Bomb your hood?

Fav Ukrainian graffiti

I'm sitting in the 2B form, while the 6 & 7 year olds write down transcripts for everyday life vocabulary, like "to clean teeth" aka to brush one's teeth. This is always an internal struggle for me: do I point out the mistakes in the book and try to correct them, do I force every one to only speak American English to me (none of this 'I have got a pencil' shit, it's "I have a pencil"!!), or do I let go and just be thankful they're learning English words, no matter if they're not used exactly right. For now, I'm lying low. We were told to adjust for a full 6 months before we try and revolutionize anything. Anyway, my favorite raspy voiced student, Serioja, is squirming in his suit. Nearly everyday he wears that suit and it's as natural on him as it was on Al Capone. I can perfectly picture him 40 years down the road,telling dirty jokes while downing shots of vodka with his droogs. Usually, he finds much more interest in throwing his pens onto the floor and hiding under his desk than focusing on English, but today he's surprisingly attentive. He's been put in the 'lost cause' category, as something to be survived rather than developed. As an American, it seems to go against everything I'm used to. We're all about the lost causes, about involving everyone and discovering everyone's "hidden potential". So I love trying to engage him before/during class. The only direct response I've ever gotten from him is "Я не знаю английский язык!" aka "I don't know English!".  Up, I spoke too soon, he's chewing on pens. I'm always heartbroken when he's not in class.

scorched-pig policy. beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Stunning picture Kristen (my PC neighb) took of a burst water tank in our village

When I was 4 years old, I remember sitting up in my brothers' room during nap time and I took down from the shelf our picture bible. A picture bible is basically the kid friendly stories from the bible in comic book form. Anyway, the book was still about as big as a regular bible and got used just as much in our household…So during this nap time, I decided I was going to accomplish a great feat: read the entire bible in one sitting. I figured it had never been done. Page after page I turned, fastidiously, glancing at maybe one Jesus figure or identifying a fish, until I had made it. All the way to the end! No snack breaks! For a good year or so I completely believed that I had read the bible. I spent that year pretty damn proud of myself, and then I learned how to actually read. I realized my folly but I haven't forgotten that feeling of accomplishment. Right now I'm "reading" Anna Karenina in Russian. This means that I read a paragraph or two at a time, identifying a few words I recognize, and then looking up a word or two.  I'm on page 3. I have that exact same sense of accomplishment about every paragraph achievement. I know in a year or 2, when I can actually fluently-ish read Russian, I'll look back and shake my head and say, oh wasn't that cute, she thought she was parsing a Russian novel. But for now, I'm still beaming and wanting to shout at everyone "LOOK WHAT I CAN DO!" while awkwardly jumping in a half circle.

First borsht-making experience

So, BTW, what do I do? Right now, I teach, occasionally, I observe, I lesson plan. Our school has 3.5 English teachers (I'm the .5). I usually have 4-5 classes per day and I have two English clubs per week on top of that. Soon I'll be adding more development-ish projects to the mix. The English clubs are where I get full control over the content and methodology, which is a nice breath of fresh air for me. Our school has never had an English club before but I think I'm slowly building capacity for one. On Tuesday I had a record breaking 9 students show up. Usually I have a whole presentation/activities prepared on a specific topic (NYE, birthday parties, etc.) but on Tues we let our hair down and played kings (minus the beer in the middle). Kings actually makes for a great language learning tool. Nine nine bust a rhyme? Finish the sentence? Categories? Thumb Master? We were killing it. I love to see my old life and new life come together in such a productive way.

how many blurry homeless cats can you see?

Um, here's some pictures from the Swearing In Ceremony that was held in...December. This does not reflect the event's significance on my life. It only reflects my shirking from regular communication.

The U.S. Embassy compound in Kiev.

magical snow forest

Our cluster + the best TCF in the world. And pant suit power

My beautiful counterpart, Tatyana!

I had to drag Tatyana to stand up with me. There might have been a scuffle.

Promising to defend the constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic (looking at you, lucine)

Mr.  Big Wigs.

Dougie Fresh (PC Ukraine director) giving his speech

U.S. Ambassador

The Mayfields!

Cody giving his русский speech

My Carlotchka, who recently told me there's a good chance she's developed diabetes due to her ravenous cookie intake. You and me both, Carlotchka

Ah...awkward moments with 1/3 of Peter, Paul and Mary. Perfect way to wrap up the ceremony.

Booky update: finished Sense and Sensibility and fell madly in love with Miss Austen. MADLY! 3.75 stars. But I needed a break from all of the 'will he or won't he' drama so I turned to Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq for my next romp. I'm about 40% through and sometimes I need a punching bag with Wolfowitz's face on it. Seeing as how I just added over 130 books to my kindle, courtesy of Kristen's hard drive, I'm a little (lottle) in book-nerd organizing heaven right now. I'm shocked I'm able to get any lesson planning done.

Next post I promise to include pictures of my new home. And I promise to post again before I move out of this home.