Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

So, it’s been a while, as I thought it would be, and I have a lot to say, as I always do. But don’t worry, I’ve made notes, and won’t forget anything. Right now (well, not as I put this online, but as I type it beforehand), I’m in my bedroom in my host family’s house in Bratslav. It is Christmas Day, and I’ve strung up the little string of lights that Kimmy sent me across the window (more on the presents I’ve been spoiled with later), and the cat is sleeping on my bed. I think it likes me, or at least tolerates me. Svetlana, my host mom, is preparing for her birthday dinner, and little host brother Roman is probably watching Japanimation dubbed in Russian. More on all that later.

So, way back when, when we still lived in Rokytne, we planned to have a dinner of American food for our host families and our neighbor, Lyuda. We began shopping in Kyiv, which was a little intense – it was nice to see a real grocery store where you can pick things up instead of asking for them in broken Ukrainian, but I also felt kind of like a four-year-old who’s been separated from whoever was supposed to be watching them in the store, v. overwhelmed. We also bought bags for all of the extra stuff we’ve acquired during training, ugh.

The next day, cooking went well, and I became the manic overseer telling people to chop and peel vegetables and figure out why a cup of beer was necessary for chili, etc. Our menu, again, was American chili, macaroni and cheese, corn pudding (which only Yulia and I had ever had before!! Where has everyone been?), cole slaw, potato salad, an apple pie to give to Lyuda, and brownies for us. We were going through matches like maniacs (you light both the stove and the oven), and tearing the kitchen apart for extra pots and dishes, especially for the massive amount of chili. We took a brief break to go by the school and give official certificates of thanks to our teachers, from the Peace Corps. Halina, one of the teachers, told us a really funny story about what had happened when she tried out an idea she had seen us use in one of our classes – I was co-teaching an adapted text from Jane Eyre with Jasmin, in which Jane tells off her aunt (? I’ve never read it), and I had the idea of asking the students to write what they would say to Mrs. Whoever if they were Jane. It was fairly successful, even the students who barely speak any English were able to write, at least phonetically, something along the lines of “I hate you.” Halina thought she’d try it with the same lesson later, and she had a student who had somehow gotten ahold of a book of English curse words/phrases. He responded with, “Mrs. [Jane-Eyre’s-aunt], you are a bitch, you are a witch, kiss my ass and my –” and then Halina was laughing too hard and left the rest to our imagination. She thinks curse words would be a good way to start students out in English.

The dinner turned out well, we had enough time and dishes to make everything, and Yulia made a paper table cloth with pictures and various Ukrainian words. I played my Christmas music (of which I have over 9 hours . . . yeah), and we tentatively served our guests. I gave everyone a little chili, which we think was too spicy for them, except apparently Jasmin’s h. mom was raving about it later. I thought it was great, though we did make it a little spicy (and I didn’t notice the beer). The salads are similar to those they have here, and the corn pudding and macaroni were more enthusiastically received. Yulia decided to play a tape that we had recorded about a week into Ukrainian lessons, on which we described our host families in really broken Ukrainian. There was Luke’s, which was a little sad (he solved the problem of not knowing many connecting phrases by saying “Who is it? Ah . . . it’s my tato/mama/brat etc,” a little like the “Welcome to the . . . how do you say? Ah, yes. Show.”), and I still couldn’t understand most of Katie and Jasmin’s, since they had a lot of phrases we never ended up using (“I . . . like . . . classical . . . . . . music”). I had managed to do mine in mostly complete sentences, and used only words I already knew a little, so mine was going a little faster and everyone was listening attentively until the part when, after talking about my family members and great-grandmother etc., I announced “Also, they have vinicky” – whatever it is they use to make brooms – and everyone burst out laughing, and Yulia had to rewind for us to catch the end.

My cooking must have done some good (even though I was recruited to bring home the rest of the chili and was, as far as I could tell, the only one who ate any of it later), because after about two and a half months of asking about twice a day if there was anything I could do to help, whenever I saw Vera in the kitchen, she finally gave me a job (besides putting away the sugar, or laying out silverware) – to chop ham for a salad. So that was exciting. I spent the last weekend packing everything into three big, heavy bags (one new from Kyiv), and several smaller ones. I gave out presents to my family, including the scarf (and the beach ball I gave to the older brother, who’s generally fairly reserved, was a big hit), and they gave me a clay vase with a Ukrainian cottage and a broom (vinicky, ha ha) on it. Last Monday, we got onto the bus for Prolisok and joined the rest of Group 31 for the end of training and Swearing In.

