Yesterday, Michael (my boyfriend) and I had our First Annual Day of Baking Christmas Cookies.* He wanted to send out cookies as Christmas presents, so we came up with seven different kinds we wanted to bake. It was a mix of American and German cookies, and the differences between them were quite striking. The American cookies we chose tended to be very sweet and light, while the German cookies are very rich and nutty. I have to say though, the Germans really know their Christmas cookies: they are by far my favorites of this whole bunch. Below is a description and picture of each kind we made.

Lebkuchen

This can be literally translated as "life cake," and honestly the first thing I said after took a bite of this was "I could eat one of these every day for the rest of my life." It's that good. It's dense and rich and very intensely flavored with a spicy sweetness. It's a traditional German bread/cake/cookie that is baked for Christmas, and it's similar to soft gingerbread....but so much better, in my opinion!

Zimtsterne

"Cinnamon stars!" These things are wonderful! I still remember way back in 1997 when my family hosted a German exchange student, she made these for Christmas. I fell in love with them and have not forgotten the taste, even these 12 years later! These are also traditional German/Austrian Christmas cookies. The funny thing about these cookies is that there is no flour and no rising agent in the batter! It's mostly made up of egg whites, ground almonds, cinnamon, and lemon. That sounds all rather odd together, but end result is incredible. It's crunchy and chewy and intensely flavored. Yummmmm....

Gingersnaps

A classic Christmas favorite, who doesn't love gingersnaps? I'm going to place these in the American cookie category, since we used a recipe from The Joy of Cooking. I think German gingersnaps tend to be "spicier" anyway. I think the ones we made are a perfect balance of chewy and crisp.

Snickerdoodles

A simple sugar cookie rolled in cinnamon = pure yumminess. I think I am noticing a theme here in my love of cinnamon. :)

Macadamia nut

Michael has a huge bag of macadamia nuts in the freezer that he got from his trip to Maui last year. What better way to use them than in macadamia nut cookies?

Butterscotch

We made these as "freezer cookies," meaning you make the dough sometime before you want to use it. You roll it into a tube, wrap it up, and stick it in the freezer. Then when you want to bake the cookies, you slice the tube and bake! Hmm....someone should market this idea... ;) Anyway, I had never made butterscotch cookies before, and I was amazed to find out all it takes is a little vanilla extract and brown sugar to achieve the taste. We also packed a ton of chopped almonds into these cookies, because, let's face it - almonds are delicious.

Vanillekipferl

These little guys are Austrian. I believe the translation would be "vanilla crescents." And that's exactly what they are: crunch, light, slightly vanilla flavored crescents. They were time consuming to roll out and shape, but you really can't hold it against them when they turn out so cute.

All in all, I think we spent a total of 9 hours baking cookies, and the entire apartment will smell sweet and Christmasy for weeks to come. Now all we need to do is get these cookies out of here before someone eats them all. No, I'm not talking about Michael or me. I'm talking about this guy. He apparently likes Vanillekipferl too.

*Title subject to change and may not be annual. That was so much work!

So, um, it's been a while, hasn't it? I haven't used this blog in ages, but I really want to get back to blogging, so I think I may resurrect this one. I have started blogs on other sites (mostly due to friends' requests that I sign up for some particular service), but I think I like blogger the best so far. It seems to let me customize things the most, and I really like that. Plus I have such a history on here! I may consolidate some of the posts from other blogs on here and back-date things...for continuity's sake.

I have been thinking that I should come up with a theme for my blog. I have finished with Peace Corps, so that won't be my focus anymore, although I certainly will talk about it from time to time. The other blogs that I have tried in the past have been so disjointed in the past. I start off with a purpose, but I get bored with it and abandon it. But, maybe that's been my problem all along - trying to limit myself to a single topic like recipes or whatnot. Maybe I should just post whatever I feel like and let this blog evolve naturally.

A lot of changes have taken place since I last wrote in here. The biggest change is that I am completely and totally done with Peace Corps. I finished my service in Ukraine in November 2008. I won't bore you with the details, but since that time, I have lived in Kansas and Ohio. And, just recently, I moved to Seattle with my boyfriend. We have been here for only a few weeks, and I am slowly adjusting. I am still feeling a bit uncentered though, and I am trying to find my place again. I feel like having an outlet like this may be a good idea - a place to jot down my thoughts, feelings, tell about new experiences and discoveries.

Yes, I am definitely liking this idea. If you, dear readers, have any suggestions on what you would like to see here, let me know. (Seattle touristy things, my thoughts on a vegetarian diet, my troubles with keeping my orchids alive, my thoughts on cultural differences between Americans and Germans, ANYTHING!)

For now, I will start off my posting a fantastic recipe I tried out last night. I should let you in on a little secret first though: I am absolutely obsessed with pumpkins right now. Or rather, squash. All autumn I have been trying out different kinds of squash for all sorts of recipes - bread, soup, pie... I even have three different types of squash pureed and in my freezer right now so that I'll be able to savor the squashy goodness this spring. :) But anyway, on to the fabulous recipe!

Pumpkin Pancakes Rated: Submitted By: RuthPhoto By: Allrecipes Prep Time: 20 MinutesCook Time: 20 Minutes Ready In: 40 MinutesServings: 6 "These barely-sweetened fluffy pancakes feature ginger, cinnamon and allspice to emphasize the pumpkin flavor. Serve them hot with maple syrup for the best autumn or winter breakfast dish ever."Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour3 tablespoons brown sugar2 teaspoons baking powder1 teaspoon baking soda1 teaspoon ground allspice1 teaspoon ground cinnamon1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon salt1 1/2 cups milk1 cup pumpkin puree1 egg2 tablespoons vegetable oil2 tablespoons vinegar Directions: 1. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt, stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine. 2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2009 Allrecipes.com Printed from Allrecipes.com 12/4/2009

I followed this recipe exactly, and the pancakes were amazing. Light and fluffy pumpkiny goodness. Um, just use caution with your portion control. I did not. I stuffed myself silly and felt....well, only slightly guilty, because I went out salsa dancing afterward and hopefully worked off the ten thousand calories I'd just happily consumed.

I'm sorry I have been so awful about sending out updates. I can't even remember the last time I sent one! The last few months in Ukraine were just a whirlwind of wrapping up projects at work, packing, saying goodbyes, etc. Sending an email out to you was on my "to do" list, but I never quite got around to it! I'm already back in the US now. Actually I flew back on November 19 and have been slowly, slowly integrating myself back to life here. I spent a couple of weeks in Ohio visiting relatives, but I was in Kansas for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was so great to be able to celebrate the holidays with family again!Let me just try to update you a bit with what I did in the last few months in Ukraine. My last couple of semesters teaching at the secondary school, I picked up some older and younger classes. I ended up teaching grades 4-11! That was quite a challenge, but I really enjoyed it. I liked teaching the older classes, because I got to have discussions with them and didn't have to focus on English grammar so much. Surprisingly though, I liked teaching my youngest classes the most. The fourth graders didn't have the best English, but they were just incredibly eager to learn and really sweet to me. This past summer I was accepted to work with American Councils again to train Ukrainian high school students who were about to go to the US to be exchange students. We taught them about American culture, how to live with a host family, American high school, etc. I had a lot of fun with this.June 14 marked a major event in Ukrainian history - Paul McCartney gave his first concert in Ukraine........and I was there to see it! The concert was held in the main square in Kyiv, and it was free. Of course once I learned that, I knew there was no question that I would be making the 14 hour trek to Kyiv to see the concert. Unfortunately there was a TON of rain the day/night of the concert. I mean an absolute downpour! My friends and I stood outside for hours in the rain in order to get a good spot to see the stage. We had umbrellas, but they soaked through to the point where they couldn't repel rain anymore! It was so cold that everyone was huddled together for warmth. But wow. The concert was amazing. The Ukrainians absolutely adored the Beatles, so everyone around me was just as enthusiastic to see Sir Paul as I was. I still can hardly believe that I finally saw him in person!This summer I became a mother.....to four kittens that is. Many Ukrainians have pets, but they are always outdoor animals and are usually fed table scraps. My next door neighbor's cat was probably the sweetest cat I have ever encountered, so I would often feed her real cat food and let her inside my house to warm up in the winter, or to chill in the summer. She pretty much thought that she was my cat. So this summer when she had kittens, she brought them to me! I looked out my window one day and saw her standing at my front door with a tiny, six day old kitten in her mouth, and I knew I had no choice but to help her. Fortunately the house where I was living had a "mud room," or little enclosed entry area. I set up a cardboard box and food and water dishes there. That was quite an experience raising those kittens! I found homes with three other Peace Corps volunteers, but just could not find a home for the fourth kitten. And....well I really fell in love with one little guy. I named him Mirchik (pronounced Meer - chick). "Mir" means "peace" and "-chik" is the diminutive form Ukrainians give to names. It's like calling "Samuel" - "Sammy." I ended up bringing this kitten back to the States! (My mom jokes that he won the visa lottery.) There was a lot of paperwork and worry before I left Ukraine. I had to get a rabies immunization, passport with a picture, certificate of health, and microchip (since I had a layover in a European Union country - but I don't think this step was actually necessary). There was no quarantine though. In the end, I worried a lot over nothing. The trip was fairly uneventful. I was able to carry the cat with me in a canvas and mesh bag stored under the seat in front of me on the plane. He cried some, but was mostly so tired that he slept for most of the day of traveling (I wish I could have!) Mirchik is settling in nicely to American life. He loves his new Science Diet food, playing with his new sister (my parent's cat), and bird watching. Poor guy probably wasn't expecting that moving to the US would mean getting "demanned," but he's fine now. He's a very, very laid back, sweet, calm but fun-loving cat.I'm sure I mentioned before about the secondary project I worked on for much of my service in Ukraine - the foreign language resource center. I learned so much from doing this project. There were a lot of negatives (promises that were made about what materials would be provided or work that would be done were broken, and as a result we just couldn't do a lot of what we originally wanted to do with the project, plus we got terribly behind schedule) but also a lot of positives. Between the book drive in the US my mom organized (thank you all so much for the books you donated!), donations from two international book donation programs (Darien Book Aid and Books For Peace), and purchases made with the grant money we received, the resource center has a very impressive library of books. It includes sections of children's fiction, history, science, arts and entertainment, cultural studies, etc, as well as a whole section for teachers including books on methodology, reading/writing/speaking/listening, grammar, and English textbooks and workbooks. We had two bookcases built to hold the books, and we also have a TV with a DVD player and numerous DVDs in English, a computer, printer, copier, scanner, and whiteboard. Throughout my two years in Ukraine, I held a weekly English club, and once the resource center was set up, I had a few movie screenings. I also held weekly teacher training seminars. These mostly had to do with the "communicative method." In other words, more communication and less grammar/translation in English lessons. I taught sessions on how to teach each of the four skills (reading/writing/speaking/listening) communicatively, as well as how to use music in the classroom. I did not get nearly as much attendance at these sessions as I had hoped, so that was really a disappointment for me. I try to console myself with the fact that there were about three teachers who came to all the sessions they could, and I hope that they benefited from them.Now that I'm back in the US, I have been laying kind of low. I'm enjoying the incredible selection of foods at the grocery store. I became a vegetarian about a year ago, and it is nice having a much bigger variety of foods to choose from here. The first week or so was a little overwhelming adjusting to the mass of STUFF available in the US, but I think I'm used to it again now. :) Right now I am job/grad school searching, trying to figure out exactly what I want to do next. I've got some good ideas, but would welcome any suggestions!

