ETC...

Hap-hap-happenings abound here in Ukraine for this wannabe Cossack. 

At the 11th-Formers Last Bell with Volodymyr Mykolyovitch, my Counterpart
May 11, 2012

Favorite Pizzas. Favorite Numbers. Favorite Friends. Beer.

Summer Summed Up.

Summer is flying by and I can only try to hold on. I've been enjoying the perks of no school and living close to a river, but last week I was invited by a dear friend to teach at a English Teachers Camp that she put together. 

First, I need to tell you a little bit about the rockstar, super-Volunteer, all-around amazing person that is Melissa Krut. She has, from the first day I met her, been on top of her game and then some. She's the Volunteer that we all wish we could be; she makes you wonder how she has 40 hours in her day. Melissa is a kindhearted person, an inspiring mentor, and an even better friend.

So when Melissa asks you to teach with her at a Camp she's doing, you are not only flattered and intimidated, but you say yes.

Fast Forward to ETC (English Teachers Camp)! It was held in Lutsk, the biggest city closest to Kolky and the site of Melissa. Perk of living in the city for a week: hotels with continental breakfast! That was awesome. 

From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, I taught Ukrainian Teachers of English with some other amazing Volunteers from my Oblast (read: state). It was strange, really, teaching teachers. The entire week, I couldn't help but think of the knowledge I was gaining from listening to the conversations in the Methodology Lesson I was leading or the strategies about classroom management and big class sizes. Who was I, some mid-20's, recent college grad yapping about random topics.

But that wasn't it at all. Melissa gave us the freedom to teach what we were passionate about or information we were interested in sharing. I'm sure I could have crammed information about the present perfect tense and told it to those teachers, but they know English grammar 100-times better than I do! Instead, on top of the Methodology Lessons about Student Engagement that Melissa wrote, I taught about my passions and interests. The Communication Major in me chose to teach: Constructive Criticism and The Communicative Method, twice. The Peace Corps Volunteer in me chose to teach lessons from "TOBE: Teaching Our Boys Excellence" twice, "GLOW: Girls Leading Our World" and "Operation Respect", and the American in me chose to teach: Holidays in the States, and Slanglish, twice. All of them were really well received, and it felt good to hear such positive feedback about my lessons. 

Unfortunately, I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked, but I'll be sure to share some of Melissa's and any that pop-up from the other teachers!

Atlee cutting. Sign-Up Sheets hanging.

GOOD MORNING, ETC CAMPERS!

Melissa is feeling faint?

Nothing like Camp Songs!

The after-party!
(Andrew loves party hats)

Gifts, love, hats, champagne, flattery...
It was all too much to handle!

Now, it's time for a camp of my own - Camp ACT!!! The wait is almost over, and I couldn't be more excited! A HUGE THANK YOU to Kyle, Casey, Wes, Burris, and my Mom and Dad for donating to support Camp ACT. You'll get something special in the mail, hold tight!

I'll arrive to Shatsk for preparations with Staff on Friday, continue on Saturday, and Sunday Campers come! The entire staff has worked tirelessly to put this camp together and it's going to be pretty incredible to see our hard work pay off! The next post from me will contain wayyy too many camp photos and exclamation marks about an amazing week...just you wait.

And finally, a shout out. One of my best friends from college is getting married this week. Ms. Bailey Gable will become Mrs. Bailey May come Saturday and marry the love of her life, Sean. Bailey and I had the chance to Skype last week while I was in Lutsk to catch up a little. Everything is ready for the big day and her excitement is radiating. Bailey and Sean - best of luck and enjoy the day! I wish I could be there to celebrate in person, but I'll be thinking of you both on Saturday. Prayers for the two of you!

At the Avocado Festival with our Avocado Ice Cream
Senior Year at CLU

On my 'Friends and Family' Wall

A Good Start to Summer

Happy Friday to you all! 

I just walked to the store close to my house for an after dinner ice cream bar. Another WIN of Summer - Ice Cream. Not that I can't eat delicious 'morozovo' year-round, I'd just rather not get yelled at in December. 

This week has been busy with school Camp. I don't do a whole lot -- a lot of hanging out, entertaining students for 45 minutes at a time when someone decides to send them to me. Mostly I've been reading (I'm rereading Omnivore's Dilemma right now and really enjoying it through the eyes of someone living in rural Ukraine) and working on different projects. The plates, even in the Summer, continue to spin so I'm going a little crazy trying to keep them from falling. 

Wednesday-Sunday of last week I was in Kyiv. A year ago, Kyiv was still a crazy European metropolis that had the potential of swallowing me whole. I never understood why Volunteers who had been here longer really didn't love Kyiv but now I kind of see where there coming from. The city is just that - a city. I always enjoyed it because it meant getting out of the village and exploring. Now it just seems expensive and a little bit of a hassle, but I try to enjoy my time there as much as I can. 

