23-28 October 2013: One Long Update

28 October 2013: Long Update

As I got so far behind, here is an update about what I’ve done since 22 October 2013.

23 October 2013

On Wednesday, I got up, got dressed, had breakfast, and walked to class. There, we went over what we’d learned the previous day (the verbs of motion), and learned a new motion/directional case. I can now say where I am, where I am going to, and where I am coming from. We practiced asking and answering in where we were and where we were going, before having to guess from context “coming from.” We also learned how to say that we were going to a person’s house, as well as at a person’s house. After our short break, we went back into Russian, where we made and performed complicated skits, using as many cases and verbs of motion as we could. Even though that doesn’t sound like it could possibly take up four hours, it did!

After that, decided on our schedule for the next day, as we were going into Kyiv to get our documents. We decided on where we wanted to go, and then we had a lunch break. Do to the complex Thursday schedule, our Tech session was Wednesday, so we had a long break between Russian and Tech. We all had lunch, there were 2 individual tutorings, and M and I went over our Tech Session Co-facilitation, which was on Teaching Grammar. For the PC, teaching grammar is quite simple – teach how it works, not why. Don’t teach the complicated rules, or even the simple ones. After that we touched on Thursday’s x/c topic – group dynamics – and went over our tech schedule. We might not be teaching, but we will be busy. After that, I walked back to my host-family’s flat, had dinner, and worked through a lot of home task.

24 October 2013: Kyiv

On Thursday, the cluster went into Kyiv. We took the marshutka taxi to Kyiv, and the metro to Kreshatyk. There, we walked to see the President’s House (and where he meets important people), where we took some pictures. From there, we walked back to Independence Square, and to the restaurant where we were having lunch. I have a decent borshch and some potato and onion vareniki for lunch. After lunch, we walked to St. Sophie’s and St. Michael’s Cathedrals. We went into St. Michael’s, as St. Sophie’s charges. St. Michaels is smaller than Notre Dame de Paris, but it is covered with gilt. Where Notre Dame de Paris is stone gothic with flying buttresses, St. Michael’s is gold turrets and gilt icons. No photography is allowed inside, so I wasn’t able to get pictures. After that, we walked around the Cathedral, and saw an amazing view of the Dnypro from the top of the hill. We also saw the funicular, which descends near to the River. From there, we walked to St. Andrew’s Church (where we took some pictures; it charged entrance fee), and walked down St. Andrew’s “spoosk,” which is a very steep descent down a large road, where people sell real Ukrainian souvenirs. It’s awesome. From there, we walked to a Metro station, and took the Metro to the station where the PC was picking us up to take us to registration.

 

We got registered – I verified my name and date of birth, before signing the temporary residency permit – and promptly handed our permits and passports back to the PC, who are getting the next part of registration started. After that, the PC drove us to the Obukhiv bus stop, and we took the marshrutka back. We then went shopping, for biscuits and tea to have for our Personal Health day. I got some biscuits and some cheese for lunch, and walked back to my host-family’s flat, where I had dinner and did my home task.

25 October 2013: PHD and X/C

(Our PDH was on STIs, first aid, and mental health. Please take under advisement)

Friday was our second personal health day. First, our cluster had some Russian, where we played a “where + case” game: “I’m walking from ___x___ to ___y___ because…” We also went over our short text about “where + case” that we’d written Wednesday. After that, we had a short break before we had the first half of our PDH. The first half was on sexual health and STIs. We got to put a condom on fake genetalia. At least we didn’t put condoms on bananas… (which the doctor brought, along with sweets; one of my friends wondered if she could eat the banana before the session, or if we were going to use it…). After that, we had lunch and went back in for first aid (what would we do in these scenarios) and mental health. For mental health, we discussed what is stressing us, and how we are dealing with it. Most of our stressors are things that we can’t do anything about – site placement, our counterpart liking us, etc – while some of it is possible to do something about – group dynamics. We then talked about some good coping strategies (and some not so good ones), before the doctor had to leave.

Then, we had a X/C session, where we talked about who we are (how do you identify in certain categories) and how we can support our cluster/have our cluster support us. We also talked about group dynamics, and how it is very hard to have good group dynamics when you are together most of the time. On a non-teaching, non-tech day, we are still together for almost 5 hours. On a tech day, we can be together for 8. As clusters, we went over how we can help support each other. After that, Obukhov 2 left, and we cleaned the flat. Then, we went over our schedule for the next week. After, I walked back to my host-family’s flat, had dinner, did some home task, and hung-out with my host family.

26 October 2013

On Saturday, I slept in, and did a lot of home task. I mostly completed a take-home test, got my glossary up-to-date, and more than half filled out the progress assessment update that the PC wants us to do. I then edited and processed my Kyiv photos, and posted some. Then, I got my TEFL organizer up-to-date, transferring what I did in the last few weeks from my notebook into it. I remember having lunch, but I’m not sure what or when it was. I spent most of the day on home task one sort or another. I watched X Factor Ukraine with my host-family. It is very interesting, even more so that I don’t watch it in the US. Some of the performers were very good, some not so much. I also got a chance to have a long video-chat with my parents, which was very nice. I read a bit before going to bed.

27 October 2013: Cooking (part 2)

Sunday, I got to sleep even later than usual, as Ukraine went “fell back” from Daylight Savings Time. After I got up and dressed, I had breakfast, which was a bowl of green borshch (not ‘standard’ borshch: it has spinach and hard-cooked eggs instead of beets and cabbage). It was very interesting. After breakfast, I got to work helping cook. I got to stuff and roll galoupsi. I also made vareniki dough. The recipe is quite simple: acid whey (to touch), a few cups of flour, about a teaspoon each of salt and baking soda. That’s it. Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt mixture by hand. Add whey, mix. Repeat until a sticky doughy consistency. Kneed whey and flour in bowl. Have water on stove, boiling. Have stuffing premade (I’d suggest fried cabbage and carrots, or sweet farm cheese (like, ricotta)). Divide dough in half, roll into snake, about half a meter long. Cut into pennies, half an inch wide. Flatten. Stuff (teaspoon filling), fold, pinch. Repeat for remainder of this half of dough. Add to boiling water. Return to boil. Vareniki float, leave for about 2 minutes. Remove. Butter (sugar if sweet vareniki). Repeat for second half of dough. Eat.