So, have you ever received a present from someone and you were a little late in writing your thank-you note? And then you felt bad for being late and wanted to think of an acceptable way to word things, so you put it off a little longer? And then the next thing you know, it's a year later and you never sent the note, and you feel guilty, but you know it's definitely too late to even send the note, so you have to live with that guilt forever? (Wow, I hope I'm not the only one who ever does silly stuff like that!) Anyway, that's a bit like how I feel right now. I can't even remember the last update I sent out, but it was before the summer began, I think! SO MUCH has happened over the last few months - visit from my family, trip to Turkey, lots of camps, trainings, grant writing, teaching, dancing, illness, recovery, adult English classes, friends coming and going. You name it, it's likely happened. I'm sorry for not keeping things up to date. If you'd like any more details, just send me an email and I can fill you in.

To bring you quickly up to speed - I am keeping extremely busy. I wrote a grant (and it got accepted; I'm just waiting to be awarded the money) for a foreign language resource center for my region. We're going to have all sorts of books and information in English, French, and German, as well as an English club and movie club, and teacher training seminars. This will be my big project for next semester.

I recently started up an adult English class in the evenings. Interestingly enough, I think this is the single most rewarding thing I've done in Peace Corps so far. I started off teaching them the alphabet, and we are now working on the verb "to be" (which doesn't exist in Russian or Ukrainian) and "I, she, he, we, they, you." The people who come are just so appreciative and eager to learn. I even have one "babushka" (grandma) who comes early to ask lots of questions. It feels really good to teach them.

The biggest news right now though is that I am coming home for Christmas and New Years! I wasn't really planning on coming home during my service, but I happened across a pretty good deal for a flight, and seeing as I haven't really had a Christmas at home for at least two years, I couldn't pass it up. I will be in Columbus, OH from the night of December 20 to December 24. On the 24th, I'll fly to Manhattan, KS, and I'll be there until January 3. I have to fly back then to Columbus to get my international flight out on the 4th. If anyone is going to be in those cities for those days, I would love to see you! Please send me an email.

I hope you are all doing well and having a wonderful holiday season. I hope to see you soon!

This is an Easter egg called "pysanky." I knew that it was a Ukrainian tradition, but I hadn't found a single egg like this until about a month ago. (Apparently they are a lot more common in the western part of Ukraine.) I am absolutely in love with this thing. It is handmade through a process of painting on designs with wax, then dipping the egg in colored water, then repeating, until you get the desired effect.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there! I haven’t posted for a long time, even though my own mother has been gently reminding me that it would be a good idea to let people know I still exist. I do. Now that spring is finally here (FINALLY!) I have been spending a lot more time outdoors. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine gave me a bunch of bulbs and seeds to plant. I’m not entirely what it was I planted! She told me the Russian names, but I have a hard enough time remembering the names of plants in English, let alone Russian! It will be a nice surprise to see what will come up. I also planted spinach, lettuce, parsley, basil, oregano, red peppers, celery, and peas. Everything is from seed. I have been anxiously watering them everyday, and worrying that I’ve already killed everything! Just today I noticed a few tiny specks of green popping up, so maybe I just need a bit more patience. I also plan to plant pumpkins pretty soon. The teachers at school laughed and teased me when they heard of this. Not that there’s anything wrong with pumpkins. However, there is an old tradition here that if a man proposes to a woman, and she wants to refuse, she gives him a pumpkin! So, suitors beware! I’ll be armed in the fall! (Ha!)

We are coming to the end of the semester. The last day of lessons will be May 30. Then the students have tests for the next few weeks. I haven’t really figured out how all of this works, but anyway, I’ll more or less be finished at school as of the 30th. I’m looking forward to it to! I have to admit that I’m getting a little burned out at the end of the semester. I really put a lot of work into my lessons, so it’ll be nice to just sit back, relax, and then focus on other things. At first I was a little worried that I would get incredibly bored this summer. There really isn’t a whole lot to do in my town, and on most of my days off, the highlight is going to the market or the supermarket! That’s actually a really great way to meet people. I wandered through the clothing section of the market a couple weeks ago. I don’t normally go through that part because I never need to buy any clothes! I was with another American friend though, so we were strolling and chatting in English. We stopped at one booth, and the woman there was so delighted to see us! She said to me, “I’ve been waiting to meet you!” There have been articles in three different local newspapers about me, so it seems everyone has heard about me. The downside of this is that they feel like they already know what they need to about me, so sometimes aren’t so interested in actually talking to me. “I already know she is from Kansas, likes borscht, and isn’t married!” It can be a little frustrating actually.

Anyway, I digress! I thought my summer was going to be boring, but it very quickly filled up. It looks like it’s actually going to be quite busy! I will be doing at least one and up to four 4-day orientations for FLEX students going to live abroad in the US next year. That will be in Kyiv. Then at the beginning of July, also in Kyiv, I’ll have a week long Russian language refresher course with Peace Corps. Towards the middle of July, my coordinator at my school and I will head to Kyiv again for training on how to design and implement projects. Then….it looks like I’ll be headed to Turkey!! My mom, dad, and little brother will be flying to Turkey, and I’ll fly over and meet them there. We’ll spend about a week in Turkey before flying to Kyiv. I’ll show them around there, then bring them back to my site, then go back to Kyiv to see them off. After that I think one of my fellow Bangladesh PC friends will be coming to visit! Then I’ll have about three weeks before school starts up in the fall, and rumor has it one of the English teachers at my school may be getting married sometime then. I can’t wait to see a Ukrainian wedding!

I really have no excuse for not having posted in such a long time. "But you're busy!" you try to comfort me, "You plan lessons all the time!" Yes, this is true, but still, I have no excuse. I have internet. In my own home.

But I'm getting ahead of myself! Let me back up a bit and fill you in on what I've been doing.

I spent the first month at my new site living with my host family. It's not that it was that bad or anything, but we just didn't really click that much. I was really looking forward into moving into my own house! I'm so glad my school was on top of things and had already found a place for me. PC gave us a list of things to make sure were in the house before we moved in. (Apartments are generally fully furnished anyway when you rent.) My school was also really great about helping me out with all the little extras too, right down to sheets, dishtowels, and a toilet brush! I'd explained to my coordinator just how little money PC gives us, and I think they took pity on me. I still had to buy a few things though, which eventually added up. After my first disaster in trying to fry potatoes in a normal pan, I splurged and bought a nice (and expensive!) teflon frying pan. I think it's seriously one of the best purchases I've made in my entire life! It's the little things that count here.

