17- 28 November 2013: Long time, no update.

17 – 28 November 2013

On Sunday, 17 November 2013, I got to sleep in and chat with my parents. I also worked on my lesson plans and the community project.

On Monday, 18 November 2013, I went to Russian for 3 hours. After lunch, I had individual and pair tutoring before a community project update, where we outlined the plan our workshop. I did a lot of home task, had dinner with my host-family, and read for a bit before dinner.

On Tuesday, 19 November 2013, I taught a double lesson on recycling and writing letters to the editor. After that, we had a technical session, lunch, and 3 hours of Russian. I walked back to my host-family’s flat, where I did my home task, outlined a lesson, had dinner with my host-family, and read before going to bed.

On Wednesday, 20 November 2013, I had 3 hours of Russian, and a long break before another community project update. There, we planned our workshop. I walked back to the flat, had dinner with my host-family, planned a lesson, made materials for a lesson, did my home task, and read before going to bed.

On Thursday, 21 November 2013, I got to observe the first Demo Lesson – a lesson that everyone observes, so that they can see what works for what classes. I got to observe the 6th form, who were learning about household items. They are a very energetic group. After that, I observed a double 9th form lesson on various global problems – earthquakes, pollutions, etc. Then, I got to teach me Demo, where I had a review lesson. I had them review a lot of vocab, and then had them play reverse Jeopardy! – I gave them the answer, they had to do something with it. My students enjoyed the class. After that, we had a debrief, where we talked about our demo lessons, before heading to lunch and 3 hours of Russian. After class, I went back to the flat, had dinner with my host-family, and did my home task.

On Friday, 22 November 2013, I had 3 hours of Russian. It was M’s birthday, so some of the activities were tailored to his interests – movies. I also had 30 minutes of pair-tutoring (which is still torture and still doesn’t work), before having a long gap, where I was able to do most of my home task. After everyone finished their tutorings, we saw Oblivion, which is just as good on the second watching. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

On Saturday, 23 November 2013, we had a link tech session, where we went over our counterparts and interaction with them. We then had a week debrief, and an X/C session, where we talked about Holidays, Humour, and Slang. It was the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special, so I stayed off of Facebook until I was able to see the episode. I spent the afternoon and evening reviewing Russian, and had dinner with my host-family.

On Sunday, 24 November 2013, I was able to sleep in. I bought the episode, but didn’t watch it until that evening. I did my home task, planned a lesson, made materials for my lesson, and reviewed my Russian some more. I had dinner with my host-family, watched my anniversary special, and read a bit before going to bed.

On Monday, 25 November 2013, I had 3 hours of Russian, before individual and pair tutoring. After that, I had a community project update, where we talked about what we needed for our workshop, and on our “Readiness to serve form.” I completed and submitted the form, had dinner with my host-family, and did a lot of home task.

On Tuesday, 26 November 2013, I observed 2 Demos (9th form and 7th form), before co-teaching a class on the next section of The Hound of the Baskervilles. I had the students play two games: Who am I? and Taboo (which they played with full rules). They did really well and had a lot of fun. After that, we had a tech session (Vl from the PC came down to talk about electrical safety) about how to negotiate our workload at site. We then had a debrief of the day. After lunch, we had 3 hours of Russian. After that, I walked back to the flat, had dinner with my host-family, and spent several hours doing home task.

On Wednesday, 27 November 2013, I had 3 hours of Russian before a 3 hour gap before a run-through of our workshop. I was able to do some of my home task and plan my lesson during the break. We had a good run-through, as we figured out what we were going to say the next day.