When I was there, last minute EURO preparations were taking place (literally - there's a countdown in the center and the minutes were ticking...games start today!) The main street and center is block off from cars, lots of vendor tents are going up, and a huge screen in the middle of Independence Square will show the games live for the 'Kyiv Fan Zone'. I'm sure you've heard a little bit of the happenings -- Poland and Ukraine are co-hosting Europe's biggest football (soccer) competition - EURO 2012. They are pulling it off by the skin of their teeth but not in the grandeur and glitz I'm sure some were hoping for. The people of Ukraine (not their government) have really stepped up to the plate and I think will make this a really hospitable and exciting place for foreigners to visit.

I attended Swearing-In on Wednesday at the new Embassy. It was absolutely beautiful, but of course no photos. Thursday, I had a Volunteer Advisory Council meeting which was extremely efficient and productive. Friday I had my glasses replaced and Saturday/Sunday I spent with friends. A Volunteer found a cafe called "New York Bagels" so I went twice while I was there to indulge in some delicious bagels and cream cheese.

This weekend, I'm headed to the site of the camp I'm co-directing with some other staff members. We're meeting with the administration of the forestry college where camp will take place, checking out the accommodations, and we'll sign some contracts. The town of Shatsk is a 'resort' destination for Ukrainians because of it's beautiful lakes - especially Svityez the biggest and most beautiful of the lakes. Not a bad place to have a camp if you ask me! 

Hopefully the weather cooperates this weekend; Summer has started off quite rainy and cold for us here in Volynska Oblast. Today was much warmer -- warm enough for reading in the hammock! If Summer continues to be full of Ice Cream, lakes, and hammocking, then I'll be doing just fine!

End of the Year Happenings

Just to keep you on your toes, I'll quickly show these Easter photos about two months late.  My friend Inna gave me these photos (I was too shy to take photos at church) but here, everybody is circled around the church while the Priest comes and blesses us, our baskets, and the contents of it. If you have forgotten, here's my post from last year about Easter in Ukraine.

Easter Service - 12:30 - 6 a.m.
Around 4:30 waiting for our baskets to get blessed!

Thanks to Inna for the photos!

Well, I'm finished with the 2011-2012 Semester! No more school for a while...kind of. Actually, every school in Ukraine is required to do 14 days of "Summer Camp" after Last Bell, so for the next 3 weeks the Lyceum will have "lessons". These lessons aren't mandatory, but all the students seem to enjoy them so they come and hang out. (Personally, I don't think their parents are ready for them to be at home all, so they tell them to go! I know Kathy and Dirk would have taken up that offer!) The students participate in games and challenges, with a little bit of learning and actual school stuff mixed in. I plan scavenger hunts, play lots of English games, and throw the Frisbee and Football around. It's actually pretty fun and breakfast and lunch is free, so I'm not one to complain.

Here are some of the events that led up to Last Bell --

Kolky Lyceum hosted our Oblast-wide (read: State) English Meeting. This was a pretty big deal because all of the administration from Volyn come (my Oblast) and different teachers present about their schools, and what they're doing to promote democracy through English education. My Director gave a little speech about our school (in Ukrainian of course), my Counterparts spoke about our international partnerships, including Poland and Germany, and I spoke about some of the projects our English faculty has done together outside of the classroom. I've posted about some of them, but they include 'Operation Respect', 'GLOW/TOBE Day Camps', 'Kolky Community Clean-Up', etc.

Volyn English teachers come to Kolky Lyceum!

Mr. Benjamin presenting about some of Kolky Lyceum's projects

The English program we put on for the Teachers!

Mr. Benjamin was Prince Roman - the founder of Kolky!
(Get it? The American is the founder. Irony.)

Prince Roman learning about how Kolky has changed throughout the years,
and how Kolky Lyceum follows democratic principles.

10th Formers reciting a poem

Some of the 7th Form girls singing a traditional Ukrainian song, in English.

My 10th Formers being awesome.

Everybody singing "We Are the World"

The last week of school, we give final grades based on students marks throughout the Semester and we evaluate the "Big 4" (Comprehension of Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking). To evaluate the 10th Former's Speaking skills, I had them teach a lesson. It was about anything they wanted, as long as they taught us something (about Ducks, or Rap Music, or dessert...anything) and only spoke in English. They split themselves up into 2 groups and each group gave a 45 minute lesson.

Tuesday's Group chose to teach about motivation. The title of the lesson "You Can Do It!" and it was absolutely fantastic. We learned about setting goals, dreaming big, and about people throughout the world who started with nothing but achieved their dreams. The facilitated communicative activities with the whole class to practice what we had learned. Wednesday's group taught about subcultures! We learned about Punk, Goth, Hippies, Metal-heads, and Hip-Hoppers! They dressed up like each one and even had us create our own subcultures! I was blown away with everybody's creativity and ability to give such amazing lessons.

