so i'm finally trying to do a update on life some 7 months later after my most recent relevant post. i figured a video might be more time conscious than a overly long essay filled with grammatical and spelling inaccuracies. So anyways, here is Part I.
some "woo girl" decided to scream right by the mic
yes... ukraine does a "count up", and yes, we were just as befuddled.
i guess i shouldn't have assumed that everyone partakes in a count down but come on, who would have ever though, a count up? in retrospect, it does actually make more sense, with seconds adding up to the new year. oh ukraine, you always surprise me.
kiev had their electric ish in order because it was a led central.
but honestly, in the words of the famous barney stinson new years in kiev was "legen...dary".
by the end of the evening, I ended up finding a few things...
i found my twin
i found my sitemate
i found my cluster
i found a sparkler
i found fireworks
i found a mask
the day after was also a site to see. i'm not quite sure if kids here actually believe in santa when you can find 20 of them roaming around khreschatik
ukraine and russia's bedazzled santa clause (дід мороз - father frost) with his granddaughter (снігуронька - snow maiden) who takes style tips from queen amidala are the stars of the new years and christmas holiday season here in ukraine.
Myrhorod rang in his arrival with a free concert that i accidentally fell into - молодець мені
with the american christmas season come and gone, ironically as I write this post which will have had its "post date" altered, ukraine feels more like our traditional christmas for many reasons.
my project will all my english clubs
it finally started snowing
ukrainian christmas falls on the seventh of january
christmas trees (or new years trees) go up around the twenty eighth of december
stores in town have lights and santa paraphernalia
і тд.
however, that doesn't mean I can't bring / force some "early" holiday cheer to the students in my school. a lot of our american traditions for christmas and new years are combined in ukraine, which makes distinguishing between the holidays much more difficult for myself during the holiday season.
that sadly took about 25 minutes to perfect
the 25th ended up being pretty low key. with just a small"ish" gathering of local friends over some chilled beverages, tunes of christmas carols, white elephant exchange, and intense discussions over the super powers. it was just enough america to get you back in the holiday spirit for the evening even though outside that apartment door the holiday spirit hadn't picked up yet.
the big finale before holiday break, schools put on a play of sorts where santa and his granddaughter are the main star. kids dress up in costumes (not quite sure why) and go hybrid carol / trick-or-treat for money or candy.
So the word's out in my celo that I know how to make mildly decent looking films, so now the petitions for help are rolling in. The first being at my the local kindergarden. I work there once a week teaching a painting or craft project / simple english lesson. I then proceed to get fed lunch, whether I'm hungry or not (I find for a man, saying no to food shouldn't be in my vocabulary).
here's project №1
So this video was shown at a later point at some kindergarden county gathering. I later received a jokingly sarcastic comment from a neighboring PCV regarding "what the hell I did". Now he must now make a video for his community kindergarden. I swear sometimes it'd be faster to send a letter by word of mouth then through the Ukrainian mailing system.
One may presume this acronym to be similar to YMCA however you'd sadly be mistaken. The PYLC or the Poltava Youth Leadership Convention is a four day leadership summer training that goes on in Poltava (the oblast center) where students are bused in from all over the oblast to improve leadership and project design and management skills / hopefully чуть-чуть fun. While I didn't attend the training over the summer, a refresher weekend training was held which I was able to participate.
While this camp was mainly designed by PCVs, what separates it from other camps I've been involved in was that the activities were held in Ukrainian (or Russian). While I would like to say my Ukrainian is that supurb that I could teach a solid lesson on budgeting, sadly I cannot. Fortunately staffing the event were also Ukrainian trainers, who were awesome. In my village I seldom get to engage with Ukrainian twenty somethings so it was a welcomed change.
From my perspective the event was basically
lesson facilitating
eating watermelon
forced embarrassment
painting
making monies
Now I feel I need to clarity
a watermelon eating competition was held to show students possible fundraising options. I happened to have eaten a massive lunch before hand, hence I lost
embarrassment will be left unclarified
painting refers to posters creation
making monies refers to soliciting nationals to partake in a photo shoot to raise money for a kindergarden
With every first of the month comes a few things...
new monies put into my account (all ~ $300.00!)
cell phone bills
monthly scheduling
etc
so basically I needed time to catch up on my life and sleep. And after taking a gander at what my gCal says my life will be like for October - not to mention it's supposed to start to snow this month, it's been awesome to have this weekend free.