It was nice to see everyone, I think people have finally gotten to know each other a little more (no longer so much like the first frantic weeks of freshman year), and we were united in our fear of the next two years. We had a talent show the second night, and the Rokytne cluster had an act prepared – the three of us sang, and danced, to a parody of “Something to Talk About” that I made up, based on how just about anything a woman does in Ukraine can be taken as a proposition / sign of being a prostitute, or so we’re told. The only word we could think of to replace “love” was “borshch” – which we explained with the story of how Luke once turned to Jasmin and said “I borshch you,” and it became a sort of catch-word for us. Here, if anyone cares, are the lyrics:

People are talking, saying “good morning!”

We hear them whisper, mostly in surzhick!

They think we’re women of looser morals

We just ignore it, but they keep saying

We laugh just a little too loud

We stare just a little too long

We shake our keys a little too brazenly

Maybe they’re seeing

something we don’t, darlin’!

Let’s give them something to talk about . . .

How about borshch??

We feel so foolish in this position

Each time we smile it’s like a proposition

About this culture we have been learnin’

Now we’re convinced there’s no returnin’

We can’t be alone in cafes

Must not go to bars every night

Something we know will

Prompt a proposal, darlin’!

Let’s give them something to talk about . . .

How about borshch! . . etc.

I have continued to be spoiled receiving mail and packages, and the only explanation that I can think of for this is that I have better friends and family than everyone else. Which is fine with me, though too bad for the rest. Thank you to the Carters for their very thoughtful gift! I got a delightful letter in Spanish from Kristen, covered in highlighter illustrations, which confirmed to me that part of the reason I get mail is that my friends have boring jobs. Gigi sent me an adorable Christmas package, but it unfortunately brought to light a failing in the Ukrainian mail system – several things are illegal and will be removed from packages, especially when declared on the outside slip, and not hidden or wrapped in something. So just so you know, these things apparently include passports, money, food and jewelry. I didn’t know until last week, and I know that other volunteers have successfully received some of these things, but just so you know!!! So, I’m very sorry, Gigi, but I very much appreciate the thought.

Our coordinators came on Wednesday, and we met with our (Ukrainian) Regional Manager, who yelled out “That’s my favorite place in the world!” when I said I was from Alexandria, VA! She’s apparently been there on vacation, so I was a little proud. On Thursday we all got dressed up and went to Kyiv to be sworn in as official Volunteers. We heard from the U.S. Ambassador, who reported on Yanukovych’s trip to visit D.C., where he apparently bonded with Cheney over their love of hunting (seriously). That afternoon we stood up and vowed to uphold the Constitution, etc., and then our names, home states, and destinations were called out one by one – everyone laughed politely at the fact that I’m Virginia from Virginia (even Ukrainians).

I was a little traumatized when I realized that the next time Group 31 will be gathered together will be our Close-of-Service get-together, but I tried to get everyone’s numbers, etc., and we’ll hopefully see each other once we figure out how this country works (should happen sooner or later). We said goodbye, and I got on the bus to Bratslav with seven bags – three big, three small, and a massive “babushka bag” from the PC with a space heater, a fire extinguisher and a carbon monoxide detector.

The next morning I awoke to two more packages! The spoiling continues, this time by wonderful Jeff and Kimmy. I don’t have to announce people’s names on my blog every time I hear from them, but it’s a little exciting. My host family continues to be sweet, the father asked when I was going to America with him (this had to be translated, but still funny). I unfortunately had to spend the next day, Christmas Eve, watching the English Olympiad competition in the district capitol. I was getting depressed about being away for Christmas, which for some reason I didn’t really think I would be (this from someone who has more than 9 hours of Christmas music). It’s stranger than I thought it would be though – the 25^th is a total non-event here, it might as well be a Muslim country for the moment. The majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox, and even that Christmas pales in comparison to New Year’s, which is like every single holiday in one. All this, plus being in a new place without the other sympathetic Americans, was wearing on me – and then I stupidly stood up to get off the bus from the capitol, and lost my hat off my lap. So, I was in kind of a bad mood, but got some perspective from a call from home (“Virginia Learns Perspective: A Christmas Special”). I heard about Mr. Marvin’s accident (a very dear teacher from high school), and after that I was pretty much unfit for polite society. Another call from home today gave me more details, and I understand that he is expected to recover, which made me feel about a thousand times better (hope he does too!). I thought I didn’t like being away from home when everyone is happy and celebrating – it turns out I’m much more afraid of being away when they’re unhappy or something’s wrong. I’m sure you can imagine what the thought of anything happening to you all while I’m this far away is like. So, be careful, etc., save the sky-diving and other hijinks for when I come home, I’m sure you can wait a little bit.

