Celebrating Hram! I think?

So, I have been commanded to update my blog by my mother, so here I am! Please leave me some replies, so I know people are still reading! Don't worry, mom, you don't have to. I know you haven't figured it out yet :)

So, life has been as usual in Ukraine. More class and more celebrations. I was really happy that our old Ukrainian teacher, Ira, came back from the rotation (we had another teacher for 3 weeks while all the teachers rotated to different sites). She's super sweet and a great teacher.

In other news, we celebrated a tradition called hram on Sunday (5/23/11). What is hram? Well, thats a good question. I'm still not quite sure! I heard from James that his family told him that it's the church's name-day. Whatever that means. I've also read that it's St. Nicholas' day and not the Christmas one! Here's an excerpt form the website I found:

"Ukrainian folk tradition recognizes two Saint Nicholas figures: "cold Nicholas" and "warm Nicholas."

Cold Nicholas, the familiar winter saint, is believed to bring the first snow by shaking his beard. In Western Ukraine accompanied by angel and devil figures, he is celebrated with gift-giving as described above. As the patron saint of spinning, yarns and thread were brought to church to "add to his beard."

Celebrated in the spring, warm Nicholas, patron saint of farming, is said to walk the land to dry overly wet areas and dampen the dry. On the festival horses begin grazing in the fields, sheep are sheared, and buckwheat sowed. In port areas the festival focuses on Nicholas as patron saint of the seas. Cossacks, like the Greeks, take St. Nicholas icons when sailing the treacherous Black Sea."

Here's the website if you want to read more: http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/ukraine/

So, we celebrated one of those things on Sunday. The whole family came over for hours and hours of eating and drinking. It was fun, but I was very tired by the end of the night!

Also, I'm pretty excited because we are having our first site placement interview on Wednesday. We'll have a Regional Director come and interview us. The way it has been explained to me is that they will have our resume and try to match things that we can bring to our community to a community that needs/wants what we have to offer. So, hopefully I'll be able to be matched with a community that wants to have a French Club as well as an English one. We'll see! Only 3 weeks until I find out where I am going! 

Time is flying by like crazy. I can't believe that I'll be done with training in three weeks. Hopefully I'll be prepared for like in Ukraine on my own by then! 

Enough about me. Leave me some replies letting me know what's going on with all of you in the States. Miss you all!

<3

Erin

Victory Day, Viruses, and Parties

It's been too long since my last post! So much has happened since then, some good and some not so good. I'll start with the not so good. Last week I caught some sort of crazy Ukrainian virus that comes with a fever and painful stomach pains. So that was fun. My babucya was franticly taking care of me, which was very nice. She even tucked me into bed! Luckily, I got better in time for Victory Day!

In case you don't know, Victory Day in Ukraine is when people celebrate Nazi Germany's capitulation in World War II, or The Great Patriotic War as it's called here. We went to the center of the village at night where there is a monument to the village's fallen soldiers. The children did a fire walk where they walked with torches and then they read some poems. I think it would have been much more interesting if I actually understood what they were saying, but nonetheless it was pretty cool. After that we hiked up this hill where they have another monument to the soldiers. It's actually where 600 of them are buried. They have some tanks there and a trench that you can explore. After that we had Ukrainian class and then I went home and saw how people really celebrate Victory Day. With vodka, of course. We had some vodka and dinner with the neighbors and my host brother and the neighbor proceeded to sing the entire Ukrainian national anthem at the table.

Speaking of vodka, let me tell you about the party I went to last night/today. It was my host brother's and sister's joint 30th birthday celebration (host sister's birthday was just a few weeks beforehand), so the family rented out the canteen where the school normally feeds the students and had a catered party. With lots of food and lots of vodka. I think I can say now that I have mastered the art of drinking vodka in Ukraine and not dying of alcohol poisoning. There are a few options. One, you can refuse to drink completely (normally, by saying that you are sick or on medication or something like that). Two, you can drink every shot they give you and probably not remember much of your service in Ukraine, or possibly not survive it. Three, you drink about 1/3 or 1/4 of every shot that they give you, because you know that your glass will be full regardless of what you say. I believe the birthday couple went for option number two last night. Nevertheless, everybody had a great time with lots of dancing and eating very good food.

This morning I woke up around 8:30am (yes, mom, shocking I know) and got showered (a REAL shower!!! with hot water!!) outside and dressed and at around 11am family started showing up for the party part II! Ah, moonshine in the morning.

(Note: my family normally doesn't drink at all, only on special occasions!)

I've really enjoyed my time with this family and I'm really hoping to keep in touch with them. They always keep an eye on me and involve me in whatever they are doing. I'll be sad to leave them!

I can't even believe that I've been here for almost 7 weeks already. I'm still pretty worried about my Ukrainian language skills because it's just so much to learn in a short amount of time. The grammar and sounds are just so different. I'm also super nervous about where I'll be placed. Most likely it'll be a small village in Western Ukraine, but it'll be so different doing it alone! Well, I'll know in just under a month.

Also, we finally had our lesson on the post office, so I'll try and get some post cards out when I can. Sometimes the post office here doesn't work and we're not really sure why?

Ok, that's all for now!

In Ukraine, Ambulance is Taxi

Another week in Ukraine! Sometimes time feels like its flying by and sometimes it feels like I just got here. This week has been extremely busy and I have a feeling this coming week will be just as busy. We are teaching double classes on Friday because Monday is a holiday (again) for Labor Day. That means our Ukrainian classes will be even longer so we can have a short on one Friday. We also have to work on our self directed learning projects, grant for our community project, our portfolios, and our summer camp. Busy busy busy! It doesn't sound like too much, but combined with living in a new environment immersed in a new language, it definitely is. But everybody is still having fun and is in good spirits. We also have a new Ukrainian teacher for a few weeks. The PC wants us to experience a different teaching style. His name is Sasha, like almost all men in Ukraine!

I think my Ukrainian is coming along. I can now catch words and some commands when I'm in a group of Ukrainians. There are still many times when people just talk to me and I have absolutely no idea what's going on. It's hardest when that happens with little children! The 5 year old neighbor girls love to try and talk to me and sometimes I just have no idea what they are saying haha.

I also had some more cultural moments this week. For example, usually in America when you are waiting in line for the ATM, people leave a considerable amount of space for the person actually using the ATM. Not in Ukraine. Personal space is very,very different here! The lady behind me was almost touching my back while I was using the ATM! Another moment: yesterday we were waiting for the bus to go to Obukhiv in the morning. The bus stopped, let a lady off, and then rapidly sped off. We were all just very confused as to why the bus didn't stop. Matthew was talking to a Ukrainian guy that we met at the discoteque on Easter Sunday (where you naturally go on Easter in Ukraine) and he told us that a vehicle across the street would take us to Obuhkiv. We walk over there and it turns out that that vehicle was ambulance. So, we all pile into the ambulance and he takes us to Obukhiv! Needless to say, that was an awesome experience. Another experience happened today. I was walking toward the center of town and saw a grandmother and a 10 year old riding on a vespa. Guess who was driving. If you guessed the 10 year old, then you were correct. I'm not sure what the legal driving age in Ukraine is, but I'm pretty sure it's not 10 years old!

Ok, that's all for now!