"You Can Do It" Lesson

Anastasia Serhivna participating with the teachers for the day

Roma and Dima presenting their own "Sub-Culture"
The girls on the left presented about hip-hop, punk, and hippie subcultures for their open lesson.

Finally, the holiday of Last Bell - the last day of school! You saw photos from the 11th Formers last bell, but now it's time for everybody's last day. At Last Bell, students get awards for the year, we hear a few speeches, teachers are given flowers, the "last bell" rings, then we go home! Everybody loves this day. I was proud to present 3 awards to students who participated, and won the Creative Writing Contest. Misha and Liza won 1st place in all Volyn Obast, and Alina, from my 10th form, won all of Ukraine! Also, my 10th Formers, Roma, won our Regional English Olympiad so he and I got awards!

Look how small some of our band members are!

Kolky Lyceum's administrators and our local Priest

Our "linika" (line meeting) where my best bud Roma is getting an award for having perfect marks!
(Also, do you notice our new doors!? Look at the photos from the previous post!)

4th Formers moving to the big school...and singing about it!

Ringing the Last Bell!

After Last Bell, I headed down to L'viv to celebrate the start of Summer with some PCV friends. We ate some good food, saw a movie in a movie theater, and danced the night away. Ukraine is hosting EURO 2012 soon, so we will avoid L'viv for the month of June. Everything will be not within this PCV's budget! 

Tommy and Ben in 3D. You have to have glasses to see it.

It's beginning to look a lot like EURO 2012 in L'viv!

Summer is here and life is good! I'm headed to Kyiv for Group 43's Swearing-In Ceremony and a VAC Meeting. I'll be there for 5 days, so send me and e-mail if you want to Skype and we'll figure out a time!

Spring in Kolky

It seems the decent Spring weather, summer camp co-directing, and general hooliganism at school has kept me away for a while. A break this long in blogging is not a habit I'd like to keep, so don't blog write me off just yet.

I left off with Easter, which feels like it was last weekend, but in reality it was about a month ago (for us on the Orthodox Calendar at least). I had such a fantastic celebration -- going to church at 12 a.m., standing there for the better part of 6 hours, getting my basket blessed, feasting like a madman at Easter breakfast...and Easter lunch and picking at leftovers for the better part of a week. Easter breaks lent (duh) and in Ukraine, that means business. People eat, and eat, and eat (and drink) to celebrate Easter. Anastasia Serhivna (one of my Counterparts and English teaching colleagues) invited me to breakfast at her house with her family. This breakfast isn't the typical ham and cheese egg-bake that I'm accustom to (shout-out to SOV!) but rather, fresh sausage, mashed potatoes, every delicious Ukrainian dish, cutlets, meat jello (yes, meat jello) just to name a few. And of course, no Easter breakfast would be complete without cognac and wine, I suppose. I'm trying to get the photos that my friend took at church, so when I do, I'll be sure to publish them.

In other news, Camp ACT planning is going so well. It's a lot of work to create a camp from scratch, but the entire Camp ACT Team is fantastic and working so hard to make everything perfect. In August, we were just a bunch of friends saying..."What if...?" and now it's a reality! I'm Co-Directing with my good friend - and link-mate in Pre-Service Training - Egle. She is amazingly organized and definitely the person you want leading a camp with you. We had a Staff Meeting in Lutsk where we chose our 75 Campers (from about 200 applications) and I'm so happy that the 4 students I gave applications to are IN! A lot more has to be done, but ACT is in a really good place right now and I know that in 2 months time, our investments will pay off. I'm also thrilled that we've raised about 60% of our funds and I want to thank all of you for your donations. I means so much to me that my friends and family are helping me with this project -- I've continuously humbled by your support. If you'd like, and are able, follow this link 1.usa.gov/DonateCampACT to support Action, Creativity, and Teamwork in Ukraine!

School is wrapping up and all of the students are definitely in summer mode. The 11th Formers, our graduates, had their last bell on Friday and graduation yesterday. The ceremony was the typical Ukrainian fanfare -- lots of singing, speeches, and flowers. The parents invited me to the after party, and we danced and ate and drank until the wee hours of the morning. We eventually made it to the bridge in Kolky to see the sun rise (an awesome school tradition), but it was kinda cloudy, so everybody just sort of left when it got light. A few of the boys dared me to jump in the river, and after some slight protest from the parents, the 5 of us walked to the bank and took a cool dip. I went swimming for the first time in the Styr (this year) on Friday because it was beautiful and warm. Today's 6 a.m. dip was a bit chilly but awesome, nonetheless.