Last night I was able to go to a Catholic Christmas Eve service with my coordinator, which was very interesting. We got candles, and sang “Silent Night” in Ukrainian – I was able to sing all the hymns in Ukrainian, more or less, because they went slowly enough that I could usually figure out how to say the next syllable in time. The priest commented at the end of the service on how the children should be allowed to stay home from school the next day (this was translated for me), which Lyudmila, my coordinator, told me was not allowed. They interpret separation of church and state here by giving no one any religious holidays. However, my coordinator and the school let me have most of today off (I was helped by the fact that another volunteer very frankly told my coordinator, on the way back from Swearing In, that I would quit if I had to work on Christmas). I went into school briefly so that the director could sign some documents (we have learned about how Ukraine is what people call a “High-Power-Distance” society – I swear it’s like going in to see the Godfather), and I came home and unwrapped presents. Thank you to all of my family, grandma, aunts and uncle for the very nice gifts, very much worth lugging all the way here to Bratslav! Then I took a nap, and the world looked nicer after that.

Svetlana not only lets me help make salads here, but wash the dishes! It’s exciting, believe it or not. It started snowing – this has apparently not been a “Ukrainian winter” so far, it’s not cold enough and hasn’t snowed, but this may change. That pretty much brings us up to date. The cat is still sleeping on my bed. I have decided to more or less avoid watching cartoons with Roman, if possible, because for some reason Japanimation reeeeally bothers me. Some characters don’t have noses. I really can’t stand it. But I can help with food – and Svetlana wants to learn some American dishes!

There is a two week break until January 17^th, during which I guess I will plan lessons or clubs, and try to figure out what I’m doing. I will also hopefully get to see other volunteers around min-January in our oblast capitol. Not sure when I’ll be able to post this, hopefully on one of my Olympiad trips to watch poor children try to describe their fictitious trip to London. Merry Christmas to everyone, and Happy New Year – miss you all, thank you for all of the communication (I even save e-mails), take care of yourselves!

Love, Virginia

Merry Early Christmas, and off to Bratslav soon

Hello! It has been a while, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to write again (I will, of course, just don’t know when), so I’m going to write everything that I can – prepare yourselves.

So, while Christmas commercialism is almost nonexistent in Rokytne (I mean in comparison to the displays you all were surrounded with starting two months ago), we are in a celebratory mood because of the end of training. After the interesting week that I wrote about last time, when training was fraying my nerves, things have calmed down and a lot of fun/funny things have happened. We’re finishing everything up, saying goodbye, and slowly getting the hang of things.

Dogs here often actually sit and sleep on their little houses, just like Snoopy! I see this one every day on the way to Yulia's.

I’ll start with some things I forgot to mention a week and a half ago: despite the many complaints I had that week, we did have a fun excursion to the Music School (often, instead of having music, dance, art or sports at schools, they have separate schools here which children attend after school or on the weekends). We saw a poet speak, who is apparently very well known, and although we didn’t understand the vast majority of what she said, it was still very entertaining. They began the presentation with several songs and performances in her honor, and children and instructors (including Yulia’s guitar teacher) sang some of her poetry set to music. When she spoke, she was very animated, occasionally recited her poetry by heart, and sometimes doing imitations of a little child speaking haltingly in a high pitched voice – it was really funny, even though we didn’t really follow it all. I paid attention because every five or so seconds I would catch a word and try to hear more – but it was always basic words like “woman” or “house” and never what connected them. We also had a nice trip to Kyiv, during which we bought books for our community project, and I got very nice letters which I will discuss more later . . .

A typical list of vocabulary that I present to students, attempting to explain through stick figures . . .

Our community project was a book drive for a local orphanage, and getting activity books and materials for the English teachers we worked with in Rokytne. It was good practice for the kinds of projects we’ll be attempting on our own for the next two years, but there were definitely drawbacks. For one, it was more or less presented to us as a “PC gives you money, you get people stuff” sort of operation than it is evidently meant to be – we were thinking of what we could buy more than how we could involve the community, so that’s something to work on. We heard descriptions of other groups’ projects at PST University, including fundraisers and Toys for Tots type projects, which made me wish we had gotten a clearer picture of what was expected. But anyway, we did our best, and were successful overall. An administrator at our school asked for donations of Russian and Ukrainian children’s books, and while we were encouraged to have low expectations, we ended up getting a lot of books from students! They were mostly well-loved (but certainly not in worse shape than the books in Rokytne’s library – almost all paperback books from the Soviet era), but they were perfect for our project. We had found several Ukrainian young adult fiction books, since many kids at the orphanage have trouble with Ukrainian, including a Harry Potter, and some colorful English flashcards about animals and holidays, and “Finding Nemo” in Russian. We went to the orphanage on Thursday to have a party and present everything. The three of us (me, Katie and Jasmin) were left hanging in the common room with the kids (about 28 live there, I think) for a while without a translator, but soon the older girls were beckoning me over saying “Excuse me . . . what is your name?” and practicing other English phrases. They got out the dictionary and everything, it was very cute. We presented the donated books from the school, and the things that we had bought to them as a Christmas present from the Peace Corps and our school, and they were pretty excited, the books were passed all around and examined and fought over (by younger kids), etc. A little about orphanages here, since I don’t think I’ve really talked about them before: apparently, most of them are in pretty awful shape. It seems that the one in Rokytne doesn’t have too many children, and has good sponsors, because it’s a very big facility (although the best face is often put on for visitors, etc.). Just speaking in general though, from what we’ve learned from current volunteers – many Ukrainians have a view that orphans are somehow dumb, or otherwise unacceptable by society (not sure the best way to put that). Many children in orphanages do have family and even parents, who might come to take them on vacation or to visit, but can’t afford to keep them, or are alcoholics, etc., who are not allowed to take care of them.

