So when my sister was here, we had the most brilliant idea to celebrate Christmas this year. Instead of having my mom’s side of the family over to eat, give presents, and start fights with each other (all Zawacki traditions); we thought it would be better to go on a bar crawl, as a family. That’s high-class society thinking for you. Let me explain. This is the first year I’ll be home in a while … Continue reading →
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Hey guys, get this. I’ve had two+ cups of coffee today. That’s some sort of record for me. I should be wired for a while now. I promised to make excuses, and here they are. I didn’t write yesterday because I continued with my deep cleaning of my apartment, I started work on my new profile picture, and I hosted another PCV for the evening.I haven’t started writing yet today because I was at school … Continue reading →
Today I learned that my running route is roughly 6.7 miles. How, you ask? I took out my old analog map and measured street by street. Then I added each street length together–I took the measurements in centimeters because I’ll be damned if I can find a standard ruler here–to get a total of 63.5cm. Then, since there was no scale on the map other than 1:17000, I multiplied 63.5*17000 and converted the resulting centimeters … Continue reading →
Watch this video on YouTube Embedded with WP YouTube Lyte. This is the last time that I’m aware of that I’ll get to really enjoy this song in it’s fullness. School ended on Friday and it’s finally time to put my summer plans in motion. I’ve already cleared my bathroom sink of the fiberglass insulation-like clog of hair and gunk. Now for the bigger projects. I’ve put off the finishing of my novel for summer … Continue reading →
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For the next week, I’ll be wandering around Ukraine with my sister. She booked a trip a couple of months back and this past Wednesday, she arrived in Kiev. We’ve spent the past couple days in Konotop. I showed her around the city and made sure she saw all the major monuments. We even tried our hands at shoe shopping and I was forced to remember the vocabulary from training that I was convinced I’d … Continue reading →
Yesterday was Victory Day here in Ukraine. For a while, I thought it meant it was the day WWII ended (or as they say here, the Great Patriotic War) but a student explained it as something slightly different recently and now I’m confused. The Great Patriotic War was explained as a portion of the war separate from the whole. I still celebrated, despite any misinformation. I’ve been looking forward to Victory Day for some time … Continue reading →
Yesterday was an interesting day, as far as my website went. I had two different “Oh, hey,” moments that I want to share. The first came from the contact page. I had the first person ever send something through it. Not only that, it was a business inquiry. I was asked to do a sponsored post and to possibly host a banner/link back to a site. As I mentioned in Stupid Ugly Flashy Things, I really have … Continue reading →
Kim and I dared to grill again today. She missed out on burgers last week so I promised her that we’d grill before she heads home. We barbecued up some chicken wings and legs, using up some grill rubs she had lying around. Not only was the food a complete success, we also walked away with a little extra. A man was tending to his garden near where we were grilling and he came over to us. … Continue reading →
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Today, I was working on a Peace Corps side project and I realized that I needed a way to batch resize photographs using the GIMP. I’ve used scripts in both Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro but unfortunately you can’t easily create them with the GIMP. So I set out looking for a way to do this. As usual, when I start looking for things like this, I got distracted. I cam across other scripts that … Continue reading →
Today has already been a great day. We started the day with an American football camp at Jeramie’s school. Pat, a volunteer in our neighboring oblast, has taught his kids flag football and now is partnered with a Ukrainian NGO to travel the region teaching kids to play. We were his third stop, and his biggest thus far. Jeramie wanted two camps, one for her school only, and one open to all the students of … Continue reading →
Earlier this week, I had a run-in with a cobbler. No, I did not have a delicious dessert fiasco, rather I and to get my shoes repaired. How many of you out there knew that the person who repairs shoes is called a cobbler? Most of us know that a tailor mends and alters clothes. What about the guy who fixes pots, pans and other metal utensils? Did you know he was called a tinker? I … Continue reading →
I think Bert Cooper said it best when he spoke to Don at the end of this week’s Mad Men. Bert: A client left here unhappy yesterday because you have a little girl running everything. Don: My department is fine. We just need more bodies but Lane won’t let us. Bert: You’ve been on love leave. It’s amazing things are going as well as they are with as little as you are doing. Don: It’s not your business. … Continue reading →
While I was vacationing in Spain, I realized that I was taking a lot of photos. It happens when I go new places. I have visual overdoses and I feel the need to capture it all. While I’m sure I could go on for ages about how digital photography has taken something away from the traditional photographic art, I won’t. Instead I want to talk about what Spain made me realize, in terms of photography. … Continue reading →
Due to an issue with timing, my regional manager was not able to pick up my glasses yesterday and deliver them to me tomorrow. Fortunately, I had a friend who was in Kiev today and her train home stopped in Konotop briefly. She was able to bring the glasses and hand them off to me from the train. So, out with the old: And in with the new: I swear, there is a difference.
