On Tuesday I will have been here for three weeks. Wait,
what?! This completely blew my mind this past week. Wednesday will be my fourth
Wednesday here, and it was hard for me to realize I’ve only been here two full
weeks. It seems like it has been months! Not in a bad way, though.
I honestly can’t really remember what all happened this
week. It seriously flew by. Cherish and I went to one school on Tuesday and
another school on Wednesday to talk to students in their English classes. We
didn’t really know what to expect when we first showed up to the first school
on Tuesday. We kind of just got thrown in and were told to talk to the children
about whatever we wanted. It turned out surprisingly well and was actually
pretty fun. On Wednesday we went to the other school, and luckily the English
teachers there had lessons for us to teach. I got to teach 8th, 3rd,
and 1st grade. I was a little intimidated at first, but then I got
more relaxed as the day went on. Let me tell you, those kids were so full of
energy and exciting. I honestly can’t wait to go back.
Our other children at our school seemed to be a little
better this week. I think they are kind of starting to understand what strikes
are, and when they don’t get strikes they get star stickers. It never fails,
the kids always come to us crying. That’s actually how we know we are about to
start teaching. We hear the chorus of cries coming down the stairs. It makes us
feel great. The kids almost always leave smiling though, so we must be doing
something right. Maybe it’s the magic words “It’s time to go home!” that get
them smiling, but I’m just gonna think that it is because I’m such a fun
teacher (;
Teaching itself seems to be getting easier. I think I’m
finally getting the hang of how it is supposed to be done. Getting little kids
to talk in a language different from their native tongue is very hard though.
They have no clue what you are saying and kind of just give you a stare like
“why are you speaking to me like that?” It’s quite encouraging. Not. It’s
tough, but I am liking it. The other day during snack time one of the kids
pulled out a newspaper from his backpack, looked at it, and then said “What the
hell?” It was hilarious. Cherish and I looked at each other and tried so hard
not to laugh. We definitely did not teach him that.
Most mornings for breakfast we normally have kasha. The
kasha we eat typically contains either rice or buckwheat with milk warmed up.
Not my favorite thing, especially the buckwheat one, but it’s food. The other
day our host dad, Andrei, knocked on our door and asked if we wanted breakfast.
We told him we did and he said we could either have potatoes or pumpkin kasha.
He told us the kasha was really good so we told him we would try it. We tried
it and ended up liking it a little so that’s what we are for breakfast. After
we finished eating we informed him that we liked it. He then responded “Oh
good! Now I can finally try it!” Andrei had used us as little guinea pigs. It
was hilarious. We got a good laugh out of that one.
On Friday our cook at school tried to poison us. Okay not
really, but it seemed like it. We are usually given juice to drink everyday at
lunch, but on Friday we walked into the room we eat in and we saw what looked
like milk in our cups. We got really excited! I don’t even like milk but I was
excited. I had a few bites of food and decided I was going to have a little
“milk.” Cherish decided she wanted to
have some too, so we lifted out glasses and right before I took a sip of it I
got a whiff of it and immediately put my glass back down. Cherish obviously
didn’t smell her drink and her face said it all. It was quite apparent that
milk was not in our glasses. We eventually figured out it is a Ukrainian drink
that is normally really good, but the kind we got was spoiled. Of course I
wanted to be able to say that I tried this weird beverage, so I took a little
sip. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to drink milk without thinking about
this stuff ever again. It was awful. Then last night when we got home from the
day’s adventures our host dad had it sitting on the table for us to drink.
Needless to say, we politely refused. But we did try it again…we can’t get over
our first tasting.
Saturday most of the girls all got together and we went to
the Water Information Center and it was really neat! I sat on a giant toilet,
walked through a fake cave, and stood inside a giant bubble. Then we went on a
river boat ride and got free ice cream. It was actually really relaxing and
nice. We saw about twelve brides on Saturday while we were walking around the city.
It was insane. I decided that I want to be part of a Ukrainian wedding. They
look like a ton of fun! Plus it gives me an excuse to wear the super high
heels! We walked around a park, struck some poses, and saw all sorts of
government buildings that looked official and scary. They were gorgeous though.
Oh and also on Saturday Cherish and I had Monster Energy
Drinks. I never really drink energy drinks, but I was dead tired so I had one.
One time I had a Monster and I climbed a mountain. That was a fun night.
Anyway, we never talk on the way to our marshrutka stop because we climb up
stairs and walk uphill the whole way. But after our energy drinks we talked the
whole way up! It was pretty funny.
The other day while we were waiting for our trolleybus to come,
Cherish and I were talking and a man came really close to me and just stared at
me. I turned to look at him and he said “It’s my life.” I just kinda looked at
him like “Why on earth did you just say that to me?” I was so confused. I had
no clue why he said that to me. Then he said “I love you.” It was pretty
intense. Haha, just kidding. It was so strange. Luckily after that he walked
away. I haven’t seen this crazy man since…thank heavens.
Sunday Cherish, Alexis, and I along with two other girls
from the Kiev 2 group, Karen and Amberly, had dinner with our “grandparents,”
or in other words an elderly couple from church who so kindly took us in. It
was nice and relaxing and it was so great to have Americans food and speak
English the whole time! It was awesome getting to know them and the other two
girls.
This week we started Dance Party Friday’s. Cherish, Alexis,
and I decided that after a long week we needed to have a little fun.
I saw naked man again on his balcony. He had a friend. He
was naked too. I ran inside.
Gotta tell you, I look forward to these updates now.
ReplyDelete