On Thursday, 28 November 2013, I observed the last demo lesson, and co-taught the second half of the double, before teaching my final lesson. I had went over their home task (H.O.U.N.D.), and then into the next unit – man-made wonders and the passive voice. I had them read dialogues, then went over vocab words, before we played a game of Who am I? over various landmarks. After class, we had our workshop, which I think went over very well. The teachers seemed to like it. After the workshop, we had tea with the teachers, who wanted to know about where and when we are going to our permanent sites. After tea, we had lunch, and got started on 2 hours of Russian. We had 2 hours because it was Thanksgiving, and we could watch a movie if we wanted to. After class, I had some pair tutoring, and then walked back to the flat. I got to video-chat with my parents for a bit, as they had the day off. Took the night off, as I didn’t have class the next day. We all took our one personal day to relax after our workshop and before our LPI.

06-16 November 2013 - I've had a long couple of weeks.

06 – 16 November 2013

The last few weeks have been very busy. 06, 07, and 08 November were spend in PST University, where we learned how to be better teachers in Ukraine. We learned how current PCVs have adapted to the limited resources in their town, how to hold/gain the attention of our students, and some classroom management strategies. We stayed at the same hotel as the arrival retreat, which is a very nice hotel. Not that expensive, either, from what I’ve heard. On Friday, 08 November, I had my Site Placement Interview, which determines where I am going as a PCV.

Saturday and Sunday (09 and 10 November) was full of trying to catch up on any work I needed to do for the next week, which included having a community project and lesson debrief meeting. I also got to help cook a bit – I made cabbage vareniki. My clustermate, M, came over to hang out with my host-sister, and met the whole gang. The uncle of my host-sister’s uncle was there, and he insisted that we all drink some vodka. As a woman, I was able to sip mine, but M took his the Ukrainian way – as shots. We all had dinner as well – borshch.

On Monday (11 November), it was the official end of Rotation, so our original LCF, V, was back. We had 3 hours of Russian, most of which was taken up by our mock-LPIs, which are a version of the test that we will have to take in less than a month. While our clustermates were taking their mock-LPI, we did various activities for V. After that, we had our final English club meeting, where we showed a powerpoint and talked about various English speaking countries. I did my home task, and had dinner with my host-family. I can now hold a several minute conversation with my host-mother.

On Tuesday (12 November), we taught. I observed the first half of the double lesson, and then taught the second. I was observed by a person from the PC, who was impressed that I managed to teach modal verbs to 7th forms, without running screaming (her words, yes). I was told what I did right, and then told what I needed to do better. We had a Tech Session, where we learned some tips for how to manage large classes. We then had 3 hours of Russian. I did my home task, and spent some time hanging out with my host-family during dinner.

On Wednesday (13 November), we had our usual three hours of Russian. I then had an hour of pair tutoring, and an hour of individual tutoring. No matter how much the PC insists that pair tutoring works, it doesn’t. I only learn what I don’t know, not what I do know. Most of my individual tutoring was taken up by (another) mock LPI, but I was able to ask some questions about the imperfective/perfective aspect of the verbs. After that, we had a community project check-in, where we decided how we were going to hold our workshop, and our teaching/observation schedule for the next week. We also decided on a time to come to my host-family’s flat, to work on our project. I did my home task, hung out with my host-family and read before bed.

On Thursday (14 November), we were flying solo at the school, as our LCF was in Petrovski, with Obukhov 2. I think my lesson went pretty well – there are some things that I would do differently, if I had to teach the same lesson again. While I was teaching, a large white bin bag (one of the large ones that fits in a large kitchen bin, and has a red pull-tie) floated past the window like an absurd kite. It kept getting drawn past the window, much to the amusement of myself, my 3 students, and my counterpart. After class, I was told that I was doing much better. We then had our 3 hours of Russian, after which I walked back to the flat, and did my home task. I hung out with my host-family during dinner, and I read before bed.

On Friday (15 November), class started an hour early, as V wanted to go home for the weekend, and therefore needed to be in Kyiv for the train. We had our three hours of Russian, and then had a quick X/C session on humour and slang in Ukraine. After that, I went to Kasheniya (the grocery store), where I checked my account balance, and got biscuits for the next day, when my clustermates would be coming over to work on our Community project. I also refilled my mobile with money for minutes. I had dinner with my host-family, and read before bed.

