This recap is also a copy of the family and friend newsletter.
The month of September was one of the busiest months I’ve had in a long time. In the summer I traveled a lot and was constantly on the go, but the relaxed notion of “It’s summer!!! Woohoo!” was the main idea. Despite the day-long train rides and the weeks on end wearing the same clothes, I felt accomplished and like I was able to balance my work of camps. Then September first came and punched me in the head with trips to Kiev, the GRE, a 10k race, and general new school year chaos.
In Ukraine, the first of September is a holiday known as “First Bell.” Everyone dresses up in black and white; the boys are in suits, and the girls have giant white fluffy bows in their hair. They line up around the schoolyard according to grade. Lots of students perform, and many recite poems about the new school year beginning and the arrival of autumn. It takes about an hour for all of the festivities. The focus that day is on the first graders – it is their very first day of school. They are marched in and walked around the school yard while their parents clamber over everyone to take photos. (I don’t blame the parents for acting ridiculous – the kids are ADORABLE. Ukrainian little ones are smaller than American children. So imagine a ton of 6 year olds that look a lot younger wearing tiny suits and wearing bows that are bigger than their tiny adorable faces. I would also climb over people to take pictures if I wasn’t already granted a prime photo spot because I’m a teacher.) At most schools then, there is a tradition of the 11th graders (essentially high school seniors, as they graduate after 11th form) giving something to the new 1st grade pupils. At my school they were given gold sashes, while another girl I know said that at her school they give the new students backpacks. Too cute. The ceremony comes to an end when two first graders are lifted onto the shoulders of two 11th form boys and given large bells to ring. They are walked around the schoolyard as they ring the ‘first bell’ to start the school year. It’s a really neat event to watch. It makes you realize how lucky we are to go to school, and it made me jealous that I never got to wear a bow like theirs in my hair.
In typical Ukrainian fashion, the first few weeks were pretty chaotic. All scheduling is done by hand, by one poor woman who daily had people screaming and crying around her. I decided to stay out of the mess and hung out in the teachers’ room for a week, making appearances in the hallway and eating the cheap food for lunch, but using the time to study for the GRE. I tried many times to figure out where I should go to teach an English lesson but often the schedule had incorrectly labelled the period, class or room number, or was simple gone from its spot on the wall. I felt kind of guilty for using teaching time to study, but the GRE was something that I was really nervous for. More on that later.
By the second full week of school, I had a schedule and began teaching. This year I will teach two groups of 5th grade, 6th, and 10th grades. I haven’t had many lessons with the 10th graders at all, and I’m the most nervous to work with them. Being so close in age, I don’t command the same respect the way my colleagues do, and that’s difficult. However, I did have one girl ask me if I watched “How I Met Your Mother”, and since I do, and I love it, I have a feeling that we’re going to get along at least a little bit. One group of 5th graders is brand new, and the other I worked with last year. Finally, the 6th graders are the same kids I’ve worked with since I got here. I adore them. We work very well together and I think this year will be good for them. Overall with my students, I am happy. I would have preferred to continue working with this year’s 8th graders, but it just didn’t work out.
On September 18, I was in Kiev and ran my first ever 10k (6.2 miles) race! I conquered several goals that day – I ran farther than I ever had before and I ran the race in about 68 minutes! I’m not exactly fast, but I was proud that I averaged under 11 minute miles. I feel comfortable now calling myself a runner. I hope that I can continue this throughout the winter – my body feels great. The day after the race I had my medical check-up and was deemed healthy enough to stay in Ukraine. Thank goodness! I am officially staying in Ukraine until June 26, 2012.
What comes next, you might ask. That is a very good question and in an attempt to find an answer to it, I took the GRE that week as well. It was a difficult test, especially the math portion. I haven’t studied math since I was 17. Even the verbal/English part was difficult. Sure, in university I wrote lots of papers and things all the time – but for the most part I have spent the last 6 years trying to learn Russian, not trying to be really awesome at my own native language. So that was rough. I have no clue what my scores are because I decided to take the brand new test, for which they have no method of grading and calculating percentiles until November. I shall wait in anticipation as I look up different graduate schools. There are a lot of different programs that I’m interested in – teaching, Russian, teaching Russian, linguistics, multicultural education – and I’m not quite sure what I want. After Peace Corps I will also have to the opportunity to apply to government jobs with a non-competitive eligibility status (meaning I can apply to jobs not open to the general public, or before opened to the public) so I may go that route and hold off on graduate school for a while, or forever.
