Just thought i would make a list of books I have read since I arrived here 7 months ago today. Some of them were good, interesting, and some were just plain bad. Hope you enjoy.
Books I have read in Ukraine- 1 out of 5 stars
1.“Friendship Fires” by Sam Cook **** reminds me of home
2.“Assorted Poetry” by Walt Whitman ****
3.“Charmed Lives” by Michael Korta ***
4.“The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger * not as good as the
1st time I read it.
5.“Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides ***** Great read
6.“The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho ***
7.“Wolves Eat Dogs” by Martin Cruz Smith *** detective
story about Ukraine
8.“Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury ***
9.“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald ****
10.“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle: by C.S. Lewis ****
11.“The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway ***** 1of my
favorites
12.“The Great Gatsby” 2nd time
13.“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle” 2nd time
14.“From Russia with Love” By Ian Fleming *** much different
from the movies
15.“My Brother Michael” By Mary Stewart ***
16.“An Apple from Eden” by Emma Blair **
17.“The Promise” by Danielle Steel **
18.“The Middleman:and Other Stories”by Bharati Mukherjee ***
19.“The Shipping News” by Annie Proulx ****
20.“Java Spider” by Geoffrey Archer ***
21.“Deception Point” by Dan Brown ****
22.“Rainbow Six” by Tom Clancy **
23.“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”
by. C.S. Lewis ***
24. “Motherless Brooklyn” by Jonathan Lethem ***
25.“Vanished” by Danielle Steel **
26.“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling **** (guilty pleasure)
27.“Rabbit is Rich” by John Updike * Not a fan of Updike
28.“Postcards” by Annie Proulx **
29.“Twisted” by Jeffery Deaver **** intriguing Short Detective stories
30.“The Perfect Storm” by Sebastian Junger **** excellent look about “The Storm of the Century”
31.“The Secret Agent” by Joseph Conrad *
32.“Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls **** A classic!
33.“Dreams from My Father” by Barack Obama ***** Wonderful!!
Makes me truly hope
he will become the
next President of the United States.
34.“Go Tell It On the Mountain” by James Baldwin **
35.“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain ***
36.“ Plains Song” by Wright Morris **
37.“ May I Cross You Golden River?” by Paige Dixon ***
38.“Hill 568” by Zack Emerson *
39.“ The Hermit’s Story” by Rick Bass *** set of short stories, many about Montana. Interesting
40.“About a Boy” by Nick Hornby ****
41.“The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair ****
42.“The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien ****
43.“Philadelphia Fire” by John Edgar Wideman *
44.“For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway ***
45.“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” by J.K. Rowling *****
46.“Debt of Honor” by Tom Clancy **
47.“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain ***
48.“Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin *****
49.“The Man Who Invented Florida” by Randy Wayne White ****
50.“A History of the World in 6 Glasses” by Tom Standage **** interesting
look at what has shaped the course of the world!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Parents, they're an interesting bunch
Parent’s are an interesting thing, aren’t they. Most of us ‘young adults’ probably grew up trying to obey them as much as possible, but occasionally rebelling when we didn’t exactly agree with their point-of-view or rules. I wonder if every person reaches a point when they think, wow, my parent’s were really screwed up, or in my case, damn, they really had/have it together!
I would say that I listened to my parent’s advice fairly well growing up, but its not till I’m almost 23 Ѕ before I truly realize how much I owe to them. See, I am sitting here at a paint-covered table in my nice sized apartment just outside of Lugansk, Ukraine, yeah UKRAINE! A country that not so long ago was not exactly on most Americans available travel destinations, let alone having ‘tourists’ come visit you. So, after over six months of attempting to teach students here as a part of my Peace Corps experience, its kind of interesting to sit down and think about how exactly it is I wound up only an hour from a country that struck fear in many people’s hearts only a generation ago….
And I could ‘blame’ it on my sending in an application over 18 months ago to the Peace Corps and hopping on a plane from Philadelphia to Kiev, but it’s a little more complicated than that. I would have to say that some of it even goes back to my grandparents (so thanks Grandma and Grandpa). If it hadn’t been for both sets of grandparents setting out, working hard, pushing their kids, trying to give them the best, making them think independantely, there’s no way that my dad could ever have convinced (let alone thought it was a good idea himself) my mom to pick up our lives and move to Dhaka. (where the heck is that, I thought only 9 years ago) But again, here I am in a foreign world (still speaking very little Russian, languages aren’t exactly my strong point) with my parents only another foreign country away, my sister studying at a wonderful school in Minnesota after seven years overseas, my brother working for a wonderful company and married to the best sister-in-law a guy could ask for, and I have to say that yes, we are individuals who make decisions, but it goes back to Nurture vs. Nature. Nurture in this case definitely wins.
