Merry Merry Christmas

Since this will not be a typical Christmas season for me, I decided to start off my Christmas morning in prime fusion.

I got up, and fed the cat, Zoshia, who I have been baby-sitting for the last week for my neighbor. Next I cooked myself some breakfast while watching the Christmas classis; Battle Royal! Ok, maybe it is not a Christmas classic, but hey, on my Christmas I make the rules! For those of you who have never seen the movie, it is a Japanese film about a time when the youth loose all respect for adults and the government until the older generations enact in law Battle Royal to make an example of bad behaved classes. The legislative act chooses 1 class each year, drugs them, puts them on a deserted island with weapons for three days for an all out blood bath. Each class member is equipped with an electrical collar so that they can be monitored throughout the battles and if by chance there is more than one person left on the last day, all of the triggers on the collars detonate. The result being no winner. It makes for a great movie and I was happy with my choice. I plan to watch a real Christmas movie later on tonight- probably “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Opening my present.

After breakfast and a movie, I showered and cleaned the house to the Weezer Christmas album since it is the only Christmas music I have. To tell you the truth, Rivers and the rest of the guys in Weezer make a good holiday CD- very tasteful.

To quote my father, Vince, “You know Patrick, it probably won’t be your favorite Christmas, but you sure will remember it forever.” He is right. You know, I have been in the zone for the last few months that the holidays have been going bye quick and easy which makes it easier when I think ofhow much I would like to be with my friends and family especially now.

On my way to school

A typical Christmas season involves a slow and snowing drive down Interstate 89 and 93 to Falmouth where I am met with all of the Christmas foods you can think of from my mother and grandmother. My grandfather’s snow blower always shuts its self down after two passes in his driveway, and after we shovel our driveway, its across the street to the Twohig’s to help finish the job. I think he has got it sorted out this year though, at least I hope so for my Dad’s sake. Christmas eve Eggy and I go see a movie at the theater, but I can never remember which movie we see, since it is not the movie, which is important, but the company.

The next day my Mom, Dad, Riptide and I open our presents and as my Dad cooks his famous breakfast Riptide goes to town on the wrapping paper- earning his name for sure. Then it’s off to the Twohigs to meet up with the rest of the family, and the celebration becomes funnier and funnier with each coming year- last year we even sang as a family, it was probably one of the lamest and coolest things we have done all together. We literally sang all 12 days of Christmas in a line- can’t beat it. And I cannot forget my father famous retelling of “Twas the night before Christmass…”- A fan favorite! Many of the same things happen but the repetitional feeling of the same jokes, stories, movies, and sometimes presents is something I really wish I had this Christmas.

Not a bad walk to school huh?

I did get to do some of the things I usually do though- the movies. I also have a small Christmas tree as displayed in the pictures, company- the cat, and I even had a present to unwrap underneath the tree. My counterpart Valentina gave me a gift all wrapped up last night after her family had me over for dinner. One thing Ukrainians have a knack for is filling you up to the lid. One of the first words I learned when I got to Ukraine was “Eat eat!” “cushait cushiat!” and this was no exception last night. They even get you when you aren’t eating at their house. I have hardly gotten a chance to show off my food buying skills at the bazaar because of the constant bombardment of jarred Ukrainian cuisines.

Since I have such wonderful family at home too, the night before I left for DC my mom gave me a stack of envelopes that were cards written to me in advance- so far I have opened a bunch, “Open after you get to your host family,” “First Day in Ukraine,” “Halloween,” 2 labeled “Thanksgiving,” and now I have opened my 2 Christmas cards- one in particular that I enjoyed from Maureen and Leigh. When I first looked at it I had thought that Leigh had signed with her left hand, it turns out it was a left over card from many years ago- a message from the past! So a special thank you to all of you who have written the cards for me they are awesome- Grandma and Granddad, Liz, Sue, Maureen, Parents etc. My host brother called me a few nights ago and reminded me not to forget to open them and let him know what they say. The gift that keeps on giving!

In other interesting news, school has been great. I was worried that since I had had such a great training school my new one couldn’t possibly meet the same standards- I don’t know what they are feeding these kids here, but they are so polite and nice, always saying hello, and asking questions. There must be something in the хлиб. I have taught a few classes and I am gettign ready for next years schedual and clubs. This weekend will be the Olympiads comeptition where students from diferent schools compete in diferent subjects- I will attend the English competitions tomorrow morning and root on my pupils.