I've gotten pretty settled into my house, and I'm making little improvements here and there. I have two twin guest beds, but from what I've been told, they're extremely uncomfortable. They have little metal coils as support (think of a hammock made out of metal instead of rope). The beds SAG though! You feel like you're in a U-shape when you lie in them. Plus they creak and groan every time you move. So last week I decided I would do something about this. I bought some thin, strong rope, and I figured out how to weave my own hammock-like support. I was pretty proud of myself! I got the rope pulled pretty tight, and I think it greatly improves the support for the mattress. I gave myself some pretty nasty blisters on my hands from pulling the rope so hard though! The sacrifices I make for my guests!

The other big accomplishment was getting a showerhead and curtain installed in my bathroom. I had a tub and showerhead on a long, flexible handheld unit. Normally I don't mind getting myself wet, turning off the water, soaping up, then turning on the water again and rinsing off. However, there is a vent directly above the tub that goes right outside, so there is a cold draft blowing down on you when you shower. You don't notice it when the shower is on, but as soon as the water is off, you sure do! So getting the bracket for the wall so that I can have the water on the whole time is a great improvement.

And then, the biggest, most exciting piece of news of all is - I have internet at my house! Yes, it's true! I hardly feel like I'm in Peace Corps anymore, I feel so spoiled. I've made friends with one of the young English teachers from another school, and it turns out her husband works for the national telephone company in the internet department. He was able to get me all the information I need, and he installed everything for me. It's not really that expensive, and actually I figure I (or my parents rather!) are saving money this way. You see, now I can use Skype! It's a program that allows you to make telephone calls through the internet. For me to make a phone call to a phone in the US is only $.02! And, if I'm calling to someone else on Skype on their computer, calls between computers are free. So what I'm getting to is - if you want to talk to me, download Skype at www.skype.com ! You don't need to buy any of their fancy packages. Just download the free version. You will need to make sure that you have a microphone and speakers on your computer in order to hear and talk. Then, once you've downloaded it, you just need to add me as a contact. My contact name is: magic4real.

Between being able to make phone calls like this, and being able to look up ideas for lessons, having internet at home as already proven invaluable here. And absence makes the heart grow fonder. Not having access for so long made me realize how truly useful and amazing the internet is. Haha, I sound like I could make a commercial.

I'm slowly settling into teaching at school. Thankfully I've been figuring out ways to repeat some of my lessons between classes. If I don't do that, it's almost impossible to plan 18 new lessons a week. I've been told that the first year of teaching is the hardest, and that I'll figure out how to do things more quickly and efficiently. I sure hope so! There have been days when seriously I teach all day, then I come home and plan lessons for another 6 hours! I have noticed though, that even after the first month of teaching, it does seem to be getting easier. It's a lot of fun too!

Last week we had a week off of school. Unlike most of the other schools around the country that have had time off due to flu quarantines, ours was actually a planned vacation. I took advantage of the time off and went back to visit my host family near Kyiv. What a great trip! My host sister and I went to see an Italian opera at the Shevchenko opera house. The building itself was beautiful! I can't say I really liked the opera, but it was interesting. We bought the cheapest tickets (about $4) and were in the uppermost balcony. Whoever designed the building wanted you to know you were in the cheap seats too! The seats were hard and uncomfortable, and the bar that protects you from falling over the edge was directly in our line of site. There was an LED screen that had a translation from the Italian into Ukrainian. For the whole first act my host sister thought that they were just translating part of the text to give you a rough idea of what was going on. It wasn't until later that we realized from how high up we were, we could only see half of the screen with the translation! But anyway, we had a good time.

A few days later, my host sister and mother took me to the Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv. This is a whole complex of churches, museums, and even underground caves where there are glass coffins with monks. I can't describe it well enough to do it justice. This website has a nice description though: http://www.artukraine.com/church/unearth_lavra.htm

It was bitterly cold all day in Kyiv, and unfortunately I ended up getting sick just in time to go back to school. Just a cold fortunately.

I know there were plenty of other things I was going to write about, but I can't think of what they are now! If you have any questions, please ask! I'm not quite sure what you want to hear about. Hope everyone is doing well. Spring is almost here, right?

Hey all! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I can’t say I really celebrated either this year, so I’m going to have to party twice as much next year.  As of December 22nd, I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer again. We had our swearing-in ceremony in Kyiv on the 22nd. All of our coordinators from all corners of the country came the day before for a day of orientations. We all sat together for the ceremony, listening to the director of Peace Corps Ukraine and the U.S. ambassador talk. Some of the host families came as well, including mine! It was hard to say goodbye to them after the ceremony, but not as hard as I thought. I know I will be seeing them again many times over the next two years.

December 23 we moved to our new sites. We almost missed our train though! We left three hours early from our training site, but apparently there had been a big accident on the one main road leading into Kyiv a few hours before, and the traffic was really backed up. We literally had to run to catch the train! And this with 6 big pieces of luggage! (I came with only two bags and a backpack. I swear Peace Corps gave us SO much stuff! 3ft tall heater, fire extinguisher, BOOKS!) Thankfully we had porters at the train station ready and waiting, and they did most of the heavy lifting for us. 

Christmas Day was a normal Monday morning at work here, so off I went to school! There were a lot of things that I needed to work out at my school. (Which classes I’ll be teaching, when they’ll meet, how many hours I’ll have, etc.) I also got to go visit my future house again. Yay! I’m so excited about it. Peace Corps has a list of things that must be provided by either the landlady or the school (rented places usually come furnished anyway – they just want to make sure I have the essentials such as a bed, wardrobe, desk, chair, etc.). My school really is being SO accommodating, and said they’d get everything ready for me.

New Years is the biggest celebration of the year in Ukraine, but I have to admit, I didn’t really catch all of it. My host sister is out of town visiting her grandmother during the school holiday, so it was just me and my host mom. Her boyfriend came over though, and I was so incredibly tired that I fell asleep at 10:30! I groggily woke up when I heard fireworks around 1am, but I completely missed the celebration. Haha, that’s what I get for listening to and trying to talk Russian all the time. It drains you like nothing else!

But anyway, like I said, I’ll just have to make up for it next year. Next year I’ll be able to travel for the holidays, and who knows where I’ll end up. A friend of mine serving in the Peace Corps in Bulgaria now went to Turkey for Christmas! Hmm…ideas….

I begin teaching on Tuesday this coming week. I’ve been working like crazy since I’ve arrived here, going over the books and the national curriculum to see where in the yearly schedule I can fit in all these ideas for lessons and projects. I’ve pretty much got things sorted out, more or less. I’ve planned the first unit for each of my classes already, and have most of my lessons worked out as well. I feel like such a workaholic (thanks for the genes, dad!), but it’s kind of fun too. The ideas that I have for them are simple projects that we take for granted in America (such as partner work, writing letters or journals, acting out skits). But mostly what they do here is read a text, then translate it, and answer questions. It will take some work on my part to convince both the teachers and the students that yes, they can learn language the way I’d like to teach them. I’ve been trying to tell the teachers that I will “trick” the students into learning how to speak English. The students will think they’re having fun, but really they’re learning and speaking English! We’ll see how it goes.

One of the main problems here is that the schools just don’t have access to any good textbooks. Any “native” books (aka ESL books that are actually published in England or America) are incredibly expensive here. I may start a list on amazon.com or something with ESL books that my school would appreciate (hint, hint, hint). Or I may write a grant to set up a resource center! The possibilities are endless….

I hope you all are doing well. Thanks for the emails and letters! P.S. I don’t want to post my address on this blog, but if you would like my new P.O. box address, email me! Mail and packages should not be sent to the Peace Corps office anymore, but rather to my P.O. box. Thanks to all those who have sent things! I can’t tell you how much it means to me!

Don’t worry, I’m still alive and well! Things have been so busy in the past month that I haven’t had any chance to get to the internet in my town, and then when I did have time, it wasn’t convenient for the person who provides me internet use. So much has happened, I hardly know where to begin. Well, most important, I know where I’ll be living for the next two years! In the middle of November, all of the training clusters got together for our site announcement. I’ll be living in the south-eastern part of the country. I had been hoping for Crimea (as were 90% of the trainees!), but I think I’ll be happy where I’m going. They say the city has a population of 24,000, but they must be including all of the surrounding villages. I would say it feels more like about 15,000 at most. I’m the first and only volunteer to ever be there. Two days after we found out our sites, we were off on site visit. I took an overnight train to get to my city. What an experience! I was in a compartment with three other Ukrainians. I lucked out that none of them drank or even talked much. We pretty much just went to sleep soon after the train started. Well “sleep.” I don’t think I slept more than a few hours, just because I was a little uncomfortable being in a tiny compartment with complete strangers and not used to sleeping on a train either. I got to the oblast capital early in the morning and was met by my director and his daughter, who is also an English teacher at my school. I don’t think my director speaks English, but she does very well. They drove me to my site, which took about 2 hours. It was 8 in the morning by that point. By 9am, I was at the school meeting the rest of the administration and English teachers. Everyone was so incredibly friendly and happy to have me there! Throughout the next few days, I observed classes (and taught one!). I think my regional Peace Corps manager must have said something to the school that made them very nervous about me liking the city and coming back, because every time I was introduced to a class, they always said something like, “This is Kathryn, and if she likes us and we’re good enough, she’ll come back in December to teach here.” Of course I like them! The school has about 575 students. I believe I’ll be teaching 6-10th grades. Most of my classes are English classes, but I’ll also have two social studies classes, which I’m pretty excited about. My school has a gymnasium, an auditorium, and two computer classes. And, one of the computers has internet!!! I think I’ll be able to use it fairly regularly. What a great resource to have at the school too! I’m not thrilled about the quality of the English books I will have to work with (to put it mildly). I’m hoping to be able to pretty much design my own lessons without the book, but I still need to talk that over with the director and my counterpart.