Another thing I wondered recently; parents often say how proud they are of their kids achievements and efforts, but do parents ever know or care how proud their kids are of them? Maybe its something I don’t say enough. If so I apologize. All parents, whether they don’t always get along with their children should know that at least a little, their kids are proud of them. Hey, I’ve made it this far, I am not addicted to drugs or alcohol, I have a job, life is good. So, I’ve got to say, Mom, Dad, I am proud of YOU. I always hear how you are proud of what all of us kids have achieved so far, but again, none of it would be possible without you!
I wonder how many parents of Peace Corps Volunteers realize how proud their children are of them, whether they be 23 or 79. Their parents must have done some good over their growing up to want to go out and give at least a little something back, huh?
While I would like to say that all of this was just random wonderings, but I have to again blame it on my parents, especially their recent (they are actually still on a train back to Kiev, which they will arrive to tomorrow morning) trip to visit me in Lugansk. I mean, come on, its not like Lugansk is on most tourist hot spots, but nevertheless they arrived in Ukraine last Saturday. I was sitting on a street corner near the apartment they had rented for the night because I couldn’t figure out how quite to open the gate, and there they were, after not seeing my mom for 9 months and my dad for 6. I was able to give them a brief tour of Kiev Saturday night and Sunday before heading off on the night train to Lugansk on Sunday. While the weather was pretty ugly almost the whole time they were here, they didn’t complain (well, not to much) and even were okay with sleeping on my couch for 4 nights. I was able to show them around Lugansk a couple of days, but I still worked two days, so they entertained themselves by walking around my neighborhood.
Again, it goes back to being proud of your parents… I understand that they have lived overseas for a while and traveled to almost 30 different countries, but it still takes a little courage to walk around (and run, which my dad did on two occasions with only a few Ukrainians giving him grief for wearing skimpy shorts while being out and about) eastern Ukraine without and language skills. I am sure they will send out an e-mail with even more description, but it was great to have them see where I live, how I live, etc. As I discussed with my dad, its one thing to try to picture where someone is living and what they do everyday, and quite another to experience it yourself.
I think that’s all for now, but again, thanks mom and dad for coming!!
With love,
Seth
I would say that I listened to my parent’s advice fairly well growing up, but its not till I’m almost 23 Ѕ before I truly realize how much I owe to them. See, I am sitting here at a paint-covered table in my nice sized apartment just outside of Lugansk, Ukraine, yeah UKRAINE! A country that not so long ago was not exactly on most Americans available travel destinations, let alone having ‘tourists’ come visit you. So, after over six months of attempting to teach students here as a part of my Peace Corps experience, its kind of interesting to sit down and think about how exactly it is I wound up only an hour from a country that struck fear in many people’s hearts only a generation ago….
And I could ‘blame’ it on my sending in an application over 18 months ago to the Peace Corps and hopping on a plane from Philadelphia to Kiev, but it’s a little more complicated than that. I would have to say that some of it even goes back to my grandparents (so thanks Grandma and Grandpa). If it hadn’t been for both sets of grandparents setting out, working hard, pushing their kids, trying to give them the best, making them think independantely, there’s no way that my dad could ever have convinced (let alone thought it was a good idea himself) my mom to pick up our lives and move to Dhaka. (where the heck is that, I thought only 9 years ago) But again, here I am in a foreign world (still speaking very little Russian, languages aren’t exactly my strong point) with my parents only another foreign country away, my sister studying at a wonderful school in Minnesota after seven years overseas, my brother working for a wonderful company and married to the best sister-in-law a guy could ask for, and I have to say that yes, we are individuals who make decisions, but it goes back to Nurture vs. Nature. Nurture in this case definitely wins.
Another thing I wondered recently; parents often say how proud they are of their kids achievements and efforts, but do parents ever know or care how proud their kids are of them? Maybe its something I don’t say enough. If so I apologize. All parents, whether they don’t always get along with their children should know that at least a little, their kids are proud of them. Hey, I’ve made it this far, I am not addicted to drugs or alcohol, I have a job, life is good. So, I’ve got to say, Mom, Dad, I am proud of YOU. I always hear how you are proud of what all of us kids have achieved so far, but again, none of it would be possible without you!
I wonder how many parents of Peace Corps Volunteers realize how proud their children are of them, whether they be 23 or 79. Their parents must have done some good over their growing up to want to go out and give at least a little something back, huh?
