November 12th, 2009
Well life is all well on the home front. I’m just sitting hear the fireplace enjoying the warmth before getting ready to do my lesson planning for technical tutoring tomorrow. Today after getting back to my dodoma (home) and lesson planning with Allison, I enjoyed hanging out in the kitchen with my host grandmother, Vala. She is 49 wears the pants of this family and has the best sense of humor ever.
I got to help prepare the ingredients for the borscht as well as mix “zap pee kon ka” which is a dish that contains apples diced up, cheese, and rice, then is topped off by being covered with a scrambled egg then cooked in the oven for around 45mins. It actually looks like it is pretty good but I can’t say yet. I also peeled 13 (thre nad set) potatoes (car toe pla) which probably took me a good 20 minutes when I pretty sure my host mother could have done them all in under 5 minutes. But she loves me and lets me learn/ feel like I’m contributing to the family.
Also chilling with Kanopa (which means button) a nice calico cat that is my favorite out of the three of the house. We met with our teacher that we are interning for and heard that it is rumored that it might be another 2 weeks of quarantine added on to the end of next week. If that happens we could only have the chance to teach the last week before teaching which would be a really bummer since I haven’t had the chance to get into the class room myself.
My host mother brought home mandarins tonight. My house grandmother and I in our PJs took this opportunity to have a juggling contest. I must actually admit that she was a little better than me. Haha, o good times in Ukraine (there is a photo on face book to prove it). Well I’m getting tired and still have things to do. I’m headed to bed. Hopefully write more tomorrow summing up week number 4 here in the motherland.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Week 3: “Yeah, Isn’t Amazing All the People I meet” inspired by “Volunteers” Jefferson Airplane
November 7th, 2009
Hey all. Coming to you live from Ukraine. It’s currently 75 degrees in my room which is hot compared to earlier in the week when my host family hadn’t turned on the heat. I went to bed one night with it right around 60 degrees. I felt like that entire day I didn’t get warm.
Last night (11/6) was my host mom and dad’s 10th wedding anniversary. We had a large dinner with a handful of family and friends. It was definitely the most delicious meal since I’ve been in Ukraine. I also got to participated in shooting shots of Russian vodka throughout the dinner. Let’s just say that no, no matter how many times I said it didn’t really worked. The best I could hope for was saying chew chew which means a little and pray for a small amount in my glass.
My family is absolutely wonderful. For the most part, the other volunteers enjoy their families but I really think I got some help from the big man upstairs when it came to getting paired with this family. They all have a great sense of humor. It’s been amazing how far a positive attitude and good sense of humor can take you. Tonight at dinner my ba-boo-sya (host grandmother)quizzed me over dinning utensils and food while my host sister tried to whisper the answers to me that I couldn’t remember.
This week was filled with tons of language and technical training. On Saturdays, we head over to the next small town for more technical training with our cluster. Today, we covered the dynamics of co-teaching and team teaching with our Ukrainian teacher counterparts. Two other topics were adjusting with culture shocks and methods to adapt to our new environment as well as how to start up English clubs once we get to our site.
First when arriving and seeing my other cluster mates teaching in the school, I thought “holy crap what have I gotten myself into.” Now after some training and getting to know & really like my host sister, I’m really excited at the opportunity to work with Ukrainian children. I think it will be an amazing experience getting the privilege to be the for the most part the first American they have ever interacted with. My TCF was telling us today there are some strong misconceptions and stereotypes about Americans, that we are like Brittney Spears rolling up to school in a fancy car with diamonds in our ears. Boy are they going to be in for a surprise when this giant with nappy curly hair hops of the local transportation the first day of school.
So week three there have been some ups and many downs but right now I find myself in a really good place. This afternoon after technical training, my cluster mates and I were able to get in a 2 hour hoo-lya-tae (a stroll without a purpose) before it started to get dark around 4:30pm. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some photos up here or on Facebook. We often try to get some walks in when the weather is nicer which means it isn’t freezing or rainy. Most days the weather is cold, dark and grey. Tomorrow, Sunday I’ll be headed into Chernigiv to post all of my recent blogs. Hope this finds everyone doing well.