So anyway, we presented the books, and I read a little from the adapted Winnie the Pooh we got them (unfortunately we couldn’t find really simple, picture-heavy children’s books in English, so this one may have been a bit over most of their heads). Then they had a concert for us – two girls performed dances with original choreography to American music, a girl sang most of “My Heart Will Go On” (I was also treated to that song when I visited Bratslav), a boy breakdanced, and a girl and a boy did some swing dancing for us, it was really great. It was very informal, but all the kids knew who among them liked to dance or sing, or took lessons at the local schools, and would call out someone’s name until they agreed to perform. They were really talented, it was very cute. Then we had some cookies and drinks in their dining area, and I played Christmas music on my laptop, and turned on the “visualizer” so kids were gathered around, staring at the swirling, changing colors as the music played. We talked to the older girls as best we could in Ukrainian, and one had us sign her memory book. All in all, very successful, very sweet kids.

Teaching has also gone a lot better these past two weeks than it did that last week – it was good to see what happened when our novelty wears off, and what to do next. I managed to get the fifth grade through a lesson last Monday without too many giggling fits from the former culprits, and then was free to plan lessons without the textbook for the rest of the week – which sounds frightening, but turned out very well! The teacher I’ve mainly worked with – Faina – asked me to teach the 9th grade about the U.S. Government. Well, my ears perked up (I’m the “political one” in our cluster. I guess I can’t always be the “cute one.”) – and I planned a lesson covering as much as I could, but trying not to overwhelm the unsuspecting children (including my host brother, Vitalik). I ended up deciding on a lesson that focused on how there were three branches of government (I even drew a tree), where the President, House, Senate and Supreme Court fit in those branches, and how there were two major political parties (Katie, who I co-taught with, almost lost it when I started describing the “party animals”). They mostly understood, and I was very excited explaining everything, and we had a mock election between Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith. We had a poll on who liked Coke vs. Sprite, and puppies vs. kittens, and I then explained that Mr. Jones promised free kittens and Sprite, while Mr. Smith promised free puppies and Coke. I was for Mr. Smith, but Mr. Jones ended up with more votes, and the class clown (who last week claimed to understand nothing, and this week was calling out the answers – White House, Washington D.C., George W. Bush – faster than anyone), added an extra box on his ballot and voted for “Yushenko.” So that was really fun.

On Thursday we had our “demo” lessons, which were supposed to demonstrate our teaching level and how far we’ve come. As it turned out, only our technical facilitator was able to attend (who’s been watching us all along), but it still went well. Again, I didn’t have a lesson to go off of – Faina just told me to teach the 11th graders about American art galleries (because they had just read a text on British art galleries). This was a little less close to home than politics, but I borrowed some books on American culture from our tech facilitator, thought back to my art history class, and came up with a pretty cute lesson. The only real art I had was some Georgia O’Keeffe cards my mom sent me, so for examples of other major American artists and genres I was on my own. I decided on Pollock (representing Abstract Expressionism), Grant Wood (Realism? Maybe? Get off my back, I was far, far away from Wikipedia and people who know these things), Thomas Cole (landscapes) and Andy Warhol (Pop Art). I listed four major museums on the board – the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Modern Museum of Art, the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. After we went over vocabulary, I showed them my versions of the artists I chose, and they were very entertained by my art but didn’t laugh at me, and listened respectfully as I talked about the differences, and described how Pollock threw paint on the canvas, etc. They picked which museum was best for each, including the pretty Georgia O’Keeffe cards, and overall understood things really well – although I try to stick to really simple questions like, with the Pollock: is this a landscape? is this a portrait of a king? no?? then what is it??? (and they chant, “Abstract Expressionism”). And we even talked about abstract vs. concrete, very funny.