Well that’s about that. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

I can see Moldova from my house!

Literally, I can see it from right out of my window! So if you are reading this you know that I have finally made it, literally and figuratively. I have made it to my permanent site where I will live and work for 2 years and I have made it to Official Volunteer status- no one may ever refer to me as a lowly Trainee ever again.

I am way donw west southern central Ukraine the most western light blue name tag in the second most green State- or Oblast.

So on the 6^th my host Dad drove all my luggage and me to the park to be picked up right where we were dropped off just 3 months earlier; under the guise of a statue of Vladimir Lenin. This time I was far more prepared since I can see much more than “yes”, “no”, and “good.” We all waved farewell to our Ukrainian families who had acted as our guides, friends, families, and teachers, headed off to great Kyiv. After a short drive we arrived, through our luggage in storage and started our 4 days of meeting after meeting.

After a few informational sessions we finally heard the news we had been waiting months and months to know; where we would be serving. Drum roll please……. My new home, my site, my город, Mohyliv-Podilskyia. MP is a town of about 34,000, a big step up from my last site of 7000. It is the second largest city in the Oblast, which is called Vinnytska. It has a pretty lengthy history being incorporated sometime in the 3rdcentury I was told. The lands were given as a dowry gift to a man marrying a rich man farmer's granddaughter, and the town is named after him. The town was very prosperous because of its position and easy access to the Black Sea and Turkey via the river that separates Ukraine and Moldova- the Dniester

US Ambassador to Ukraine, Country Director of PC, Head of TEFL Program- A SMC grad by the way, Representatives from the Ministry of Education.

At “swearing in” we took the oath read to us by the American Ambassador to Ukraine in which we had to swear to uphold and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic so help me God, among other things. After a short celebration we started to roll out of town to our respective villages, cities and towns, spreading all over the country. As you can imagine it was both terrifying and exciting since we had no clue what was really waiting for us at our new homes.

Of course we need not worry since Peace Corps has more than prepared us linguistically, technically, and culturally to deal with a number of different issues and I have already recognized myself using different techniques learned in training.

The entranceway of my crib

So some details about my new place or as I call it, my little ski lodge. Well, its not really like a ski lodge, its an apartment, but its got a lot of varnished bead-board in it, its super cosy and I have a coat rack make of deer hooves and antlers. It is kind of strange since I have never had to live by myself, especially so far from anyone I know, but I have had people like Ira Glas from This American Life and Peter Seagal from Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, stopping by each night as I cook dinner and eat.

Where the devil sleeps... and outside there he hangs his clothes to dry too.

Unrelated, but interesting they say almost all towns once under Soviet control have a statue of Vladimir Lenin, the once General Secretary of the USSR, but not in Mohyliv-Podilskyi! They actually have a monument of John Lenin! Its one of only three memorials in the world, one in England, one in Japan and the last here!

An empty room I dont know what to do with.

I have already started going to my school Gymnasia 3 which is about a 30 min walk from my house. There I have been being shuffled from class to class introducing myself, going through normal teenage interrogation, and getting the feeling for the place in which I will be trying to drop some serious knowledge, na sayin? I have been extremely impressed in the level of English speaking of the students and total lack of fear in approaching me and asking any question. In one 10^th form class two students got into a pretty serious debate over the pros and cons of school uniforms where other students were backing them up. Part of our teaching has to do with extra curricular activities and judging from this I have come to the conclusion that a Debate Club will be in the near future of Gymnasia 3. I think it will go over pretty well.

My Kitchen- stocked and stoked

Alright MTV, I've shown you my crib, now get outta here!

Though the town is a lot bigger, it has not lost its small town charm. Everyone has been more than helpful and my counterpart and the other English teachers have been introducing me to everyone here. I now have my address so if you would like to send some goods via mail to me jut email me and I will send you my address and directions for mailing to Ukraine! I hope all is well and the season is upon you. It comes a little late in Ukraine. Christmas is January 8^th here. But nonetheless Merry Christmas!

