My school year is off to a good start. I actually got my schedule right away, something that didn’t happen my first three semesters here, and am really enjoying my classes so far. I have the second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh and eleventh grades. I also tutor three girls from the eighth grade and two from the tenth. The eighth grade girls are preparing for a regional English competition, while the tenth grade girls just transferred to our school and have never studied English before. Finally, I teach two periods a week of American Literature and two of American Country Studies.

My favorite so far are the Country Studies lessons. Without books and with thirty students of different English levels, the lessons are challenging, but fun. This week we finished our lesson on “everyday Americans.” A special thanks to Mom, Dad, Aunt Terry, Amanda, Aunt Lisa, Kelly, Dan, James, Colleen, Debbie, Sarah, Niall, Mark, Jenny, Helen and Lisa for your responses to my survey. I split my kids into pairs and gave each of them one of your profiles. They had to read this profile and decide on the five things most important to their American. In the next lesson, I gave them sets of ten flashcards with different words written on them. Using your profiles and our class discussion, they had to organize these flashcards into a “priority pyramid.” The top of the pyramid was the value most important to everyday Americans, the bottom four the least important. For the most part my students agreed that the pyramid should be organized with “family” in the top row, “home” and “friends,” in the second, “education,” “profession,” and “active lifestyle” in the third, and “hobbies,” “traveling,” “car” and “money” in the bottom row. Together as a class, we wrote the following text on everyday Americans.

“Americans value their family most of all. They also value their home and their friends. Other important things are their education, their profession, and an active lifestyle. Some popular professions are nurse, teacher, student and accountant. Many Americans keep active by playing sports such as basketball, baseball, American football and tennis. Some popular hobbies are traveling, listening to music, reading, cooking and eating. Most Americans use cars because public transportation is not very good. Money is not the most important value, but it is necessary for many other things.”

Two months and two days until I’ll be home. It looks like I’ll be arriving in Boston sometime around 4 p.m. on November 19th. Until then, I’ll be keeping busy with my friend Courtney’s Ukrainian wedding, our Close of Service Conference, one last trip within Ukraine, and all my good-byes. In case I don’t get back to the internet in time, Happy 20th Birthday Amanda!

I just got back from a week in Warsaw and Prague. Poland is easily one of my favorite countries, and I’m glad that after two years in Eastern Europe, I finally made it to Prague.

The trip began with an overnight bus to Warsaw. Some of you may remember the numerous times I have sworn off overnight buses, but the price was just too good to pass up. My friend Ruth and I boarded the bus at 9:30 pm, took an unnecessary, hour-long, scenic route out of Lviv and then finally began our journey to Poland. At 11:30 pm we arrived at the Ukraine/Poland border and spent a lovely six hours waiting for our passports to be checked. Once we got across the border things began to look up. Oh Poland and its gloriously paved roads. We were pretty confused when we got to the bus station in Warsaw, so we decided to take a taxi to our hostel. Our taxi driver didn’t know English, but luckily for us, Ukrainian and Polish are pretty similar and we reached the hostel without any further problems.

We spent the first day walking all over the city. I had heard not so great things about Warsaw, but I was actually really impressed. The first stop on our journey through Warsaw was… drum roll please… STARBUCKS. The iced coffee has got nothing on Dunkin’ Donuts, but I’ve probably never seen my friend Ruth quite as excited as the moment we spotted it. Our next stop was my all-time favorite street food, a chicken kebab, and we were on our way for some sightseeing. The old city center is small, but charming. A lot of cobblestones and old buildings. We also checked out the old Jewish Quarter. You may have seen parts of it in the movie “The Pianist.” We saw a monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, when Polish Jews attempted to rise up against the Nazis. Finally we actually found two remaining pieces of the original ghetto wall. Some pretty powerful stuff.

That night we met up with another friend, Tara, and went out to an excellent restaurant. We considered going out to a few bars, but decided to save our energy for day two and the spectacle that is Madonna. The Madonna concert was Saturday night and we were ready. Tara, Ruth and I were sporting our best eighties outfits when we showed up to the venue. Unfortunately, the thousands of other fans missed the costume memo, and we actually ended up looking pretty silly for the show!

The first part of the show was dedicated to the eighties in New York and she did a few of my favorites including “Vogue,” “Get into the Groove” and “Like a Prayer.” As for other songs, I remember “Ray of Light,” “Hey Mr. DJ,” and then some awful lullaby titled, no joke, “You Must Love Me.” While obviously Madonna or we wouldn’t have paid a hundred dollars and come all the way to Warsaw to see you. This was her birthday concert and I have to say that for fifty-one she is still one hell of a performer and looks pretty hot doing it.

On our final day in Warsaw we went to the Warsaw Rising Museum. This Museum is about the Polish soldiers who finally reclaimed Warsaw from the Nazis in 1944, only to be taken over almost immediately by the Soviets. I visited a similar museum in Budapest last summer, and heard almost the exact same story in Prague just a day later. Seems to be a pretty prominent theme in Eastern European history. The Nazis sucked, and the Soviets did, too. Despite some shared history, however, the progress made in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland over the past few decades is far greater than what I have witnessed in Ukraine.

That night Tara and Ruth headed back to Ukraine and I boarded an overnight train to Prague. It was more expensive than an overnight bus, but well worth it. I didn’t even buy the sleeper car and I was still thrilled with my choice. Comfy seats, air conditioning and bathrooms I wasn’t afraid of. I arrived in Prague around 8 in the morning and found my hostel without a problem. This hostel was absolutely hilarious. It used to be an elementary school and they basically threw seventy beds into the school gym on the first floor and called it a hostel. The girl’s bathroom was all the way on the third floor with an interesting (prison inspired?) shower situation. First impressions aside, this was one of the best hostels I’ve ever stayed in. The staff was great and I met a lot of cool people.

The oddest moment on my trip occurred on my first morning in Prague. I started off by just wandering around the city. I found the old town square pretty quickly and sat down on a bench to soak in the sights. Suddenly a woman sat down next to me. I figured she wanted to take a picture with the monument behind us, so I offered to move to the next bench. Turns out she actually wanted a picture with me. Now, I don’t mean to stereotype, but this woman was everything an Asian tourist should be and more. Visor, flower print clothes and a huge camera around her neck. I am proud and excited to know that somewhere on the Asian continent there is now a random photo of me and this woman on a bench in Prague and that in it I am laughing absolutely hysterically.

In the afternoon, I took a free walking tour. These tours are run in ten different European cities with the idea that poor college students/Peace Corps volunteers/etc should be able to take tours, too. The guides are all native English speakers who live in Prague and work on a tips only basis. The tour was just over three hours long and I felt like it covered most of the big touristy stuff. I saw the old city, the Jewish Quarter, the Charles Bridge and learned a little about the castle. I also made sure to sample some excellent Czech beer along the way.

My trip ended with an eighteen hour bus back to Ukraine. It was surprisingly painless. I was most definitely the only non-Ukrainian onboard which became apparent the second the bus pulled away from the curb. The comfort of the Ukrainian language, the whistle of the tea kettle for constant coffee and tea and the sounds of traditional music surrounded me for the last leg of the trip. Welcome back to Ukraine.

I hope everyone has enjoyed their summer. Mine is coming to a close. My school has a tenth anniversary party tomorrow and I will spend next week preparing for the start of the year. September 1st will be the first bell ceremony to welcome the new first graders and if all goes well I will beginning teaching on the 2nd.

Wish me luck with my final semester. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving stateside.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all of who donated to Camp CACTUS. The project was a huge success.

Camp CACTUS ran for ten days and we had 55 students from across western Ukraine. Everyday they had classes in project planning, country studies and arts. Each project planning class implemented a small project during camp. These included giving free hugs to campers and staff, teaching Spanish to people in the main city square and picking up trash in the park. The trash was then carried to the main square with signs on it telling people why they shouldn’t litter. The country studies classes prepared students for a model U.N. summit held on the second to last day of camp. I was responsible for the arts curriculum, including theatre, dance, music and visual arts, which culminated in a hilarious talent show on the final day of camp.

Campers also had elective classes based on the staff’s interests and talents. My friends Ally, Damon, Michelle and I taught a Spanish class. We had thirteen kids the first day and the number only grew from there. We taught them basic expressions, numbers, colors, family members and how to say what they like and don’t like using a handful of verbs. We also learned to sing La Bamba and La Cucaracha. Who knew that second song was about marijuana? Not us until we taught it… We capped off the class with a Mexican cooking day. While it was no Anna’s Taqueria, the tacos we managed to put together weren’t half bad.

