Сэт Спенсер
Областной Многопрофильныи Лицей
Ул. Ленина 12 Пос. Юбилеиный
Луганск 91493
Украина
So here is my address that should actually work from now on. You can send packages here, and anything else. Sorry there was such confusion before. The best way to do this is just copy and paste it into another document and then print this and tape it to a letter.
Anyways, I will try to fill you in on what I have been up to the past week. I am now on my third week of teaching, and have already learned a lot of very useful teaching skills, the main one being learning how to get your student’s to shut their mouths and listen to the immensely important information you are about to bestow upon them! This is of course a learning process, so for all those teachers/educators out there, any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.
Last week was pretty exciting, what with tea with my 11th grade students, where we talked about anything and everything they could think of to ask me. Very interesting to hear what 11th graders think/want to know about Americans in general, but specifically American movies, music, and American men. The next day I was asked to write a letter in English about what I was doing at the lyceum for one of the teacher’s masters thesis she was presenting the next week. I thought this was kind of cool, so I wrote something up, not knowing that the next day I had to have a fully staged photo shoot with about half the students, many of whom I don’t even teach. We did a couple ones were I was ‘pretending’ to teach them, and so I just started speaking English, pretty quickly, and you could see a look of complete confusion pass over all of the student’s faces. It was interesting to say the least. My counterpart (Albina) has been very sick over the past two weeks, so I have kind of just been on my own. I come to class when I am supposed to, read a lot in my spare time, and plan for class. Not always the most exciting life, but I can’t really complain.
Last Thursday I went into Lugansk to write some e-mails and check out some more books in English, and I ended up meeting 3 different people who speak English at the internet café. The first one was a guy from Syria who is in Lugansk studying accounting. He has a friend who I have also met from Iraq, actually from Baghdad, who was basically forced to leave by insurgents… very interesting talking with him. Another one was a Ukrainian English teacher who just wanted to know why an American was in Ukraine, and the last one was probably the most interesting, basically cause I had heard so much about this problem, but had never met anyone who caused this stereotype. Basically what I mean was that he was a retired businessman in his mid-40s from somewhere in New York, and when I asked why he was in Ukraine, he immediately responded, “looking for a girl.” While I admit there are many beautiful women here, I still can’t imagine people coming here purely to find a wife… its not hard to figure out why not all Ukrainians like America all that much.
Anyways, spent the weekend going to the library to talk about brainteasers in English, and then Saturday night going to a Ukrainian family’s house who is a friend of Brian, the other volunteer here in Lugansk. It was a great night, and very cool to meet more people in the area. Not a whole lot going on this week, except going to a party that Brian is having tonight, and this weekend going to a city about 2 hours away from here, where another volunteer is placed.
I think that’s all for now, sorry not to exciting. Love to here back from all of you.
Miss you all,
-Seth
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
time flies
How time flies by when you are in another country and trying to figure out how life really works… I would first off like to thank everyone who has written to me or talked to my family about me, a. it makes me miss home a little less knowing that people are still thinking of me, and b. it helps me accomplish one of Peace Corps goals, which is to make Americans and Ukrainians a little more aware of each other.
As one of my 10th grade students showed me; when I had them draw a picture of what America meant to them and he drew a picture of the War in Iraq and wrote next to it DEMOCRACY, it is important for me to be here and paint a little different picture of America than they are used to from American movies such as American Pie, Terminator etc. and American Music such as Eminem, 50 Cent, and Nelly Furtado.
I especially would like to thank all of my friends from school, summer camps, other peace corps volunteers etc. it really makes it not as hard to be over knowing that you all are going through the same day to day struggles, from figuring out what time to wake up in the morning, to what to cook at night, to "WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE!!" I would also like to thank Bjorn Betzler, a friend from Duluth who is currently a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia (Northwestern Africa) who stated that while our experiences were "Completely different," the peace corps life still rocks. I would have to agree with him
This experience has definitely helped me figure out a little more about who I am, and while at times I find myself doubting whether I could ever be a teacher full time, in actuality I am pretty content right now.
I wrote about a week ago, and since then quite a lot has happened. On the 13th of January I moved into my new apartment. It has 3 rooms (my bedroom, a living room and a kitchen which currently has no stove, but besides that could be a cheaper apartment in any big city in America) and while at first was chilly, is quite warm now. I begin "the real life" on Monday. I have a fairly crazy teaching schedule. I teach 0 hour at 7:25, then don’t teach again till 2:25 in the afternoon, then teach at 4, 5, and sometimes 6. I teach 9 lessons of Conversational English, where I am trying to get my students to understand the basic structure of English and become comfortable speaking with a native English speaker. It is a little strange at times since they have always studied British English and I find myself about to correct them when I realize that, hey, maybe that’s actually the right way to say it in England. Another 9 classes a week is spent teaching my 9th-11th students Country Studies, which includes America, England, and Australia/New Zealand. I got America down, but I have the feeling that I will be learning a lot of new information about England over the next 4 months. So, technically I only teach 18 lessons a week, but this week there was a bad flu going around the school and on Wednesday night my counterpart (the teacher I work with, Albina) got very sick and Thursday morning called to ask me to take her classes over. So Thursday I ended up teaching 9 classes, and overall in the week 27 classes. I am not sure what the usual work-load for teachers in the States is, but I can tell you, I was exhausted at the end of the week. As another Peace Corps volunteer told me, it will build character.
