I spent the next two
weeks looking forward to going to L'viv for Spring Break. I had an airbnb
reservation and train tickets for a few days in L'viv, followed by the National
Olympiad in Rivne, as my school’s spring holidays were the week before the
National Olympiad.
I got to teach my
eighth formers all about First in Flight - they were learning about famous female
pilots, as well as aviation in general. As North Carolina is rather famous for
aviation, it works out rather well. I also got to give a presentation on St.
Patrick's Day (and a smidgen of Ireland) to my ninth, tenth, and eleventh
formers. My counterpart didn't want to translate, so I'm not sure how much the ninth form students understood. I decided to mention Northern Ireland and the Troubles, as
that is an important part of Irish history. They were confused, so I told the
stories about (London)Derry and Belfast from 2011, and my counterpart was
explaining and translating for me. I'm not entirely sure what she was saying,
because, while my Ukrainian is better than I let the students know, I can't
keep up that well. Then she says a word I know - Donbas. Yep, my counterpart
compared the Irish Troubles to the fighting in the Donbas. There are a lot of
striking similarities between Ireland and Ukraine.
Unfortunately, my
school changed the days of Spring Break, and instead of my Spring Break being
the week before the Olympiad, it was the week of the Olympiad. I learned on
Thursday, and I was supposed to leave Tuesday night. I only learned about the
change because I made a comment about paying for lunch. Had I not made that
comment, not only would I not have known that the following week was no longer
Spring Break, but I wouldn't have had lunch that week! My counterpart told me
that she thought I knew about the change.
One day, most of the
tenth formers were doing something else, so I taught the entire lesson. It was
a speaking lesson, as I kept asking them questions. I learned a lot about my
students, especially about who's family had what farm animals. About half of
them live on farms in the villages around Olex. One of my students has THIRTY
pigs. Another has five cows. It was really cool, and I liked being able to
teach the lesson. Some of the students were more interested in the non-traditional
lesson than others, but I would count it as a success.
I got to teach my
sixth formers about baseball. It is really difficult, as they have any
reference points for it. They don't know what the ball looks like. They don't
know how many players to a team, or what the field looks like. They don't
understand the rules, and they aren't sure there are rules! They asked me about
softball, which only confused them more. It felt a bit like my counterpart only
let me attempt to explain baseball because I asked. She didn't seem very
interested, and kept asking tangential questions, including questions about
softball. Made it rather hard to try to explain baseball. I still wish I had
chosen the infield fly rule… Would have been more entertaining…
I got to talk to my
eighth formers about airports, as I've flown recently. My students wanted to
know if they could carry on knives, guns, and explosives. "But what if it
only looks like...?" "But what if it's a souvenir..." "But
what about..." Clearly, "no weapons of any sort" was too hard for them to
understand. Either that or Americans are simply numb to the rules.
One day, in my
eleventh form class, we had a mammal sighting. I was trying to teach them some
standardized testing test taking strategies for their independent and end-of-year
testing, when one of my students looked out the window and yelled, "білка"
("bilka!" squirrel!) At first I thought he was being funny, but he
insisted that there was a squirrel. I looked out the window, and, sure enough,
there was a cute little red squirrel sitting on a branch in the tree. We all
watched it leap around and it left after a few minutes, off to find a better tree. I
told my friends this at the Olympiad, and SM said, "he doesn't get out
much, does he?" (the student who yelled "Squirrel!" while I was
teaching), to which I replied, "well, it is a boarding school…"
Friday evening, March
25, I left for Rivne. Rivne is located in the northwest of the country. It
sits next to Volyn Oblast and on top of Ternopil Oblast. It isn't a particularly large city, and it is
rather difficult to get to. Holding the Olympiad in Rivne is much like
holding a large national conference, convention, or the Super Bowl in a town
like Missoula, Montana. Sure, some people will have an easy time getting there,
but others are going to have to route through some other town(s).The only train which connects Olex and Rivne
runs once a day, and wasn't running on either day I needed it to… Which meant that
I had to connect through another city. I took the train to Ternopil, where
I spent the night with a fellow PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer). She was very nice,
and it was wonderful to meet her.
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| Tea at Chiliantano's. |
Step one in my
trip was having dinner at the local pizza restaurant, a place called
Chiliantano’s, as I have a tradition of
going there with my counterpart before I take an overnight train. She wasn't
able to make it, but I did meet my sitemates. I got there a lot earlier than
they did, as I wanted to make sure I had enough time to eat my dinner. And, I
was hoping that my counterpart would come. After my friends arrived,
they had to rush while eating, AH had to be on the last bus back to her
village, and it was a very early last bus. This means that she can’t stay late
in town, as the bus leaves early. We talked for a bit, but they had to run.