I will be staying with another host family for one month once I move in December. I thought it was going to be another three months, so I’m happy about that. Plus, my school has already found a place for me to live. And get this – it’s not an apartment. It’s a house!! It’s the cutest house I’ve ever seen, actually! It’s a small little typical Ukrainian cottage. It has whitewashed walls and bright blue windowsills, and in the peak of the roof, there are two cute dove decorations. It shares a driveway with the house next door. The mother of the landlady lives there, so I’ll have my very own babushka next door! The house has a living room, a small bedroom, a nursery (complete with crib, just in case!), and a kitchen/bathroom together in one room. That’s a little awkward, since there is no door between the two, but since I’ll be there alone, I’ll make it work. I’ll probably put up a curtain or something. The house is heated by gas, which I believe means that I’ll be able to control the heat (in the apartments you have “central heating” which means you have no control over how hot or cold it is), and I think it also means I’ll have hot water. So, indoor plumbing and hot water – I’m set! Those were the two big things I was worried about in terms of housing. I was so shocked about it being a house that I didn’t really look for any of the security point that Peace Corps will have to check out to make sure I can live there. I sure hope everything is ok though, because I’m incredibly excited about having a house. I could even plant a garden in the spring!

We got back to our host families from all this traveling and extra training the day before Thanksgiving. Peace Corps actually gave us the day off for Thanksgiving, which I was indeed thankful for. I finally got to sleep and catch up on all the laundry that had accumulated during the past two weeks. The rest of my cluster (five people total) came over for a little party. Whenever I have friends over, my host mom cooks up a huge plate of pancakes for us. I made some sopapillas too (fried tortillas with honey, sugar, and cinnamon). So it wasn’t exactly your traditional Thanksgiving, but it was nice to spend it with friends.

I’m moving to my permanent site at the end of December, I think around the 22nd. It kinda sucks that we’re moving right then. Ukrainians don’t celebrate Christmas on December 25th, so it would be nice to at least still be near all my American friends for Christmas. But anyway, even though it won’t be what I’m used to, it sounds like I’ll get plenty of celebrating in within the next month or so. I, for one, will celebrate Christmas on December 25th…with whoever wants to celebrate with me! Then Ukrainians celebrate the way we celebrate Christmas for their New Years (which may or may not be December 31, I don’t know!) They have a “New Years Tree” which I pretend is a Christmas tree, since that’s exactly what it looks like. They celebrate Christmas, as in actually the birth of Christ, a few days later in mid-January. I will start teaching, I believe, on January 9.

(Another posting from Kathryn's mom) Kathryn asked me to post the following to her blog: I've set up a new blog on www.livejournal.com. My user name is pcwanderlust. To view my blog now, you'll have to sign up on livejournal to create your own user name. Then you'll need to search for me (pcwanderlust), and request to become my friend. That way you'll be able to read my protected journal entries. I'm not sure I set it up right, because the website was mostly in Russian, and I couldn't figure out how to change it into English! There should be one "friends only" entry on there. (K's mom again: I cannot figure out where the "request to be a friend" button is. They should make things easier for people my age. Anyway, I made Kathryn, a.k.a. pcwanderlust, my friend and then waited until she "approved" me to be her friend. If someone can explain this any better, I'd sure appreciate the help.- Jennie)

(Posted by Kathryn's mom). Kathryn left Kansas on Sept. 27, flying into DC, where she spent the night with the Oldmixons (fellow PCVs in Bangladesh). After 2 days of training in DC, her group fly to Ukraine by way of Frankfurt. She called Sunday afternoon to report her safe arrival and utter exhaustion. We're hoping to hear from her again soon with information about her host family for the 3-month training period, where she is, and what internet access she'll have.

Wow, it's been forever since I last posted. Since my last post when I got my invitation to Ukraine, I've quit my job and moved back to Kansas for the few short weeks before I go abroad again. I've been busy trying to pack all over again for a completely different climate. The nice thing about Bangladesh was that I didn't need to take many clothes at all, since I had to buy and wear all local clothing. Now I'm stuck trying to figure out how to take casual and business clothes for summer and winter, and how to make this all fit into two fifty pound bags. Ag! I still have a week to go, but I'm planning to get everything packed this week so it will just be sitting there ready to go. I hate leaving things like that to the last minute. Who wants to pack on their last night in the country?

Also, below is a music video by a popular Ukrainian musician (sorry, I don't have his name right now.) I was going to say that this is why I got an Ipod, so that I could listen to my nice "normal" American music ..... but you know what? This is amazingly starting to grow on me. What do you think? Am I crazy? Enjoy! (Jerrie, this one's for you!)

I'm heading to Ukraine!! I just got my invitation a few days ago, and have accepted my invitation to serve in Ukraine. I will be a Secondary Education TEFL (that's Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Teacher volunteer. I'll be teaching 10-17 year olds, with an average class size of 12-20 students. That's so much more managable than the 100 student class size in Bangladesh! I'm leaving for staging September 28 and will be in country by October 1. Training will be from October 1 until December 21, then actual service will be from December 21, 2006 to December 21, 2008. At least I hope I can stay in country that long! I don't forsee any problems this time around though. Ukraine looks like an amazing country, and I'm really excited about it.

So why is Ukraine sometimes called "Ukraine" and sometimes "the Ukraine?" Here's my theory: when Ukraine was part of Russia, it was referred to as "the Ukraine" much as we refer to "the Midwest." It's just an area in the country. Now that Ukraine has its independence and is its own country, it's called "Ukraine." I can't help still calling it "the Ukraine" sometimes though, but I hope to get over that, much as I now pronounce Bangladesh with its official pronunciation of "bongla-desh."

Anyway, once I get finished with all the new paperwork I have to do for Peace Corps, I'll try to add some more information on Ukraine.

Woohoo!

Ah, finally, I'm medically cleared! I thought this day would never come! Now I just wait for that much anticipated phone call from my placement officer....

If there is one movie you see this year...no, make that this decade, it should be this movie. I got to see it a few days ago, and it was amazing. I wasn't exactly thrilled about it at first, thinking it was going to be another boring movie about global warming. Well it is about global warming, mostly, but boring it is not. I was on the edge of my seat through the whole thing. It's about the world we live in and everything we are doing now that is having a major effect on the world. It talks about the reasons for the major storms we have been having the past few years. The movie examines the conspiracy theory about how global warming doesn't actually exist, and gives some very compelling answers. It examines so many different problems in the world that I never even knew were all interconnected. It is not by any means a feel good movie, but you leave feeling changed and determined to do something.

Even if you don't like Al Gore, please try to overlook that. Watch the movie, learn from it, and do something about it. This is too important of an issue to disregard because of partisan bickering.

Please, find out more about the movie and the issues at: http://www.climatecrisis.net/

I got my dental clearance yesterday. The last lab results that I need to send in to Peace Corps should be done today so hopefully medical clearance won't be too much longer. Then comes the invitation! I promised myself I wouldn't get this antsy the second time around, but I'm not being very successful. :)

My medical clearance has been lifted!! I sent in my appeal files last week, and it finally got to my medical officer yesterday. He looked it over together with a specialist there, and they were able to lift the deferral without the need to take my case all the way to the appeals board. I can't even express how relieved and happy I am about this! I feel like this huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and I am free again.

I still have a couple of things to do to get medical clearance, but you can bet as soon as I found out the deferral was lifted, I was on the phone making appointments to get everything taken care of! I haven't been able to get ahold of my placement officer yet to see what my options are exactly about getting into a program soon. I suspect though, that it might be September for the region I'd most like to go (Eastern Europe). Who knows though? At least I don't have that two year deferral though! I'm just on Cloud 9 right now, if you couldn't tell. :-)

I thought it would be fun to post some photos having to do with the different types of clothes worn in Bangladesh. You can only describe things so much, but you know what they say about pictures. :)







Sarah, Kate, Francie, Meghan, and Marie in their saris for the swearing in ceremony. A sari (pronounced "shari") is made up of three pieces: a petticoat (or underskirt), a tight fitting blouse, and the long decorative fabric that is wrapped around the body. This is how Bangladeshi women typically wrapped their saris, though these are formal occasion saris. You would wear a simple cotton sari for everyday use. Some of the older Bangladeshi women wore saris everyday, and most of the very poor women as well. Most women wore shalwar kameezes though.







