My Life Like Madeline

After today, my life became even more like the movie 'Madeline'.   I can now include the hospital scene with one of the girls "needing" to get her appendix removed and all the other kids wanting to visit her to check out the scar.... Though  the Madeline scene was a little different from what happened here, it is the same idea.  I was no Miss Clavel in the sense that I did not stick up my finger knowing that something was not right.  In fact, it was more like me saying "are you serious? she looks fine to me"  to the school nurse who said that she needed to get her appendix taken out.  I am pretty sure that many Ukrainians get it removed just as a precaution. Who knows... Anyways this is now added on to the list of my life similar to the movie:

1. living in an orphanage
2. eating dinner with them/ teaching them table manners (yea!  who would have thought out of all people I would teach that!)
3. getting them read for school
4. doing my goodnight routine
5. taking them to a carnival like event in the center of town
6. having no favorites, but having that special relationship with that one person (Nadia) like Miss Clavel and Madeline

and now this!  

Luckily there is no body of water any of the kids can fall into in Kremenets... I would hate to have to add that to the list!  But now, I just have to cross my fingers that Nadia doesn't run away to try and join the circus because she was told that she couldn't go home for the holiday break and that she would have to stay at the sanatorium and was so upset.  As she was crying and repeatedly saying she wasn't going to go to the sanatorium I asked her if she was going to run away (maybe not the smartest question), but she said yea, and I wished her good luck.  I will let you all know tomorrow the outcome...  (she isn't going to run away... We already have a fun day planned at the sanatorium on Saturday)

If you did not follow this post at all (for other reasons besides my incredible writing skills), I highly recommend you watch Madeline and replace Miss Clavel for me in your mind.  That is my Peace Corps life.
Also, if you want to see the behind of the scenes of what Miss Clavels life is probably like, I would watch Step Up: The Streets or the documentary RIZE.

So Until Next Time,
Good night all my friends thank the Lord you are well.

I love to... BAKE

A couple weeks ago, the girls and I had a baking party over the weekend.  Now that I have a slightly new toaster oven (4 months old now), it was a great way to spend the weekend when we had nothing else to do.   I taught them how to make some good ol’ American chocolate chip cookies and butter-cream  yellow-butter cupcakes (lots of butter).  They had a blast doing it and I had a blast watching.  I sat back, told them step by step instructions, and voila!  Out came magic.  The cupcakes were delicious and the cookies were superb! 

 

We jarred up some of the cookies to give to 2 of the teachers and we ate the rest ourselves (we shared with the other kids who didn’t help make them, of course).   The teachers absolutely loved the cookies and all asked for the recipe.  Sasha and I worked together to translate the recipe from English to Ukrainian, and we wrote on cute scrapbooking paper the chocolate chip cookie recipe and gave it out to who wanted it.

The girls and their decorated cupcakes

The jars for the teachers

The girls and I have decided to work together to make a recipe book of all the things that we end up making together.  They will help me translate and we will then work together to scrapbook all our delicious treats!  This also gives them a good reason to practice their English!   I missed baking so much, I am so glad to be doing it again.  Plus, I am learning about so many substitutions for all the things I don’t have; like cupcake pans, bread pans, cake flour, brown sugar, etc.

 

 Baking is fun, and it is a great feeling to see the girls love doing what I love to do, too.   

Us having a ton of fun while baking

The Art of Fine Cheating

Now, I grew up being taught to not cheat.  And yea, I always tried to cheat in Monopoly or those other silly (but super fun) board games when playing with the siblings, but I was sneaky and smart when I did it.

I know it is not ok to cheat, but if you are going to do it, at least make an attempt to be good at it.

Sasha, the star pitcher on Kremenets.

Once known as a cheater, always known as a cheater.  Unfortunately for me, I learned that some people in my school like to cheat! … No surprise there….  But now I will always know them as a cheater, and sometimes it is hard to trust people who cheat.

 (*** I just want to clarify, that I do not in any means cheat anymore… not even in board games****)

The craziest thing that got to me was that the cheating took place during Little League baseball… I mean Come On!!  Little League?  Are we for real here?! 

Their idea was so lame, that at first I thought it was a silly mix up.  I then realized that it was on purpose when after the game I got a whole bunch of sarcastic “Thanks a lot Morhan”, and fingers pointed in my face.  Now, if anyone knows me well:  1. I cannot stand fingers moved around in front of my face and 2. I am all about fairness and honesty  (now, after long hard lessons learned as a child…) 

Me just doing my job with doing "the book"

Well, long story short, this whole little scheme went a little too far for my personal liking, and as one anonymous person said “don’t F** with the F’ers”,  I do have to say, this just makes me laugh, and is rightfully true.  In America, if you are a bad sport, you get kicked out of the game, and if the whole team takes part in bad sportsmanship, they can get kicked out of tournaments, leagues, etc.  Since this was not a possibility, they just lost a whole lot of respect and their little goody bag at the end of the tournament.  It would have been unsettling but fine if they cheated and admitted to it rather than denying it and then getting mad at me for just doing my job (I was the good ol’ hardworking scorekeeper).     

