Halfway

through training and I'm feeling a bit lonely. I miss everyone from home so much, I feel like an outsider here but that's expected. My cluster mates, link mates (cluster from another mothaaa/from another town) and host family have opened their hearts to me and they're great! Look how happy we are learning food names in Russian:

Brandon, Sam, Me, & Peter

I do miss having the freedom of making friends myself. Unfortunately, the challenge of making friends is made even more difficult with the language barrier and cultural value of slow progression from out to in-group. Ukrainians are loving, fun people as long as you're in their in-group, otherwise you'll get the "brick face". The "brick face" is an emotionless, don't-talk-to-me, don't-even-look-at-me facial expression used by all Ukrainians.

My cluster and link cluster with our Russian teachers (both smiling like Americans) doing our best "Brick Face"

Peace Corps Trainees are told to practice their "brick face" in public and only share smiles with friends. It's harder than it sounds. I basically look like an idiot when I'm smiling at a stranger who for instance opens a door for me or puts my groceries in a bag. This slow progression of being in someone's out-group to someone's in-group also has it's upside though. Ukrainians genuinely care about their friends, a lot. Even though they might have fewer friends, the quality of the friendships far exceeds the quality of casual friendships like we have in the states. So, even though I'm mostly feeling the negatives from this in/out group system and sometimes take "brick face" stares personally, hopefully soon I will reap the benefits. We'll see :) I've survived halfway through the hardest part of Peace Corps service, I can handle anything! This week will definitely be a challenge. On top of my regular Russian, cultural, and technical lessons, I'm co-teaching 3 English classes at school with my cluster mate Peter (6th, 8th, & 9th grade). My cluster mates and I are also planning a 3 day long English summer camp for grades 5th-9th and a community sports day to celebrate the end of our English camp and the end of our stay in Rzhyschiv. Drafts for approval by our town are due this week so it's all a bit hectic! Hmm... I'll let you know how it goes haha.