Spring

has yet to peek out behind winter's storms but the icicles are slowly melting, which is enough for me. This winter was rough for this southern California native but I wear it as a badge of honor rather than an excuse to ruin my mood. When I arrived to Ukraine exactly one year ago, I remembered taking this picture near my host family's home:

A week later, I was surprised by the transformation and took a picture of those same steps:

I've never been this excited for spring! A perk of being a teacher is having spring break and even though it doesn't look like spring outside, I'm happy for the extra time to spend indoors and catch up on some work. I have so much researching and planning to do! My taxes (eek), spring semester lesson plans, my English Summer Camp, my family's visit to Ukraine in June, my EuroCup 2012 volunteer schedule, grant applications, charity book donation forms, not to mention spring cleaning my humble apartment. I'm also taking on organizing all my Ukraine photos as 75% of them have not seen the light of the internet.

I have big news! I have a new "site mate," who's not Peace Corps affiliated (hence the quotes) but he is a native English speaker from Canada! Brad is a YMCA volunteer and he'll be working with the recently activated YMCA organization in my town! The YMCA, which despite its name, no longer serves a religious purpose and has been working with Ukraine for 9 years. Brad is only the second volunteer Canada has sent to live in Ukraine for 5 months and of all the towns in Ukraine, he was sent to mine! Last week while Brad was still settling in to his new apartment, I invited him to my school, knowing first-hand how curious my town is about foreigners. My 8th grade classes were coincidentally on their Canada chapter in their English language textbook so I thought it fitting he visit their lesson, introduce himself, and describe life in Canada.

Keeping in mind I wanted Brad to come back, I also chose this lesson as my 8th graders are a very well behaved and advanced English bunch and this classroom (the Chinese room) is the nicest at my whole school. The English teachers at my school were also thrilled to speak English with another native English speaker (I'm old news now haha). Hopefully, he will have time to visit more of my lessons but he is currently assigned to work with another school in my town. We both talked about working together on future community and youth development projects though so I'm happy to have a partner in crime. If you'd like to know more about Brad's experience and see his pictures, here's his blog.

In other great news, my other volunteer friend Lilé, who is from China and teaches Chinese at my school, extended her stay for another school year! We've become very close and even though she speaks very little English, her almost fluent Russian has helped me a lot with making Ukrainian friends. I'm beyond happy she's staying with me 'til the end!

Ukrainian coworker, me, Lilé

Last weekend was my friend Amy's 39th birthday, which was a ton of fun! As Peace Corps volunteers, we are always representing the US and expected to behave as integrating, upstanding role-models. So, anytime there's a Peace Corps volunteer's birthday, we have an excuse to meet up at someone's place and relax out of the public's eye. There was so much home-made food, mixed drinks, dancing, and let's not forget English speaking. I have made some of the best American friends in Ukraine, it's an unexpected twist in my Peace Corps journey, but I've learned the best things in life usually aren't planned (unless it's a summer camp haha).

This weekend, I'll be traveling to Lugansk (city 2 hours from me) and staying in a hotel! There will be a Peace Corps sponsored annual meeting called "Meet Your Neighbors" where all the Peace Corps volunteers in my oblast (similar to a state in the US) will meet each other and discuss ways to work together. There will also be discussions on community integration, common challenges, grants, and summer activities. As a newer Peace Corps volunteer, I'm also attending a Peace Corps sponsored training workshop beforehand called "Project Design and Management" with one of my Ukrainian coworkers to discuss project planning steps and define goals. If anything, goals will be defined! Haha surprisingly, expectations are one of the hardest things to communicate cross-culturally. I'm looking forward to seeing my oblast friends and meeting new ones.