okay so this morning i woke up and heard my host family getting home from their vacation and these were the thoughts that ran through my head (in this exact order)
1. yayyyyyy they're gunna give me foooood!
2. i should probably clean my room
3. OMG NO THEIR HAMSTER IS STILL LAYING DEAD IN ITS CAGE!!!!
i panicked. i couldnt face them..so i hid in my room and wouldnt go out. i was soo nervous. i was shaking and sweating, and then i regretted not throwing the stupid thing away, but i was just tooo chicken!
so after a while of me hiding in my room wishing they would go away so i could dispose of the thing, finally the little girl came in to say hi, and she was standing RIGHT BY the cage. i was like please oh please oh pleaseeeee dont turn your head any more to the left and see your dead hamster laying there. and then the little boy walks in, and they're both like standing there. and i'm sweating, and being really super million times awkward about the situation, just trying to distract them with questions about their trip and what not, and then i ran out of things to say, and they just kept awkwardly standing there looking at me! i didnt know what to do anymore!
so i turned around and just did my own thing, and they stood there for a bit and finally left.
woof, that was closeee. i did NOT want to be the one standing there when they discovered the horrific sight.
so then finally i got ready for the day, and i got the guts to go out there and bring one of the parents into my room and show them and just say sorry and whatever, but when i went out there they were nowhere to be found! and i was already late to the school, so i just went on my merry way and didnt think anything of it.
but then when coming home i remembered what i had to face, and i got the humongous-est butterflies in the world and i just didnt know what i was going to do. so i walked in and i talked to the family for a bit, and then came into my room...
only to find..
a new hamster!
not to be rude or anything, but i wanted to cry. this hamster makes EVEN MORE noise then the last one..but at least it doesnt have a cancerous growth on it's face....that's all i have to say about that.
now i'm not quite sure what to do. do i say anything about it? or just leave it be?
who knows...i guess we'll see if it comes up at dinner....ugh.
okay so the rest of my day went like this:
i got to the school, but all the gates were locked and i was FREEZING..and starving because i had run out of oatmeal the night before, so my food supply was GONE.
so i went there for the free lunch! yaaay. so like five minutes passed and i kept ringing the doorbell (which is extremely inconveniently place because it's about three feet taller than i am, and over a giant pile of snow so you have to reach like nobody's business to get it...and of course me being me..i was trying to reach the bell and fell face first into this giant pile of snow...it was wonderfully awful...but i couldnt stop laughing) so finally the guard came and let me in and all was well. but wanna know what was for lunch? cow liver (which is the lovely color GREEN), buckwheat, and soup...i wanted to cry. but luckily the soup was delish so i scarfed that down and then sneaked another bowl and then another..and then didnt even try the liver. i couldnt. after throwing up yesterday, i couldnt bear the thought of eating that nasty green meat.
so after that me and carly talked foreeeevvvver and then decided to get on the road (we were going to go to this museum..about the treasures of ukraine or something like that) but then we decided that we would rather visit the chocolate shop that they had discovered on tuesday...and i was down FORSURE. so we got on the bus, rode to the metro, then started walking.
we saw a bagel shop, a mexican restaurant, a ton of chinese places, an artisan bread place..and then after a little bit (which means a lotta bit) of walking, we made it! :))))))))
it was heaven at first sight. i wanted to kiss the ground as i walked into the shop.
mm, the smells, the sights, i saw chocolate in every form...i knew this what what heaven was like..i just knew it.
so we sat down, and just admired all the chocolate for a bit until we got our menu..then it happened..i fell in looovveee.
they had chocolate of all sorts. chocolate i didnt even know was possible. chocolate i didnt even know EXISTED.
i knew at that moment i was going to open my own chocolate shop and not let anyone eat any bit of it besides myself. :) yeah, i really like that idea.
so anyways, we ordered. i got ice cream with melted chocolate drizzled on top, with bananas :)
talk about DIVINE. this food was celestial status. not even kidding.
the chocolate was so creamy and smooth and the ice cream was rich and creamy. and then the chocolate would harden after being on top of the ice cream for so long, so the flavors would be even more delish. the only complaint i have, really, is that the chocolate would melt to the bowl and i worked up a sweat trying to pry it away for my tongue to taste.
but dont be alarmed, i got it, and ate every last ounce. you better believe i will be returning every.single.week. :)
okay, so anyways. blah blah blah. i feel like i let my stories drag on and on for fourteen and a half years, and i get so bored typing for this long!
but going home was..interesting. it took us a minute to find the right platform to be on to get back home, but we figured it out and got home rather quickly! waiting for the bus to come is a painful process though. it's soo cold. i went to itch my nose, and couldnt even feel it. and the bus was taking FOREVER. and by forever, i mean twenty minutes. and standing outside in this kind of weather for twenty minutes is a long time, not to mention i got a little spooked out because it was dark. but dont worry, the bus came, and i got off on the right stop, and made it home in a jiff! :) i'm starting to get used to this whole thing! (not the cold, just the public transportation)
so i forgot to share with you my funny story of the day yesterday...
probably because for me it wasnt very funny...and i was sick so i went to bed at 8. 12 hours of sleep baybayyy! you cant go wrong with that!
anyways, i woke up and ate some yogurt for breakfast...then went on my merry way to school...feeling like i was going to have an okay day. but i get to school, take my shoes, coat, hat, scarf, everything off..and sit down. and i felt AWFUL. i knew at that moment my day was going to be turned upside down. so i sat there, telling myself i was fine and that i wasnt going to puke. but i couldnt stop myself, so i got up and RAN to the bathroom as fast as i could. the second i got in there vomit exploded (luckily in the toilet) and i puked my guts out. and i'm not even going to lie it hurt really bad, and it was really gross..so i'll stop talking about my disgusting puke...but anyways, i wanted you all to know that i threw up and it was awful.
so then i just felt so sick and i didnt want to do ANYTHING but i had to teach my lesson, and i only had about 4 minutes until it was showtime, and all i wanted to do was lay on the floor and die.
but i put a smile on my face and went and taught that class like a CHAMPION. (okay, maybe not champion status, but it went well!)
so blah blah blah, the day went on. i had like this neverending migrane that was like "oh hi. i'm going to feel like a tumor of cancer in your brain and you're gong to like it. haha" so i was DYING. and i didnt want to be alive, but wednesdays are my long days where i teach until 6. so i sat on the ground and cried. a lot.
nothing would help. not food. not water. not medicine. i was doomed to be in pain forever and ever :(
so then i decided i would teach my lesson first so i could get it over with. so i sat down, and started talking..and from that moment on it just went downhill. i couldnt talk in real sentences, nothing i was saying made sense, and the kids were just in their own little world. ( i only had two kids that day..one was really shy..and the other was REALLY in a bad mood)
so anyways, we were drawing pictures of things we liked..and the little boy (who was in a bad mood) drew a picture of him holding hands with a girl, so i was like "oohh vova is that your giiirrlllfriend?!" and he was like no!!! and acted all grossed out. and then later i was like talking to him about school, and asked if he has a girlfriend. he FREAKS. throws his crayon across the room and storms into the bathroom, and i had no idea what to do. i just sat there laughing my head off because it was so awkward.
so then later he decides to come back, but with toilet paper shoved in his ears like "earplugs" and refused to talk the entire time. i wanted to crawl in a hole and die. my entire lesson went down the drain and i was SOOO done. i just packed up all my stuff and was like "well we're done" and passed them off to the next teacher.
i was like really cranky the rest of the night. my headache was AWFUL. and i just couldnt even handle anything, so i went home and went to bed by 8. it was fantastic :) my head doesnt hurt as bad now...so that's good. it's only a medium hurt instead of extreme pain! :)
that's a plus.
hope you all are enjoying your warm weather. send some my way ♥
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
may he rest in peace
<3
okay, so coming home from kareoke (read the last post ;))
saturday night...i was out kinda late..but my host family is still out of town so i just came home, and i went to say hello to the little hamster living in my room...just like i always do when i come home.
but i had a horrific realization.
IT WAS GONE.
what the WHAT! the little thing liked to climb on the top of its cage and be really loud and annoying...so i searched the entire apartment looking for him...but he was nowhere to be found. it doesnt help that they dont respond to their name like dogs or any sensible pet!
stupid hamsters.
i felt horrible. what was i going to tell my host family?! i lost their pet!
i was freaking out. but there wasnt much i could do..so i went to bed and decided i would figure it out tomorrow.
sunday morning came along (by the time i woke up it was actually afternoon...) but anyways, i creeped my eyes open, and put my glasses on and looked up and BAM. there he was. just a walkin through the middle of my room. so i POUNCED on him. and threw him in his cage and gave him a good talkin to..and put books on top of the cage so he couldnt open the door again.
i was sooooo proud of myself! i didnt have to break the bad news that i lost their beloved pet. (i still dont know his name...)
crisis avoided!
yessss.
so the days pass, and everything was good! the thing still bothered me because it would make noise 24/7 and be really annoying, but i was just happy that he was right back where he was supposed to be :)
then tuesday comes around. i said my goodbyes to him, and left for school...not thinking that tragic moments were going to come later that day.
i came to school, taught my lessons, ate lunch, and was done for the day. i figured i would just go to the gym and hang out because it was too cold to go anywhere, and i didnt wanna just sit at home.
SO. i run home really quick to pick up my gym clothes (luckily home is on the wayish to the gym!)
and i go to say hello to mr. hamster like i always do, and he wasnt moving.
he was just laying there like a pile of dead.
he was all stiff, and his eyes were open. and..i didnt look all that close but i'm pretty sure his tongue was sticking out. so all those things mean he was sitting there DEAD.
i freaked out. HOW COULD HE?! that's not allowed. the family was still out of town! what was i going to tell them?! or what was i supposed to do with the body? i wouldnt touch it when it was alive..there was NO WAY i was going to touch that dead thing.
what was i going to do?
call them "umm hi so remember me? yeah, i'm still living in your house..hope you're having a good vacation..oh um me? yeah..i'm good. your hamster is dead though."
i couldnt do it! the worst part was that i knew they told me they were going to come home the exact day that it died!
that little snot couldnt even stay alive for ONE MORE DAY. to save my butt.
of course this would only happen to me...
so anyways, i tried to stay awake to wait for the family to get home, but they never came home! so now i'm stuck with this dead hamster in my room and i dont know what to do, and i dont know when they are coming home. it's quite the dilemma...not gunna lie.
so now, i'm going to clear up some facts, statements, and questions that might come flying at me when you read this.
