Embrace the Journey

St. Anthony's Church with caves underground! I think this week, for the first time, it really felt like I was in Ukraine. I was walking alone to catch the bus after a day of site seeing with Peace Corps and I looked around at all the street signs and realized a could read some and that I could decide how to get where I wanted to go and what I was going to do. There have been days where we have free time and I have gone into the city but this was different because I had no purpose, I could walk fast or slow, wander the tunnels under the streets, or stop and it. All I did was stop in a store and buy a kilo of chocolate and it was the right decision because the chocolate I like was on sale! It got better because right when I walked out my bus pulled up AND one of the English teachers from the school we work at was on the bus with her husband! We talked most of the way back except the times we were interrupted by a man who wanted to try to speak some English, Russian, and Ukrainian...

Birthday Dinner "Cucumber Pizza" This week was Mama Tanya's Birthday (she stays with Sasha and I on days when Marina works 8-8 or Lyosha works in Kiev). We went to Mama Tanya's house where she lives with her parents because her mothers health is declining. Their house is in Chernihiv near St. Trinity Monastery and I was "warned" before we arrived that the house wasn't pretty because they built it in sections and had recently added a "hot wall" (a hollow brick wall where a fire burns), I thought the house was great and pretty large. The table was full of food when we arrived and I was immediately told to sit down. Mama Ana, Mama Tanya's mom, is very hard of hearing because of her health issues but spoke to me all night. The real issue though was that everyone was speaking Russian and I have been learning Ukrainian and my skills are still rather poor. I smiled and nodded most of the night except the times when Marina wanted to transl...

Our first dialogue finally completed! The end of week 2 and I still don't think I've fully processed the fact that I'm in Ukraine and will be for the next two years. The language learning is hard for sure, the goal is the get at least 3 hours in a day but we have started teaching in classrooms and PC has health, safety, and cultural training for us as well. Immersion is the best way so hopefully that can make up for some of the time we are missing in the classroom. I am excited to start team teaching this week because we were able to actual participate in a class this week and the students seemed very excited and receptive to what we had to say which has helped to remind me why I need to get through training. As we are preparing to teach we are trying to get materials ready to make the topic more interesting and not relying as much on the book. The first topic is "Items in the Kitchen" which might not sound boring until you find out the items are not things yo...