Livin For the Citaaay

Hello,
This weekend I am in Xmelnetsky with two of my friends (Alei and Emily from training). Yesterday was quite a big day. I caught the 10:00 elecktrechka (commuter train). I knew I was headed to the First School, but I had never been there before and neglected to write down the directions. I got into the city and took a marshrutka (small bus type deal) to the center. One thing about Ukraine is that people LOVE to give directions and are really helpful if you stop them to ask a question. One of their national sayings is "your tongue will lead you to Kyiv" (ie if you ask people for directions you will get where you need to go). I asked the marshrutka driver if he would pass the first school and this started a riotous conversation among the whole bus about how to get me to where I needed to go. Needless to say I got there. At the school we had our "Meet Your Neighbors" meeting. Eleven volunteers and our regional manager got together to chat about life in our oblast. It was your typical meeting, ice breakers, new and old business.

After we ended up going out to lunch at a pizza place. One of us accidentally ordered a pizza with tuna on it which is pretty popular here. A few of the other volunteers had planned a taco night (Mexican/spicy food is pretty much non-exictent here). After a lot of himming and hawing Emily and I decided to go along instead of heading to her apartment as we had planned. In fact, everyone had the same idea. 9 people ended up going. We started off cooking the tacos together and talking. 9 Americans in a small apartment makes for a loud environment. It was great to get to know everyone a little better. After some DELICIOUS and very spicy tacos we decided to go to the disco. There was much dancing and more talking and lots of laughing. After the first disco four of us decided to head out to another club. This one had an excellent ambience and a light up dance floor. We finally made it back home pretty late and made ourselves cozy little beds on the floor. By which I mean I slept on the floor using my coat as a blanket. Haha good ol' Peace Corps. Anyway. Now I have 7 new friends.

If you're reading this you're awesome.

Hi gang. It has been a Ukraine minute since I posted last. My life is starting to normalize here (which is pretty bizzare in itself). I teach 3rd through 11th graders at the school where I work. I love my students and the other English teachers I work with. I started three English clubs 2nd-5th grade, 6th-8th, and 9th-11th. The most successful one is for the little ones. I had 42 show up to my first meeting last week and 51 this week (ballin'). We sang songs, talked about animals, and watched a bit of the Jungle Book. Let me tell you 2nd graders get rather squirrley during a movie in English when they don't understand a word. It was fun though, before the meeting started a bunch of my little guys came and colored with me. Many of them made adorable valentines for me. In my 6th-8th grade club we were writing childrens books and one of my favs from 7th grade drew the most hilarious picture I've seen in a while (I wish I could scan it in and show you). It's based on Little Red Ridding Hood (Red Head to him). It's a girl with buck teeth and red hair wearing a red army helmet standing over a dead wolf with two guns in her hands and money sticking out of her pockets in front of a flag that says Bart Simpson Forever! Maybe a bit innapropriate, but I didn't care because I was too busy laughing. It's after school anyway.

What else... I'm in Kyiv at the moment, hangin' at the Peace Corps volunteer lounge. I hit the jackpot on books today (there's a volunteer swap library with a lot of sort of trashy novels but sometimes a hidden gem). I found The Clan of the Cave Bear (the book that my friend Ayla is named after I do believe), and a Jodi Piccoult book. Those will hold my attention for a while. I also found a beginner pilates dvd and season one of Firefly. I am currently livin large. There are a bunch of other volunteers in here, so I'm picking up a lot of gossip while writing this.

In other news I should be getting the internet at my site (ie in my house) within the next month. So look for a lot more blogging and skyping and everything internet communication.

Love you guys! Happy Valentines Day!