After dinner, I
headed to get a taxi – it's probably not safe to walk to the train station at
night. I had some trouble trying to talk to the driver, as I realized I'd
forgotten some important words. The driver spoke almost perfect English, so it
worked out. I do wonder why he's driving a cab in a town of less than 80,000. He
was really nice, and even offered to carry my suitcase for me, as it isn’t
culturally appropriate for women to carry heavy things here. Chairs are
included in this – I was fussed at by my colleague for attempting to carry a
chair back to where it lived, and told that it wasn’t appropriate for me to
carry the chair. Side note: I had an
issue with my shower (the hose was broken), and I had to explain it to my
landlord. After apologizing for not knowing what the problem was, my colleague told
me, “it’s okay, you’re a woman, you don’t need to know.” This same colleague recently told me that changing lightbulbs "isn't women's work."
At the station, I
got my ticket printed, but the women at the ticket counter seemed annoyed with
me, and point-blank refused to print my second ticket. Usually, I get both
tickets printed in Olex, as there is always less of a line. This means that I
don’t have to budget time to wait at the train station in a major city. In
L’viv, for example, I once spent thirty minutes waiting for my ticket to be
printed, and it only took about 30 seconds for her to print my ticket.
Once on the platform, I was briefly worried that I had the
wrong train, as someone told me that it wasn’t the 9.20pm train to L’viv (it
was the 9.20pm train to L’viv…). I had some trouble finding my compartment, as
the train pulled up to the platform at a slightly different spot than usual,
making it hard to judge the wagon numbers. I was lucky that the wagons were
numbered like normal, I learned later.
The train ride was
long, boring, and uneventful. Once in my compartment, I learned that
there were three guys in the compartment with me. One of them seemed almost
annoyed at us for disturbing his sleep. One of the men on the top bunks helped
me get my bag into the under-bunk storage compartment, and made sure I had my
packet of bedding. They also left
the compartment so I could change into train clothes, had I wished to. Despite
the apprehension I had, the trip was fine, if long and uneventfully boring, as
I’m not able to sleep on trains. One of
the guys snored like someone trying to put a running chainsaw down a garbage
disposal. I texted a few other PCVs, and listened to music for the
entire trip. One of the other PCVs at the Olympiad told me that she had had the
same experience in her compartment – three guys. One of the guys on the top
bunk leapt off the bunk to help her with her stuff – his mother or grandmother
would read him the riot act if she got even an inkling that he hadn’t done
that.
The passengers in Kupé (second class – an entire
compartment) buy Kupé-class tickets because they want to sleep. Most of them
get on the train, get their beds set-up, and go to sleep. I also learned that
the conductor sells cold beer (one of the PCVs mentioned this, as I wondered
how they had had a cold beer), and that there is a coal or wood-fired stove or
something near where the conductor’s room is.
My new PCV friend, CW2, met me at the train station in
Ternopil, and we went back to her apartment, which was rather far from city centre but was really nice. It's a
one-room, but she has a walk-closet and a nice kitchen. And a pullout couch. Win-win.
We went back to the centre, and had lunch. We first tried the new burrito
place, but it was closed. As was the new pita place. So, we ended up at a
Ukrainian place which had amazing borshch. While looking at the menu, we both
wondered what the other would think if we ordered a drink with lunch So, my
"would you think less of me if I ordered a Cosmo?" was met with
"oh, thank god, I want a beer."
After lunch, we went to the bus station, so I could buy my
bus ticket. I was glad, as you can never be sure that you will be able to buy a
bus ticket the day you need it. And I had to be in Rivne by a set time the next
day. The woman at the ticket counter said I should take the Ternopil-Rivne, not
the Ivanna-Frankivska-Rivne, as it was a better route. It turned out that,
though the route was longer and took more time, the roads were much nicer.
Trust you local knowledge.
I also got to meet some other PCVs in Ternopil, and that was
wonderful. I wish I was able to see everyone more often. We wandered around the
bazaar, as KD was looking for adaptors, and KR was looking for one of those
personalized license plates. We also saw the area where people sell pets. There
were kittens and puppies, and birds. CW2 was really sad, as she wants to save
them all. KD carries dog food in her purse, and feeds the strays in Ternopil (we
got to see that as we walked). The stray dogs in Ternopil are a lot friendlier
than the ones in my Oblast. A PCV was bitten in Kirovograd in January, the
same week I was threatened by a stray dog. The ones in Ternopil were very
friendly, tails wagging and non-threatening.