Overall, it was a good first week, the usual bumps and disrespectful students, but I am trying to be fairly strict with only speaking English in class and once when the class was really bad, afterwards two students came up to me and apologized for their classmates… it is little moments like that that I know will get me through the next 2 years. So Friday rolled around, and after going to the local supermarket and grabbing some bread, bear, and vareniky (kind of like ravioli) I came back and fell asleep at about 4 in the afternoon. My usual dinner has consisted of delicious fresh bread (they certainly know how to make bread here) and a large bowl of vareniky (all I do is boil it, even easier then macaroni and cheese… I have been fairly lazy with cooking so far). Saturday morning I woke up, lounged around and at about 12 went into town (Lugansk) to go to the bank and try to get on the free internet that the Main Library offers due to an American grant that gives money to libraries all over Ukraine for internet and English books, movies, etc. (I am glad my tax money is going to something useful) So sorry if I wasn’t able to get off an e-mail to you last time, I only had 30 minutes and spent most of it just reading e-mails. After that I went to an English meeting that the library holds every Saturday and this week they were watching "The Breakfast Club" (a slightly ridiculous movie from the 80’s about 5 teenagers who all have detention one Saturday. I sometimes wonder why Ukrainians view Americans they way they do, and then I watch an American movie and I figure it all out again.)
Well, I could go on and on, but I think I will end it by saying that my first week of "THE REAL LIFE" is over, and every week that goes by I will get more and more confident. As my Dad recently said in an e-mail, "its strange to think that we are in the same part of the world, doing the same sort of thing." It was cool to have lived in Bangladesh and Belgium with my parents, but I think I finally have at least some sense of the everyday struggles and difficulties that my parents face and other ex-pats face living overseas. It’s not always an easy life, but its definitely not one I am quite ready to give up either. Miss you all,
Love,
Seth
As one of my 10th grade students showed me; when I had them draw a picture of what America meant to them and he drew a picture of the War in Iraq and wrote next to it DEMOCRACY, it is important for me to be here and paint a little different picture of America than they are used to from American movies such as American Pie, Terminator etc. and American Music such as Eminem, 50 Cent, and Nelly Furtado.
I especially would like to thank all of my friends from school, summer camps, other peace corps volunteers etc. it really makes it not as hard to be over knowing that you all are going through the same day to day struggles, from figuring out what time to wake up in the morning, to what to cook at night, to "WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE!!" I would also like to thank Bjorn Betzler, a friend from Duluth who is currently a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia (Northwestern Africa) who stated that while our experiences were "Completely different," the peace corps life still rocks. I would have to agree with him
This experience has definitely helped me figure out a little more about who I am, and while at times I find myself doubting whether I could ever be a teacher full time, in actuality I am pretty content right now.
I wrote about a week ago, and since then quite a lot has happened. On the 13th of January I moved into my new apartment. It has 3 rooms (my bedroom, a living room and a kitchen which currently has no stove, but besides that could be a cheaper apartment in any big city in America) and while at first was chilly, is quite warm now. I begin "the real life" on Monday. I have a fairly crazy teaching schedule. I teach 0 hour at 7:25, then don’t teach again till 2:25 in the afternoon, then teach at 4, 5, and sometimes 6. I teach 9 lessons of Conversational English, where I am trying to get my students to understand the basic structure of English and become comfortable speaking with a native English speaker. It is a little strange at times since they have always studied British English and I find myself about to correct them when I realize that, hey, maybe that’s actually the right way to say it in England. Another 9 classes a week is spent teaching my 9th-11th students Country Studies, which includes America, England, and Australia/New Zealand. I got America down, but I have the feeling that I will be learning a lot of new information about England over the next 4 months. So, technically I only teach 18 lessons a week, but this week there was a bad flu going around the school and on Wednesday night my counterpart (the teacher I work with, Albina) got very sick and Thursday morning called to ask me to take her classes over. So Thursday I ended up teaching 9 classes, and overall in the week 27 classes. I am not sure what the usual work-load for teachers in the States is, but I can tell you, I was exhausted at the end of the week. As another Peace Corps volunteer told me, it will build character.
Overall, it was a good first week, the usual bumps and disrespectful students, but I am trying to be fairly strict with only speaking English in class and once when the class was really bad, afterwards two students came up to me and apologized for their classmates… it is little moments like that that I know will get me through the next 2 years. So Friday rolled around, and after going to the local supermarket and grabbing some bread, bear, and vareniky (kind of like ravioli) I came back and fell asleep at about 4 in the afternoon. My usual dinner has consisted of delicious fresh bread (they certainly know how to make bread here) and a large bowl of vareniky (all I do is boil it, even easier then macaroni and cheese… I have been fairly lazy with cooking so far). Saturday morning I woke up, lounged around and at about 12 went into town (Lugansk) to go to the bank and try to get on the free internet that the Main Library offers due to an American grant that gives money to libraries all over Ukraine for internet and English books, movies, etc. (I am glad my tax money is going to something useful) So sorry if I wasn’t able to get off an e-mail to you last time, I only had 30 minutes and spent most of it just reading e-mails. After that I went to an English meeting that the library holds every Saturday and this week they were watching "The Breakfast Club" (a slightly ridiculous movie from the 80’s about 5 teenagers who all have detention one Saturday. I sometimes wonder why Ukrainians view Americans they way they do, and then I watch an American movie and I figure it all out again.)
Well, I could go on and on, but I think I will end it by saying that my first week of "THE REAL LIFE" is over, and every week that goes by I will get more and more confident. As my Dad recently said in an e-mail, "its strange to think that we are in the same part of the world, doing the same sort of thing." It was cool to have lived in Bangladesh and Belgium with my parents, but I think I finally have at least some sense of the everyday struggles and difficulties that my parents face and other ex-pats face living overseas. It’s not always an easy life, but its definitely not one I am quite ready to give up either. Miss you all,
Love,
Seth
Friday, January 11, 2008
I'm BACK!!!