Тбой добраволец,

патрик

The end of training

Well, I have three days until I finally go to Kyiv and open that fateful envelope which holds so securely the next two years. Besides the details about my site that I have ben waiting oh so patiently for, this envelope also contains the results of the Language Progress Interview. I think I did really well on it so I am excited to find out which level I was placed into. When it comes down to it, the interview cannot hurt us at all and is only a way to gauge how much we have learned in our language classes. Aka you cannot fail. Nonetheless, I studied pretty hard for it so we'll see if I've still got it.

The Interview took place on the first sunny day in weeks probably and it was a beautiful one for sure. I think that helped me. Walking briskly to class, sun in my face, sunglasses on, and dancehall pounding though my earbuds I went over the vocabulary I had trouble remembering. Trying to memorize lines this early in language learning can be pretty frustrating. Because we lack the more intermediate skills to express any abstract thoughts, you have to dumb down everything. I wanted to say things like; "I love to fly-fish, it is therapeutical and I think it would be a wonderful way to discover Ukraine and its nature" which will then turn into "I like fishing because the river is very quiet, and the river has beautiful nature." Another example "I like to create black and white photographic obras using surrealism to obscure what the human eye see" but I can only say "I like black and white photography, I work with surrealism." I hope that later in my service I will be able to express in Russian closer to what I can in English and Spanish.

PS if you are wondering how I could have used surrealism, its a cognate! Gotta love cognates!

Anyway, the day was a great one, and after the interview I was in a wonderful mood, switching off the dancehall and trading it for a gnarly cumbia, I watched as Ukrainians rode their bikes down iced over roads that more resemble the bumpy dark ice at Kennedy Memorial Rink in Barnstable than anything you would drive on. Another pleasant sight is how Ukrainian's wardrobe and accessories change after the first snowfall. Once flakes are spotted, Ukrainians let the fur fly! Men walk in tall fur hats and fur collared leather jackets, and women adorn elegant fur hats of their own or pull over a furry Inuit style hood from their massive jackets. They rally have winter fashion down here, and I have got to get with it! Mothers have put away their baby carriages and everywhere you look sleds slide through the streets. This ain't your typical snow day, Ukrainians put their sleds to work, they carry children, groceries, tools, whatever you usually carry can now be rested on a sled and pulled. Pretty cool if you ask me!

So above you will see me learning how to hand wash my clothes. Chances are that I will be keeping my clothes nice and clean like this for the next two years. Its pretty labor intensive, but as you can see, I'm totally getting the hang of it. As I was elbows deep in soap I thought back to the washboards that used to hang in my grandmothers bathroom and how I could really use one of those right now- my great grandmothers would be so proud of me if they could only see me now!

I would also like to correct a mistake I made in the last post. When I thought I had made a mistake leaving my wet clothes to freeze outside overnight, I was actually right! Though it is painfully cold to hang wet clothes outside, letting them drip for a while outside gives them the fresh outdoors scent that American companies strive to chemically substitute in your store bought machine wash. SO YEA! Maybe I'll have to do a little extra work, but I'm sure going to smell good!

There's no business like snow business!

Saturday morning: I awake to a text from a fellow trainee Theo, who lives in Kozaletz; "My first snowfall of the year!" I immediately direct my attention to the laundry I had left outside to dry the night before. Ukrainian rule # 32: "Know the weather before you hang wet clothes out to dry." I promptly skipped outside and removed my cardboard like clothes from the line to dry inside, it was hilarious! Ukrainian rule # 2: "Laugh at yourself"- thats one of the important ones that comes up daily.

Frozen Clothes!

I am sad to say the day before was my last class at School number 2 in Oster and I am sad to being going as I said in my last post. I just hope that the community I go to shares the same awesomeness (which is a word) as my present community. After class we had the lottery that was part of our 3 step fundraising project to help raise money for the local soccer field. All in all the project seemed to be a big success and we made 1800 Hryvina- Great Success!