Q: did i feed it?
A: YES. it always had food in its container. but i'm convinced it wasnt eating. it was on a starvation strike.
Q: did you put it in the microwave and now you're just telling everyone it died on its own?
A: OMG!!! no!
my theory is: it died from falling. the thing loved to hang upside down on it's cage, and fall off..and then climb back up and crawl around. it would do that so many times...i'm pretty sure it was from head trauma.
it also had a cancerous thing on it's face. it was disgusting. it looked like a tumor...and it grossed me out. it mighta died from that.
Q: cant you just go buy another one and tell them that's it?
A: yeah, except see above statement. where am i going to get a cancerous hamster in this country?!
anyways, that's all i have for you.
the family still hasnt come home, or answered their phone. so now i am just sitting here waiting..and trying to figure out what i am going to do.
:/
rest in peace little guy...
okay, so coming home from kareoke (read the last post ;))
saturday night...i was out kinda late..but my host family is still out of town so i just came home, and i went to say hello to the little hamster living in my room...just like i always do when i come home.
but i had a horrific realization.
IT WAS GONE.
what the WHAT! the little thing liked to climb on the top of its cage and be really loud and annoying...so i searched the entire apartment looking for him...but he was nowhere to be found. it doesnt help that they dont respond to their name like dogs or any sensible pet!
stupid hamsters.
i felt horrible. what was i going to tell my host family?! i lost their pet!
i was freaking out. but there wasnt much i could do..so i went to bed and decided i would figure it out tomorrow.
sunday morning came along (by the time i woke up it was actually afternoon...) but anyways, i creeped my eyes open, and put my glasses on and looked up and BAM. there he was. just a walkin through the middle of my room. so i POUNCED on him. and threw him in his cage and gave him a good talkin to..and put books on top of the cage so he couldnt open the door again.
i was sooooo proud of myself! i didnt have to break the bad news that i lost their beloved pet. (i still dont know his name...)
crisis avoided!
yessss.
so the days pass, and everything was good! the thing still bothered me because it would make noise 24/7 and be really annoying, but i was just happy that he was right back where he was supposed to be :)
then tuesday comes around. i said my goodbyes to him, and left for school...not thinking that tragic moments were going to come later that day.
i came to school, taught my lessons, ate lunch, and was done for the day. i figured i would just go to the gym and hang out because it was too cold to go anywhere, and i didnt wanna just sit at home.
SO. i run home really quick to pick up my gym clothes (luckily home is on the wayish to the gym!)
and i go to say hello to mr. hamster like i always do, and he wasnt moving.
he was just laying there like a pile of dead.
he was all stiff, and his eyes were open. and..i didnt look all that close but i'm pretty sure his tongue was sticking out. so all those things mean he was sitting there DEAD.
i freaked out. HOW COULD HE?! that's not allowed. the family was still out of town! what was i going to tell them?! or what was i supposed to do with the body? i wouldnt touch it when it was alive..there was NO WAY i was going to touch that dead thing.
what was i going to do?
call them "umm hi so remember me? yeah, i'm still living in your house..hope you're having a good vacation..oh um me? yeah..i'm good. your hamster is dead though."
i couldnt do it! the worst part was that i knew they told me they were going to come home the exact day that it died!
that little snot couldnt even stay alive for ONE MORE DAY. to save my butt.
of course this would only happen to me...
so anyways, i tried to stay awake to wait for the family to get home, but they never came home! so now i'm stuck with this dead hamster in my room and i dont know what to do, and i dont know when they are coming home. it's quite the dilemma...not gunna lie.
so now, i'm going to clear up some facts, statements, and questions that might come flying at me when you read this.
Q: did i feed it?
A: YES. it always had food in its container. but i'm convinced it wasnt eating. it was on a starvation strike.
Q: did you put it in the microwave and now you're just telling everyone it died on its own?
A: OMG!!! no!
my theory is: it died from falling. the thing loved to hang upside down on it's cage, and fall off..and then climb back up and crawl around. it would do that so many times...i'm pretty sure it was from head trauma.
it also had a cancerous thing on it's face. it was disgusting. it looked like a tumor...and it grossed me out. it mighta died from that.
Q: cant you just go buy another one and tell them that's it?
A: yeah, except see above statement. where am i going to get a cancerous hamster in this country?!
anyways, that's all i have for you.
the family still hasnt come home, or answered their phone. so now i am just sitting here waiting..and trying to figure out what i am going to do.
:/
rest in peace little guy...
sing your heart out
so my life has been filled with quite a few...interesting events for the past few days.
never a dull moment with me, i swear. my luck just cant get any better, can it? that's okay though, i wouldnt change it for the world! i love my crazy life :)
okay so anyways, i guess i will start with something interesting..aka..saturday.
sooo. lets seeee...i'm trying to remember. okay yes, i had plans to meet my group at a metro stop to go to the botanical gardens and explore the (warm) flowers and whatever a botanical garden is supposed to have..but it was all a let down..from the moment i stepped outside my door!
1. it was snowing.
2. it was freezing
but hey, none of that is new news to me.
okay. sooo i walked to my bus stop because i was DETERMINED to get there, despite the fact that it was a blizzard impaling my face with darts of snow shards.
i got to the stop, and there was bus 245 waiting, about to leave. so i had to hurry and remember what bus number it was i was supposed to get on to get to the metro, so i didnt get on...figuring another bus would come within 5 minutes...giving me enough time to rummage through my purse and find the paper that holds all my beloved information of what buses to take and what stops, and where they'll take me.
luckily, that was the wrong bus, CRISIS AVOIDED!
but, another crisis arose..not one bus came..not for a whole 45 minutes. and there i stand. in the frozen. toes numb. face burning. waiting..waiting..waitinggggggg for a stupid bus to come. at this point, i didnt even care what bus it was. i was going to get on it and take it wherever it may go.
and that's exactly what i did.
my bus number is 249 to take me to metro stop "levebronestya" or something like that. i kinda just mumble it and hope people know what i'm talking about.
so anyways, i got on the bus. and sat there, and looked out the window and just waited to get to the right place. i recognized a lot of the stops, so i got SUPER excited that i figured this whole thing out on my own! so i got on the metro, and rode it to the stop we were all supposed to meet at. but seeing as i was 30 minutes late, everyone was gone..except for carly who had a rough time getting there too.
so we stood there waiting for someone to come get us for like twenty minutes, and that was rockin. everyone kept texting me telling me to not come because it was stupid, but i didnt listen to them because i wanted to see the flowers!
so we trekked through the snow to get to the botanical gardens, and guess what? THERE WERE NO FLOWERS. i think i saw one..that was growing on a tree..
needless to say it was a complete letdown. but we had warm shelter for an hour..so what more could i ask for!
(plus, because i came late...i didnt have to pay...so that's a MEGA plus!)
anyways, finally we got to leave (plus i was starving my entire guts out!) we all decided we wanted to go to "dream mall" sounds dreamy, eh?
well dont worry, it was.
upon our arrival, we dispersed to feed our hungry tummys. i made my way to the food court (tons of options, and cheap prices? yes please) and then i saw it. jesus sent me a little gift from heaven. A SANDWICH!
not just any sandwich. a panini. i was in heaven.
except it was WAY too small..i needed about 6 more of them to fill my stomach at least halfway. it was a little disappointing, i'm not going to lie.
anywhooo, we sat and talked for a bit, and then decided to hit the shops before we got glued to those chairs at the food court.
so we shopped..until we dropped. this was no ordinary mall, folks. this was "dream mall" i feel like for some reason that's not the real name of it. i think it's "dream town...." because i remember singing the song funky town...while traveling to the mall.
so anyways, dream town mall thing. it was bigger than you imagine. it was like 5 stories, i swear. and it had an ice skating rink, and a roller skating rink, and bumper cars, and restaurants and all the other things in the entire world that you could imagine. and i guess just across the street they built a second addition to the mall, which has a water park!
oh my, the excitement.
so we hung out there for literally my entire life. i felt like i lived there now. i think we got there at 3 and didnt leave until 8...try lugging around your giant backpack for that many hours and shop at the same time. i'm pretty sure i saw every store there was..twice!
now THAT'S a serious feat.
anyways, some people that we were hanging out with decided to go home, so it was just me and carly and john..and we didnt wanna spend another saturday night just sitting in our rooms...but we had NO idea what we wanted to do, or what there was to do. so we kept bumming around the mall. then we were just standing there listening to this guy play the piano, and looked over and there was carly's host sister! (she's like 28..and really nice!) so we were talking to her and she was telling us about how she wanted to go to kareoke night..but didnt have anyone to go with, so we gladly volunteered to go :)
sooooo we called becki and lesa (two other teachers in our group) and got the move on it to go find this place. i was really excited to finally get out of the house and do something!
never a dull moment with me, i swear. my luck just cant get any better, can it? that's okay though, i wouldnt change it for the world! i love my crazy life :)
okay so anyways, i guess i will start with something interesting..aka..saturday.
sooo. lets seeee...i'm trying to remember. okay yes, i had plans to meet my group at a metro stop to go to the botanical gardens and explore the (warm) flowers and whatever a botanical garden is supposed to have..but it was all a let down..from the moment i stepped outside my door!
1. it was snowing.
