mom—I think she was my host mom’s cousin’s daughter.

I remember doing charades to ask when to be woken up. I remember in the morning being walked to my class, which was very close. I remember being taught to say “I have a family. I have a mother. I have a father. I have a sister. Do you have a family?” I was introduced to Yulia, my host mother’s friend’s daughter. Yulia was my age and she couldn’t stop laughing at how ridiculous I sounded—and I did. “DO YOU HAVE A FAMILY?” sounds pretty funny, no matter how you say it. I remember my host mother asking me something, which sounded like “Do you need a magazine?” And I thought “I don’t need a magazine, I have one.” Later I realized she was asking if I needed to go to the store—the word “Magazine” means “Store” in Russian.

I remember enjoying language classes, and we had so many. I remember feeling frustrated and anxious and not making friends during training. I remember just feeling overwhelmed. I also remember the feelings of giving up near the end. Then came swearing in.

We met our counterparts, we met the US Ambassador.


_{My counterpart, Iryna}

We swore in. I was proud to be an American that day. Taking the oath that all of us take:

I, Julia Johansen, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge my duties in the Peace Corps of the United States of America, serving Ukraine to the best of my abilities and demonstrating the respect and consideration due its people. So help me God.

This past year has been packed.

I’ve made several lifelong friends—some best friends, both Ukrainian and American. I’ve come to have some favorite Ukrainian foods that I KNOW I will miss back in the US. I’ve learned to live and thrive within my community. I’ve learned that the more you know of a language the more you realize you don’t know. I’ve learned to speak Russian—enough to have conversations, but not enough to be able to tell my landlord properly that the pilot light on my kalonka keeps going out. I got a beautiful Ukrainian cat who is the perfect mixture of ornry and sweet. I have an apartment that I’m only ashamed to show people when it looks like a homeless person has been living here. I’ve settled into good routines. I filled out my first grant. I found great organizations and great people to work with. I’ve found what it is to be a Peace Corps Volunteer.

And you know, I’ve had it so much easier than many PCVs. So much so that I often hesitate to complain about having to take bucket baths in my modern bathroom, or that I have to walk through a small field of mud, or that my apartment feels cold. No one gossips about what I bought, or how much money I spend on shampoo. I, in general, have consistent hot water, I can use the water from my tap, and I even have water after midnight. I can throw my toilet paper in the toilet, and my toilet is in the same room as my bathtub. I have Internet in my apartment. My town sells pesto and hot sauce and bento boxes and bleu cheese.

And yet there is still a need. I am a Peace Corps Volunteer, and this has been one interesting year in my life.