The third funny class we had, and the last class I taught here in Rokytne, was with Jasmin, again without a lesson, about poetry and winter. We’ve gotten a lot of PC material incorporating music into lessons, and it was definitely the thing to do in Bratslav, so when Jasmin asked me to plan the lesson, I thought I’d try teaching them a song, which I don’t think I would ever dare try in America – which is part of why it’s fun being the crazy American: you can really get away with anything. So I picked vocabulary words from the song (we taught them how “baby” can be a little child or a boyfriend/girlfriend), and had a dialogue about winter (good suggestion from Jasmin – I tend to talk a lot in class, always making sure, as best I can, that they understand what I’m saying, going over and over things until I see the lightbulbs go off, but that also means I don’t get them to speak as much as I need to), and then we taught them “Winter Weather” (don’t know who it’s by, I have a version sung by Peggy Lee? Yeah, another of my old-people songs). It was really cute, and they weren’t embarrassed to sing along (had my iPod with little speakers), especially when I sang with them, and even alternated boys and girls. All three classes were really useful experiments, and even if I have to stick more to curriculum in normal classes in the future, I will also have an English club for interested students where I can focus more on American history, literature and music and more fun things like that, so it gave me a lot of ideas for the more “country studies” activities I can do with them.

We’ve continued to get to know people here a little better: I met yet another great-grandmother of my host family (well, there are just two, but still) when we went to her house for St. Catherine’s Day (everyone made sure that Katie knew about this holiday); and we’ve gotten to spent more time with our hilarious neighbor, Luda. She still comes in and yells at us in surzhick, but we understand each other a little more now, and she very sweetly gave us each brightly colored scarves last week as gifts (yelling, “NOT DARK!! NOT DARK!” in Ukrainian).

We had a cross-cultural session this week on religion and curse words – didn’t learn too much new in the religion section (no one seems clear on who is supposed to cover their heads inside churches – young women? old women? married women?), but the curse word section was hilarious. Andrey (our link cluster’s language teacher) made the Ukrainian women leave the room before he taught them to us, and got really worked up every time we even suggested the possibility of our saying them (asking about pronunciation, etc.) – he was adamant that our “lips never form these words.” He just wanted us to know what we were being called if and when the situation arose, and who to watch out for (though I can’t see how I’m ever going to remember these silly words unless I say them a few times just to myself). He would give us various situations – one was when he was crossing the street to be the best man at his best friend and sister’s wedding, and, in avoiding an oncoming car, fell into a puddle. This prompted a three-line string of words that, when he translated them, had me laughing so hard I was crying, but I suppose I’m not allowed to reproduce them here. Sorry.

This week, we were supposed to give tests as our final training task, so I wrote a three page test (don’t worry, it was handwritten and I write big) for the Lyceum kids whom I’d been asked to teach one more time, this Tuesday. Katie and I got to school frantic about finding the xerox machine and making enough copies for our respective classes. We couldn’t find the librarian for the regular school, so I went upstairs to the Lyceum where I was told that my teacher, who I had just arranged all this with the day before, wasn’t there. I chose not to believe this for the moment, although her classroom was locked, and went downstairs to try more there. Still unsuccessful, so went to try the librarian upstairs. She, it turns out, was in the hospital, and further, I was told, my teacher was in Bila Tserkva (nearby city). I read in Katie Aird’s blog (http://katieinmozambique.blogspot.com/ if anyone’s interested), that when her students misbehave, “the Portuguese flows.” This seems to be the case for me in crises here – the broken Ukrainian phrases flow, and I generally get my point across. I managed to figure out that the other librarian had gone to the town centre, my students didn’t know whether they were supposed to have class or not, and, although I was willing to write out the test bit by bit on the board and make them do it without individual copies, they didn’t think we could open the classroom door. So, after calling our tech facilitator, I gave up – but it was definitely one of those funny experiences, and I didn’t care all too much.

Me and Svetlana, the teacher who wanted me to help her with English

That day we finished our community project by meeting with our two English teachers and, over tea and chocolate, giving them new grammar books and a map of America (that, unlike Plakhotnyk, doesn’t place Washington, D.C. by the Great Lakes). They’re both very sweet, and gave us a bags full of Baton bars (good chocolate bars here), and gave us each a little set of salt and pepper shakers (getting ready for that “individual housing” soon!). We asked them what they thought of our teaching, and they said that I have the right idea with discipline, but Katie and Jasmin are too nice to students, which was funny. I didn’t even think they had seen me be very disciplinary, I guess it’s just in my general attitude. I told them a story about what happened to a student who fell asleep in class in my high school (no names, but the others filed out, the clock was turned forward, and the student left alone to awake suddenly when the door was slammed – remember that?), which they thought was funny. So it was fun to chat with them, and we took pictures.