So, the adventure in Ukraine continues as the days till “the real world” count down. By this I mean that I will actually begin teaching full time this coming Monday!! My schedule will be a little strange, with one class at 7:30am, one class at 2:30pm and 1-2 classes between 5-7pm, because they are adding on English classes to give the students more practice. So here I am sitting in my host-families apartment (which I will be sadly living in about a week and a half and moving into my own apartment) and thinking that I am rather tired and glad that I am not outside right now, as it is -18F out, with no snow.
I am also thinking that I should now try to describe how truly amazing my last 8 days were. Most of you know that I was able to go on an excursion (as they like to call them) with 15 of my students and my vice-principal to the Carpathian mountains, which are located in the far western part of Ukraine on the boarder with Romania. To truly explain what western-Ukraine is like (and those living in Eastern Ukraine really can’t get a picture of this until they go there) I would like to take some quotes from Lonely Planet Ukraine (a famous guidebook) since they put it much more eloquently than I ever could.
“The west is a special case in Ukraine. It likes to think of itself more quintessentially Ukrainian than the rest of the country; at the same time it considers itself more European. Thanks to its different history, it manages to be both. Having kept the nationalist home fires burning during centuries of Polish, Lithuanian and Austrian rule, it still shows greater pride in Ukrainian traditions and language than elsewhere. Yet overseas visitors will find this one of the most familiar feeling and friendly regions of Ukraine- poorer than, but not so different from, neighboring Hungary, Poland or Slovakia. Here where Moscow rules for only 50 years, there’s less of that surely ‘no-can-do’ Soviet bureaucracy that still permeates Eastern Regions.” (Lonely Planet Ukraine) I would like also to use the Carpathian mountains quote, which states “Those who know Ukraine regard the Carpathian mountains as a byword for hiking and skiing; they also call them a land that time forgot. Here horse-drawn carts clip-clop along potholed roads as weather-beaten folk till the neighboring fields, and babushkas (grandmothers) herd their geese home or take their solitary cow to be milked.” (Lonely Planet Ukraine)
I hope these descriptions can give you at least some sense of the wonder and beauty that the Carpathians hold. After a 28 hour train ride (dad, mom, and Morley, I am not jealous of your 40 hour adventure to Istanbul) my group arrived in Lyviv (the sort of capital of the west) and took a 3 hour marshutka (mini-bus) to Yaremcha (2 hours south of Ivano-Frankivsk on the map). Yaremcha is basically the Steamboat springs or Vail of Ukraine. Not quite as flashy, but still the entire town seems to base its survival on tourism. Only 40 min. from Bukovel, which is the best skiing in Ukraine, and right next to an amazing white-water river, it is definitely a place I would have liked to live for 2 years. (oh well, can’t have it all) The first day we were in Yaremcha (January 4th) our group walked around the city, climbed large hills that reminded me exactly of western-Austria, and saw some ‘wild’ elk and boars. (as wild as you can call something in a large gated pen, but it was still cool to see Ukrainian elk, I forgot the Russian word for them at the moment.) That night all of the students wanted to go to the local cultural palace, where they hold a disco every weekend. Lets just say that as the young teacher of the group, I was elected to go and show off my American moves. It’s a little strange to know that you are least 6 years older than a majority of the other people in a discothèque, but that didn’t stop me from dancing to a few Russian songs and to all the English songs I knew.
Saturday we went to a ski hill close by. It definitely reminded me of Spirit Mountain (at least in size anyways). I had rented skis for the day in Yaremcha for 10 dollars, and then went to the ‘ski’ hill, which had one ‘run’ which was basically glaze ice with rocks sticking up everywhere, and you paid 5 griven (1$) for a ride up the chair-lift. Most of my students had rented skis and snowboards, but as most of them had never tried either, didn’t do a whole lot of what you would call skiing. I went down a curvy glaze iced pathway and then thought it would be a good idea to walk back up the hill instead of paying to take the chairlift. (I didn’t make that mistake again, I fell about 5 times trying to a walk up a stair case with ski boots on) The 2nd time down I skirted a little fence and immediately saw movement to my left. (A little side-note before I go on: I love dogs, most people know that, but I have to put a little asterisks next to that, I love dogs: in America; dogs in Ukraine are… just downright mean. They would rather bite you then lick you. Dakota and Canoe would not exactly fit in here.) so here I am trying to stay in control on glaze ice going down this hill knowing that there are 2 dogs coming very quickly after me, so I basically just start bombing the hill, a little out of control but realize that one of the dogs is still gaining on me, so I take off one of my poles to give him a good wack in the face. I took a swing when he got a little to close and he immediately stopped. (I think he had had this experience before). So my adrenaline was a little high, but I couldn’t quite explain in my limited Russian or with my student’s limited English what had happened. It was good times…
On Sunday we went for a long hike the in the woods nearby Yaremcha, which are famous for having great caves, high cliffs, and beautiful trees. It was an amazing place, and as we were about 10-20 km from Ukraine’s highest mountain, definitely a good workout. (sorry, but another side-note. Not sure how many of you have traveled to eastern-Europe, well actually this is probably true in Europe as a whole, but in Ukraine women, especially young women do not dress… whats the word… practically. They wear tight pants and heels when they know they know they are going to be hiking up hills in snow, so a good part of the 3 hour journey was spent in trying to make sure my students and other teachers didn’t fall on their faces as they slid up and down the very hilly terrain.)