Oh also thought I would add the breakdown of Peace Corps Lingo
PC- Peace Corps
PCV- Peace Corps Volunteer
PCT- Peace Corps Trainee
RPCV- Returned Peace Corps Volunteer
ET- Early Termination
MT – Medically Termination
PCMO- Peace Corps Medical Office
Cluster- the 4 other PCTs in my town (that I have daily everything with)
Link- the other cluster (from the closest small town to me) plus my cluster
LCF- Language Facilitator (the person who teaches us Ukrainian everyday)
TCF- Technical Facilitator (the person in charge of supervising us in our internship with the local school as well as some other random PC training)
Hey all. Coming to you live from Ukraine. It’s currently 75 degrees in my room which is hot compared to earlier in the week when my host family hadn’t turned on the heat. I went to bed one night with it right around 60 degrees. I felt like that entire day I didn’t get warm.
Last night (11/6) was my host mom and dad’s 10th wedding anniversary. We had a large dinner with a handful of family and friends. It was definitely the most delicious meal since I’ve been in Ukraine. I also got to participated in shooting shots of Russian vodka throughout the dinner. Let’s just say that no, no matter how many times I said it didn’t really worked. The best I could hope for was saying chew chew which means a little and pray for a small amount in my glass.
My family is absolutely wonderful. For the most part, the other volunteers enjoy their families but I really think I got some help from the big man upstairs when it came to getting paired with this family. They all have a great sense of humor. It’s been amazing how far a positive attitude and good sense of humor can take you. Tonight at dinner my ba-boo-sya (host grandmother)quizzed me over dinning utensils and food while my host sister tried to whisper the answers to me that I couldn’t remember.
This week was filled with tons of language and technical training. On Saturdays, we head over to the next small town for more technical training with our cluster. Today, we covered the dynamics of co-teaching and team teaching with our Ukrainian teacher counterparts. Two other topics were adjusting with culture shocks and methods to adapt to our new environment as well as how to start up English clubs once we get to our site.
First when arriving and seeing my other cluster mates teaching in the school, I thought “holy crap what have I gotten myself into.” Now after some training and getting to know & really like my host sister, I’m really excited at the opportunity to work with Ukrainian children. I think it will be an amazing experience getting the privilege to be the for the most part the first American they have ever interacted with. My TCF was telling us today there are some strong misconceptions and stereotypes about Americans, that we are like Brittney Spears rolling up to school in a fancy car with diamonds in our ears. Boy are they going to be in for a surprise when this giant with nappy curly hair hops of the local transportation the first day of school.
So week three there have been some ups and many downs but right now I find myself in a really good place. This afternoon after technical training, my cluster mates and I were able to get in a 2 hour hoo-lya-tae (a stroll without a purpose) before it started to get dark around 4:30pm. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some photos up here or on Facebook. We often try to get some walks in when the weather is nicer which means it isn’t freezing or rainy. Most days the weather is cold, dark and grey. Tomorrow, Sunday I’ll be headed into Chernigiv to post all of my recent blogs. Hope this finds everyone doing well.
Oh also thought I would add the breakdown of Peace Corps Lingo
PC- Peace Corps
PCV- Peace Corps Volunteer
PCT- Peace Corps Trainee
RPCV- Returned Peace Corps Volunteer
ET- Early Termination
MT – Medically Termination
PCMO- Peace Corps Medical Office
Cluster- the 4 other PCTs in my town (that I have daily everything with)
Link- the other cluster (from the closest small town to me) plus my cluster
LCF- Language Facilitator (the person who teaches us Ukrainian everyday)
TCF- Technical Facilitator (the person in charge of supervising us in our internship with the local school as well as some other random PC training)
They Weren’t Lying: Snail Mail is The Best
November 5th, 2009
It has been another long week. Every morning I get up and think today is the day where I’m going to feel like I’ve made some progress with the Ukrainian language. Well it’s Thursday night of week 3 and I feel like it should be day one and I’m still jet lagged on top of it.