While I would like to say that all of this was just random wonderings, but I have to again blame it on my parents, especially their recent (they are actually still on a train back to Kiev, which they will arrive to tomorrow morning) trip to visit me in Lugansk. I mean, come on, its not like Lugansk is on most tourist hot spots, but nevertheless they arrived in Ukraine last Saturday. I was sitting on a street corner near the apartment they had rented for the night because I couldn’t figure out how quite to open the gate, and there they were, after not seeing my mom for 9 months and my dad for 6. I was able to give them a brief tour of Kiev Saturday night and Sunday before heading off on the night train to Lugansk on Sunday. While the weather was pretty ugly almost the whole time they were here, they didn’t complain (well, not to much) and even were okay with sleeping on my couch for 4 nights. I was able to show them around Lugansk a couple of days, but I still worked two days, so they entertained themselves by walking around my neighborhood.
Again, it goes back to being proud of your parents… I understand that they have lived overseas for a while and traveled to almost 30 different countries, but it still takes a little courage to walk around (and run, which my dad did on two occasions with only a few Ukrainians giving him grief for wearing skimpy shorts while being out and about) eastern Ukraine without and language skills. I am sure they will send out an e-mail with even more description, but it was great to have them see where I live, how I live, etc. As I discussed with my dad, its one thing to try to picture where someone is living and what they do everyday, and quite another to experience it yourself.
I think that’s all for now, but again, thanks mom and dad for coming!!
With love,
Seth
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Spring
SPRING IS HERE!
So, its been a few weeks since I wrote a real entry, so thought I would sit down and try to give you a little of an update about what I have been up to. Last week I was invited by one of the other teachers to tag along with some of the 10th and 11th grade students to go see a very famous monastery in Donetsk Oblast, Svyatogorsk. After a two hour bus ride of watching a Russian movie about boxing and having my students be slight unruly, we pulled up at the parking lot to the monastery. As we crossed over the Donetsk river, you looked ahead of you and saw a huge statue of Artyom (I think his name is, a famous hero of Ukraine) overlooking the river on a bluff, and the monastery to your right. (I will try to add pictures as well.
First of all, churches in Ukraine are a little different than back in the states… they are gorgeous. Not that churches in the states are ugly, they just usually don’t have a lot of color to them, and Ukrainian churches have blues and golds and reds, beautiful. So we met the tour guide and she instructed us on the correct way to cross oneself when you enter the church (3 fingers together to represent the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and they cross top, down, right, left.) not really sure if that’s different than Catholic, but I was told it was. The inside of the church was just as beautiful as the outside. Their was a ceremony going on, so I just walked around, lit a few candles, and then headed out.
We were met by a Orthodox priest, and giving a bit of a history lesson of the monastery, and then told we were going to climb 900 meters up a hillside in an underground tunnel. We all bought candles so that we could see, and then proceeded into the side of the hill. It was a very cool experience, but a little uncomfortable as I didn’t really know what was going on and what I could and couldn’t do (which was apparent when I was directed by the priest to take my hand out of my pocket, nervous habit) When we got to the top off the hill, the view was amazing. We could look down over the river valley and the monastery. It was probably the 2nd most beautiful place I’ve seen in Ukraine (after the Carpathians.) It was a great trip overall.
Then the next day, Thursday, I taught a few classes, but headed out early to catch a train at 6pm to some Peace Corps training in Harkov. Brian, the other volunteer in my city was supposed to accompany me, but he ended up getting sick and wasn’t able to make it. The train I was on was probably the slowest one I’ve ever been on. It takes about 6 hours to get to Harkov by bus, but after a nice conversation about why an American ‘kid’ who doesn’t speak much Russian was teaching English in Ukraine, we arrived in Harkov at 6am the following day. I walked out of the train station with only a few directions as to what metro stop to get off at, but I felt in a walking mood, so that’s just what I did. I started walking away from the station in what I thought was the best direction (slightly downhill.)
A brief history lesson… Harkov used to be the capital of Ukraine when it was a part of the Soviet Union, only for 2 years, but you can still see remnants of its ‘glory day’s’ in the 2nd largest central square in the world (after Red square in Moscow) and the largest Lenin statue I have seen. It also is the largest university town in Ukraine, so it was cool to see many young and foreign people there. After the meeting I hung out with a few other volunteers getting to know the city a little. Then I met up with 2 volunteers that I had been in training with. It was the first time I had seen them in over three months, so it was a great reunion. It was a friend of theirs birthday’s Friday night, so we celebrated it in the typical way. Eating lots of food, drinking a little more vodka then is recommended, and dancing. We took the next morning pretty slow, but then headed to the largest bazaar in Ukraine to get a friend of mine some kickboxing gear. It was a beautiful day so we were able to throw a football around, and I learned the rules to Russian billiards (a lot harder than pool). Because my Russian isn’t so great and I always get nervous when buying train tickets, I mistakenly bought tickets for the train that leaves Harkov at 2am coming from Kiev. So I spent the evening hanging out with my friends and then around 1 walked the short distance to the train station and immediately fell asleep. The conductor also took my ticket before I got on the train, so I kind of forgot what bed number I had, so kept waking up hoping that nobody was going to kick me out cause I was in their seat. The ordeal was finished when I arrived in Lugansk at 9am and was back at my apartment 30 minutes later. Not a whole lot else to report besides my parents are coming to visit me next week! I am very excited to see them.