We had coffee at a nice little café, and then wandered the
city centre for a bit. We went into the local Catholic Church, and I got to see
some really awesome Icons. The church was amazing, with beautiful murals and
real Icons. We got to see part of a christening while we were there. I put a
few Griven (UAH) into the donation box, in thanks for letting me take pictures.
We went to a bookstore, where I found some adult coloring books, and KD was
thrilled that I found a Ukrainian-English phrasebook, as Peace Corps Response
Volunteers are not given any real language training.
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| The Catholic Church in Ternopil. |
After that, was had some time to kill before our reservation
at the restaurant, so we went to see Lake Ternopil. It was beautiful at dusk.
We wandered around, taking pictures, before heading back to the centre square.
There is a beautiful opera house there, as well as a stature of Taras
Shevchenko. We met an older woman there, with her grandchildren. CW2 went up
and talked to the older woman, as she had some dirt or something on her coat.
In Ukraine, not having spotless clothing is a cause for extreme embarrassment,
something comparable to having your zipper down while wandering around. It’s
the sort of thing when you are embarrassed for someone, and want to help them
fix it.
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| Lake Ternopil at dusk. |
At dinner, I met a lot of new people – both PCV and not – and
had a lot of fun. The restaurant is an odd one, as it has mostly Ukrainian food
(borshch, varenyky, shashlik, etc) and sushi. Ukrainians do love their sushi.
Everyone ordered off the Ukrainian menu, and we had a lot of fun.
The next day, on the way to the bus stop near CW2’s
apartment, I tripped and fell – full layout – while trying to catch a bus. That
was embarrassing. I had to bandage myself up at the café, where we stopped for
coffee for both of us and crêpes (blyntsy/milyntsy) for me for breakfast.
While we were waiting for my bus, several beggars came up
and tried to convince us to give them money. One spent a considerable amount of
time standing next to us and waving her collecting tin at us, and we think she
attempted to curse us as she walked away. This is really common in Ukraine,
that those begging for money will walk up to you and wave their tin at you. For
several minutes. I got on my bus, and headed up to Rivne.
Once in Rivne, we all learned that we were supposed to have arrived
earlier, as the time on our schedules was the start of the event, not when we
were supposed to get there. They also wanted to feed us lunch and get us registered
before the event started. However, none of us knew that, so most of us got
there late. It doesn’t help that there is no easy way to get to Rivne, as there
are basically no direct trains and driving time for buses from near-by Oblast
Centres can be measured in hours. So, we were all really annoyed and very
frustrated when we got there.
We were given a few minutes to change into our formal
clothes, and then we had to run for the bus that was to take us the to the
Lyceum where the Olympiad was being held. After lunch, we got registered, and
we had to pay for our meals at the Lyceum. There was a bit of a communications
issue with how much we had to pay, and we ended up having to switch to French.
One of the things that bothers us is when the native-speaker speaks really fast
in Ukrainian or Russian, and doesn’t repeat it slower, meaning that we can have
some trouble understanding or responding to it.
After registration, we watched the amazing opening ceremony,
and listened to people give speeches. It was a bit boring, but it was really
cool. We then had a large welcoming dinner. There were all sorts of traditional
foods. It was really wonderful, and we all enjoyed it. A standard Ukrainian
party has lots of food and even more alcohol. There are always many toasts, and
they go in pattern. First, to the event. Second, to men. Third, to women (or
love). I don’t remember the correct order for the fourth and later toasts.
Toasts in Ukraine (and Russia) aren’t the standard “sláinte” or “proast” or
“cheers” that you have in the US. They tend to be long stories or anecdotes. At
one point, one of the PCVs gave a toast in English, about how much we loved the
chance to be in Rivne, and to be at the National Olympiad. As the Spanish
Olympiad was at the same time, and some of the judges spoke Spanish, another
PCV had to give the same toast in Spanish. Then, I had to give the toast in
Russian, just to make sure everyone understood. There is nothing more
embarrassing than standing up and attempting to give a toast and realizing that
you can’t remember the words for “hospitality” or “friendship.” As my PCV friend
said, “just shake it off.” I was told later that the judges really enjoyed that
I attempted to speak in the local language. We went out for milkshakes after dinner, and found a restaurant dedicated to Elvis memorabilia, called The Pan Am.