Each night there was a different social event. The first night we did a photo scavenger hunt around the city of Ternopil. We also did an HIV/AIDS awareness concert, team dinners, dances and a game night. On game night I was in charge of Scrabble. It required a lot of time and patience but we were actually able to have a decent game. One of the players told me that this game was “just gorgeous” and couldn’t wait to try it again. One of the most interesting social events was “The Living Library.” This is a program run through the International Office of Migration that attempts to break down stereotypes. Basically each staff member was a book and small groups of students were given ten minutes each to “read” the book. Staff members spoke about their topic and students were free to ask questions. Some of my favorite books included my friend Priscilla’s about being Chinese and living in Ukraine, titled “No, Jackie Chan is not my brother,” and “Different Kinds of Love,” with my friends Ally and Neil Patrick talking about their gay family members.

The two boys I brought with me to camp were great. While they aren’t always the most well behaved students in the world, they are talented, enthusiastic and absolutely hilarious. Most Ukrainian students have never seen anything like Camp CACTUS and I know that both my boys benefited immensely from these ten days. The nine months I spent working on Camp CACTUS were not always easy. At times they were frustrating and downright infuriating. All of the frustration and anger was well worth it when Yura, one of my boys, hugged me on the last night and said, “Thank you so much for inviting me to this camp. I don’t want to leave.” I can honestly say that this project was the most fulfilling of my Peace Corps service and the past two weeks I truly felt like we were making a difference.

The final phase of Camp CACTUS will take place between now and December. Students from different regional groups spent the second week of camp planning a community project for their area. I am a project mentor for eight students in my area. Since most of them are entering their final year of school, they have decided to do a Career Fair modeled after the Living Library. They are going to invite fifteen professionals to come to our school and serve as “books” for their classmates to read and learn about different career options. I have very high hopes for these students and their project. I can’t think of a better way to top off my Peace Corps service.

Speaking of topping off my service, I recently found out a fun little tidbit of news. Of the 86 volunteers in my group, eighteen of them have visas that expire on September 30th. Interesting, since our service doesn’t end until November 17th at the earliest. Any guess as to who one of those eighteen volunteers might be? You guessed it, yours truly. Oh Peace Corps… Now I have to travel to Kyiv sometime before September 30th and hand in my passport to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Keep your fingers crossed that they get the visa right this time, and do it quickly, so that we can make sure I can get OUT of the country in time for Thanksgiving!

I’ll be in Warsaw and Prague for the next week. I’m sure there will be another blog about that trip. Just about three months and counting… Can’t wait!

The summer is off to a good start.

My students graduation party was on June 20th. This party is like a mixture of the actual graduation ceremony, the all night graduation party and prom. The boys wear suits, the girls wear gowns and all the teachers and parents are invited. The night started at 5 pm and I didn’t get home until 6:30 am the next day. There were three huge tables covered with the usual Ukrainian spread- vegetable, cheese and meat platters, salads, borscht, dumplings called varenyky, stuffed cabbage rolls called holubtsi, cookies, cakes, coffee, tea, ice cream, champagne, wine and vodka.

There was a band and tons of dancing. As you may remember from the last blog entry, I am not the greatest dancer, but I can manage the large circle dancing that usually happens at these events. The slow songs were a little more painful, but most of my partners were good leaders. There was one interesting dance involving handkerchiefs. Everyone holds hands and dances in a circle. There’s a person in the middle with a handkerchief. The person with the handkerchief points to a person in the large circle and they must come into the middle of the circle, kneel down on the handkerchief, and kiss each other. The person who was pulled out of the circle then becomes the puller and the dance continues. I was completely mortified since my kissing choices were A. my married coworkers or B. our 17 year old students. To make matters even worse I got stuck with the handkerchief when the music ended, which apparently means I need to kiss each member of the band and my school director. Personally, I think they just made that part up to embarrass me even further.

The night ended with a walk to the Stryi River to “meet the sun.” A very nice tradition, but not one that works very well in the rain. Thankfully my student Ivan was kind enough to share his umbrella with me.

I spent the last two weeks in the mountains collecting delicious wild blueberries, working a camp, celebrating the fourth and doing a bit of actual camping. I climbed Hoverla, the highest mountain in Ukraine. The day started off nice enough and the first couple hours of climbing were a pleasant challenge. Unfortunately the last half kilometer or so we climbed inside a rain cloud. It was steep, muddy and exhausting. We spent approximately thirty seconds on the top of the mountain before we turned around for our miserable return. I had planned this climb for a few months and I’m glad I finally got the chance to do it, but it’s an experience I probably won’t need to repeat.

While camping in the mountains I developed a small eye infection. Iryna, one of my coworkers, accompanied me to the eye doctor to translate for me. It turns out it is “yachmin,” which doesn’t have an English translation, but is basically a cold in my eye. Ukrainians claim that this is caused by the draft, what we in the U.S. would consider fresh air. Iryna warned me not to tell any Ukrainians that I had yachmin, since the normal remedy is for people to spit in your eye without warning. I’ll stick with my eye drops, thank you very much.

The camp I worked in the mountains was in Berehove on the Hungarian border. It was an English language camp, which worked well since I wouldn’t have been able to use my Ukrainian anyway. Everyone in the town speaks Hungarian, and their second language is normally Russian, not Ukrainian. The area is really beautiful and has an interesting history. We went wine tasting in a neighboring village. The wine cellar was built by Italian prisoners of war during World War II. It is a small, family-run business, and the wine was excellent. I’m hoping to make it back for round two during the fall.

As for the rest of my time, I am still tutoring the middle-aged couple in my village. Actually, Ivan has only managed to learn “good evening” and “wash the dishes,” but Lida is a very good student. Her daughter has lived in Norway for the past two years and just married a Norwegian who doesn’t speak Ukrainian but it fluent in English. Lida wants to be able to talk to him so she has commissioned me to teach her. We usually meet twice a week and after a few months she is able to talk about herself, her family, her village, her likes and dislikes and some basic activities like cooking, cleaning, working, traveling and gardening. In a way I feel like she has adopted me. I do my laundry at her house and she is the best cook I have met in Ukraine. I know that she misses her daughter Mariana a lot, but I am happy to try and fill that void for a little while. (Until I get back to my own Mom, that is!)

My best birthday presents were from Lida. She made me a gorgeous cake and flower arrangement from her own garden. She also bought me a silver necklace, but the best part of her gift was her birthday greeting in English. I could tell she worked a long time looking up the words and memorizing her speech. It was very touching.

My actual birthday was pretty low-key. I went out for beers with a few coworkers and my good friend Yulia. The next day I had food poisoning which was probably the worst 12 hours I’ve experienced here in Ukraine. Plus, Michael Jackson died. What a physically and emotionally draining day.

I’ll take a minute here to thank everyone for the birthday presents. Nothing better than when the post office ladies call to tell me I’ve got packages from America!

Well I’m off to watch Rambo 3. Brendon will be happy to hear that one of the four Ukrainian channels I get is showing a Rambo marathon this week. So good.

Four months and five days until my COS (Close of Service) date. Time flies and it sure will feel good to be home! Hope all your summers are going well. Keep in touch.

My second school year here in Ukraine has come to a close. Lessons technically ended on Thursday, although I haven’t done much but play UNO, murderer and charades for the past week and a half. Friday was our last bell ceremony. This celebration marks the end of the 11th graders school career. At one point all of the 11th graders ask a teacher to dance. Last year I was asked by Yulia, an excellent student, but a very shy girl, and we spent four excruciating minutes swaying and occasionally rotating in the schoolyard. This year I was asked by Ira, a much more talkative girl, who explained that she picked me because she’s heard that I am almost as terrible a dancer as she is. We had a good laugh about that one and spent the remaining time discussing which eleventh graders and teachers we would put in our group, that of the “bad dancers,” which could be classified as “not so bad” and finally the few we could call “good.” All of the students, their class teacher and even some of the parents wore traditional embroidered shirts. I’ve decided I’d like to have one made before I leave Ukraine.

After the ceremony a group of teachers went for a picnic in the mountains. The weather was horrendous. It was May 29th and I was wearing tights under pants, long underwear under a raincoat and a vest and scarf on top of it all. I even brought a hat with me, but was laughed at when I went to put it on. In the end, we ended up having a good time, most likely thanks in part to the vodka enjoyed by all. This was the first time most of my coworkers had seen me drink vodka. Apparently I am the odd one out since I think it’s inappropriate to drink at school in between lessons, something we do before, on and/or after birthdays, namedays and most major holidays.