Anyways, I would highly recommend this area to anyone with future travel plans to the Carpathians. Sunday night was Christmas eve. and we spent it singing Russian songs and playing games. It was a nice way to celebrate the holiday.
On Monday we were able to go to another ski place, Bukovel, which I guess is where all the “New Ukrainians” (a term for all those who became rich and famous after the collapse of the Soviet Union) go. Anyways, it was a real mountain, and while fairly expensive (80 griven for ski rental and 20 griven per ski lift up) was definitely worth it. It reminded me very much of Steamboat Springs in CO. My students were not yet willingly to test their skills on a real mountain so I was the only one who ventured out. I was able to ski down the mountain with all my students cheering and clapping, very interesting. Later that day, on our way back to Yaremcha, we turned off onto a dirt road, and I kept hearing the President of Ukraine’s (Viktor Yushchenko) name, and as we approached a huge log-cabin mansion I realized that we were about 30 meters from his home. (somehow I don’t think you could get those close to Bush’s house in a large mini-bus full of student’s with cameras) But we continued down the dead-end road till we came to a gorgeous water-fall that was all frozen over. It reminded me exactly of Minnesota. While I have missed home at times, I was the most and least homesick right then. Most cause I missed the smell of pine trees and the water and snow that Lugansk seems to lack, but least cause I know it will still be there when I get back.
Tuesday we woke up at 3:30am to take the 7 hour Electrichka (electric train) back to Lyviv where we spent the day walking around, seeing a very famous graveyard which many famous Polish and Ukrainians are buried and looking around of the Lyviv McDonalds (luckily we never found it). We stopped in a couple amazingly beautiful churches (which I later learned where Catholic, not eastern Orthodox like a thought, I really need to learn the difference in architecture) and in one very beautiful church where a small mass was going on I lit some candles, for Uncle Tom, Aunt Cindy, and everyone else I love who has passed on.
Tuesday night at 1am we got back on the train and headed back to the other side of “the Tinfoil curtain.” It was an awesome experience, and know that if anyone wants to find a northern-Minnesota in Europe, (besides Slovakia, which I have also heard is beautiful) head to the Carpathians. Hope everyone’s New Years was wonderful and are living the winter up. Miss you, sorry this was so long.
Love,
Seth
I am also thinking that I should now try to describe how truly amazing my last 8 days were. Most of you know that I was able to go on an excursion (as they like to call them) with 15 of my students and my vice-principal to the Carpathian mountains, which are located in the far western part of Ukraine on the boarder with Romania. To truly explain what western-Ukraine is like (and those living in Eastern Ukraine really can’t get a picture of this until they go there) I would like to take some quotes from Lonely Planet Ukraine (a famous guidebook) since they put it much more eloquently than I ever could.
“The west is a special case in Ukraine. It likes to think of itself more quintessentially Ukrainian than the rest of the country; at the same time it considers itself more European. Thanks to its different history, it manages to be both. Having kept the nationalist home fires burning during centuries of Polish, Lithuanian and Austrian rule, it still shows greater pride in Ukrainian traditions and language than elsewhere. Yet overseas visitors will find this one of the most familiar feeling and friendly regions of Ukraine- poorer than, but not so different from, neighboring Hungary, Poland or Slovakia. Here where Moscow rules for only 50 years, there’s less of that surely ‘no-can-do’ Soviet bureaucracy that still permeates Eastern Regions.” (Lonely Planet Ukraine) I would like also to use the Carpathian mountains quote, which states “Those who know Ukraine regard the Carpathian mountains as a byword for hiking and skiing; they also call them a land that time forgot. Here horse-drawn carts clip-clop along potholed roads as weather-beaten folk till the neighboring fields, and babushkas (grandmothers) herd their geese home or take their solitary cow to be milked.” (Lonely Planet Ukraine)
I hope these descriptions can give you at least some sense of the wonder and beauty that the Carpathians hold. After a 28 hour train ride (dad, mom, and Morley, I am not jealous of your 40 hour adventure to Istanbul) my group arrived in Lyviv (the sort of capital of the west) and took a 3 hour marshutka (mini-bus) to Yaremcha (2 hours south of Ivano-Frankivsk on the map). Yaremcha is basically the Steamboat springs or Vail of Ukraine. Not quite as flashy, but still the entire town seems to base its survival on tourism. Only 40 min. from Bukovel, which is the best skiing in Ukraine, and right next to an amazing white-water river, it is definitely a place I would have liked to live for 2 years. (oh well, can’t have it all) The first day we were in Yaremcha (January 4th) our group walked around the city, climbed large hills that reminded me exactly of western-Austria, and saw some ‘wild’ elk and boars. (as wild as you can call something in a large gated pen, but it was still cool to see Ukrainian elk, I forgot the Russian word for them at the moment.) That night all of the students wanted to go to the local cultural palace, where they hold a disco every weekend. Lets just say that as the young teacher of the group, I was elected to go and show off my American moves. It’s a little strange to know that you are least 6 years older than a majority of the other people in a discothèque, but that didn’t stop me from dancing to a few Russian songs and to all the English songs I knew.