This is how the language teachers wrapped my sari for the swearing in ceremony. This isn't how Bangladeshi women wore their saris every day. This is the way they wrap it for weddings though, and apparently this style is more common in India.







This is Zeke showing off his incredibly fashionable lungi. A lungi is a single piece of fabric sewn into a tube. You tie it in the front to hold the whole thing up. Lower class men such as rickshaw wallahs wore these all the time, but upper class men would not go out in public in them. You can bet that as soon as any man is in the privacy of his own home though, he immediately changes into a lungi. I hear they are incredibly comfortable. Interestingly, some of the girls in my training group brought floor length skirts but found when they wore them out in public, they would get strange looks. They looked like lungis and of course only men wear lungis!







Unfortunately this photo doesn't show the full length, but Mike and Zeke here are wearing panjabis. They are about the same length as women's shalwar kameezes. The men usually wore panjabis to go to the mosque or formal events such as weddings, or to just look nice. Plus, and I am by far the only one to think this, they're kind hot!







This is my host sister at site. Isn't she beautiful? I told my family I wanted to take some pictures of them so she changed into this and got all decked out. It takes skill and practice to wrap a sari by yourself, and she can do it with ease and grace.







I loved this outfit because it was shorter (and therefore not as much incredibly hot fabric!) It was fine for me to wear at the city where we had training, but once I moved out to site, that city was a lot more conservative. My host family thought this kameez was way too short (just above the knee), so I ended up only wearing it in the house. Notice also the Chaco sandals - unoffical shoes of the Peace Corps and THE most comfortable shoes ever - and the Peace Corps hat.







This is Rose and me. I'm wearing a more appropriate length shalwar kameez (although I shouldn't have let the wind blow it like that!). Rose is actually wearing a top and bottom she brought from the US, but they passed wonderfully as a modern shalwar kameez. Just normal light-weight loose cotton pants and a long tunic-like top I think she got at H&M. The scarves we are wearing, actually called ornas, can be worn like we are in this picture, but usually are draped around the other way so that there is a loop of fabric completely covering the chest area.







This is Maya and me. This was the day we were taking group pictures at our training site so everyone dressed in their nice shalwar kameezes. We're being nice and conservative here; Maya especially so with the way her orna is draped.







This is Rose, Lisa, Medhan, and TJ. The girls are all wearing shalwar kameezes and TJ is wearing plain old everyday western clothes. This is what middle class Bangladeshi men wore as well - slacks and button-down shirts. Funny how men can get away with that!







This is John and Lisa. John is sporting a traditional Bangladeshi shirt called a fotua. Not a whole of guys wore it, but I thought it was cute!







My host family and their friends. This was taken in the "winter," so my host mom and sister are wrapped up in wool shawls and my host sister is actually wearing jeans under her kameez! The man in the center is wearing the typical "poor man's" outfit: a tank and lungi.

The website below has some interesting opinions/facts that you don't normally hear about Peace Corps. I believe in order to make an informed decision about something you need to look at it in as many lights as possible.

I'm just posting this as food for thought, and don't necessarily agree or disagree with this. Also, remember that the contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/project/content/project/peacecorps

Let it be known that if you request a copy of your medical file from Peace Corps, it should only take a week, not a month. I requested mine a month ago and have been waiting and waiting and waiting (Peace Corps does value patience you see) until I just couldn't take it anymore. I called them up, and it turns out my letter of request got lost in the mail! So I faxed another request as soon as I found that out, and the copy of my file should be here by next week.

Other than that, I got to see two of the other volunteers from my group this week. One of them is making his rounds around the country visiting friends and family, the other lives just a couple hours from here. It was great to see them again. Different too. I'd heard that it was strange to see people in the US that you had gotten to know in the context of Peace Corps in another country, but it wasn't as strange as I was thinking it might be. We exchanged "war stories" about Bangladesh some, but seemed to have plenty of other things to talk about as well. It was nice.

So the waiting game begins again, and this time I'm not sure if I'll even be rewarded for the wait. I've gotten some very bad news from Peace Corps. I've been medically deferred for two years! I don't want to go into the details of it here, but essentially it means that the medical office wants to defer me for two years before they'll look at my file again to decide if they'll give me medical clearance to reenroll with the Peace Corps. I'm shocked and disappointed by this. I also think it's a big mistake, so I plan to appeal the decision. I'm confident I can provide the proof that their reasoning behind the deferral is in error, but you can never be sure how an appeal will turn out. Plus it could take months! Apparently the appeals board only reviews one or two appeals a week. I had hoped that after coming home in December I would only be in the States for a few months before being assigned to another country. Now I'm not sure that's going to happen any time soon. Gah! I'm ready to get going again!

The day has come. Nearly from the day my group arrived in Bangladesh there was talk that the program wouldn't last for the full two years we were supposed to stay. When there were suicide bombings at the end of 2005, Peace Corps gave us the option to interrupt our service if we wanted to serve in another country, but they didn't pull the program. Personally I thought they should have evacuated then, but apparently PC didn't think it was bad enough then. However, things in the past week have escalated enough that they finally suspended the program. I'm posting one news article about the situation below. I've heard rumors about some other things that were going on as well, but until I talk to someone in person who was there (everyone is in transit right now I think), I can't be sure if it's true or not. Rumor spreads FAST in the Peace Corps, and it's not always quite right! But this is real, and I'm so glad all my friends are out and safe. It's just so sad that things turned out this way though.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DHA169327.htm

U.S. Peace Corps suspends activities in Bangladesh

15 Mar 2006 11:14:00 GMT

Source: Reuters

DHAKA, March 15 (Reuters) - The American Peace Corps has suspended its operations in Bangladesh for fear of terror attacks, the U.S. embassy said on Wednesday.

The announcement came a day after U.S. Charge-d'Affaires Judith Chammas commended Bangladesh for its recent capture of top Islamist militants, who headed two outlawed groups fighting for the introduction of sharia law in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority democracy.

"The peace corps in Washington, D.C. has decided to suspend indefinitely its programme in Bangladesh due to the possibility that terrorist elements might attempt to attack peace corps volunteers in Bangladesh, perhaps in relation for the recent captures," the embassy said in a statement.

"The peace corps made this decision following a careful assessment of Bangladesh's prevailing security environment, and did not base its conclusions on any single threat or incident," the statement added.

As many as 100 members of the U.S. peace corps were engaged in providing English language training to school teachers in Bangladesh, according to a peace corps official.

"We have welcomed the capture of (Shayek) Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai as significant steps forward in the campaign against terrorism and extremism" the statement said.

"Ironically, one consequence of that success is concern over possible reprisal attacks against Americans or other Western nationals by activists still at large" it said.

And here is another article from earlier (January) that I hadn't posted yet. Remember, Gazipur is where the sixty people in my group had training for three months.

http://www.newagebd.com/2006/jan/24/front.html#e

Security beefed up as JMB plan

to kill Peace Corps members

ARIF NEWAZ FARAZI

Security for members of the US Peace Corps in Bangladesh has been heightened after the embassy of the United States informed the foreign ministry of a plot by the banned Islamist organisation Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh to kill them, said sources in the home ministry.

The Peace Corps members have already been warned of the Jamaatul Mujahideen plot, Sanaul K Chowdhury, security investigations officer of the embassy, told New Age on Monday. ‘We have also informed the foreign ministry of the plot to take necessary measures.’

The embassy sent a letter to the foreign ministry a couple of days back, claiming that the suicide squad of the militant organisation had plans to kill the Peace Corps members, confirmed sources in the ministry.

‘The Foreign Office, in its turn, informed the home ministry of the plan and asked it to look into the matter and take necessary steps,’ said a foreign ministry official.

The embassy took note of a

January 18 report in the local media that Jamaatul Mujahideen was planning to assign suicide squads to kill Peace Corps members. The report was based on the confessional statement of a Mujahideen leader.

‘We came to know about the plot after a national daily had carried the report in the third week of January and immediately notified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the US State Department in Washington,’ said an embassy source.

More than 100 members of the Peace Corps are currently working in Bangladesh and a security investigations officer has been assigned for their security, he said. ‘We have also advised them [Peace Corps members] to move with caution.’

The Ministry of Home Affairs has, meanwhile, ordered heightened security at the embassy and all other institutions of the US in Bangladesh, said intelligence sources.

Enayetullah Jewel, an explosives expert of Jamaatul Mujahideen who was arrested at village Telipara of Joydevpur in Gazipur on December 5, 2005 with a huge quantity of bomb-making materials and a 10-kilogram bomb, is reported to have confessed during interrogation that the organisation had plans to kill the Peace Corps members.