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| SM, JG, and AM at the welcoming dinner. The food was traditional Ukrainian food, and it was very good. |
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| CW3, SM, and KK. SM had the Elvis, and KK and I had strawberry syrup. |
There were only the eleventh form students at the Olympiad,
though usually the ninth and tenth formers are there as well. This is their
future, as the winner is offered scholarships. The winner is usually a
FLEX-alum (FLEX is an exchange program where someone spends 6-12 months in an
English-speaking country (usually the US), living with a host family. You can
tell who is or isn’t FLEX based on their accent and phrasing), but not always.
The PCV group was broken into smaller groups, and we were
assigned to a section of the students. We proctored the reading and writing
portions of the Olympiad. JAM read the listening text in our group. She and I
were the primary judges in the speaking, as we got to ask all sorts of
questions and talk to the students. After each session, we had to mark and
score the papers. The listening and reading were easy, and there was a rubric
for the writing, but the speaking is very hard to judge. The students are
allowed to challenge their writing and speaking scores, so we have to be able
to back up what we mark.
When you’re finished giving a speech (or a toast) in
Ukraine, you are supposed to end with, дуже дякую слава україна (“dyu.zhe dya.ko.you.
Slah.vah OOO.cry.ee.na”. “Thank you so
much. Long live/Glory to Ukraine”). “Slava Ukraina” has the emotional
meaning closer to that of “Vive le Québec
libré,” (long live Free Quebec) than
that of “vive la France.” It has even
more meaning now that there is the situation in the Donbas and Krimea. One of
the most emotional moments for us was when we learned that both Donetsk and
Luhansk Oblasts sent students to the National Olympiad.
I have never really felt like a member of this group, from
the very beginning. This is really because I am the only member of the Working
Group who doesn’t have an overnight train, and therefore is forced to arrive on
Thursdays, while out meetings were on Fridays. That means I always had a train
to catch on Friday, while the group went out and bonded. This happened on two
separate occasions. I tried to get a second night, but they would only give us
one night in Kyiv. This showed a lot in Rivne, as I felt like I wasn’t really
welcome in the group. A few people went bar-hopping one night, but I didn’t
know they were going bar-hopping until we got to (what turned out to be) the
first bar, as they hadn’t told me. As I don’t go bar-hopping… Another night,
the group went out, but didn’t tell me until much later. They didn’t even text
me to ask if I wanted to join them. It’s the little things that add up and make
you feel like you aren’t part of the group.
One night, we skipped dinner (the food at the Lyceum was…
um… horrible) and walked back to the hotel. We then went out to a couple of
places. JG, KK, and I played “the whisper game,” which is basically a
lip-reading game, at one place, before the Rivne PCV joined us. There is a PCV
in Rivne, at an NGO. It is an extremely small world, as he is from Greensboro,
and his high school played Tabor in everything. How many times do you think
“Mount Tabor” has meant anything when speaking in Ukraine?
Thursday morning was when the students could challenge their writing and speaking scores (we recored the speaking sections for just this reason), and
we had a walking tour of Rivne that afternoon. It was led by two English
teachers. We got to see the outside of the war museum, which had aircraft from
the World Wars, as well as the remains of a jeep from the Donbas conflict. We
also walked around the park in the center of the city, around the pond. There
is a small lake at the center of Rivne, and there are lots of ducks swimming
around. We got to see the Afghan War memorial, as well as various iron
sculptures. We got to see the Golden Church. It is bright yellow on the
outside, and was beautiful on the inside. After the church, we walked down to
the bazaar. We saw the music hall (former church), and the mural to the
Heavenly Hundred. We walked through the bazaar, and high-tailed it to a café,
as we had to be at the Amber Museum for our tour. We had enough time to drink
our coffees, before we had to leave and head to the Amber Museum.
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| The pond in the middle of Rivne. |
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| The Afghan War Memorial (there was a very cute small child in a bright pink coat playing near it, so I don't have a somber enough picture of the memorial from the front). |
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| One of the many sculptures in Rivne. |
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| The Golden Church. Really that color. |
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| The memorial of the Heavenly Hundred and EuroMaidan. |
One of the largest exports for Rivne is amber. It is mined
around the city. The museum is really small and was very close to our hotel. There
were murals and paintings with amber glued on to them, as well as clothing with
amber stitched into it, and hand sewn replicas of the Kobzar. The crown of Ms Ukraine lives at the museum, as it is mostly amber. For 5 UAH, you can get your
picture taken wearing it. It was extremely heavy, even though the amber was
really light. I think it might have been steel, it was so heavy. There was also
a gift shop attached to the museum.