Saturday we went to a ski hill close by. It definitely reminded me of Spirit Mountain (at least in size anyways). I had rented skis for the day in Yaremcha for 10 dollars, and then went to the ‘ski’ hill, which had one ‘run’ which was basically glaze ice with rocks sticking up everywhere, and you paid 5 griven (1$) for a ride up the chair-lift. Most of my students had rented skis and snowboards, but as most of them had never tried either, didn’t do a whole lot of what you would call skiing. I went down a curvy glaze iced pathway and then thought it would be a good idea to walk back up the hill instead of paying to take the chairlift. (I didn’t make that mistake again, I fell about 5 times trying to a walk up a stair case with ski boots on) The 2nd time down I skirted a little fence and immediately saw movement to my left. (A little side-note before I go on: I love dogs, most people know that, but I have to put a little asterisks next to that, I love dogs: in America; dogs in Ukraine are… just downright mean. They would rather bite you then lick you. Dakota and Canoe would not exactly fit in here.) so here I am trying to stay in control on glaze ice going down this hill knowing that there are 2 dogs coming very quickly after me, so I basically just start bombing the hill, a little out of control but realize that one of the dogs is still gaining on me, so I take off one of my poles to give him a good wack in the face. I took a swing when he got a little to close and he immediately stopped. (I think he had had this experience before). So my adrenaline was a little high, but I couldn’t quite explain in my limited Russian or with my student’s limited English what had happened. It was good times…
On Sunday we went for a long hike the in the woods nearby Yaremcha, which are famous for having great caves, high cliffs, and beautiful trees. It was an amazing place, and as we were about 10-20 km from Ukraine’s highest mountain, definitely a good workout. (sorry, but another side-note. Not sure how many of you have traveled to eastern-Europe, well actually this is probably true in Europe as a whole, but in Ukraine women, especially young women do not dress… whats the word… practically. They wear tight pants and heels when they know they know they are going to be hiking up hills in snow, so a good part of the 3 hour journey was spent in trying to make sure my students and other teachers didn’t fall on their faces as they slid up and down the very hilly terrain.)
Anyways, I would highly recommend this area to anyone with future travel plans to the Carpathians. Sunday night was Christmas eve. and we spent it singing Russian songs and playing games. It was a nice way to celebrate the holiday.
On Monday we were able to go to another ski place, Bukovel, which I guess is where all the “New Ukrainians” (a term for all those who became rich and famous after the collapse of the Soviet Union) go. Anyways, it was a real mountain, and while fairly expensive (80 griven for ski rental and 20 griven per ski lift up) was definitely worth it. It reminded me very much of Steamboat Springs in CO. My students were not yet willingly to test their skills on a real mountain so I was the only one who ventured out. I was able to ski down the mountain with all my students cheering and clapping, very interesting. Later that day, on our way back to Yaremcha, we turned off onto a dirt road, and I kept hearing the President of Ukraine’s (Viktor Yushchenko) name, and as we approached a huge log-cabin mansion I realized that we were about 30 meters from his home. (somehow I don’t think you could get those close to Bush’s house in a large mini-bus full of student’s with cameras) But we continued down the dead-end road till we came to a gorgeous water-fall that was all frozen over. It reminded me exactly of Minnesota. While I have missed home at times, I was the most and least homesick right then. Most cause I missed the smell of pine trees and the water and snow that Lugansk seems to lack, but least cause I know it will still be there when I get back.
Tuesday we woke up at 3:30am to take the 7 hour Electrichka (electric train) back to Lyviv where we spent the day walking around, seeing a very famous graveyard which many famous Polish and Ukrainians are buried and looking around of the Lyviv McDonalds (luckily we never found it). We stopped in a couple amazingly beautiful churches (which I later learned where Catholic, not eastern Orthodox like a thought, I really need to learn the difference in architecture) and in one very beautiful church where a small mass was going on I lit some candles, for Uncle Tom, Aunt Cindy, and everyone else I love who has passed on.
Tuesday night at 1am we got back on the train and headed back to the other side of “the Tinfoil curtain.” It was an awesome experience, and know that if anyone wants to find a northern-Minnesota in Europe, (besides Slovakia, which I have also heard is beautiful) head to the Carpathians. Hope everyone’s New Years was wonderful and are living the winter up. Miss you, sorry this was so long.
Love,
Seth
Monday, December 31, 2007
Happy New Year!!
December 27, 2007
Another Christmas passes and a new year grows close. I like this time of year, it makes me stop and think about my life; what’s different from the year before, what may be different a year from now, and am I happy with what is going on in my life. And while every day has its ups and downs, its struggles to understand a babushka (grandmother) talking to you in the street, or figuring out which marshutka (big bus-taxi thing) stop to get off on, or simply which class-room you are supposed to be in, I can honestly say that I am happy with where things are going.
Christmas is a hard time to be away from everything normal to you, everything comfortable, especially since Christmas is the one time when almost all our family is able to get together and see each other. This was the first Christmas I have been away from my family, and while I was sad to be away, its hard to be sad when your students are struggling through Jingle-Bells or Frosty the Snowman. My students all wished me a Merry Christmas (once they realized that Christmas happens in America on December 25th) and Christmas Eve I went to the opening of the Christmas tree in my settlement. It is about 20 feet tall and on a pedestal so it spins, and they had Father Frost and his scantily-clad helper. I was lucky enough to get calls from my family in Minnesota, as well as my host-family in Rokytne and my friend Joanna. It made it much easier to be away from home.
I have been able to ‘teach’ a lot since I have arrived in Lugansk. I say ‘teach’ cause mostly I just teach my students the lyrics to Christmas songs and make them sing or answer their questions about me, but it’s a good way to get to know them, so that’s nice. Yesterday I went into downtown Lugansk to meet the other peace corps volunteer who lives here, Brian. He is doing business development but is right now looking for a new group to work with. So we went to a cultural college to meet with the teachers and students, and we gave them an hour class on American Christmas and I read “the night before Christmas.” It is very interesting to hear what Ukrainians think of our traditions and to hear about theirs.