2. it was freezing
but hey, none of that is new news to me.
okay. sooo i walked to my bus stop because i was DETERMINED to get there, despite the fact that it was a blizzard impaling my face with darts of snow shards.
i got to the stop, and there was bus 245 waiting, about to leave. so i had to hurry and remember what bus number it was i was supposed to get on to get to the metro, so i didnt get on...figuring another bus would come within 5 minutes...giving me enough time to rummage through my purse and find the paper that holds all my beloved information of what buses to take and what stops, and where they'll take me.
luckily, that was the wrong bus, CRISIS AVOIDED!
but, another crisis arose..not one bus came..not for a whole 45 minutes. and there i stand. in the frozen. toes numb. face burning. waiting..waiting..waitinggggggg for a stupid bus to come. at this point, i didnt even care what bus it was. i was going to get on it and take it wherever it may go.
and that's exactly what i did.
my bus number is 249 to take me to metro stop "levebronestya" or something like that. i kinda just mumble it and hope people know what i'm talking about.
so anyways, i got on the bus. and sat there, and looked out the window and just waited to get to the right place. i recognized a lot of the stops, so i got SUPER excited that i figured this whole thing out on my own! so i got on the metro, and rode it to the stop we were all supposed to meet at. but seeing as i was 30 minutes late, everyone was gone..except for carly who had a rough time getting there too.
so we stood there waiting for someone to come get us for like twenty minutes, and that was rockin. everyone kept texting me telling me to not come because it was stupid, but i didnt listen to them because i wanted to see the flowers!
so we trekked through the snow to get to the botanical gardens, and guess what? THERE WERE NO FLOWERS. i think i saw one..that was growing on a tree..
needless to say it was a complete letdown. but we had warm shelter for an hour..so what more could i ask for!
(plus, because i came late...i didnt have to pay...so that's a MEGA plus!)
anyways, finally we got to leave (plus i was starving my entire guts out!) we all decided we wanted to go to "dream mall" sounds dreamy, eh?
well dont worry, it was.
upon our arrival, we dispersed to feed our hungry tummys. i made my way to the food court (tons of options, and cheap prices? yes please) and then i saw it. jesus sent me a little gift from heaven. A SANDWICH!
not just any sandwich. a panini. i was in heaven.
except it was WAY too small..i needed about 6 more of them to fill my stomach at least halfway. it was a little disappointing, i'm not going to lie.
anywhooo, we sat and talked for a bit, and then decided to hit the shops before we got glued to those chairs at the food court.
so we shopped..until we dropped. this was no ordinary mall, folks. this was "dream mall" i feel like for some reason that's not the real name of it. i think it's "dream town...." because i remember singing the song funky town...while traveling to the mall.
so anyways, dream town mall thing. it was bigger than you imagine. it was like 5 stories, i swear. and it had an ice skating rink, and a roller skating rink, and bumper cars, and restaurants and all the other things in the entire world that you could imagine. and i guess just across the street they built a second addition to the mall, which has a water park!
oh my, the excitement.
so we hung out there for literally my entire life. i felt like i lived there now. i think we got there at 3 and didnt leave until 8...try lugging around your giant backpack for that many hours and shop at the same time. i'm pretty sure i saw every store there was..twice!
now THAT'S a serious feat.
anyways, some people that we were hanging out with decided to go home, so it was just me and carly and john..and we didnt wanna spend another saturday night just sitting in our rooms...but we had NO idea what we wanted to do, or what there was to do. so we kept bumming around the mall. then we were just standing there listening to this guy play the piano, and looked over and there was carly's host sister! (she's like 28..and really nice!) so we were talking to her and she was telling us about how she wanted to go to kareoke night..but didnt have anyone to go with, so we gladly volunteered to go :)
sooooo we called becki and lesa (two other teachers in our group) and got the move on it to go find this place. i was really excited to finally get out of the house and do something!
soo. we were walking in the snow.
see that classy coat? it's so cute!
okay, you're right. it's awful. and i stick out of here like a soar thumb. but wanna know what?
1. it's warmer than hell itself.
2. it has a kangaroo pouch. :) for all my valuables (which also doubles as me looking pregnant..so people give me their seat on the metro or bus..SCORE!)
so we got to the kareoke restaurant/bar kinda thing and were just chillin, ordered some food..there were only two other groups there so they would like rotate through the groups with who got to sing...and we sang a LOT. everyone loved us, they thought we were the awesomest people ever.
probably because we are.
we made friends with one of the other groups, and they were so funny. it was really interesting though, we were talking to them about kiev and what not, and they all said they didnt like it here at alllll and wanted to leave.
i told them if i had to live through another winter here i probably would feel the same way.
but i actually really like it here, minus the cold/snow/ice/slipping everywhere i try and walk.
i asked them if they could tell that i was american just by looking at me..and they said yes. it's because i smile and laugh too much.
shoooooot. :(
anyways, that was a lot of fun. :)
here's some jem's from that night:
feast your eyes on this!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
why am i here?
:/
it's one of those days. i'm slowly losing motivation to leave the house more and more..and the desire to be here.
it's one of those days. i'm slowly losing motivation to leave the house more and more..and the desire to be here.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
that moment you realize it's negative 8 degrees outside.
its always somewhat of a let down to wake up in the morning. i get so warm, so cuddly, and after 8 hours of restless sleep, i swear RIGHT before my alarm goes off is the exact moment that i get in the most comfortable position EVER. and could probably sleep for 8 more hours.
but. my obligation to teaching, and my desire to explore this ever-so amazing country gets me out of bed every morning.
i dont know why.
i roll out of bed, turn my computer on to check the weather, and dart to the bathroom to shower. i think getting out of the shower is even more disappointing than getting out of bed. i dont know about you, but for me, showering solves all life's problems. it's warm. you feel so much better about yourself, it soothes your aches and pains, anddd...you kinda get to be a vegetable for 10 minutes (okay, maybe 20). there's not much better in life than that.
except for maybe the fact that i've eaten two loaves of bread in three days. but that's a different story.
anyways, i shower. i come back to my room to get ready, layer up, and get my butt to school. while doing this, i like to gauge how many layers to wear, so i check the weather. 99% of the time it's about 3-7 degrees outside---barely bearable. so i put on my tights, leggings, leggings (again), and then my thermal pants. my two pairs of socks, my boots, my thermal shirt, my over shirt, a sweater, scarf, then my coat. and i'm ready to go for the day!
but today went a little differently. my internet at home had been down for a bit, so when i finally got it working i hurried up and skyped with ryan before he went to bed (it still trips me out that my mornings are his nights, and his mornings are my nights) but then i remembered to check the weather to be prepared for what was going to come. it was more disappointing than you could imagine.
negative.
there was a negative sign. i dont think you all realize how cold that negative sign automatically makes it.
i remember being in utah, driving around in my super cool mini van and gasping at the fact that it was 28 degrees. barely below freezing.i literally thought death was going to come upon me. but now i have a new appreciation for utah weather (especially since i hear it's in the 30's there!...i hate you all).
i would give anything to have my car that has a heater.
let me run you by what's been going on for the past week (has it really been a week!? man, i need to remember to blog more..i'm just so busy!)
okay, so last week of teaching went...okay. it was better than i expected but it still sucked. we were blind sighted quite a few times, and had to overcome a few obstacles with our lessons, the school, the kids, etc. but we worked through it. i mean, half the fun of doing something like this is figuring out what the heck you're doing!
i kinda got in a rut of feeling sorry for myself. oh poor me. this is really hard. it's really cold. i dont want to teach. and then i realized this is what i signed up for! i better figure it out or else i'm gunna wanna die for the next 5 months every day that i come into the school (even though every day i secretly wish all my kids are sick and cant come to class). but i didnt wanna sit here and be miserable at school, waiting for the time to pass, doing mediocre lessons. NO WAY, NOT ME! that's not like me anyways. we all know about my ocd problems. so i finally buckled down. did some studying. planned my lessons for the rest of the week, and put a smile on my face!
and it totally worked.
so teaching is going pretty good. it's really hard, still. i didnt really think about how hard it is teaching another language, especially to the itty bitty kids. they're more interested in headbutting each other than they are constantly repeating what i say. but we make it work.
anyways, so i am trying to remember what i did for my lessons.
my itty bitty class is kinda hard, mostly we just have been winging it (except for today) but it's been fun. and then my older class, i chose to do kitchen activities with them last week. so for wednesday we made a fruit salad, cut up apples, oranges, and bananas and stirred it all up and make a really delish salad. then for friday we made jello jigglers! it turned out a lot of fun, except for some reason at the bottom of my jello bowl there was a thick layer of uncutable jello. i dont know what it was, but it was hard. and disgusting. so i kinda had a pukey face and wanted to die, but it helped me not eat it! :)
they rather enjoyed the jello time, and of course made a mess of it, but it was fun. i'm still getting used to the teaching style of constantly talking 24/7 and being really annoying about everything. but i'll get used to it.
anyways, it's been way too cold to really do anything so i usually would just go home and chill. read a book, take a bath...all the good things in life :)
but saturday i decided to venture out and have some fun! my head teacher had invited us all over to her apartment for a little shindig, so a few of us decided to meet up there. i was a little nervous to leave the house (my host family is out of town, and i wasnt quite sure which bus to take to get to the metro, or how to get back...but i KNEW i needed to take the bull by the horns and stop sitting around feeling scared and sorry for myself) so i layered up, and ventured out. i started walking in the direction of what i remembered the bus stop to be at, and i looked up and saw the holy grail of holy grails.
but. my obligation to teaching, and my desire to explore this ever-so amazing country gets me out of bed every morning.
i dont know why.
i roll out of bed, turn my computer on to check the weather, and dart to the bathroom to shower. i think getting out of the shower is even more disappointing than getting out of bed. i dont know about you, but for me, showering solves all life's problems. it's warm. you feel so much better about yourself, it soothes your aches and pains, anddd...you kinda get to be a vegetable for 10 minutes (okay, maybe 20). there's not much better in life than that.
except for maybe the fact that i've eaten two loaves of bread in three days. but that's a different story.
anyways, i shower. i come back to my room to get ready, layer up, and get my butt to school. while doing this, i like to gauge how many layers to wear, so i check the weather. 99% of the time it's about 3-7 degrees outside---barely bearable. so i put on my tights, leggings, leggings (again), and then my thermal pants. my two pairs of socks, my boots, my thermal shirt, my over shirt, a sweater, scarf, then my coat. and i'm ready to go for the day!
