Wednesday, February 28, 2007

On my own

I really have no excuse for not having posted in such a long time. "But you're busy!" you try to comfort me, "You plan lessons all the time!" Yes, this is true, but still, I have no excuse. I have internet. In my own home.
But I'm getting ahead of myself! Let me back up a bit and fill you in on what I've been doing.
I spent the first month at my new site living with my host family. It's not that it was that bad or anything, but we just didn't really click that much. I was really looking forward into moving into my own house! I'm so glad my school was on top of things and had already found a place for me. PC gave us a list of things to make sure were in the house before we moved in. (Apartments are generally fully furnished anyway when you rent.) My school was also really great about helping me out with all the little extras too, right down to sheets, dishtowels, and a toilet brush! I'd explained to my coordinator just how little money PC gives us, and I think they took pity on me. I still had to buy a few things though, which eventually added up. After my first disaster in trying to fry potatoes in a normal pan, I splurged and bought a nice (and expensive!) teflon frying pan. I think it's seriously one of the best purchases I've made in my entire life! It's the little things that count here.
I've gotten pretty settled into my house, and I'm making little improvements here and there. I have two twin guest beds, but from what I've been told, they're extremely uncomfortable. They have little metal coils as support (think of a hammock made out of metal instead of rope). The beds SAG though! You feel like you're in a U-shape when you lie in them. Plus they creak and groan every time you move. So last week I decided I would do something about this. I bought some thin, strong rope, and I figured out how to weave my own hammock-like support. I was pretty proud of myself! I got the rope pulled pretty tight, and I think it greatly improves the support for the mattress. I gave myself some pretty nasty blisters on my hands from pulling the rope so hard though! The sacrifices I make for my guests!
The other big accomplishment was getting a showerhead and curtain installed in my bathroom. I had a tub and showerhead on a long, flexible handheld unit. Normally I don't mind getting myself wet, turning off the water, soaping up, then turning on the water again and rinsing off. However, there is a vent directly above the tub that goes right outside, so there is a cold draft blowing down on you when you shower. You don't notice it when the shower is on, but as soon as the water is off, you sure do! So getting the bracket for the wall so that I can have the water on the whole time is a great improvement.
And then, the biggest, most exciting piece of news of all is - I have internet at my house! Yes, it's true! I hardly feel like I'm in Peace Corps anymore, I feel so spoiled. I've made friends with one of the young English teachers from another school, and it turns out her husband works for the national telephone company in the internet department. He was able to get me all the information I need, and he installed everything for me. It's not really that expensive, and actually I figure I (or my parents rather!) are saving money this way. You see, now I can use Skype! It's a program that allows you to make telephone calls through the internet. For me to make a phone call to a phone in the US is only $.02! And, if I'm calling to someone else on Skype on their computer, calls between computers are free. So what I'm getting to is - if you want to talk to me, download Skype at www.skype.com ! You don't need to buy any of their fancy packages. Just download the free version. You will need to make sure that you have a microphone and speakers on your computer in order to hear and talk. Then, once you've downloaded it, you just need to add me as a contact. My contact name is: magic4real.
Between being able to make phone calls like this, and being able to look up ideas for lessons, having internet at home as already proven invaluable here. And absence makes the heart grow fonder. Not having access for so long made me realize how truly useful and amazing the internet is. Haha, I sound like I could make a commercial.
I'm slowly settling into teaching at school. Thankfully I've been figuring out ways to repeat some of my lessons between classes. If I don't do that, it's almost impossible to plan 18 new lessons a week. I've been told that the first year of teaching is the hardest, and that I'll figure out how to do things more quickly and efficiently. I sure hope so! There have been days when seriously I teach all day, then I come home and plan lessons for another 6 hours! I have noticed though, that even after the first month of teaching, it does seem to be getting easier. It's a lot of fun too!
Last week we had a week off of school. Unlike most of the other schools around the country that have had time off due to flu quarantines, ours was actually a planned vacation. I took advantage of the time off and went back to visit my host family near Kyiv. What a great trip! My host sister and I went to see an Italian opera at the Shevchenko opera house. The building itself was beautiful! I can't say I really liked the opera, but it was interesting. We bought the cheapest tickets (about $4) and were in the uppermost balcony. Whoever designed the building wanted you to know you were in the cheap seats too! The seats were hard and uncomfortable, and the bar that protects you from falling over the edge was directly in our line of site. There was an LED screen that had a translation from the Italian into Ukrainian. For the whole first act my host sister thought that they were just translating part of the text to give you a rough idea of what was going on. It wasn't until later that we realized from how high up we were, we could only see half of the screen with the translation! But anyway, we had a good time.
A few days later, my host sister and mother took me to the Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv. This is a whole complex of churches, museums, and even underground caves where there are glass coffins with monks. I can't describe it well enough to do it justice. This website has a nice description though: http://www.artukraine.com/church/unearth_lavra.htm
It was bitterly cold all day in Kyiv, and unfortunately I ended up getting sick just in time to go back to school. Just a cold fortunately.
I know there were plenty of other things I was going to write about, but I can't think of what they are now! If you have any questions, please ask! I'm not quite sure what you want to hear about. Hope everyone is doing well. Spring is almost here, right?