In the words of a good friend of mine from PC Bangladesh (hi Zeke!), I surprised myself. I’ve decided to reenroll in Peace Corps after all. Right when I got back to the US, I wasn't sure if going to do it again right away, but the idea of going back to another country and having another chance at two years just kept growing on me. So, a couple of weeks ago, I sent in the paperwork to reenroll. The waiting to find out where I’ll be headed next begins again! I know of at least two others from my group from Bangladesh who came back to the US are also in the process of getting back in to other programs. One is leaving for Bulgaria in April and another is going to Latin America in June. I’m hoping for Eastern Europe. I discussed the possibility of doing something other than Teaching English as a Foreign Language with my placement officer, but she said that’s what the majority of the programs are in Eastern Europe. So either I need to compromise where I want to go, or what I want to do. Peace Corps seems to be really working with me this time around to make sure I’m really happy with my placement (not that they weren’t the first time around, just even more so now).

Anyway, I’ll have to get medically cleared again, which means I’ll probably have to get some more medical and dental tests. And since I’ve only got this puny medical insurance that Peace Corps provides which doesn’t really cover much at all, that means shelling about a lot more dough. Bleh. I haven’t gotten a job yet, but I plan to pretty soon here. I moved to Columbus to live with my aunt a few weeks ago, and it’s been a blast.

I’ve been in the US for about two months now. It’s been a weird process adjusting to being back. I’ve lived abroad before a couple times, so I didn’t have such a hard time adjusting to seeing my friends and family again, or to how different Americans are compared to Bangladeshis, or even to how much STUFF we have and take for granted. Seriously, do we really need readymade coffee cans that heat the coffee up by themselves? (Ok, so I bought that one just because I had to see it to believe it. Guilty!) Really it was missing Bangladesh that was the most difficult thing about being back. And that surprised me too. After how difficult it was to live there, and all the crap we put up with there, I miss it so much! I miss my host families, the friends I was just beginning to make at site, all my fellow PCV friends! I miss how wonderfully different everything was most of all. It’s incredibly hard adjusting to living in another country, but I just love it. It’s the wanderlust in me. :)

Wow, sorry it's taken me so long to post on here since I've been back. I didn't realize people might still actually be interested in hearing what I'm up to now that my life isn't nearly as exciting as it was just a few short weeks ago. Time has really flown by, although I haven't been doing all that much really since I'm now completely out of a job! Never one to like sitting around, I started trying to figure out what I should do next pretty much the day after I got back. I did leave with an interrupted service, so I'll have the option of doing the Peace Corps again relatively easily, but for now, I'm not quite ready. I need some time still to digest things. So, my plan for right now is that next month I will be moving to Columbus, Ohio. My aunt has generously offered to let me come live with her. I'm so excited! After a lot of soul searching, I think I've finally figured out what direction I want to go with my life, career wise anyway. I've been interested in and involved with other cultures for quite a few years now with my volunteer activities and having lived abroad, so I know I want to continue with that. And after that small taste of terrorism in Bangladesh, that really got me to thinking how lucky I was to be able to leave that situation, but also how traumatic it can be to start all over again in another country. So what I'm getting to is that I'd really like to work with refugees and immigrants in the US. I've got my eye on a couple of places in Columbus where I'd like to apply, but if anyone out there has any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

I'm not sure how many of you have heard already, but I am coming home to the States. Peace Corps is not pulling the program completely, but they are giving people the option to leave. There are a number of ways a person can leave the Peace Corps: resignation (for example, just not getting on the plane to come), administrative separation (for breaking policies), medical separation (for medical conditions they cannot take care of in country), and early termination (just don't want to do it anymore). Until a few days ago, I thought my only option was early termination. However, the Safety and Security Officer for this region was able to explain to the volunteers and staff here that if a volunteer really is concerned about their safety, they shouldn't have to early terminate their service. She has given us the option of either doing a program transfer (where your name gets put on the waiting list to start the next Peace Corps program that becomes available) or interrupted service. I have decided to do an interrupted service. This means that while I'm not ready or sure if I want to another Peace Corps service immediately, I don't want to totally close the door to Peace Corps by early terminating. With an early termination, if you decide you want to do Peace Corps again, you have to wait one year, then start the application process from the very beginning. With an interrupted service, they recognize that your service was interrupted for reasons out of your control (aka suicide bombers). Any time within a year of leaving, if you decide you want to try Peace Corps again, you may, and are sort of considered an insider. You don't need to go through the whole application process, so it makes it a lot easier.

So, while I won't quite make it home for Christmas (my flight is Christmas night!), I should be back in good old Kansas by the 26th. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas, and hope to see you soon!

Knowing I have so many people supporting me and thinking about me means so much to me right now. Thank you guys! Things have cooled a little for the moment, and I am ok. The meeting with the Safety and Security Officer was...well honestly I felt like I had been run over by a semitruck afterwards - it was that stressful. But she REALLY listened to us, so that's good. I have some major, major decisions to make right now though I'll let you know when I decide on things for certain.

Some more updates:

On December 7, we got a text that the Regional Safety and Security Officer (I think for the East Asia region) is making a visit to Bangladesh. She texted later that day to say she will be in the country for two weeks, visiting various sites and listening to us. Also found out on that day that another one from our group is going home. That makes five now that have left pretty much for security reasons. I talked with a bunch of my friends here in country that day - an extremely rough day. On December 8, my host family told me that one of the schools in Sylhet had received a bomb threat and RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) was investigating. I texted our Safety and Security Officer about it, but she did not send out a text to everyone informing them. This makes me think maybe for the texts she’s sent out in the past about schools receiving bomb threats, maybe those are only ones where PCVs are stationed? Or maybe the office finally realized that telling us about every thing that happens really wears you down! Also on December 8, two explosions happened in Netrakona, where two PCVs live. The blasts happened near the Udichi Office (a cultural academy). According to PC, 35 were injured and 5 were killed, including the suicide bomber. (I think the number has gone up now, but I'm not sure to what.) The PCVs in Netrakona were put on Standfast (meaning they are to stay inside their homes) and everyone else is still on Alert. Those PCVs have since been consolidated to Dhaka. Also got a message that day that there were rumors of bombing in Noga and Nilfamari. PCVs there (don’t know who or how many) are ok. We later got a message asking all PCVs to contact their wardens so that everyone could be accounted for and ok. Apparently a newspaper vendor in a small city near here told the PCVs there that Bush is to blame for all this. In another city in this area, the marketplace has been absolutely empty (which never happens!), and that a vegetable man told his son not to go anywhere because it is too dangerous. Later, we got a follow-up text on the Netrakona bombing - 9:20am a small explosion happened near Udichi, a crowd gathered, then at 10:25 suicide bombers entered the crowd and detonated. 45 were injured and 7 killed, including a bomber. Another text on Dec 8, Nilphamari bomb rumor not true. In upazilla (small village) near Nogaon, there was an explosion night of Dec 7. Rumor was that the bomber was riding a rickshaw and the bomb detonated early. More news, Small explosion in Nilphamari: a boy was injured exploding a cocktail while he was playing with it without knowing what it was. Also Dec 8, bombs detonated in an upazilla in Meherpur district (west of Kustia). No PCVs in that district. I called a good friend here to discuss things and see how she was doing. She and I are both thinking very similar things right now - that we REALLY want to stay, but are not willing to take more risks than we need to. We are both really stubborn and don’t want to quit, but are coming to realize that leaving now would not be quitting. It would not be failing. She said one of her friends pointed out that the only reason she feels like leaving now would be quitting is because she came here thinking she would definitely stay for two years. However, if she had come with a timeline unspecified, it would be a lot easier to say, hey, I’ve put in 4 good months and now it’s time for me to go. I also called another friend from the group that came here one year ago to see how her group is feeling. I wanted to know if our group is just really overreacting to all of this or what. She said that most of them are pretty anxious, but not really as much as us newcomers. She really didn’t seem terribly concerned. She also lives in a very small town way out of the way from anything that’s happened so far. I think anyone who isn't concerned about their safety right now is fooling themselves, really. A lot of us have the same concerns right now - this is not what we signed up for. We signed up for PEACE Corps. I have not decided on anything at this point, but I've been talking with a lot of people and doing a ton of thinking. Like I said, I don't WANT to leave, but if I feel like staying is making compromises to my safety, then that really isn't very smart.

Tomorrow, the regional security officer, our program manager, and our safety and security officer are planning on coming to the city. They want to meet with all the PCVs in this region. I will be very interested to hear what they have to say, and I'm very much looking forward to being able to voice all these concerns and questions.

Thanks to all of you you have called or written. It really means a lot to me to know that I have so many people supporting me in whatever I do. Thank you!