After that, I had some potato vareniki, and went with my host-sister to buy food for the week. After that, I tried to finish my home task, but my host-mother had friends over, so it was a little loud. My host-sister and I both stayed out of the way (me in my room; her in the living room). After they left, we both did our respective home tasks, and had dinner. I had galoupsi. I then made some tea, grabbed some biscuits, and finished my home-task. I read a bit before going to bed.

28 October 2013

Today, I got up, got dressed, had breakfast, and walked down to Russian. Today was a light day, as I only had 4 hours of Russian, and 30 minutes of pair tutoring. Today, we wrote, asked, and answered our daily questions, then played a game. We put post-it notes with a part of a town on them, put some game pieces down, and had to give each other directions to another location. After that, we had a break, where we made coffee/tea. After that, we went back to Russian. There, we had to direct each other blindfolded through an obstacle course. The other team created the course, the participate blindfolded himself/herself, let P. spin them around a few time (yes, already blindfolded!) and then the team directed them through the maze. Touching part of the maze counted as seconds off. It was a lot of fun, and helped us figure out how to get and to give directions.

After that, we got a we learned a “new” verb. I put new in quotes because this is a quirk of Russian – they had a prefix to the verb to emphasize the action, as well as give it a specific direction. The verb “(to be) going (on foot)” because “to have left (for) (on foot)” or “to arrive (on foot)” depending on the prefix. There are more prefixes where those 2 came from… After that, we were given a snapshot of a cluster-mate’s (fictional) day, and we had to use the “new” verbs to describe their actions, to a partner. Once we were done with that, we told another cluster-mate what our previous partner’s sheet said (I had M. He did blank time, etc. When P. told us to switch I gave my partner M, and she gave me L. I then told E about L’s fictional day). After that, we got our home-task assignments, and had lunch.

After lunch, M and I had 30 minutes of pair tutoring, of which we have to fill about 20 minutes with random conversation. Since speech is the last of the four skills that I develop in any language, it’s a variant of one of my personal Hells. P. is a very good teacher, and M a very understanding pair tutor, but it’s still less than fun. After that, I walked back to my host-family’s flat, were I did 3+ hours of home task (and didn’t finish) before dinner. Dinner was galupsi and potato vareniki. After dinner, I helped my host-mom my borshch – I washed and peeled potatoes, a beet, and a carrot. Then, I went back to my home-task. I did a few more hours of it (wrote a small text on what’s new in show business, used two online translators plus my various notes; then wrote two small dialogues for a take-home test), before writing this massive update. I’m going to read for  a bit before I go to bed. Tomorrow looks to be along day, tech sessions and Russian. At least I don’t have 90 minutes of teaching, as all schools (not preschools or university) have this week off.

22 October 2013: H.O.U.N.D.

22 October 2013

Tuesday, I got up, got dressed, had breakfast, and walked down to School #5, where I was to teach a double lesson. The lesson was on a section of The Hound of the Baskervilles, as every unit or two there is a section from a classic book. The section I was teaching was the section from when Dr. Watson learned about the danger to Sir Henry Baskerville to when he finds a hiding place and a mysterious watcher. I had them sum-up what happened in the previous episodes and tell me who the important character ware, before went over the current episode. First, though, we went over key vocab that they wouldn’t know. I gave them the Russian word (which I had one of my students read), and asked them to describe the word in English. The textbook had broken The Hound of the Baskervilles into 7 sections, and there was a cartoon episode for each section. The episodes were about 5 minutes long, and were accompanied by a comic strip. My students had to answer questions about the text, and infer the identity of the “Midnight Watcher” (spoiler alert, it’s Sherlock Holmes). The first lesson of the double lesson was practice – I reviewed the rules of pronouns and then they did exercises about those rules. The class ended, and we all had a 15min break. I took the time to relax a bit before my next class. My counterpart told me that I did a perfect job with the first lesson.

My second lesson was a harder lesson, as I was trying to get them to apply what they know. My Application was a discussion of the episode, and the novel in general. I asked them who the midnight watcher was, and why. I asked them if they thought the Hound was real, and why. I asked them if Sir Henry thought the Hound was real, and why. I also asked then why one of Sir Henry’s boots (yes, one) was stolen. One group gave spoiler the correct answer – the wanted to give the Hound his scent. Somebody else read ahead to confirm his belief about the Hound being real. When I finished up, I asked my counterpart to assign home task, and they got to working on that, as they had about 5 minutes left. Filling 85 of 90 minutes seemed impressive, so I didn’t worry, especially as I had a hard time getting them speaking in the second half of the lesson. I was observed by S and peer-observed by L.

After class, I got the lesson that my counterpart wants me to teach. Not next Tuesday, though, as all schools in Ukraine have a break. I have a large amount of material to cover, and a double lesson to cover it in. After that, we had a Tech Session, where we learned about the 4 skills, and how to teach them.

The four skills are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They are necessary to understand any language, but can be difficult to teach. We have to remember our student’s ages and abilities when we pick our materials. There needs to be a specific purpose for everything that we have them do, as we to avoid overwhelming them. We then used our next lesson to ‘plan’ how to use all of the 4 skills. After that, we went to the grocery store, as our LCF was out. I got some water and some sweet cheese for lunch. Once we were back in his flat, we had lunch and then started class.

There, we went over the diorama that we did Monday, reading out what we’d written. We learned some new grammar rules, as we had made some mistakes. After that, we wrote down a question, and passed them around, to answer our classmate’s question. We are going to do that everyday. After that, we went over problems in the flat. We went over common problem, and who to call. We then practiced dialogues about what the problem was. We were broken into pairs, and each pair had a different problem and a different emergency number to call. After that, we a break, where we made coffee or tea and had a moment to speak English.

After our break, we learned a new tongue-twister, and practiced it. We’re supposed to have a competition on Wednesday, to see who says it the best and the fastest.

After that, we learned some new verbs on motion. In Russian, to form various English tenses, you use different verbs. The verb for “I was walking to the store when” is a different verb than “I walked to the store.” We went over them, practiced them, used them, and were assigned them for homework.

After that, I walked back to the flat, where I had borshch and did my homework. I hung-out with my host-family for a bit, read a bit, and went to bed.

