So usually not a lot happens in 4 days in Ukraine, but like I’ve said before, every time you fall into any sort of routine, something happens that turns all your plans upside down. So after writing on my blog on Saturday I went to the main library where they were having a movie showing in English, but since I was basically the only one there, and didn’t like the movie they were going to show, I got to pick, and decided to watch Grumpy Old Men to remind me of Minnesota. About half-way through the movie (which the Ukrainian girl who was running the program thought was pretty funny) I looked outside and it was snowing, so that made me feel a little better. Didn’t do a whole lot on Sunday, just did some lesson plan and some reading.
So woke up on Monday to go teach some 3rd grades at another school close by. Walked in a couple minutes early, and quickly noticed that there weren’t really any students about, but I thought hey, maybe they are all in class. So I stood there for about 5 minutes looking completely clueless, till luckily the teacher I was going to be working with walked in and said that the school was on quarantine due to a flue going around (which happens at least once a year in Ukrainian schools, the school closes for about a week so the virus doesn’t spread, and almost all of the schools in the region closed on Monday but ours stayed open) and while she had said something about it a few days before, in English, I still didn’t quite the message, so I was like, woops, oh well. Went back to my school and decided to say hi to my counterpart. She quickly told me that AROUND 1 or 2 we were going into Lugansk to go meet with a boy and that I would probably miss some of my classes.
“What boy” I asked. “Just some boy that is the son of one of the headmistress’s friends.” She replied.
“Why are we going?” I asked. “When the headmistress tells me to do something, I don’t ask questions,” my counterpart replied.
“Ok, good enough for me.” So at about 1 I got a call from my counterpart to meet her in front of the school. So we got on a marshutka and took it to almost the complete opposite side of Lugansk, near the largest university in Lugansk. There we met up with the headmistress who had been downtown shopping. We went to her friends apartment, but no one was there, so went to a nearby cafй. Well, I don’t usually eat breakfast (sorry mom) so when the first thing we ordered was a beer, I thought “this may be a problem, I haven’t eaten anything today, and I have to teach after this.” But my headmistress said Сhu-Chut (a little) so of course we got 1/.2 litres of beer and I got some crab salad (which is amazing here) and my counterpart and headmistress proceeded to talk for about ? hour occasionally with my headmistress asking me questions and my counterpart translating…
“Do you have a girlfriend? Why not? How old women do you like?” it was an interesting conversation. Then we went to the friend’s apartment where I was introduced to who I thought was the friend and her son. So we sat down and had the usual chai, and was told to speak English to the boy to get him to practice. So my counterpart and I asked him a few questions, and after about 5 minutes, the actual mother, uncle, and 2 aunts showed up. I learned the woman that I’d first met was another aunt who had lived in California for 4 months almost 20 years ago after a horrible earthquake in Armenia (which is where the whole family is from, and they moved here 13 years ago to study at the university and stayed) where she was crushed under the school she worked at and was taking for rehabilitation. They are an inspiration to me because when they first came to Ukraine they didn’t speak any Russian, but now they all speak fluently.
So, as a guest, I was force fed tea, Coke, cake, and then later champagne. I found out that I was brought to meet the boy and maybe practice English with him a couple of times awake in exchange for speaking Russian with the rest of the family and awesome Armenian food. So we left after about an hour, and with a slight buzz (even with the cake and salad I hadn’t eaten a whole lot during the day) I went back to school and had about 20 minutes before I had to teach a class. So I taught the class, and when I went to find my next one, there were only 3 students in school so I cancelled class. I found out that of 250 students that go to my school, 120 of them were at home ill.
So, day 2 of my adventure… I woke up at 7 this morning to teach my class, and waited Ѕ hour to find none of my students came to class… good times. Then at 10 I was picked up by the uncle of the boy I am working with and we drove through horrible traffic to the apartment (apartment #2 though, the whole family lives together but they have 2 apartments a few blocks away from each other that they go in between) and I worked with the boy for about an hour on English. After that tea was brought out again, and then the meal began… (after of course they let me use the internet in their house, which is really fast) there was baked chicken, potatoes, sausages, and of course bread. I didn’t want to offend them by not eating it all but they gave me so much, it was so good. I was able to speak some Russian with them, and we talked about Armenia a little and America more. Very interesting. Then I was told Thursday they were going to make me Armenian Shashlik (like Shwarma or Kebabs), so I am pretty excited about that.