Anyway, back to the weather. This Friday it started to snow, and it hasn't really stopped since. Though I am much more of a summer person, I will take snow over cold winter rain any day! The roads and yards are covered in soft snow which has made everything seem so much more quiet, and more Ukrainian too. It sure aint warm here anymore but I am pretty prepared. Living in Vermont for so long has me able to block out the winter with long bass-busting Dance-Hall mixes that I bump to and from class, making Ukraine feel almost like Jamaica. Although the Dance-Hell helps to warm my walks there are certain feelings of longing that the pounding bass can not drown out. I was surprised to see people still riding bikes in the ice and snow, but Ukrainians actually seem quite comfortable. It feels like just yesterday that I was laying on the beach in Suckanesset in the warm sun and now here I am sloshingthrough snow and slush. Its nice though, it makes me feel not too far from home, but now my skiing urges are kicking in. I imagine what I would do if I was back in Vermont at school. With this much snow on a school day I can imagine Ben and I cutting class and heading straight to Smuggz, lacing up the gnar-boots and getting our Warren Miller on. But, alas, there are more pressing issues at hand.

Gettin down on some Ping Pong at school

One of those pressing issues being that tomorrow I have my LPI or Language Progress Interview. Basically it is what we have been studying for all of this time, besides the whole communicating thing. So each trainee has a 25 minuet oral examination where we talk as much as we can. The interviewer gives us guiding questions, but it is basically up to us to keep it going for 25 minuets talking about all sorts of different topics ranging from our families, our project, and teaching. So wish me luck! After this it will be basically up to me to continue to improve my Russian which wont be easy. Soon I will be a real volunteer.

Our Trainee Thanksgiving Dinner

What we are thankful for

Being that it is so close to my favorite American holiday, (besides Cinco de Mayo of course,) it has been a day that continues to go through my mind everyday. For obvious reasons too, I mean, if you have ever been lucky enough to be invited to a Thanksgiving day dinner at the Twohigs you would know why. Food is a thought that passes though my mind unconsciously about every 2 or three minuets, so that means that recently my minds menu has been full of turkey, stuffing, potatoes etc etc etc. So have an extra slice of dark meat for a brotha over here in Ukraine. And Grandma, I can't wait to join you again for Thanksgiving dinner in 2013!

The 5th form

We have been featuring Thanksgiving as a theme in our extra-curricular activities at the school. For English club we had kids make the traditional hand shaped turkey and on each finger they wrote something they were thankful for, and the same on leave shaped cut outs that we used for decorations in an English teacher's conference that the school hosted. We were so lucky as to be asked to participate in the conference where our vice principal/ english teacher, Tanya, hosted a lesson. The conference is meant to be a chance for all of the teachers to get together, share information, plan events, such as the national Olympiads, where one of our students took 2nd place in the Oblast last year for English. After, the school had prepared a concert for the teachers who came from all over the region called a "rayon." Many students put on great plays, sang a whole bunch of songs, recited poetry, and all in English! As part of the concert we were asked to present as well so we did a small recreation of a modern day Thanksgiving in the US with a small informational intro and a game of "pin the waddle on the turkey," obviously our take on the classic and fan favorite, "pin the tail in the donkey." It was a lot of fun an I was really glad to be a part of it. They also had a surprise for us where they students did a presentation of the US which even featured our towns. As a picture of Nobska light passed by on the projector I had of of those realizations of time and place which occur pretty much everyday. I am really sad that my time here in Oster is almost over, just now I am starting to develop really strong relationships with the kids who I know consider, "my kids." They are so friendly and follow us around everywhere, I think its every teachers dream to have kids follow you down the road trying to pick up more information from you, to be walking and a block away you hear a group scream in unison "MR PATRICK!... HELLO!" What teacher would be crazy enough to leave that? I can only hope that the site I go to in a week an a half has a fraction of the charm and awesomeness that is the town and people of Oster Urkaine. If you are every passing through the area, stop in!

4th form at the concert

You would think that being here in Ukraine for over 2 months now, I would have lost that shock of remembering where they heck I am and what the heck I am doing, but it still happens. I will be reading a book, listening to music, or doing work and look up for a second and it hits me like a sack of potatoes, (get it? potatoes? because I am in Ukraine?,) I think to myself, oh my god, I am in freaking Ukraine right now! Thats so crazy! I don't know if thats the way it should feel here but I am happy that even now, this adventure is still a surprising adventure.