21 October 2013

21 October 2013

Moday, I got up, got dressed, had breakfast, and walked down to class. Monday was the first day of rotation, so we have a new LFC, P. P met us and gave us our mock-LPI. I went first, and got to answer questions about what I didn’t know in Russian. P is a very nice and patient teacher, but, to me, the mock-“interview” seemed more stressful than Daniel Malloy must have felt facing down Louis de Pointe du Lac in Interview With The Vampire, because, in the real LPI, I can be declared “not qualified” in Russian. Not entirely sure what that would mean for my PC choices, but I know it would be “a bit not good, yeah.” I now have even more vocabulary that I need to study and memorize, and not too long to do it in. After I was finished, I rejoined the group, where we had to write out and draw what we do and have done in Obukhiv. We spent a lot time on that, as we had 12 squares to fill, and we had to put 3 sentences and a picture in each one. One picture has the 6 of us cooking borshch, and you can tell who is who, even though we are all stick-figures, drawn in black marker. We had a break while we were all doing our LPIs, we made coffee and tea, and had biscuits. We’d all brought something for P, so we had extra biscuits and sweets.

We went back to our LPI and creating our history map of our doings in Obukhiv. After we were all finished, P went over the list of helpful activities, and we asked him a lot of questions. After that, we went over the basics of Russian grammar, so he could see what we know. We divided words in to parts of speech, and parts of speech into changeable and unchangeable. We also put the parts of speech with what they modify and explained why we thought that. After that was our lunch break (more coffee and tea) and my individual tutoring.

There, we went over my mistakes on my LPI, and then my home tasks for previous lessons. I had made a number of mistakes, most of which were on the more recent vocabulary, or the vocab that I hadn’t had a chance to add to my personal glossary. We went over a paragraph that I’d written about my US room, and practiced my pronunciation on the complicated words.

After that, I walked to School #5, as we had English club there. Today’s topic was Halloween, as the students were very interested in how we celebrate the holiday. L and I had the middle ages (11-13). We played a clip of The Phantom of the Opera, and had a mummy race. This one had a trick. The standard rules applied – the first person to make it to back to the starting place won. First, they divided into groups, and were given a roll of toilet paper. They had to wrap up a group member in tp, without ripping it. If it ripped, they had to start all over again in the wrapping process. After a few false starts (covering the eyes, tearing and trying to cover it), both groups got a member wrapped from head to feet in tp. That wrapped person had to hop a few metres forward and back, then get unwrapped before the other person. It was a tie – one group hopped faster, but the other group was faster getting the tp off. Then we passed out sweets, but we had them ask for them: Trick or Treat. We then talked about how Halloween is celebrated in the US, from costumes to parties. We had the say who or what they would dress-up as for Halloween. Then, it was time to go, so they left and we went to our lesson-plan tutoring. M and I went over our plan for our tech session facilitation on Wednesday, and then had our lesson-plan tutoring. My entire lesson is on a comic from Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles. Which has vocab practice, which practices pronouns. Tomorrow is a double lesson, so I have 90 minutes to fill.

18 and 19 October 2013

18 and 19 October 2013

On Saturday, I got up, had breakfast, and walked to S’s flat, where we had a link cluster tech session, which was about teaching young learners. We learned the important parts of how to teach them, and some activities that can be done with them. There are important things to remember, as most of these learners don’t necessarily have a great grasp of their native language. Keep it simple. Keep if fun. Keep it positive. We had a brief week debrief, when we talked about what we did this week, telling the other cluster how our week went and learning how their week went. After that, we went over our technical schedule for the next week. I learned that I am co-facilitating a technical session on Wednesday, as our cluster is going to Kyiv on Thursday.

 

After we went over our schedule, we had a X/C session, which was on Ukrainian history. We went over both the origins of Ukraine, and the Orange Revolution. I was the only one who recognized Brezhnev, but I couldn't recognize the national poet. After our X/C session, we went to a museum in Obukhiv, where our tour guide was a former journalist, who also made many (all) of the clay figurines on display.

After the museum, we went to the bazaar, where I bought 10m of wallpaper, because the wallpaper cost me less than a single flipchart, plus it is longer. After the bazaar, I walked back to my host-family’s flat, where I made myself lunch. I was just getting to relaxing when I got a text, telling me when we were having our community project update. Given when I was texted, I knew I would be late (I wasn’t even halfway finished with lunch), so I took my time finishing my lunch.

 During the community project check-in, we went over what we’d done so far, which was mainly look for the videos and decide on what we wanted. I’m in charge of creating original dialogues for the videos. Someone else is drawing our comics, and writing dialogues based on what I’m writing.

After our meeting, I went to the grocery store on the way back. I realized shortly after that I’d forgotten some things, so I made a note to go back on Sunday. After that, I made myself tea finished my technical home task – I needed to put what I did this week into the TEFL PST notebook, and fill in various parts of the TEFL book. I also wrote a lesson plan for Tuesday’s lesson plan – I’m teaching an episode of Hound of the Baskervilles. I had dinner with my family, and watched a little X-Factor. It doesn’t make that much sense, as most of it is talking (mixed Russian and Ukrainian), and only a little bit of it is singing. My host-mom came back while my host-sister and I were watching TV. The great-uncle of my host-sister came over, and watched a bit of X-factor with her, while I made Vareniki with my host-Mom. She made the dough, but made sure to come and get me before she formed the dumplings.

We made cottage cheese vareniki, which means that you take a piece of dough, flatten in to a circle, put a scoop of cottage cheese in the centre, and fold the dumpling over, pressing the edges together into one. The are remarkably easy to make. We all ate some with sour cream, and then I was able to make a quick update on my blog before going to bed.

Sunday, I got up late and had breakfast, before spending a few minutes online. I was cooking borshch in the afternoon, so I wanted to check my email and make sure the US government hadn’t shut down, again, overnight. After that, I joined my host-mom in the kitchen, and started making borshch, and guloopsi (stuffed cabbages). I washed, peeled, sliced, and/or grated many vegetables, while the chicken was boiling into bouillon, before helping with the guloopsi. My host-sister used a hand-crank meat

grinder to grind up some chicken, and my host-mom cooked rice. While they were doing this, I sliced potatoes, which were added to the bouillon. The carrots, onion, and beets were already cooked. I helped to fry carrots and onions on the stove, before mixing them into the chicken and rice mixture. You mix it by hand, and boiled rice has a very distinctive texture. Once it was mixed, I put a spoonful of the mixture on to a cooked cabbage leaf, and rolled the leaf up tightly. We started them cooking, and mixed everything together for borshch. After everything was on the stove cooking, I did the washing up and walked to the store, where I bought the things I’d forgotten the day before.