Today, Saturday (16 November 2013), I got up and had borshch for breakfast. A bowl of borshch is actually a well balanced breakfast – a soup with meat, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, beets, beans, and sour cream. I then helped a bit with cleaning before my clustermates came over. They came over at 1pm, and were pretty much herded into the kitchen to have tea. They brought biscuits and juice, so we had a biscuit break before work. My host-mother reminded me (at least twice) to feed my clustermates – she’d made borshch and galupsi. We worked on our project for a few hours, going over the lesson plans and dialogues for spelling and grammar errors. We took a tea break in the middle, where we had tea/coffee and galupsi. After that, we finished proofing our project parts, and set a time for when they needed to be done by. Then, we recorded the dialogues. After everyone went back to their flats, I sent in my dialogues and shot the comics, which I then edited and converted to pdf files. I had dinner with my host-sister(s) and the next-door neighbour. I’m probably going to watch some X-Factor Ukraine before going to bed.

04 and 05 November 2013

04 November 2013

Monday, I got up, got dressed, had breakfast, and walked to Russian. There, we had a short class (about an hour) where we talked about trains, their parts, and their schedules, before having a brief break and then taking the bus to Kyiv. Once in Kyiv, we took Metro to the Vokzal station, which is the station closest to the train stations in Kyiv (Vokzal is Russian/Ukrainian for “Station;” the type of station is specified). There, we met P’s sister and asked her a few questions before she had to go. After that, we walked to the P/J Vokzal (Train Station), and looked at the arrivals and departures boards to find information about trains that we had been given. We looked for when it would arrive, when it would depart, when it would get to its last station, when it left its first station, and what bay it was coming into (if applicable). After that, we had to go up to the info counter and ask about a different train. We wanted to know when it would run, when it was leaving, and how much tickets would cost at various levels. The person I asked made me pay her for the information – she got irritated with the fact that I couldn’t understand her. While she was speaking nice and clear Russian, it was through one of those grate-like things that muffles and transforms sounds. After, that, we wandered through the Vokzal, through the various waiting rooms (and looking at the ticket counters), and through the passenger bay, where there is access to the bays.  We walked all the way through, to the “Southern Station,” which is the new entrance and where you can buy tickets for different types of trains. Then, we had to almost run back to the Metro station (Metro Station Vokzal is housed in the local train station), buy a token, and take the Metro back to our bus stop, and the bus back to Obukhov, as we were running late to English Club.

A few of us managed to eat a tiny bit of lunch before running to English club. There, we discussed film genres briefly, and asked the students to talk to their friends about their favourite film and genres. After that, some of the students told us their favourite films (which ranged from Iron Man to Warm Bodies to Titanic). For the last 20 or so minutes. we watched James and the Giant Peach, as we hadn’t really had time to prepare anything for club. The students seemed to love it.

After English club, we had tutoring with S (for Tuesday’s lesson) and I had language tutoring with P. With P. I went over my hometasks, and was assigned more. With S, I went over my lesson plans, and got some ideas as to what I should do as reserve activities, but not much more. After that, I helped a bit on the PST University poster (I erased the pencil lines from the storyboard after L and/or MM had traced them in pen). I then went back to my host-family’s flat, had dinner, and wrote my home tasks. I wrote up the field trip to Kyiv – what we did, when we did it, and about our train. After that, I wrote out a review activity for travelling for the cluster. After that, I made sure that I had all of my stuff set out to pack on Tuesday, and read for a bit before going to bed.

05 November 2013

Tuesday, I got up, got dressed, had breakfast, and walked down to School #5, where I observed M review phrasal verbs with his 9th forms. He went over how a phrasal verb works, and then had them had them practice with a few phrasal verbs.