Teaching the 5th form

This being said, we move back to what we are thankful for. A projected departure date that is set for December of 2012 seems totally intangible to me. I mean, I will be 25 when I get home, and I cant even imagine being 25. A lifetime away from my home, I think, as, I am sure many other world travelers and soldiers have pondered about their friends and families. And as old as it makes me feel to say, I ponder my old life in the states; looking at pictures. It makes me realize what I am thankful for, and that is the people who I had to say goodbye to and all the love and care I received from them. I am thankful for all of the Thanksgiving, and at the time the "unimportant" dinners I was so lucky to have with my family. It doesn't help that I got the new Tigers Jaw album came out, I miss my friends.

4th form

Enough of the sappy stuff and into the goods! We have been working for the last few weeks on our community project to help raise money for the reconstruction of the football (soccer) field. It has been a lot of work; meetings with the mayor, interviews with and without translators, cooking, packing candy, and advertising our events, but it is almost over and we have done a phenomenal job in my opinion. I heard the record for fundraising in a training community project (only 3 months) is about 1,300 Ukrainian Grivna and we have already surpassed that by organizing a bake sale at one for the schools, selling baked good at the bazaar (where we got some pretty funny looks), and a lottery at another school which will be finished this week. Though the bill for the ambitious committee working on the field is pretty bug, we are confident that our work will help to ease the pressure.

Bake sale

It is important to remember that as volunteers, we are not donators, and to say our fiscal resources are limited is an understatement, but don't worry, what do you think Peace Corps is training us in?! The approach to our work is community participation. What we are there to do is to do needs assessments, isolate an issue, and find a way to motivate the community to act on it. So in reality the community had all of the resources for us to do our project we just had to get it rolling. You cant expect to just throw money at problems and expect them to go way- I think thats the kind of development approach that spans across all disciplines; to quote a good friend of mine Eggy- "Get into it!"

We found out yesterday they have out permanent sites picked out for us, but of course we cant know for another week and a half, when training ends and volunteering begins. As for that I'll keep you posted- and I miss you all.

All aboard; Ukraine in the fast lane

So time is flying by and including this week, there are only 3 more weeks left until swearing in. We continue to get more and more information everyday, which is a turn for the better since until now we have been planning out lives day by day. When it seems that we cannot possibly any busier, it does, things are crazy, but the end is in sight! Pretty soon I will know, and where where I will remain for my real Peace Corps service! I am so excited to find out where. The deal is December 9th (I dont remember if I have already written this but o well) we all head down to Kiyv, sit in a big room, they tell us a name of a town after which we get all excited even though we have no clue where that is yet, we meet our counterpart who has come all the way to the city to accompany us back, they throw an electric heater, a fire extinguisher and a smoke/ carbon monoxide detector at us and some of us ship out that very day, the rest of us will leave the next day.

In other news, I had my Site placement interview, which is your one 20 min chance to tell Peace Corps all your awesome qualities and skills so that they can appropriately place you where you will be able to rock and roll as a volunteer. The two interviewers were really nice and had really done their homework. They had researched all my great information and we talked about using black and white photography as part of my project or english club at the site and they made it seem like I may be placed somewhere that would have access to a dark room; dream come true, but I haven't got my hopes up, kinda.

Also the kids at my school are officially the coolest cutest kids in the world, and I am sad that I am moving on to another school soon though I am sure they going to be just as cool and cool. Last week after classes the school held the Mr. and Ms. Autumn contest which happened to be gnarly. It was mostly my 5th formers who were all dressed up in dresses and ties. They had to do a bunch of different events such as talent show, stringing beads on a needle and thread and separating sunflower seeds, which are addictive as I have found out. Everyone on the street eats them and I am currently snacking as I type. It rocked.

Yesterday I took another trip to Chernigov which was a blast. I got to hang out with a bunch of other Peace Corps trainees I hadn't seen in a while and it was a beautiful day. I got up while it was still pitch black dark and got on the bus at 6.20. The sunrise was amazing, the kind of sunrise that you would imagine over african planes, the kind of sunrise that if captured by and artist, could only be captured in pastels, the kind of sunrise where sailors take warning. It was a sunrise I could deal with watching everyday. Just as light starts to come over the vast yellow feilds you can start to make out the mountains of hay that speckle the landscape. You pass cows, rows of trees, and small villages where even at 6.30 on a sunday morning whole families are seen outside chopping and stacking wood for the winter that is right around the corner. I do not know what it is, but I am starting to get the feeling that old women singlehandedly support the bus system of Ukraine or at least this region. Every time I get on the bus, out of all of the people 90% of them could claim babushka status.

