First Time at Camp (Северянин), by the sea

This June, I had the chance to experience summer camp for the very first time and I was a kid again! I made friendship bracelettes, lived in a girls only "cabin," made up dances for night performances, and laughed every single day. This post is about the first camp I attended (Severyanin), which recycled all the tried and true traditions of the soviet pioneer camps of yesteryear. Everything was extremely organized and planned out. (The second camp I went to was not as organized. That deserves a separate post.) Severyanin schedule, every day, to the beat of the same drum:

Wake up music from the PA

Morning Exercises

Breakfast

English Lesson 1

Beach Time

Lunch

Quiet Time (тики час)

Snack

English Lesson 2

Beach Time

Dinner

Nightly Performance

Discotek

Bed Time

It was nice to have a routine, and one that worked so well. The camp counselors and directors were amazing, too. They work so hard all summer long.
Let's see. I'm a loser for not posting this earlier and I'm trying to remember everything we did at camp. Logan and I judged a beauty contest, which was a very strange experience. It was for boys and girls and they would come up to the judge area and look right into our eyes and then we had to score them. I felt really uncomfortable, so I just gave really good marks to everyone and extra points to the ones that stood out with wink, or a kiss, or a song, or a 10-year-old with high heels. Ouch.
Logan and I sang some songs for the night performances, so that was fun. Also, I got to know my colleagues better and met Melitopol's youth. It was so nice to be so close to them. I sound like I was at some kid zoo but I mean close as in connecting with students face-to-face in a more intimate relaxed summery environment. So nice.
One of the best parts of summer camp--and there were many, because every day was wonderful--was hangin' with the girls (you know who you are) in the room and just laughing at silly things. A lot. Yea yea, the boys were awesome too. And all of them so good looking, wink! Here are some photos:

Girls, Beauty Contest

Boys, Beauty Contest

Discotek!

"If you want to be OK, study English every day!"

Volunteers, Director, and Bears

Football Match

Go team go! 

Seaside Ladies

Hip Action

Performance

We played Family Feud and Bailey and Logan were the Vanna Whites of the show.

Volunteers!

At the Azov Seaside

Last day of camp

Last night of camp with an amazing kid! And I'm not just saying that because he made Kerry and Logan signs...

Last Bell and the Unofficial Start of Summer

Well, look what we have here. Nearly a month later and I've come creeping back to my little blog! Right on time. This past Friday was the last day of classes and now I'm basking in the unofficial start of summer. The last bell (паследний звoнок) ceremony took place at 8 in the morning and consisted of the different classes standing in line in the school's courtyard, listening to our school director's congratulations, and watching some dance routines (I tried zooming into to the best dancer ever):

After the ceremony, the students all had one more class with their class teachers (each class has a class teacher who is in charge of a group of students throughout their school years. She is the ultimate enforcer.). Afterwards, I helped out with a scavenger hunt for the fifth formers. Their task was to find a native speaker and answer her trivia questions about America. The kids found me before I got to my post and I ran to the teacher's room with a large group of children in my wake! After we crowded into the room, they successfully answered my questions and continued to hunt.

I know this picture is blurry, but it really
 captures the scavenger spirit!

The semester went by so fast! It was all so new for me, and now that it's over, I'm a little wiser now. I've settled into Melitopol and at my school. I've worked with all different age groups. I know some of my strengths and weaknesses. Strengths: patience, creativity, organization. Weaknesses: being strict, classroom management with 30+ youngins, checking and enforcing homework. With this newfound wisdom, I hope that I'll be a better teacher next semester. I definitely want to have the students work on more substantial projects throughout the year, too. There is a lot to learn from the style of teaching here, and I'm hoping it will help me tap into a slightly mean version of myself so the kids can slightly fear the wrath of Miss Kerry moohahaha. Even my "evil" laughter sounds playful in my head...

A lot more has happened in May. I went to Crimea--twice! Both trips were amazing and enlightening and I will have to write a separate post about them.

On another summery note, I am super super excited that my friends are coming to visit me this summer! So far, we're going to go explore Kiev, Chernobyl, Auschwitz, and Lviv (not so much exploring Chernobyl as following a guide and trying not to drop anything on the ground...).

Logan and I are working at a summer camp this summer. 10 days by the sea and 10 days in the forest. I'm so excited. I've never been to a summer camp before and I find them enchanting. We've got lots of fun activities planned including playing a camp-wide game of Family Feud!