One of the main points of sports teams for kids is to teach them how to work together on a team, good sportsmanship, and simply the art of the sport.  If everyone is taught how to lie, cheat, and play dirty, well…   I don’t think I would want to know what this world would look like! 

Now, you have to remember, cheating unfortunately happens all over the world, so this isn’t simply a Ukrainian thing.  It is just that much more difficult to handle when there is a language barrier and when everyone seems to be ok with it.  It would have been nice to get more than just 1 teachers back, and it would have been nice to see the elders give a little lesson about playing fair and honest.  But there was none of that…

Misha, from Lutuhene MVP Catcher

On top of this frustration, that will slowly blow away in the wind of time, is I then hear my kids telling me that their English teacher says that I write their homework and they just copy what I write.  Not only do I spend HOURS sitting with them each day teaching them how to read and write, and helping them with pronunciation, to hear that we are both accused of cheating from the teacher just blows my mind. If she only knew how long they spent each week on the homework assignment she gives… I asked the girls if I could talk to her, but they all said no because they will then get yelled at.

BLAAHHHHAHAHA.  Sometimes life is frustrating.

I know this isn’t the most positive blog post ever, but I just can’t refrain from posting it.  I think it is important to share this.  It is a huge problem in the world, but especially in this country.  I don’t even think they have the same definition as Americans do on “cheating”.  It is the norm, and sometimes, like right now, I can't handle it...  

But on a positive note, the baseball tournament was an absolute blast regardless of the little incident.  The kids were punks (in the sweet little “you better watch it” type way), and hanging out with some fellow PCVs at my site was just a nice breath of fresh air.  One night we showed The Sandlot dubbed in Russian to all the baseball kids which was so great!  I enjoyed watching it with them simply because they reminded me so much of the characters.  The kids improved so much from the previous year, and it was exciting to see my boys slug those balls!  (Their catching and throwing can still be improved … a lot)

I love baseball, even little league is fun for me.

So it was a great round 2 of Little League baseball in Ukraine for me, and I will sure miss it…

All the kids with their gifts from the lottery!

Year 2 Week 2

I know it has been a long time since last posting, and I promise to write an update about my summer adventure that took place from June 22- August 29th.

It is the 2nd week of school and it is so obvious that working and living in a boarding school/orphanage is thrilling, fulfilling, 24/7 work, and sometimes really tough.  It has been such a blessing getting to know the kids who live in the dorms on such a personal level, and we all most definitely created a family bond. Each and every one of them is full of life, energy, and character and it only breaks my heart to see when they are upset.

On a day to day basis, the kids and I go about our days with nothing too exciting, same ol' morning exercises, classes, eating, homework, and hangout time.  You can never really see a difference between kids that live in the school compared to the kids who are from town, but every now and then, you will see slight differences or sad faces appear when talking about parents, houses, vacation plans, etc. Most kids have explained to me their family dynamics, and some of their stories are heartbreaking.  I thought my family was dysfunctional when I was younger.... Boy was I more than wrong!

Kids who come from "Internat" schools in this country automatically statistically have a harder chance at getting in to Universities, finding jobs, finding a place to live, etc.  So this year, I am encouraging and trying to push the kids who live in the school to attempt to learn English.  Though I am not one to be like "my language is better than yours", I think it i important for them to have this skill, and I mean come on, they have had English class since 2nd form and they don't even know how to say "what are you doing?".   Last year I accepted the fact that they didn't know any English, but this year no more miss nice girl! They are all super intelligent and they have the potential to actually learn the language, so why not push them?

 Today in their English class, they were given the assignment to describe their rooms.  So this evening I was with the girls helping them write about their rooms. Sasha who is so smart, wants to learn English, and who I tutor once a week was the first one to start the assignment (no surprise there)  Once Sasha was fine without my help, I went over to help Nadia.  While Sasha was writing about the dorm room (4 beds, 1 desk, 2 nightstands, and 1 little closet shared by 4 girls- absolutely nothing special or personal), Nadia started writing about her "awesome" room at her grandparents house.

Well, before I knew it, Sasha had stopped working on the assignment and decided that she wasn't going to finish her homework.  Mamma instincts first kicked in and I told her that she didn't have a choice and that she had to finish her homework. She just kept saying no, no, no.  I told her she was being lazy (oops)  but I went on telling her that she was smart trying to make her realize that this assignment is easy for her.  She kept refusing, and after pushing her some more to do it, she broke down and started crying. Once I saw that she was balling, I had a thought that it may not be English that she didn't want to do, but  the assignment of having to write about a room that in her mind didn't even exist.