but today went a little differently. my internet at home had been down for a bit, so when i finally got it working i hurried up and skyped with ryan before he went to bed (it still trips me out that my mornings are his nights, and his mornings are my nights) but then i remembered to check the weather to be prepared for what was going to come. it was more disappointing than you could imagine.
negative.
there was a negative sign. i dont think you all realize how cold that negative sign automatically makes it.
i remember being in utah, driving around in my super cool mini van and gasping at the fact that it was 28 degrees. barely below freezing.i literally thought death was going to come upon me. but now i have a new appreciation for utah weather (especially since i hear it's in the 30's there!...i hate you all).
i would give anything to have my car that has a heater.
let me run you by what's been going on for the past week (has it really been a week!? man, i need to remember to blog more..i'm just so busy!)
okay, so last week of teaching went...okay. it was better than i expected but it still sucked. we were blind sighted quite a few times, and had to overcome a few obstacles with our lessons, the school, the kids, etc. but we worked through it. i mean, half the fun of doing something like this is figuring out what the heck you're doing!
i kinda got in a rut of feeling sorry for myself. oh poor me. this is really hard. it's really cold. i dont want to teach. and then i realized this is what i signed up for! i better figure it out or else i'm gunna wanna die for the next 5 months every day that i come into the school (even though every day i secretly wish all my kids are sick and cant come to class). but i didnt wanna sit here and be miserable at school, waiting for the time to pass, doing mediocre lessons. NO WAY, NOT ME! that's not like me anyways. we all know about my ocd problems. so i finally buckled down. did some studying. planned my lessons for the rest of the week, and put a smile on my face!
and it totally worked.
so teaching is going pretty good. it's really hard, still. i didnt really think about how hard it is teaching another language, especially to the itty bitty kids. they're more interested in headbutting each other than they are constantly repeating what i say. but we make it work.
anyways, so i am trying to remember what i did for my lessons.
my itty bitty class is kinda hard, mostly we just have been winging it (except for today) but it's been fun. and then my older class, i chose to do kitchen activities with them last week. so for wednesday we made a fruit salad, cut up apples, oranges, and bananas and stirred it all up and make a really delish salad. then for friday we made jello jigglers! it turned out a lot of fun, except for some reason at the bottom of my jello bowl there was a thick layer of uncutable jello. i dont know what it was, but it was hard. and disgusting. so i kinda had a pukey face and wanted to die, but it helped me not eat it! :)
they rather enjoyed the jello time, and of course made a mess of it, but it was fun. i'm still getting used to the teaching style of constantly talking 24/7 and being really annoying about everything. but i'll get used to it.
anyways, it's been way too cold to really do anything so i usually would just go home and chill. read a book, take a bath...all the good things in life :)
but saturday i decided to venture out and have some fun! my head teacher had invited us all over to her apartment for a little shindig, so a few of us decided to meet up there. i was a little nervous to leave the house (my host family is out of town, and i wasnt quite sure which bus to take to get to the metro, or how to get back...but i KNEW i needed to take the bull by the horns and stop sitting around feeling scared and sorry for myself) so i layered up, and ventured out. i started walking in the direction of what i remembered the bus stop to be at, and i looked up and saw the holy grail of holy grails.
"fitness life"
ah those sweet words! i finally found somewhere that i can escape. release my anger, and actually sweat for once. (besides having to wear all those layers then walk up a gigantic hill of death...three times...but thats a different story for a little later.)
so i ran inside and asked the girl if she spoke english, which she did..kinda. good enough to give me a piece of paper about the place and so i thanked her and told her i would come back later (i wanted to get back on with my adventure of finding the apartment before it got dark outside)...and yes. i did have that little faith in myself that i thought it would take me 3 hours to reach my destination.
so i walked back over to the bus stop and stood there pondering what bus number i should get on. i wasnt really sure, but i just decided that it would be a really good idea to get on the first one that came. i had this logic for a few reasons.
1. i was cold, and wanted a warm(ish) place to sit...
2. i figured..all the buses have to end up at the same place...and last time i went to the metro there were twelve million buses of all different numbers gathered..so i figured at one point or another i would end up at the metro.
3. that's really all my reasoning that i have...
so i stood there for about two minutes, and saw a bus drive up...so i frantically waved it down and hopped right on. (i had perfect seat placement. four rows back, next to the window. far enough away from the driver so nobody would pass me their money, but not too far back that the ukrainian stench would gather (which is in the back of the bus).
okay, side note really quickly. ukranians have a very distinct smell. it sometimes depends on the time of day, but it usually involves this: sausage, B.O., and alcohol.
the strength of alcohol is what makes it depend on the time of day. the later at night (aka the colder it gets) the stronger people smell. allllll the time.
okay so anyways, bus placement=good. so i sat on the bus for a good 30 minutes, but i wasnt too worried. i was just happy to get some sight seeing in. i found a lot of cool little street shops near my house, and i wouldnt have been able to find them if it wasnt for this nice little bus ride! and i FINALLY made it to the metro stop. and there it was, mcdonalds.
i dont think i had ever been this happy in my entire life. it was downright amazing.
so i ran inside, and realized it was going to be harder to order than i thought. i had no idea how to say "chicken nuggets" in russian. soooooo i did what i do best here, and played a little game of charades with the girl.
it worked out magically, and i was so happy to finally have some food in my tummy! and if you were all wondering what ukranian chicken nuggets are, they're the EXACT same as american ones.
but..they did have something quite interesting on their menu that caught my eye. they looked like samoa cookies..but they were chicken nuggets with sesame seeds on them. i was intrigued...but not enough to actually order it.
so i gobbled down my meal, and remembered that i needed to reach my destination before nightfall.
so i waltzed my way over to the metro and got on. then i remembered i had no idea which stop i was getting off on, so i stood over by the map following with my finger where we were after each stop. everyone kept looking at me, but the longer i'm here..the longer i realize that i dont care what people say or think about me..i'm just trying to survive this place..and i'm going to do it MY way. plus, i have no idea what anyone is saying to me when they talk, so i just smile and say "english only" and then they talk more and i smile and pretend like they're telling me how pretty i am.
so i got off on the right stop, and pulled out my very in depth directions of how to get to the apartment (it was probably a 20 minute walk..that i turned into a 40 minute walk very quickly).
i followed the directions to the T. and got to the movie theaters, and turn right. but i wasnt quite sure..do i turn right before the movie theather, or after? so i assumed after...for some stupid reason. then the next item on the list was "hike up the giant mountain hill of death until you cant breathe anymore, and then keep hiking until you wanna rip your clothes off and die of heat stroke, and then keep walking because you'll almost be there"
okay, it didnt go exactly like that, but that's how it was.
so i hiked up the mountain, and made it to the top and i was so proud of myself. i felt like a champion. i couldnt breathe and my butt burned, but i had reached champion status.
but then i realized i wasnt at my destination. i had made it to this strange road with a lot of scary houses, and that wasnt in the directions.
so i called the head teacher and asked her, and we figured out that i HIKED THE WRONG MOUNTAIN. i was supposed to turn before the movie theater, not after :( so i hung my head in shame and walked back down the mountain.
twelve million hours later, after rehiking that mountain, i made it to their apartment. happily.
and they had made the cutest fort EVER. when i move home and have my own room again, i am making a fort in my room. i love the feeling. plus, it trapped in all the heat so it made it a little warmer in the apartment!
okay, i feel like i have been blabbing forever and ever. if you have reached it to this point in the story, i love you forever. and i will give you a second to stand up, touch your toes, spin around three times, and jog in place for a second. everyone needs their wiggle time.
dont worry, i moved from the table, to sitting on the floor, to laying on the floor, which then i felt obligated to take a nap. but i'm back and feelin good!
so anyways, we all just sat there and watched a movie, and chatted about our week. it was fun to see some of the people from the different schools.
so blah blah blah. we were all sitting around, and i was getting HANGRY. (like always) but nobody wanted to go out and get food.
so finally i got a few of us to get our shoes on and go venturing out to find food, we walked forevvveeerr and couldnt find anything, but we made it to the movie theater, so we decided to go in there and unthaw.
we found out that this was not only a movie theater, but it was THE place to be on a saturday night. they had bowling, an arcade, food (which was gross looking and over priced, so we didnt eat there), annddd movies, and everything else you could have imagined.
this is me being cute with a statue outside the movie theater: (p.s. thats my new coat!)
okay so blah blah blah, we walked more. and it was cold. so we made it to the train station (NOT the metro, the train) so we went in there hoping they would have food..like an airport. they had like two places to go..so we went to the place that looked italian.
after five minutes of charades we got our pizza and salad ordered, and we were feelin pretty good.
blah blah blah, we got our food, and ate. and it was awesomely delish. i dont know if it was because i was hungry, or if it was because it really was good, but my tummy was happy. but not that happy. it was a tiny pizza. i could have eaten the entire thing by myself and still been hungry, so i voted we walked a few more littles and go to mcdonalds, but they didnt want to. so i was sad. but then they ordered another pizza, and i just had a bite of theirs.
so all was good in the hood.
we walked around the train station and looked at some souvenir shops and then decided to head back.
i forgot that we had to hike up that mountain, but i did it! with a smile on my face (to tell you the honest truth, it felt good to walk and stretch my legs....but nobody told me i would be sore in the morning! hahaa..pathetic)
so we got back, watched another movie, and kinda just talked and went to bed. everyone was pretty beat from the week, so we just chilled.
i did paint my fingernails and toenails though!
so thennn we woke up, and it was freezing, and i wasnt feeling in tip top shape and i knew that if i wanted any chance of fighting off this cold, that i had to go home and sleep allll day.
so i went home, and everyone else headed off to church.
my head was feeling so heavy, and i had that awful tickle in my throat. and i didnt want that to carry over into the week (which it has anyways)
so i went home and chilled at home. it was saturday night for ryan, so i skyped in to him and his lovely roommate and friend and we played never have i ever aannd i watched them play just dance :) it was a fun day. it was kinda fun to hang out with people other than...the people i am with 24/7...i had so much fun! then i ate an entire loaf of bread, and cheese..and got really really fat. :( bad idea.
