He Cut the Cheese

Teaching has been crazy, hectic but fun! I teach Primary Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 4-7 and then I teach ELE on Tuesday and Wednesday from 10-1. Even though I don’t teach until 4 in the afternoon most days, I usually get the school before noon to start preparing. Jenna and I have been taking the 7:50am marshrutka so that way we don’t have to walk up the sketchy stairs, plus we seriously are always doing something when we get to the school.. That’s why it’s taken me a while to update my blog, and now you get a few posts back to back! you should be just so excited! ;) haha :P 

Jenna and I teach both the Primary and ELE together. In primary we both teach 3 classes 2 times. So we split the kids into 2 groups, the 1^st year in the program kids and the 2^nd year in the program kids. We rotate the kids about every 25 minutes and have a 10 minute opening, closing, and snack time. For the first 2 weeks I taught Shop, Drama, and Gym. At first, it was really hard coming up with lesson plans and it took me forever to write them out. However, now that I just made lesson plans for week 4 of teaching, it has gotten much easier… it’s sometimes just difficult to come up with a good activity that you can get a lot of language out of the kids. Shop it was pretty easy to get them talking. But then, Drama and Gym it is much harder. Drama the first week I couldn’t even get the 

kids to attempt to act out the stories.Finally the second week I got the 2^nd year group to act out three little pigs… obviously, I had to tell them what to do step by step but they started to get the hang of it and they enjoyed telling the Big Bad Wolf to go away and Huffing and Puffing and blowing the house over. With the 1^st year group I just had them do basic things as I read the story because it got to hectic when we tried to act it out. My fist day of teaching was rough! It was really hard and the kids had no idea what I was saying and had no idea that they are suppose to repeat what I am saying. I basically thought I failed at life that day but 2^nd day of teaching went much smoother and I got to see my head teacher, Samantha teach a class for me and that helped me a ton! Now, I have learned that when I am super prepared and know step by step, almost word for word how I want each lesson to go, the classes go by much better. We had to make a strike chart to get the kids to realize that they need to behave and follow the rules. It’s pretty funny when I tell a kid “Keep your hands to yourself” and the other kids start pointing to the strike chart. I try to give 2 warnings before giving a strike and if the kid is just being horrible… which we do have 1 or 2 “devil” children… I send them to Gayla and she sets them straight and they do much better throughout the rest of the lessons. Also in Primary, I think at least one if not two kids end up crying. I don’t know why most of the time… but I feel kinda bad when they leave English class crying… I wonder what their parents think… But, that only happened once, most the time they leave smiling… most the time ;) Now, for the third week I am teaching, Kitchen, Arts and Crafts, and Games. Jenna and I will now switch classes every week. (TopPicture goes from left to right, back row to front row, Erika, Jonathan, Ann, Kiril, Yegor, Maria, and Me.. 2nd picture from left to right goes, Erika, me, Ann, and Eva. ) 

ELE, which I have no idea what ELE stands for, it was… an epic experience. Basically for ELE we go to 2 different schools, one on Tuesday and a different one on Wednesday. We just show up and do whatever the teachers there want us to do. I was super nervous the first day just because I didn’t know what to expect. At the school we go to on Tuesday’s they gave us topics to talk about each week. It’s hard to talk about school supplies for 50 minutes with 2^nd graders who don’t really understand what we are saying half the time. We end up straying off topic to keep the kids interested and speaking English, but I think that as long as they are practicing English it doesn’t matter how long we talk about school supplies for or any topic that they give us. Plus, the director goes in the classes with us and he says we do a good job.. so that’s all that matter right? On Wednesday’s, the teachers at the other school give us like legit lesson plans to follow. One class we talked about prepositions, another different types of sentences and ect. It was much easier on Wednesday because I feel as though I am actually teaching them something instead of just talking about random things. I also do 3 classes on Wednesday instead of just 2 on Tuesday. Also, on Wednesday’s I teach the classrooms by myself whereas on Tuesday’s, Jenna and I teach together. (Picture on the left is of me with the 7th graders at the ELE school i teach on Tuesdays..Picture on the right is of me being such a great teacher... just ignore the random russian written on the board ;) )

Funny things that have happened:

One day, during opening Eva was crying and we were singing wheels on the bus… we got the part where babies go wahhh… anyways, I couldn’t help myself I was like “That’s right Eva, good job”. Jenna, Samantha (she comes every Wednesday to evaluate us and help us), and I all busted up laughing.