My heart sank... I knew I had to come up with something to 1. make her feel better 2. make her complete the assignment, so my quick instincts kicked in and asked if she would like to do the assignment in my room looking up Paris Hilton's room on the internet and write about that room instead.  Sasha loves Paris Hilton, and at times I think she pretends she is Paris Hilton (kind of like how my little sister thought she was Britney Spears when she was younger, singing in front of her mirror, dancing, and dressing like a "slushy"-- Sorry Halia <3) She said OK and I was more than thrilled that it had worked!  We ended up looking up pictures of really girly rooms that were huge and most likely not Paris Hilton's bedroom, but we all enjoyed it OOOing and AAAWHing at the walk in closets, the giant fluffy beds, and the full length/ closet mirrors (oh how I miss those).  Though she was still upset, her smile and laughter came out a couple times after miss Nadia, a.k.a. the clown threw some jokes in comparing my future tree house to Paris Hilton's mansion.  In the end, she was not crying anymore and had finished her English homework!!!


My point is, ... I don't really know what my point is.  I am learning so much working and spending time with these kids. I may never really have a full understanding on what they have gone through, but I can show that I care and love each one of them and am hopeful for bright successful futures for them all.  I really hope that one day these kids will be able to have a room to call their own and a full length mirror where they can sing and dance in front of it.

Until Next Time,
be patient, kind, and understanding

Euro Cup 2012

I was so fortunate enough to have gone to a Euro Cup game, and a Ukrainian one at that.  June 19th, I was in the stands along with almost 49,000 other people (most of whom were cheering for Ukraine).  I personally thought it was an awesome game, and I cheered my Ukraine until the very end.  At times I couldn't take the pressure, but I managed.  Though Ukraine got robbed of one goal, they still should have made about 2 other goals.... next time...

Donetsk is a city located all the way to the east where it is known as coal mining country... I believe it because on the way there and once I was there, I was always covered in black dirt on my face and my clothes... I felt like I was doing archaeology all over again.  It took 22 hours to get there from Ternopil which was actually not that bad (I think I was just excited), but on the way back we took a 15 hour train to Kiev and then a 6 hour bus to Kremenets, and I just about died...

I am still a bigger fan of American fans.. to my surprise, I think American fans are more crazy than Ukrainian fans (in a good way).  I think the loudest Ukraine fans were the entire time was when they booed or whistled.... whatever.  I was decked out in Yellow and Blue chanting in Ukrainian and screaming in English.

This is the sweet juicy warm up to the hopeful idea of going to Brazil for the world cup in 2014.  Rescheduling my GRE to go to the game was SOOO totally a brilliant idea.  

Thank you dad for the tickets, Tanya and I had a complete blast!  (she says to thank you and mom, too!)


I am now headed off to camp for quite some time and I don't know how often I will go online, but just know I am OK (mom..). Plus, I know for at least 2 weeks I will have no cell reception. :)  

Until Next Time,
Aloha to summa tym!!
(and GO PORTUGAL!!!)

УКРАЇНА *clap clap clapclapclap*

So, I guess it has been several months since I have "blogged".  There are reasons, I promise.  1. I am lazy 2. My life is just flowing, I forget to blog. I won't go into depth on what has happened in the last 3 months, simply because I don't remember.  So here is are the highlights:

March: 

Me and Jenny after we finished the race!

• I went to Warsaw, Prague, and Vienna for a nice little getaway and saw 3 beautiful cities!
• ran my first real 1/2 marathon in Prague!

April: 

Jesse, Me, Mamma Inna, and Robin: Easter Dinner

• Easter at the host family's house (church 3am, discotheque, awesome food, and clustermate reunion--minus Simon)
• My fridge broke and everything molded so cleaning that up was just a blast (was broken for a little over a month)
• My dear friends Samantha and Adam got married on April 21, and though I was unable to make it, I am so happy for them, and I loved looking at all the pictures!
• Project Development/ Management conference/ hung out in Ternopil!!!  (the start of mine and Sharece's awesome May Day weekend adventure!
• April 28- watched повний привід
• April 29- "Beach" day.  The ferry never stopped completely at the dock to the beach, so we never got off.. .but we did have a fun ferry ride!  and we ended up going to the grassy beach which was more like a section of weeds where Ukrainian men walk around practically naked. 
• April 30- went to Ivano Frankivsk and walked around the city.  missed the last  bus so had to take kupe (train) back to Ternopil. 
• May 1- attempt at Shashlik by ourselves (thankfully our Ukrainian friend Yurii knew what he was doing so he took over)
• May 2- Headed to Terebovliya to visit Brendan at his site and got an awesome walking tour of the cute town!

