Peace Corps Ukraine Group 39 COS


Peace Corps

So much has happened in the past week and I want to write about all of it now, but I think I’ll spread it out over a few days because each thing deserves personal recognition. The week started with our flag football tournament, but I’ll write about that later once I steal photos from Jeramie […]

September 29, 2012

Cheap and Healthy or Snake Oil?


Blog, Peace Corps

The past couple of months, I haven’t felt like I’m in my top shape. This caused me to go to see the doctor which in turn caused me to get an ultrasound to check for tumors (the doctor wanted to rule out possibilities). What it boiled down to was that I had slept on an […]

September 21, 2012

Learning Not Cheating


Peace Corps

There are a lot of things about the Ukrainian school system that I just don’t understand because I grew up in the American school system. Things are done quite differently and it makes me wonder why. For example, the Ukrainian system of grading is on a 12 point scale where the American system is letter […]

September 20, 2012

Two Years In


Peace Corps

As of today, September 17, 2012, it has been exactly two years since I left Wisconsin for the Peace Corps. Granted, I didn’t actually arrive in Ukraine until September 22, 2010 due to problems with visas at the embassy. Also, it’s been a year since I last visited home. Time has flown.

September 17, 2012

Owning the First Day of School


Peace Corps

I talked to Jeramie yesterday and it sounds like she had an awful first day back at school. If not awful then at least not ideal. Apparently she had to deal with the same kinds of things we had to deal with in earlier years, but she’d thought she had helped her school past them. […]

September 4, 2012

Early Train


Peace Corps

I’m in Kiev today for medical. I’ve been up since 4:00am and it’s earlier than I planned to be awake to get to Kiev. You see, it’s the end of summer and the university students are monopolizing the trains to get from their villages to their universities. The train I usually take was full earlier than I […]

August 30, 2012

Big Chocolate Ice-cream


Peace Corps

This summer, we’ve been going to get soft-serve ice-cream in the center. I’m not really sure why we didn’t do it last summer but what matters is that we are now. I have a standard order of, “Big chocolate.” Usually this rolls in around 200g (0.44 lbs) and it costs me 8 UAH ($1).That’s not […]

August 27, 2012

A Disappointing Independence Day


Peace Corps

Yesterday, August 24, was the Ukrainian Day of Independence. I had looked forward to it because there are celebrations in the center for holidays. At celebrations, there’s almost always shashlik. Shashlik is delicious. It’s grilled meat but not like grilled meat I’ve had in America. I wish I knew how it is different, but I […]

August 25, 2012

Highlights of Teaching


Peace Corps

For the last two weeks of summer, I was asked to work with some of the students one-on-one to prepare them for the National English Olympiad. It’s been fun, and I’ve talked about my approach to teaching already. Today, I want to share the first week results of my method. While most of the time […]

August 24, 2012

Teaching One on One, Again


Peace Corps

School has me coming in this week and next week to work with some select students. There’s a handpicked group of six or seven they want prepped for the English Olympiads well in advance, and while I’m still here able to help. While I certainly could argue and put up a fight about having to […]

August 21, 2012