I walked back, and washed my clothes, so I could have practice washing jeans and dress trousers by hand. It was much harder to wash them than it was to wash t-shirts and jumpers. Then, I had lunch with my host-mom (borshch and guloopsi), and had coffee with my host family. After that, my host-mom took a nap, and I downloaded, edited, and posted some of my photos. I edited a few earlier blog posts, adding photos to the ones I had photos for. I have a backlog of photos and blog entries at this point. I spent a lot of time on this. I also wrote a dialogue for our community project, and emailed to my group, who liked it.

After dinner (more borshch),  I got a shower, and then got started on typing up the many previous days blog entries. I got up to mid-day Friday before I had to stop and go to bed.

18 October 2013

18 October 2013: SASW

Friday, I got up early, got dressed, had a breakfast of Kasha, and walked down to Russian. We were meeting early, so that we could have more Russian before several hours in Petrovski. In class, we learned a whole new subject – moods. I was scrambling to write them down as we learned yet another set of words – frequency. I managed to write all of them down, as well as their pronunciations and spellings before we were done. After class, V showed us her pre-rotation report on us (I need to learn how to cook and speak more Russian in the community), and we went to get the marshrutka to Petrovski.

Once on the correct marshrutka, we called Obukhiv 2, to know when and where to get off. Petrovski is the last stop, so we didn’t have to worry about getting off at the wrong stop. Once there, we were met by R and the cluster, and we walked down the roadbed to where R lives. He lives a small walk from the bus stop, but a beautiful walk. Petrovski reminds me of various, very rural, farming communities in the mountains. There were farms with poultry, goats, and cows on our walk down, as well as a corn field. We got to R’s house a little early, so we had tea/coffee before our Safety and Security Workshop.

Our SASW was run by SP, the head of PC Security. SP will have a combined 40 years in the military and law enforcement next year. He's a qualified sniper, a lawyer, was a combat engineer, former special forces, former militzia (police), is taking classes to become a licensed psychologist, and can speak about 5 languages fluently. I feel safer already.

Our SASW went over some of the risks that PCVs can face, as well as how likely they are. Some things are high risk (marshrutka accidents), others are low risk enough to make SP roll his eyes (terrorism). He also pointed out that what might come across as anti-American sentiment is (usually) just drunks saying what they can in English. We also went over Ukrainian law. You much carry your documents on you at all times, as there is a law that says that the police can ask to see them, and you must show them. But, you have the right to make a call before anything can happen. If you have your temporary residence permit, but only a copy of your passport (recommended), you might get fussed at (and potentially arrested) by a police officer who speaks absolutely no English (and, in my case, might take further offense that I’m speaking Russian). If the cop wants to arrest you, you are allowed, in fact you are encouraged, to make a phone call. I asked about reaching into my purse for my phone, and was told that Ukrainian police hold neither the opinion that everyone is armed, nor that everyone is reaching for a gun. We learned about the resources available to PCVs, and went over the manuals that we need to read and remember.

We took a break for lunch, and learned they had brought lunch for us: black bread, spicy cheese, and some sort of sausage. I washed and shared my grapes, as well as my cheese and chocolate.

After lunch, we went over the Ukrainian police force. They do not have a good reputation here, but it is for corruption, not brutality. There are many anecdotes about how good they are at doing their jobs – finding a perpetrator in under 5 hours, in a city the size of Charlotte, that the victim couldn’t clearly describe. SP says that he is more than satisfied with the police force here. Especially how they treat PCVs. We are told to ask for a police officer’s ID, and then to write down his name and position, so that SP can verify who he is talking to, if he needs to talk to them. We are also told to call him before we sign anything or give any statements.

After that, we went over what we needed to keep in our Emergency kit. This kit includes our entire medical kit, as well as a cook kit, a hygiene kit, and water. Then, we went over the Emergency Action Plan, and how it gets implemented, as there are many sections of the EAP. After the EAP, we went over the two highest reported crimes: theft and harassment.

We went over the basic ways to avoid becoming a victim of theft. There are people who decide who is to become a victim. Foreigners are the primary targets. So, speak a minimum of English. Project confidence, but not over-confidence. Know where your valuables are. Never pull out your wallet in the crowd. Keep you back to the wall. Watch out for distractions. Basically, be aware of yourself and your surroundings.

Harassment. In Ukraine, what is harassment in the US might not be harassment. We saw several examples of how to avoid harassment. The first is that ignoring someone who you don’t know isn’t rude in Ukraine. If someone says “Hello,” you aren’t obligated to saying “hello” back.  Then we went into workplace harassment. There are reports of a (usually) female volunteer, who’s male colleague or boss, harassed her. The example we were shown was of a PCV’s colleague putting his hand on her shoulder, leaning in over her work, and basically acting a bit creepy. American creepy, that is. The way to get around it – make up an excuse about wanting tea. Offer him your seat. As your counterpart how to mention that you don’t feel comfortable when someone leans over you. You see, in Ukraine, that sort of behaviour is expected from men, as they believe that they need to cheer-up a colleague especially a female colleague who is looking sad or depressed or worried. It’s not intentional harassment – he had no idea that he is making you culturally uncomfortable. This is another example of why you need to take a step back and think before you react to anything that is a cross-cultural moment. We need to remember that we need to avoid doing anything that could ruin our working relationship with our colleagues, but we need to be not uncomfortable.

SP also went over housing security, as there are certain requirements on PCV housing. We will be given a Carbon Monoxide and Smoke detector, as well as a fire extinguisher, and a natural gas detector. We then went over fire hazards, so that we know how to make fires less likely to happen.

We were given some tips as to how to integrate successfully. We need to make the right contacts. Accept and extend invitations. Don’t drink in public places. And become involved in the local community.

After our SASW, we took the bus back to Obukhiv, where we cleaned V’s flat, and went back to our host-families. On the way back, I was put more money on my mobile. I had dinner with my host-sister, and then I did my home task while watching “Everybody Dances,” which is competition show. I was doing my home task from about 7pm until about 1130pm. If you count travel to and from Petrovski, the breaks between units, lunch, dinner, and dessert, my day started at 830am, and ended at 1130pm.