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| One of the picture on display at the museum. Mostly made of amber. |
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| Me, wearing the crown of Ms Ukraine. |
After that, we decided against going back to the Lyceum for
dinner, and ended up going to a Georgian restaurant, were we got Khinkali
(dumplings) and Khachapuri (fried cheese and bread). We stopped and got hot chocolate (with
marshmallows) from one of the many coffee trucks in the centre square of Rivne.
Most cities have a memorial or a statue in their centre. Rivne has a movie
theatre.
Friday morning, we all checked out of our hotel rooms, put
our stuff in storage, and went to the Lyceum for the closing ceremony. There
were lots of speeches, as well as performances. A choral group performed, as
did a young boy with a traditional Ukrainian instrument. A student sang a Katy
Perry song, and did an amazing job. All of the students were awarded
certificates. The certificates are given in tier, so those who “placed” were
given theirs first, while those who were second tier and first tier followed. JG
gave a speech in English, Ukrainian, and Spanish. He did a great job.
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| JG giving his speech. |
We left the Lyceum and went back to the hotel to collect our
stuff, before heading off to our respective places. Apparently, the rest of the
group went to Lviv for a few days. Didn’t invite me. Using Google Maps and
asking the hotel staff to make sure, I made my way to the bus station. There is
more than one in Rivne, and I wanted to make sure that I went to the correct
one.
I went back to Ternopil. I took the bus there, and it went
from almost 70°F in Rivne to 45°F and raining in Ternopil, so I was cold
getting off the bus. I spent some time hanging out with my new PCV friends. We
had dinner at a wood-fired pizza place, which was excellent. We all really
enjoyed dinner and talking about our lives. We spent a long time at the
restaurant, sitting and chatting. We talked about our last week, as I had been
in Rivne, KD had been at a Peace Corps training, and CW2 had been working on
her grant. We gossiped about other PCVs and our lives as PCVs, which is what
happens when a group of PCVs gets together – gossip.
I had a mid-afternoon train the next day, and I really
enjoyed being able to hang-out with and talk to my new friends in Ternopil. My
train back could have been really boring, but I discovered that I can read ebooks
on my tablet. I thought that I would have gotten motion sick, so I hadn’t
tried, but I was just so bored. I was able to read through several easy, yet
entertaining, novels before it was late enough that I needed to put the device
away and attempt to sleep.
I have really bad luck with train compartments, as I have
always had a snorer in them. On the way to Ternopil, one sounded like someone trying
to stick a running chainsaw down a garbage disposal, and on the way back to
Olex, one sounded like someone trying to start a lawnmower. For more than eight
hours.
Once back in Olex, I went back to teaching. I haven’t done
much in the last few weeks, as the dance and choreography teacher had a concert
recently, and kept taking those forms for extra lessons, and the eleventh
formers are now going over their independent and end of year tests. However,
now that the dance concerts are over, I have noticed that my teachers have
asked me to do more recently, and for the upcoming week.
I finished my assignments for my UNCG class, and spent hours
arguing with Microsoft Word and Excel for that. I have emailed various PC admin
staff, as I have to do a lot of stuff before I can COS. I have to have two
separate medical exams, and one will take three days, as I have to have a TB
test. I have to meet with a lot of people. I have to fill out various forms and
documents. I have to figure out how I’m getting home – which means emails with
the travel admin (who is a wonderful woman).
Spring is well on it's way here, with lots of flowers. It turns out that most of the trees in Olex are really lilacs. They have started blooming this week, and they smell divine. For more Spring Photos, see the
Facebook Album or the
Google Album (they may be updated more frequently than this blog).
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| The lilacs. They have since started to bloom. They smell amazing, and they are all over the town. |
On Wednesday, while we were going over the independent and end of
year tests, I saw a mouse in the classroom, and pointed it out. With a cry of “миша”
(mouse), my counterpart left the room in hurry, looking for the school
handyman. Who, apparently, replied “I don’t have a cat,” when told that there
was a mouse in the classroom. The mouse hid under a bookcase, but eventually
poked its nose out. Several of the students went after it. The boys, anyway –
the girls joined my counterpart in the hallway. I went to see if one of my
colleagues had a meter stick, and he tried to give me his pocket knife. I had
to tell him that we were not going to kill it, just catch it and release it. Luckily,
one of the students trapped the mouse and released it out the window. His last
name is “little cat,” so the “little cat” got the mouse.
I have to prepare more material for Monday than I’ve had to
prepare for the last two weeks, so I’m hoping I will be able to do more things
and be more productive in my last two months here in Olex.