The gang who did "Shashliking" together 

May:

• Sharece and I headed to Pochaiv so that Sharece could see the huge monastery there.
• Did the water project in a village called Diadkavuychi
• helped Sharece with one of her English Forums at her University and then celebrated by probably going to listen to "повний привід" like usual
• May 20th was "День Місто", Kremenets birthday, and took all the kids from the dorms to go there.  It was like a carnival and they all had a blast, including myself!!
• May 24th I had a "salon" party in my room where I painted all the girls nails and did their hair in preparation for the last bell the following day (May 25) 
• The 36 party was a HIT where we attempted to do 36 things around town (scavenger hunt like) as a way of saying farewell to our dear friend, Sharece, who was getting ready to head home after living in Ukraine for a total of 36 months. 

June:

Art students working on their paintings of Tondraya

Me dancing with Sasha and Tanya dancing with Vasya...

This picture pretty much sums up my life right now. 

• I said goodbye to gluten to see if it would help my stomach aches go away... (which it didn't)
• Summer camp began, but I didn't really do anything because the local church did everything. I did meet 2 Americans, though, which was pretty cool. 
• Tondraya came to visit on the 5th and that same day I bought a TOASTER OVEN!!!!
• the next day, we went to a town 3 hours south with the sports school trainer men where I played soccer with old men, and ended up staying the night in a hotel there and drank a lot of wine and danced in too many circles!
• 2 other PCV friends came to visit, Eddie and Elyse, and we all just relaxed, hung out, ate good, and enjoyed each others company. 
• My school installed a shower head in my bathroom!  A REAL shower head! no more bucket baths!  SOO AMAZING!  plus, the water turns off all the way now!  It only took an entire year...
• There are art students staying at my school for 3 weeks, and Ton and I ended up posing for them so that they can paint us.  We sat still for a total of 12 hours.  IT WAS SOO HARD!
• Today is the day that me going to Euro Cup is finalized!!!  Received 4 tickets to the England vs. Ukraine game from my lovely parentals and am taking that 22 hour train ride with 3 awesome Ukrainian people that have been nothing but kind to me since arriving in Kremenets.  SO EXCITED! 

Summer is just beginning, and I am excited for all the adventures that are going to come.  Got 2 awesome camps where I will be working at, along with a fun hiking trip in Crimea with some awesome friends that I can't wait for, plus a mystery trip that I am going to take, but have no idea what it will be yet... It will be spur the moment/ last summer hurrah type thing.

So Until Next Time,
Soak up that sunshine when you can  folks, because Kremenets be storming everday!!

My Life in the Hunger Games

This past week had more than enough “hurdles” mentally and physically and all I can think is to compare it to the series The Hunger Games.  Though I was not thrown into an arena to fight for my life, I still find it comparable.  Try to follow me with Ukraine being my arena, The gamemakers being just everything around me, and everything that happened to  me in the past week as pods.   Now if you have not read The Hunger Games—read that instead of this blog post.

This past weekend was a long 4 day weekend in celebration of International Woman’s Day.For being internet-less, waterless, and powerless (just for a little while on the power)—I had more than enough time to read all 3 of the Hunger Games.   Now, being internet-less was/is my choice.  It costs me 10 percent of my monthly allowance to have slow ball-sucking internet, so I have made the month of March my trial month of confirming that it is not worth paying for it.  There is a computer room at my school with internet, so it isn’t like I will be deprived for the next year, but the convenience of using it whenever I need or want is gone. 

The waterless part of my weekend was not by choice, and was rather inconvenient.  I was given a bucket of water once the water shut off for the toilet, so I knew that it would be out for the whole weekend (joy joy).  If only I was warned a little ahead of time so that I could have showered (it was already overdue).   But I didn’t let that from stopping me!  I decided to go running because I thought—I am already stinky and I have a full kettle of water I can use to bathe after!  (I was wrong….)  After my run (which is another story in itself), I was ready to wash up with a full kettle of water.  PSYCH!  Pod #3 went off (Pod #1 was not having water to begin with and #2 was my run which I will get to in a sec).  I had about 1/3 of a kettle full of water which is what I used to wash my hair and whole body (approximately 4 jam jars of water).  Who would have thought that was possible!  I am almost positive that I wasn’t completely clean, but it did the job for me.  I never feel completely clean after I bathe anyways because the water generally smells funny.  Like in a previous post, I always smell a booger-meets-mildew smell not only on my freshly laundered clothing but also my freshly scrubbed body.  (Hopefully it isn’t the secret disease I have that no one knows what it is that is causing this smell!!  -- **GULP*) That last statement was just to get under my mamma’s skin which probably isn’t very nice, but I am keeping it in here.