17 October 2013

17 October 2013: my second ever class

Today, I was able to sleep in a bit, as my first class wasn’t until later. I got up, got dressed, had a breakfast of Kasha, before walking down to School #5 to teach. Once again, I swapped out shoes in the lobby, and then walked up to class. There, I taught a lesson on train travel. The writer thought that you should take the train, for many reasons. The text used the following words: strain, traffic jam, stare, motorway, (to be) concerned, convenience, (to be) worth it, and to cope (with), which I had try to explain. Two of them were easy – fare (they’d all taken the Marshrutka to Kyiv, and the bus around Obukhiv) and motorway (Marshrutka to Kyiv). Traffic jam was relatively simple – I used strawberry jam as an example. Some of them I had to use Kyiv examples (to be convenient), and some were very complicated. I then had them create a similar text, only in pairs, and on another topic. On group, the group with buses, explained why you shouldn’t take the bus. Which was very creative, both in their reasons (which included, “plus, they smell”), and in that I didn’t tell them which side to pick. I asked them to write a creative paragraph using their new words, and another, assigned, topic. Oh, my TCF observed my class. I hope I did well.

After class, my counterpart gave me some good advice on how to do better at what I am doing, and gave me what I would need to cover on Tuesday. I’m teaching her double lesson, which is a review lesson. Luckily for me, the review unit is a running unit. In the textbook, every few units, is a comic stripped section of a classic English novel. The novel in this book is Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles. My counterpart has the audio/visual components to the unit, but I still have to fill up 90 minutes of class.

After that, we went to watch Miss Ukraine, which was being held in the auditorium. It was a contest between 5 middle forms, who had to give a speech about their region (each one was representing a different region), dance a traditional dance, and sing a song. There was at least one other section, but we had to leave, as we had about 4 hours of Russian waiting for us.

I walked to the store after that, to buy some more things for lunch, and the rest of the cluster discussed what we were going to do the next day. I got back, had lunch, made coffee, and then we had 4 hours of Russian.

In class, we discussed things that we needed to know, which include that you are supposed never to go to another house empty handed, and that we needed to get something to bring with us to Petrovski, as well as for our rotational LCF. We needed to buy lunch to bring it to Petrovski, as R’s house is far from the main part of Petrovski, and we wouldn’t have time to go and get anything. Then, we went over important words to know in Russian, as they dealt with marks, daybooks, gradebooks, breaks, classes, and manuals.  

Then, we were given the phrases that would be used in our LPIs, and had to practice them on each other. We were also given some “tips” to help us on our mock-LPIs. No English, don’t try to say words that you can’t quite remember, and be prepared to talk about anything you mention. So, if like me, you majored in a foreign language (you are supposed to mention your major when you are asked to tell about yourself), you will be asked if you went to the country where that language is spoken, and what you did there. The obvious answer is that I studied (true), but that wasn’t enough of an answer. I was supposed to say that I went to (specific) museums, hung out with friends, and them some. I didn’t learn Russian for “museum” until Wednesday. Or how to say what I did after university, but before PC. I’m going to fell lucky if I don’t start speaking French during my mock-LPI (and the real one, yes), much less stick to Russian.

After that, we went over how to be invited to a party, as well as how to turn down/accept the invitation. We created a schedule, and then asked everyone if they could come to our party. We had to write down who was coming, and why those who were not were not. After that, we learned how to conjugate and use “to be able to,” which is just as irregular in Russian as it is in French. We then went over our home task from the night before (the one I’d forgotten after my 12 hour day, yay, more homework for me!), and then got the nights assigned.

After that, we went to the store to see if our stipend had been deposited, and to buy lunch/snacks/something to bring to R’s. After that, V walked with me to my host family’s flat, asking me lots of questions about what I am or am not doing. She fussed at me for not having cooked yet (I haven’t been able to). When we got back to the flat, she talked with my host-mom and sister. I got started on my home-task, as I had a lot of it, and I couldn’t really understand what was being said. I do know that V and my host-mom agreed that I could learn to cook on Sunday.

After V left, we all had dinner, and I finished my home task. After that, I was able to hang out online a bit, before going to sleep.

16 October: Kyiv

16 October 2013: Kyiv

Today, I got up, got dressed, had breakfast, and walked down to meet my cluster at 830, as we went into Kyiv. We had some Russian before we took the Marshrutka into Kyiv. A marshrutka is a cross between a van and a bus. It seats about 20. The Russian before Kyiv was mainly being assigned home task before going over the brand new vocab that we would have to use in Kyiv. Which was as helpful as giving me a German phrasebook and setting me on my way. Actually, the German phrasebook would have been more useful than handing me a sheet with random, brand new words, no map, and no bloody clue where we were going or how to get there! In case the idea of the game wasn’t apparent, we were to ask total strangers how to get places, what the monuments were, and further information. Our LCF pretended that she’d never been to Kyiv for most of the trip.

In Kyiv, we arrived at a metro station, which, luckily, was our starting point. We had to buy a token, and figure out how to get to the station that connected to our destination, as we had to switch metro lines. Switching was easy – we followed the crowd who was also changing lines. I ended up vary far ahead of my cluster at one such change, as I just went with the crowd, and got gently pushed on ahead. The first one to meet up with me (about 2 minutes later) said that she was glad that I had worn my blue hat, as it stood out on the metro. The Kyiv metro itself would be hard to get lost in, but you do have to pay attention. There are signs with the destinations in both Ukrainian and English at basically every entrance to the various platforms, as well as a colour map with the location station (in yellow), the line (in its colour) with its stations, and the link-up stations circled in their colour above the far side of the tracks. After we got to one of the main stations, we had to ask questions to find the correct station – the Kyiv metro is set up like Paris, with stations that service different directions. We arrived at the Metro station, and had to ask strangers how to find the train station, so we would know where to go if we wanted to take the Metro around Ukraine, or internationally.

After that debacle – the person I asked got very confused when I didn’t take a seat in the international waiting area and that I didn’t have luggage – we then had to go outside the station and ask if any one knew how to get to the street where the PC office is located. Most of the directions were either incomprehensible, or just plain wrong. If I had been doing this for myself, I would have had a map, not a list of questions to ask complete strangers. Once our LCF started walking in the correct direction, looking highly annoyed that no one was able to lead us, we had to keep asking random strangers how to get where we were going. Our LCF also made us conjugate Russian verbs while walking down the street. Talk about standing out in a crowd. Finally, we got the right approximant area, and had to find the correct building. Again, with someone who’d been there standing next to us, smiling evilly and telling us she had no idea where the office was. We eventually made it into the office (we had to go through security), where we trooped up to the Admin offices and were taken on a tour of the whole building. Which was very cool. The medical offices are on the 4th floor, Admin on the 3rd, support on the 2nd, and the rest on the first. We were able to hang out in the PCV room, which is where PCVs can stay if they’re in Kyiv.