For all you teachers out there, congratulations on finishing (or almost finishing) the school year!

April in a Photo

This photo says April to me. Ukraine is glowing and growing now, just like the warm colors in this photo and my little host brother Vanya who can now speak and call me and Logan тётя и дядя! 

Foot Punches to the Face*

Well, this just keeps happening--the end of the month shows up and I haven't updated my blog! All the pour souls just waiting at the edge of their seats to hear about the next in-school celebration and dance-a-thon, or the blonde vs. brunette Ukrainian beauty contest, or the time I didn't leave my apartment for 24 hours on the most beautiful day just because...I'll spare you from all the details of what I've been doing this month and just give you some highlights that are affecting my current mood on the last day of April which is slightly frustrated but hopeful. Is there a smiley for that?

1- I watched Edward Scissorhands (Едвард Руки Ножницы) in Russian and it still made me cry (and not because Russian is still giving me a foot punch to the face).

2- I have been studying Russian and whenever I feel OK about my progress, I leave the apartment and realize that I have a long way to go before I get there. But, I'll get there. Wherever there is. Maybe Brighton Beach?

3- I really like my new Ukrainian friends in Melitopol. They are so bright and funny and fun to be around and it makes me happy--especially on summery evenings conversing about Ukraine and all the uses of the word/expression "daayyyyumn" in the "English" language.

*Awesome quote from an awesome Ukrainian in response to, "Oh, she kicked him?":
"No, it was like a foot-punch to the face."

I have titled this blog Foot Punches to the Face so I never forget this phrase and to remind me to keep studying Russian!

Oh, I Keep Forgetting

I'm sad to say that my brain is not a good diary. The moth that's living up there is leaving little holes. So, before I forget everything, I've got to blog it out.  No more excuses. A lot has happened in the merry month of March. The bare bones of what I've been doing can be seen in the outline below, but if it's meat you're looking for, read on. And don't worry--there are lots of pictures! 

International Writing Contest through Peace Corps
English club at School 16

St. Patrick's Day in Konstantinovka

6 hour school concert

Lecture on gender roles at the local Pedagogical University

A visit from Zap's finest
A visit to Zap Our Visa's into Place

International Writing Contest through Peace Corps

Logan was the oblast coordinator for a writing contest sponsored by the Peace Corps. I proctored and judged the competition at my school and some of my school level winners are being passed on to the next level, so I'm excited. I gave my classes one lesson on creative writing before they participated in the contest and they were some of the best lessons so far. All in all, the contest was a lot of fun, but some students had a lot of difficulty tapping into their creative sides. It's my goal to help them do this over the next two years.

English Club at School 16

Thursdays are my craziest days. I have six lessons in a row and they are filled with ups and downs, but that's what makes being a secondary school teacher fun, right? Anyway, it keeps me on my feet and I'm grateful for that. Sometimes, I'll be walking down the hall to my next class and I'll hear a few "Hello Miss Kerries" from students that I (sometimes) don't even recognize because I do not have classes with them. I only teach the linguistic-track students so I don't usually get the chance to speak with the students who are on a different track (like economics, science...etc). But, some of them are just as eager to talk and practice their English so I decided to start an English club, with the help of my counterpart. It's for older students, 9th grade and above, and I had my first club meeting a few weeks ago. It was wonderful. After such a long day, I ended up staying about two and a half hours more just talking and listening. They even played music for me and sang! I love Thursday suprises!

My goal for the English club is as follows:

to improve listening, speaking, and writing skills

to talk about topics that matter to students

to help students go outside their individual experiences and learn new things based on their pupils' interests and talents. 

to provide an online forum for their words and ideas

In short, I want them to go outside the box and be creative. I want us all to teach each other new things, to take their skills and share them with the class. Maybe we'll throw all our skills and talents into a hat and learn something new at each meeting. I'm still working out the goals in my head. Next week, we're talking about food and I'm going to bring in some chocolate chip cookies!!!

St. Patrick's Day in Konstantinovka

I've been told that Konstantinovka (константиновка) is the biggest village in all of Europe. Wikipedia did not tell me this (so I don't know if it's true or not) but the sky definitely feels bigger there. As we left our fellow Peace Corps Volunteer's house in the evening, the stars were shining and I remembered what it was like to see stars! Maybe I haven't been looking up enough lately. Anyway, my St. Patty's day was filled with peeling potatoes and carrots, making stew, drinking Guiness, hanging with good friends, and an Irish ditty on the ukulele while waiting for the bus to take us back to Melitopol.