I’ve lived with Pani Dozya for just about two months now and I find that I don’t actually miss my apartment very much at all. Dozya is really busy right now working in the fields and I usually spend most of my time at home in my room, but we do enjoy a daily cup of coffee together and at least two or three meals a week. She loves to talk about how I am a vegetarian and recites my shopping list for all of her friends. The number of bottles of water I drink every week is one of her favorite topics of conversation. Other topics include when my friend Josef stopped for a night on the way back from the mountains and I had him, well actually FORCED him, according to Dozya, to sleep on the floor instead of in bed with me. I tried to tell her that we are just friends and then explained that he has a girlfriend, but neither was a good enough excuse for her. Finally I explained that he had been camping in the mountains for five days and smelled like a pig. She has accepted that answer, but now asks when I’ll invite him back for another go. As she puts it, if she were just fifty years younger she’d be “all over that.” That’s not quite a literal translation, of course, but you get the picture.

I was waiting in line in the grocery store last week when a man started to speak to me in English. At first I thought he was just a Ukrainian who happened to the know the expression “ladies first,” but I soon realized, based on the conversation, or lack thereof, between him and the cashier, that he was most definitely another foreigner. I asked him where he was from and it turns out he is a Welshman in Ukraine trying to figure out if the country will be ready for EuroCup 2012. We ended up having a cup of coffee together while he complained about the corruption, lack of motivation and low levels of customer service and English here in Ukraine. I sympathized with him on almost all points, until he began complaining about money. It turns out his monthly stipend is 16, yes 16, times larger than the one I receive. I guess he is having some sort of Ukrainian experience, just definitely not the same one I am. We ended on a very nice note and he thanked me for our coffee and conversation in “proper English.” I found it funny that my American accent was praised as proper, when even some of my coworkers make a habit of pointing out my quote unquote incorrect pronunciation of words.

Speaking of foreigners, it looks like I may be having my second American visitor to Ukraine… Helen Jun! She hasn’t bought her tickets yet, but plans are in progress for the second week of June. Thank you Amin for studying in Europe for the month of June and inviting your girlfriend for a visit. I owe you one.

Other upcoming plans include a bunch of summer camps and some traveling of course. This time it will be to Warsaw in August for a Madonna concert. My friend Tara happened to be buying the tickets just a few days after I learned about my tax return and I figure a Madonna concert in Warsaw is three hundred dollars very well spent. It’s supposedly her birthday concert and my friend Larisa has already promised me her purple leg warmers for the event, so it should be a good one.

I’ve been having a ton of dreams about home recently. I guess it’s my not so sub subconscious telling me it’s about time to move on. The group 32 volunteers started leaving Ukraine on May 18th which means us 33ers are right around the corner. I had a very nice email from Sean telling me it’s “about time” I get home, so I guess I’m not the only one excited. If these six months fly by as quickly as the last twenty have, I don’t think we have too much to worry about, though. I’ve been hearing from Brendon and Sean often enough, but I’d love some updates on the Sullivan, Croke and McKenna cousins. I love and miss you all. Can’t wait for November.

Happy Easter and Happy Spring!

Here are the updates on the past few months…

I spent spring break in Crimea, the peninsula that juts out into the Black Sea, with ten other volunteers. The journey there was my longest so far- 24 hours on a train. Thankfully it wasn’t too crowded and we packed plenty of snacks and games to entertain us on the way. We also decided to take a trip to the dining car. I was like a giddy little girl (until I saw the ridiculously overpriced check, but that’s another story…) Those of you who know me well should very well remember my obsession with Laura Ingalls Wilder and all her works. Well, train travel, especially the dining car, make me feel like I am back in the late 1880s with Laura and her beloved Pa, Ma, Mary, Carrie and baby Grace. I guess a covered wagon would be more appropriate, but here a few more parallels between Ms. Ingalls and myself- I wash my face in a basin of freezing cold water, worry about mud on my best shoes while walking to school down my dirt road and live with a woman who won’t let me wash dishes on Sabbath Sunday.

Anyway, back to spring break. We arrived on Tuesday morning and spent the first afternoon and night at my friend Anastasia’s site. Her town is pretty amazing, nestled in between the Black Sea and the mountains. I guess it gets pretty packed during the summer, but we were there in the off-season, so we had the place more or less to ourselves. I had talked for weeks about swimming in the Black Sea, and it definitely wasn’t warm enough for that, but I did get to sit on the beach, skip some rocks and TOUCH the water, so that was good, too.

On the second day we visited Yalta. Our first stop after the bus station was a gigantic Lenin statue comically pointing towards… McDonald’s. That was of course our second stop, being the typical Americans that we are. We wanted to take a boat to the Swallow’s Nest, a castle pictured on the front of the “Lonely Planet Ukraine.” We were disappointed to find out that since it was the off-season boats weren’t running. Instead we found a bus driver to take us. We weren’t too sure about him, but he reeled us in with his promise of an informative English language DVD during the trip. From this DVD we were able to learn that Yalta had been a resort for “amateurs of magnificent rest,” whatever that means… The driver also turned out to be somewhat of a tour guide himself, aggressively pointing out landmarks, such as “GEORGIAN RESTAURANT!” “CHURCH!” and “WHITE PALACE!” After the Swallow’s nest, our next stop was in fact the White Palace. This is where Stalin, Churchill and FDR met post-WWII to decide the fate of Germany. I felt the history dork in me coming alive and “if it’s good enough for FDR, it’s good enough for me” became a popular catch phrase for the rest of the week.

Our last stop in Crimea was Sevastopol. Sevastopol is a large navy port where Russia still stores some of its fleet. There was a U.S. Navy ship docked there while we were in town and we were actually invited onboard for a reception with the ship’s crew, a few big shots in the Ukrainian navy and a handful of other VIPS. These two hours spent on American “soil” were some of the most shocking of my last year and a half in Ukraine. Let me start with a list of things available on board the U.S.S. Klakring that I have not had since leaving America- ranch dressing, boneless fried chicken, meatballs, bbq sauce, liquor that wasn’t vodka and 12 oz. cans. I easily ate 30 celery sticks soaked in ranch, 5 pieces of chicken and 10 meatballs. I was so full and overwhelmed I didn’t even take advantage of the open bar, and instead left room for a slice each of white cake and chocolate cake. On top of that, the captain of the ship saw how happy we were about this food and sent us home with leftovers. Talk about service. If this night was any indication, I will probably gain 30 pounds upon returning to America.

We had a tour onboard from a very friendly sailor named Donald. He took us down to one of the lounges where a few guys were watching a basketball game. One of my friends asked “who’s playing?” Two of the guys looked at us somewhat strangely and answered “we are…?” while holding up their controllers. We couldn’t believe it. This was a video game! Those graphics really are something.

After the overwhelming boat reception we needed a relaxing day and spent our final day in Crimea in a town outside Sevastopol hiking and bbq-ing Ukrainian style- skewers of meat over an open fire. Overall a fun and extremely entertaining trip.

In other news, I moved out of my apartment about a month ago. My landlady was a chronic complainer, and I finally decided to just leave. Within a few days I found a woman to live with. Her name is Dozya. I have my own room, but we share the kitchen and bathroom. For 73 she is still quite the character. She is constantly having guests over, keeps busy in her fields and garden and with the chickens, and still works a few nights a week. I’m pretty sure she’s also running a little moonshine business on top of that. It’s not a bad situation overall. She doesn’t interfere with my life, doesn’t ask too many uncomfortable personal questions and appreciates the money I am able to pay her each month. Within twelve hours of receiving April’s pay she had bought us a new bathroom sink. To think, I went from an apartment without a sink period to this house with a BRAND NEW one. Moving up in the world.

On the professional end of things, I have been working on a project that some of you may have recently received emails about… Camp CACTUS. Like I said before, this will be a summer camp for students from all over Western Ukraine focusing on English language, project planning and leadership. In order to get kids pumped about the project we organized workshops in four different cities. One was held at my school a couple weeks ago. 41 kids attended from five different schools. This was a totally new experience for a lot of the kids, and something special for the volunteers, as well- working with motivated youth is always a plus.

Well, I’m off to have a cup of tea with my new sitemates Ally and Larisa. To think I had never had tea in my whole life and now I can’t imagine a day without at least two cups. Love and miss you all. Just about eight months until I see you all again!

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday Dad (and Godfather next week)

Happy birthday to you :)

I've been getting a lot of requests for an update recently so here goes...

Thanks for the packages in the past few months. I played UNO for the first time today with the English club kids and they loved it. I realized during club that UNO doesn't actually involve speaking much English at all, but it was very popular so I'm sure we'll play often. They also love prizes, Marianne's Chinese yo-yos are sure to be a hit. Thanks for the socks, Nana. My gas was never turned off, but it does get pretty cold in my apartment (I'm happy when it reaches 60 degrees in there) so warm clothes are always welcome!

I hope you all received your Poland postcards. I was there for a few days after Christmas. It was absolutely FREEZING but a good time. The city impressed me even in the winter and I've heard that the summer is absolutely amazing. The people were friendly, which is always a pleasure after living in Ukraine- the land of occasional customer service, hardly ever with a smile.

