I forgot to take a picture, but today I was walking around with 9,300 UAH (~$1,162.50). I emptied out the ATM to get this much. I needed to give Yulia the money so she could pay for our first shipment of books while she's in Kiev this week. I had ~15 200UAH bills, ~25 100UAH bills, ...
Maybe I'm off my rocker, but students in Ukraine today tend to have a different mindset about school than I did when I was their age (cue fade into flashback). I had a thought-provoking chat with one of the teachers at school today after our class decided they could collectively show up ten minutes late to ...
So I'm sure I've made it clear, but to reiterate, I'm a big Song of Ice and Fire series fan. So naturally, when I heard two girls in the 8th form saying things like "Winter is coming" and "Family, Duty, Honor", I perked up. Turns out, the two girls are in the middle of reading the ...
Here's a great picture of me with some of the 11th Form girls in the foreign languages department. They're wearing the traditional school uniform (though most are missing the very poofy white hair ties, even the ones in the photo aren't poofy enough) because they were getting their picture taken for official class photos. I ...
"Books help us understand the soul of a country." -Anya, 9th Grade In other news, today I talked to a student from a group I worked with all last year and she asked me to come back and teach their class. She said they miss having me as a teacher.
I sat down in the teacher's room today during my break to get some reading done, but I was interrupted almost immediately by my school's director, Yulia. She beckoned for me to follow her to her office (which was weird because she has excellent English). She wanted to show me this: That's right, the books we ordered ...
It's Man Day again. Or as it's more formally called, Protectors of the Fatherland Day. For those of you unaware, it's a day to celebrate men in Ukraine. Don't worry, there's an International Women's Day on March 8th. That's international, so it's more important. Anyway, today I received a card and a box of candies from the girls ...
I'm not sure if you're aware, but my school is pretty much the best at English in the area. You want proof you say? Well, how about the fact that we're sending two students to the national olympiad competition next month. On;y the first place students in each grade level at the oblast level move on to nationals. ...
So I mentioned about a week ago that I had dance practice again. You know, learning to waltz, polonez, and the like. In an article I read recently (12 Reasons to Date a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer), they mentioned, "We’re pretty good dancers. Yeah, we don’t like to brag, but after 27 months in Latin America ...
I've never been one for resolutions, so I don't make them. However, I don't mind occasionally trying to change my life. If it happens around the New Year, so be it. This year I decided to get into better shape again. I was in decent shape before I left for the Peace Corps, I biked every ...