Today was the last day of classes at my school, and the students put on a wonderful concert/skits for the rest of the students and the teachers. The students love to sing and dance, it is very cool.
I think that is all I have for now, great to hear from all of. Love,
Seth
Another Christmas passes and a new year grows close. I like this time of year, it makes me stop and think about my life; what’s different from the year before, what may be different a year from now, and am I happy with what is going on in my life. And while every day has its ups and downs, its struggles to understand a babushka (grandmother) talking to you in the street, or figuring out which marshutka (big bus-taxi thing) stop to get off on, or simply which class-room you are supposed to be in, I can honestly say that I am happy with where things are going.
Christmas is a hard time to be away from everything normal to you, everything comfortable, especially since Christmas is the one time when almost all our family is able to get together and see each other. This was the first Christmas I have been away from my family, and while I was sad to be away, its hard to be sad when your students are struggling through Jingle-Bells or Frosty the Snowman. My students all wished me a Merry Christmas (once they realized that Christmas happens in America on December 25th) and Christmas Eve I went to the opening of the Christmas tree in my settlement. It is about 20 feet tall and on a pedestal so it spins, and they had Father Frost and his scantily-clad helper. I was lucky enough to get calls from my family in Minnesota, as well as my host-family in Rokytne and my friend Joanna. It made it much easier to be away from home.
I have been able to ‘teach’ a lot since I have arrived in Lugansk. I say ‘teach’ cause mostly I just teach my students the lyrics to Christmas songs and make them sing or answer their questions about me, but it’s a good way to get to know them, so that’s nice. Yesterday I went into downtown Lugansk to meet the other peace corps volunteer who lives here, Brian. He is doing business development but is right now looking for a new group to work with. So we went to a cultural college to meet with the teachers and students, and we gave them an hour class on American Christmas and I read “the night before Christmas.” It is very interesting to hear what Ukrainians think of our traditions and to hear about theirs.
Today was the last day of classes at my school, and the students put on a wonderful concert/skits for the rest of the students and the teachers. The students love to sing and dance, it is very cool.
I think that is all I have for now, great to hear from all of. Love,
Seth
Saturday, December 22, 2007
December 21, 2007
So here I am, sitting in front of the tv watching some football game, thinking about what Lugansk is going to be like for the next two years, and wondering why it is pitch black (I MEAN DARK) at 4:30 in the afternoon. I guess it is the shortest day of the year, but still, there isn’t even any real snow on the ground.
A lot has happened over the past week, and time certainly went by fast. Last Monday all of the volunteers packed up their things (I had 4 bags filled with cloths and books) and headed to Kyiv for our training closing ceremony. There was a tearful good-bye with our host families in Rokytne. It was very sad to leave the families that had taken such good care of us over the past two months. While my Russian definitely isn’t perfect, my host family was so helpful in me practicing everyday. Monday night we had a re-camp of all of our community projects we conducted in our cities, and had a talent show. It was wonderful listening to groups sing Ukrainian songs and dance. Tuesday morning we were in more meetings and met our counter parts (the teachers we will be working closely with in our new sights). Tuesday was a very long day, and it was nice to relax a little at night with all of the other volunteers, especially since it was the last night that all of us will be together again for almost two years!! We have already had some people leave from the Peace Corps, and maybe more will by the time we are done.
Wednesday morning we all headed out to the Teacher’s House in Kyiv. This was a very large building where the Ukrainian parliament once used to meet. We were there for our closing ceremony, where are sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. The American Ambassador to the Peace Corps was there to swear us in, and it was very neat to all be together, and my host-mother was able to come and watch this special time. After the ceremony there was a short reception and then a buffet dinner back at the ‘resort’ we were staying at. Some volunteers had to leave for their sites that night, but my train didn’t leave till 9 Thursday night, so I had a lot of time to say good-bye to all of my friends and sleep. (training is extremely tiring) So last night along with my counterpart and a couple other volunteers who will be within an hour or two of Lugansk bordered a train, and were here by 11am this morning.
I will try to write more about all of this soon, but I am tired and still have a lot of unpacking to do. Hope you al have a merry Christmas and I wish I could be there to celebrate with you.
Love,
Seth
So here I am, sitting in front of the tv watching some football game, thinking about what Lugansk is going to be like for the next two years, and wondering why it is pitch black (I MEAN DARK) at 4:30 in the afternoon. I guess it is the shortest day of the year, but still, there isn’t even any real snow on the ground.
A lot has happened over the past week, and time certainly went by fast. Last Monday all of the volunteers packed up their things (I had 4 bags filled with cloths and books) and headed to Kyiv for our training closing ceremony. There was a tearful good-bye with our host families in Rokytne. It was very sad to leave the families that had taken such good care of us over the past two months. While my Russian definitely isn’t perfect, my host family was so helpful in me practicing everyday. Monday night we had a re-camp of all of our community projects we conducted in our cities, and had a talent show. It was wonderful listening to groups sing Ukrainian songs and dance. Tuesday morning we were in more meetings and met our counter parts (the teachers we will be working closely with in our new sights). Tuesday was a very long day, and it was nice to relax a little at night with all of the other volunteers, especially since it was the last night that all of us will be together again for almost two years!! We have already had some people leave from the Peace Corps, and maybe more will by the time we are done.
