Monthly Archives: November 2007

Ah, the End of November!

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Tomorrow, I should be going home. That’s my Ukrainian home, not the one on the other side of the ocean. The last few weeks have been pretty eventful.

What seems like forever ago, my cluster loaded up into a rented marshootka and rode to Kiev to find out where our permanent sites would be. We are a Russian cluster, so we imagined our sites would be either to the East or South as that’s where the Russian speakers are. We weren’t disappointed. My site is in southern Crimea. It’s a beautiful place, the people are awesome and maybe, just maybe I can have minimal winter there. That might be too fanciful a dream, though, as my host sister there told me of a winter not too long ago where temperatures got as low as -28C. You might think as I did that it doens’t sound so bad, knowing that Celsius is different than Fahrenheit. Unfortunately, when you do the conversion, that’s still around -16. Ouch. That’s ok, though. The warmth of the Crimean school children will keep me warm, right?

After site visit, we all returned to Kiev for mini siminars on various teaching topics. I think the best and most useful one was on project-based teaching. For a “talking lecture,” I was riveted through the whole thing and hope to master this skill down south.

On Wed., November 21, we headed back to our site where my mom had a birthday party for me. All laid out were my favorite Ukrainian dishes (bez luka). My clustermates were all there. It was my first birthday party, and it made me see why people like them so much.

Unfortunately the next morning I woke up with a great deal of pain, got checked out by a couple of local doctors and the next day, still having serious problems, I was on my way back to Kiev. That’s where I have been the last week. The good news is the doctors think I am well enough to head home tomorrow. It’s hard to explain how excited I am to get back to my cluster, my family and instruction on how to live in Ukraine. I mean, I know how much I need this training, and once I started feeling better, I knew that I would get behind if I didn’t do something. The training unit was able to provide me someone to help me for the last few days, which is great, but learning on your own isn’t the same as learning in a group or practicing with a group. There are only a couple weeks more for me to soak up everything I can before I am out there on my own.

I’ll definitely be glad to get back to that, my host mom and everything else my training site has to offer.


It Was a Tiring Week

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Last week started with two huge things, the Mock Language Proficiency Interview and the Site Placement Interview.

I have all this Russian floating around in my head, but it’s hard to sort it. That’s what makes the LPI so tough. It’s one of those points where they want to see where you are at, whether you want them to know or not. Looking back, every language I have learned, I didn’t speak until I was ready. My parents wondered if I had learning disabilities I was such a quiet child. I don’t think I ever got to the point where I felt free to speak Spanish. Now I am rocketing through Russian hoping I can do what they need me to be able to do. It’s pretty scary for me.

The SPI went well, I think, not because I was promised all my wildest fantasies, but because I have a realistic vision of what my assignment will be. I don’t expect to live in a high rise penthouse. I don’t expect the students to know much English at all (although having them be excited and willing to work with me would be great). I mentioned one thing and hopefully mentioning it doesn’t hurt my placement. Mostly, though, I just told them I was willing to go where ever they wanted me to be.

The final big deal of the week saddened me greatly. My host dad died. He had been ill since the summer, so I don’t think it was a shock to anyone. Having been through loss that devastated me last year, I know a sample of what she is going through. I am doing my best to be here for her, both as someone who needs taking care of and someone to lean on. She’s a very special person. Hopefully I can help her with this before I leave for my permanent site.

Hopefully I don’t jinx them, but it makes me happy to see the Packers doing so well this year. With Favre firing on all cylinders, they are showing people they can play solid football. Yay!

I started watching “The Universe” last night. I bought it off iTunes before I left after getting to sample the series while Tim Rock did the audio mixes for it. I recommend it. It’s informative and put together in such a way that you enjoy learning. Plus, who doesn’t want to listen to the product of Rocko spending 10 hours a day in his cave?