Another day, during snack time one of our kids pulled a newspaper out of his backpack, looks at it, and says, “What the hell?”. It took everything in me and Jenna to not laugh.

Yesterday, during kitchen I had the kids help me cut the cheese. After Kiril finished cutting the cheese I had him say “I cut the cheese” and everyone say “he cut the cheese”. I didn’t realize what I had him say until I had him say it and I started to laugh.

We go an Asian kid this week. He’s so freaking cute! Haha anyways, his name is Jonathan, he is Korean, speaks Russian and is in my English class. He is a smart little guy, once we get him to stop crying and join in on the activities. Anyways, yesterday during Arts and Crafts I gave him a light green crayon and as I was talking about crayons I just happened to pull out the dark green crayon, to which he looks at his crayon, looks and mine and exclaims, “There are two green ones, what the heck!” it was so cute! Haha He also likes to say, “Oh my God.” In a sing songy way.

In ELE, a few things made me chuckle. I may be immature for this one but I was talking about pets with one of the classes and a girl told me that he dogs name is Dick. Hahaha okay, sorry. Immature moment over… When I was with the 8^th graders yesterday we were talking about different money phrases and if they agreed or disagreed with the sentences. Well to the sentence, Money can’t buy you love, my group of boys in the back said they disagreed with it because “You can buy a women to give you love… which is called a prostitute.. or prostitution”. These kids are like 13. It was pretty funny though. In another one of my classes, they asked me if I boyfriend. I said yes, and showed them all a picture of Rafael. They then proceeded to ask me, “Do you have child?” It was pretty funny.

Now that we are on the topic of funny things the kids have said to me in English, let me tell you a few things my host dad has said. He always asks us, “do you want cereals” I don’t think he know you just cereal.haha he also asked Jenna and I one day when it was really chilly outside, “Did you froze?” hahah He’s a great guy, who is full of energy and loves having Jenna and I help him speak better English.

Anyways, I’ll end now by saying, I wonder what great things will happen in the up coming weeks of teaching. :)

Get in My Belly!

Food, Food, Food. I love Food. Recently, my family and I realized that we talk about food a lot! In emails to my brother Zach, who is currently serving an LDS Mission, we talk about food and what we eat basically every week.

 So, in an earlier post I know I talked about food and what I have been having… But, let’s face it there is still so much more that I need to try and talk about! My favorite food thus far is Borsch. Borsch is a beet soup that is delicious! I don’t like beets, but I love this soup… so I’velearned that if I like the food, it’s better if I don’t ask what in it. I have soup with pretty much every lunch and dinner. In every soup there are ALWAYS potatoes in it… no matter what.. seriously, so even if I don’t like the soup I can always just eat the potatoes from it. But, no worries, I still have potatoes with every meal. Seriously, I had eggs with potatoes on the side, for breakfast. I am really glad I love potatoes. Thus far, my least favorite food is… buckwheat. I’ve been given buckwheat as every meal as well. Buckwheat Kasha (Kasha is like their porridge). Buckwheat soup, or just plain buckwheat for lunch or dinner. Thankfully, I think our host family is finally figuring out that we (Jenna and I) don’t like buckwheat so I haven’t had to force it down recently.

So my meals: I eat breakfast and dinner at my house and lunch at the school.

Anyways, last week at lunch, I think they were out to get me. On Wednesday, after teaching ELE, I was starving when I got back to the school and ran straight over the kitchen to get some grub… and what was it… fish… with the spine… I, of course, had to at least try it so I can say that I tried it… and BLEKKKK, it was really gross. Plus, looking at the fish spin as I tasted it didn’t help.