After his class, I went to teach my double, and was able to “observe” a teachers’ meeting – all of the English teachers, the vice principal in charge of the specialized school, and the principal all talked about something. My counterpart, Y, told me to get prepared for class, and not worry about their meeting. I wrote the review on the board, and then wrote the new words on the board. Once the meeting was over, class started. I went back over my daily marks, and re-introduced the unit. I went over the review words, and tried to explain some of them. How do you explain “unleaded (petrol)” to 7th forms? I simply said that petrol used to be leaded, and that I didn’t think that Ukraine uses leaded petrol, but that some places still do. I then translated petrol (benzene) and kept going. Also, the difference between “rubbish” and “litter.” In Russian (and Ukrainian), the word is the same. I explained that rubbish is binned, and litter is just thrown somewhere else. I then had the students write a sentence using one of the new words, before the break. During the break, Y and I decided what I would teach on Tuesday, as I told her that I wouldn’t be there on Thursday. I have a very vague outline of what I need to do for the second class on Tuesday.

After the break, I taught, well, solo, as Y had to run for a meeting at the Dome Culturé (the House of Culture). I had them read their sentences to the class, to see how they did. I have a question that no one seems to answer – what mistakes am I correcting? Grammar? Accuracy? I had a student who had a perfectly grammatically correct sentence, but which wasn’t possible. I corrected her, making sure to emphasize that she was right grammatically, but the sentence wasn’t possible. Then, we went over the dialogues (I paired them up to read), and decided what rules were discussed. We then decided on some classroom rules (raise your hand) and talked about the rules of their flats. I tried to tell them the difference between “should” and “have to,” which seems to be the main focus of the Thursday lesson. After that, I assigned them home task, telling that they could get to work, as we had a few minutes left. I started marking them, and one student asked for clarification – they’d already done the assignment I tried to assign. Yes, one of the students pointed out that I assigned them something that they had already done! As I wasn’t prepared for that, I simply gave them speaking practice – read those sentences aloud, to your mirror, your pets, anything. After that, we had a tech session in the auditorium, where we talked about the necessity of effective communication, and what effective communication entails.

After that, we walked back to P’s flat, where we had lunch and started on Russian. We went over what we’d written, and then had various review activities. One cool one was a dice game, where we had to say where we were going, where we were coming from, an what we were doing each time we rolled. Another was an awesome review activity that dealt with trains and could we understand what the loudspeaker (M held his nose to mimic the muffled and distorted sounds from the loudspeaker). After class, we had a brief X/C session, where we talked about direct vs. indirect culture. As in, New Jersey vs. North Carolina. One says what they think (and means it), the other says something carefully designed to say what they think, but in a way that saves face for everyone. Instead of “I don’t think that will work,” an indirect way would be “Well, I think that’s a wonderful idea, John, but what do you think about ___x___.” After that, the group went to the store to get ingredients for dinner (they were making dinner) and I waited for S to give us her schedule, so we could plan the next week’s classes. Once we got our schedule of tech sessions, we planned our Russian and tutoring schedule for the week. After that, I walked back to the flat to pack. I met my host-mother walking back to the flat (she was walking back from the bus stop), and we talked for a bit. I had dinner with my host-family, and talked about PST Uni, for which I would have to leave very early the next day. I packed everything that I could, and read for a bit before going to bed.

29 October - 03 November 2013

29 October – 03 November 2013: another long update

29 October

Schools in Ukraine had last week off, so Tuesday started with a Technical Session, where we talked about classroom management. We talked about some issues in the classroom, some possible reasons behind those issues, and some possible solutions. We also went over tips and things to remember about classroom management. Then, we went over Self-Assessment (for the PC), before we moved on to our Community Project. We creates goals and objectives, and started filling in what we needed to fill in. A member of the cluster is coordinating what we need to write, and when he needs to email it in. After that, we had individual meetings with our TCF, where we went over our TEFL organizer and got to learn how she thought we did during her observations. After that, we had lunch and Russian class.

