I’ve never had problems sleeping. I’ve always loved it and I’ve always been very good at it. I can go to bed early and sleep through the night. I can wake up early in a good mood. I can sleep late with the latest of sleepers. I can nap in the middle of the day. [...]
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Or should it be Moldova and I? Maybe “Me and Moldova”? One way or the other, I’m hoping it’s not really something I have to worry about, because Moldova’s not a place I’d like to return to anytime in the near future. Not that there’s anything with Moldova — far from it. My impression of Moldova, [...]
Well, so much for weekly updates lately, eh? Things have been busy here, with the never-ending holidays that keep Ukrainians busy from the beginning to the end of January. And of course, “American Christmas” (as Peace Corps Volunteers tend to call it) is the week before New Year’s, so I’ve been running around since December [...]
For no particular reason, last week was pretty miserable. My students were tired and stressed, my colleagues were tired and stressed. I was tired and stressed. It was a busy week, all of my students appeared to have made a pact not to do any of their homework (why is it that homework is an all [...]
A good friend of mine has dedicated some of her precious time to developing an interesting writing project: A Day in the Life of Ukraine. As a participant of this project, on Tuesday, December 13th, I asked all of my students to write about one moment in their day. As I’m a big believer of not [...]
Thought I posted this last week, but apparently I didn’t. Weird. Anyway, here we go… Over a year ago, I updated my blog with some reflections about completion of service. My site-mate Tara had just completed her two (plus!) years of service and her departure got me thinking a lot about what we, as Peace [...]
I’ve posted about this before, but after recently preparing two Thanksgiving dinners in a foreign country, I have some new reflections that I want to add. So, weekly update, here we go! Cooking in a foreign country is, not surprisingly, an interesting experience. You can’t always buy what you want — either because it doesn’t exist [...]
This week I taught a brief, basic lesson about Thanksgiving to all my students. Then, after the lesson, I gave them all a colorful, paper leaf and asked them to write down some of the things they were thankful for. Here are a few good ones for you (with some very minimal editing): I’m thankful [...]
Just the second week in my attempt to write weekly updates and already I’m feeling the effects of this challenge! I had an inspirational, blog-entry-worthy moment with a student this week and found myself thinking about all the things I could (should) write in a full, detailed entry. But, as usual, the reality of my situation [...]
I’m going to try something new — we’ll see how well it works out. I’m going to attempt to do a quick, weekly update starting this week! I’m hoping that even if I write something very short and brief, I’ll pack in a little more information than I would otherwise. These days I wait and wait [...]
As is beginning to appear usual, I’m radically far behind on updating! Every month I think to myself, “gotta catch up on my blog!” And then things just get too busy, or my internet doesn’t work, or I just forget. So in another increasingly typical move, I’m going to give the briefest of brief updates, [...]
I was afraid the day would finally come when I missed updating once a month. In all honesty, I’m a bit surprised that I made it so long without skipping a month. Finally I got so busy that I truly didn’t have time to even write a little “I’ll update soon” message in July. So [...]
If I don’t finish writing and uploading this post within the next thirty minutes, June will have been the first month in which I didn’t blog at all. Can’t let that happen! So a quick update… Things I’ve done lately: Finally finished school for the summer. (Today!) Hurrah! Lessons were more or less finished by [...]
I’ve never been a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. And as I mentioned here back in January, I figured that I’d more than likely come up with a list of things I wanted to do in the course of the year at some later date, rather than on January 1st. And indeed, after a [...]
As usual, my prolonged absence has been due to the ever-increasing number of projects I’m working on (and the random fun things I find to do when I’m not working on projects). And, as usual, I find it easier to update in the form of a nice little bullet-point list of what I’ve been up [...]
Although I’m quite superstitious, I’ve never taken much stock in the concept of the evil eye. I’ve always liked little evil eye pendants and I find the idea rather interesting. But while I don’t have much trouble believing in luck and chance, I have a hard time imagining one person hexing another. And while I [...]