I should rewind back to pod #2.  This again was not by choice, but by my stupidity.  I thought it would be a great idea to go running outside.  I thought- ohh it is raining, so all the snow must be melted up in the hills and it will be nice and muddy (my fav)!  Well, Wrong again!  I stepped outside and slid about 15 feet until I decided to turn around to grab my yaktrax to give me some grip on this wet ice that is SOOO slippery.  So once I headed back outside with the yaktrax on for the first time EVER, I felt invincible.  Ahoy!  And there I was, running up the steep hills of my forest-hilled “backyard”.  I kept going even though it was icy because today was supposed to be my easy long run.  Well easy—no; which means long was also a no go.  Running up the sleek hills covered in wet slippery ice, made it seem I was running for dear life to not slip off the trail to the right that was a nice little drop filled with trees, snow, and sticks.  So I kept going.  There was also no turning around because I could barely keep control of myself going up the hill—I knew downhill would be a disaster.  After several slips and only a sore wrist, I finally made it to the top where fresh powdered snow laid perfectly still waiting for my graceful body to go stomping through it almost knee high just trying to get back home.  Of course the rain turned into hail which made my run that much more awesome.  I couldn’t help but laugh the whole way back.  This 30 minute just shy of 3 miles super short and hard run obviously didn’t last very long, but at least I made it back home with no broken bones. 

On to Pod #4.  The second I heard the water running again (3 days later), I was so ecstatic I couldn’t wait to hop in some hot water and enjoy running water for a minute!  The timing couldn’t have been any more perfect because 2 minutes into my shower the power shut off.  Awesome!  It isn’t like I really needed power except for making FOOD!!  For those of you who don’t know, I have a fridge and an electric stove top which sum up the kitchen appliances I have.  So without electricity, I can’t even boil water…  Luckily it came back on after 3 hours.

Though these exciting things happened to me on my long weekend, overall, it was still very relaxing, nice, and QUIET!  Once all the kids came back to school on Monday, it was back to the normal groove of everything. Until, today.

The past several weeks I have had a hard time sleeping the whole night (another thing that my mysterious disease is causing). Well this morning I thought it was nothing different until I lay in bed and hear the water running in a different way than usual (Yes, my water runs constantly, yes, people have “fixed” it, no it is not fixed). The thing about the water in the bathroom is that when I turn it off, sometimes it turns off, but at random times water decides it wants to come out whether it be a drip or a flow.  So last night it decided to become a flow.  And VOILA!   ½ of my place flooded (This is Pod #5).  I quickly went to Maria, the night dorm guard lady person, and told her what has happened.  I think she was just in shock with the little white dots that were on my face.  Because the Gamemakers wanted me to have battle wounds, they decided to give me 4 huge zits on my face. I fell asleep last night with a face mask on them.  She asked if I knew that I had white stuff on my face and I quickly remembered—but I simply thought that it was not important- HELLOOOO—my place is flooded!

She comes in and then goes back out and when she returns she has a bucket and a dust pan in hand. The amazing thing about this country is how handy they are with the little stuff they got!  Who would have thought dust pan!  So there I was going to work filling up buckets of water with a dust pan.  About 45 minutes later, Maria started using a t-shirt to soak up water and then rang it out in the buckets which, at this time, seemed to be picking up more water than the dust pan—so I followed her lead, grabbed a towel and went to work.  Once we cleaned up more of the water, the handy man came in to fix my faucet (which still drips), and he also checked to see why my sink is clogged.  Well, it turns out, the mineral composite that has been building up at the base of my sink has been building up in the pipes, too, and had formed its own inner-tube which eventually closed up. 

Now I would like to add Pod #6 because it did get to me a little bit… a lot.  With the new Invisible Children video that was just released, there were a lot of mixed responses.  I was in shock and slightly aggravated with how people were saying not to support the Kony 2012 movement.  It is one thing to say that you are not a supporter of Invisible Children, or very well be informed that the LRA is no longer in Uganda, or that the movie took money to make, blah blah blah—I don’t care what your reasoning is—it is beside the point.  What I was in shock of was that people would take these silly reasons to twist and turn the want and need of having justice be served.  Being personally connected to Uganda as a country and to some of the people who were personally affected by Joseph Kony and his horrible doings makes this issue personal to me.  I am always respectful to people about their perspectives and opinions even when they are different from my own, but to create a perspective and opinion on something that is completely beside the main point that is trying to be sent just drove me crazy!  It is a good thing my internet turned off that day.  I am assuming the Gamemakers decided to throw a mental frustration hurdle in my face and laugh. 

There is also Pod #7 that happened but that I cannot explain as to what it is for my own safety and for others.  But all I can say is I really hope people start looking beyond the greed of money and start looking at living life in a honorable, ethical, and respectable way.

Even though this past week, overall, was fairly normal—I have been Ukrained more than usual and couldn’t help myself comparing everything to The Hunger Games.  All the pods blew up—but I still survive.  And though the Gamemakers from Ukraine, Mother Earth, and Everyone all combined forces this week to try to take me out—I am a fighter.  As this is starting to get really corny, lame, and not ½ as exciting as the actual book, I am going to stop right there.


Until Next Time,
“May the odds be ever in your favor.”

Beauty as an iceberg

Today I learned to relate beauty to an iceberg.  Like an iceberg, you can see beauty above water(outer beauty), but there is so much of it underwater(inner beauty) that you cannot see from the surface.