I'm a Leprechaun!

St. Patty's Bunch

6 hour school concert

I sat and watched a 6 hour long event. Each class at school 16 presented on different culture topics while a panel of judges chose the winners. 6 hours. I didn't leave the assembly hall once. I said to myself, if the panel of judges can do it, so can I...and I'm still alive. Some of the older forms did presentations on Cyprus,  Japan, Australia...accompanied by dancing, singing, and powerpoint presentations.

Lecture on Gender Roles at the Pedagogical University

This was a really great, yet difficult day at a local University. When I first arrived in Ukraine, life here didn't seem that different, but just the history of Ukraine alone has paved a different path for its citizens and this has created complex roles that I try every day to understand. I know we have common threads that hold us together, but the differences are what define people as a culture. Things here are different here in Ukraine and I truly felt this when Cynden and I gave a lesson on gender roles, stereotypes, and breaking "out of the boxes" that "society" puts us in. It was two American go getter gals up against 50 Ukrainian women with different ideas of gender roles, different traditions, different histories. It was a challenge, and although we had our differences, the students liked the lecture and welcomed us back to give another in the not-so-distant future.

This is not at the Pedagogical University, but at School # 5, where Cynden had a leadership seminar.

A visit from Zap's finest

A weekend with good friends, pizza parties, Lenin statues, and talk about good ol' Melitopol honey and days to come.

We'll call her the Gorky guest who is supposed to be in charge of the playlist.

P-I-Z-Z-A...did I happen to say, "I want pizza?!"

A visit to Zap Our Visas into Place
Travelled to the Zap to apply for new Visas. I think everything is going smoothly with the whole process of getting new visas, thanks to my amazing regional manager, the Peace Corps, and my lovely counterpart.

Pinkish Haze All in My Brain

My dearest U.S. of A, why didn't you say anything to me about International Women's Day? You left it up to Wikipedia to tell me that it started on your soil and is now celebrated by women (and men) all over the world EXCEPT in the United States? I'm disappointed. I'm also disappointed that I didn't do some kind of

women's rights seminar or something. My woman's day was filled with dancing, bonding with my female colleagues, watching wonderful performances by my students at School 16, and watching some of the AFI's top 100 films "of all time." 

I have a confession to make, though--I used the fact that it was woman's day to not do something. I asked Logan to do all the shopping for dinner that night so I could relax and sit like any normal woman would sit on the couch. But, if I wasn't being so womanly on the couch, I wouldn't have missed an interesting site on the streets of Melitopol. Apparently, there was a pinkish haze, like a fog, hovering in the air. When I asked Logan what it smelled like, he said "It didn't smell right." Anyways, a few days later, a student of Logan's said that he wasn't feeling well because of a strange radiation cloud/sand/storm that hit the city. Yikes.

So, what do I get for abusing my womanly powers on woman's day? Well, I tell you what I don't get. I don't get to become the womanly mutant super hero of all our womanly dreams because I missed out on that pinkish haze. I haven't lost all hope, though. Let's just say my kids are going to be awesome...and 10 times better than x-men.

Moldovan Valentine Wine

On Valentines Day, I traveled to Kiev and Moldova with a number of Peace Corps Volunteers to take the first step towards fixing our Ukrainian Visas. After 22 train hours and 28 bus hours, I was back in my little city of Melitopol.  Here are some pictures and a few words about my Moldovan adventure.
I should have posted these a while ago so things could have been fresh in my mind. I was lazy and I'm still lazy now because it's middle March and so many things have happened that I haven't written about. I'll try to recap things in my next post. But y'all know you like looking at pictures!

Finally, after sleeping a bit on the bus, I woke up, took a quick classic (and obligatory) shot of my fellow sleeping bus riders, and looked out the window to admire the rolling hills and sparkling snow in Moldova.

History Museum of Moldova: Doors to World War II.

History Museum of Moldova: Logan's War

History Museum of Moldova: Battle Scene

St. Volodomir Cathedral: Swept Steps

St. Volodomir Cathedral: Frankincense and Light

St. Volodomir Cathedral: Admiration

St. Volodomir Cathedral: Frankincense II  

Placinta (Meat Pie) and Vareniky in Moldova.

     

Me, as a red-headed well-balanced Moldovan Wine.

Man trapped in wine bottle. SOS.