Oh, dear, terribly neglected blog…I’m sorry for taking so long to finally write an update! Since the primary reason I haven’t written in so long is because I’ve been incredibly busy, I won’t waste any more time with apologies. I’m just going to write. So here we go! In early January, my parents came to [...]
Dear blog, I know lately I’ve been a little distant…I’ve made a few false promises. I said I would write and then you didn’t hear from me for nearly a month. Well, I know it doesn’t excuse my actions, but I’ve been incredibly busy. And I know it seems like my parents were meddling in [...]
I got stuck in my boots today. Well, to be more clear: my left foot got stuck in my left boot. The zipper had been on the fritz for a few days and I knew I needed to take it to the cobbler, but I thought I had a few more days before it would [...]
A year ago, I celebrated Christmas in Ukraine for the first time…both times! Most Ukrainians celebrate Christmas on January 7th, according to the Julian calendar that is used by the Orthodox Church, although a few celebrate on December 25th. Last year, I spent Roman Catholic Christmas at my counterpart’s and I spent the Orthodox Christmas [...]
Inspired by my dear friend Elise’s recent list of current activities, I’ve decided to take the time to write up my own list of current activities/projects to better inform my dearly devoted readers (Hi Nana, Pop-Pop and Mom!) of my goals for the coming year. First a little bit about what I do during school [...]
and the geese who were getting fat have now disappeared! I used to see them every day when I walked home, milling around the playground between my building and a nearby elementary school, pecking at the ground for who knows what geese eat. Maybe they stay close to home now, avoiding the treck through the snow [...]
I’ve come to believe that feeling compelled to do something is one of the worst possible ways to feel. The problem with compulsion is that it leaves no room for desire. It carries with it a deep sense of urgency and yokes itself around a person’s neck like a heavy burden—weighty, incapacitating, and ever-present. A [...]
My mom tells me that when I was a kid, I used to sit cross-legged on the floor and rip paper into tiny shreds. This was cause for concern for a while, but I turned out mostly okay, so I guess it wasn’t really much to worry about. Nevertheless, I have noticed that when I [...]
The borscht was a success! My refrigerator! On the top shelf, a giant pot of borscht, applesauce, raspberry jam. Middle shelf, a bowl of pampushky, a large jar of pickles, several jars of pickled tomatoes, and a pitcher of grape compote And on the bottom, jars of jam, pickled peppers, fresh parsley and celery, [...]
In the spirit of my recent post about cooking, I’m writing today to update about my most recent kitchen adventures. A very generous friend recently gave me a plethora of food—all of it either home-grown or homemade with home-grown ingredients. My spoils included: a two-liter jar of homemade pickles, two jars of pickled tomatoes, [...]
For some reason my hot water heater seems to have defected. It hasn’t worked for over a week now and I’m not sure why or when it will be repaired. The handyman told me “Lora, sunshine, a repairman is needed. He might come tomorrow. Or the next day. I don’t know for sure.” So in [...]
When I was a little kid, eating fast food or getting pizza was a big deal. We only got to stop at McDonald’s or eat pizza if it was a special occasion—usually when we were travelling to visit relatives for Christmas. We lived too far away from any fast food restaurant to visit there regularly [...]
One year ago I sat in a hotel conference room with fifty some-odd other anxious, excited, Americans, all in our finest business casual attire and we officially started this adventure. Of course, it began long before that day, but it was the next morning that we got on the big busses that dropped us off [...]
Reflecting now on my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day of several weeks ago, I can now say with certainty that the reason it was so bad was that so many little, seemingly inconsequential things had all piled up and gone various kinds of wrong at the same time. The worst day was definitely [...]
A week ago I had the worst day of my Peace Corps service so far. This isn’t really saying a whole lot because my bad mood had absolutely nothing to do with anything Peace Corps related and by the next morning, I was feeling like my normal self again, but it was, nevertheless, a pretty [...]
It’s not even September yet but already I find myself dreading the winter. The air outside is cool and I swear it almost smells like fall. Earlier today I was sitting in my room, fan running in the hallway in an effort to air out some of my musty smelling blankets and suddenly I smelled [...]