after that i slept a lot, and mostly just slept. and watched a movie, i think. that day was kinda a blur of events to tell you the honest truth. but i do remember being very very happy! :) and that's all that matters to me.
so then monday decided to come, and i wasnt as ready as i thought i was. we still struggle with the itty bitty class, knowing what activities to do to keep them interested..and involved..and to use language that they understand. it's just difficult all around...but we figured it out. and then with the older kids i made..jello. oh yeah, i think i already told you about that.
i was supposed to go to the gym, but because i was tired. and cold. and not in the mood. i didnt go that day.
tuesday came around..and that's my day were i get to sleep in and go to ele (which is at a public school..and i was not looking forward to it because the kids were beasts last week) so we got there, kinda bs'ed our way through the classes and came back to the school for lunch and really exciting training meetings! :)
they're not that exciting..but they help..so that's good!
so thennn we went to the gym and i felt like i could actually breathe here! it was the most exciting thing EVER. but we had to actually obtain our passes, which was a work out in and of itself. the girl didnt speak english, so after charades for a bit, finally some girl that spoke really good english came and helped us and it was really nice.
it felt soo good to finally work out. it's nice to have a place to go and let off some steam and feel better about myself eating a whole loaf of bread.
so then after, i went to the store and bought..a whole loaf of bread..and some oatmeal :)
so i ate the bread (almost all of it..i resisted the rest to save for breakfast) andddd cleaned the apartment (it was getting BAD) i had clothes everyweher from doing laundry and then laying them all out to dry. and guess what? the washing machine was nice enough do dye ALL my white clothes..PINK. how sweet of it..NOT. ugh. oh well, i'm over it. at least it wasnt brown ;)
so anyways, i cleaned, i sat there, i read, i watched movies, etc. it was exciting.
blah blah blah. now i have been sitting here for two hours typing this whole thing. and i am done. i kinda got lazy at the end, so i am going to try and be better and write at least every other day soooooooo you dont have to read this marathon of a blog, and i dont have to type one! :)
mmkay adios.
send your love, on this lovely love month.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
i am a teacher. in ukraine.
can everyone say teacher?
teeeeaaaacher?
very good!(in that annoying high pitched voice...like you're talking to a baby. or a dog)
that annoying high pitched voice is like the definition of my life right now. why do i feel like if i talk like that my lesson will be more exciting? or the kids will want to pay more attention to me?
no. they dont. they hate me. they make fun of me when i talk.
but you know what, it's going better then i expected...
yesterday (tuesday) my schedule is this: show up at the school around 10:40. get shuttled to a different school and be a teachers aide (aka they throw you in front of the class and you bs your way around the lesson for an hour) and..then at 1 the shuttle takes me home and i go back to my school and eat lunch, and then i can do whatever i please.
which is hide in my room and write on my blog, and probably sometimes sleep quite a bit.
i am still getting used to being here.
but i want you all to know: i went on an adventure.
it wasnt grand, it probably doesnt even seem like a big deal to you. but to me, it is.
i was walking home from school mid-afternoon...and i wasnt exactly sure what else i was going to do for the rest of my day. so i made my fellow teachers come on an adventure with me. and boy did we have fun!
okay, kinda sarcastic. but we did enjoy ourselves a bit...
step one: walk to my house from the school.
there are a few shops and different businesses on the way home, so i thought we could do some exploration.
we first went to this one store that had clothing in the window, so i was excited.... indubitably. but it turned out better than you would expect. this was no clothing store. this was a thrift store. i could tell by the smell. if any of you have entered a DI, goodwill, any thrift store ever known to man...you will know the EXACT smell that i am talking about. and i am happy to report, 6,000 miles away from home...thrift stores still smell the same.
but anyways, i found a couple awesome sweaters for pretty cheap, but i didnt buy anything. i was far too busy overheating in my many-a-layers.
then we went to the market, which coincidentally is the exact same thing as a grocery store.
awesome.
so while walking to the grocery store, we walked up these stairs on the side of the building and then walked around the raised sidewalk to get inside, but there was a pillar blocking the entrance from where we were walking. and the only way we could get there was walk ALL THE WAY around the building and back to the stairs we came up, or we could jump down, attempting to hurdle the giant pile of snow that was underneath us.
so we decided to take the route any sane person would take, we tackled on that pile of snow like it was our biznatch.
first, my fellow teacher mike decided to jump down. the pile of snow looked pretty old and like it had hardened over the days, so we were confident in the fact that you could put your foot on it, and spring over the rest of the pile. i guess that wasnt so, because he sunk up to his knee, but was able to escape quick enough before anything else had happened. and then it was my turn to hurdle the snow...and i was prepared...kinda. i stood there for a bit being a big fat baby, and some guy came up to me and jabbered and then grabbed my hand to help me..so i went for it. and it turned out worse than expected. i sunk down up to my hip and then leaped out awkwardly. it was more dramatic, i promise, but i'm not quite in the most dramatic mood in the world, which is weird. this cold weather is starting to effect me i guess!
anyways, we went to the store. i bought some chocolate...some diet coke :)))))))))))), and some bread..and some hot chocolate...all for like $3!!!!
i love this place. i feel like i dont spend any money...i dont think i have spent more than $20 here so far. and i've done a lot of things!
so anyways, that was awesome. it was fun to look around the store and see all the funny new different things, and try and decide what different things are.
i love this place. dont listen to what i say when i complain, because i really do love it. i love my host family. i love my school (mostly), i love the teachers i am with, and i looovvveee the freedom and exploring i get to do. how lucky am i to have these experiences! i cant even believe i am here sometimes. i get kinda bummed when it is 0 degrees outside and i am crying my eyeballs out that my toes are cold. and i cant breathe because it is so freezing. and then i remember that i am so lucky that i get to be here. i wouldnt change one thing about it (except for maybe sharing this experience with all of you!) words cannot explain the things that i get to experience...i wish you all could understand.
this was the scariest thing i have ever done. who moves in..with a family they dont know...in a country they dont know anything about..with a language they dont know a single word...to teach a language to little brats in a program that is quite unclear?
i do :)
and guess what? it's the best thing i could have ever done. i have become so close to my host family. my host brother is stealing my heart. he is 4 or 5..and so soo sweet. when we eat dinner he HAS to sit by me. and he holds my hand while we eat. and then the other day i was eating and it was just me and the two kids and he turned to me while i was distracted and kissed me right on the cheek! he's just the sweetest little boy ever, and he's so funny. i am just so thankful i got such a wonderful family :)
my little sister is a student at the school i teach at, and she is so sweet. she would never speak english at home or to me, but when we got into the classroom, she is AMAZING. and understands and speaks so clearly. i love it.
so now we are a lot closer friends :)
what else about my sweet family? my host mom calls me a lot saying "i worry you not eat! you starve!" and "i not home tonight, you will get food okay?"
i always have a warm cup of tea and bowl of soup waiting for me when i get home. it's just so great to have this feeling of being looked after here, they are such sweet people to me :)
my host dad is hilarious. he is going to show me where a gym is this week so i can stop getting fat. i told him i was going to stop eating because i was getting fat, and he told me that wasnt allowed, only i could run...and then eat more after.
these people! they're trying to fatten me up.
anyways, that is all. mostly. i am just so happy to be with these sweet people.
so anyways, i got on that weird tangent. so i dont really remember what i am talking about (plus, i am writing this between two days, so i REALLY dont remember. so i will just continue on with waht happened today
thursday:
i woke up pretty early and planned my lesson ( i was only teaching 10-11) and i was super excited. i was going to teach them the alphabet. one letter a day. and that would be awesome. i had worksheets. i had games. i was so READY! :)
but no, that's not how things go in this program. when you think you are ready, you're not. something throws you for a loop and your world is turned upside down.
we had a new girl added to our class. ugh. we finally had our routine down. the two kids (liza and sasha) loved us. they participated..and i could see that we were going to do really well with the class.
but no. this new girl really threw us for a loop...wanna know why?
SHE WAS ONLY TWO YEARS OLD.
i'm sorry, but it was just not fair. we already have our hands full with the two kids, but throw this BABY into our class and all hell will break loose. what could go wrong, did. she was unruly. kinda one of those kids that if she has something, and you take it away. the world crashes down around her and she wont have anything of that. she'll cry her eyeballs out until she gets what she wants. and it's BAADDD. you think i'm kidding, but i'm not.
you know..when you're at walmart and you see those kids that are screaming at the top of their lungs, and their moms arent wearing any makeup, and they forgot to shower since they gave birth to that little brat?
yeah, times that by 3 and that's this little gem of a girl.
it threw off the groove to the whole class, she would cry, and it would be like a domino effect. she cried. the boy would get angry and start to growl at us. the other girl would get shy..and cry.
it was awful. i just feel like i'm babysitting, but then i'm expected to teach them a different language.
does anyone have any advice for me!?!!?!!?! PLEASE! i need activities..that are easy enough for a 2 year old to do...that doesnt understand the language i am speaking.
i wish you knew how good i am at charades.
anyways, after our hellish lesson, we NEEDED to get out of the school..and find some food that would make us smile. so me and my fellow teachers decided we would set out on the adventure of finding dominoes pizza. so we hopped on the bus that goes in the general direction that we knew it was, and rode our little hearts out. the only problem was, we didnt quite know EXACTLY where it was.
also, seeing as it is FREEZING in this entire country...the windows on the bus are froze over, so it is impossible to see out of. so we were kinda just winging it, which is always the best.
but guess waht? it turned out for the better.
we got off the stop where we thought we were supposed to, then realized it was completely the wrong one..but we thought we could maybe just walk around and get there by walking. so we started our trek. we walked..and walked...aaannnddd walked some more.
the people here are crazy. you know how people set up stands of random things and sell them in a little flea market looking thing? yeah, they have them everywhere. except its LITERALLY two degrees outside. i cant even comprehend what is going on inside of their heads when they decide to do that.
but anyways, i was kinda thankful for it because it gave us something to do while we were looking for our pizza!
