New Year...New House...New City...New Life!

Hi everyone,

Happy New Year! I am not sure truthfully of how many readers I have left after posting so rarely and infrequently, but part of my New Years resolution is to keep posting on my blog and to do it more frequently. Much more frequently. 

As I said last month, I now live in a new place where I will remain for two years. I live in a village called Konstantinovka, which is known as "the biggest village in Europe." There are 12,000 residents and three schools, one of which I teach at. 

I am sure many of who, or the few of you I have left are wondering about Ukrainian holidays. The biggest holiday here is New Years, which looks like our Christmas, complete with a Christmas tree and a Santa Claus like Grandfather Frost, who comes with a Snow Queen. During the night of New Years Eve, Grandfather frost delivers presents, which children anxiously await for. And of course, people countdown to midnight. This year I celebrated at my counterpart Sveta's house with her and her family. Before midnight I came home and celebrated with my host mother. She had a feast prepared even though I had just eaten, but as always the more the merrier.

This is a picture of our midnight New Years feast. I ate among other things hot dogs, cabbage salad, halupsi,  pilaf, fish, and lots of candy, cookies, and fruit.

  

 The next holiday comes Christmas, which is on January 7th. Christmas is another feast, but gifts are usually not given on the holiday, like they are at home. My host mother had all of her children over, but I went to the nearby city of Donesk for a friend's birthday.

The final holiday is Old New Years, which we just celebrated. People come from house to house, singing carols and wishing people a joyous (old) New Year. This year we had 3 groups come, students and teachers from my school, another group of teachers from the nearby pre-school, and a little girl and her grandmother. The school groups were doing it to raise money for our school and the little girl was doing it for fun. Last night, my host mother's son, son-in-law, and two grandsons came early in the morning to throw buckwheat around every room in the house. The traditions is supposed to bring good luck. When I woke up this morning there was buckwheat everywhere, even in my bed! At school, I had to dump out my boots too.

That's all for know. Below are some pictures and I will try and be more dilligent this year about posting. Happy Belated Holidays everyone and thanks for the Birthday wishes!

 This is a picture of my host mother Yulia Petrovna to my left, on my right is her 23 year-old daughter Katya and to Yulia's left is her 21 year-old daughter Larissa.

 

Above is a picture of the house I live in with Yulia Petrovna. It is a pretty big house with three bedrooms, a large kitchen and bathroom, and a living room that is so big I call it the ballroom.

 

This is me in the main square of the nearby city of Melitopol. Melitopol is pretty fun with lots to see and do. The buildings are really old and beautiful. There are some cobblestone streets too, and as I discovered this week, a good French bakery.