Just wanted to note that I updated the packing list I published a few entries a go…I added some information about rain boots under the “What I didn’t pack (or wish I hadn’t packed) and why” section. So, if you’re still packing and want one more thing to stress out about, check it out! :-)
Did the math. Spent approximately 145 hours in or on busses, trains, ferries, taxies and marshrutkas this summer. That’s 6 solid days spent travelling. Ridiculous.
As is usually the case when I haven’t written for a long time, I don’t really know where to begin when I think about trying to sum up the experiences I’ve had for the last two months. While May and June sometimes veered in the direction of slow and almost boring, July and August were [...]
This time last year I was packing up my apartment, spending all the money I’d saved up buying dress clothes, winter boots (hard to find in August!) and all kinds of miscellaneous stuff that I was pretty sure I’d need in Ukraine, and oscillating back and forth between moments of pure panic and bizarre calm. [...]
In lieu of a longer, more detailed post about what I’ve been up to lately, I’m posting here some information about my first grant project at site. In the seven months that I’ve been at my site working with the teachers and students at my school, I’ve noticed a serious lack of resources. Currently [...]
I’m still alive and all is well in Ukraine, albeit very very busy! I’ve been doing a lot of travelling, visiting friends, taking a fair amount of pictures, and spending a completely ridiculous amount of time sweating on busses, trains, and marshrutkas, adventuring across the country. Never fear, though, once school has started again and the [...]
Two years come and go pretty quickly. That probably never feels truer than when volunteers climb the steep steps of the train that will take them to Kyiv one last time. I can’t say for sure yet—I’m still a few months shy of half-way through my own service—but when I watched my site-mate board her [...]
Laura Ruth – 0 Instead of saying “I embarrassed myself” I accidently said “I gave birth to shame.” Incidentally, the conversation was about saying embarrassing things.
I remember my mom shaking my shoulder to wake me up when it was still dark outside. She was always gentle and seemed truly sympathetic to my plight as I struggled to open my eyes at 5:30 in the morning. Sometimes she would scratch my back for a few short, lucky minutes before she went [...]
As a kid, I always hated sitting in the back of the car while driving through flat states on our way to visit family for Christmas and other special occasions. Ohio, Indiana…driving across their eerily quiet and empty cornfields and plains gave me the creeps. I was used to narrow gravel roads that wound their [...]
This was just another one of those things that was bound to happen sooner or later. I suppose back home I never would have said that getting bit by a dog was something that I knew would happen eventually, but with the abundance of dogs running around here in Ukraine and the preventative education we [...]
Getting sick is annoying. It’s annoying no matter what the circumstances are…whether you’re young or old, coughing, sneezing, sick to your stomach or suffering from a stuffy nose, getting sick is something most people would, quite obviously, rather avoid. But getting sick in a foreign country is definitely more inconvenient and frustrating (and sometimes even [...]
It’s rained nearly every day for the last three weeks. Some days it only rains a little bit and then remains overcast for the rest of the day…then others it pours and pours all day long. Thunder, lighting, the whole bit. Some days the storms blow over and the sky clears up for a few [...]
…but I’m almost out of peanut butter and Tabasco Sauce. Anybody out there feeling particularly generous today? Laura.Ruth.Ward@gmail.com for physical address. (p.s. I know beggars can’t be choosers, but…crunchy and green, respectively!)
I’ve had ant problems before. Somehow, someway, maybe in a previous lifetime, I must have deeply offended someone, because I’ve been plagued with ants twice now, in ways that make me think there’s something like karma going on. In my apartment in Louisville the ants were in my kitchen and on the shelves of my [...]
Laura Ruth – 0 Today at the grocery store I couldn’t remember how to ask for garbage bags. I ended up saying I wanted ”purses for trash.”
I’ve been planning (in theory) to sit down and write for a while. Every other day, I think to myself “Okay. Tomorrow I need to sit down and write. I’m going to do it.” And then tomorrow rolls around and I get side-tracked by something going on at school or I go over to my [...]
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