Spring rains

Another 3 day weekend, and with only 2 weeks left of 'real class,' the semester has gone by very fast so far. Also, the weather has been beautiful the last couple of weeks and its been hard to get my students focused enough to want to learn some new English words...
But other than that life has been pretty good, however, I have had 2 of the strangest encounters with Ukrainians since I have been here. Wednesday night I got a knock on the door to find a friend of my host moms with another friend who supposedly spoke some English, and wanted to learn more, but all i could get out of him was very fast Russian and some random French words (I guess he had lived in Algeria for a while). So we had a broken conversation for about 20 minutes, not really sure what I ended up agreeing to, that is often the way here. Thursday night was even better. After nto really doing anything productive the entire day, i got another knock on the door at about 8 pm. Since my school is a boarding shcool there is a woman who 'guards' the door when the students aren't there. Anyways, this woman (who i think I had only said hi to once before) proceeded to ask me "do you want to drink wine?" or at least thats all i understood the first time. So i asked her, "what, now?" and she said "yes, now"
So, i followed her into the school were I proceeded to sit in the secretary's office and drink home-made wine out of a plastic beer bottle and listen to her explian why NATO WAS a good thing for Ukraine, and how George Bush was the best president ever because he took care of Iraq and Iran (not sure how, but he did...) and also how bad it was that Americans got paid so much more than Ukrainians. Time went by quickly ( i think the wine helped) so i spent an hour there... It was extremely bizarre.
Friday i spent at a picnic with Brian, Adam (another PCV) and a bunch of people from the church Brian goes to. it was a lot of fun, and the first time I have been around that many people the same age as me.
Now i am sitting in an internet cafe in Lugansk following the scores of the Chelsea and Manchester United games to see who win the English league. I was going to go to a Lugansk Zarya game, but the weather is not so great at the moment, again, Spring Rains.
Hope all of you are having a wonderful May, and its great to hear from you.
-Seth

Books I have read in Ukraine.

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!

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

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.

real Football!!

So, report from Ukraine. (yes, Ukraine, even though people often refer to, and it often feels like... RUSSIA, but its not...) anyways, wonderful day here in Ukraine. 70 degrees, almost want to wear shorts, but I think I get enough strange looks besides wearing shorts in March, when all the babushkas would be telling me to put more clothes on or I will get sick. No school this week... surprise surpise. had a great weekend, was able to go to my first professional league football game ever! it was between Lugansk Zarya (sunrise) and another Ukrainian team (Zaparoshya). Went and bought tickets on Friday, wanted good seats. (best seats cost 5 bucks!!!)
Anyways, woke up Saturday at 8ish, was cold, kind of rainy. Thought, oh great, this will be fun, im going to freeze my butt of watching football. But by 1 the sun had come out and it was beautiful.
Met 4 other volunteers and a friend from Lugansk at 2, and stood around watching people get ready for the match (i.e. drinking a lot of beer and vodka and do cool chants, Lugansk is the best, Lugansk is the best) So bought a beer and tried to walk in, only to realize we had to get the tops of our plastic bottles cut off so we couldnt throw them onto the field or hit anyone with the caps. So the game started, and it was cool to see about 2,000 people really excited about football. About 30 min. into the game one of the other team's players was sent off witha red-card, so i thought, hey, Zarya has a chance here. But about 10 minutes later the other team scored. Zarya had a chance late in the game with a pentalty kick, but of course missed... (they are 12th out of 16 teams in the league) Ended up going to a bar called Chelsea afterwards (not really a Irish pub, but still fun) and order some Hoegarden (my favorite Belgian beer)
Was a good day overall. Talk to you soon,
Love,
Seth

a real hello

A real hello!!
Sorry I haven’t written anything very interesting the past few weeks, but that is sort of because not a whole lot super interesting has happened over that time. As I said before, my school was closed for two weeks due to much of the student body being sick, and we didn’t start school again till last Monday. It was a little difficult getting the students focused back into studying and remembering all those English words they learned, especially since they were preparing for yet another concert on Friday morning, this one being for International Women’s day, which Ukraine (with many other countries around the world) celebrate on March 8th. Because the holiday was on a Saturday, that meant that there was no school on this Monday (today). So I really don’t work a whole lot here.
But because of all that free time I have been able to do some pretty fun things the last week or so. On Friday I finished all of my work early and took of at about 1ish for what I thought would be a short 30 min. run across the main highway towards where I thought my counter-parts house was. I started running, in shorts and a long sleeve shirt (it was about 50 degrees but windy) and as soon as I crossed the highway I looked out over a wide valley that reminded me of Missouri, Bangladesh and Africa all at once. It reminded me of Missouri due to the types of trees and the winding river that cut into the banks just like the Eleven-Point and the Buffalo Rivers. It reminded me of Bangladesh because there was garbage EVERYWHERE. Plastic Coke bottles, glass beer and vodka bottles, rotten food, and as I ran past a water-treatment plant it definitely reminded me of the smell of Dhaka. And finally, I was reminded of the plains of Africa (even though I’ve never been there and don’t have to worry about Lions, jackals, or cheetahs getting me) because as I ran down this long-straight rode I was not really looking at anything, but caught a slight movement out of the corner of my eye. A shiver ran down my spine. I stopped immediately and didn’t move. DOGS… STREET DOGS…
Okay, now you may be thinking, wow Seth, big deal, dogs. But as many people in Eastern Europe can agree to, dogs here are not quite the same as the fluffy, warm, clean man’s best friend of the States. These are dirty, mean, ready to track you down and bite you if you even pretend to run. They can smell fear. So, one foot at a time, keeping my eye on all 3 of them, I slowly sneaked away. I made sure never to make eye-contact, and once I thought I would have a chance of out-sprinting them, I took off again.
Well, this valley is special in my area, because instead of being a valley between two plateaus about 10 feet higher than the low-point, there were ACTUAL HILLS on the other side of the valley, so I was pretty ecstatic.
Let me also explain, I am fairly out-of shape. Those dang Печеняs (cookies) (for those who speak Russian, I am sorry for the spelling) and lots of fried food has made me not be as ready to run around as I want. But anyways, 20 minutes into my run I was in a part of the area I’d never seen before, running down a mud (and I mean MUD, 3-4 thick) road, stopping every 5 minutes to walk (more like tip-toe) past the dogs rummaging through the garbage piles. It was actually kind of pretty looking back across the valley towards my apartment, with the hills behind me, and the river snaking its way through Lugansk. Well, I kept going on the trail, but had a difficult time finding a way to go back towards my apartment other than turning around, which I hate doing, so what was supposed to be a 30 min. run turned into an 70 min. run with 20 extra minutes of walking due to dogs and to much mud. But running along the river/stream and feeling the wind at my back (mixed with rain) was well worth it. Good day.

Saturday I went to see a new American movie (Blond with Ambition starring Jessica Simpson) dubbed over in Russian, with some friends. Also found out that the Ukrainian football season has started again, so hopefully in two weeks I will get to see my first ever professional football (soccer) game. Other than that nothing new. Great to hear from all of you.
Love,
Seth

Quick update

Don't have a lot of time to write, but just wanted to let you know that I am still alive and things are going well. After two weeks of no school, I was finally back working on Monday, just trying to get my students to speak English again. This Monday we don't have school again due to International Women's Day on March 8th which is a National Holiday here in Ukraine.
Also, Peace Corps recently passed a rule that we have to have our blogs password protected, so look for me changing how to access my blog in the next few weeks.
Other than that, the weather has been up and down, rain, snow, etc. and nothing to exciting or new.
I will keep you all up to date though.
Miss you all, love,
Seth