Then the following day, I was excited because it looked like they gave us milk for our drink instead of some nasty tea or watered down juice that they have usually been giving us. Well, I was excited to drink milk because I love milk and I took a big ole gulp… and laskjf;klsjdflksjdflkjdslkfjsdlkfjadslkfjsldkfj…. It wasn’t milk. It was absolutely disgusting. It tasted like spoiled sour cream… words cannot describe… it was gross. Other than those awful experiences the food here is really good and I love it, especially the dumpling like things that they have here.

Oh so funny story, I’m not the biggest fan of kasha like I said in an earlier post, but this past week my host Dad gave me pumpkin kasha. He came into my room and asked Jenna and I, “When will you eat?”.. We said “Now” then he proceeded to say “We have Potatoes, and kasha with…. Uhh… Halloween…” Then, he started forming a circle with his hands… It took us a second to catch on and then it clicked. “Oh, Pumpkin?”… He then proceeded to tell us how good pumpkin kasha is, and that it is good for girls, and good for health. He told us that if we didn’t like it then we didn’t have to eat it. So, I figured I would try it and it was actually pretty good. It was pumpkin mashed with rice and then once you added milk it was a pretty good breakfast. Well after we finished eating, our host dad tells us that he can eat it now that he knows that we like it.. hahah he basically turned us into to guinea pigs to try his food to see if it was good. We had a good laugh about it.

This past weekend I also had some really good dumpling like things. I feel like Ukrainian food is just better than U.S’s food like seriously, the potatoes just taste better… and don’t even get me started on the ice cream. 

I have ice cream every day, by the way. Jenna and I go to the little store next to our school and get some, we also decided that we would try every kind. Even on the weekends I get my ice cream... even if it isn't at our cute little store. :P I LOVE ICE CREAM!

  

Rain, Rain Go Away.

Let me start this off by saying that I usually love rain. The east coast of the USA has some really great rainstorms. However, Utah does not. I think it sprinkled maybe 3 times the whole year. So after living in Utah for a year before heading to the Ukraine, I was really excited when it started raining this past Thursday, September 6^th, 2012. All that changed when it was time to leave the school to head back home. It was cold outside and the rain was not fun… especially because I had to walk a good 5 miles home, in the dark. Jenna and I literally pressed up against buildings to get a little bit of shelter from the rain. I was slipping and sliding down the sidewalks to get to my trolley stop. By the time I got on the trolley, I was soaked. Of course the usually pretty empty trolley was filled with people trying to get out of the rain. With no seats available, I was holding on for dear life as the trolley bus swerved to each stop. When I got to my stop, I was thankful because part of the walk back home is through an overhang. So I thought it was going to protect me from the rain…well, I was wrong… it was better walking under it but rain was still seeping through the wooden boards. At one point, Jenna lost a shoe because they were soaked and everything was slippery. After the overhang it was open sky until we made it home. The cobblestone street was even harder to walk on because it was now sleek and slippery. By the way, I’ll probably buy ice skates and ice skate down the street once the snow comes. Anyways, after making it to the sketchy stairs I literally held myself up on the rail, through the pitch black, the whole way down so I wouldn’t biff it and break my face or bum! Usually I use the flashlight on my hone to help me see when I get to the stairs, but it was raining pretty hard and I didn’t want to ruin my phone. Once I made it to the bottom, the inevitable happened. So, you know how in movies cars splash puddles onto people? Well, you guessed it. That totally happened to me. A van came speeding past me and right into a huge puddle that sure enough splashed onto me. I’m sure once we got home, our host parents thought we were poor, pathetic, wet Americans when we walked into the house. But, for the record, I totally would have brought a jacket or umbrella if I would have known it was going to rain. Either way, next time I’m taking a taxi. 
  

 

I can't believe I'm here!

Okay, so I noticed that I am long winded… I just like to give a lot of details. But, because I figured y’all wouldn’t enjoy reading super long blog posts I will shorten things up and only tell certain stories.