Today, I got to help fellow volunteer, Egle, do a day GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) camp at her school in Dubno.  I got to meet some wonderful girls from the 6th-8th form from her school and schools around.   After a full day filled with fun activities, my eyes were opened so much more to the importance and the need to teach the young girls of our generation the importance of inner beauty and being strong women. 

It is easy to know about inner beauty, but so often in our society we surpass the importance of it and how that is what really makes a girl beautiful.    When we go throughout our day and see advertisement after advertisement about what we should look like: thin, curvy, flawless skin, straight white teeth, beautiful eyes, perfect eyebrows, etc. we can't help to never feel "perfect".

After showing a short dove film: Dove- onslaught, I realized just how much the media influences our thoughts and ideas-- even if we don't realize it!

On top of this, I self-checked myself with self-esteem of myself and others around me and how I may affect others self-esteem.  Sometimes we don't realize how hurtful words can be to a person, and even though we may be joking when we say something offensive, that may not matter because in the end, someone's feelings may be hurt.  Our girls should not be walking with their heads down low.  We should all support one another to hold our heads up high, and we cannot do that if we make fun of one another.

Overall, today was a very lovely day and though I was teaching, I learned a lot and I hope the girls learned just as much as I did.   So as you go about your days, think about what beauty means to you.


So thanks to my famous male dobbelganger, Bruno Mars, there is already a song you can have stuck in your head to remember that you are beautiful just the way you are .  (this is his music video-- so watch it!)

Valentine's Day

Valentine's day is a day to be spent with lovers or hot hot sexy men.  Ok, so not necessarily the second part but, I am sure that would be quite the plus!  Every Valentine's day, I spend the day with some people I love and cherish deeply (usually my family...) and this year was just the same.

The kids and I before launching the floating light

The story travels back a couple weeks ago with the floating lantern.... When I was in Kyiv with some friends, I saw floating lights and told myself that I HAD to buy some!   I tell people back home that my life here is like the movie Tangled. So any moment I get to have a Tangled moment, I jump on it. The flowers in the hair, the holiday festivities that sometimes turn into huge dance parties (just like in the movie), the summer greenery and flowers gives it that enchanted feeling, and of course-- the floating lights.  I did not know how much these floating lights cost, but regardless of the price I was already sold on buying them.  So even though I found out they are more expensive than I am budgeted to spend on random things, I bought it anyway and last night made it all worth it.  

I get really stoked about things like lighting a floating lantern in to the sky and it was that much more amazing to see the kids even more stoked than I was.  We all said what we loved about ourselves and then launched this lantern into the sky as a symbol of loving yourself and one another (as a bonus there was no fighting for at least 15 minutes!!!).  We all stood outside in the snowy dark night watching this floating lantern get higher and higher into the sky for about 10 minutes. I am almost positive they now all think that this is a common thing to do in America.

Though my time last night was not spent eating my favorite chocolate and wine, it was spent with some kids that I absolutely love and I am glad to have made this Valentine's Day a night to remember for them.  I love Valentine's Day.  It is a happy day whether you have a lover or not.  As long as you show people some loving it is an awesome feeling.  Every year when my nerdy self had no plans for the holiday, my mom and dad would always make me feel extra special and loved and that is exactly what I tried to do last night for the kids.  They enjoyed the chocolate I got them, but I think they enjoyed being able to go outside after dinner to launch a floating light.  So to all you lovely people out there, keep spreading the love even after the day is over.  And to anyone who plans to spend a Valentine's Day with me, I am almost positive I will be releasing a lantern into the sky every year.  It was that amazing. 

Our light floating with the snow. 

Until Next Time, 

з днем святого валентина 

Being a Big Sister to 39

After about 11 months of being in Ukraine, I have decided that it was a good time to self-reflect on my time here thus far.  At one point in time (maybe a couple weeks ago), I felt that I was wasting my time not doing anything.  When I spoke to a friend this past weekend, he made it so clear to me that these negative thoughts may easily come from the root source of comparison.

Oh the sweet sweet joys of comparing oneself to another (I do it way too often though I hate to admit it).  I have decided to stop comparing myself  in this country amongst what other volunteers are doing because I simply can't. Each person serving is on a completely different journey.  I don't think peace corps can emphasize the fact that each persons' journey during their service is, well... a journey!  You don't know how it will turn out, you can't predict the results of it- you just have to roll with the punches and take what it is that comes out at you.

Looking at the bigger picture, I do see that I am doing something.  I may not teach English or go to an office everyday and I may not have a whole bunch of grants finished and completed but, I do have about 39 little brothers and sisters who I have noticed look up to my like a big sister, and for me-- that is quite something.