I'll proudly admit I've basically been in my pj's for 92% of the weekend - only getting "put together" for my outing to town for the bazaar, supermarket, and ATM. I finished the book I've been reading (now in dire need of a new one) and caught up on TV shows, friends, news, emails, music (like I said, all things revolving around life).
Speaking of friends, check out this sexy Skype session with MP... granted it was 3AM in Santa Cruz.
If you feel so inclined, you can get your ukr dance party going while you read.
So as most of you know, my birthday has come and gone and Ukrainians spared no expense in "expressing their wishes of wealth, happiness, and that all my plans find their way to success". I tried to make it clear that I'm not one to enjoy celebrating my own birthday... however I guess either they didn't understand my Ukranglish / didn't listen.
The day consisted of a few things repeated over and over...
flowers - enough to where I presume a small garden was decimated (a moment of silence please)
the happy birthday song sung in with an Eastern European accent
home made cards
A few highlights of the day included a massive torso sized cake that the faculty refused to eat, a jar of Nutella gifted by the 5th form, and Robin Hood.
An interesting thing about Ukraine is that each city has it's own "day", for instance Myrhorod Day (which I think pertains to the day the Nazis left said town/city). Anyways, Myrhorod day ended up being celebrated my birthday weekend. So, once my school day ended, I made my way to Myrhorod where I spent the rest of the day with my sitemate Robin.
The 8:45 morning train was actually on time and wasn't late arriving to Kyiv - in essence my true birthday present from Ukraine. I was able to grab my Mickey D's and shawarma fix and hung out with friends for the rest of the weekend. This weekend may or may not have included ending up in a 80's grunge hangout (denim jackets included) where presumable self titled DJ Mr. Coco spoke some broken English words of wisdom...
"my name is Mr. Coco"
"make some loud"
"it makes me feel like oh my god"
"why is it so dark in heaven?"
"ladies get your booties moving"
All and all, a successful birthday number 1.
(We also may have taught hipster Ukrainians how to electric slide - great success)
So my counterpart asked me to put together a short video of my time in Ukraine to be shown at this educational department rayon conference - I then realized it's been five freaking months?! I dunno, it seems like time has flown by.
Enjoy!
Music: Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club, Furr - Blitzen Trapper
With a weekend free and need to be in Kyiv on Tuesday for a week long convention, I took up the opportunity to visit my PST community / family / pets / cluster mates in good old Koz town.
While it took a little longer then expected to get from Myrhorod to Kyiv (typical Ukraine), a good slice or I guess burger & fries of American fast food made everything ok. Though I can't believe they upped the Express Kyiv-Kozelets marshrutka by 2 UAH! Of course when I finally got home to Kozelets there was a massive amount of food ready to go - I should have known not to have eaten, however I ate again (and probably enough for two people). It was fun to be able to communicate and understand more - the dictionary was not actually at the table.
So my real mom and Ukrainian mom have this Facebook / google translate friendship going. So one of the conversations around the table was how my real mom informed Natasha that she wanted to see pictures of where I lived during PST (because the few that I took of my room and backyard didn't suffice). My rebuttal was how I thought it'd be awkward to just walk around the house taking pictures while Natasha or Zhenya would be sitting watching TV or something. In the semi quoted / translated words of Natasha, "You should have taken pictures, I will clean the entire house today, and then we will take pictures". I gave Natasha the reigns of my camera after showing her how to use it and here are the results. Unfortunately the kitchen was neglected to be paparazzied, maybe next time.
my personal favorite
The cellar where all the food is kept for winter
Now that everyone should be happy, we can continue. The first night in Koz happened to be yet another disco park event. For some reason I got contracted into being the photographer for the event - but I did get free admission to the disco!
It was fun to hang with the Koz group and host brothers, sisters, friends, etc... I managed to make my rounds to both Mary-Kathryn's and Kym's host families and of course got some good food out of it before they had to leave on Sunday.
The Kozelets vs Oster game unfortunately was won by Oster.
It was an all around good trip and I can't wait to come visit again.