When the sun finally does rise you know why the Ukrainian flag is what it is. Those vast fields show their true golden color until they meet a horizon of clear blue sky. Riding on the bus is something I will always love wherever I go, and I find that they are always worth far more than they cost. I think bus is the best way to see a country.

Sean and I with the Mayor of Oster after a community project meeting.

As for new buys, I picked up a pair of fur shoe inserts for my winter boots that are one of the gnarliest things I have ever come across, and they only cost just over a dollar. For some reason people sell lots of old keys so I picked up a nice skeleton key, one of many that I am sure Ill buy, and as for gifts, I have started to compile a collection of old soviet military issue metals which are going to blow all your faces off. I hope everyone is healthy and happy I miss you all greatly and I hope you have an extra slice of dark meat and scoop of mashed taters for me on Thanksgiving!

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venga ya!

Some objects are bigger than our heads:

So as you will see from the following pictures, there are many things in Ukraine that can dwarf even the most big headed peoples dome-piece's, or as it is pronounced in russian "galavuey."

Happy birthday Tim!!!

I know every post I write about how things continue to keep me busy, and I always hope that they slow down, but to no avail; I feel like I get busier and busier every week. We hear from many current Peace Corps volunteers that we will miss this busy life style when we finally get to our site and settle in. Supposedly we will be bored to hell many cold nights, so far I haven't seen much of it, but we'll see. I prepare to combat this alleged "boredom" with my fly-fishing tying kit, Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Cien años de soledad, and my boy Pablo Neruda. Im sure the gentleman will keep me company throughout my stay here. To you readers, when I finally do get to my site feel free to send me any more of their works, along with anything other type of literate for I hope to play teacher by day and sponge by night.

But yea, things are still crazy busy; with language classes everyday for 4 hours, technical sessions twice a week, technical and language tutoring and teaching 5 classes a week at the school it is tough to get bored here. The food remains very tasty, and I continue to discover new flavors and places to find cheap and delicious food as well. I do not know if I have also mentioned this previously, but the beer here is phenomenal and only 50 cents american for 1 bottle. As a side not a bottle of beer here is not our typical 8oz bottle but a "pol-litre," or a half liter. So it is quite a deal, though I find little time to enjoy the frothy brew.

Life here is good, you walk around and you are stopped by random people who ask you many questions you can answer and many more you cannot. Sometimes you are greeted with a mouthful of gold teeth that would put Little John or the Cash Money Millionaires to shame, but some times you receive cold suspicious stares. The waether has turned cold and wet and plump babushkas (grandmothers,) waddle by in groups, their equally plump cheeks peeking out of their always present colored shawls. Young boys play fight roughly without overbearing others keeping them from otherwise learning the ballet of battle and pairs of stray dogs behind them mimic the same dance. Walking through the bazar, even in a town as small as Oster you see everything for sale; from food, to mittens, and fishing poles. Piglets squeal while being carried away in burlap bags, rabbits wait patiently next to chickens to go to their new homes ore wait until next sunday (someones stomach!)

Recently I have participated in an assessment of my community integration which was an interview about my capacity building, health and safety skills, and integration into Ukrainian life which went well and tomorrow I have my SPI, Site Placement Interview, which all the volunteers are freaking about, it is our 1 chance to voice where we would like to be placed fro our 2 year stint here. Much information passes through he grapevine of volunteers here in Ukraine, so not many of us know exactly how to act during this 20 min interview, do we voice our locational preferences? host family or not? city or village? young learners or high-school? past experiences? Who knows? Does it even matter? Well we will soon find out. On december 6th I will head to Kyiv for Swearing in and site placement. The day after I find out the name of my site I will be there. Stay tuned and wish me luck!

Spoooky!

So, first off I would like to wish all you readers a happy Halloween, it is one of my favorite holidays and I am sorry that I have to wish three of them, but I am also happy to say I had a wonderful Halloween here in Oster. One of the past volunteers taught the word "spooky" to my host family and it is a favorite word used quite frequently in the house, but yesterday was the day that it would be used for everything.

