ETA Training/Orientation in Kyiv

I have returned at last!

Not much was happening for a few weeks-- or well, things were, but there was not much interesting to report. The weekend after I lost my camera I traveled to Kyiv to attend the regional Fulbright ETA orientation. This was three days of meeting with other ETAs who were sent to Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, etc.

While I had no camera, with the aid of Facebook I was able to gather some pictures that my fellow ETAs took from the trip.

St. Andrews' Church, at the top of the hill

Vanessa and I walking down St. Andrews' Descent. During the day this street is filled with vendors selling all kinds of crafts and souvenirs... but it was pretty awesome to be there at night when it was completely empty. I think this is my favorite part of Kyiv.

Words to live by. (Shashlyk, for the record, is grilled meat and/or veggie kebabs and is super tasty)

By the time I returned to Vinnytsia I was exhausted after my 2+ weeks of solid travel and very little sleep, so I didn't do much except rest for a week or so. Over the weekend, I went shopping with Karis, one of the Peace Corps volunteers, and we bought a new camera. She took me to the "Mega-Mall" on 600 Years Street.

"Vulnitsa Sheist-sot richya"

We also visited the Silpo in that mall, which we discovered to have a better selection and better prices. I've started going there when I can spare the time to take the longer tram ride.

On Thursday, I took a trip back to that mall and bought a wireless internet router for my apartment. This was really becoming necessary because my internet cable is broken and was continually falling out of my computer whenever I moved. It was a fulfilling venture, because the clerk at the store was perfectly nice to me, and he spoke Ukrainian and I spoke Russian and we understood one another perfectly, and he showed me the correct router for the internet service I have and the size of my apartment. Then I went home and set it up, which ended up being a somewhat complicated process since I have a service you have to sign into... and although all the menus and settings were in Ukrainian, I successfully set it up. I was really proud of myself after that!

Then, the Thanksgiving festivities began. I attended the local English Club's Thanksgiving meeting. It was a lot of fun, and it was nice to actually eat turkey on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving at the English Club! As you can see, there was turkey, potatoes, cranberries (made by yours truly), and lots and lots of sweets!

You can view more pictures of the English Club's Thanksgiving party here, too. My favorite is the one of Mila posing with my cranberry sauce. Hahahaha...

I had attended the English Club once before but it was like no one had noticed me until this meeting. Several of the members introduced themselves to me, and were really nice people. I will have to go back this week.

On Saturday, Anna, one of the Peace Corps volunteers, was hosting a bigger Thanksgiving party at her home in Vinnytsia Khurota-- one of the villages surrounding Vinnytsia. Unfortunately I had to be late, since I was teaching the class that I teach on Saturdays. This group of students are in the 11th grade at a local high school, and the university offers them these classes to help them prepare for their college entrance exams in the hopes that when they need to choose a college, they will choose this one.

These students are really motivated and enthusiastic and they really work hard-- and apparently they love me too. Before class Oleg was telling me that one of the other teachers had overheard some of my students on a bus in the city talking about how I was the best English teacher around. :o) This week they asked for a picture with me, so here it is:

These students are fabulous!

After the class, I caught bus 176 to Vinnytsia Khurota to attend the party at Anna's. It was interesting because I only knew three or four people there and everyone else was a complete stranger. They were all really nice to me, but as the only non-Peace Corps person in attendance, I felt like a special guest to a group which already existed. Still, I had a really great time and made some new friends in the area.

The food was fabulous. There was a huge spread of American favorites, including macaroni and cheese, stuffing, pumpkin pie, etc. Notably missing, though, was the turkey. Plans for obtaining one had fallen through last-minute, so we ate pork and duck instead.

I should probably also mention that it was an "ugly sweater" party. We don't all have this questionable of a fashion sense on normal days. :P

After dinner we retired to the sauna (a surprisingly nice building with a pool and everything) to drink and play games and chat. After playing a game of Cards Against Humanity (a version of Apples to Apples that is utterly politically incorrect and offensive, and therefore often very hilarious), we settled into conversations.

Around 1:30 we (me and two girls who were planning to crash at my apartment) attempted to call a taxi back to my place... but there were a series of communication mishaps (first we didn't know the correct area code for the taxi service, then we got a number for one which didn't serve the area, except the person who made the call didn't understand that so we waited outside for 40 minutes, then tried to walk to a nearby hotel/bar to get a number and the people there either gave us a wrong number or the taxi service they referred us to didn't operate during those hours... it was a mess). Long story short, we ended up staying the night at Anna's (not that I really slept) and I didn't get back until late yesterday morning.

Now I'm very tired, but I got up to teach a class this morning (well, not really teach. It was a class I had never worked with before, so we just chatted and got to know one another). Then I took a trip out to the fancy Silpo and got ingredients for vegetable soup, which I made for dinner. Tomorrow I have a Russian lesson (only my third one since all this madness started-- I was gone, or my teacher was busy,  pretty much every day since) and I teach an evening class of high schoolers that I've never worked with before from 5-8 pm. It's going to be a long haul but I think it will be fun.

I also made plans for Christmas-- from December 22-28 I will be going to Istanbul with some of the other Fulbrighters, and when I return from that I will go to L'viv for a two-week intensive course in the Ukrainian language and to celebrate Orthodox Christmas at the home of one of my friends. :o) I'm really excited! Better things to come!