I guess I told myself that language would be hard but I definitely underestimated how much I would miss being able to communicate whenever I wanted. My host family is absolutely great and I want to have a deeper relationship than charades and looking up words in the dictionary can provide. So I find myself stuck wishing I didn’t care to learn the language meaning I would be a lot less frustrated instead of being completely frustrated because I so badly just want to be able to speak Ukrainian.
But tonight I did find the ability to relax. First of all I got my tutoring done at 8am instead of 3pm which meant when class finished at 1:30pm the rest of the day was Kate time. This makes doing homework not so bad because I don’t feel like I have to rush home to eat potatoes and then start on work. I came home had some lunch then played around 7 games of UNO with my host sister (the H1N1 scare is worth having my host sister to chill with; also just want to put it out there I took the series 4-3).
I got my language homework done the best I could. Eventually started lesson planning because I need to have 15 lessons planned instead of 15 taught. If all goes well hopefully I will be able to teach week 9, 10, and 11. If not I’m going to be entering my two years of service on the fly. I’m hoping to at least get in the classroom a few times to feel comfortable and not be totally freaked to start teaching. Allison and I were suppose to team teach so we are picking up where our last lesson plan ended with a new one.
PC has also put certain requirements on the 15. One of them has to be an introduction of ourselves and developing an idea of where our student’s abilities stand. For mine, I worked out a circle chart of my interests. It is geared toward older students but could be watered down for younger or students with lower abilities. Just thinking of ideas, I’m started to get excited and remember the reason I’m here.
Tonight while coordinating over the phone with Allison (you have to love the free life to life (aka Ukrainian Verizon to Verizon deal) she told me that when she was finishing up her lesson this afternoon that a PC car came to drop off our biweekly allowance with some mail. I was one of two volunteers who received mail in my group. Cindy and I both received three letters. I couldn’t have been happier; seriously I cannot remember the last time I felt like this. Maybe when I was five and got a playschool camera for my birthday. So today my favorite three people are my mom (go figure), Ruthann and Bre. I must say Bre Parra you impressed me with your ability to plan a week and half advance to send me a Halloween card. I love you friend and I laughed out loud when reading my card (I think you know why). Mom I loved the card but please get a little more descriptive than “I miss you, Mom.”
Right now my letter count is 18-3; also sending 5 postcards tomorrow. So as of tomorrow the 6th of Nov., I’ll have sent 23 piece of mail (either individual mailed or grouped) while I have received only 3. Please keep sending letters, you have no idea how they make my day. By the postmark dates to when they were driven out to my little village it took right around two and half weeks. Also from looking at my mom’s card it cost only .98 cents and come on friends that’s less than a Wendy’s frosty (believe me I know). Mmmm a frosty… anywho keep those letters coming at a steady pace.
If you really hate snail mail, I get to check my facebook every once in awhile so you could drop me a line on there as well. As far as what I write on my blog, I write random thoughts from the day (also don’t judge spelling or errors its 9pm and I’m ready to crash from the long day) but if anyone has any particular questions about life here in Ukraine just add a comment right here on my blog.
Hope you are all doing well. Overall, I’m enjoying my time here in Ukraine but I do miss you all. Later YOs!!
It has been another long week. Every morning I get up and think today is the day where I’m going to feel like I’ve made some progress with the Ukrainian language. Well it’s Thursday night of week 3 and I feel like it should be day one and I’m still jet lagged on top of it.
I guess I told myself that language would be hard but I definitely underestimated how much I would miss being able to communicate whenever I wanted. My host family is absolutely great and I want to have a deeper relationship than charades and looking up words in the dictionary can provide. So I find myself stuck wishing I didn’t care to learn the language meaning I would be a lot less frustrated instead of being completely frustrated because I so badly just want to be able to speak Ukrainian.
But tonight I did find the ability to relax. First of all I got my tutoring done at 8am instead of 3pm which meant when class finished at 1:30pm the rest of the day was Kate time. This makes doing homework not so bad because I don’t feel like I have to rush home to eat potatoes and then start on work. I came home had some lunch then played around 7 games of UNO with my host sister (the H1N1 scare is worth having my host sister to chill with; also just want to put it out there I took the series 4-3).