One of the highlights for me when I was on vacation in Spain was when we stumbled upon a classic car show. I’m pretty sure the girls didn’t enjoy it, but I certainly did. I don’t know what it is about classic cars, but I love looking at them. I think there’s something about the curves of the body that appeal. The attention to (or lack of) detail the current owners have in keeping their … Continue reading →
This morning I chose to wake up at 3:00 to stand outside for a little over an hour so a priest could dump some water on me. Why? Because it’s Orthodox Easter today and we had to get our food blessed. So we went here: I did this last year and it makes me wonder why I did it this year. That’s early for me. But everyone else seemed to be doing it too, so … Continue reading →
I’ve decided there’s something wrong with American vision correction. I discovered this today while I had the easiest eye exam of my life and bought the cheapest glasses of my life, in Ukraine. While I was vacationing in Spain, I mysteriously broke my glasses while I was sleeping. I took them off when I returned from the bar, set them on top of my bag inside my locker the hostel provided, and went to sleep. … Continue reading →
I was gone for two weeks because it’s Spring Break. Get off my back already. I took a trip with a couple friends to Spain. Eight days split between Barcelona, Seville, and Granada. Eight days a week is expensive. But I enjoyed it, for the most part. Instead of rewriting what I already wrote in one of my super-secret-newsletters, I’m just going to post some of the better photos. Deal? Deal. I took about 600 … Continue reading →
I’ve been MIA for the past few weeks, but I’ll get to that later today or later this week. Right now, I want to tell you how much I hate sifting through government documents. Okay, hate might be too strong of a word but finding the exact information I need and then interpreting the wording is no walk in the park. I feel like it’s the kind of thing people go and study for years … Continue reading →
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There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
I forgot to take a picture, but today I was walking around with 9,300 UAH (~$1,162.50). I emptied out the ATM to get this much. I needed to give Yulia the money so she could pay for our first shipment of books while she’s in Kiev this week. I had ~15 200UAH bills, ~25 100UAH bills, 60 50UAH bills and then whatever is left made up of 20UAH bills. I wanted to throw it all … Continue reading →
Maybe I’m off my rocker, but students in Ukraine today tend to have a different mindset about school than I did when I was their age (cue fade into flashback). I had a thought-provoking chat with one of the teachers at school today after our class decided they could collectively show up ten minutes late to class. I was quite furious with this partly because I was sitting in the classroom waiting for them (they’re … Continue reading →
So I’m sure I’ve made it clear, but to reiterate, I’m a big Song of Ice and Fire series fan. So naturally, when I heard two girls in the 8th form saying things like “Winter is coming” and “Family, Duty, Honor”, I perked up. Turns out, the two girls are in the middle of reading the second book (A Clash of Kings). They started watching A Game of Thrones but didn’t like it, partly because it … Continue reading →
Here’s a great picture of me with some of the 11th Form girls in the foreign languages department. They’re wearing the traditional school uniform (though most are missing the very poofy white hair ties, even the ones in the photo aren’t poofy enough) because they were getting their picture taken for official class photos. I happened to be in the library while they were taking photos for fun and they asked to take a few … Continue reading →
I do this thing where I only update my profile pictures on social networking sites once a year, if at all. I find it helps people associate my face with, well, me. It also makes my life easier because I’m not constantly thinking that I have a better picture that I could post of myself. It also gives me an excuse to not take part in the “Change your profile to this for exactly 43 … Continue reading →
“Books help us understand the soul of a country.” -Anya, 9th Grade In other news, today I talked to a student from a group I worked with all last year and she asked me to come back and teach their class. She said they miss having me as a teacher.