I love these kids to death, and though at times they get on my last nerve, I still love them.  Even though they knock on my door ALL THE TIME at night and always get all up in my personal space, I still love them.  Every time I come back from a weekend trip, I am greeted with big smiles and hugs with girls saying "MORRRHAAN!!!".  When girls have boy problems they come "try" to talk to me about it, when the kids need help with their homework in more than just English I help them, if there is a fight for the most part all I gotta do is yell STOP and they (for the most part) listen, and if they want to play games they come to me because I am game master!

Living in the dorms is giving me a whole different experience than what it would be living in an apartment.  Though there are definitely many pros and cons to the dorm life, I think overall it is making my peace corps experience much more enriched with awesome relationships and unforgettable memories.  I have a special relationship with the kids who live in the dorms.  They are more than just students, they are becoming family.  Now this may sound like a good thing but, for those of you who know what the relationship is like between my and my siblings (or anyone like my siblings), it can get pretty intense.  But,  I am happy to say that I think I am growing up and am now able to control my aggravation and want to scream in their face by simply putting headphones on, locking my door, and I simply breathe and then I laugh.  Now that I wrote that, it sounds almost like I am a crazy person (which I guess I am). Overall, I have realized how much of a role model I am to these girls and boys.  I am happy that I kept my spunky self and my crazy style.  My act of confidence reflects back on these kids, and I am not starting to see it.  I have finally realized what is really needed at this school.  It isn't new books, new windows, a better stadium, or any of that.  It is giving the kids I live with the confidence to believe that they can do whatever they set their minds to. This school needs the girls to be empowered to be strong, independent, and educated females.  These kids need an older figure who is always there for them.  Not just in times of disciplinary actions, but also in times of celebrations.  I am that person to many of these kids, even though I didn't realize it.  I am "like [their] mom during the week", according to Sonya a 4th grade girl who lives across from me.  These kids need to find their talents and hobbies and be encouraged to master them.  They need someone to notice the subjects they have a hard time in and have someone take the time to help them understand it better.

My role as a peace corps volunteer is a youth development volunteer, and in my journey so far, that means being a big sister to 26 sisters and 13 brothers.

Until Next Time,
*bada bapbada-- I'm lovin' it*

The 3 month catch-up

Here is to a New Year (kind of crazy to think that 1 month has almost passed us by, already). I know it has been a little over 3 months since I have last updated my blog, but the way I look at it, it is because I am finally in the groove of things I don't think there is much to update.

That is false.

I am just lazy.  The past 3 months have been filled with crazy adventures, frustrating situations, AMERICA, many firsts, and a new year: 2012.

The only possible way I can even think about doing a catch up blog is by simply doing highlights of what has happened (granted the last week will be more emphasized hence it being so recent).

October Events
-Went to go visit the host family and had a blast!  ate some ice cream in cold weather and right after that I got a cough (it is the ice cream I am blaming....)
-I am pretty sure I updated about my birthday, but again, I had a wonderful birthday celebration

November Events

my first Thanksgiving plate of many

-For Thanksgiving, I went up to my friend Maria's site in the Rivnenska Oblast in a little town called dyadkavuchi and celebrated the holidays with some wonderful American friends along with a couple Ukrainians.  The cultural exchange that occurred was priceless and will definitely be one of the most memorable Thanksgivings.

December Events
-I went back home to the good ol' USofA and had a very wonderful Christmas holiday with my family.  Hawaii definitely was very much needed and all that ono' food that I ate was so tasty!  Seeing the Unkos Cuzzins and G-parents was a great treat!  I can't wait for the next family vacation!!

They like to wear matching luau shirts

-California was alright, too, minus all the Doctor appointments that I had to go to.


 **But I am very thankful my mother took initiative by dragging me by the ear to go see a doctor even though it really annoyed me at the time. Though I didn't get to eat all the food I wanted to eat while I was there, I still got my El Faro burrito, so it is all OK!
-New Years was exciting like all other New Years!  Stayed at home with my dear friend Caitlyn Arigo who put up with my sick grumpy self for a couple days, watched the countdown, said WHOOO, and then went to bed.  That was my last day in America and I was ready to head back to the good ol' country of Ukraine.
January Events
-I arrived back in Ukraine the evening of the 2nd and had another wonderful transportation adventure.  After a random mini bus, trolley but, marshutka, and train- I made it to my host family's house 4 hours after landing at the Borispol Airport (NOT BAD timing!!)
-I spent a good week at the host family's house celebrating Ukrainian Christmas and enjoying the company of the best Ukrainian sister ever!  I would just like to re-emphasize how blessed I am to have had such an amazing host family because going back there gives me the feeling of going "home".  They even put up with my sickness and laughed at my diet, but were totally supportive!

Nadia at the Sanatorium

* to give an update on my health issues, I still am in the process of getting everything taken care of, but I feel 5 times better than I did.  But I will keep everyone posted with what is up.  (not that it is that exciting). I did get to do a wonderful gluten free, dairy free, meat free, and tomato free diet.  Yes tomato free diet!   I have not had ketchup/ chili sauce in exactly 3 weeks and starting tomorrow I will make sure to have a meal with just that.  I am pretty sure that was the longest I have ever gone with out ketchup, so I am very proud of myself!