After prancing around Kiev for those various obligations, I came back to Donetsk and had a few more lessons, only to leave again and go pick up my mom from the airport! She arrived on September 29, and stayed until October 6th. We toured around Kiev for a day and a half, then flew to Donetsk. We had almost 3 full days in Donetsk, and then went back to the capital for a last full day before she left. I dragged that poor woman all over this dang country, feeding her instant coffee to help with the jet lag.
In Kiev we went to a lot of the touristy sites – saw a bunch of tanks and the giant Motherland statue, visited the Lavra (a giant monastery from the 11th century), and went to a museum about the Famines in Ukraine while under Stalin. We had dinner there at two Ukrainian restaurants – one kind of crappy student cafeteria, and one excellent traditional place. I’m so glad for that one – Momma got to try tasty borsch and vareniki!
In Donetsk we relaxed a bit, Mom took me grocery shopping (chicken breasts! whitening toothpaste! a towel!) and we got Mexican food for dinner. (I realize how ridiculous that sounds, but it’s actually pretty good and can hold me over for months at a time when I get to craving Mexican food). On Sunday we went to the giant market and bought veggies and apples and salo, and lined winter tights for later that day. We wandered through the center boulevard of Donetsk and bought souvenirs from the artists. Mom got a nice wooden carved box and a painting. That night we went to a Shakhtar football game in Donbas arena – we froze, but it was really cool to watch!
On Monday mom came to lessons with me. With the 5th forms, they introduced themselves and my mom introduced herself, and they got to ask some questions and we all played Simon Says together. I made sure to have one normal sized (small) group, so Mom could actually see me teach and pretend to be an adult. Most of them knew of mom’s singing talents and made sure to request that she sing to them (I encouraged this, and they loved it. She sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”) My favorite part of the day was her meeting the 6th graders, the ones I’ve been with here the longest. They asked really great questions – “What is your favorite monument in America?” “Why do you like to sing?” Mom sang for them too, and one boy asked “Miss Michelle, you have a magical voice. Why are you not on X-factor?” After the bell rang, they crowded around her and gave her candies and cookies and when she told them that this was the only time she would visit, they hugged her.
That evening we had a dinner of desserts (we had a miscommunication about that) with my friend Lena and her husband Slavik. It was nice for my mom to get to spend time with Lena, since she is such a great help to me here, not to mention of my closest Ukrainian friends. Before leaving Donetsk, we visited the town’s most beautiful parks – one full of roses with a lovely boardwalk, and the other being home to dozens of different iron sculptures.
The next day in Kiev we went up and down St. Andrew’s Descent and bought tons of souvenirs, had more borsch at a cute cafe (there were KITTENS at this cafe! they were playing everywhere!), and saw a few more important churches. At my request, we had dinner at Domino’s pizza. It sounds silly to eat American food in another country, but really – Ukrainian pizza just doesn’t involve enough ingredients. Not enough dough, not enough cheese, and NEVER enough pineapple. After dinner we strolled through the center and took pictures and prepared ourselves for the painful task of saying goodbye.
After mom left and I regained my ability to stop crying and hiccuping, I came back to Donetsk. I jumped right back into action with a volunteer mass birthday party on Friday, and lots of shopping on Saturday. Sunday was the first day to myself in a long time and it kind of sunk in – my mom left, and I’m’ going to be here while longer. I do love it here, but sometimes it is lonely, and sometimes I have to take the time out to wallow in that.
Unfortunately, my computer decided to go all crazy on me and I don’t have any access to the pictures of most of September’s events. What I do have can be found here. Hopefully I’ll get my recovery disks soon and be able to get those on here for everyone!