Yes, I have more to say! I don’t even feel bad, because I have no idea when I’ll have the internet again, and a lot has happened. Today, we had our LPI, which is our language evaluation test. I talked for about a half hour with the PC evaluator about various things – she asked me the difference between the Ukrainian and American education systems, which is difficult to explain in English, so that was hard, but it mostly went well, and for the “situation” in which I had to pretend to discuss problems with a landlord, I said there was no water (she replied, basically, yeah so what’s your point? Which made me fear for the future), and that my wallpaper was falling down. After the LPI, we were basically officially done! There’s nothing left of training but to meet with the city administration one more time, and to have a goodbye party for our families (and Luda) (and I’ll be able to give my host mom the finished scarf! etc.). I figured out a list of ingredients for another American feast, using the magical PC cookbook, and it will be intense but I think we can pull it off – we want to make (mostly from my strong suggestions) potato salad and cole slaw as sides, macaroni and cheese, chili, corn pudding (all in the cookbook!), an apple pie for Luda, and brownies. We made invitations today, hopefully it will all work out. Also, Yulia gave the three of us manicures, we swapped MP3s (a popular habit in the PC), and watched “Dirty Dancing” on my computer (so great. That movie has more depth than I remembered – I had forgotten the references to “The Fountainhead,” “freedom rides” and the Ho Chi Minh trail (sp??) . . . but I whooped when the Peace Corps was mentioned (twice!), and laughed very hard when the main character is asked “So, are you going to study English, Baby?” (“Baby wants to send her leftovers to South-East Asia . . .”). Yulia got a big kick out of it, and it’s always fun to watch a movie from home.

Speaking of things from home!!! I have been very spoiled these few weeks with letters and packages, and wanted to do some public thanking. I got hilarious letters from Mev and Little One (with important information like Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillipe’s break-up – I hear no news out here, people, the news is in a foreign language), and later in the week, a very thoughtful package from the Carpenters (thank you very much!). And today I basically received everything but a Christmas tree from my family, which was very sweet (our LPI testers carried the package in, as everyone stared in awe), and I am saving most of it for Christmas. I finally got inspired to send a few text messages home – feel free to try to text back! And I’m updating instructions on how to call here, on Facebook, since Mev clarified after successfully calling. What’s more – it looks like I successfully sent a package home, so once I get to be best friends with the post office people in Bratslav, I will hopefully send more of those. I hear that more things are coming my way – thank you very very much for all of them, it is very sweet of you to think of me.

Alright, that’s about it. On Monday, we’re getting on a bus to Prolisok with God knows how many suitcases (I probably need one just for the package I just got), we will be sworn in on the 21st, and I get on a bus for Bratslav on the 22nd. All of this involves no internet, so you’ll have to imagine it all on your own. I’ve been told that, from Bratslav, I can go to the nearby city of Nemiroff and use the methodology center’s internet for no charge, so will definitely go there as soon as I can, but obviously have no plans now. All I know is that I’m supposedly going to watch the Olympiads (English competition) on the 25th (no respect for us non-Orthodoxers), but also, that night we’ll have a party for my future host-mom’s birthday.

Hope you all are doing well – miss you all, and tell stories in broken Ukrainian about you all the time! Merry Christmas, and Happy Birthday to my Aunt Archer, keep in touch and will write to you again as soon as I can!

Love, Virginia

Being 7 hours ahead of you all makes me feel really efficient

Hello again! Not too much has happened since I last posted, training is winding up, to my horror (we actually have to move all of that luggage again . . . sooner every day), and we leave for Prolisok on the 18th, to be sworn in officially on the 21st, and I leave for Bratslav with my coordinator on the 22nd, somehow, hopefully with all of the things I came with (and a space heater, fire extinguisher, and all of the other binders and things that Peace Corps has been unloading on us since October 1st). I’ll put my host family’s mailing address up on facebook, which will be my address from December 22nd until I get independent housing, which should happen at some point (a landlord is being spoken with) – BUT I will have my own P.O. Box mailing address, which is preferable to making my host family the object of my varied mailings, but I don’t know the P.O. Box yet. So I will put that up when I do.

So, although not much happened this week, those of you who patiently received my weekly e-mails from Ireland know that I can make a very short, inconsequential story last for pages . . .

This week started out fairly frustrating, and for no particular reason, just a lot of small things building up. The frustrations are different than they would be in America, and by the same token the stress-relievers are different, and I’m still working on finding good ways to relax and de-stress. I was pretty reliant on the internet and reruns on TV at home for that, or reading the newspaper, etc., so here things are a bit different. And sometimes things just build up, one after the other, to the point where it’s funny – but you have to be in the right mood to laugh. My mood lightened around mid-week, and now in retrospect it’s (mostly) funny . . .