I've been keeping myself busy. I've got sixteen lessons a week plus an hour or two of English club. I also tutor a university student who wants to work in America this summer and a married couple in my town who want to be able to talk to their son-in-law and his family is Norway. Lida and Ivan are two of my most enthusiastic students and I really enjoy working with them. Plus they cook really well and let me use their washing machine which doesn't hurt.

Spring break is coming up and I'm hoping to finally make it down to Crimea. Hopefully the weather will warm up- we've got a few feet of snow right now and I'm really, REALLY ready for spring to come around. I'm also hoping to make it to Prague in the beginning of May. A few of my friends are training for the Prague marathon May 10th and I would like to be there to cheer them on.

I've also got some plans for the summer in the works. I'm working with a group of volunteers and Ukrainians from five different oblasts (sort of like states) on an English language/leadership/project planning camp to be held during July and August. I'm responsible for coordinating the arts curriculum (don't worry, my staff is much more artistically inclined than yours truly) which will include theatre, dance, music and visual arts classes. We are writing a number of different grants to get the camp funded. Look out for emails on how YOU can contribute-- THANKS!

I taught a lesson yesterday that I specifically remember teaching a year ago. Hard to believe how fast time has flown. Only ten months or so and I'll be back in the good old U.S. of A. Keep in touch and see you soon :)

Happy Thanksgiving! By this time next year I could be home celebrating with all of you! Of course, it is much more likely that I will be traveling in Western Europe for a few weeks... but don't worry, either way I will be home Christmas next year :)

So... I'm spending a Thanksgiving in a bit of a "non-traditional" fashion, aka doing nothing. Peace Corps gave us today off from work, but since I never have classes on Thursdays, it isn't anything special for me. I woke up this morning, had breakfast, cleaned my apartment a bit and came into town to use the internet. I'm meeting a friend for dinner later and that about sums up my Thanksgiving day. The actual Thanksgiving festivities will take place on Saturday. Annie is hosting at her site, Boryslav. It is about 30 kilometers away, which here in Ukraine equals two buses and just under two hours of traveling. Annie's boyfriend was able to find us a turkey (Molodets Nazar!) and as far as I know we'll have all the Thanksgiving classics... plus chicken wings and friend rice apparently. I was assigned to appetizers. Too bad I don't have Aunt Su here to help me out with the veggie plate and dip I'm preparing!

We did a couple of different Thanksgiving things at school. My English club has really taken off and I have between fifteen and twenty students every week (started with two about a month and a half ago...) We made turkey and pilgrim decorations and wrote on them what we were thankful for, learned a poem "Five Fat Turkeys" and played Thanksgiving BINGO. One of my students wrote that she was thankful for her "mother and father, especially my parrot for his kindness." The BINGO was by far the most popular. I gave them 24 Thanksgiving vocab words, for example turkey, cranberry sauce and Mayflower, and they each got to fill in their own board. Once they got the hang of the game they began chanting words they really wanted me to pull out of the envelope. One of my students began chanting "USA! USA! USA!" and I managed to get the whole group to join in before I pulled the next word. And Aunt Terry worries that my generation isn't patriotic :)

My friend Michelle has been having trouble at her site with behavior problems. She has a fourth former who constantly tells her to "suck his peh-nis" and other such ridiculous things. My initial reaction to this was to laugh hysterically and upon calming down tell her that my students would never dream of doing something like that. That very week one of my tenth formers decided to draw a penis on the blackboard before my class. Guess that's what I get for hysterically laughing. Karmas a bitch.

Outside of school I've been keeping busy with my aerobics class. I have been going twice a week since September and absolutely love it. Most of the time we do step, which I thoroughly enjoy, and the rest of the time we do dance, which, as most of you know, I am not quite as talented at. So far I have attempted Ukrainian dance, rock and roll and street jazz with little success. At least it keeps me and my friends laughing and helps with the depression that accompanys that start of another long, cold winter.

November 18th was our "one year until you can leave Ukraine" mark. Like I mentioned earlier I think Annie and I will do about a month of traveling in Western Europe (maybe Germany, France, Netherlands, Spain,...?) and then I'll be home in time for next Christmas. Not bad.

Love and miss you all and Happy Thanksgiving. Go Pats.

Hey look! A blog entry!

Yesterday marked my one year anniversary in Ukraine. Another year and two months or so to go.

The end of my summer was amazing. Mom's visit was great and provided quite a bit of entertainment. I think she enjoyed her time in Ukraine, but probably won't be rushing back anytime soon :)

In the end of August I spent two weeks traveling in Croatia and Slovenia. In Croatia we stayed one night in Split and three on the island of Hvar. For anyone who has not been to Croatia, I highly recommend it. It was exactly what my friends and I were looking for, relaxing, beautiful and fun. Slovenia, a country I don't think I had ever even heard of before Peace Corps, and not to be confused with Slovakia, was also a lot of fun. We spent three nights in Bled, a gorgeous lake town near the Julian Alps. We went white water rafting and my friends did bridge jumping. I was perfectly content to serve as the photographer for that. In both countries I was somewhat overwhelmed by all the English and the existence of customer service. Slight change from what we've gotton used to in Ukraine.

School started again on September first. The first few weeks were very slow. For some reason I have yet to figure out, and doubt I ever will, the schedule for the school year is not made until school begins. This means that no one, including administrators, teachers and students, knows what the hell is going on for at least the first week of school. I received my schedule during the third week and fortunately have only had one change since then. I am teaching the same number of classes as last year, 18 a week, and running an English club for middle school students once a week. I am also planning a big Halloween party which the kids are very excited about. They don't really celebrate Halloween in Ukraine so it will be something new and fun for them.

Speaking of Halloween, donations of candy, decorations, etc are more than welcome. The kids (and their Peace Corps volunteer) will really appreciate them!

There were a few weeks of really shitty weather during the end of September, but the sun has finally coming out and I am looking forward to the Baba's Lito (Grandmother's summer, aka Indian summer) we have been promised. Going to a Pig Roast this weekend with a group of volunteers. Doubt I'll eat much of the pig, but should be fun.

Hope all is well back at home! Miss and love you!

Oh and for those of you who don't know yet, I finally posted pictures a few weeks ago. They're on facebook, so if you don't have an account (Mom, Dad, etc) get Sean, Amanda or Tommy to show you the albums.

I guess you could say it's been a little while since the last update... :)

First and foremost, THANK YOU for all the birthday wishes, and especially birthday packages! The first to be received was from the Sullivan/O'Donnell clan. The jersey is awesome (and may possibly serve as a Halloween costume for this coming year) and music and books are also greatly appreciated. Thank you Dan, Su, James, Colleen, Kelly and Dan! Just yesterday I finally received my package from the Lamb sisters and families. It has been sitting in the post office for a few weeks, but I was traveling so I didn't have a chance to pick it up. Fortunately it didn't spoil over time. The McKenna's card is an especially big hit here in Ukraine. Also thank you to the Nesline's for the books. I was worried I wouldn't have enough to read this summer, but now I should be all set for at least a few months!

As for what I have been up to since May 15th... where to begin...

I have been away from my site traveling for the past three weeks and had myself quite the little tour of Ukraine. First I worked my friend's summer camp in the mountains near the border of Ukraine and Hungary. It was a fun camp, although some days we had more volunteers (seven) than kids. The camp took place in a very small village and the kids are expected to help on the farm during most of the summer, so a turnout of around ten wasn't half bad. We didn't do too much in terms of English, but I did get to teach a number of good old Hayden games- Indian chief, flinch, and dodgeball to name a few.

Next I traveled to Hungary and met up with Julian from St. Mary's. It was sort of a spur of the moment trip but I am really, really happy I went. My girlfriend Annie came with me. We didn't really know train times or even exactly where we were going when we set off, but unlike in Ukraine, customer service actually exists in Hungary, so everything worked out really well. We arrived in Budapest on a Saturday afternoon and stayed until Wednesday morning. The city was really great. For Annie and I it was nice to speak English without people staring at us, do laundry with both a washer and dryer, and eat good Italian and Mexican food. We also ate Subway. Twice. For Julian, the first "road beer," as we like to call them, was a fun little treat- "You can just walk down the street drinking a beer?! Awesome!"

