Hard at Work

So on Monday I officially returned back to school, which I was very excited about. Today, as I gathered with my coworkers, one new English teacher informed me that my oblast is the only oblast in Ukraine that has a higher birth rate than death rate. My friend leans over in to the conversation and adds: "We already knew we were hard workers!" Oh, Ukraine.

My House is Turning Ukrainian on Me

So everything in Ukraine works... except for a small glitch where you have to be really careful about it. For example: Wagon doors on a train... they work as long as you don't try to close them. The cash register works, but you still have to use a calculator, the water works but you need to turn it off and on every thirty seconds, etc.

My house is suddenly extremely Ukrainian. You can use the bathing room, but you can't lock the door, and you can use the toilet room but you can't close the door because the light doesn't work and your knees won't fit. You can put something in the fridge, but hold the freezer door so it doesn't fall on your head. You can sit in the bedroom, but not when it gets dark because there are no lightbulbs.

It's been a while since I've been updating regularly... sorry about that! I'll try to update more now that I'm almost on a schedule.

Peace!

Ash

The Shower Is Half Full

With no sarcastic intentions, I woke up today thrilled to find it another gray, rainy day. It is a wonderful 55* and I'm wearing my flannel! I really can't handle the summer heat, plus rain always makes me feel like I'm in a Jane Austen novel. I made breakfast, cleaned up around my apartment, and then hopped in the shower.

My shower is my absolute favorite part of my day. When I was younger (and didn't have to pay my own water bill), I could spend an hour in the shower, easily. Here, in Ukraine, I'm forced to be much more eco friendly. So I put on my new radio app (thanks, mom!) on my iPhone (thanks, dad!) and jumped in. I lather up my hair and... and... THE WATER TURNS OFF. Completely. No water. At all. The lights flicker. My power goes out. In the darkness of my windowless bathroom I rinsed as much shampoo out as I could with bottled water. Then the lights came back on... still no water though!

Alas, the glass shower is half full... because I'm getting muffins today!!



Peace,

Ash

Even Better!

Ukraine

Catch-up

Father, It's been three weeks since my last confession update. A lot has happened since we've last had an update, but most recently and excitedly I have been to the Carpathians!! There is a 3K, 10K, half marathon and marathon hosted every year in the wine country of Ukraine on the Hungarian border. As a bunch of Americans we packed our selves in for a 10+ hour train ride across the country and in the morning we found ourselves in an old village nestled between mountains, castles and clouds. We started off by finding the house we'd rented and packed our things in and walked in to the center of town. There were festivities lining all the streets... home made wine vendors, shashlik, music, and cotton candy! 

So the day was (naturally) spent drinking wine, eating some coal-cooked meat, and wandering the streets of a gorgeous city. The next day was spent getting up super early and making stunning posters for our friends who were running in the marathon, sprinting to get to the finish line and STILL missing ALL of our friends cross the finish line. However, they all still did very well.

In other events, today was my last day teaching my 4A class and my 5A class, so there were a lot of tears, and it was so sweet to see how much they cared. Of course, I'm sure they'd rather be running around than in my classes, but it was cute and I got tons of hugs! Tomorrow I will have a party in my 7B class to celebrate the end of school, and maybe a party in my 6A, too; I'm not sure yet!

Next week I will be hosting a summer day camp at my school for the whole week, and I'm so excited to spend time with my young kids (8-11yo). If any one has any fun summer activities for a group of 25-ish kids, let me know! They have good English and an overwhelming amount of energy. 

That's all for now! I hope everyone is doing well!

Over and out,

-Ash

Those Days

You know those days when you remember how you thought your job would be, and then you realize how wrong you were?

Today is not that day for me. I took my wonderful sixth form students around the schools garden and we learned words like 'branch', 'twig' and 'blossom' while birds chirped. I felt like I was in a movie!