So things have been pretty rough lately. I'm not sure how much national attention this is getting, but there have been bombings and threats of bombings happening all over the country recently. On November 29, improvised bombs exploded in Gazipur near the courthouse there, killing I think 9 people. On December 1, another bomb in Gazipur exploded near the District Commissioner’s office, killing one. The PCVs in Gazipur were consolidated to Dhaka quickly thereafter. Peace Corps put us all on Alert stage, which is the lowest level of security alert. Basically it means that we should keep our eyes and ears open and not do anything stupid, like go to the government buildings in our area. Everyone began getting worried and thinking that we may have to be consolidated. On December 2, a grenade was thrown at the major’s office in Sylhet. It did not detonate for some reason, but apparently a few people were injured when everyone rushed to evacuate the area. On December 3, a bomb was found in a government office in Khulna and a small village near Shirajgonj. I’m not sure if they exploded, but I didn’t hear of any injuries. Also on December 3, Khulna Zilla School and Hobigonj Government Boys School received bomb threat letters. In protest to the grenade in Sylhet, a local hartal for Sylhet only was called for December 4. I stayed out of the center of town, so I didn’t see anything, but I heard there were big protests in the city center. On December 4 (or 3?) Rajbari School received a bomb threat. Police swept the school but I don’t think they actually found anything. December 4 a bomb was found in the market at Kurigram, a very small village, near a mosque. On the night of (I think) December 3, a bomb was found under an empty bus in Gabtoli, Dhaka, but it did not blast. Since this all started, we have been getting five or more text messages a day, usually in the late evening, from our Safety and Security Officer. It’s gotten to the point where we all dread the sound of receiving a message on my phone because you never know what more bad news it is going to bring. Over the weekend, my site mate went to Dhaka and met with our administrative officer (who has taken over some of the safety and security responsibilities). They came up with a plan for each of the divisions to report to each other and relate all of their questions and concerns each day to their wardens, then the wardens can talk to our Security Officer every couple of days, or as needed. The people in my division have definitely had a lot of questions and concerns, so I talked to our administrative officer that day. It was somewhat comforting to talk to him about some things, but in a way also not really. I met later that evening with Craig and Nick to discuss how to go about things. Hearing Craig’s impressions of how the office is dealing with things did not help me feel any better. Basically the office's position is that it is an individual decision about what to do in this kind of situation (essentially whether to leave or not). The admin officer started out our discussion with a little “philosophy” saying that we are all adults and have individual control over everything we do. We must make our own decisions, and we try to use the resources around us to make these decisions. For us, our resources are other PCVs, staff, the US Embassy, our communities here, as well as friends and relatives in the US. So based on all the info we gather from all these resources, we have to make the best decisions we can. But we also have to accept that there is a certain degree of unknowable. He also pointed out that it is an individual choice on whether it is worth it (to stay here and put yourself at risk) and if you decide it isn’t worth it, can you make it worth it? If not, then well…

Basically there are two things which would definitely mean PC pulling its program. The first is if there was a regional outbreak (meaning India, Nepal, Thailand, Burma, and Bangladesh) of Avian Flu spreading person to person. The second is a very obvious security issue – if someone drove a truck bomb into the US Embassy and sent a list of Americans to be killed. To me these answers are unacceptable because they are so obvious. I, and many other volunteers, just want to know when to draw the line. When the risk become too much?

I know there IS a risk in being a PCV, and many of the risks were covered during our pre-service training. We covered such risks as health, theft, accidents, assault, sexual assault, etc. However, I also don’t feel like I was prepared for or warned that the threat of terrorists and bombs. This is not the military, and if someone is really willing to lay down their life for their country, there are certainly other programs to do it with. Before I came to Bangladesh, I decided (mostly as regards to sexual assault, since that was at the top of my list of worries beforehand) that I was NOT willing to risk my life, and if it ever got to the point where I felt endangered, I would leave. But again, where do you draw the line? I know that anywhere you go in the world is dangerous.

Anyway, these are my thoughts at the moment. For now, things aren't really THAT bad, so I am going to stick with it some more and see how things go. I'd really appreciate everyone's thoughts, ideas, support, questions, and encouragement, because I sure do need it right now! Thank you...

And let me tell you what an experience it is to ride a bike in Bangladesh! After having been in the country now for over three months, I am beginning to realize that there are in fact rules to the road - it just doesn’t seem like there are! I can see why PC requires us to wear helmets! It’s a thrill every time I go out, but wow is it liberating to have a bike and be able to go wherever and whenever I want to. This is city is pretty big, and the rickshaws are expensive here! Up until now I’ve been paying about 80 Taka a day for rickshaw rides, which is only just over a dollar, but considering my living allowance is only 200 Taka a day, that goes really quickly! (It still blows me away sometimes to think that I am getting paid pennies an hour!) I was a bit hesitant at first about getting a bike, because I haven’t seen any other females at all riding one. I’m not the only female who has one though! There is a British volunteer here, and we went together to buy bikes. As “bideshis” (foreigners) we are allowed to get away with so much more than Bangladeshi women are. It’s almost as if we are half-woman, half-man in what is expected of us, if that makes any sense. It’s a constant struggle for me to try to figure out just what I should and shouldn’t do - how much I should test the limits and show Bangladeshis that yes, there is another way to do things, and how much I should conform to Bangladeshi cultural norms. I’m not here to change major aspects of a culture that has been here for centuries. But it is part of my job to teach this culture about my own (and when I go back, to teach Americans about Bangladeshi culture.) For example, I am riding a bike, which is almost unheard of for women (in this city anyway. It’s a lot more conservative here than where we had our training. I saw at least two women riding bikes there.) But, I still wear my shalwar kameez and orna when I ride, no matter how much of a pain (not to mention dangerous!) it is to try and keep all that extra fabric out of the moving parts! Or when I go out at night, often times I will cover my head with my orna to let people know that I am a “good girl” and they shouldn’t mess with me, even though I am out after dark (never alone of course!). Anyway, it’s been great having the bike. I’ve already seen a lot more of the city, and even got out on a wonderful, beautiful tour of the city last weekend with two of my bideshi friends.

I’m not sure if I will be able to get online again before Thursday, so I’ll wish you all now a Happy Thanksgiving!! It really doesn’t feel like November though - it’s still gets up in the 80s every day here! It’s a bit hard to get in the spirit of things. I am going to Dhaka for the holiday weekend though, and having dinner with some of the other PCVs (wow, it’s still hard to believe we are actual volunteers now and not just trainees!). I’m really looking forward to talking with everybody and seeing how their sites are so far. It’s been a roller coaster everyday for me, though generally I think things might be getting better at school now. Anyway, my bike is calling me again, so I’m off to explore some more of this crazy, wonderful country! Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been ages since I've posted, I know! Sorry! I have moved to my site, and everything is still very new. Finally found an internet cafe near to my school though, so hopefully I'll get back on a somewhat regular schedule.

Things have been pretty crazy so far. The city which will be my home for the next two years is really pretty awesome, and I'm really happy with it. I've been getting far less harassment (aka catcalls, nothing major) here than anywhere else. Things are off to a bit of a rocky start at my school though. For our first three months at site, Peace Corps kind of has a policy that we don't REALLY have to start teaching yet, because we have so many other things to do: learning about the city, meeting tons of new people, figuring out our work plans. But my supervisor wanted me to start on the first day! I think he thinks just by my speaking English in front of the kids, the ability to speak will magically rub off on them. But in order to be really effective, I do actually need to plan a course and lessons! I'm trying to be firm in what I want (so as not to be walked all over - I am, after all, a VOLUNTEER!), but not make anyone too unhappy with me. ARG!

The city I am in is large enough that there are other volunteers from different countries and different organizations here. I've already made friends with a couple from England and Japan. It's so nice to have a little expat community to escape to once in while! We are all in the same position of being new and not understood here, so we can all help each other.

Sorry this is pretty short for today. Once I get settled in here, I'll have some more time to collect my ideas better! Any questions you want to have answered? Emailing me is easier for me to read than reading posted comments. Thanks guys!

Here I am, watching a soccer game with the local children. I do stand out in a crowd.

Sorry it has been so long since I’ve posted. It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Training is coming to an end this week though, and on Sunday we will have our swearing in ceremony in Dhaka! It will be held at the US Embassy in Dhaka, and everyone is psyched for it. Nearly all the girls in my training group are going to dress up in saris. My host mother bought me an absolutely gorgeous one to wear. Seriously it is the most beautiful thing I own in Bangladesh or the US! Technically I think it is a wedding sari, dark red with gold gilt embroidery throughout the entire thing. I will post pictures as soon as possible (aka probably a long time from now, but I’ll try!). We are all going to Dhaka on Friday and spending a few days living it up at a nice hotel that actually has air conditioning, hot water, and foam mattresses. I’m so excited! I’m also looking forward to doing a bit of souvenir and American food shopping. I do really like Bengali food, but I have to say I really miss the variety that I am used to in the States. I’m the type of person that doesn’t like to have spaghetti twice in a month; I like that much variety! The curries are all kind of tasting the same by now, and I really can’t wait to be able to cook for myself. The training staff at our hubsite cook special Americanish foods for us every once in a while, and I have been to the Pizza Hut in Dhaka a couple of times.