While in the city we did a ton of walking and took in the sights. We visited one museum, called the Terror Museum. It was about the double occupation of Hungary, first by the Nazis and then by the Soviets. The museum is actually housed in the building where the Nazis and Soviet secret police worked. Overall a pretty intense experience and really interesting for me because the history of Ukraine during this time period is pretty similar but I don't know much about it. We also went to the outdoor Roman baths. The building and baths were constructed by the Romans and the architecture is really beautiful. There were three pools outdoors. Julian, Annie and I got a pretty nice rotation going- hot pool to cold pool to slightly warm pool and back to hot again. It was a lovely way to spend a summer afternoon :)

After returning from Hungary, Annie and I and two other volunteers took possibly the worst marshrutka (mini-bus) ride of all time to get to our Ukrainian language refresher. The bus left Uzzhorod at 9:30 pm and arrived in Lutsk, our final destination, eleven hours later. The ride itself could probably best be described as hell on earth. For some reason when buying the tickets the four of us pictured a beautiful greyhound couch bus with big comfortable seats delivering us to Lutsk well-rested and fresh after a lovely journey. Why we pictured this, since none of us have ridden on such a bus in at least ten months, I can't tell you... What we got was a regular old smelly marshrutka that stopped at least once very hour for the entire ride. One advantage was that the seats did recline. The disadvantage here being that the seats were so close together that once the person in front of you decided to recline you were left with no choice but to do the same. Upon finally falling asleep around three in the morning I was quickly awoken by a sudden stop. We had entered an unmarked roadwork construction site and were having trouble squeezing past another bus. As if fear of tipping over the side of the unfinished highway wasn't enough, the other bus scraped ours and we quickly turned around to chase it down and force it to the side of the road, at which point our two bus drivers exited the bus and began a rather heated argument. While I didn't have a good vantage point for this argument, my friend Neil Patrick is almost positive tire slashing efforts were made. All in all, overnight bus travel in Ukraine is not recommended.

Despite this harrowing journey, language refresher ended up being tons of fun. Language refresher is a service Peace Corps provides to help volunteers improve their language skills. It was held at a sanatorium on a lake in the north western part of the country. The thirty volunteers who attended were split into four teams and each given a color. Then each color was given a day to be on duty. Duty involved coming up with a morning warmup and afternoon team competition. On our day I was in charge of the morning warmup. Inspired by Tom Sullivan and his Norwich days I translated the words of the ever popular "We are the Sullivans, the mighty, mighty Sullivans" into Ukrainian and led a full out army march through the camp. The Americans were highly amused, and the Ukrainians more than slightly confused. Some of the non-PC guests at the hotel were even following us with cell phones taking pictures. The words, translated back into English, went a little like this:

Left, left, left, right left

Left, left, left right left.

Everywhere we go,

People want to know,

Who we are,

Where we come from,

So we tell them,

We are the Peace Corps,

From America,

We are volunteers,

Super volunteers.

After language refresher was the final leg of my journey, a second Peace Corps training held in Kyiv. My counterpart Iryna and I attended together and spent four days learning about project development and implementation.

The past three weeks were great, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad to be home now. I've got just over a week to ready the apartment and then it's off to Kyiv again to pick up Mom! I'm sure our travels together will provide even more interesting (hilarious?) stories. Can't wait!

The school year is winding down in Ukraine. I am now teaching only two or three lessons a day because my students are busy with school and region exams. With so much free time on my hands, I figure I should update the blog.

Easter in Ukraine happened about three weeks ago. On the Thursday before Easter I baked "Paska" the Easter bread. It is an important tradition here in Ukraine and the bread is then taken to church to be blessed. As most of you know, I am not extremely talented in the kitchen, so my actual job was sprinkling sugar on top of the bread, but it was fun nonetheless. On Friday I went to church with a few of my teachers and watched them kiss Christ's wounds. There was a picture of Jesus in the front of the church. The teachers got down on their knees and crawled towards it, occasionally stopping to pray. When they reached the picture they kissed Jesus three times on each of his wounds, then moved to the side and said another prayer. I didn't exactly understand what was going on, but it was interesting to watch. On Saturday I had planned to attend church again to watch an Easter basket be blessed, but was invited to a professional soccer game in Lviv and decided to do that instead.

The game was awesome. The weather was gorgeous. The game was between the local team Karpaty, and the best team in the country, Shaktar. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Karpaty lost 4-2. The game was not very crowded, probably partly because it was Easter weekend, and there were definitely more cops there than fans. Although I had never heard of Karpaty until the day before, I joined in the cheers of FOO (Ukrainian version of "boo") everytime Shaktar scored.

I went to church in Stry on Easter morning. I had heard that Easter mass began at 5 or 6 am and lasted for up to three hours so I was relieved to hear that I wouldn't be going until 7 and then only for about an hour. The church I went to is actual a very small chapel so I stood outside for the mass. I didn't understand much, and was distracted by my Ukrainian stilletto boots constantly sinking into the mud, but I enjoyed it overall. Like most holidays in Ukraine, Easter celebrations lasted about three days. Because many people strictly observe Lent there was plenty of meat eating and drinking going on the whole time.

The weekend after Easter volunteers in Kirovograd hosted a softball tournament. Kgrad is located in the center of Ukraine, south of Kyiv, a fifteen hour train ride from my site (fuuun!) When I heard about softball weekend I knew I had to attend and see if any of my Diamond Middle School softball skills remained. Coach Sullivan will be happy to hear that in our first game I not only got on base every at bat, I also caught two pop flys in one inning. I was so excited that the next time the ball came to me I botched an easy out by throwing the ball over the first baseman's head and into a tree. Slightly embarassing, but that's alright. If you ignore that slight error (and maybe even if you count it) it was definitely my greatest athletic performance of all time and I really felt that I was reliving my childhood glory days :)

While the softball games were intense (my team lost all three of our games by at least 10 runs haha) the most trying part of the weekend was attempting to buy a train ticket home. People in Kgrad speak Russian and my ticket lady was not exactly pleasant. Although I asked her politely to speak Ukrainain she refused and I simply said, "fine, give me whatever you have that is heading towards Lviv." Luckily I made it home. I then asked another woman working at the snack bar to tell me where the toilet was. She said she was busy working and couldn't talk to me. I got angry and said, "really? you can't tell me where the toilet is?" and then she told me. I was very proud of myself and my growing ability to get angry in Ukrainian :)

There are more adventures in store for this weekend. On Saturday my friend Adam is making buffalo wings for a bunch of us (so good) and on Sunday I am taking a religious pilgrimmage (no joke) to a small chapel about thirty or so kilometers from my site. It is an annual tradition and I have been invited by three separate people so far so it should be really interesting. Look for updates soon.

Hope things are warming up back home and that the end of the school year is going well for everyone. Keep in touch!

I officially bestow upon myself the award for worst blog updater. My apologies.

I have been in Ukraine for almost seven months now and at my permanent site for about four. The following is a slightly edited excerpt from an email I recently wrote to two of my favorites, Laura and Kathleen, about my experience so far-

"Let me say first and foremost that my experience thusfar in Ukraine has been pretty good, although I'm not sure I would call it "life-changing." Of course things probably never feel life-changing until they're over. At times I don't actually feel like I am in the Peace Corps. In a lot of ways it is nothing like I expected- ie no hut, no Spanish or French, no disease, no malnourishment. Also, I sometimes doubt I am affecting my students on any deep level, although I do think they enjoy their slightly insane American teacher and I do offer them some perspective on the outside world and what it means to be diverse.

That being said, there are times I want to say "F you!" and head on home. Knowing that I could make that decision at anytime and probably be home within three days is actually part of what keeps me here longer and longer. I can't really say I have had any BIG ISSUES with Ukraine, but it is really the small things that can get you down everyday, such as when there is no water or no electricity or your apartment is forty degrees or it has been raining for five days straight and the roads aren't paved and your boots and pants are covered in mud and you have no washing machine (not that it matters because you have no water or electricity anyway) and yet somehow everyone expects to show up looking beautiful and put together for school (ha!) or you just can't possibly eat anymore mayo or oil or greasy meat patties (they love those here) or watch anymore ridiculous, I mean absolutely RIDICULOUS, reality television in a language you don't even understand..."

... and I take a deep breathe.

Now for the good things. Most important of all, my students. Like I said before, I think the best thing that has come of our relationship so far is the fact that my students get to see and interact with a REAL AMERICAN on a daily basis. While I am far from "diverse" I do offer some perspective on the outside world which I think is important in my small village.

My eleventh formers recently informed me that they love the shows Jackass, Viva la Bam and and Dirty Sanchez (?) because "Americans are so funny." I answered "I'm really glad you watch those shows because they are a great representation of America. In fact, all Americans love absolutely demolishing their homes and destroying their bodies for the sake of a laugh." My students response was a universal "huh?" to which I answered "we should probably just make them the foreign ambassadors for America." I then explained that while those shows may be funny, I don't want them to think that all Americans are this way. They thought for ten seconds, nodded, then proceeded to form the "rock out" sign with their fingers and scream "VIVA LA BAM!" I could tell I really got through to them :)

On a slightly cuter note, one of my second formers asked me last week "are you from another ball or our ball?" At least, that's what I thought she said. Turns out I had confused the words "ball" and "planet." Her mother, an English teacher from school, explained that she was wondering if I was from the planet Earth. After a good laugh I was able to tell her that while Ukraine and America often feel like different planets, they are in fact that same.