Got back to school about 10 minutes before I was supposed to teach a class, and of course my students were late, but I taught a pretty fun class, I think they enjoyed it even though they were all half-asleep (I think a lot of them were sick) and while waiting for my next class I found that MY school had been put on quarantine. My students were really happy (I guess for the healthy ones its just a big party for a week) So in the last week I’ve taught about 4 real classes, and were not sure when school will open again…
So that’s my life over the last 4 days in Ukraine, hope all is well, miss you all.
With love,
Seth
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
it's actually winter
It’s a typical Saturday night in Ukraine. Reading another book from the library. As another volunteer said, you could get your master’s in classical literature if you stayed in Ukraine long enough, what he meant basically, as a volunteer you have A LOT of free time. While I teach 18 hours a week, and English clubs and planning, there is still a lot of time to read Newsweek (which is sent to me every two weeks) and a bunch of novels.
Speaking of Newsweek, I recently got a package from the Peace Corps and got the last 5 copies, and spent a day just getting my news up to date. It is really exciting (and a little surreal) to see how big of a deal Barak Obama is making. Well I was really excited that Hilary Clinton was running 3 years ago, its amazing to think what would change in America if an African-American former Muslim was elected President. (well, maybe not Muslim, but he has lived all around the world, and that is just cool!)
But it’s really interesting to be over here and hear what people are saying about our elections. I had one slightly unnerving conversation with a very educated young Ukrainian woman on Thursday about the upcoming elections. We were talking about Clinton and Obama and she basically said that the Republicans were for sure going to win because she didn’t think women made good leaders (even though I tried to point out that a fair number of countries have female leaders and are doing pretty good) and that she would NEVER vote for an African-American, because as she said “you can see it in their eyes that they are just ready to do something bad…” My mouth almost dropped open when she said that. I knew many Ukrainians were racist, but jeez… so that will be one of my goals over here, to make Ukrainians a little more aware…
But anyways, today I had a conversation with my counterpart about the elections and she said she had never heard about Obama but that she thought Clinton would be very good because she was so powerful. So its interesting to be over here in preparation for November. Also, I started talking about Vladimir Putin (current President of Russia, and supposedly going to step down in March when his term runs out, but who knows?) and my counterpart went on to say what a great leader he was, and how he was much better than Bush, (she likes J.F. Kennedy though) and how everything he does is good for his people. So it’s a little different from what I would experience back in Minnesota…
But now I will try to run you through a typical Saturday for one Peace Corps Volunteer in Lugansk, Ukraine.
Wake up at 7:00 to my alarm, turn it off, go back to sleep, till 9:30. Read a little, listen to music, at 10:30 take a marshutka downtown for my 3rd viewing of the circus. I get off at the central bazaar, and decided to walk a little before I head to the circus. I walk slowly, looking around me, stop and briefly look at the booth for the Communist party of Ukraine, with many newspapers, pictures of Lenin, and the Hammer and Sickle proudly displayed in front. Walk a bit more, see the Adidas and Nike stores, the American music blasting from speakers, and head to the circus to meet my counterpart and her daughter.
So, the circus, as I said before this is now the 3rd time I have gone, but luckily each time has been a new show. Anyways, today there were a lot of young kids, and the typical toys, balloons and snack food you find at any American circus. And yes, Ukrainian circus’s have some gymnastics, people doing things with and to their bodies that should be not normally possible, but beyond that, this is definitely a different kind of show. It starts off with 10 women in very skimpy clothing coming out and doing a kind of cabaret sort of dance (I think for the older crowd, but never can be sure, and they do this about 5 times throughout the circus) and then the very Ukrainian looking juggelers, dog-trainers, and clowns come on. You know it’s a real Ukrainian/Russian circus when the brown bear in a skirt comes out and precedes to skip rope, sit and read the newspaper, and catch rings with his legs… then the chimpanzee in a suit comes out, etc… It was quite a show. Went to a very glitzy café already decorated for Valentines Day next week to have ice cream, then home to make some early dinner.
Tried to do some lesson planning but mostly read. Good day.
Will try to write again soon.
ALso, snowed quite a bit last night, we are having at ypical Minnesota spring. its nwos at night, gets really warm during the day, then cold again at night. Not a whole lot has happened since last week. Hope everything is good where you all are!
