Your Friend is from America, Yes?

Awesome mural in Lutsk.

This week’s title is brought to you by the local apple selling man in Lutsk. Melissa and I were walking past him headed to the bus stop. He had heard us speaking English and asked Melissa if I was from America. She responded, “Yeah, and me too.” Melissa’s Ukrainian is so good, plus her attire doesn’t scream American so she is often taking for a Ukrainian. (She doesn’t wear earmuffs or tennis shoes with yak-tracks)

Favorite Appropriate or Inappropriate Behavior of the Week: the last two lessons of the day at my school being canceled so the entire teaching staff could walk over to a different school to celebrate a birthday for one of their teachers.

Hmm…what to tell you about this past week. I was under the weather for the majority of the week. Battling a lingering cold and also getting use to my TB medication, nothing too horrible. It is just that I feel a little nausea in the morning from taking my daily pills. Ukrainians take health very serious, so my counterpart insisted that I take Thursday as well as Wednesday off from school to feel better. So my school week was a very short one with only teaching on Monday, Tuesday and Friday.


Blue skies from my courtyard.

I have been back in Ukraine a month now and I’m starting to feel in a groove with teaching. I must say that I enjoy my schedule it logically makes more sense than my previous one and I have more classes with groups of students I genuinely enjoy to teach. Classroom story of the week comes from my 5th B class.

When I walked into the room on Monday morning, all the kids were asking me if I spoke Ukrainian (my school really only wants me speaking English to the students/which means students don’t know my level or if I speak Ukrainian at all; well sometimes I say sit down, be quiet or homework in UKR) Anyhow, I walk in and one of the boys asks me in Ukrainian do I speak Ukrainian. I say back to him in Ukrainian I understand a little. Then I tell the class to pull out their notebooks and write the day and the date. They start begging me to speak in Ukrainian. I keep speaking in English please take out your notebooks and write the day and the date. The boy asks me again and I respond “Not now” in Ukrainian without even realizing it. For whatever reason, the class finds this hilarious and laughed for a good while before I was able to get them under control. I at one point started laughing from their enthusiasm at me saying one short phrase in Ukrainian.

Shout outs of the Week: Happy 202nd Birthday President Abraham Lincoln, no one quite rocks the top hat and beard like you. Another Birthday, but not quite as old as Abe, Val-my awesome site mate; so glad to have you in Kivertsi with me. Happy Anniversary to Erik and Tobey on your one year wedding anniversary. Congrats to Kristin and Chad Rickey on the birth of Baby Charlie!!!


Melissa (featured PCV) and Myself two weekends ago.

At the beginning of the week, I could see the ground and the temperatures were right around the freezing mark. I was getting excited to think as soon as I got over this cold I could start running in preparation for the 10k that I want to run again in late April. I was walking to school on Friday thinking oh I can stop wearing such warm clothes. Wishful thinking- by the time I got out of school at noon the ground and disappeared. Snow and frigid temperatures are back. Booo!! I am hopeful that this February won’t be as bad as last. The previous year, we had some canceled school days because of -30 Celsius weather (-22F). I’m really hoping to avoid that level of cold in my bones this February. Oh, how spring can’t get here fast enough.

Alright I’m going to wrap this up so I can start some hand washing of a week and half worth of laundry. I hope everyone has a great Sunday as well as Valentine’s Day. I must say that it is one of my least favorite holidays, but maybe a secret admirer will come out of the Ukrainian woodwork. I’ll leave you with a short interview of my friend and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Melissa. I’m going to do this for the next following weeks with different volunteers. Keep an eye out. Miss and love you all.

Kate


This is my Ukrainian dwelling place.

SUNDAY MORNING WITH VOLYNSKA VOLUNTEERS / MELISSA

1. Describe yourself in 5 words
creative, enthusiastic, awkward, hopeful, self-entertaining

2. Favorite and least favorite thing about Ukraine
favorite: people, and then food// least favorite: icy sidewalks and pessimism

3. Title of your PCV Autobiography
Eating Oranges in the Dark

4. 3 survival tips for a PCV in Ukraine
1. Say yes to as many reasonable invitations as possible., 2. Be flexible., 3. Try a little harder sometimes, but just relax, sometimes, too.

5. What Americans don't know about Ukraine, but should...
Ukraine is not part of Russia. Ukraine is not always cold. Ukrainians-- especially young women-- are very stylish, and don't even dash out to the corner shop for bread without looking good. Sweats and hoodies? Nope! Also, many Ukrainians are pretty multi-lingual, and speak Ukrainian, Russian, maybe Polish, maybe something else. Most Ukrainians know more about America than Americans know about Ukraine.