After chatting with a few current PCVs – who told us to hang on through PST, as it get easier once you get a site – we trooped back up to 3rd floor, where we had to interview a staff member. I got to interview Vl, who is in charge of the language part of PST.

After that, we had to find our way back to the metro, buy a token, and get out at the correct stop. From there, we had to ask more people how to get the café we were stopping at for lunch. Most of the people we tried to ask thought we were selling things, and ignored us. Finally, we got to the café, which had a bit of everything, was very good, and not that expensive.

After lunch, we had to asked directions to Independence square. Again, our LCF had to lead the way, as no one was willing to talk to us. Once we got to the Square, we had to ask people who was on the monument and when it was built. As there were a lot of people offering to let you hold their pigeon (not a euphemism) for a photo, the people we tried to ask thought we were selling things. Three separate people asked the same French tourist the same questions. I got so frustrated that I almost went to him to ask him the questions – at least I would be able to communicate with him, and he wouldn’t think that a fellow French-speaker in Kyiv was trying to sell him something. Eventually, though, we were able to get the questions answered – one of the young men with pigeons was willing to answer our questions. We didn’t think about it until later, but we should have offered him a few Grivnya, as we did take time that he could have used to make his living. After that, we took some pictures of the group at the monument. Which was erected at the 10th anniversary of independence, and is the symbol of Ukraine.

 

We then had to ask how to get to what I thought was a metro station. Again, I almost intentionally asked the Frenchman, as we were having no luck. After one of the cluster got what our LCF thought were good directions, we started walking, I noticed a city map, complete with marked metro stations (and their coloured line; awesome). Our LCF looked at the map, and decided that we were headed in the correct directions. We kept walking, and eventually made it to “Golden Arches” which is the last remnants of the fortified city, from well over a thousand years ago. The is a statue of the last great king of the Kyivian Rus, who’s children pulled a King Lear and destroyed what was once a great kingdom. We also saw the cat statue, at which you are supposed to leave small change and rub its head for luck. We then crossed the street to go to the bank, to get our stipend. It hadn’t been put into our accounts yet so we walked back to the Metro station, bought our token, and took the metro back to where we started, before getting a Marshrutka back to Obukhiv.

A note on Kyiv. The city is beautiful. It is also a mixed city, much like the history of Ukraine. Kyiv is an ancient city. Ukraine in a newly independent country. The Ukraine was a member of the USSR. The combination of possibly a thousand years older than Viking Dublin, almost 80 years under Soviet rule, and 22-23 years of independence, make for an interesting city, as there is evidence of the history everywhere. There are buildings that look exactly like buildings in old Western European cities, like Paris, Dublin, Angers. Then there are Soviet buildings. The ones that look exactly like buildings in movies set in the former USSR. There are monuments everywhere. Monuments to many people and many different time frames. The metro platforms are architectural wonders, designed to be stunningly beautiful and fully functional. A metro platform that rivals architectural found in Paris, complete with the most informative metro map I’ve ever seen. The metro is crowded, and it has the same problems found in Metros in major cities. We had to stand for all of various rides, but that wasn’t anything. For the first segway of our trip, only one of us had a handhold (except for our LCF, who got on the train about 30 seconds ahead of us, and therefore had a very good handhold), so we were clinging to each other and trying not to play human dominoes in the metro. At one stop, I was able to get a great foothold, and clustermate was able to hang on me, lessening our chances of playing dominoes.

The metro stations themselves are very interesting. The platforms are much further below ground then Paris, DC, or even New York. If I remember correctly, a platform holds the world record for deepest metro platform. You take escalators down to them. Very long, very steep escalators, the railings of which move just slightly faster than the stairs. Going down was almost vertigo inducing, as there are adverts between the up and down escalators, which stick up at a 45º angle from the escalator. Very functional. Almost too functional, if you feel like you’re going to fall the entire way down to the platform. And, with that, I just came up with a great Bond movie idea. Bond falling in slow motion down to a Kyiv metro platform, only to land properly, get up, dust himself off, and take the just arriving train to main square Kyiv. Where action happens, and then the title sequence starts.

The marshrutka back to Obukhiv felt much longer than it was, as we were all very tired. I almost fell asleep, but that was within minutes of our stop. One of my clustermates made sure everyone was awake before we got to our stop. After Kyiv, I had an hour tutoring with V, who spent most of the hour asking me questions in Russian, and then getting fussy when I was unable to answer them, as I hadn’t learned how to say that yet. What did you do in Paris? Well…  J’ai visitée des musées de Louvre, de l’Orangerie, d’Orsay. Aussi, j’ai visitée les Tours de Notre Dame de Paris, le cathédral Notre Dame de Paris, le Gendarmerie, le Basilique de Sacre Cœur… Which meant that I guessed at half of the words. I barely remember what unemployed is (lit: “no job”), and I wasn’t sure how to say that I volunteered as an ESL teacher, and at the library. There is a specific case difference that I will never get, but V seems to think I got it, as I answered a few questions correctly. It’s the difference between Where? and Where to? I’m just parroting what she said, as it doesn’t make any sense. After that, I had lesson plan tutoring with S, as I had my second class the next day. I was going over a complicated text, so had to figure out how to explain some of the more difficult to understand words. After that, I was able to walk back, almost 12 hours after I’d left. I spent some time online, completely forgetting about my homework after a stressful 12 hour day.

Update

Hi all.

No wifi for time being.

I have a backlog of posts to upload when the wifi is back up.

**Wifi back up. My host-sister was kind enough to let me use her desktop for a few minutes yesterday!

Update: 16-19 October

19 October 2013

Just a quick update, as I haven't had time to post lately.

