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!

I Eat Therefore I Am.

So, as you know I am studiously studying Russian, and interestingly enough the verb "to eat" is a derivative of the verb "to be" ectb. As if learning verbs wasn't hard enough right? But it is a cool little insight into culture and mindset of the region. As you can imagine, back in the old days, when language was just developing into what it is today, without eating you could not be and so we have the verb ectb.

Enough of the boring stuff. The past week has been great, the Chilean miners are being freed from the underground room they have been stuck in for 2 weeks which makes me happy, I found out my birthday is also International Rabies Day, and as of yesterday we are now allowed to travel unattended throughout the region on day trips! To mark this monumental occasion, our group plans to head up to the city of Chernigov to see some of our other Peace Corps compadres, check out some catacombs among many other activities. It should be a super fine time.

This past week has been full of a lot of Russian per usual along with other types of safety meetings, lesson planning, and teaching. The classes I have been teaching have been great and I am starting to recognize some of my students around town. During one visit to observe another Peace Corps trainee's lesson we were stopped outside the school by a group of 7th or 8th graders who all grouped around us and snapped a few pictures. I guess thats how Edward Cullen feels on the daily. If you are asking yourself, "Did Patrick really just compare himself to 'Jacob'''? Well, yes. Yes I did.

I had some time to do a little more fishing and it was nice to be on the water. I have started to find some little honey holes in the woods where at around 6 pm the water is boiling with rises. Sometimes I forget that I am not on the Winooski River in Vt, but the Desna in Ukraine. It is nice to know that even halfway across the world there are still many constants, and in Ukraine fishing is one of those. On my walk to and from class and around town I frequently pass men on their bikes or walking with fishing poles always adorned in cammo-wear, its pretty nice.

On a side note, Peace Corps provides us with a 180 page manual on cross cultural information. A number of us came upon page 70 which has some of the funniest dialogue that I have read in Peace Corps thousands of pages of informational booklets. Here are a few excepts of really funny things written by former host families about Peace Corps volunteers and how they perceive our weird habits as Americans because it is important to remember that though we are bombarded with new tacit cultural rules and strange new behaviors among the local people, we do a lot of things that they think is totally out of this world. And why shouldn't they? We are some weird people; us Americans! So keep in mind they are made to be funny, not offensive, and not all are totally true... so far.

"Please gain at least 10 pounds during your stay with us, or we will feel shame."

"Please have your 'special doctors' in Kiev measure your stomach, YOU DO NOT EAT ENOUGH!"

To females- "Please repress your urge to shake hands, or people might suspect you are a male cross dresser"

"If it's cold outside, we may serve you a small alcoholic beverage with your breakfast. You need to drink it, or else you will become chilled on your way to work, get sick, and possibly die. You say you feel conspicuous walking around intoxicated so early in the morning, but lots of people do it!"

note: it is not customary to smile at passerby's on the street in Ukraine, one of my favorites.

"Your constant smiling makes us uncomfortable. You smile at everyone, all the time, for no reason- sales clerks, bus drivers, people on the street. We worry this perpetual happiness is a sign of mental retardation. Would you go around screaming for no reason? No. Then please smile only with sufficient justification."

That was just a taste.

If you see my dad tell him happy birthday, he will be turning 25 on Oct. 15th!

Please continue commenting, it makes me feel like people are actually reading!

You know who you are.

Freezing Temperatures, Burning Heart.

It's hard to think that just 3 weeks ago I was napping shirtless in the sun on the beach in Falmouth and walking out of my house this morning the bottom of my top siders met the crunch of a hard frost. Thats right, it is time to retire the boat shoes here in Ukraine and bring out the big bean boots. The sun is making its last few appearances between sporadic showers and overcast skies, which also bring the cold Russian winds and snow. I mean, I love wearing my peacoat, but I was not aware I was going to have to break it out so soon. I was also told today to expect -20 to -30 temperatures in the dead of winter, but wait, not Fahrenheit, -20 Celsius! But its all good because I am still having a great time here and though I miss the warm, as any do in winter time, I am welcoming the snow.

The last few days have been pretty eventful, my host brother Maxim came home from military lyceum as he does each saturday and helped me with some of my Russian homework and the next day he took me along to his soccer game against the team in Kozeletez, who they beat last week 2-1 but tied this week 1-1, with Maxim scoring Oster's only goal. I was expecting just a pick-up soccer team but they are a sponsored select team made up of mostly 20-24 year olds but Maxim is only 17 and it's his second year on the squad. Taughthim everything he knows! Not really, the kid's a freakin' star. I challenged him to some futbol when he comes back this saturday so I can get some humble on, na sayin? He really digs the old school Celtics starter jacket Ryan gave me at my going away party and he asks to wear it everywhere which is sick so of course I let him sport it wherever he wants since it hardly fits me. He even wore it to the game. I was pretty stoked

Among other notable events this week have been our first school visits where we sat in on English classes taught by our Ukrainian counterparts. It was very interesting to watch the class and I am currently planning my lesson for Thursday's 5th Form (5th grade) class that I will teach. The topic is one dear to my heart; being one common human family regardless of color. The point of the lesson is to introduce new English vocab and introduce the concept of "have got" since they are being taught British English. An example of what I am talking about for all yall gringos speaking American Standard English is "I have got brown hair, Sally has got green eyes." It's going to rock, they seem like a group of real great kids and I recognized some of them as the kids who were following us around town saying hello.

My host parents also threw me another birthday party last night! It must be a Ukrainian thing, they love you so much they throw you two birthdays! Homemade pizza, gnarly cake, delicious soup, potatoes, homemade grape juice, pickled tomatoes and more! I could hardly eat the cake at the end but it was too good to pass up.

Also today we woke up nice and early to take the 7.30 bus to Kozalets for our Heath talk with the head Peace Corps Dr. Valeriy, (hes a guy,) who is hilarious and an avid mushroom picker. We talked about all sorts of ways to maintain our physical and mental health here in Ukraine as well as what we should do in certain situations of illness or injury. This discussion was very reassuring, as Peace Corps takes the upmost care of us as volunteers and does not hesitate to transport volunteers for the best care that is available even if that means having a surgery in Bangkok or Vienna immediately. We reviewed the massive medical kit that Peace Corps issues their volunteers which are stocked with everything from floss, bandaids, aspirin, anti fungal cream, even antibiotics and an unlimited number of condoms. Speaking of condoms, since our sexual health is just as important to our physical health and safety here as contracting any illness or injury, we had a very lengthy and in depth sex education session, very informative.

I remain in good hands as always and I remain always missing you all, if you have any specific questions do not hesitate to email me at patrick.cutrona@gmail.com

Love,

Patrick

Jillian NO!