I am offcially a Peace Corps Volunteer!

Hi everyone,

As of this Thursday, I am officially a Peace Corps volunteer! I am excited to now finally begin my service in Ukraine. I will be working at a Lyceum in the village of Konstantinovka, which is in Southern Ukraine. It is located here: map. It is a village of about 12,000 people and it is known as the biggest village in Europe. It is more like a suburb because it is not far from the city of Melitopol, which has 150,000 residents. Melitopol is known as the "gateway to Crimea" a popular vacation place on the Black Sea.

Our swearing in ceremony was held in Kiev. Here is a picture of my training group and our linked group with the country director Douglas Teschner:

 

On the left is Jun from FL, Heather from IN, Charley from NJ, Danielle from NC, Nathan from GA, Jing from CA, our Country Director, Jakob from IN and me

 

as you can see we are psyched to be done with training 

 

my counterpart Sveta  

 

Our farewell party in Mirovnika with our host families 

Happy Holidays everyone! 

Where is she and what is she doing now?

Hi everyone,
I know it has been over one month since I have posted, but I have been extremely busy. I have finished training and next week I am going to Kiev, to our swearing-in conference, where I will officially become a Peace Corps Volunteer. In Kiev I will find out where I will be stationed for the next two years. I am excited and nervous, it will be like adjusting to the country all over again. That's all for now. I will post more later.

Laura

Just a quick update

Hi everyone,

Just a qucik update on what is going on in my life. I am still really busy between -day a week 4 hour Russian language sessions, two six hour session per-week at school which includes teaching a couple of English classes, and many other things. I often get home until 7 o'clock at night after a twelve hour day. I have also added dance classes to the mix. So far I have learned how to waltz, samba, cha-cha, and belly dance. I will post some pictures of dance class soon.

Since I last posted, I have been to Kiev twice, it is a beautiful city. It reminds me some of Prague and Budapest, but with a more eastern flare. I can't wait to go back and see more.

This is me in Kiev, in front of St. Michael's Monastery

These are the member os my training group, called cluster. From the left is Jing, Nathan, Monica, Jakob, and myself. They are all very nice and we get along really well. We were missing one girl, Heather that day.

This is my host family. From the left My dad Sasha (Alexander) My mom Sveta, and My sister Valeria. To the right is my host dad's niece Jana.

  This is our house. It is quite big by Ukranian standards. My bedroom windows are on the top right. Our new dog Jessie is on the stoop.

I must get back to doing homework but I will update you all again soon!

Where is she and why doesn't she ever post anything???

Hi everyone,

I know it has been awhile since I have posted anything- I had issues with limited internet connectivity. But do not worry everyone, everything is ok. Right now I am located in a small town called Mirovnika which is in the Kiev oblast. I live with a really nice family that includes a mom, dad, and almost fifteen year old sister. I really like my family, they are very nice, generous, and accomadating.

So what am I doing? I am really busy, I have Russian language class 5 days a week for 4 hours. I also am doing an internship at a school in twon, in which I teach and observe classes. This week so far I taught four classes, three with a partner and one solo. I have a lot of visitors too, doctors have come, safety experts, and others too which all tell us how to watch out for ourselves in Ukraine. I put in 12 hour days at least twice a day, and there is always more work to do. 

This week we had a nice day off (we work  6 days a week) on Thursday in which we went to a nearby city called Biela Sirka (White Church) and I ate PIZZA!!!!!!!!! TWICE!!!!!!!!! Its not quite quesidillas, but it was real pizza. In Ukraine they like to put mayonaise on it (gag) and this one did not have it. I also bought a pricey , but nice pair of winter boots. Pictures to follow once I figure out how....

Tomorrow morning I am going to Kiev with other Peace Corps Volunteers from my city. There are a total of six of us here, two from Indianapolis, one from Atlanta, one from Naples, FL, and another from San Francisco. I hope all is well. I must go. 

And we made it ok...

I made it to Ukraine ok...I feel that I should put more emphasis on that one, I MADE IT TO UKRAINE OK. After three days of not sleeping very much, one very exhausting flight, and a couple of wild bus rides, plus a night in a Sanitarium (What is that by the way??) It is safe to now say, that I made it okay. I am now living with a family in the Kiev oblast (think state) in a town called Myrovnika, which is about 100 km below Kiev. Its a nice place, but a small one and as an American I am going to get a lot of attention here. I am here to train for my job as an English teacher, along with 5 other people.

There are a lot of similarities to Slovakia, being that they are both Eastern European countires and all, but then again there are some differences. I am also having a wee bit of culture shock too. Right now I hope all of you who are reading this are enjoying ths still 60 degree days at home. It is quite a bit colder here, at about 40 degrees. I think that is all for now, but I will keep you all updated on how life goes...

Here we go...

I am sitting in my hotel room in Washington D.C. waiting for my sister to come so we can eat Mexican, and in my case, a ton of guacamole. I am really going to miss my international foods. And in less that 24 hours I am going to give up my Thai, Sushi, Mexican, my new favorite Indian, cupcakes, and my mom and dads food for pork and potatoes and that's about all they eat.

A few hours later...I managed to get the Mexican food I wanted, guacamole, cupcake and all. We are leaving for the airport soon and while I am excited, I am plenty nervous as well.  I hope I like it, I hope I made the right decision to do this, and I hope that I do not get to homesick that I cannot manage to stay in Ukraine. Wish me luck because in a few short hours life is about to restart, once again.