I sat down in the teacher’s room today during my break to get some reading done, but I was interrupted almost immediately by my school’s director, Yulia. She beckoned for me to follow her to her office (which was weird because she has excellent English). She wanted to show me this: That’s right, the books we ordered for our grant came in today. Class sets of literature to use for home reading. Granted, there are … Continue reading →
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I had a conversation with one of my students this week about the meaning in literature. We were discussing how we hate reading texts like teachers want us to read texts because we prefer to see the story as the story was written, word for word. A tree is a tree, a clap of thunder tells us it’s raining and nothing more. This inspired me to write a second book for every book I write. … Continue reading →
I belated Happy International Women’s Day. Also, I have a problem. I’m starting to make my internet life too easy. I’ve reduced the majority of my internet activity to RSS feeds and I’ve imported all of them into Google Reader. While this certainly makes my life easier and saves me a boatload of time because I’m not needlessly checking a bunch of websites all day, it also has left me confused and worried. My … Continue reading →
This might be my favorite image I’ve seen representing Konotop (originally seen on a fridge magnet and I’ve recreated it from that). It’s of the Konotop Witch. I really want to get this in a patch form to sew on my messenger bag, but I’m having trouble finding a place to do this. Does anyone know of any decent, fairly priced online shops where I can have this done? I’d greatly appreciate it if you left … Continue reading →
I found another reason why the internet is good. Watch the following videos: First: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4 Then this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74HlsUaYOpw Finally this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cSuws9AUkQ Or you can keep going with this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_xX9CwPU8w And then this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZHy_bcT-Sc You could keep going on and on but then I think the Dark Side starts to take hold.
I was really excited the other day because I was downloading the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. If you’re unaware, I’m a nerd. I was excited until I started installing it. I’ve tried four times now and I can’t get it to work. When I was installing from inside Windows 7, it would hang at 72% completed. When I booted from the DVD and installed, it wouldn’t recognize my hard drive and I couldn’t even begin … Continue reading →
A conversation I had with myself today (in the form of the Internet), because it’s what we do: Me: Your thoughts betray you, Internet. I feel the good in you, the conflict. Internet: There is no conflict. Me: You couldn’t bring yourself to kill me before and I don’t believe you’ll destroy me now. Internet: You underestimate the power of the Internet. If you will not fight, then you will meet your destiny. This conversation … Continue reading →
Sometimes I wonder if George R.R. Martin is the only person who’s rooting against the Starks. Last night I finally finished A Dance with Dragons, the fifth and most current book in The Song of Ice and Fire series. For those of you unaware, these are massive books. Each one weighs in around 1,000 pages. But seriously, George, why are you always hating on the Starks? They seem to be the only family in your twisted, … Continue reading →
“I want to revise before I read. (hushed voice) Because I did not learn it.” -Vika (9th Grade)
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It’s Man Day again. Or as it’s more formally called, Protectors of the Fatherland Day. For those of you unaware, it’s a day to celebrate men in Ukraine. Don’t worry, there’s an International Women’s Day on March 8th. That’s international, so it’s more important. Anyway, today I received a card and a box of candies from the girls in one of my classes. One girl had a smile on her face as they wished me a … Continue reading →
I’m not sure if you’re aware, but my school is pretty much the best at English in the area. You want proof you say? Well, how about the fact that we’re sending two students to the national olympiad competition next month. On;y the first place students in each grade level at the oblast level move on to nationals. So yeah, we’re kind of a big deal. Anyway, it’s fallen into my hands to be the one who works … Continue reading →
Figured it out, it was an old bit of coding I did for the same/similar issue that I didn’t understand up until now. Time to celebrate.
I think I figured out why I’m not having the problems I expected when I made changes to my website.
I need a cash box, some glitter, and some glue.
First this: Yes, that is a woman outside with a carpet. She might be doing the newest fad in Ukraine, Outerior Decorating, or she might just be beating the dirt out of the carpet. Then this: Yes, this is a plate of piping hot, fresh bagels in my apartment in Ukraine. Yes I made them. No, you may not have any.
So I mentioned about a week ago that I had dance practice again. You know, learning to waltz, polonez, and the like. In an article I read recently (12 Reasons to Date a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer), they mentioned, “We’re pretty good dancers. Yeah, we don’t like to brag, but after 27 months in Latin America or Africa we know how to move it.” Which bothered those of us serving in Eastern Europe again. I … Continue reading →
I was going to write a post today about how Valentines comes around every year and I only really had someone to share it with once, and now that’s long over. I was going to get all deep and philosophical. But in light of certain events, I’m not going to. Instead I want to talk about Venus. I bet I’m one of a small few people, if not the only one, who actually know Venus by … Continue reading →
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