And on a somewhat random note, students in Ukraine love and ask about 50 cent so much that my volunteer friend Garrard recently accidentally said "well, here's my fifty cents on the topic.."

Ukrainian Easter is on Sunday. Unlike my Christmas blog, which I never actually posted (whoops), you can except some updates on that soon. The easter eggs and candy from American were a big hit. I did a scavenger hunt type game with the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th formers and basic egg hunt with the little ones. The first form was the most excited for their hunt. Unfortunately it's been raining all week so I had to hide their eggs inside. They were each allowed to find two eggs and I even let them eat their candy in class (!) One of my students was so excited from the hunt and the candy that she spent the second half of the lesson after the egg hunt making bunny ears and giggling. Every time I or her teacher asked her to calm down she would wait for us to turn around and then do bunny ears again. As I was leaving she told me the egg hunt had been "duzje klasno" (very cool) and asked if we might be able to do it again next year. Very cute.

With the older students thing were not quite as cute, stemming partially from the fact that the Ukrainian slang for testicles is "eggs." Consequently, the question "where are your eggs hidden?" elicited more than a few giggles. Once they got beyond that though, the game was a success.

Alright, as usual time is running out. Love and miss you all.

My volunteer friend Annie recently informed me that Heath Ledger is dead. No piece of information in the past five and a half months in Ukraine has made me feel more cut off from my previous life. The fact that this happened over a month ago (two months ago now?) absolutely blows my mind. This piece of information has led me to realize that I am going to be completely lost in two years in terms of books, movies and pop culture. On a good note, maybe Kiss 108 and other similar stations will actually be playing something "new" (to my ears at least) by the time I get back. That will be refreshing.

A second title I considered for this blog entry was "the time I ate two pounds of peanut butter in four days." That one is pretty self-explanatory. Suffice it to say, it was a spectacular four days. Thank you Karen Sullivan.

Otherwise things continue to go well. I'm sorry that I worried some of you about my apartment. Yes, it sucks at times, but this is the Peace Corps after all :)

Miss you all, Happy Spring!

My friend Shannon and I are planning an Easter party for our students. It will hopefully be happening the week before Easter because our students go on spring break the following week. We are hoping to have an egg hunt for our younger students and a scavenger hunt for the older. We are currently looking for donations of American easter candy and plastic eggs for the hunt. I've found that packing envelopes usually arrive at my site within two weeks of being mailed from the U.S. If you are interested in contributing just remember to value the package under $100 and there should be no problem. Thank you!

Hey! Been awhile...

Life in Myrtiuky is going pretty well overall. I'm teaching around sixteen hours a week at school. Spending a lot of free time reading (send books!) and hanging out with Shannon. Apartment is a work in progress... still lacks a sink or fridge but I'm hoping to finally vacuum it this week which is a step in the right direction!

Did my first couple loads of laundry by hand. That was an adventure in and of itself. Never realized quite how much soaking wet clothes weigh. Feel like I had quite possibly the best workout of my life. Hopefully it will be worth it. I'll have to get back to you once I figure out if the clothes are actually clean or not...

Went to visit two volunteers, Neil Patrick and Michelle, Zacarpati this past weekend. Zacarpati means "behind the Carpathians." Their sites are ten minutes apart and just about as far west as you can possibly go in Ukraine before entering Slovakia (3 km away) or Hungary (25 or so km away). Look for Uzhhorod on a map if you're curious. Took a train from Stry to Uzhhorod which is about a five hour ride, then a marshrutka for another hour. Their sites are gorgeous. Both small villages. We spent Friday night at a hotel in Uzhhorod and Saturday morning seeing a little bit of the city. Had an actual cup of coffee (my second in Ukraine) at a Starbucks-like coffee shop. It was like a little piece of America in far Western Ukraine. Saturday afternoon was spent being fed by Neil Patrick's host mama Marta and Saturday night in Michelle's village. One of the highlights of the entire weekend occurred early Sunday morning when Michelle entered her living room with a jar of dundundun PEANUT BUTTER. Mmm... peanut butter :) It was glorious.

Neil Patrick is planning a summer camp for the first week in July which I am hoping to work at. I would love to see the area during the summer. I asked how we were going to celebrate July 4th and he answered "with a water balloon toss." What are the odds? Just like the good old days at Tommy's birthday parties. Although I did have to warn him that I am highly competitive when it comes to water balloon tosses. If only I can find a partner as talented as cousin Amanda :)

The weekend was great. Arriving home Sunday at midnight to a forty degree apartment with no water... not so great. Needless to say, not my best night yet in Ukraine. As a result of going bez heat for three days the apartment has refused to get above sixty degrees. If I had to title my life for the past couple days it would probably be "life in a sleeping bag" since I have managed to do pretty much everything in the apartment from the confines of my mummy sleeping bag. Thank God for REI.

Just got the five minute warning from the internet cafe... Hope everything is going well at home and looking forward to hearing from everyone!

Heard the bad news via text message this morning. My condolences to all the Pats fans out there.

Pryvit!

Sorry it's been so long. I've been pretty busy since my last entry. Finally started teaching last week. I have the first, second, fourth and fifth forms each once a week, and the sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth twice each. I am also teaching two periods a week of American country studies and two of American literature in the eleventh form. I feel extremely under-qualified to be a literature teacher but I guess we'll see how it goes... Taught six lessons yesterday which was the most I've had so far. Thursday there are no English lessons at school so I'm free for today.

Moved into my new apartment on Monday. Was very messy and cold for the first few days but is starting to feel like home. It has two rooms, a small one with the stove, a table and chairs, and the larger with a couch, wardrobe, small table and chairs. The couch turns into a bed, which is not very comfortable, but not too uncomfortable either. The apartment is heated by a gas "pitch," a tall brick oven in the corner of the larger room. My landlady was very worried that I wouldn't be able to turn it on and off by myself and called twice the first night to check on me, but it's actually pretty simple. The hot water is also heated by gas. I have to turn it on about an hour before I want to shower for the water to be hot. Supposedly they are installing a sink for me soon, but for now everything is done in the bathtub. I'll probably try and buy a refrigerator sometime next week but right now am happily surviving off of noodles and tunafish. After an entire month of Ukrainian holidays I am happy not too have too much food in the apartment at the moment.

Received my first package at site (thank you Mom!) It only took about a week to get here. I think mail will be much faster now because it doesn't have to go through the American embassy or Peace Corps office. If anyone is thinking about sending a package I am missing peanut butter and would love books or dvds.

I have felt my Ukrainian slipping in the past few weeks. When I first started learning the language my vocabulary pretty much doubled every week, but now that training is over I have gotton lazy and am not learning as much everyday. I speak English almost all day at school (understandably since it is my job) and am fine taking public transportation or going to a store or restaurant, but am looking forward to learning more complicated aspects of the language. A Ukrainian language teacher at my school has offered to tutor me, our first session will be tomorrow morning.

Times almost up for the day. I wrote a long entry about holidays in Ukraine but can't find anywhere to plug in my flashdrive and post it. Hopefully you'll get to see it at some point.

Go Pats.

Love you, C

So I finally have a new address. It is my family's because there are no PO boxes in my village-

Romanchouk Orest

Myrtiuky

Stry District

Lviv Region

82463

Ukraine

Looking forward to hearing from everyone!

As for me, I am doing well. A little bit bored and excited for school to start up. New Years was fun. Spent it at a bar with my host cousin Taras and his friends. There are no rules in Ukraine about standing a safe distance from fireworks which added an unexpected and frightening twist to the evening.

My family has been busy with our pig slaughter- poor Senora. I watched them make homemade sausage yesterday and even tried a little. Although as I'm sure you guessed I was not a fan. My favorite part of Senora's death was her subsequent trip on a minibus to another city. My parents and I waited on the side of the road with a huge bag of meat, waved down a bus to Lutsk where my host sister and her husband live, paid for a ticket for Senora and loaded her on. She was picked up at the Lutsk station by my sister four hours later. Only in Ukraine.

Christmas is on Monday. Sunday night I have been invited to my host grandparent's and Monday will be at home as far as I know. Excited to experience all the Christmas traditions I have heard about.

Hope everyone had a good New Years. Happy 2008.

Merry Christmas!

I am writing from the internet cafe in Stry, the city next to my new village. I've been in миртюки since last Thursday morning. Spent a few days before that in Kyiv learning about different grants I can apply for over the next two years and my new Ukrainian bank account. It was hard to say good-bye to my training clustermates, but I'm excited to finally be here at my permanent site. It's nice to be able to answer people when they ask where I'll be living for the next two years (and in Ukrainian at that!)