I got my language homework done the best I could. Eventually started lesson planning because I need to have 15 lessons planned instead of 15 taught. If all goes well hopefully I will be able to teach week 9, 10, and 11. If not I’m going to be entering my two years of service on the fly. I’m hoping to at least get in the classroom a few times to feel comfortable and not be totally freaked to start teaching. Allison and I were suppose to team teach so we are picking up where our last lesson plan ended with a new one.
PC has also put certain requirements on the 15. One of them has to be an introduction of ourselves and developing an idea of where our student’s abilities stand. For mine, I worked out a circle chart of my interests. It is geared toward older students but could be watered down for younger or students with lower abilities. Just thinking of ideas, I’m started to get excited and remember the reason I’m here.
Tonight while coordinating over the phone with Allison (you have to love the free life to life (aka Ukrainian Verizon to Verizon deal) she told me that when she was finishing up her lesson this afternoon that a PC car came to drop off our biweekly allowance with some mail. I was one of two volunteers who received mail in my group. Cindy and I both received three letters. I couldn’t have been happier; seriously I cannot remember the last time I felt like this. Maybe when I was five and got a playschool camera for my birthday. So today my favorite three people are my mom (go figure), Ruthann and Bre. I must say Bre Parra you impressed me with your ability to plan a week and half advance to send me a Halloween card. I love you friend and I laughed out loud when reading my card (I think you know why). Mom I loved the card but please get a little more descriptive than “I miss you, Mom.”
Right now my letter count is 18-3; also sending 5 postcards tomorrow. So as of tomorrow the 6th of Nov., I’ll have sent 23 piece of mail (either individual mailed or grouped) while I have received only 3. Please keep sending letters, you have no idea how they make my day. By the postmark dates to when they were driven out to my little village it took right around two and half weeks. Also from looking at my mom’s card it cost only .98 cents and come on friends that’s less than a Wendy’s frosty (believe me I know). Mmmm a frosty… anywho keep those letters coming at a steady pace.
If you really hate snail mail, I get to check my facebook every once in awhile so you could drop me a line on there as well. As far as what I write on my blog, I write random thoughts from the day (also don’t judge spelling or errors its 9pm and I’m ready to crash from the long day) but if anyone has any particular questions about life here in Ukraine just add a comment right here on my blog.
Hope you are all doing well. Overall, I’m enjoying my time here in Ukraine but I do miss you all. Later YOs!!
Week #2: Cold = Breaking Out My Sweat Pants
November 1st, 2009
Good bye October, Hello November. Well it is current sunny and 47 degrees here in my small town. Last night, I busted out my fat pants (sweat pants) as Sarah Perrone would call them. I’m listening to my awesome worship music on my computer while doing my morning chores. After I’m done, I’m hoping to take a walk around town to lessen the effect of my consumption of potatoes.
The way time passes here is a little strange. Days seem to go by so slow maybe because I’m staring at my watch the entire four hours of language but the weeks seem to fly by. I have been in country over two weeks now and it seems like I have just gotten here. I’ve seemed to establish a routine with my host babushka (grandmother). I take my breakfast at 7:30am before she leaves for work then I have an hour and half before I need to be at language class which means a small not even five minute walk over to my LCF’s house. Each day consists of 4 hours of language and I also have 1 hour of individual tutor time as well. Build in an hour for lunch and I often don’t return home until after dark which means 6ish here.
This past week our school that we are interning at was closed for a week holiday break. Monday classes were supposed to resume and I was scheduled to teach 5th form English on Thursday as well as observe other cluster mates and Ukrainian teachers throughout the week. This Friday while hanging out with my cluster after lang. we were called and notified that our teaching would be suspended for the next three weeks because of a flu outbreak. As a precaution, we are not allowed to travel outside our community which means no urban life but more unfortunately no internet. Peace Corps doesn’t play around with safety and well being of us volunteers. I guess I understand their logic but at the same time there isn’t much to do around in my small town on the weekends. Looks like I’ll have the ability to get some more studying Ukrainian in this weekend.
