A day in the life

I thought it might be helpful to see what a typical week is like for me here. Then I realized that there are no typical weeks here. There are some things that I do regularly: every Wednesday and Thursday, I teach at a local high school that specializes in foreign languages. On Wednesday, I teach two 9th grade and two 10th grade classes, and on Thursday I teach one 7th, one 9th, and one 10th grade class. I also have Russian lessons every Wednesday and Thursday after school, with Oleg, who teaches younger students English and is featured in the PictureFest I previously posted. Look for the Christmas tree - he's the one that's not me. I am in the process of taking over a debate club that another Volunteer started, which meets every Wednesday night at 5:30, and I'm also starting a class for adults who are learning English which will meet every Monday at 4:00. These are regular things.
Then, sometimes I have teacher trainer seminars, where I work with 30 or so English teachers on various topics (the Communicative Approach to Teaching Country Studies), either alone or with another methodologist from the institute. Then, sometimes I go into work on Friday at 3 pm and am informed that I'll be giving 5 seminars in the next two weeks to university students who are getting their teaching degrees. One of which will be on Monday. About what? "Oh, whatever you want." For an hour and 20 minutes. And some days the copy machine does not work. And some days I don't go to bed until 1 or 2 am because I'm planning lessons or seminars or some other such business.
But before this, there were days when I would literally have nothing to do. I called Peace Corps to tell them I didn't have anything to do. They gave me some ideas. Then I suddenly had a whole bunch of stuff to do and very little time in which to prepare to do it. "Planning" isn't the most popular idea here...yet. I hope to try and demonstrate the benefits of planning if at all possible. Maybe, even, making a schedule in advance. Maybe even a week in advance. Crazy ideas.
So far, I'd say my biggest contribution to the city of Simferopol has been the introduction of classroom Jeopardy as a teaching tool. The Ukrainians are into it. Who doesn't love Jeopardy, after all? Hopefully more contributions will come in time. So far, my coordinator has been happy with my work, thea teachers have been happy with the seminars, the teachers at school have been happy with my lessons, and the students have said "thank you for the lesson" every day as they leave the classroom. I'm learning to stop freaking out when I find things out at the last minute, and start realizing that I will usually figure something out. I'm not sure if I'll ever have a real schedule here, which is very odd for me as a person who is psuedo-addicted to her day planner, but I have high hopes that I will at least fall into some sort of rhythm after a while.
Pictures of people and places are in the works for the next post. Until then...

PictureFest

The first cake made in my honor. Yes, that says "Alison" in Cyrillic. The "being impressed by Ukrainian cakes" appears to be a theme that will continue throughout my two years here.

This is my cluster with our Russian teacher at swearing-in. From left: Jeremiah, me, Lena, Trina, and Annmarie. We enjoyed furthering the stereotype that all Americans are ridiculously tall.

This is Oleg, who is not only a teacher at Gymnasium No. 9, where I teach twice a week, but also my current Russian tutor. He's a little on the short side.

This was the view out my window the day before my birthday. Quite snowy, as you can see, which was much more enjoyable to look at than the following SlushFest 2007. Here you can see a fine example of Soviet block housing. Seems Lenin (or was it Stalin) made a visit to the good ol' US of A, took one look at project housing, and found it to be the perfect way to house all Soviets. So, now they're everywhere. I live in one now and will move to a different one tomorrow.

This is my host sister Aliona in front of the New Year tree. She's more or less modeling current Ukrainian fashion trends.

This is the couch that converts to a bed where I have been sleeping for the past month or so. Maksyk, the cat, really enjoys relaxing in this particular corner of the couch. Despite his incredible fluffiness, we've gotten along quite well. In fact, immediately preceding this picture, I was reading Crime and Punishment (see right arm of couch for proof) right next to Maksyk.

These are my birthday flowers. Very exotic, don't you think? You might also note that they were given at approximately 7:43 in the am, which is about the time I amble out of the bathroom and begin readying for the day. Sadly, you might also happen to glance the Jennifer Lopez double feature on my desk. I apologize. This is what happens when all possible forms of entertainment are available only in a language you have only just begun to understand, and usually only when spoken quite slowly. Really.

And here we have my birthday cake. It traces my journey from America, including a variety of important places there: Georgia, Philadelphia, Wisconsin and New York (looks like my host family really does listen when I talk!) to Ukraine, with a brief stop in Kyiv before arriving at my final destination in Simferopol. Clearly the coolest cake ever. Also impressively tasty...and large. We've only eaten about a fourth of it in a week.