Wednesday morning we all headed out to the Teacher’s House in Kyiv. This was a very large building where the Ukrainian parliament once used to meet. We were there for our closing ceremony, where are sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. The American Ambassador to the Peace Corps was there to swear us in, and it was very neat to all be together, and my host-mother was able to come and watch this special time. After the ceremony there was a short reception and then a buffet dinner back at the ‘resort’ we were staying at. Some volunteers had to leave for their sites that night, but my train didn’t leave till 9 Thursday night, so I had a lot of time to say good-bye to all of my friends and sleep. (training is extremely tiring) So last night along with my counterpart and a couple other volunteers who will be within an hour or two of Lugansk bordered a train, and were here by 11am this morning.
I will try to write more about all of this soon, but I am tired and still have a lot of unpacking to do. Hope you al have a merry Christmas and I wish I could be there to celebrate with you.
Love,
Seth
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Finall, It works
I remember the times when I used to get upset when the internet would take 10 seconds to load a page. Oh, for those days!! I wrote about 2 pages on my blog, and then the internet decided not to work, so now I am at home writing, and going to use my flashdrive to transfer it onto the internet tomorrow. Anyways, what I was originally writing (or as close as I can remember) Also, sorry this is so long, you can read as much as you would like.
You think you get into a groove here in Ukraine; wake up, eat breakfast, go teach, go to Russian class, come back home, eat, study, go to sleep. Much the same on the weekends with an occasional movie thrown in; and then something is thrown at you which completely throws you off. This weekend was pretty much that. I came home Friday night after a very long day of classes, cross-cultural sessions, etc. I walked into my house and the first thing my host-mother (Tanya) asked is if I wanted to go to a birthday part for her god-daughter, who was turning 2. I asked the usual questions; when, were, who, how long. I am very wary of these encounters because it usually ends up being a bunch of guys trying to get me to drink vodka, or people talking in extremely fast Russian (actually, usually not even in Russian, but Ukrainian or Sergik, a mix of both) and me understanding about 10 percent of whats going on. Anyways, so off I went. We got there at about 6:40 and already the table was packed (I mean packed, no room left on the talbe) with food and vodka. Right off the bat I explained that I only drank beer, and only brought one bottle, which was good cause every time I filled up my glass they would tell everyone to chug their glass. So we ate and talked (people talked at me, I would say STO, what? To my host mother, she would translate in Russian, Spanish and English) for 2 hours, then the dancing began. It was an eclectic mix of music, ranging from new Russian and Ukrainian rap to popular American music from the mid 1990s. They certainly do like their dancing here. After pretty much most people were fairly intoxicated, (I would like to point out that I was by far the youngest person there) the kissing began. They have an interesting tradition here (which I think I explained from the wedding) where one person dances around with a scarf, and when they point at someone from the ring of dancers they come over and kneel on the scarf and kiss (at the wedding I was able to get away with just a kiss on the cheek, I was not so lucky here) let me tell you it’s a little new for me to try to not have a married woman basically make out with me… not that it’s a bad tradition, just not quite used to it yet. So I tried to leave at least 3 times but they kept blocking the door, I finally got out at about 11:30, so much for my two hour stay. It was a very interesting Friday night. But the story does not end here.
The previous Tuesday at about 9pm the doorbell rang and in came our next door neighbor and her 18 year old daughter. I am also wary of these meetings because I never really know what the intentions of anyone involved are, and I am not looking to get married to a Ukrainian girl. So I talked to the girl and her mother for a while, and the subject of café’s and bars, and whether I liked them came up. About 10 minutes later I realized that I had agreed to go a bar with this girl and her friend the following Saturday. I invited my friend Zahar (another peace corps volunteer from California) to come, to back me up, and even more importantly, he speaks much better Russian then I do. So he came over at 7 on Saturday and we had a couple beers before the girls were supposed to show up at 8. So 9pm rolled around, and since my host mother was out of town for the night and my host father was asleep, we decided that they weren’t coming so Zahar and I decided to venture into downtown Rokyte alone and see what was up. We stopped at 3 different bars throughout the night, and each one we got the same reaction. Everyone pretty much stopped talking, and the looks on their faces were “who are these out of towners?” we got a bunch of stares as we were talking (I think quietly) in English and drinking our beer. We wanted to check out the discothèque and see what was up there, but when we opened the door and went oh… these are all our 9th, 10th and 11th graders, we quickly got out of there. Came home at 11 and went to sleep. (sorry, story still not over yet)
The next morning I was watching a movie in bed, still wearing my sweatpants, and I heard a knock on the door, but since my home mother was back home by that point I didn’t feel like getting up, but about 2 minutes later Tanya said Olya (my neighbor) was here and wanted to say hi. So she came in and just started talking in Russian/Ukrainian. What I understood of the conversation was that her bus from Kyiv (where she works) hadn’t showed up and she hadn’t gotten till 10:30pm Saturday night and had gone to my house but my host dad said I was asleep (I was still out walking around). Anyways, she asked if I wanted to try meeting again that night, and again, unbeknownst to me, I said yes. So Sunday night at about 7 I ended up going to a café and having ice cream with this girl. She speaks very little English (actually knows a lot, but is to embarrassed to speak it, like pretty much everyone else here) so I used my very faulty Russian to communicate for about an hour, after which we walked back home. It was interesting to talk with a native-speaker that doesn’t speak English. You have to be very inventive in your language. So my first ‘date’ in Ukraine was a success. I am going to learn this language purely so I stop getting into these situations.