I don't have a sitemate here, but there are three other volunteers from my group in villages very close by. I am closest to a girl, Shannon, who will be teaching 1st through 5th form in a neighboring village. We are starting our own Christmas Eve tradition, meeting up for pizza and beer in about an hour! Tomorrow I will be at school. The students have been practicing their rendition of the birth of Jesus and some Christmas songs in English so that will be fun. They go on vacation at the end of this week and are taking exams for the next few days so I haven't been doing much at school except talking with teachers and drinking coffee- not too bad if you ask me :)

My new family is great. Very good about including me and eager to help with my Ukrainian. My host brother's wife is pregnant so that has been very exciting for everyone.

A quick note for the Elton John fans out there (Aunt Terry and B!)- I was looking through the 10th form English book and found the lyrics to Rocket Man in the section on space travel. Thought you would enjoy that! On a somewhat related note was also asked by one of the tenth formers what a "peepshow" is. I asked him where he learned that word and he said "Fifty cent." Good lord.

I guess that is about it for now. Hope everyone is doing well and having a very merry holiday season. I miss and love you. Merry Christmas!

Hi family and friends-

Not too much to update at the moment. Been keeping busy tying up loose ends before training is over. Will be leaving Kivshovata next Monday morning at 730 a.m. Spending Tuesday and Wednesday in Kyiv and I believe arriving at site Thursday. I've got a lot of laundry and packing to do before Monday morning, but otherwise I'm ready to go. Officially moving from trainee to volunteer status!

I taught my final lesson in Kivshovata last Friday. I was surprised at the end of class when two of my students approached me with a present. It was a small bag of "trinkets" of sorts- a notebook, a pen, hair elastics, a silver bracelet. The best part was a letter they wrote me, in English, asking me to "correspond" with them over the next two years and telling me that they were feeling "grief" over my departure. Adorable.

I've been getting a lot of requests for pictures and I'll definitely work on it. The laptop is on it's last leg, but I should be able to upload straight from my camera to the computer so watch for those in the next few weeks.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! I'll be thinking of you on the 25th!

I've pretty much reached the two month mark here in Ukraine. I'm happy that training is almost over, and looking forward to my new site. I will be moving there on December 19th. I did not have a chance to open a P.O. box during my site visit, so continue to send letters to the PC address. As for packages, wait to send them until I have my permanent address. The Peace Corps office can't hold them anymore, and they will be sent back to you.Glad to hear all the updates from the family. Even Nana figured out the blog comment! Congratulations to B on the promotion and Amanda for finishing her apps. Was also thrilled to learn that Nathan is the fastest runner and Andrew is really enjoying CCD. Keep it up boys :)As for me, I have two and a half weeks of training left. They will be pretty busy. I'm now teaching five English lessons a week in the seventh, ninth, tenth, and eleventh forms. I still have Ukrainian lessons everyday. My training clustermates and I are also holding a methodological session for the three English teachers in town. We are going to demonstrate simple, fun, communicative activities which have worked well during our classes. Hopefully they will incorporate them into their lessons after we're gone! We are also currently working on a self-directed learning project. We are translating a popular song into English and working with my host sister to choreograph a Ukrainian inspired dance to go along with it. We plan on performing the next time our entire group gets together in Kyiv. Should be pretty hilarious.Bought myself a true Ukrainian winter coat last weekend. It is bright red, knee-length down with fur embellishments. It is very warm, plus all my friends get a kick out of it :) Next up on the list is a pair of boots and some mittens. After that I should be all set for the negative temperatures to come.Glad to hear Thanksgiving was a success and Sean didn't perish before the main meal. Keep the updates coming- they make my week!

Hello! I haven't been to the internet in almost three weeks, so this might be a long one :)

I guess I'll start with my site visit. On November 13th I found out my permanent site, which is a small village in western Ukraine. The village, Mertyuky, has a population between 6 and 700, but borders a much larger city, Stry, of 65,000. If you're curious you can probably find Stry on a map of Ukraine, it is located in southwest Ukraine, south of Lviv.

I traveled to site with four other volunteers, three of us got off the train in Stry and the other two continued west. We left Kyiv last Wednesday night at 615 pm and arrived in Stry at 6 am. It was my first experience with an overnight train and I was very excited. I brought along my new sleeping bag, which was fun for about thirty seconds until I realized that the train was about 100 degrees.

When we arrived in Stry I was picked up by two English teachers from my new school, Iryna and Vira, and my new host father, Orest. I don't think they realized I had been studying Ukrainian for six and a half weeks and were thrilled that I could say "hello," "nice to meet you," and "thank you." Orest immediately invited me and another volunteer, Shannon, to his son's wedding that Saturday. We did not understand the word for wedding and Orest couldn't figure out why we weren't excited. The English teachers translated for us and Shannon and I eagerly accepted the invitation.

My new house is similar to the one I live in now. It was indoor plumbing and hot water (most of the time.) I have a younger brother, Andrey, who is thirteen, an older brother, Roman, who is 23, and an older sister, Anya, who is 25. Roman and Anya do not live at home, but I was lucky enough to meet them (and many, many, many others) at the wedding. My host mother, Lecya, is a cook in the school cafeteria. I'm not sure exactly what Orest does now, but I did learn that he worked in Italy for eight years.

At 630 Thursday morning it was of course necessary to toast my arrival. My sense of time was thrown off by the train ride, so red wine at 630 didn't seem too odd. Around 830 Iryna and Vira took me to the school. It is literally two blocks from my back gate. The school building is only eight years old and very nice. There are six English teachers at school, and the students English level is pretty high. Unlike many schools in Ukraine, they have English four to five times a week starting in the first form. I will most likely be teaching the older forms, including 11th form American Literature and United States country studies. Thursday after classes Iryna, Vira, and another English teacher, Halya, took me into Stry for pizza. I ordered a pizza with onions, peppers, and chicken, and a Coca-Cola. Probably my best meal so far in Ukraine :)

On Friday I arrived at school just before 9. For the first period I observed a competition in the fourth form on fairy tales. It was in Ukrainian and I was lost for the most part. I did know the correct answer to a few questions and was very proud of myself- can't wait until my language level reaches that of middle (or MAYBE even high school) students! After the competition, I observed two 10th form English classes. As I mentioned before, the English level of the students if high, but the classes still rely heavily on translation. My job will be to introduce more communicative methods. I did not observe the last few English classes of the day because it was time for a Ukrainian fashion show. Since I hadn't known about the wedding Saturday, my coworkers were very worried that I wouldn't be dressed appropriately and all brought in items of clothing for me to try on. I ended up in a black satin diamond embellished skirt and tight black top. I haven't worn anything remotely girly or tight for two months so it felt very odd, but did help me to blend in well at the wedding!

Now for the wedding itself- I was told to be ready around 1230 Saturday afternoon. My host father picked Shannon up from her site (only a few kilometers from mine) and around 1 pm a large number of my host father's relatives began arriving to the house. Shannon and I were then ushered into a car with one of the few English speaking guests and joined a caravan of cars and one bus traveling to the bride's home. When we arrived at the bride's home the bride and groom's families began talking on the front steps. Shannon and I didn't follow much, but it seemed as if Roman was asking Veronica's parents for permission to marry her. The two families then had a champagne toast, smashed the glasses on the ground, and entered the home. There Veronica and Roman asked for the blessing of their parents and grandparents. When they left the house they walked under a loaf of bread, and once outside were sprayed with water by Veronica's father. After the bride's house, we got back into the car and drove to Stry. There Veronica and Roman were legally married in a town hall of some sort. Next, we drove back to the village for the church ceremony. The church was beautiful, and I really enjoyed that part. My new host grandmother was whispering to me the entire time in Ukrainian trying to explain what was going on. I didn't really follow, but her effort was appreciated!

Finally, we drove to the reception. It was held in a gorgeous hotel/restaurant in a resort town nearby. The reception itself was similar to one in the U.S., but with A LOT more food. The event was catered, and the families brought food, too. Shannon and I sat at the "young table" as we were told. It was a lot of cousins, my host sister, and Roman and Veronica's friends. A very, very good time. There was also a band, and I did my fair share of dancing with my third form host cousin, grandmother, host father, and Roman's friends. We did not leave for home until 330 am. Needless to say, I was exhausted.

You wouldn't believe my surprise when I woke up Sunday morning to find that the party had not actually ended... relatives and friends piled into the house and the afternoon was spent eating left over food, drinking, looking at pictures, and congratulating Roman and Veronica again. I was overwhelmed, but have been told that a wedding is nothing compared to the holiday season approaching- wish me luck :)

Sunday night I took another overnight train back to Kyiv and spent Monday and Tuesday attending training sesssions held by current volunteers. It was nice to hear about everyone's sites, and meet the current volunteers, but I am definitely happy to be back in Kivshovata now.