With love,
Seth
Speaking of Newsweek, I recently got a package from the Peace Corps and got the last 5 copies, and spent a day just getting my news up to date. It is really exciting (and a little surreal) to see how big of a deal Barak Obama is making. Well I was really excited that Hilary Clinton was running 3 years ago, its amazing to think what would change in America if an African-American former Muslim was elected President. (well, maybe not Muslim, but he has lived all around the world, and that is just cool!)
But it’s really interesting to be over here and hear what people are saying about our elections. I had one slightly unnerving conversation with a very educated young Ukrainian woman on Thursday about the upcoming elections. We were talking about Clinton and Obama and she basically said that the Republicans were for sure going to win because she didn’t think women made good leaders (even though I tried to point out that a fair number of countries have female leaders and are doing pretty good) and that she would NEVER vote for an African-American, because as she said “you can see it in their eyes that they are just ready to do something bad…” My mouth almost dropped open when she said that. I knew many Ukrainians were racist, but jeez… so that will be one of my goals over here, to make Ukrainians a little more aware…
But anyways, today I had a conversation with my counterpart about the elections and she said she had never heard about Obama but that she thought Clinton would be very good because she was so powerful. So its interesting to be over here in preparation for November. Also, I started talking about Vladimir Putin (current President of Russia, and supposedly going to step down in March when his term runs out, but who knows?) and my counterpart went on to say what a great leader he was, and how he was much better than Bush, (she likes J.F. Kennedy though) and how everything he does is good for his people. So it’s a little different from what I would experience back in Minnesota…
But now I will try to run you through a typical Saturday for one Peace Corps Volunteer in Lugansk, Ukraine.
Wake up at 7:00 to my alarm, turn it off, go back to sleep, till 9:30. Read a little, listen to music, at 10:30 take a marshutka downtown for my 3rd viewing of the circus. I get off at the central bazaar, and decided to walk a little before I head to the circus. I walk slowly, looking around me, stop and briefly look at the booth for the Communist party of Ukraine, with many newspapers, pictures of Lenin, and the Hammer and Sickle proudly displayed in front. Walk a bit more, see the Adidas and Nike stores, the American music blasting from speakers, and head to the circus to meet my counterpart and her daughter.
So, the circus, as I said before this is now the 3rd time I have gone, but luckily each time has been a new show. Anyways, today there were a lot of young kids, and the typical toys, balloons and snack food you find at any American circus. And yes, Ukrainian circus’s have some gymnastics, people doing things with and to their bodies that should be not normally possible, but beyond that, this is definitely a different kind of show. It starts off with 10 women in very skimpy clothing coming out and doing a kind of cabaret sort of dance (I think for the older crowd, but never can be sure, and they do this about 5 times throughout the circus) and then the very Ukrainian looking juggelers, dog-trainers, and clowns come on. You know it’s a real Ukrainian/Russian circus when the brown bear in a skirt comes out and precedes to skip rope, sit and read the newspaper, and catch rings with his legs… then the chimpanzee in a suit comes out, etc… It was quite a show. Went to a very glitzy café already decorated for Valentines Day next week to have ice cream, then home to make some early dinner.
Tried to do some lesson planning but mostly read. Good day.
Will try to write again soon.
ALso, snowed quite a bit last night, we are having at ypical Minnesota spring. its nwos at night, gets really warm during the day, then cold again at night. Not a whole lot has happened since last week. Hope everything is good where you all are!
With love,
Seth
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
another week bites the dust
4 months down (20-22 months to go)! This is also the start of my 4th week of teaching. I will be showing all my students the current grade they are getting in class, so that should be pretty interesting. Also, started an English Club last week, where we played Bingo. Not sure what I will be doing with them this Wednesday, but I will think of something.
People back in Minnesota, has the weather warmed up at all this week for you? Yesterday the temperature here must have at least gotten up to 40f, and I was thinking, what the heck, this is February!! Ohwell, at least it hasn’t been pouring or anything out here.
So this weekend I headed over to Servodonetsk, which is a city of about 150,000 two hours northwest of Lugansk. There is another volunteer from my group posted there and she invited me and two other volunteers up for the weekend. I only have one class on Fridays so I headed up there at about 12pm. Got in at 2, and she showed me around the main city for a bit. She had recently picked up a small puppy off the streets and decided to adopt it. There are tons of stray dogs here, and I have definitely started to like cats a lot more than I ever thought possible, since dogs are just not so friendly over here.
Anyways, she showed me a wonderful indoor market that reminded me of the one in downtown Budapest, and then just walked around for a bit more.