Adam and I from Kozaletts playing a bluesy version of "When the Saints go Marching in" He on the Saxophone and myself on my Harmonica.

A few days before the 31st I noticed a strange fog come over in Oster in both the mornings and evenings. In certain areas of the town I would notice the fog hanging a few feet over the ground which was quite soothing in a weird way. It seems fitting that so close to such a scary spooky day, in a region of the world where there has been so much violence that energies make them selves noticeable.

Since coming here to Oster I did not realize the history that had gone on here. Just a s a quick summary, dozens of civilizations came and went and because of Oster's geographical position between Chernigov and Kyiv as well as Moscow and Kyiv, it was used as both a camping area for army after army and a settlement for those who chose to stay. Also because it is at the crossroads of two rivers it has always been a military and economic powerhouse. You wouldn't think that in this small town of 7000 individuals you have relatives of the Goths, Visigoths, Vikings, Mongols, Tatars, Cossacks, Pols, Lithuanians, Russians and probably more.

During WWII, known here as The Great Patriotic War, all of Ukraine was a war zone and all of it at onetime was occupied by Nazi Germany even Oster. It is said that of for every 2 Soviet casualties, (an estimated 26 million,) 1 of them were Ukrainian. For those of you who are not Math Majors, half of the soviet casualties were Ukrainian, this not including the millions who died in the synthetic famines created by the USSR in the 30s. It is interesting to see flowers left on old soviet monuments, I found myself first thinking, why would people still praise those people? but when you look a little farther in, and you start to understand the community you live in it seems that people are simply remembering lost family members and praising the courageous liberation of their own town regardless of political denomination. I find it enlightening and humbling.

Sometimes as Americans it is easy to see a statue of Lenin or a Sickle and Hammer as some sort of soviet relic, something that people so not believe in anymore, but I am starting to think that they also may be a means of remembering those who sacrificed it all, in thier own hometown. I do not think any American can know what it feels like to have their hometown turn into a war zone, and for people here in Ukraine it is all too recent of a feeling. With the horror of the war came the pride that they now have after defending their land. It is customary for grooms to carry their brides on their wedding day up he steps of war memorials to offer flowers or gifts, and to take pictures, paying their respects because without the sacrifice of their families, they would have never fallen in love.

So could the spooky mist be the spirits of so many who have come and gone in Oster? I like to think so.

Kyiv and Direct Object Pronouns

I can sum up this blog post in one sentence, I am quite fond of Ukraine's capital; Kyiv, and not as fond of anything to do with direct and indirect subject/object pronouns.

For those of you who chose to read on, I will tell you a little bit about the last week, sorry it has taken so long, but not to many crazy things have gone on since my last post. Life gets busier every week. The schools are on their autumn break now, so we are planning lessons for next week like its our job, (because it actually is.) Next week we start teaching solo classes which means no relying on your team teacher when you get stuck in a lesson or you have problems planning, you are all alone up there in front of a class full of either students. I am excited to start practicing teaching on my own since it is what I will be doing in just a few months. This week we also will start our schools english club with a demo on Halloween in the US which should be fun. I am going to really miss dressing up and galavanting through the Burlington streets looking like John Mcenroe, so save a few cherry liquorish shoe laces forme! Along with the solo lessons we are teaching we also have 5 other lessons to plan on multiple subjects. As of next week I will have taught 5th, 7th, 9th, and 10th grades and I hope to add a few more to my belt before we head out of Oster on December 9th to be sworn in asofficial volunteers in Kyiv.

Speaking of Kyiv, we took a short trip there last week. Allow me to enlighten you. I was a little disappointed since we did not get much of a chance to explore the cty, but what we see was very cool. Since we had to miss a whole day of Russian class we had to make it educational and we were all given different locations to find by asking people directions on the street, which wasn't easy but we made it to where we needed to go. We checked out the Peace Corps Office which was very nice and full of helpful people, hit up the bank so we could get our, and our host family's monthly stipend, saw a few hot spots and then headed back. I will be going back to Kyiv again soon I think so look out for more on that subject

In other news, this past weekend was very relaxing, I watched My Own Private Idaho, which was very strange but cool, check it out if you get a chance, and bought a great briefcase in Chernigov for a fairly fair price. I love bazars, you can literally get anything there, from pans to pigs, from old soviet metals to fo-lacost shirts made out of mesh, the kind of shirts you see Jamaican rappers wearing, apparently they were all the rage a few years ago, let me know if you want one, because I know I will be picking myself up a few.