The kids singing me a song in their costumes

-After my host family visit, I arrived back at site with no running water which was just lovely!  Butttttt-  My leaky water is now fixed, finally!  After about 6 months something has changed!!  There was no school, so I had another week of break, so i went to the Sanatorium where several of the students were staying for the holidays and hung out with them, celebrated Nadia's birthday (the coolest girl ever), and had an all around good time!  One day I showed up and all the kids were lined up on the other side of the door dressed as doctors and sang me a song.  It was a Ukrainian holiday (I forget the name of it, but they dress up in costumes, go door to door, and sing carols for money/candy).
-We had our oblast collaborative meeting the weekend before school started so I got to visit Elyse at her site which was just lovely. That weekend is when it actually started to snow, and it has not stopped since. WHOO HOO!!
-Went sledding for the first time on Monday (I have been saucering before but, sledding was different!)  I also went down the hill on plastic bags which surprisingly went fast!

Language Refresher Events

Group 41 friends hanging out at the lake

*Last week was Language refresher, and I have absolutely no idea where it was.  Either in the Rivnenska Oblast or the Volynska Oblast.  Either way, the Sanatorium where we stayed was beautiful.  Winter wonder camp is how I can best explain it.  The more and more peace corps events that I attend, the more and more awesome people I meet.
-Monday had a good night out in Rivne with some awesome friends went to an irish pub and had a rice noodle avacado salad which was delicious!  Went out with the Ukrainian workers from that Irish Pub and had a great night
-Got to see an awesome clustermate Jesse and caught up with him throughout the week of L-ge refresher.
- Roomed with Megan and Kristen and reminisced on the good times of summer camp/ used the dance moves we learned from camp.

The castle in Lutsk where the snow ball fight occurred

Firsts
-snow ball fight that was like a re-enactment of civil war
- rocked heels in the snow
- Farkled
- snowball fight IN A CASTLE
- a Ukrainian interaction **

Weekend in Kiev
*After language refresher, a group of us went to Kiev for the weekend.  I had some delicious food, got some fast wi-fi internet, and one hell of a night.

After deciding not to eat Chinese food for dinner, myself and several other Americans decided to meet up with some other friends at this cafe.  Turns out the guy who owns it is not even from Ukraine and has actually lived in Miami, California, New York, and maybe some other places. This dude HOOKED it up!    We had the entire cafe to ourselves.  I asked if he had Hip-Hop music and let me go behind the bad to make a playlist myself.  We had a dance party, delicious food, good company, and what not.  He let us stay there as long as we wanted.  Though he usually closes at 12, he said he would keep it opened for as long as we want.  Someone even brought some "hyphy" music into the mix and I got to go dumb and thizz (not literally... just the dance moves).  All I gotta say is California Volunteers definitely represent!


Overall, things are looking up.  I have decided that 1/2 of it is the way I look at it.  It can either be just wonderful or not.  Each experience comes with the good and bad, and right now at this moment, the good outweighs the bad.

So Until Next Time,
Yay for snow!!!

Mo Cho

OK, So I forgot a little bit of important facts from the past week or so.
Some more firsts:
- straddled a suitcase for about a 45 minute bus ride singing and dancing-- AMAZING!  **Once we left language refresher, there was a bus headed out to Rivne and a bus headed out to Lutsk.  We were supposed to meet out by the gate. Me and my 2 lovely roommates for the week definitely went to a different gate.  Thanks for the people looking out for me, they found me and got me on the bus before it left without me.  Anyways, there was no more seats so I just got to enjoy a wild ride on Ben Cox's suitcase!!
- We stayed at this new hostel in Kiev called "The Hub".  When we checked in, they were literally putting out bunk beds together.  First sign of something exciting to happen.   After a late night of dancing and hanging out with fellow Americans, we claimed our beds and 4 of us girls decided to have "girl talk".  Kristen and Becca were on Kristen's top bunk and Tondraya and I were on my top bunk.  All of a sudden we heard a snap and we all froze.  About 15 seconds later I see Becca and Kristen go down along with the top bunk. The top bunk completely snapped and went crashing down.  Thank goodness there was no one the bottom bunk.  I just remember laughing my head off and telling Ton to get off my bed right away.   It was by far one of the funniest things I have witnessed.  This also happened about 10 minutes after I was 1/2 joking about why the top bunk was better than the bottom bunk for that very reason.


Also, it was a great welcoming back to site because once I flagged down a taxi at the bus station, the man surely did know me.  He knew me from soccer (like everyone else in the town). I found out that he was not only a taxi driver but also a teacher at a school.  It now has me wanting to talk to all taxi drivers to ask them if they are more than just a taxi driver!