I’m a little tiny bit more confident with the small fraction of Ukrainian that I know. Things like please, thank you, how are you, good morning, good night and such come quickly to my mind but I really need to expand beyond that. With great difficulty, I can read Ukraine. Normally, I butcher it but doing more than I could last week so I count that as a plus. Attempting to conjugate verbs and what not, seems impossible right now. I often speak out of tense but can get my idea of what I mean out there. My new LCF is great. She is a very patience and positive woman. I’ll be sad to see her leave in two weeks. PC does a rotation with our LCFs (3 weeks switch 3 weeks switch then the final 4 weeks with our original LCF). I’m staying positive and trying to take in as much as I can.
Yesterday, was Halloween which is not a celebrated nor really recognized holiday here in Ukraine, but us Americans refused to let it pass without our own mini celebration. With our technical training canceled yesterday since we can’t travel we had a first free Saturday. Allison and I took the free morning as a time to walk around town. We crossed the main road in town and walked a road until the edge of town then walked back on a different road that had abandoned buildings. I took some photos and we pretty much just enjoyed walking in the sunshine. After our late morning stroll, we headed back to Allison’s house. Her family is farmers. They sell milk, butter, and cheese. They also seem to have a sweet tooth which means there is always a bowl of cookies and candy. The mother fed us a delicious vegetable soup for lunch.
We then got the chance to help cook. I forgot the name of what we cooked but to me they were hot pocket like with mashed corn, carrots filling. After frying them, you lather them in oil and garlic and then toss them all around in a pot. They were amazing and Allison’s HM (host mom) made us eat way too many of them. Pretty much the afternoon consisted of all the women of the family cooking while the men were working outside for a little but them came in and watched TV while enjoying the product of our labor. I hopefully will get to put up a video clip or at less pictures of the whole experience.
Allison and I were also entertained by Vadim, the cutest but most rambunctious 18 month little boy. At one point, he would tap me with an empty bottle and then run into the other room. While he was in the other room, I hid behind the wall so he couldn’t see me when he entered the kitchen. I then jumped out to scare him a little but nothing serious. I success scared him to the point of some alligator tears and he immediately retreated to the living room for his grandpa. We all laughed but I felt bad for the little guy. But hey it was Halloween!
Eventually, Allison and I headed out to meet up with the other volunteers. We enjoyed too much candy and some wine at Laura’s house while watching “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” We all headed back to our respected houses. I got home at 8pm which seemed so late because it gets so dark here. I ate dinner with my family and read a little before going to bed.
Well my laundry is probably almost done. I am blessed with a family with a washing machine but there is no dryer which means I have to hang my close around my room to dry so if I want clean, dry pants for tomorrow I need to get on that. Hope everyone at home had a lovely Halloween. Miss you all.
Cross cultural learning moment: While at Allison’s I used the restroom. Then told her that my toilet paper didn’t flush for some reason. She gave me a look like I was insane followed by “Are you crazy you aren’t suppose to flush the TP.” For the past two weeks, I have been flushing instead of throwing away. ScHmIdT happens.
Good bye October, Hello November. Well it is current sunny and 47 degrees here in my small town. Last night, I busted out my fat pants (sweat pants) as Sarah Perrone would call them. I’m listening to my awesome worship music on my computer while doing my morning chores. After I’m done, I’m hoping to take a walk around town to lessen the effect of my consumption of potatoes.
The way time passes here is a little strange. Days seem to go by so slow maybe because I’m staring at my watch the entire four hours of language but the weeks seem to fly by. I have been in country over two weeks now and it seems like I have just gotten here. I’ve seemed to establish a routine with my host babushka (grandmother). I take my breakfast at 7:30am before she leaves for work then I have an hour and half before I need to be at language class which means a small not even five minute walk over to my LCF’s house. Each day consists of 4 hours of language and I also have 1 hour of individual tutor time as well. Build in an hour for lunch and I often don’t return home until after dark which means 6ish here.