So main things y’all will probably want to know:

My host family: Nastia is my host Mom and Andrei is my host Dad. They have 3 children, Danya (8), Marsha (6), and Tonya (4). My host family is awesome. The Mom and Dad speak some English. I feel as though Andrei feels more comfortable having conversations with us than Nastia. Andrei is HILARIOUS. He acts out a lot of what he is saying in English and Jenna and I die laughing every time. Nastia was pretty intiminating when we first met her but she is really really nice and I haven’t had any problems what so ever with her or Andrei. The kids know very very little English. We still have fun with the two girls though, they like sitting in my lap and laughing at me trying to learn some Russian. Marsha likes helping me try to speak Russian. She says the word and after I butcher the pronunciation she says it slowly having me copy each part of the word or phrase. She then will laugh and say “No!” and repeat the word again or giggle and say “Yes!” with a big thumbs up. The kids are great, Danya, is slowly starting to warm up to me and Jenna. So hopefully he’ll hang out with us more.

House: The house I live in is incredible! It is Huge!!! Most of the other girls in my ILP group are living in apartments, with no hot water. We not only have hot water but we have a dang nice shower. It is nicer than mine in the USA. That was definitely a surprise and not normal for the Ukraine. Jenna and I lucked out, and I am so thankful for that! However, the towel they gave me to use is so small that it doesn’t even wrap around my body… and I have to share with Jenna, but I don’t mind. It is what it is! My bed is… well it’s not the most comfortable thing in the world and it squeaks like crazy, but after walking all day long I always crash. I will definitely be getting a massage when I get back to the states, and a good foot rub. :) 

                                                    This is my House... Yes, all of it. 

Food: The food here is AWESOME! I had no idea what to expect and I have enjoyed almost everything that I have tried. Our family has a cook, Olga. She doesn’t know any English except the word “food”. In which she comes to our bedroom door and says “food” and points to the kitchen. The first day I got here she made literally a feast of food for Jenna and I. We usually aren’t big eaters but we tried to eat as much as possible. I’ve eaten a lot of potatoes, some mystery meat that was really good, chicken, potatoes, eggs, potatoes, kasha or porridge type stuff, ham or maybe it was turkey sandwich, potatoes, something that looked like a pot sticker, noodles, potatoes, bread, cheese, potatoes, honey, rice, potatoes, bread with apples and cherries in it, pig fat (it had a weird texture), vegetables, potatoes, pizza (which is definitely European), McDonalds and ice cream. It’s a good thing I like potatoes. :) I mostly drink water but I have had a few other things. My family makes a fruit juice that is basically just boiled water with fruit in it.. it looks gross, and doesn’t taste very good just because there isn’t any sugar in it so it’s not like juice I usually drink. Milk, from a bag, it tastes different but I enjoyed it. And some Sprite, that I had a fun time trying to buy in a store.

:) 

Traveling: Every day, I walk up some sketchy stairs and up a hill to get to the bus stop. It takes Jenna and I about 10-15 minutes to get to the bus or mashutka stop. I’m sure the stairs and the walk will not be so fun when it starts snowing. Then we take a 10 minute mashutka ride to the Roshen chocolate factory (very convenient but very dangerously delicious), then it’s about a 15 minute walk to the school that Jenna, Alexis, and I will be teaching at. *scroll down to section about school for more information about this* Going home from the school we take a trolley bus and walk. Y’all should be proud of me for mastering public transportation. ;) I’ve also taken a Metro and a normal bus. It’s been pretty interesting, especially when people start talking to me in Russian. But, I guess that means I don’t look that foreign… or maybe they just figure I know Russian… but I’m going to stick with I don’t look that foreign. Oh, I now own a Metro pass, a trolley pass, and Ukrainian money (Hryvnia).

School: Originally, I thought that all of the girls who were assigned to Kiev 1 school would be in one school. That is not that case. All the girls are split up into different schools. There are 3 schools total: Central School (me, Alexis, and Jenna), Nyvky School (Erika S., Afton, Alisha, and Kylie), and Planet school (Hanna, Taia, Erika L., and Mallory). I’ll give more information on my school, central school, after I actually start teaching.

                                          Jenna, me, and Alexis... Central school teachers! 