so we looked around the stores for a little while, and i was FREEZING so i saw a sign that said "secondhand" so i made them come with me. ohhhh my goodness we were in heaven. it was like tj maxx times a million.
they had really nice brands of clothes, and everything amazing..for suuuper cheap. so we were going crazy trying on clothes, shoes, belts, coats, bags, everything!
it was the greatest thing of our lives.
we stayed there forever...wondering around the store...trying on everything there was in sight. it was amazing. i only ended up coming out with a shirt, but i still had fun. i guess i'm getting comfortable with that baby step, buying things and becoming more confident in this country. soo....dad, what's my next "babystep?" :)
if you say tackling the public transportation, too late! i've been on the bus around and back. i just need to figure out getting to the metro a little better, i guess.
maybe i will do that tomorrow.
so anyways, after trying on a million clothes, i was starting to get hangry, and i was really excited about getting my pizza and pigging out bigtime.
but guess what? we were still lost. what a disappointment. so we walked for a good FOREVER in the freezing cold. by this point i had to pee. i was hungry. i was freezing. it wasnt fun...
so i walked into a random building and pointed to an address near the dominoes pizza and the lady and i played charades for quite sometime to figure out what bus we were supposed to take back.
not to be rude or anything, but she was no help at all.
luckily, we used our heads instead of listening to her and we found the bus stop of the number we took, just going the opposite direction, and took that until we saw dominoes. and let me tell you, the second we saw it we jumped off the bus and RAN to it. it was the greatest day of our lives (at this point..it was like 3:00...we left the school at 12...haha that's how long we were lost..and how much time i had to get HANGRY)
but we made it there. and it was amazing. and they had a worker who spoke english, so he helped us order our half cheese half all meat pizza. i dont think we've ever been so excited in our life...we were americans. eating pizza. after being hangry and freezing forever. it was the happiest moment of our lives.
plus, they had a special. buy a large pizza, get cinnamon bread for FREE. we were all over that. we got our pizza, and our cinnamon bread, and devoured it within about .4 seconds..and then we were all sitting there looking at each other..and i was still starving up to my eyeballs...so i was hoping they were too..but i wasnt going to be the first one to say it. lucky mike was all.. "so..i dont wanna be the fat one but...are you guys still hungry?"
i was so happy! i wanted to leap for joy because i was going to die of hunger. so we decided we were going to go to carlys house and she was going to stay at home and do her homework and me and mike were going to go to the city center and get mcdonalds and hang out up (down, over? i dont know where it is at compared to my location) there...but once we got to carly's house, she realized she didnt want to miss out on the adventure and decided to come with us.
so we ventured out to get on the bus to find the metro to ride to the city center.
that didnt go as well as we had planned it...we got on the right bus..rode it to the right metro stop...and then that's kinda where we lost it...
i want you all to know that for some reason the metro stops are disguised very well. i dont know why they do that to us, but they do. you couldnt find it if it was in a where's waldo book. let alone in a different country. where you can see anything because your eyeballs are frozen. and you dont understand the language.
BUT we lucked out
because at her metro stop, there are a million little tents selling things. and then...there was a huge mall sort of thing..but made out of tents. i dont know what these people were thinking, but it kinda worked out for my benefit.
i dont mean to complain about the weather, because yes. i knew what i was getting into when i chose to come to this country, but i didnt know it would be THIS bad. but you know when you go into those sort of tent things, and you get in the middle and you think, the warmth of the tents, the lack of availability for the wind to find me, and all other crazy ideas you might come up with?
well, too bad for you because you, senor stupid head, are wrong. because the cold WILL find you. and it will be painful.
your fingers and toes will burn because they are so cold. your legs, too.
practically, you're just in so much pain because you are so cold. but, you will have to survive because, that is all you can do.
anyways, we found the jackpot in this little "tent mall"
the second hand store of all second hand stores. i dont think you understand the size of this thing. i wish i wouldnt have forgotten my camera because you would have cried of happiness if you would have seen this place. they had it all.
carly was looking for ski pants because her and a few other people wanted to go skiing next weekend, and she forgot to pack hers...so she found some for like $5.
they had coats galore.
clothes up the yinyang.
underwear, shoes, EVERYTHING.
i didnt even look through the whole store, but i was still out of my mind amazed. i spent most of my time in the coat section, trying 3 of them on at a time trying to warm myself up. i had found a little stand thing that sold tea and hot chocolate, and i tried to order some hot chocolate, and i guess in the midst of me saying "chocolate hot?" she got.."vanilla chi" and just gave me that...who knows. but whatever. all i wanted was a HOT DRINK. and it was actually very delish.
so the workers were all from morocco or something and they came here to study engineering...and they were talking to us and whatever..they were all very cold. but they kept pushing us to buy more and more and all i wanted to do was run away and hide in the worlds hottest room. but that was not possible here. they would not let us leave.
i wasnt wearing my warmest coat because i didnt think i was going to spend this much time in the frozen tundra, so i had to buy another coat just so i wouldnt die on my way home.
i found a cute coat that is my style, and it has fur so i would fit in here! so i got it for like $8..so i was like whatever, i'll do anything to save myself right now. i wish you understood how desperate i was. the other two i was with both bought quite a bit, and FINALLY i was like okay well we are leaving now because i am dying.
then i told them i was still hungry (buy this time it was like..almost 6) and so we got on the bus to go home, and stopped at dominoes (again) and shared cheese bread, chicken strips, and lava cake :) it was divine.
oh, except funny story. mostly, a lot of funny things happened on our adventure. it's just not funny unless you are there...
but we were getting off the bus and it was really crowded so its kinda hard to get off quickly. so first mike got off, and then the driver closed the doors. and i've heard people say something "nyetnyivky" sounding when they wanted to get off, so i start screaming that over and over again and pounding on the doors. luckily some really nice girl yelled to the bus driver and he opened the door and we jumped out before he took us away. :) go me and my awesome russian! hahahahaha
so we ate, and then we dropped carly off at her house, and me and mike went to get on the bus to head back home. the bus took a good 30 minutes to come, and let me tell you. in -3 degree weather. snow. wind. and all the other hardships i face (bwahaha) i was struggling. we were doing anything to keep our mind off the cold. singing. dancing. telling jokes. laughing. being really stupid. it was painful. FINALLY the bus came, but there was no way us both, plus my backpack were going to fit on this bus.
mind you, the bus is not a bus. it's more like a van (okay, it is a van) that people just pile into and pretend like its legit. it's awful....so mike hops on and i figure i'd rather be annoying and squeeze up next to a disgusting smelling ukranian than stand out in the snow and wait for another bus. so on i went. people were so mad at me. but i didnt even care, everyone can suck it because i was happy to be on my way.
so a good 30 minutes passes, and we finally got off. it was like the home run for me. mike was nice enough to walk me home so i wouldnt freeze to death orrr get dead or eaten by dogs or something. it was getting late and dark. so anyways, he walked me home, and then had an hour commute back to his mansion in the forest (it literally has an indoor pool, sauna, it's ridiculous...)
sooo i came home...
my cute host mom shoved food down my throat the moment i walked into the door. she didnt realize that i was about to pee my pants. and i had another problem. i had WAY too many layers on to be able to just run to the bathroom. i was cutting it close, i rand inside and ripped off all my clothes. first my backpack, throwing across the room. then coat #1. then my purse. then coat #2. then my boots. then my sweater. i was getting worried. i didnt think i was going to make it. but dont worry..i made it to the toilet without a dribble of pee coming out prematurely.
anyways, i peed. i ate. i watched tv. and now i am here. go me. my eyes wont stay open. i had wayyy too much fun today :) i cant wait for the adventures ahead of me! what a wonderful life i have.
now go find the joys in your life :) they're there...just open your eyes.
(hey mom, i will tell you before i forget. my host moms brother was over, and was looking at the book of our family pictures, and they asked how old you were, and i told them to guess. they guessed 40. so that better boost your self esteem!)
okay, bye. also, when you feel bad about yourself. read my blog. remember the weather. remember that i ride the bus everywhere, and then get in your car and go for a drive for me :) thank you very much!
teeeeaaaacher?
very good!(in that annoying high pitched voice...like you're talking to a baby. or a dog)
that annoying high pitched voice is like the definition of my life right now. why do i feel like if i talk like that my lesson will be more exciting? or the kids will want to pay more attention to me?
no. they dont. they hate me. they make fun of me when i talk.
but you know what, it's going better then i expected...
yesterday (tuesday) my schedule is this: show up at the school around 10:40. get shuttled to a different school and be a teachers aide (aka they throw you in front of the class and you bs your way around the lesson for an hour) and..then at 1 the shuttle takes me home and i go back to my school and eat lunch, and then i can do whatever i please.
which is hide in my room and write on my blog, and probably sometimes sleep quite a bit.
i am still getting used to being here.
but i want you all to know: i went on an adventure.
it wasnt grand, it probably doesnt even seem like a big deal to you. but to me, it is.
i was walking home from school mid-afternoon...and i wasnt exactly sure what else i was going to do for the rest of my day. so i made my fellow teachers come on an adventure with me. and boy did we have fun!
okay, kinda sarcastic. but we did enjoy ourselves a bit...
step one: walk to my house from the school.
there are a few shops and different businesses on the way home, so i thought we could do some exploration.
we first went to this one store that had clothing in the window, so i was excited.... indubitably. but it turned out better than you would expect. this was no clothing store. this was a thrift store. i could tell by the smell. if any of you have entered a DI, goodwill, any thrift store ever known to man...you will know the EXACT smell that i am talking about. and i am happy to report, 6,000 miles away from home...thrift stores still smell the same.
but anyways, i found a couple awesome sweaters for pretty cheap, but i didnt buy anything. i was far too busy overheating in my many-a-layers.
then we went to the market, which coincidentally is the exact same thing as a grocery store.
awesome.
so while walking to the grocery store, we walked up these stairs on the side of the building and then walked around the raised sidewalk to get inside, but there was a pillar blocking the entrance from where we were walking. and the only way we could get there was walk ALL THE WAY around the building and back to the stairs we came up, or we could jump down, attempting to hurdle the giant pile of snow that was underneath us.