This past week our school that we are interning at was closed for a week holiday break. Monday classes were supposed to resume and I was scheduled to teach 5th form English on Thursday as well as observe other cluster mates and Ukrainian teachers throughout the week. This Friday while hanging out with my cluster after lang. we were called and notified that our teaching would be suspended for the next three weeks because of a flu outbreak. As a precaution, we are not allowed to travel outside our community which means no urban life but more unfortunately no internet. Peace Corps doesn’t play around with safety and well being of us volunteers. I guess I understand their logic but at the same time there isn’t much to do around in my small town on the weekends. Looks like I’ll have the ability to get some more studying Ukrainian in this weekend.
I’m a little tiny bit more confident with the small fraction of Ukrainian that I know. Things like please, thank you, how are you, good morning, good night and such come quickly to my mind but I really need to expand beyond that. With great difficulty, I can read Ukraine. Normally, I butcher it but doing more than I could last week so I count that as a plus. Attempting to conjugate verbs and what not, seems impossible right now. I often speak out of tense but can get my idea of what I mean out there. My new LCF is great. She is a very patience and positive woman. I’ll be sad to see her leave in two weeks. PC does a rotation with our LCFs (3 weeks switch 3 weeks switch then the final 4 weeks with our original LCF). I’m staying positive and trying to take in as much as I can.
Yesterday, was Halloween which is not a celebrated nor really recognized holiday here in Ukraine, but us Americans refused to let it pass without our own mini celebration. With our technical training canceled yesterday since we can’t travel we had a first free Saturday. Allison and I took the free morning as a time to walk around town. We crossed the main road in town and walked a road until the edge of town then walked back on a different road that had abandoned buildings. I took some photos and we pretty much just enjoyed walking in the sunshine. After our late morning stroll, we headed back to Allison’s house. Her family is farmers. They sell milk, butter, and cheese. They also seem to have a sweet tooth which means there is always a bowl of cookies and candy. The mother fed us a delicious vegetable soup for lunch.
We then got the chance to help cook. I forgot the name of what we cooked but to me they were hot pocket like with mashed corn, carrots filling. After frying them, you lather them in oil and garlic and then toss them all around in a pot. They were amazing and Allison’s HM (host mom) made us eat way too many of them. Pretty much the afternoon consisted of all the women of the family cooking while the men were working outside for a little but them came in and watched TV while enjoying the product of our labor. I hopefully will get to put up a video clip or at less pictures of the whole experience.
Allison and I were also entertained by Vadim, the cutest but most rambunctious 18 month little boy. At one point, he would tap me with an empty bottle and then run into the other room. While he was in the other room, I hid behind the wall so he couldn’t see me when he entered the kitchen. I then jumped out to scare him a little but nothing serious. I success scared him to the point of some alligator tears and he immediately retreated to the living room for his grandpa. We all laughed but I felt bad for the little guy. But hey it was Halloween!
Eventually, Allison and I headed out to meet up with the other volunteers. We enjoyed too much candy and some wine at Laura’s house while watching “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” We all headed back to our respected houses. I got home at 8pm which seemed so late because it gets so dark here. I ate dinner with my family and read a little before going to bed.
Well my laundry is probably almost done. I am blessed with a family with a washing machine but there is no dryer which means I have to hang my close around my room to dry so if I want clean, dry pants for tomorrow I need to get on that. Hope everyone at home had a lovely Halloween. Miss you all.
Cross cultural learning moment: While at Allison’s I used the restroom. Then told her that my toilet paper didn’t flush for some reason. She gave me a look like I was insane followed by “Are you crazy you aren’t suppose to flush the TP.” For the past two weeks, I have been flushing instead of throwing away. ScHmIdT happens.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Complications with Photos
For whatever reason uploading to facebook and blogspot has been difficult. I have uploaded some photos to facebook. So check out my photos there. Hopefully in two weeks, I'll figure out a better way to upload photos.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Week 1: uKATEnglish
Oh the roller coaster ride that my life is. The title of this blog suggests the language I have been speaking this past week. It is a tiny bit of Ukrainian with a lot of English and some Kate mixed in. I am a natural roller coaster of emotions but this past week has been an extreme low followed by a extreme high then low then high then low. You get the picture. Many days I have left English class so frustrated in a bad mood but then I think to myself. Week 1, I just got to put my head down and keep working.