We are in about the 3rd week of Ramadan, which in case you don’t know is a month of fasting that Muslims observe. On the first day, you wake up at around 4am and eat your dinner. Then you do not eat, drink, or smoke anything all day. You are not even supposed to swallow your saliva, so you see quite a bit of spitting on the street. Towards about 4pm people get pretty antsy and irritable because they know the time to break the fast is nearing. At around 5:30pm (although every day it changes by a few minutes because it depends on the lunar calendar) you hear the call to prayer and are allowed to eat. This is “Iftar” time. Iftar food is so good! Usually you get orange drink, dates, puffed rice (like Rice Krispies but plain), spiced chickpeas, fried eggplant, fried potato and lentil mixture, cucumbers, grapes, jilapi (think small funnel cake soaked in syrup – it is amazing how much liquid these things can hold!), and doi (sweet yogurt). Sometimes the Bengalis will eat a normal meal of rice and curry right after eating the Iftar feast, or sometimes they will wait until 10pm or 12am to eat. Then the women get up at 3am to cook, and start the whole day over again around 4am. At 4am sometimes you hear what sounds like air raid sirens going off, or in some areas they have someone come on the loudspeakers at the mosques and say something to the effect of “wake up and eat your rice.”

No one in my family is fasting though. Among our group of trainees, there are some families that are fasting very devoutly, and some couldn’t be bothered. Even though my family isn’t fasting, we still eat the Iftar food everyday (along with normal breakfast, lunch, and dinner!) I have tried to tell my host mom that I can eat either Iftar or dinner, but not both. So, she just tries to give me both at the same time! I think it is ironic for the month where everyone is supposed to learn what it is like for poor people to not get enough food everyday, I have been gaining weight.

Speaking of gaining weight, Iftar, and Pizza Hut, would you believe that the Pizza Hut in Dhaka has an Iftar special? They don’t serve food all day, but people begin filing in around 4pm everyday to get a table. It really fills up! Around 5pm the staff starts filling people’s glasses with water or soda. You can’t drink yet though! Then around 5:10 they bring out plates of dates. Wait for it! 5:15 here comes the garlic bread. Ok, how important is it really to be culturally appropriate and not eat in front of Muslims?? 5:25 hot gooey cheesy pizza fresh out of the oven. You put that on my plate and seriously expect me to not eat it yet??? I have to admit, I almost made it. They really shouldn’t have given me the pizza though. I took a bite and about two minutes later the call to prayer sounded. So close!! The way they had it set up, the waiters just kept bringing out more and more pizza; whenever they saw your plate was empty, they gave you another slice or two. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much pizza in one sitting before. I think I had 8 slices! All this for the low buffet price of 350 Taka (about $5). Did I mention I miss cheese??

After the month of Ramadan is a holiday called Eid. This also depends on the moon, but will probably be on November 5 this year. This is when everyone can finally break the fast for good, and I hear there is tons of really tasty food. This is also the gift giving equivalent of Christmas in the States: everyone is going crazy buying presents at the moment. The most common present to give is clothing (actually I think the sari my host mom gave me is more for Eid than my swearing in ceremony.) The tailors are absolutely swamped right now. My host mom owns a tailor shop, so I have barely seen her for the past few weeks.

Right after Eid I will be moving to my new site. Last week we had our site visit. It has just a two-day visit for us to meet our host families, see the city, meet our supervisor’s and see our schools. I hardly saw anything of the city because it is rather large, but from what I saw, I love it already!! I feel like I got the best of both worlds – the amenities that come along with a big city, but also the nice small town feel in the more residential areas. It’s going to be really strange moving to a new city away from the rest of the training group. I’m glad I have a site mate, but from here on out, I’m pretty much on my own. I’ll spend about the next three months getting to know the city and all the people I will be living and working with, finding out about NGOs I can do secondary projects with, etc. I’m not quite sure when I’ll actually begin teaching at my college.

The weather is starting to change. Every once in a while we’ll have a period of a few days when it just RAINS and nothing will dry. I haven’t had much of a problem with it, but some people have had problems with their backpacks, clothes, paper, and whatever else molding. I have one leather luggage tag that got covered in fine white mold, but that’s it. Sometimes my clothes feel a little damp, but not too bad. I’ve been being extremely careful about all my electronics whenever we have a really rainy or humid day. On those days I just don’t get my laptop or electronics out. I always leave them in plastic bags with silica gel packets. I was worried that my laptop might die on me because before I came all I heard about were people’s laptops breaking. We only heard from the people who had problems, not the ones who didn’t. I think as long as I’m careful I’ll be ok. (Same goes for the whole harassment issue actually. We all got so scared before we came because we only heard the bad things without seeing it in context. It’s really not so bad.) Anyway, in general, it is getting a little cooler. There was actually one day when it was downright cold! Seriously we all had sweatshirts on and had goosebumps all day. Care to guess what the temp was? 75 degrees! I can’t believe we’ve gotten so acclimated that 75 feels cold. As far as I can tell from my little alarm clock that can tell temp indoors, it’s been between 75 and 85 since we arrived in Bangladesh.

So that’s all I have for now. I really appreciate the emails recently! I tried to answer the questions people asked in this blog.

P.S. Thanks to my mom, who has been able to post a few photos on here for me. Eventually when I get to the faster internet at the Peace Corps office in Dhaka I may be able to put a few more on!

I’m sure you have all heard about the earthquake in Pakistan, and might have heard about tremors in Bangladesh. I just want to let you know that I am ok, and as far as I know there have not been any deaths or even injuries in Bangladesh. I did not even feel anything, and seeing as how far out of touch with current events I am right now (never watch TV, don’t have a radio, only see an English newspaper every few days) I didn’t even find out about the quake until after you guys probably did. Don’t worry; everything is fine here, although people are upset about it obviously. Peace Corps does an excellent job of letting all of us know as soon as there is something there we should be concerned about (aka when there were those bombings in August we all got text messages telling us exactly what to do and what was going on). So no fear!

Today was our last day of formal language class. We have less than a month of training left, and I think it is going to fly by. Today we conducted a community activity, for practice really so that we would have experience in trying to set an activity up since pretty much everything is a lot more difficult the first time you try it in this country. Our activity went off really well though actually. Five of us girls got together and led a session for a few Bangladeshi girls on nutrition. Two of us talked about food, two about sports, and then one of us led a half hour yoga session. I thought it was great, and the girls who came all seemed to really enjoy themselves. I don’t claim to be an expert on healthy living, but all the information that we take almost for granted about knowing about the food pyramid, the importance of variety and moderation, complete proteins, getting the heart rate up, various exercises you can do around the house,…all these are not common knowledge here.

So yesterday I went to the city fabric market by myself (well not completely, I went with two other American girls, but “by myself” in the sense that no Bangladeshis came with me!). I have to say, I think it was a success! I found a few saris I really liked in the first shop we went into, but the man would NOT come down on the price. I ended up paying 500 taka for one of them, which really isn’t that bad, but I really wanted to bargain him down more! At a second shop, this time I sat next to two Hindu women looking at the same types of saris and tried to chat with them a little to see what a good price would be. Ended up getting another for just 230 taka. (66 taka is 1 dollar.) When another one of the employees talked to the man who had been helping me just after I agreed to buy, he shook the guy’s hand, so I was very suspicious that I had paid too much. We went to another shop upstairs and I saw a few more saris that I was interested in (am buying presents for family and friends back home to send back in November), but they were more expensive, so I wasn’t sure about buying them. The man there was very nice, and even gave us some 7-Up – I’m sure he thought he would get a sale. I probably still will! I talked to my host mom, and she will take me on Friday. I am not sure about what is good quality fabric here. It is all so thin it is practically see-through. Normally that would not be good, but here it is better if the fabric is thin so it is not so hot. After that shop, we ventured off the main road and into the labyrinth of smaller stores on smaller streets. We found ourselves in the spices area, with huge waist-high bags of coriander, garlic, onions, ginger, who knows what all! It smelled absolutely wonderful. We immediately noticed the difference in number of stares we were getting. In the area with all the fabric shops, they are obviously used to seeing a bunch of the Americans there, because that’s were we all go for clothes shopping, but I’m sure very few go into the smaller streets. Next we went to another upstairs shopping part, and Rose found a shop where she got a beautiful Indian sari. The man there was the most friendly shopkeeper we had met. After Rose bought the sari, he insisted on us having tea and biscuits, even though he couldn’t even have any with us since he was fasting! We felt awkward, but it would have been worse to refuse his hospitality. We said we would recommend his shop to all our friends and left happy. Megan found a sari from a small corner shop on the main street that she managed to decide on and pay for in just a few minutes. Normally it takes so long to decide and bargain!

When I got home, I told my host mom about buying the saris. She was surprised that I had gone without her and worried that I got ripped off. I told her I wanted to test if I had, so I showed her each of the saris and asked what she would have paid before telling her. She said 400-450 for the first, and 220 for the second. She was a bit disappointed, but I was thrilled that it hadn’t been much at all! The more I look at the saris the more I love them too. All three of us got something from the bajar (as opposed to going and being just too overwhelmed to buy anything) so we considered it a huge success.

Like I said before, the first time is always the hardest, so now that I have conquered going to the market almost by myself, who knows what I will be able to do next time!