Teaching and kids: So, the first few days that I have been here, we have just been training and getting ready to start teaching which is tomorrow… or today, since I can’t post this until I have wifi. (September 3^rd, 2012). I teach the primary level kids, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 4-7 pm. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday from 10:30-1pm, I teach ELE. ELE is basically just going into a Ukraine high school English class and talking to them about anything. That is the impression I have so far, because I don’t have to make a lesson plan for that. Also, I don’t start doing ELE until next week. Primary starts tomorrow and for the first 2 weeks I will be teaching the 3 same SPE’s (Sincronized play sessions) Shop, Gym, and Drama. I’ll give more information on all of this once I actually get started teaching.

Culture Shock: I’ve been to many different places around the world, so maybe that’s why culture shock hasn’t been dramatic for me. Not knowing any Russian is terrifying especially because the alphabet is so different that I can’t even pretend to know what nay signs mean. I have learned a few words, but basically “I don’t understand” is the phrase I use most often… but in Russian of course… it sounds like “yanny penny mayo”. I got sick on Friday because of all my traveling, jet lag, and change of food. Friday wasn’t the best day just because I was throwing up all day but I somehow managed to get to the school but then I fell asleep while trying to prepare my lessons, thankfully, Alexis and Jenna were understanding. Especially Jenna, she helped me all day and kept asking me if I was feeling any better. I was so weak that I seriously couldn’t pick up my pen to write. I don’t remember the last time that I was that sick, but thankfully it was only a one day thing. On Saturday I felt much much much better, I did feel a little nauseous after I ate but I think that was just because I hadn’t eaten in awhile. Funny story: So my poor host Dad knew I was sick, with my frequent runs to the bathroom in the morning before I left to go to the school and he knocked on my door and asked if I was okay.. after a bit he came back with some medicine and a small bottle of aroma therapy type stuff. He told me to take 2 of the medicine and to smell the aroma stuff when I felt like I would throw up because it would calm my stomach. He then told me that Riley, his last ILP girl, also got sick and that it was the “tripster disease”. It cracked me up. The aroma stuff and medicine didn’t really help but like I said I am 100% better today and felt much better the next day. The main difference between here and where I have lived in the U.S. is that everyone walks everywhere and takes public transportation. I have never walked so much in my life and my legs definitely burn but it is getting easier and easier every day that I am here. Hopefully I’ll just have really nice legs when I get home ;)

Communication: Before coming to the Ukraine my family and I decided that I wouldn’t get an international plan because it cost so much. However, one of my friends told me about an app that I can get and still text message and call people from, the app is called textplus, by the way. I love this app! It is so much cheaper than an international plan and it works really well! The only down side to it is that I can only use it on my iphone when I have wifi. I currently do not have wifi in my house but I do at the school I work at and in McDonalds. Jenna and I are buying a router to have wifi in our house. So it will be easier to communicate even more with my family, especially because the time difference is crazy! I am 7 hours ahead of the east coast, 8 hours ahead of central time, and 9 hours ahead of mountain time. It gets a little bit cray cray and I think my mom would appreciate it when I don’t call her at 7 in the morning. :) You’re welcome Mom, Love you! :) 

Church: Besides leaving my house at 7:40am to get to Church at 10am, it was so great to in an English speaking branch. Our international branch meets right next to Kiev Temple. The temple is so beautiful and our church building is really big and beautiful too. Not what I was expecting but happily surprised.

So that’s about it for now. If any of y’all have questions about Kiev, or anything at all go ahead and leave a comment and  I will answer the questions in my next entry.

Wish me luck on my first day teaching! 

To the Ukraine I go!