The task of learning a language in catch up style will be the greatest mental challenge of my young life. It is one thing to learn a language but Ukrainian. It is a tough bird. With the complex alphabet, I feel like I have to deprogram the English I know and quickly upload Ukrainian. Through all my struggles this week my fellow PCTs have been wonderful. I could tell when I got here that I was coming into a tight group but they immediately welcomed me as part of the group. I have no idea what I would do without such a great group.
The new crew is Jon from Colorado, Laura from Washington D.C., Cindy from Texas, and Allison from Evanston, IL. Today after class, we walked to the local store bought some junk food and a few beers to distress after the long week. Hanging out at Laura’s host family’s house with no one else there made me almost feel like I was somewhere in the states just hanging out with friends.
Tonight has been the first time all week that I could come home and not immediately get to homework. I’m enjoying rocking out to my favorite playlist and typing up this blog. I thought graduating college my homework days would be behind me, but only now do I find them to be ten times more important. Because if I ever want to communicate more than “how are you?” and “good afternoon,” I need to get on the ball with learning.
So yeah life here in Ukraine is not drastically different than home, but just a lot of small differences. Here are a few examples: going into their small store you have to ask the cashier to pull the items that you want from behind the counter, when passing people even if you make eye contact it is still strange to smile at them, there are a lot of others that I’m sure I’ll pass along in my time here.
It seems like I have already been here awhile now and it has only been a week. I’m sure that the time will fly and soon enough I’ll be sad about leaving my small village, host family and fellow PCTs. Well I’m going to keep trudging on, counting it all joy and embracing the small daily victories. Please send letters; I haven’t received anything yet. PC personally drives them out to the different sites so I’m not quite sure if it’s cause they haven’t delivered or you people called my friends haven’t written any. I’m hoping the first. And keep the prayers coming for a servant’s heart and persistence for learning this difficult language.
The task of learning a language in catch up style will be the greatest mental challenge of my young life. It is one thing to learn a language but Ukrainian. It is a tough bird. With the complex alphabet, I feel like I have to deprogram the English I know and quickly upload Ukrainian. Through all my struggles this week my fellow PCTs have been wonderful. I could tell when I got here that I was coming into a tight group but they immediately welcomed me as part of the group. I have no idea what I would do without such a great group.
The new crew is Jon from Colorado, Laura from Washington D.C., Cindy from Texas, and Allison from Evanston, IL. Today after class, we walked to the local store bought some junk food and a few beers to distress after the long week. Hanging out at Laura’s host family’s house with no one else there made me almost feel like I was somewhere in the states just hanging out with friends.
Tonight has been the first time all week that I could come home and not immediately get to homework. I’m enjoying rocking out to my favorite playlist and typing up this blog. I thought graduating college my homework days would be behind me, but only now do I find them to be ten times more important. Because if I ever want to communicate more than “how are you?” and “good afternoon,” I need to get on the ball with learning.
So yeah life here in Ukraine is not drastically different than home, but just a lot of small differences. Here are a few examples: going into their small store you have to ask the cashier to pull the items that you want from behind the counter, when passing people even if you make eye contact it is still strange to smile at them, there are a lot of others that I’m sure I’ll pass along in my time here.
It seems like I have already been here awhile now and it has only been a week. I’m sure that the time will fly and soon enough I’ll be sad about leaving my small village, host family and fellow PCTs. Well I’m going to keep trudging on, counting it all joy and embracing the small daily victories. Please send letters; I haven’t received anything yet. PC personally drives them out to the different sites so I’m not quite sure if it’s cause they haven’t delivered or you people called my friends haven’t written any. I’m hoping the first. And keep the prayers coming for a servant’s heart and persistence for learning this difficult language.