so we decided to take the route any sane person would take, we tackled on that pile of snow like it was our biznatch.
first, my fellow teacher mike decided to jump down. the pile of snow looked pretty old and like it had hardened over the days, so we were confident in the fact that you could put your foot on it, and spring over the rest of the pile. i guess that wasnt so, because he sunk up to his knee, but was able to escape quick enough before anything else had happened. and then it was my turn to hurdle the snow...and i was prepared...kinda. i stood there for a bit being a big fat baby, and some guy came up to me and jabbered and then grabbed my hand to help me..so i went for it. and it turned out worse than expected. i sunk down up to my hip and then leaped out awkwardly. it was more dramatic, i promise, but i'm not quite in the most dramatic mood in the world, which is weird. this cold weather is starting to effect me i guess!
anyways, we went to the store. i bought some chocolate...some diet coke :)))))))))))), and some bread..and some hot chocolate...all for like $3!!!!
i love this place. i feel like i dont spend any money...i dont think i have spent more than $20 here so far. and i've done a lot of things!
so anyways, that was awesome. it was fun to look around the store and see all the funny new different things, and try and decide what different things are.
i love this place. dont listen to what i say when i complain, because i really do love it. i love my host family. i love my school (mostly), i love the teachers i am with, and i looovvveee the freedom and exploring i get to do. how lucky am i to have these experiences! i cant even believe i am here sometimes. i get kinda bummed when it is 0 degrees outside and i am crying my eyeballs out that my toes are cold. and i cant breathe because it is so freezing. and then i remember that i am so lucky that i get to be here. i wouldnt change one thing about it (except for maybe sharing this experience with all of you!) words cannot explain the things that i get to experience...i wish you all could understand.
this was the scariest thing i have ever done. who moves in..with a family they dont know...in a country they dont know anything about..with a language they dont know a single word...to teach a language to little brats in a program that is quite unclear?
i do :)
and guess what? it's the best thing i could have ever done. i have become so close to my host family. my host brother is stealing my heart. he is 4 or 5..and so soo sweet. when we eat dinner he HAS to sit by me. and he holds my hand while we eat. and then the other day i was eating and it was just me and the two kids and he turned to me while i was distracted and kissed me right on the cheek! he's just the sweetest little boy ever, and he's so funny. i am just so thankful i got such a wonderful family :)
my little sister is a student at the school i teach at, and she is so sweet. she would never speak english at home or to me, but when we got into the classroom, she is AMAZING. and understands and speaks so clearly. i love it.
so now we are a lot closer friends :)
what else about my sweet family? my host mom calls me a lot saying "i worry you not eat! you starve!" and "i not home tonight, you will get food okay?"
i always have a warm cup of tea and bowl of soup waiting for me when i get home. it's just so great to have this feeling of being looked after here, they are such sweet people to me :)
my host dad is hilarious. he is going to show me where a gym is this week so i can stop getting fat. i told him i was going to stop eating because i was getting fat, and he told me that wasnt allowed, only i could run...and then eat more after.
these people! they're trying to fatten me up.
anyways, that is all. mostly. i am just so happy to be with these sweet people.
so anyways, i got on that weird tangent. so i dont really remember what i am talking about (plus, i am writing this between two days, so i REALLY dont remember. so i will just continue on with waht happened today
thursday:
i woke up pretty early and planned my lesson ( i was only teaching 10-11) and i was super excited. i was going to teach them the alphabet. one letter a day. and that would be awesome. i had worksheets. i had games. i was so READY! :)
but no, that's not how things go in this program. when you think you are ready, you're not. something throws you for a loop and your world is turned upside down.
we had a new girl added to our class. ugh. we finally had our routine down. the two kids (liza and sasha) loved us. they participated..and i could see that we were going to do really well with the class.
but no. this new girl really threw us for a loop...wanna know why?
SHE WAS ONLY TWO YEARS OLD.
i'm sorry, but it was just not fair. we already have our hands full with the two kids, but throw this BABY into our class and all hell will break loose. what could go wrong, did. she was unruly. kinda one of those kids that if she has something, and you take it away. the world crashes down around her and she wont have anything of that. she'll cry her eyeballs out until she gets what she wants. and it's BAADDD. you think i'm kidding, but i'm not.
you know..when you're at walmart and you see those kids that are screaming at the top of their lungs, and their moms arent wearing any makeup, and they forgot to shower since they gave birth to that little brat?
yeah, times that by 3 and that's this little gem of a girl.
it threw off the groove to the whole class, she would cry, and it would be like a domino effect. she cried. the boy would get angry and start to growl at us. the other girl would get shy..and cry.
it was awful. i just feel like i'm babysitting, but then i'm expected to teach them a different language.
does anyone have any advice for me!?!!?!!?! PLEASE! i need activities..that are easy enough for a 2 year old to do...that doesnt understand the language i am speaking.
i wish you knew how good i am at charades.
anyways, after our hellish lesson, we NEEDED to get out of the school..and find some food that would make us smile. so me and my fellow teachers decided we would set out on the adventure of finding dominoes pizza. so we hopped on the bus that goes in the general direction that we knew it was, and rode our little hearts out. the only problem was, we didnt quite know EXACTLY where it was.
also, seeing as it is FREEZING in this entire country...the windows on the bus are froze over, so it is impossible to see out of. so we were kinda just winging it, which is always the best.
but guess waht? it turned out for the better.
we got off the stop where we thought we were supposed to, then realized it was completely the wrong one..but we thought we could maybe just walk around and get there by walking. so we started our trek. we walked..and walked...aaannnddd walked some more.
the people here are crazy. you know how people set up stands of random things and sell them in a little flea market looking thing? yeah, they have them everywhere. except its LITERALLY two degrees outside. i cant even comprehend what is going on inside of their heads when they decide to do that.
but anyways, i was kinda thankful for it because it gave us something to do while we were looking for our pizza!
so we looked around the stores for a little while, and i was FREEZING so i saw a sign that said "secondhand" so i made them come with me. ohhhh my goodness we were in heaven. it was like tj maxx times a million.
they had really nice brands of clothes, and everything amazing..for suuuper cheap. so we were going crazy trying on clothes, shoes, belts, coats, bags, everything!
it was the greatest thing of our lives.
we stayed there forever...wondering around the store...trying on everything there was in sight. it was amazing. i only ended up coming out with a shirt, but i still had fun. i guess i'm getting comfortable with that baby step, buying things and becoming more confident in this country. soo....dad, what's my next "babystep?" :)
if you say tackling the public transportation, too late! i've been on the bus around and back. i just need to figure out getting to the metro a little better, i guess.
maybe i will do that tomorrow.
so anyways, after trying on a million clothes, i was starting to get hangry, and i was really excited about getting my pizza and pigging out bigtime.
but guess what? we were still lost. what a disappointment. so we walked for a good FOREVER in the freezing cold. by this point i had to pee. i was hungry. i was freezing. it wasnt fun...
so i walked into a random building and pointed to an address near the dominoes pizza and the lady and i played charades for quite sometime to figure out what bus we were supposed to take back.
not to be rude or anything, but she was no help at all.
luckily, we used our heads instead of listening to her and we found the bus stop of the number we took, just going the opposite direction, and took that until we saw dominoes. and let me tell you, the second we saw it we jumped off the bus and RAN to it. it was the greatest day of our lives (at this point..it was like 3:00...we left the school at 12...haha that's how long we were lost..and how much time i had to get HANGRY)
but we made it there. and it was amazing. and they had a worker who spoke english, so he helped us order our half cheese half all meat pizza. i dont think we've ever been so excited in our life...we were americans. eating pizza. after being hangry and freezing forever. it was the happiest moment of our lives.
plus, they had a special. buy a large pizza, get cinnamon bread for FREE. we were all over that. we got our pizza, and our cinnamon bread, and devoured it within about .4 seconds..and then we were all sitting there looking at each other..and i was still starving up to my eyeballs...so i was hoping they were too..but i wasnt going to be the first one to say it. lucky mike was all.. "so..i dont wanna be the fat one but...are you guys still hungry?"
i was so happy! i wanted to leap for joy because i was going to die of hunger. so we decided we were going to go to carlys house and she was going to stay at home and do her homework and me and mike were going to go to the city center and get mcdonalds and hang out up (down, over? i dont know where it is at compared to my location) there...but once we got to carly's house, she realized she didnt want to miss out on the adventure and decided to come with us.
so we ventured out to get on the bus to find the metro to ride to the city center.
that didnt go as well as we had planned it...we got on the right bus..rode it to the right metro stop...and then that's kinda where we lost it...
i want you all to know that for some reason the metro stops are disguised very well. i dont know why they do that to us, but they do. you couldnt find it if it was in a where's waldo book. let alone in a different country. where you can see anything because your eyeballs are frozen. and you dont understand the language.