Side notes:

-I really miss you all, and think about you often

-I have tried to call eggy like 10 times since i have been here including 6 times on saturday when his phone was off even at 2pm- sup w that man? Ill try you again this saturday so heads up

-I forgot to write about direct object pronouns, but they are so boring you probably don't need/ want to know about them anyway

-Anyone know where I can get some Human Ruin?

Falmouth Crew

This post is devoted to you and the Boston Extension of the Falmouth Crew, I really miss you guys, thanks eggy for posting that link to the TJ albums. The only thing I never like about their albums is that they go by so quickly, I wish they lasted longer.

fo realz?

And don't think I forgot about you either.

-chaz

"I Can See Russia From My House!"

Well, not really, but it's only about 150 kilometers away from where I presently sit.

So I would like to first congratulate my father on a very successful 65 years here on planet earth, its quite a feat and all of us here in Ukraine wish him another 65 healthy ones!

Next I would like to note that I have passed my first month of 27 here, and it flew. The whole month flew by and though I feel like I have been here for a while already I cannot believe that it's already been a month. The last week has been very busy and this week proves to be even more busy! I did a little fishing in Kozaletz on saturday which resulted in one lost BlackWollybugger and my first solo bus trip, no biggie.

Yesterday our while group cruised up to the capital of our Oblast; Chernigov, the big city. My excitement rivaled some of the first scenes in "Fievel Goes West." It wasn't a very long trip there, about an hour and a half with one stop in Kozaletz and sporadic stopping on the side of the road to pick up people hailing down the bus. As we were a few kilometersaway from the city a half dozen golden cupolas breached the horizon and gave way to an immense church that greets visitors on their way into Chernigov; quite impressive and one of many there. As we drove in, it donned upon me that until that trip we had not seen any other americans or Peace Corps Trainees since we had left them in preservice training orientation.

The city was just that, a big sprawling city with multiple story buildings, cars and busses wizzing by, people everywhere, and of course the American Embassy aka McDonalds, no city is worth calling a city without one int he modern world. We met up with a number of other PCTs at a spot that they frequent called "Two Geese." As we walked in we were struck with a heat wave of techno music and a large number of other PCTs on computers since the cafe provides free wifi. After meeting new faces and updating older ones we set out for the catacombs.

As you can see by the pictures they were pretty much sicky sicky gnar gnar. It was hard to get much history about what each room was for and who's bones were strewn about the area, but our guide Anna, who had previously visited the old monastery provided us with lots of tasty tidbits about vampire parties, powerful electromagnets, tying sick people to crosses for extended amounts of time to see if they go crazy or not, acoustics, and a ghost, that I swear to ghost; we actually saw, (see ghost picture for further proof.)

As I looked down a gated hallway I saw this; a 5 foot waft of smoke that would not move, to be safe I called other volunteers over to make sure I was not crazy. My friend Rob got a better picture so I will try to swap this one out. Anna said that this was not present on her last visit and that her guide had said it was a haunted hallway. Not my first ghost, but super cool. Don't believe it? Well... Haters gon' hate.

We started out in the back of a huge group of Ukrainians taking a guided tour an they must have disappeared into the depths of the caves or dipped out early because we hardly saw them as we explored the caves with almost free rage to walk anywhere. Its equatable to the first time you step into one of those McDonald Play-places as a child and you are just overwhelmed with all of the cool new rooms, that wind and intercept. You find yourself getting lost, running into people and finding dead ends in almost pitch black. It's so exciting you almost forget about the 33 guys who had just been stuck in a place like that for almost 2 months.

After reassembling where the caves and monastery become one again, we thought we had lost one of our group members to the cave, but we found her dafe outside. Overall it was the coolest trip so far.

Upcoming events, tomorrow; safety session in Kozaletz, Thursday; Kyiv, Sunday; back to Chernigov!

I hope all is well at home, dispute the fun and crazy russian classes I am having I miss you all greatly and look forward to seeing some of you very soon and all of you soon after that.

Спокойной ночи!