And what sort of son would I be without wishing the best, hardest working, most beautiful Mom in the world a Happy Mothers Day. Every year, Mom always gets to pick out a hanging basket of flowers for Mothers Day after church. This one is waiting for you in August in Kolky!

Love you Momma!

Below are other random photos from the past month or so! 

With my students at an English Seminar in Lutsk

Parts of the Body Game with the 7th Form

Spring is here! Apple trees in bloom

My bird friend, chirping outside his birdhouse in my front yard! Can you spot him?

Excursion to the Partisans Glory Monument and Museum
on Victory Day (May 9th!)

Old Soviet Metals...then I was told not to take photos

The two teachers who I celebrated Victory Day with!

BBQ after our excursion

Sasha grilling up the salo (pork back fat!)

11th Formers Last Bell

Well wishes from the 1st Form...

...and flowers of course!

Ira and Bohdan ringing their Last Bell

Some of the 11th Formers singing to the teachers at Graduation

Preparing...

Easter in Ukraine. If you don't remember this post last year, I absolutely loved Easter 2011. The traditions, the food, the happiness is all so uniquely wonderful...nothing that I'd ever experienced before. This year, I'm aware that Easter is a huge deal, and I know a little bit about what to expect which is bittersweet. The surprise of the holiday is taken away this year, but I am able to prepare myself and be ready for what's to come. That means this week has been a whole lot of Easter preparations for everybody around Kolky. 

First, not really associated with Easter but rather the time of the year, I went with my 10th Formers on Wednesday to plant trees in the forest...or at least they told me it would be a forest in 40 years. Quite the manual labor field trip students in the States aren't accustom to, but my kids seemed to enjoyed themselves...and the mid-week break from lessons.

1km line of seedlings(?) saplings (?)

A soon to be tree

Sophie and Dima working away

Roma digging, Karina planting!

In my birthday package, my family sent two Easter Egg dyeing kits, so I brought them to school on Wednesday after I was finished in the forest. Of course, Ukraine is known for their beautiful hand-painted eggs, Pysankys, but I wanted to show a little of my culture to some of my students. They really loved dyeing their eggs and had a fun time. Kolky doesn't seem to have white eggs, so the hint of brown make for some colors of eggs even I hadn't seen!

Natalia Vasylivna and Anastasia Serhivna (in the very back)
dyeing eggs with the 7A Form

Two Moms stopped me in street and asked me how I made such beautiful colors. My "arts and crafts" vocabulary isn't quite up to par, but I explained to them how I got the kits and briefly about the dyeing process. They were intrigued and proud that their daughters would have the most colorful eggs in her baskets come Sunday. 

Mr. Benjamin and some of the 7th Formers
(Note: My class consists of one boy - "Wolf" as he prefers to be called)

My Ukrainian "Waste not, Want not" mentality kicked in after the dyeing party so I took home the dye and made my own eggs. Trading eggs with friends and family is a fun Easter tradition, so this year I'm prepared when people stop by my house over the next few days! 

The eggs I dyed

Happy Easter! Христос Воскрес!

On Friday, I had an Easter Egg hunt for both of my 5th Form classes, as well as my 6th and 7th Form classes. My friend Val shared her awesome idea, so I used it for my students. I hid 32 paper eggs all around the classroom with one word on the back of each. After finding the eggs, the students listened to the poem I read, and had to put their eggs in order to form the poem! It was a fun activity, and even better for me to see 12 kids racing around a classroom in their first-ever Easter Egg Hunt. Pure joy I tell you!

The week of preparation is coming to an end as I get ready for when people bring me food. Friday afternoon and Saturday morning were devoted to baking banana bread. Banana bread is quite foreign and such a oddity here, but once people try it, they really love it so I thought it would be fun food to share. Lent is a time when Ukrainians take on a strict Vegan diet, so lots of treats are made for and eaten on Easter.

Banana Bread for Easter!

I'm going to rest and relax this afternoon, because I'll go to church for mass really early tomorrow morning - probably around 1:30/2 a.m. After church and the blessing of the baskets, I'll come home, nap, and the eat some of my blessed food! I'll probably also host my Counterparts when they bring over a feast, but at least I'll be able to bring some of my own dished to the table. Last year I was so caught off guard, but not this time around. 

I also decided to look up tomorrow's verses from the Orthodox Liturgical Calendar, so I'd be prepared and know what was going on at least during the readings. John 20: 19-25 Jesus Appearing to the Disciples - I guess in all our busyness before Easter, it's good to stop and think about how unprepared everybody was for the events leading up to the empty tomb and how still, we can dye the eggs, make the bread, fast for lent, do it all, but never will we be prepared for the gift that was give to us that Easter morning.