Traveler, Writer, Aquarius, Peace Corps Volunteer
The evidence
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Back at the 'ol Internet joint, or Computer Club as it's called here. It's basically a room of twelve workstations filled with kids playing First Strike or some game everyone in the town is into. As I've said, I'm pretty lucky to have two Internet places here. Most of the other groups not only lack Internet, but hot water. Some don't even have running water -- they have to go to a well. We're definitely the envy of the other groups in our "sub hub."
So what's been up since last I've written? It's been almost a week! Well, here's the lowdown:
Friday: went out to a bar with the neighbors Andrei and Anastasya (Nastya). They are really young and don't party at all. My host mom basically paid them to take me out. It was actually great to get out of the house and check out the local nightlife. Had a few beers, played some pool, and made it home without getting jumped. All in all, a successful evening.
Saturday: ate borsh for the first time and watched Police Adademy in Ukrainian with Claudia. Now, about borsh. I had always thought borsh was the purple liquid crap that my dad ate cold as a soup. Dude -- I had no idea what borsh really was. Yes, it's beet-based, but it's a veritable cornucopia of delights cooked up in a sumptuous stew of vegetables and meat, served hot with a healthy dollop of sour cream (or smetana, as we say here). It is so good! I actually eat it quite often now, as there are lots of leftovers. As for Police Academy... watching a guy fly into a horses ass translates into funny in any language. Claudia was laughing the whole time. Guess she digs slapstick...
Sunday: big party at my house for all the other volunteers in my cluster and their families. You should have seen the table: all types of fruits, cakes, and cookies (frukti, torti, y pechenyi), along with fresh compote (tastes like black cherry vishnik without the gas -- it's a melange of juices and just awesome), tea, and other tasty stuff. It was slow-going at first, but then we started trading American and Ukrainian songs. It was absurd. All the Ukrainian women were singing these beautiful songs of national pride and had the most amazing voices; the four of us sang Old McDonald and Yankee Doodle Dandy. We actually started singing Motown songs and Beatles tunes. We got our asses kicked. BUT THEN, after everyone went home at 8:00, Claudia took me down to the neighbor's house (Andrei, Nastia, and their mom Nina) for a late dinner. She had a whole spread of fried fish, raw bacon, kolbasa, vegetables... A few shots of vodka and some raw bacon later (I didn't ask, I just ate it), they turned off the lights and started dancing in the living room to Bon Jovi and J. Lo. Well shit, when in Rome (or Ukrainka, as the case may be). It was a little bizarre, but fun in a weird way.
Monday: our "sub-hub" with the other groups in the area. A day of orientation and teacher training, going over various teaching methods such as the direct, communicative, and audiolingual approaches to teaching English as a foreign language. The only real eventful thing was having to deal with the sqat toilet there. See, they don't really flush things everywhere here, and certainly don't flush the paper. Little fical floaters are everywhere -- no Mr. Henky yet, but I'm sure it's a matter of time before I hear a "hiiiiiidddddyyyyy ho!" Anyway, the toilet's just a round bowl on the ground with a little opening where the water is. I had a major decision to make: to shit or not to shit? Since I was wearing off-white pants and had no desire to make them any more "off" than they already were, I closed my eyes and dropped my drawers. The combo of sausage, banana, and tea I had for breakfast would not be stopped. Could not be stopped. Thankfully, I managed not to get any on my pants. I also managed not to get any in the little water bullseye. So there it was, just sitting there in the bowl. I had to flush three or four times to get it down. Oh, and then there was the matter of the toilet paper -- there wasn't really any. I don't understand how a country that's so fastidious about cleanliness in the home don't make wiping their asses a priority. Anyway, with some creative recycling of the immediate resources I had available, I managed to complete the task.
Tuesday: again, not much to say, except I joined the local gym for 20 grivna a month (about four bucks). It's a hard-core "Rocky-style" grunt gym with really old equipment, but it'll suffice. Also, everything is in kilos, so I have no idea what I'm working out with. But at least I'm staying in shape. And the girls do aerobics in the same room at the same time, so it's not all bad.
Wednesday: taught a class of fifteen-year-old's who would rather have done anything else except deal with English. Also observed a class of ten-year-olds which was a lot more fun. There was this group of three girls that stared at me the whole time. It's kind of funny. Inbetween classes my American compatriot Cassio and I were surrounded by about sixty young kids who wanted to know if we had helicopters and all sorts of other funny stuff. The little ones are great, but I think I'd still like to teach high school. We'll see...
Today: back to "sub hub" for a health seminar and to get our second round of shots. I think today was polio and tetanus. No biggie.
The Russian work has definitely become a lot harder. It's like running the first leg of a race really well, and then hitting the hill and feeling max'd out. We're getting so much crap thrown at us daily, and between the vocab and the grammar it's frustrating and mindnumbing and sometimes really aggrevating. But I'm doing my best to keep everything in perspective and stay positive. I'm still really excited about everything I'm learning. I just have to plod through the learning curve as much as possible. And I know at some point it'll click and become easier. It's just this week has been pretty hard.
That's about it. Have two classes tomorrow that I have to prep for, and lots of homework to do too. I'm starting to have twelve-hour days: 2 - 3 of teaching, 4 of class, 2 with Claudia over dinner, and 3 of study before bed. It's non-stop. But it's the prep work I have to do to be ready for when I'm on my own. For those of you who asked about where I was keeping the "r-rated" posts, I seriously am doing nothing but studying. I wouldn't hold out on y'all. And when there is finally fun to be had, it'll be worth the read ;-)
(oh, and I have a bunch of pictures to post, but the towers here have the cd-drives blocked off, so I have to figure out a way to communicate to the managers that I want to access them. as soon as I can get them uploaded, I'll send out a notice...)
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