So, its been a few weeks since I wrote a real entry, so thought I would sit down and try to give you a little of an update about what I have been up to. Last week I was invited by one of the other teachers to tag along with some of the 10th and 11th grade students to go see a very famous monastery in Donetsk Oblast, Svyatogorsk. After a two hour bus ride of watching a Russian movie about boxing and having my students be slight unruly, we pulled up at the parking lot to the monastery. As we crossed over the Donetsk river, you looked ahead of you and saw a huge statue of Artyom (I think his name is, a famous hero of Ukraine) overlooking the river on a bluff, and the monastery to your right. (I will try to add pictures as well.
First of all, churches in Ukraine are a little different than back in the states… they are gorgeous. Not that churches in the states are ugly, they just usually don’t have a lot of color to them, and Ukrainian churches have blues and golds and reds, beautiful. So we met the tour guide and she instructed us on the correct way to cross oneself when you enter the church (3 fingers together to represent the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and they cross top, down, right, left.) not really sure if that’s different than Catholic, but I was told it was. The inside of the church was just as beautiful as the outside. Their was a ceremony going on, so I just walked around, lit a few candles, and then headed out.
We were met by a Orthodox priest, and giving a bit of a history lesson of the monastery, and then told we were going to climb 900 meters up a hillside in an underground tunnel. We all bought candles so that we could see, and then proceeded into the side of the hill. It was a very cool experience, but a little uncomfortable as I didn’t really know what was going on and what I could and couldn’t do (which was apparent when I was directed by the priest to take my hand out of my pocket, nervous habit) When we got to the top off the hill, the view was amazing. We could look down over the river valley and the monastery. It was probably the 2nd most beautiful place I’ve seen in Ukraine (after the Carpathians.) It was a great trip overall.
Then the next day, Thursday, I taught a few classes, but headed out early to catch a train at 6pm to some Peace Corps training in Harkov. Brian, the other volunteer in my city was supposed to accompany me, but he ended up getting sick and wasn’t able to make it. The train I was on was probably the slowest one I’ve ever been on. It takes about 6 hours to get to Harkov by bus, but after a nice conversation about why an American ‘kid’ who doesn’t speak much Russian was teaching English in Ukraine, we arrived in Harkov at 6am the following day. I walked out of the train station with only a few directions as to what metro stop to get off at, but I felt in a walking mood, so that’s just what I did. I started walking away from the station in what I thought was the best direction (slightly downhill.)
A brief history lesson… Harkov used to be the capital of Ukraine when it was a part of the Soviet Union, only for 2 years, but you can still see remnants of its ‘glory day’s’ in the 2nd largest central square in the world (after Red square in Moscow) and the largest Lenin statue I have seen. It also is the largest university town in Ukraine, so it was cool to see many young and foreign people there. After the meeting I hung out with a few other volunteers getting to know the city a little. Then I met up with 2 volunteers that I had been in training with. It was the first time I had seen them in over three months, so it was a great reunion. It was a friend of theirs birthday’s Friday night, so we celebrated it in the typical way. Eating lots of food, drinking a little more vodka then is recommended, and dancing. We took the next morning pretty slow, but then headed to the largest bazaar in Ukraine to get a friend of mine some kickboxing gear. It was a beautiful day so we were able to throw a football around, and I learned the rules to Russian billiards (a lot harder than pool). Because my Russian isn’t so great and I always get nervous when buying train tickets, I mistakenly bought tickets for the train that leaves Harkov at 2am coming from Kiev. So I spent the evening hanging out with my friends and then around 1 walked the short distance to the train station and immediately fell asleep. The conductor also took my ticket before I got on the train, so I kind of forgot what bed number I had, so kept waking up hoping that nobody was going to kick me out cause I was in their seat. The ordeal was finished when I arrived in Lugansk at 9am and was back at my apartment 30 minutes later. Not a whole lot else to report besides my parents are coming to visit me next week! I am very excited to see them.
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