As I was saying bye to my parents at the airport, I had no idea of what to expect once I got to Kiev. Let me tell you, Kiev, Ukraine is such a fascinating place to live in. It’s still so weird to believe that I am actually here and I am living in Kiev, with a Ukrainian family! I was really paranoid, nervous, and mostly excited as I boarded the plane to leave VA and begin my Ukrainian Adventure! I was paranoid because I do not want to get robbed when I am here and I had no idea if my blonde hair would make me stick out and become a target, straight up I did not want to get snatched and thrown into some crazy drug, sex, slave life.. like in the movie Taken. I was nervous because I seriously had no idea what my plan was for after I got to the airport in Kiev. All I knew was that I was suppose to show up, go through customs, get my baggage (hopefully it would all show up) and then meet up with our Native Coordinator who should be holding up an “ILP” sign once I got there. I was excited because I was leaving my country, leaving my comfort zone and going to experience a whole new way of life. I was and still am just so excited to start teaching the children here English.

Well here I am. Alive. I’ve been here for 5 days and I already feel comfortable. After my long 18+ hours of traveling which consisted of flying from Norfolk, VA to Chicago O’Hare airport in which nothing excited happened I seriously just knocked out and slept the flight. Then in the Chicago airport it hit me that that would be the last time I could use my cell phone freely and happily to call my family, boyfriend, and friends freely without any crazy time differences or expensive phone charges. My mom and I decided that I wouldn’t get an international plan because it is REALLY expensive. However, thankfully, I can use apps on phone and connect to wifi whenever it is available to talk to my people. :P In Chicago I met up with 2 girls who are in my ILP group. On girl, Hanna, sat next to me on the plane and the other girl, Afton, sat behind me. From Chicago I flew to Dussledorf, Germany. It was pretty hard for me to fall asleep on that flight, but I somehow managed to get probably 2 and half hours of sleep total… yeah, I woke up a lot. In Chicago, Afton, Hanna, and I chilled by our gate and we got to each other pretty well. We were all pretty nervous and excited about what would happen when we got to the airport in Kiev. Honestly, I hate being left in the dark. I like having a plan, or at least some idea, of what I am doing that day. Double that when I am in a foreign country!

Finally, it was time! Next stop Kiev, Ukraine. Thankfully, I got a window seat and besides talking a little with the German guys sitting next to me who were going to Kiev to watch their favorite football (soccer) club play the day, in which they told me they had an extra ticket and that I should meet up with them, I slept! I passed out for at least an hour which was good because I was exhausted and I knew that I would be landing in the Ukraine at 3pm, and not knowing what the plan was for the rest of the day I decided I should get as much sleep as possible. By the way, only one of the German guys sitting next to me, Patrick, could speak English… and he didn’t know that much. It was fun trying to figure out what we were both trying to say… not to mention he got a kick out of the only German I know, Ich Liebe Dich. Haha

As we were about to land, my eyes were fixated on the window trying to see what the country looks like. Unfortunately, it was a rather cloudy day so I couldn’t see anything until we were right about to land. All I saw, farm land. That was definitely not what I expected. I mean I was landing in the capitol city of Ukraine… I expected a few skyscrapers. Haha. Fret not, I came to learn later on that the airport is on the outskirts of Kiev and not in downtown. This would be why I didn’t see any tall buildings. Once I landed, I stepped right off the plane and onto some stairs straight onto the ground. Did I mention it was pretty chilly? L Well, it was.  I got on a airport shuttle and was shipped to the terminal. There I got my passport stamped! J I was pretty excited about that because when I went on my Mediterranian cruise in spring of 2011, I thought I was going to get a stamps from all the countries I visited, that was not the case. Haha. But, now I have 3 stamps, Italy, Israel, and now Ukraine. Yay! So after I got my awesome stamp, I went to get my luggage and guess what it all made it! Yayyy! So I was happy and ready to go. We (the 2 other girls and I) ,met he native coordinator and headed out to the parking lot. In the parking lot, Jenna came running out of one of the vans and we were finally reunited. We somehow stuffed all our bags and 12 girls into 2 huge vans. I was handed some laminated paper, one was a Metro map, and the other one had all the girls name with our addresses and metro stations written on it. Then the van started moving, and no one had any idea where we were heading. Then we made a stop and one of the girls, Alexis got off and met her host family. Nervous and excited Jenna and I were next. We discovered that we live together!!! In a giant house, with hot water, a nice shower, and friendly host parents with 3 kids. I am really glad Jenna and I are living together, it makes everything so much more fun and less scary.