Teaching Schedule

is finally settled and agreed upon by both parties haha. Instead of teaching a ton of classes once a week, I'm teaching 10 classes, 8 of those twice a week = 18 classes per week. Teaching a class twice a week rather than only once is more effective since the students will do their homework and are more likely to remember what they learned last class. I'm sad to say goodbye to some of my classes but I promised them I'd teach them next year. On the home front, I met one of my many neighbors when a little girl randomly knocked on my door to ask me for help on her English homework. She had overheard me speaking English on the phone one day when I was closing my front door and unknown to me, asked around town who I was. By the time I introduced myself, her and her mom said they already knew my name, where I worked, and who I knew in town (oh Ukraine). They graciously welcomed me inside their apartment where I met her little brother and their dog. Even though I did a lot of silly miming when I couldn't think of the Russian word, I think they liked me! Yay for meeting the neighbors! My apartment is finally clean (except the floors, getting there haha) and fixed up so I took some pictures.

This is my fancy hallway/ teaching corner where I organize all my lessons for different grades. In the back is the coat rack covered by a curtain and the white boxes on the floor are my new toilet! My toilet's been broken since I moved in but the new one finally arrived! I shouldn't get my hopes up, repairs in Ukraine usually take weeks but it's comforting just looking at it haha. The door on the left is the front door and the door on the right before the other hallway goes to the bedroom.

 Coming from the front door you can see my kitchen. There's an overhead cabinet pantry, a table, a stool, napkins, and jars of the essentials (cereal, oatmeal, flour, sugar, and salt). Underneath the window is my apartment building regulated heating, which I hear gets turned on sometime between October 15th-20th. It's so small that I didn't even notice it at first, so I don't expect to rely on it that much. I'll just wheel my Peace Corps space heater around wherever I walk haha eeee I'm so afraid of Ukraine's winter! Anyway, behind the window curtain, I'm trying to grow potted sun flowers... we'll see how that goes haha.

 Turning to the left, you see the rest of my kitchen. The stove/oven is about 12 inches away from the sink but I make it work. Also, thanks Mom for sending me an oven thermometer! My oven is so historic it doesn't tell me its temperature so it's been really helpful. In those bottom cabinets I keep all my pots, pans, dishes, silverware, and other cooking accessories. On top lay soap, a sponge, paper towels, and my handy dandy Babooshka cookbook that is gifted to all Peace Corps Volunteers in Ukraine. It's full of recipes made up of ingredients you can find in Ukraine as well as Russian/Ukrainian traditional dishes. I'm still working on how to make a pizza but I plan to try a lot of these recipes. I'm pretty amazing at making blinchiki now, they are the Russian/Ukrainian version of pancakes except thinner like a crepe and you can stuff them with anything ranging from sweet (like jam or Nutella) to nutritious (like mushrooms and cheese) fillings. Then there's my wonderful fridge, where I don't know how I'd get by without it. I've learned that fresh ingredients expire A LOT quicker than prepared food, so refrigerating them prolongs their life a little and being able to refrigerate leftovers is always a plus! Finally, on top of the fridge is my dish drying rack.

Here is my living room, complete with 2 comfy pullout chairs, pullout sofa (not pictured because it's on the side where I'm taking the picture), end table (aka closed sewing table), my computer on the footrest, TV (with 4 Russian channels), bookcase (filled with landlord's things), and Peace Corps space heater. The back wall leads to the balcony, which I haven't ventured into yet because like the bookcase, it's filled with my landlord's things. This is normal in Ukraine so it's no big deal. Maybe when it starts getting warm again, I'll ask to organize it and make some room. On the other hand, I saw something crawling around there and it scared me haha. Hopefully you get the feel of my apartment and check back soon because I'll post pictures of the bathroom and bedroom when my clothes aren't hanging up everywhere (laundry day). Ukraine is considered one of the easier places to serve in the Peace Corps because of all the amenities but the hardest part here, unlike the more rural, welcoming 3rd world countries, is integration. Without successfully integrating into your community, permanent change is impossible. It may look nice on the outside, I have an apartment, electricity, even internet, but the loneliness and constant rejection of ideas takes a toll. I'm not even allowed to go outside when the sun goes down due to safety reasons so you can understand why I put so much effort turning my apartment into a home. I did meet my first Ukrainian friend in my town who's NOT one of my students or coworkers (score!) so hopefully I can make more friends through him.