At 7ish we went back to the bus stop to pick up another volunteer, and spent that night eating pasta, drinking beer, and listening to some good bluegrass. The next morning we woke up about 3 different times for the little puppy to be taken outside (every time I was very glad that I had not let my occasional loneliness to make me so rash as to get a dog) and then at 11ish we hopped on a marshutka to go horseback riding. Marnie (the volunteer in Servodonetsk) know a teacher at her school who’s daughter rides about once a week, so headed out to the stables. While I worked in the stable at my summer camp off and on this summer I still don’t know exactly what I am doing on a horse, so luckily I got a good one that just kind of plodded along. We got tested first to see if we were good enough riders to go take a walk through the woods, and luckily we were cause we got to walk down a sandy path through aspens and Jack Pines… very beautiful. Was the occasional group of Ukrainians having a little picnic in the woods, and even got my picture taking by one such group. Was kind of funny.
Spent most of the rest of the day just relaxing, and in the evening went to pick up one final volunteer who came late cause he had to teach classes on Saturday. We all went out to a very nice restaurant that had cheese balls, and buffalo wings (it was a nice break from borsch and vareniky) and then went to the movie theater that was close-by and after some hesitation decided to go see Alien Vs. Predator 2 (for all of those who don’t know, this is a series that started off with just Alien, then just predartor (with Arnold schwarzinager) and is basically Hollywood horror at its worst) but it was a cultural experience watching it in a huge theater and having everything be in Russian. IT was strange going to bed that night, thinking, THIS IS NOT WHAT I EXPECTED THE PEACE CORPS TO BE. Horseback riding, nice restaurants and American movies, its surreal at times, but always interesting. Took off early the next morning to get back to Lugansk and spent most of yesterday just reading and getting ready for the week.
Will write more soon. Miss you all.
Love,
Seth
People back in Minnesota, has the weather warmed up at all this week for you? Yesterday the temperature here must have at least gotten up to 40f, and I was thinking, what the heck, this is February!! Ohwell, at least it hasn’t been pouring or anything out here.
So this weekend I headed over to Servodonetsk, which is a city of about 150,000 two hours northwest of Lugansk. There is another volunteer from my group posted there and she invited me and two other volunteers up for the weekend. I only have one class on Fridays so I headed up there at about 12pm. Got in at 2, and she showed me around the main city for a bit. She had recently picked up a small puppy off the streets and decided to adopt it. There are tons of stray dogs here, and I have definitely started to like cats a lot more than I ever thought possible, since dogs are just not so friendly over here.
Anyways, she showed me a wonderful indoor market that reminded me of the one in downtown Budapest, and then just walked around for a bit more.
At 7ish we went back to the bus stop to pick up another volunteer, and spent that night eating pasta, drinking beer, and listening to some good bluegrass. The next morning we woke up about 3 different times for the little puppy to be taken outside (every time I was very glad that I had not let my occasional loneliness to make me so rash as to get a dog) and then at 11ish we hopped on a marshutka to go horseback riding. Marnie (the volunteer in Servodonetsk) know a teacher at her school who’s daughter rides about once a week, so headed out to the stables. While I worked in the stable at my summer camp off and on this summer I still don’t know exactly what I am doing on a horse, so luckily I got a good one that just kind of plodded along. We got tested first to see if we were good enough riders to go take a walk through the woods, and luckily we were cause we got to walk down a sandy path through aspens and Jack Pines… very beautiful. Was the occasional group of Ukrainians having a little picnic in the woods, and even got my picture taking by one such group. Was kind of funny.
Spent most of the rest of the day just relaxing, and in the evening went to pick up one final volunteer who came late cause he had to teach classes on Saturday. We all went out to a very nice restaurant that had cheese balls, and buffalo wings (it was a nice break from borsch and vareniky) and then went to the movie theater that was close-by and after some hesitation decided to go see Alien Vs. Predator 2 (for all of those who don’t know, this is a series that started off with just Alien, then just predartor (with Arnold schwarzinager) and is basically Hollywood horror at its worst) but it was a cultural experience watching it in a huge theater and having everything be in Russian. IT was strange going to bed that night, thinking, THIS IS NOT WHAT I EXPECTED THE PEACE CORPS TO BE. Horseback riding, nice restaurants and American movies, its surreal at times, but always interesting. Took off early the next morning to get back to Lugansk and spent most of yesterday just reading and getting ready for the week.
Will write more soon. Miss you all.
Love,
Seth
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