Long story short, in the space of one week, the following happened to me (highlights): the Peace Corps gave me two flu shots; I was kicked in the shin by a gypsy; my students decided that the novelty of an American in the classroom is no longer enough incentive to behave; and I accidentally corrected a research paper written by an American graduate assistant. So, it was just one of those weeks (those ones where you’re given extra shots, kicked, laughed at and handed plagiarized papers).

Long story longer: nothing was quite the same, it seemed, after I got that second flu shot. I was already feeling a bit sick from the food we eat at Prolisok (the only food in this country that has ever made me feel sick), and when I told my roommate I had gotten the flu shot, she helpfully reminded me that we had all received that one about a month ago, which I and the well-intentioned doctor who gave me both had forgotten. So for the rest of these events, I had the benefit of extra anti-flu, or whatever it is, running through my veins, for better or worse. I made it through the end of PST University (including a business-type seminar that included phrases like “service provider,” “parameters,” “impact” (used as a verb, not referring to what happens to teeth), and I was waiting for “human capitol,” but no luck), and came home for a Ukrainian Thanksgiving, etc.

On Saturday we went to Kyiv, and after staring at the internet for a while we looked at some souvenirs at Independence Square (where the tent village from the Orange Revolution in 2004 was). I bought something and, unfortunately, was then put in the awkward position of still having my wallet in my hand when a gypsy woman approached me and asked for money/help. I said I’m sorry, and put the wallet back in my bag, looking for a way out (there were a lot of people, but she was clearly pretty intent). She was mad, and pointed at a not terribly realistic, extremely round and high bump under her shirt. I repeated myself and, as my cluster-mates didn’t really notice what was going on, prepared to walk in the other direction. This was a little much for her, so she kicked me in the shin before I could leave. Obviously could have been a lot worse (lucky she didn’t just take my wallet when it was in plain view), but it’s never fun to be kicked in the shin by a stranger (or, I suppose, at all).

On Monday, the little fifth grade boy in the front row who used to hang on my every word and instruction, rapt to see what the new and interesting American would do next, decided that it was time to just giggle, throughout the class. He was not the exception. I’m used to laying down the law, to some extent, from my experience with American students, but it’s harder to harsh and intimidating (or, like one of my 5th grade math students said last summer, “Miss Virginia, why you gotta be so cold?”), when every word you say sounds like gibberish to your listeners. Will work on laying down the law with facial expressions and tone of voice alone . . . we’ll see.

On Tuesday, I taught for the first time at the Lyceum, a sort of specialized/magnet school held on the top floor of School #1, where we teach in Rokytne. They use British textbooks, and dress up for school, and the whole atmosphere is a little different. I taught a text about Harrod’s, which went well, although the students were used to translating rather than answering questions about the text in English (“Where do customers sleep the night before the July sale?” “In the street!”). Their teacher, who is very nice, asked me to look over a research paper that one of her older students had been working on, for some sort of competition. She mentioned translation that they had worked on, from Russian to English, but the paper looked to me about how a science research paper written by a student studying English as a foreign language might look – not brilliant, some rough grammar, but overall interesting, and most mistakes apparently stemming from picking the wrong term from a dictionary definition (haha – like I did the day we went shopping for Thanksgiving – I asked several people where I could buy a “tarilka” (dish) for a “sorochka” (magpie). Wrong pie.) It was a little long, but I like editing, so I gamely started correcting this 32-page paper about aggression, reading through all kinds of things like what Freud thought about aggression and displacement, and how non-human animals express aggression and blah blah blah, and how the student thought that cursing was a bad way of showing aggression, and how kids “nowadays” got piercings and “punk” (think it was spelled “pank”) haircuts to express aggression. I was patient, and offered suggestions and spelling corrections the whole way, up til page 26. The paper had been getting better, more fluid, with better grammar, and I thought, oh the student must be getting more comfortable writing in English. Then I got to the personal anecdote about aggression, and how the writer handled his or her house being broken into, and the stereo “hocked.” Then I read this: “As I was living on the below-subsistence wages of a graduate assistant . . . .” So. Not so much written by an 11th grader from Rokytne. To my credit, I finally understood what was going on, and went to bed. The next morning, I met with the teacher and student and tried to ask what parts of the paper were original and what not, pointing out that the student was not, herself, a graduate assistant (and that you wouldn’t call 911 in Ukraine, like the graduate assistant considered). They didn’t really understand – they admitted that about 7 pages were “borrowed” from the internet (that’s when the grammar got better – but still not perfect (stupid grad student), which is why I kept correcting and stupidly didn’t realize what I was doing), and they laughed and said, yeah, maybe that’s a little much to borrow, we’ll cut it down a bit. And that maybe they should have read the story about the break-in more carefully. I tried to ask if the competition required original work . . . yeah, it’s just kind of a lost cause. The teacher was totally fine with it, so I gave up, said “you’re welcome,” and went to class to ask my language teacher about it. Yulia said she didn’t even know what to say to me – it was just one of those things. I’m still really unclear on what parts of the paper came where, but it seems that if the student has connections or the teacher doesn’t care, then whoever is running whatever competition it is might not care either.