On Wednesday, 16 October, the whole cluster went to Kyiv. We went to the PC office, and saw some cool sights. I took lots of pics. I will post some later. Kyiv is an interesting city, as it is both ancient (it's probably older than recognizable Paris), but incredibly young (it was completely rebuilt during the Soviet times). Some streets look Parisian. Some look like the stereotypical "Soviet" streets seen in movies. Some are an interesting mix. The metro is an interesting mix, as the “Tube” itself looks very western Europe, but the platforms are not. There is a metro map that clearly shows where you are, and where the next stops are (including linking stops) on the wall over every set of tracks, only going in the direction the train is going. It would be much harder to get lost on the Kyiv metro, without a map, than it would the Parisian Metro, even taking into account the language barrier.

On Thursday, 17 October, I thought my second-ever class, and was observed for the first time. We also saw part of a "Miss Ukraine" contest being held at School #5. I got a halfway decent pic that I can upload. It was fascinating, even though it was held in Ukrainian. There were 5 contestants, who had to talk about their region, sing a song (traditional or not), do a dance. We had to leave before it was over, unfortunately, as we had a lot to do.

On Friday, 18 October, we went to Petrovski, where we had our safety and security workshop, with SP, the head of PC security, who will have a combined 40 years in the military and law enforcement next year. He's a qualified sniper, a lawyer, was a combat engineer, former special forces, former militzia (police), is taking classes to become a licensed psychologist, and can speak about 5 languages fluently. After our SASW, the cluster helped clean up V's flat for the rotation LCF. After that, I added money to my mobile, and went back to my host-family's flat, where I had dinner, and spent several hours doing my homework and watching "everyone dances." If you count travel, a few breaks, lunch, dinner, and homework, then my day started at 830am, and ended at about 1130pm.  If not, then my day ended at about 5pm. 


Today, 19 October, I had a 9am Link tech session, followed by a week debrief, and a X/C session, which was on Ukrainian history. I was the only one who recognized Brezhnev, but I couldn't recognize the national poet. After our X/C session, we went to a museum in Obukhiv, where our tour guide was a former journalist, who also made many (all) of the clay figurines on display. I got many pictures, and I will post some later. I also had a community project meeting, where we decided who's doing what. After that, I was able to plan my Tuesday lesson – I’m teaching the double (gulp!). However, it’s a review unit (pronouns), and the authentic text for this textbook is… Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles. So, I get to “teach” a section of Hound. It’s still a double lesson, so I need to have 90 minute to plan for.

15 October 2013

15 October 2013

Today, I got up, got dressed, had breakfast (Kasha and coffee), and walked to School #5 to observe a double lesson. Last week, I’d observed only half of the double lesson, so I wasn’t sure how Y (my counterpart) runs them. I saw today.

Y started her double lesson by having her students review terms for the weather, then had the students present an animal. She gave them cards, and had them describe the animal on the card. She then went over what they’d done for home task, which was to write a 4 paragraph essay on why you should get a cat. She had one student read their essay for the class. She reviewed how to frame a 4 paragraph essay, and then had to students come up with reasons why you should adopt a dog. They came up with several positive and negative viewpoints and the reasons for those viewpoints, before going over their linking words. They went over how to start the essay, how to add viewpoints, how to add reasons, how to add contrasting viewpoints and reasons, and how to conclude their essay. Then it was their break.

During the break, I got what I need to teach on Thursday, and talked Y about my learning of Russian. She was quite impressed that I have Russian for 4 hours… a day (most students study a foreign language for 3 hours a week). The second half of the lesson was spent with the students writing an in-class essay, which Y collected at the end of the class. Y went around the room to check work. At the end of the class, she went back over pronouns and assigned home task.

After observation, I walked to my tech session, where we went over the system of evaluation in Ukraine. The grading system is completely different – there are no failing notes. All notes come from the national curriculum, which are very high and very strict. Teachers will often gives notes in public, there is often no concrete reason as to why a student gets a certain note, and the students are very competitive about their notes. There are multiple types of evaluations, from a daily grade, to the national tests at the end of 9th and 11th forms. All grades are recorded in the Class Register, which is a document that is kept for ten years after a student has left, and is a gradebook mixed with transcript for each student. We went over the types of tests students have per semester, as they are graded on a daily basis, at the end of the unit, at the end of the semester, and at the end of the year, with the 9th and 11th forms taking national tests. We then worked to create our own grading systems – how would we evaluate our students, on the four skills. Part of our job as teachers is to help prepare students for their national exams. We went over ways to help make better tests, and then came up with how we would test the unit we were currently on. After that, we walked to V’s flat, where we had lunch and then 4 hours of Russian.

Today, we went over what we did in our classes this morning, went over a very complicated grammatical split-hair (which I still don’t get…), and then played a rapid-fire response game, where we had to ask our cluster mates questions. We learned about adverbs, and a few useful phrases, such as “it’s not important,” before taking a break. As it was getting late, we all made tea or coffee, to try to stay awake during class.

After our break, we went over our furniture and locative case. We practiced saying “I have a ________ in my room/kitchen/hallway,” with each of our new furniture words, before going over some new/irregular “in/on” forms. Most rooms/objects take the same ending when used in locative case (where is the blank? it’s there), but some don’t follow the pattern. We then covered where we live, as the unabbreviated form is in locative case. We also learned that addresses are written very differently in Ukraine. If you are sending a letter, you need to put the country first, followed by the city, street, building, and flat (if applicable). We then quickly covered what we need to bring with us when we go to Kyiv tomorrow, and got home task.

It was dark, but we all walked back separately. The streets in Obukhiv are very dark, with very few streetlights. However, I had my torch in my purse, and I used that whenever I couldn’t see the cracks in the pavement. I made it back safely, if a little late. My host-mom insisted that I have dinner before I did anything else, but I was able to change out of my dress pants first. Dinner was cabbage leaves stuffed with meat and rice, as well as a small bowl of soup. It was all very good. My host-mom left to go somewhere, but made sure to tell me that the hot water was back. I got a shower before I started in on my home task.

I copied several tables and conjugations into my home task book, to remember them later, went back over and corrected several assignments from yesterday (we covered what was assigned yesterday today), finished today’s assignments, and then finished a take-home test that was also open book. I had to write two dialogues that went along with a picture. After I finished that, I was able to spend some time online. Class tomorrow starts earlier than usual, as V wants us to have several hours of Russian before we go to Kyiv tomorrow.

14 October 2013

12, 13, and 14 October 2013

On Saturday, I slept in for a bit, made myself Kasha and coffee, and got to work studying Russian. First, I finished my homework – read, copy, translate, and answer questions – before I moved on to vocab. I learn best when I can copy the words and their translations down, so I copied most of the vocab and grammar into another notebook. This allows me to remember the words and to keep all of my vocab in the same place. I spent almost all day on this, stopping only for lunch and when I had finished copying up to the final unit. It took many hours. After I finished, I hung out online for a bit, and then had dinner with my host-sister and the next-door neighbour. After dinner, I watched some of X-Factor Ukraine. Having never watched any X-Factor before, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but all the contestants had to sing. The show was run in Russian, so it was good practice to try to figure-out what they were talking about. There were some pretty good and some pretty bad singers on the show. It was perfectly good for about 30 minutes of entertainment – I lost interest when they started showing the “confession” booth part of the song, as I had no idea what the contestants were saying.

On Sunday, I got up a bit later, made myself breakfast and coffee (I’m getting good at lighting the match on the first strike; I was able to light both burners with one match yesterday!). I then got a call from my cluster-mate, as we were meeting up to work on our plan for English club. We were meeting in a few hours, so I spent some time online before I left. I stopped by the store on the way to our meeting point, as I wanted to bring some biscuits (cookies) for the host. I was able to ask for the cookies without a problem, but I had some trouble asking for amount (I forgot how to say 200 in Russian…). While I was stumbling over 200 (which doesn’t follow the pattern…), the man next to me asked, as he spoke some English. I have noticed that Ukrainians in general are a kind and patient people.

I was early to the meet-up, so I wandered around in the small park near the well. I noticed that I was being observed by a gentleman (he never drank from his drink and his eyes were always on me), but my friends arrived before I could get spooked. After we all got to the well, E lead the way to his host-family’s flat, where we spent an hour and a half going over English club. After that, we had lunch (borshch, sala, a cauliflower and egg frittata, homemade apple strudel, and tea), and we talked with E’s host-mom. She’s a teacher at the “public” elementary school – there are no fees at the gymnasium, but the books and equipment cost more. She is a very good cook, and enjoys experimenting. After lunch, we went for a short walk, to a local church.

I’m not sure what the name is, but it was a beautiful little orthodox church. It was very small, but the inside was covered in murals, gilt and gold, as well as painting and religious iconography. The paintings were real orthodox iconography, with life-life features and gold halos around the saints. We’d looked around for a few minutes, before one of the older ladies, who seemed to work there, brought over a few handkerchiefs, as we ladies had to cover our heads. I had decided to wear my beret into the church, as I didn’t know if women needed to have their heads covered, so I wasn’t given one. We then met the priest, who was nice enough to talk to us about his church and its history… in a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian. While what he was talking about was fascinating, I’m not sure what he said. After that, we walked back, and got some pictures in front of the culture house, which is a staple of Ukrainian towns. E’s host-mom wanted pictures of the cluster before we split up.

On they way back to my host-family’s flat, I stopped at the market to get groceries for the week. I was able to do that by myself, with only a brief misunderstanding (again) when I tried to get 250 grams of biscuits. However, we figured it out. When I went to get a plastic bag to weigh some chocolate (in the grocery stores here, you get a plastic bag, put the amount of product you want in it, and give it to the person behind the bakery counter to weigh it and put a price tag on), there wasn’t a bottom to the bags. A couple behind me to get the bags noticed it too, and tried to point it out to me. I smiled, nodded, said “me, too” in Russian (meaning, “yes, I saw it, too”) and then apologized, saying I was only learning Russian. The husband then said, “oh, you’re learning Russian? Where are you from?” (in Russian), so I said that I was American. He nodded, and we all continued with our shopping.

After I got back to the flat, I put my groceries away and spent some time studying more Russian. Host-Mom had been away visiting her sister, so we had dinner when she got back (more borshch). As my host-sister doesn’t like borshch, host-Mom made scrambled eggs for her and me and the neighbour to share. We all had tea and chocolate for dessert. I spent some time online before going to bed.

Today, I got up, got dressed, had breakfast (kasha and coffee) and walked to Russian class. There, we went over what we did this weekend, and learned some new words. We then learned how to form the “if/then” conditional, which in Russian has be in the future tense. We practiced our hobby and daily routine words with if/then and therefore. We also learned two new “to go” verbs, which can only be used on the future, as they are perfective. We also learned a few less common hobbies. We practiced our new words and phrases along with the old before taking a brief break.

During the break, some of my cluster-mates had the rest of the apple strudel (E’s host-mom insisted that he bring it), and we made tea and coffee. After our break, we learned some important “moods” and practiced them. We also went over some of the dialogues from various units, so we could practice things like our daily routine, and what we did yesterday. We then went over weather, and learned how to say “+” and “- degrees” in Russian. We went over weather forecasts and then learned the cardinal directions. Everyone seems to have made the assumption that “sieh.vehr.nie.ya” means “South” – they think I’m from SOUTH Carolina, as the “s” sound must mean the same in English and Russian. So, I was the one who correctly guessed “north” correctly as a cardinal direction. After that, we segued in to furniture. Which is just as complicated in Russian, as there are several different ways to call the same piece of furniture, and what it’s called may depend on where it is in the house/flat. Or what region of the country you’re from.

After that, we had lunch. As we had gone over on both of our two hour block lessons, my tutoring had to be rescheduled. We had lunch, and talked about English club, before heading to English club.

There, we broke the club into smaller groups, and talked about music. E and I had the oldest forms, and we had them volunteer to be our points of contact with the club. Then, we tried to get them to talk about music. We asked them about their favourite English-language music and why they listened to the music they listened to. The answers varied, from Adele and Lady Gaga to Metallica and AC/DC We also asked them their favourite English language song. We got a variety of answers, from Arctic Monkies and Papa Roach to Nick Jonas and Green Day. We then played “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” as it was a perfect example of the expression, and asked them what they thought the expression meant. They got it, and were able to give examples. We then asked them what they wanted to do when they came to club, and got an overwhelming response of listening and speaking.

After club, we quickly chose a topic for next week – Halloween – but we still have to decide who has which group and what we are going to do. After that, I walked back to my host-fam’s flat, made tea and got started on my home task. I always have enough that I write until my hand cramps, and then at least one more multi-part question. After I finished my home-task, I had dinner with my host-family. Dinner was soup, and cutlieta (a patty made of ground chicken, grated onion, and garlic); dessert was tea and chocolate. I hung out with my host-family, and then spent some time online.