Russian class started with some new phrases of agreement and disagreement. We had to agree or disagree and then explain why we felt that way about a sentence. Then, we went over what we’d written the previous night – a text on new subject. I drew “Show Business,” so I wrote a society page paragraph about a musician and his career. We read our paragraphs to the class, pretending to be on TV. I got fussed at for using too many new words when I was writing. We then went back over the verbs of motion, and talked about the type of transport. We learned what they’re called, and discussed what we thought about them and how expensive/popular they are. After that, class was over. I had 30 min of pair tutoring and an hour of individual tutoring after class.

L and I spent more than 20 minutes trying to hold a conversation in Russian, me as the neighbour of a new PCV in a very small village. I got a very emphatic thumbs up when I asked if the new PCV knew President Obama. We then discussed our mistakes and L went home. I had an hour more tutoring, where I read my various written assignments, and we went over my mistakes. I seem to be inaccurate, but precise – I make the same mistake repeatedly. But, once it’s pointed out, I don’t make it as much.

After that, P walked with me up to the flat, as he wanted to meet my host-family. I showed him around the small flat, and he had dinner with my host-family. After that, I did some home task, finished and emailed the Self-assessment to the PC, and some more home task (translation) before giving up at past 1130pm. I went to bed shortly thereafter, to repeat the next day.

30 October 2013

On Wednesday, we started with a link tech session, where I helped to co-facilitate a session on NEST/NNEST and co-teaching. We learned what the advantages and disadvantages for teachers and students, and why a NEST/NNEST pair can be very useful. After that, we had a short review session, and then left to go to the Children’s Creativity Centre, which is where children can go to do various arts. We got to participate in a few minutes of a painting class, and observe an award-winning dance group. They demonstrated their warm-up and the song that they’d won with – Chubby Checker’s “The Twist.” After that, we had to leave, as Obukhiv 2 had to return to Petrovski, and we had Russian to get to.

First, we had went to the store, and then we had lunch. In class we went over all that we had learned in the past few days. We went over types of transport, locations in town, everything. I don’t remember all of the activities, but I know we went over the transport questions from home task, and talked about the types of transport. We also learned the words necessary to talk to a bus driver and went over them. “Stop here, please.” “Where is this bus going?” “What is the next stop?” “Are you getting off?” “May I pass?” and many more. We then got our home task – who are you portraying for Hallowe’en? as we needed to be in costume. I walked back to the flat, did some home task, had dinner, and did some more home task, before going to bed.

31 October 2013: Hallowe’en

Thursday, we had a community project check-in, so we all covered our costumes and applied make-up before Russian. During the Community project check-in, we finished filling in what we needed to fill in, and decided on what needed to be done by when. After that, we walked across the hall to P’s flat, where we changed (if need be) some of us applied lots of make-up. Because of the limited contents of our wardrobes, we were all fairly simple costumes. I was Lestat, as it was the only costume I had enough parts of. Plus, with the right movements and attitude, anyone can play Lestat. We had to share the little things we’d written about our characters, after which we asked questions about the character and about any words that we didn’t know. After that, we practiced our verbs of motion and directions using public transport to direct a clustermate around a town. We had to ask them were they were, why they were there, why they wanted to go there, and then tell them how to get there. After that, talked about where we’ve travelled, and how we’ve travelled where we’ve travelled. We had a break for lunch.

After lunch, we learned how to navigate a train station, and how to buy a ticket. We practiced “buying” tickets to various locations, taking various types of tickets. We practiced some more and got our home task assignments. We needed to do more bookwork and write up a story about a past Hallowe’en and a news story. I drew Opinion Piece. After class, I walked back to the flat, finished the previous nights home task, and had dinner with my host-family, and wrote my Hallowe’en story and my opinion piece. I read a bit before going to be.