So anyway, things got better, and later on it was back to normal – normal being random children running up to you on the street to say Good Morning at 6 PM. Today, a little girl with red cheeks who I’ve never seen before caught sight of me from across the street, where she was with a little boy, literally ran across the street to me and said Hello! I said, Hello, how are you? while she was walking with me, and she didn’t understand, so I said Yak spraveh? and she answered OK! Then I think she said bye-bye, or something, and ran back to her friend – very funny. We also got a “Hello, Russia” this week, and “Hello, mis amigas.” Never know how they’ll come at you, here. Svetlana, the teacher at our school who wants to practice English with me, asked me about my religion this week – the first real abruptly personal question about religion I’ve gotten here! And I still haven’t been asked what I think about George Bush, or anything really juicy like that – they tell us to expect these intrusive questions and they haven’t really come to me.

Speaking of religion, New Year’s is coming up here, and that is a way bigger deal than Christmas (reezdvoh). Yulia explained to us that, while Ukraine was still in the USSR, there was no ban or anything on all of the Western movies about how great Christmas was, it’s just that they substituted “Christmas” with “New Year’s” in all the dubbing. So growing up, she thought all of those movies were about New Year’s. Even though Christmas is openly celebrated now (though Orthodox is in early January), all of the traditional Christmas images have been transferred to New Year’s – the tree, ornaments, Santa Claus, all those pictures are on greeting cards for New Year’s.

Some examples of typical Ukrainian lamps/chandeliers - equally appropriate for dining rooms and classrooms, apparently . . .

We learned a lot more grammar this week, and I’m trying to get a handle on all of these cases. Because of all of the cases and endings, there’s basically no need for prepositions or helping verbs in Ukrainian (or any verbs, sometimes) . . . you say two words and have the same meaning as about seven in English, you just need to know the right endings. There’s a different case for direct objects, indirect objects, locations, things/people you are with, and things you possess (a case which also, for some reason, applies when you say that you love male (and only male) members of your family). It’s so bizarrely direct and almost curt-seeming, that I always say it’s like “Bread good, fire bad” (my favorite Phil Hartman skit from SNL – where he played Frankenstein visiting a political talk show for a roundtable discussion on themes like fire, bread, and international treaties, with other characters like Tarzan and Tonto (who didn’t trust treaties) . . . and he’s doing fine but then can’t quite get past the question on fire, and ends up destroying the studio screaming “Fire BAAAAD”).

Not much else has happened, and I don’t want to go on for too long – but just a couple more things. Today we had a cross-cultural session on gender issues, and for some reason were told a story about a girl named Lucy who falls for the wrong guy on the wrong side of the river, and ends up being eaten by a crocodile. Somehow, who you blame for her death, and in what order, reveals your priorities. Mine go: love, morality, passion, wisdom, duty – in case anyone cares.

Little cousin Ivanka, and host brother Slavick. I submit the following: Slavick looks exactly like Alaric Bobby's younger Ukrainian twin. Agree or disagree?

Tonight, my host mom’s brother and his family came over, and the little daughter Ivanka spent a lot of time running around my room chasing a balloon, and then Slavik came in and did card tricks for us (I am always completely mystified by card tricks, I never understand them). We had a big dinner complete with several shots of samahon, and I listened attentively for like a half hour while Ivanka sat by me and told me all about her family’s trip to Odessa and the beach, and something about big waves and her dad swimming and her mom not being able to see them (maybe), and how it rained (maybe), and how they went to the movie theatre and got candy and popcorn, but she slept during the movie. She was extremely animated, and climbing all over her chair during all the stories, and was perfectly satisfied that I understood as long as I nodded and exclaimed and looked glad, shocked or surprised at the right moments. It was pretty easy to tell when I should do what (and the samahon certainly hadn’t made me impatient or particularly awake), so that was really cute.

Ok – that’s about it! Miss you all a lot, hope you’re doing very well, will continue to send out letters when I can, and of course love to receive any communication from you all (belated thank you to Jessica for a very nice letter!). So, keep in touch!

Love, Virginia

P.S. Here are some pictures that I was unable to post last week:

First, from my trip to Bratslav:

my coordinator, me and her methodologist

Then, from Thanksgiving!!: