10 - 11 December 2013: Olexandriya

10 December and 11 December 2013

On Tuesday, 10 December, I got up early, got dressed, and went down for a hasty breakfast before getting on busses to go to the US Embassy. It took over an hour to get to the Embassy, because of traffic in Kyiv. Once there, we had to wait for 20 minutes in the cold, as we were the last few on the bus, and therefore the last few off the bus. We had to have our passports, we had to let our bags be inspected (no cameras, bummer), and we had to go through a metal detector as well as be wanded down. That was before we were even on Embassy grounds itself. Which actually makes sense – according to international law, the US Embassy is US territory. Once inside the Embassy, we checked our coats, and went into the main room, where the ceremony would be taking place.

There, we learned that it would be close to an hour before the ceremony began. We were told that we could get pictures (there was a PC person and an Embassy photographer covering the event) in front of the sign. When the CD arrived, we could get pictures with him. I bought some coffee (the real deal, not instant), which was very nice. After that, I had a chat with a lot of my fellow PCVs, as we waited for the ceremony to start.

Once it started, everyone was introduced. The ceremony was translated in to Ukrainian by a member of PC Admin, who grew up wanting to be a translator. Various PCVs who brought instruments played the dual national anthems. The Ukrainian anthem was played as a sax solo; the American anthem as guitar and choral ensemble. The CD gave a long talk about what it means to be a PCV (he was one of the first PCVs – 1961 – in Morocco), and why what we do is important. Then, we were officially sworn in as Volunteers, by the deputy head of the mission in Ukraine. He gave a long speech about what we, as American Volunteers, represent to the people of Ukraine. There were also important people in the Ukrainian Education system, who are responsible for the TEFL programme being in Ukraine. They gave long speeches welcoming us to Ukraine. Three PCVs gave speeches about what it means to them to be PCVs – one gave the in Ukrainian and one in Russian, while another PCV (a native Russian speaker) gave the English variant. It was a very nice ceremony, and very impressive.

After the ceremony, we had a small time to hang out (about 10 minutes), before we had to get back on the buses to head back to the hotel. There, we had lunch, before we had to leave for our sites. I had several hours before I needed to leave for the train station, so I spent some time online (got to chat with both of my parents) before packing. After I was packed, I dragged my stuff down to the lobby, where there was both friends and wifi. Several hours later, we had dinner (those of us leaving after 6pm got dinner), and got on the marshruktas (PC rented the van) to go to the central train station.

Once at the station, we unloaded the van, and went to McD’s to wait. Our luggage was watched by various members of PC security staff and the porters, who had it loaded on a trolley, and ready to go. After we waited for over an hour in McD’s, we followed the porters to our train car, where they loaded our bags for us. We had to show our tickets and our passports to get on the train. We had 6 beds in Kupenie class (a sleeper coupé style car), so we had one whole compartment and 2 beds in another. Our stuff got loaded into one (the upper bunks, below one of the lower bunks, and on the lower bunks), so we split up. M and I took the lower bunks in one coupé, and our counterparts took the bed in the other. We all had dinner (we were given a bag with a bottle of water, a Capri Sun, a Kit-Kat, an apple, and a sandwich) and tea (comes free with the ticket) together, before we got our beds ready and tried to sleep. Our counterparts asked for a wake-up call, so they could wake us up and we could sleep. I put my music on, and managed to zone and rest, but not to sleep.

At about 230am on Wednesday, 11 December, our counterparts woke us up, and told us that we had to get our stuff out of the compartment and get ready to get off. Once we got into Olexandriya, we got our stuff off the train, and were helped to our new flats by colleagues of our counterparts (my helper was my landlord). I was given my keys, shown around the flat, and told that my counterpart would pick me up at about 10am, to take me to the school. She told me that my boss was worried that the cold lunch/dinner that was left for me wouldn’t be enough, and I needed a real lunch. My counterpart left, and I was able to get to bed, at around 4am, only I needed to be back awake by 930am. I did manage to get a few hours of sleep.

I was woken up by my counterpart phoning me, telling me when she would be in my building. Then, I got treated to a 30-minute explicit rap concert, as one of my close neighbours was playing his/her music loud enough for the baseline to rattle my windows and walls. I took a few audio-recordings to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. Once she arrived, my counterpart and I walked our school. It’s about a 30 minute walk (which sounds much better than it should), and we walked down the main street in Olexandriya. I got to see all the main stores in town, as well as the main square (Lenin Square). We walked past several school, as there are many schools with many different specialities (music, English, Russian, math, science, etc) in Olexandriya.

At school, I met many people (everybody who works at the school, I think), and had a very nice lunch. Then, I got a tour of the building, and got to talk to even more people. Everyone seemed excited to meet me. I helped my counterpart set up our room (making more room for the activities used by the Communicative method), before I got to help with my first class.

I got to talk with the class, and asked them a lot of questions. They told me that they were very interested in as many clubs as I could offer for them. After that, my counterpart and I got my schedule at least mostly decided. I am teaching mostly older students, as they are talking their national and/or independent English exams and would like to work with a native speaker before the tests. I will also have 6th and 7th forms, as they are very interested in meeting with me. I am hoping to observe until the end of the semester (Dec 27ish) and then start teaching with the next semester (Jan 15ish). After that, we went back to our respective flats. My counterpart has called me several times, to make sure that I am okay and that I am not hungry. I had dinner (bread, sausage, and cheese), and am going to try to relax and maybe go to bed early today.