I have less then a week in Rokytne, after which I head to Kyiv and have my Peace Corps swearing in on December 19th. My host mother and counterpart from my new school in Lugansk will be there, as well as the head of Peace Corps in Ukraine and American Ambassador to Ukraine. Should be cool. I will arrive in Lugansk on Dec. 21st. Hope to hear from you all soon, and if I don’t talk to you before then, MERRY CHRISTMAS. Miss you all,
With love,
Seth
p.s. i have my language practicum today, wish me luck!
You think you get into a groove here in Ukraine; wake up, eat breakfast, go teach, go to Russian class, come back home, eat, study, go to sleep. Much the same on the weekends with an occasional movie thrown in; and then something is thrown at you which completely throws you off. This weekend was pretty much that. I came home Friday night after a very long day of classes, cross-cultural sessions, etc. I walked into my house and the first thing my host-mother (Tanya) asked is if I wanted to go to a birthday part for her god-daughter, who was turning 2. I asked the usual questions; when, were, who, how long. I am very wary of these encounters because it usually ends up being a bunch of guys trying to get me to drink vodka, or people talking in extremely fast Russian (actually, usually not even in Russian, but Ukrainian or Sergik, a mix of both) and me understanding about 10 percent of whats going on. Anyways, so off I went. We got there at about 6:40 and already the table was packed (I mean packed, no room left on the talbe) with food and vodka. Right off the bat I explained that I only drank beer, and only brought one bottle, which was good cause every time I filled up my glass they would tell everyone to chug their glass. So we ate and talked (people talked at me, I would say STO, what? To my host mother, she would translate in Russian, Spanish and English) for 2 hours, then the dancing began. It was an eclectic mix of music, ranging from new Russian and Ukrainian rap to popular American music from the mid 1990s. They certainly do like their dancing here. After pretty much most people were fairly intoxicated, (I would like to point out that I was by far the youngest person there) the kissing began. They have an interesting tradition here (which I think I explained from the wedding) where one person dances around with a scarf, and when they point at someone from the ring of dancers they come over and kneel on the scarf and kiss (at the wedding I was able to get away with just a kiss on the cheek, I was not so lucky here) let me tell you it’s a little new for me to try to not have a married woman basically make out with me… not that it’s a bad tradition, just not quite used to it yet. So I tried to leave at least 3 times but they kept blocking the door, I finally got out at about 11:30, so much for my two hour stay. It was a very interesting Friday night. But the story does not end here.
The previous Tuesday at about 9pm the doorbell rang and in came our next door neighbor and her 18 year old daughter. I am also wary of these meetings because I never really know what the intentions of anyone involved are, and I am not looking to get married to a Ukrainian girl. So I talked to the girl and her mother for a while, and the subject of café’s and bars, and whether I liked them came up. About 10 minutes later I realized that I had agreed to go a bar with this girl and her friend the following Saturday. I invited my friend Zahar (another peace corps volunteer from California) to come, to back me up, and even more importantly, he speaks much better Russian then I do. So he came over at 7 on Saturday and we had a couple beers before the girls were supposed to show up at 8. So 9pm rolled around, and since my host mother was out of town for the night and my host father was asleep, we decided that they weren’t coming so Zahar and I decided to venture into downtown Rokyte alone and see what was up. We stopped at 3 different bars throughout the night, and each one we got the same reaction. Everyone pretty much stopped talking, and the looks on their faces were “who are these out of towners?” we got a bunch of stares as we were talking (I think quietly) in English and drinking our beer. We wanted to check out the discothèque and see what was up there, but when we opened the door and went oh… these are all our 9th, 10th and 11th graders, we quickly got out of there. Came home at 11 and went to sleep. (sorry, story still not over yet)
The next morning I was watching a movie in bed, still wearing my sweatpants, and I heard a knock on the door, but since my home mother was back home by that point I didn’t feel like getting up, but about 2 minutes later Tanya said Olya (my neighbor) was here and wanted to say hi. So she came in and just started talking in Russian/Ukrainian. What I understood of the conversation was that her bus from Kyiv (where she works) hadn’t showed up and she hadn’t gotten till 10:30pm Saturday night and had gone to my house but my host dad said I was asleep (I was still out walking around). Anyways, she asked if I wanted to try meeting again that night, and again, unbeknownst to me, I said yes. So Sunday night at about 7 I ended up going to a café and having ice cream with this girl. She speaks very little English (actually knows a lot, but is to embarrassed to speak it, like pretty much everyone else here) so I used my very faulty Russian to communicate for about an hour, after which we walked back home. It was interesting to talk with a native-speaker that doesn’t speak English. You have to be very inventive in your language. So my first ‘date’ in Ukraine was a success. I am going to learn this language purely so I stop getting into these situations.
I have less then a week in Rokytne, after which I head to Kyiv and have my Peace Corps swearing in on December 19th. My host mother and counterpart from my new school in Lugansk will be there, as well as the head of Peace Corps in Ukraine and American Ambassador to Ukraine. Should be cool. I will arrive in Lugansk on Dec. 21st. Hope to hear from you all soon, and if I don’t talk to you before then, MERRY CHRISTMAS. Miss you all,
With love,
Seth
p.s. i have my language practicum today, wish me luck!
Monday, December 3, 2007
a short one
Just wanted to say a quick hello. Heard that minnesota is getting pounded by a storm. I'm jealous. We have gotten a few inches here and there, but its not the same when it immidiately melts the next day. Training is winding down here. Only have 2 weeks left till i got to Kyiv to be sworn in as an actual Peace Corps Volunteer. Very tiring doing everything, but things are good overall. ALways great to hear from all of you. Take care,
WIth Love,
Seth
WIth Love,
Seth
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