We've had our first taste of winter weather. It snowed a rather significant amount in Kivshovata the weekend before we left for site visit. Upon arrival in Kyiv it started snowing again, and when I reached my site it began snowing within two hours. I had even asked the English teachers if there had been snow yet, to which they responded no. Maybe I'm just bad luck! I will be purchasing a long winter coat and maybe some black lined boots the next time I'm at a large bazaar, but overall I'm keeping warm.

I'm about to run out of time, but I have so much more I'd like to report. Hopefully I'll get another chance this weekend.

As you can probably tell I'm having an amazing time, but missing you all immensely on Thanksgiving.

Keep in touch and let me know what's going on with all of you!

Thank you Julian for informing me of the World Series victory. Hope everyone enjoying the celebrations :)As for me I find out my permanent site on the 14th, so look for more updates then!

Just a quick note about packages. The Peace Corps office can no longer hold packages for us. Anything mailed on of before November 1st is fine, but after that they must be mailed directly to our sites. I don't know my permanent address yet, but will be sure to get it out as soon as I know. Also, the letters we have received so far have all been open so definitely don't send money or anything of value in the envelopes.

One month tomorrow since I left Lexington...

In response to some questions I received:

-My family has a laundry machine. Everytime my host Mom washes clothes (usually once a week) she asks if I have anything to throw in. I haven't had to wash anything by hand yet.

-The weather is pretty similar to fall in Massachusetts. There are some sunny days, but just as many cold, windy ones. My walk home from school has one steep hill with a great view of the village from the top.

-My students do not wear uniforms, although many of them dress up for the school day. The boys often wear blazers or sweaters and the girls skirts. Our town only has one school with three English teachers, which I think is pretty standard for villages here. Our link cluster (the group of trainees we have technical sessions with once a week) is in a bigger community with multiple school so their experience has been different.

I had my site interview this past Thursday. It went really well and I have a feeling I will be placed in a community similar to the one I live and work in now.

I am starting to feel like I can really communicate with my host family. My host Mom and I usually spend at least an hour each night just talking. Our topics of conversation are varied, but we seem to come back to animals often. Probably because it is easy to understand and act out animals in any language. The other day she asked me the English names for "hen" and "rooster." In my broken Ukrainian I explained that the "husband" is called a rooster, and the "wife" a hen. Liubov understood, but explained that husband and wife really weren't the right expressions to use since a henhouse is more like a harem. Overall a pretty hilarious exchange of information. She has also taken it upon herself to teach me how to cook. She is fascinated with the fact that I don't know how to peel fruits and vegetables with a knife. Should have brought my own peeler!

This week our students have fall break. Instead of teaching our regular classes we will be holding English Olympiad tutoring sessions. Olympiad is a national academic competition in all subjects. They have already had the town Olympiad, so I'm pretty sure we are helping prep winning students for the regional competition.

Traveled to Kyiv last weekend. Only a two hour trip from our village. Spent the day sightseeing and learning how to ask for directions and use public transportation. We will return in three weeks for a mid-training seminar.

Last week my clustermate Gretchen mentioned to her host sister that we were interested in learning traditional Ukrainian dances. Turns out there was a concert coming up featuring this very thing. The five of us quickly accepted the invitation to participate in the concert. Yesterday, dressed in full Ukrainian traditional costume, we performed two dances with our students. Our language teacher attended and told us the community members were very pleased with our participation. My host Mom was thrilled with my Ukrainian costume, telling me that as long as I didn't open my mouth I could convince anyone I had lived here my whole life.

I guess that's about it for now. As you can probably tell everything continues to go well. Oh, and I even had my first headlamp/outhouse experience the other night and it wasn't half bad!

Love and miss you all. Keep in touch.

Okay, so here is an actual blog entry. I know I've been really really bad about updating, but there have been a few obstacles. One- this is the first time in ten days I've been to the internet. And two- my magical plan to write blog entries on my computer and bring them to the internet has failed because a. I don't have the right plug adapter, and b. the internet cafe won't open my word document.

Now that that's all out of the way-- Ukraine is amazing.

I am currently living in a small farming village of 2250 people. I live with a host mom, Liubov, host dad, Andrey, and fourteen year old host sister, Alina. My house is really nice. Hot water (big plus,) indoor toilet (even bigger plus.) My parents are potato farmers and also distill moonshine and sell soft serve ice cream. We have a car, but rarely use it. Yesterday my Dad came home with a flat screen TV- his reward to himself for finishing the potato harvest.

There are four other Peace Corps Trainees in my town- Josef, Garrard, Gretchen, and Tara. We are all 22 and graduates of the class of 2007. We are the first PC volunteers ever to live in the community and the first real life Americans many of our younger students have encountered. Our town has one school, two cafe/bars, three stores, and a "Cultural Palace." The cultural palace hosts different events, including a discoteque on Friday nights. I went last week with my sister and her friend. The other volunteers were also present with host siblings. The music was a solid mix of angry Ukrainian rock we didn't understand, techno, and American hip-hop.

We have language classes four to five hours a day, plus field trips and other projects. Our language skills are coming along. We know a few useful verbs in the past, present, and future- go, eat, drink, sleep, work, walk, run- and a good number of nouns. The hardest part so far has been the different cases and pronouns. I feel like I communicate pretty well with my family, although at times I realize we are talking about two completely different subjects. They know a few English words here and there, but after two and a half weeks in the village I think my Ukrainian skills are almost equal to their English skills.

When we are not in language classes ourselves, we are at the local school. For the past two weeks we have been observing English classes, and I actually taught my first English class yesterday morning. It was a seventh form (grade) class and they are learning about different forms of communication. I taught the lesson on cell phones. Overall it went really well. It was a little too short and the students didn't quite understand what I meant when I said they could start their homework early. This coming week I am teaching three or four lessons in both the third and seventh form.

Apart from language classes, teaching, and the discoteque we don't really have any freetime at all. We have decided to give ourselves Friday nights off, and spent last night watching "Shrek" in Ukrainian. Tomorrow we are taking a class field trip to Kiev to practice city and travel vocabulary and be tourists. I am really looking forward to the trip and have one big plan- to buy peanut butter. Duzje smachno (very delicious!)

Speaking of food- I am doing alright with it. I don't particularly care for the meat (no surprise there based on my eating habits at home) but have plenty of vegetables, fruit, bread, cereal, yogurt, soup, macaroni, and my favorite, potatoes. I drink coffee every morning, Capri Sun at the cafe for lunch, and bottled water the rest of the time. I've tried a few Ukrainian "pivos" (beers), some wine, and one vodka shot with the host parents which I really did not enjoy.

Next week we will have our site interviews. This is our chance to voice any preferences about our location for the next two years. Peace Corps told us that they try to honor one request for each volunteer, such as population of their town, language (Russian or Ukrainian,) Internet, proximity to other volunteers, etc. I honestly have no idea what, if anything, I will request. We will know our permanent site on November 13th.

I bought a cell phone. I honestly don't know exactly how to dial the number from the United States but as far as I know the Ukraine country code is 380, and my number is 677452365. The best times to call me are after 6 pm (11 am East Coast time) Mon-Fri and anytime Saturday or Sunday. I'm not sure if I have voicemail or how to set it up if I do, but I'll work on it!

How's everything going in Lexington, Boston, Phoenix, Virginia, Maryland, DC, etc?

Love and miss you all!

Hello family and friends.

I am happy and healthy in Ukraine.

My village does not have internet and my host family's phone can't make int'l calls so I haven't been able to be in touch, but I will hopefully have a cell phone soon.

I only have a few minutes, but just wanted to say hi! and everything is going well.

I will update soon.

Love and miss you all!

Ukraine in 9 days!

Working my last two days at Hayden ever (weird...) then it's a week off for packing, eating, sleeping, visiting, etc.

Here's my address in Ukraine (at least for the first three months during training...)

U.S. Peace Corps/Ukraine

PCV Caitlin Sullivan

P.O. Box 298

01030

Kyiv, Ukraine

Letters, postcards, emails, blog comments will be much appreciated I'm sure :)

So this is my first ever blog entry, written mainly because I am bored at work and want to try it out. I'm leaving for Ukraine in less than two months. Very excited, and starting to get a little nervous, too. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to decide on my luggage and really start planning for the next two plus years of my life. Staging (my pre-departure training) will be held in Philadelphia September 28th- 30th. If all goes well I should be arriving in Ukraine on October 1st (Happy bday B). From there I'll have three months of language and technical training, and then move onto my site where I will live and teach for the next two years. Wish me luck!