01 November 2013

Friday started with new vocab, where learned how to ask the name of something. We then went over our Hallowe’en stories, and talked about them in. After that, we went over our news piece. For each of our pieces, we wrote new words on the board (with translation), and read the story in Russian. Then, our clustermates had to explain what happened in English.

After that, we went back over the train station words, and practiced them some more. After practicing the words, we got to look at a train ticket in our workbooks, which we went over and learned where to look for various information. After that, we got to look at some of P’s train tickets, and we asked our clustermates questions about “their” train. We then got to ask questions about an imaginary train – we were given a schedule, but it only had one train on it; we had to ask about the other trains. We learned and practiced some new words. After that, we were done for the day, with Russian, anyway.

Next, we had our Progress-Assessment interviews, where we talked to the training director about how we feel about our progress towards integration, being an effective teacher, etc. She said that some of our answers were answered usually expected from COSing (close of service) PCVs, not mid-PST PCTs. I think we’re all doing well in those respects. After that, we had a brief SAS session, where we looked at sexual harassment of female volunteers and discussed what should have been done differently, or what could have happened to prevent the situation from happening in the first place. After that, we watched Interview with the Vampire, as it’s one of P’s favourite films, and two of our cluster hadn’t seen it. We got started pretty late, so we were done late. I was walked back to my flat (Ukrainian tradition – men walk women back after dark), which we don’t normally do, just when it’s pushing 1030 at night. I watched a bit of “Everybody Dances,” read for a bit, and went to bed

02 November 2013: Football in Petrovski 

On Saturday, I scared my host mother – she didn’t know I had a Saturday class, in Petrovski. So, I walked out to brush my teeth, etc, she saw me and asked when I was leaving, and quickly made me Kasha. I got dressed and had breakfast, remembering that we needed to bring biscuits (it’s still think that biscuits should come with gravy…) to the meeting, as we were going to another person’s house. While texting my clustermates, my mobile told me to plug it in, so I did (the 10 minute charge got me to Petrovski) while I was eating breakfast. Then, I walked quickly to the store to get the biscuits. When we got to Petrovski, I asked their LCF if I could charge my mobile during the session (of course; motioned towards power strip). Saturday’s X/C session was on Gender “issues” in Ukraine, because gender-roles are very strongly defined and almost enforced. We talked about the fishbowl effect on PCVs, and other important things to know.

After our X/C session, we had a tea/coffee break, and then played football. Well, I photographed my friends playing football. I got some great photos. While I was taking them, I filled up my card, and had to delete the previous pictures before I could keep shooting. I left after I had almost refilled the card, and my fingers were freezing. I took the bus back, repaired my jacket (some of the inside shoulder seams had torn), and edited the pictures, which I then posted to Facebook. After that, I worked on a dialogue for our Community project, and we chose a topic for English Club on Monday. I had a lazy evening – had dinner with my host-family, watched a bit of X-Factor Ukraine, had a long video-chat with my Mom, and read for a bit before going to bed.

03 November 2013

Sunday, I slept in a bit, but was up in time to help make a salad. I peeled and sliced cooked potatoes, beets, carrots, and pickled eggplant. All before breakfast. Then, I had a perfect “brunch” – kasha (breakfast) and a rice and duck dish (lunch). All with coffee. Host-Mom had a big pot of borshch on the stove for dinner. The rice and duck dish was very good. The duck tasted like chicken, but juicier. It was very fresh; I think it was caught and killed a few days before. After that, I washed some clothes by hand and went to the store with my host-sister. After that, I did a lot of home task. Most of it was translation (transportation), but some of it was finding what we were going to do for English club. We had some technical difficulties, so we changed what we were going to do. I was able to do half of my home-task before I had a snack and tea with my host-sister. I then went back to my home-task, almost finished it, and had dinner with my host-mom when she got home. I then finished it, and was able to video-chat with my dad. I read a bit before going to bed.

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.