First Bell 2012

Happy First Bell! And may the odds be ever in your favor.

Pat yourself on the back if you got that Hunger Games reference.

I know I've mentioned this before, but September first always marks the first day of school (also known as First Bell and The Day of Knowledge. I don't know why it has so many names), even when it falls on a weekend day. So yesterday my school held its First Bell Ceremony. I have to admit, it was a little lackluster this year. I don't know if that was because my director wasn't there because she's been in the hospital, or because the microphone only half-worked, or because there was no singing and no dancing. I did, however, get a nice bouquet of yellow roses from a student. I'm quite fond of this Ukrainian tradition of giving flowers at celebrations. We did have the normal speeches welcoming parents and students back, the welcoming of the new first form into the secondary school, and the moving of the tenth form into the top dog position of eleventh form. Then this little girl rang the ceremonial bell with one of the eleventh formers carrying her.

And in case you're silly enough to wonder if I know my schedule yet, that's a negative. I may or may be teaching Monday. I'll find out Monday.

Pictures On My Camera I Forgot I Had Pt. 1

As it turns out, I did use my camera this summer! And then I promptly forgot that I had these photos. So here they are. These are all from my time in Odesa and Bachisaray.

The Potemkin Steps in Odesa

The Twelfth Chair in Odesa

From here onwards are pictures from the Khan's Palace in Bachisaray

Clearly this is the place for posed pictures

Pretty flower

The Fountain of Tears

Rose garden

A weird tree growing on a wall

Cool doodles

Summer in Two Week Increments

First two weeks of June: see this post.

Last two weeks of June:
My friend Lisa and her roommate in Alaska came to visit! I met them at the airport in Odesa, and we explored the city and went to the beach a few times. It was nice to have someone from back home come experience Ukraine and get a better idea of what it's like to live here. From Odesa, we went to Crimea and the city of Bachisaray, which is a smaller town that has a lot of fun cultural spots, including a Khan's palace, a Tartar artists' collective, and lost of yummy Tartar food to eat. We also climbed Mangup-Kale, which is an ancient cave town not too far from Bachisaray. From there, we traveled to Yalta for a day to swim with jelly fish, ride a cable car, explore some more, and eat more food. Then we went to Kyiv and saw pretty much everything there is to see there, and ate at a fake French bakery more than once.

First two weeks of July:
I was at home. Hanging out, running, and other miscellaneous, non-exciting things.

Last two weeks of July:
I traveled to my friend Shannon's site in Khersons'ka Oblast, and so did our friend Jordan. We completed Peace Corps pre-service training together back in the beginning of our service, and we decided to do a circuit of visiting everyone's site. We mostly just talked, hung out, cooked food together, watched lots of movies and television, and explored. Then we moseyed on over to my site and did the same. Then we went to Jordan's site in Kirovograds'ka Oblast. Repeat the above mentioned activities, plus an evening of barbecue and a bar outing.

First two weeks of August:
Shannon decided to come back to my site to hang out, instead of being alone and intensely bored by herself at her site. Again, we mostly did the same things as before, and it was nice to have the company.

Last two weeks of August:
Me hanging out  by myself in my house, thinking about what I need to do to get my life in order for when I leave Ukraine in less than four months. This mostly entails me thinking about all the stuff I've accumulated and how I need to get rid of some of it (I actually haven't accumulated that much, but still) and looking up potential job information. August 15 was the first day teachers were supposed to head back into school and start preparing. I didn't do this. There's really nothing for me to do if I go in, besides be seen, and I think I only need one week of that, so I'm going in starting tomorrow. I probably won't end up doing anything but reading or studying Ukrainian, and then going home.

Sometimes

Sometimes I realize how super weird/super cool my life is when I do something ordinary like say hello to a group of kids in three languages.

Reading

I'm back from my trip with friends and I've been enjoying catching up on some reading. So I figured I'd share some of my favorite articles. At first, I thought they were all unrelated but after I thought about it, they're all connected in certain ways.

The 'Busy' Trap
Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day... I can't help but wonder whether all this historic exhaustion isn't a way of covering up the fact that most of what we do doesn't matter.

Redefining Success and Celebrating the Unremarkable
"In our unspoken but not so subtle Darwinian competition with one another - which springs, I think, from our fear of our own insignificance, a subset of our dread of mortality - we have of late, we Americans, to our detriment, come to love accolades more than genuine achievement," he told the students and parents.

"You make a lot of money or have athletic success. That's a very, very narrow definition. What about being compassionate and living a life of integrity?"

How do we go back to the idea that ordinary can be extraordinary? How do we teach our children - and remind ourselves - that life doesn't have to be all about public recognition and prizes, but can be more about our relationships and special moments?

Vacation Sabotage - Don't Let It Happen to You!

Oh Glory by the wonderful Hayley Williams

June

The first two weeks of June were utter boredom. I have no responsibilities anywhere from now until school starts, so I've mostly sat around on the internet, read or intensely cleaned things in my house. My landlady went to Egypt with her family, so I did get to experience what it was like to be here completely by myself. It was strange - not bad - but I prefer it when she's here. Also, Euro 2012 started. I know there's a lot of hype but since I don't have a tv, I haven't actually watched a game or anything yet.

BUT the most important and exciting thing that's about to happen is that in less than 24 hours I will be meeting one of my best friends at the airport in Odesa for a couple much needed weeks of together time! I AM SO STOKED.

Us in college.

May Wrap-Up

While initially I felt like this month was creeping by, towards the end it seemed to speed up. And now that everything is said and done, it doesn't feel quite so eventful or momentous as I thought it would. But here's what happened:

Victory Day
Ukraine celebrates May 9th as the end of World War II, called the Great Patronymic War here. My school had that Wednesday off from lessons and I attended the Memorial Service in the center of my village, where the war monuments are. It was a fairly short service, about 30 minutes, where government leaders made speeches, veterans were honored, and flowers placed on the memorials.

Then there was a concert in my village's Cultural Building.

11th Form Last Bell
This was a shortened version of the official Last Bell, which ends the school year for all students. Thanks to Ukraine co-hosting Euro 2012 this summer, the 11th form students had to have their exams and graduation ceremony finish up much earlier than usual.

Last Week of School/Last Bell
A lot of my classes ended up canceled, so I barely taught. This was really only disappointing in that I didn't get to do one last fun lesson with my students before summer. Otherwise, I didn't really care much. Also, my school held a traditional Pioneer's Day. I had no idea what this was other than what my kids kept telling me: that they were going to the soccer fields to have some kind of contest eating buckwheat. I was really confused until I showed up and realized it was basically like a picnic/field day. The 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th forms camp out in the fields and make food, play football and have contests. Then, each class brings a sample of the buckwheat concoction they made to the jury and a winner is chosen. It's a pretty cute and relaxing day. I ended up sitting with the 7th form, who are some of my favorite students and my counterpart is the class leader for that form.