"False Friends, True Friends, and New Friends"
Today was my first day of school. I got up at 7:30am. Showered in what looks like a space capsule. I managed to get clean without falling out so I consider it my first success of the day. Around 8am, I had fried potatoes, cucumbers, bread and butter with my little host sister. I got on dress clothes which is the proper attire for school and language training; which for me meant nice slacks and button down with my very warm vest.
I didn’t have to leave school until 9:20am because it is only a short walk to my English teacher’s house where the five of us PCTs are taught every day. Good thing I had some time because I have come to the realization that around 20mins after I eat it is time for me to use the bathroom.
My host grandmother, Vala, escorted me to the teacher’s house which is pretty much down the other side of the road that Y’s from the main road that goes through my little village. I arrived and soon got to work on my Ukrainian alphabet. There are 33 letters and as the title of the lesson suggests there are “false friends, true friends, and new friends.” Which means letters that now have different meanings, some have the same meaning and then there are new letters all together. So pretty much to learn Ukrainian I need to unlearn English to some extent.
I had an hour private lesson with my teacher before the others arrived from teaching morning lessons at the school that has kids from 2nd to 10th grade, I believe there is around 150 students all together. When my other mates joined me, I stayed at the kitchen table to keep working on my alphabet while they did week #4 lessons. Eventually we walked to the school where I will have lunch every day. I was a bit hesitant from my morning fiasco. It was a type of potato soup and pretty good. I ate a lot of bread attempting to be nice to my stomach.
After a quick lunch, I went to grade 7 and 10 to watch my four fellow PVCs teach some lessons. They taught in pairs for 40mins. I was amazed at all they were able to accomplish without using a lot of Ukrainian to direct the students. Overall, I would say they did a very good job.
After school let out around 2pm, we headed back to our English teacher’s house to get back to lessons. I was able to observe the other students and attempt to pick up whatever I could while studying my alphabet. Around 4pm, we took a tea/coffee break for a half hour. Then got cracking on lessons until 6pm. We all headed back to our separate homes because our host mothers will worry if it really starts to get dark and we aren’t home yet. I pretty much learned two things besides being able to sound out the alphabet. First was Ya Kate means I am Kate and dobryi’ den means good day.
I have a lot of head of me and feel extremely behind when compared to my classmates but I’m just trying to take one day at a time.
I didn’t have to leave school until 9:20am because it is only a short walk to my English teacher’s house where the five of us PCTs are taught every day. Good thing I had some time because I have come to the realization that around 20mins after I eat it is time for me to use the bathroom.
My host grandmother, Vala, escorted me to the teacher’s house which is pretty much down the other side of the road that Y’s from the main road that goes through my little village. I arrived and soon got to work on my Ukrainian alphabet. There are 33 letters and as the title of the lesson suggests there are “false friends, true friends, and new friends.” Which means letters that now have different meanings, some have the same meaning and then there are new letters all together. So pretty much to learn Ukrainian I need to unlearn English to some extent.
I had an hour private lesson with my teacher before the others arrived from teaching morning lessons at the school that has kids from 2nd to 10th grade, I believe there is around 150 students all together. When my other mates joined me, I stayed at the kitchen table to keep working on my alphabet while they did week #4 lessons. Eventually we walked to the school where I will have lunch every day. I was a bit hesitant from my morning fiasco. It was a type of potato soup and pretty good. I ate a lot of bread attempting to be nice to my stomach.
After a quick lunch, I went to grade 7 and 10 to watch my four fellow PVCs teach some lessons. They taught in pairs for 40mins. I was amazed at all they were able to accomplish without using a lot of Ukrainian to direct the students. Overall, I would say they did a very good job.
After school let out around 2pm, we headed back to our English teacher’s house to get back to lessons. I was able to observe the other students and attempt to pick up whatever I could while studying my alphabet. Around 4pm, we took a tea/coffee break for a half hour. Then got cracking on lessons until 6pm. We all headed back to our separate homes because our host mothers will worry if it really starts to get dark and we aren’t home yet. I pretty much learned two things besides being able to sound out the alphabet. First was Ya Kate means I am Kate and dobryi’ den means good day.
I have a lot of head of me and feel extremely behind when compared to my classmates but I’m just trying to take one day at a time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)