BUT we lucked out
because at her metro stop, there are a million little tents selling things. and then...there was a huge mall sort of thing..but made out of tents. i dont know what these people were thinking, but it kinda worked out for my benefit.
i dont mean to complain about the weather, because yes. i knew what i was getting into when i chose to come to this country, but i didnt know it would be THIS bad. but you know when you go into those sort of tent things, and you get in the middle and you think, the warmth of the tents, the lack of availability for the wind to find me, and all other crazy ideas you might come up with?
well, too bad for you because you, senor stupid head, are wrong. because the cold WILL find you. and it will be painful.
your fingers and toes will burn because they are so cold. your legs, too.
practically, you're just in so much pain because you are so cold. but, you will have to survive because, that is all you can do.
anyways, we found the jackpot in this little "tent mall"
the second hand store of all second hand stores. i dont think you understand the size of this thing. i wish i wouldnt have forgotten my camera because you would have cried of happiness if you would have seen this place. they had it all.
carly was looking for ski pants because her and a few other people wanted to go skiing next weekend, and she forgot to pack hers...so she found some for like $5.
they had coats galore.
clothes up the yinyang.
underwear, shoes, EVERYTHING.
i didnt even look through the whole store, but i was still out of my mind amazed. i spent most of my time in the coat section, trying 3 of them on at a time trying to warm myself up. i had found a little stand thing that sold tea and hot chocolate, and i tried to order some hot chocolate, and i guess in the midst of me saying "chocolate hot?" she got.."vanilla chi" and just gave me that...who knows. but whatever. all i wanted was a HOT DRINK. and it was actually very delish.
so the workers were all from morocco or something and they came here to study engineering...and they were talking to us and whatever..they were all very cold. but they kept pushing us to buy more and more and all i wanted to do was run away and hide in the worlds hottest room. but that was not possible here. they would not let us leave.
i wasnt wearing my warmest coat because i didnt think i was going to spend this much time in the frozen tundra, so i had to buy another coat just so i wouldnt die on my way home.
i found a cute coat that is my style, and it has fur so i would fit in here! so i got it for like $8..so i was like whatever, i'll do anything to save myself right now. i wish you understood how desperate i was. the other two i was with both bought quite a bit, and FINALLY i was like okay well we are leaving now because i am dying.
then i told them i was still hungry (buy this time it was like..almost 6) and so we got on the bus to go home, and stopped at dominoes (again) and shared cheese bread, chicken strips, and lava cake :) it was divine.
oh, except funny story. mostly, a lot of funny things happened on our adventure. it's just not funny unless you are there...
but we were getting off the bus and it was really crowded so its kinda hard to get off quickly. so first mike got off, and then the driver closed the doors. and i've heard people say something "nyetnyivky" sounding when they wanted to get off, so i start screaming that over and over again and pounding on the doors. luckily some really nice girl yelled to the bus driver and he opened the door and we jumped out before he took us away. :) go me and my awesome russian! hahahahaha
so we ate, and then we dropped carly off at her house, and me and mike went to get on the bus to head back home. the bus took a good 30 minutes to come, and let me tell you. in -3 degree weather. snow. wind. and all the other hardships i face (bwahaha) i was struggling. we were doing anything to keep our mind off the cold. singing. dancing. telling jokes. laughing. being really stupid. it was painful. FINALLY the bus came, but there was no way us both, plus my backpack were going to fit on this bus.
mind you, the bus is not a bus. it's more like a van (okay, it is a van) that people just pile into and pretend like its legit. it's awful....so mike hops on and i figure i'd rather be annoying and squeeze up next to a disgusting smelling ukranian than stand out in the snow and wait for another bus. so on i went. people were so mad at me. but i didnt even care, everyone can suck it because i was happy to be on my way.
so a good 30 minutes passes, and we finally got off. it was like the home run for me. mike was nice enough to walk me home so i wouldnt freeze to death orrr get dead or eaten by dogs or something. it was getting late and dark. so anyways, he walked me home, and then had an hour commute back to his mansion in the forest (it literally has an indoor pool, sauna, it's ridiculous...)
sooo i came home...
my cute host mom shoved food down my throat the moment i walked into the door. she didnt realize that i was about to pee my pants. and i had another problem. i had WAY too many layers on to be able to just run to the bathroom. i was cutting it close, i rand inside and ripped off all my clothes. first my backpack, throwing across the room. then coat #1. then my purse. then coat #2. then my boots. then my sweater. i was getting worried. i didnt think i was going to make it. but dont worry..i made it to the toilet without a dribble of pee coming out prematurely.
anyways, i peed. i ate. i watched tv. and now i am here. go me. my eyes wont stay open. i had wayyy too much fun today :) i cant wait for the adventures ahead of me! what a wonderful life i have.
now go find the joys in your life :) they're there...just open your eyes.
(hey mom, i will tell you before i forget. my host moms brother was over, and was looking at the book of our family pictures, and they asked how old you were, and i told them to guess. they guessed 40. so that better boost your self esteem!)
okay, bye. also, when you feel bad about yourself. read my blog. remember the weather. remember that i ride the bus everywhere, and then get in your car and go for a drive for me :) thank you very much!
Monday, January 23, 2012
baby steps
today i took one small step to becoming more sustainable and a part of the ukrainian community.
i walked home from school, all by myself.
remember in elementary school when we were so proud of ourselves that first time our parents let us walk home all by ourselves?
it was the proudest moment of my life. i was a part of the "big kid club." i could do anything. i felt cooler, i felt older, i felt like i could take on the world, and nothing would stop me!
well guess what folks, i am reliving that dream.
today was my first day of teaching...and lets just say it went as well as the first day of teaching should go when you're in a foreign country teaching english to kids who expect to be as great as the last teachers.
so this is how my day went
7am. wake up. i didnt want to shower, BUT i didnt shower the two days before. and my hair was starting to hurt...sooo i dragged my fat butt out of bed to get in the shower.
my cute host mom was already awake making me breakfast. she is so sweet, every night she asks me when i wake up so she can get up and make me food. i tried to tell her i can get my own food, but she insists. she is sooo sweet!
so this was the menu: ( i swear..the food here is WAY too amazing) bread with cheese and butter (the three best things all in one) and some sort of gruel (thats what her russian/english dictionary translated it to be...it was delish...practially cream of wheat) and tea...I LOVE THE TEA HERE I WANT TO DRINK IT 24/7. maybe it's because they dont drink water here...or maybe it's because it's freezing and it totally helps...but I LOVE THE TEA HERE. i cant say that enough. it's not like the nasty tea at home.
maybe i was making it wrong, or maybe it's differerent but...
I LOVE THE TEA HERE.
haha, okay..i'm done being annoying.
for now...
so after breakfast (and getting ready) i packed all my stuff up to go get ready for my first day of teaching!
since i brought so many supplies from home, i decided i was going to just bring my rolling suitcase with me and pack everything to the school in that.
i encountered a few problems with this "amazing" plan:
1. when i walked out of my room with my suitcase, my mom thought i hated her and i was moving out.
i had to explain and show to her that it was for the school. she kinda had a heart attack
2. they dont shovel their snow here. so after a fresh snow, it takes a good 24 hours for the snow to get packed down to "sidewalk material" aka...a sheet of ice that is completely dangerous and i shouldnt be allowed to walk on... so anyways...it had freshly snowed last night..to the point of like...3 inches of new snow (on top of the 2 feet we already had) but i was bound and determined to get to the school. with my suitcase.
so on my journey i went...
at first it wasnt so bad. exited my apartment building, and walked down the road where the cars had made tracks.. then i got to the grocery store (my landmark of where i make an abrupt right hand turn, and can see my school in the distance) at this point i was sweating. three pairs of pants?
two shirts? a sweater..AND my coat?!
not to mention my hat and gloves, too.
i was dying.
even worse, i made the mistake of wearing three pairs of THICK socks and trying to wear my normal shoes (i made the fashionable decision of wearing my rain boots today..awesome outfit..not gunna lie)
have any of you actually TRIED to wear that many socks with your normal shoes? it's the worst idea anyone could ever have!
my feet were falling asleep. they hurt so bad i couldnt walk anymore. i was ready to throw in the towel and go back home. but no. i could see the school, nothing was going to stop me now. not even my sweaty brow, and my over-used lungs.
at this point in the journey, there was no more "patted down" snow to walk on (or to roll my extremely huge suitcase on) so..i did what any brave american girl would do in this situation.
i cried.
hahaahahaha just kidding, i didnt.
gosh, i'm not that big of a baby you fools!
i picked up that 50 pound red suitcase filled with construction paper and glue, and i carried it all the way through the snow, not setting it down ONCE so it wouldnt get moldy. i was panting. sweating. cursing every child that would use that construction paper. and then, before i knew it, i had made it. the glorious gate with shoveled sidewalks. it was a success.
so long, dramatic story short...i made it to school.
blah blah blah, i get into the school and start unloading my supplies. the school is a ghost town all the time...its kinda creepy. we just have 3 classrooms in the huge building that nobody else uses..it;s strange...i'll make a video of it someday and show you guys.
so i was unloading my trophy of a suitcase that i had carried all that way...(mind you, i had a backpack while carrying it as well)
none of my group had shown up. we were supposed to be teaching in an hour, and nobody had anything planned out. i figured it would be a disaster, and we'd reconvene tomorrow and figure out what we were actually going to do for the rest of the week.
they showed up, we attempted to plan, but honestly we had no idea what to expect..so we just went for it...and we were blind sighted.
i was so excited to start teaching and meet all the kids.
i made a mistake...wanna know what? it was in the sentence "all the kids"
there were two of them. a girl named liza who is 3 and cried the whole time because she was scared of us. and a boy named sasha who is 5 and he growled at us the whole time. they sat there like frozen statues not moving, not talking just crying and or growling
it was awful.
BUT we whipped out the stickers, and they warmed up to us a bit. so that was an interesting experience.
glad it's over.
so then..we waited..and "prepared" from 11-3. at 1 the school serves us lunch
the menu?: pot stickers with only potatoes inside. aka amazing.
soup. of course. bluh.
bread.
pear juice
i think that was it
we had so much organizing of supplies and such, we didnt have time to even go outside....it was a good time though. we chatted, and got to know each other more
not much happened..
oh except i broke a chair. yup. i did. i was the fat girl that broke the kiddie chair.
it was awkward.
i tried to glue it back with elmers glue, it didnt work. dont ever try it. baaaad idea.
then it was time for our 3 hour block. and let me tell you, THREE HOURS IS A REALLY REALLY LONG TIME.
we got our classes (there are only 5 kids..so we do one big class, and the teachers switch off teaching for 30 minutes each.) and then for the first and last bit of class we sing and go over the days of the week and the weather and everything.
none of us had our lesson planned out. i was frantically searching, and i found an ink pad and paper, so guess what we did? i made them make thumb print people of their families. wanna know the best part? the ink was green. i dont know why but it was hilarious to me.
anyways, i wish i could tell more. but i am going to be honest with you and say this " i am being honest when i say my eyes are closed while i am typing this post.
i am going to bed my friends. tomorrow will be interesting, if only you knew what i have in store for tomorrow! :) okay adios.
comment.
okay thanks bye
i walked home from school, all by myself.
remember in elementary school when we were so proud of ourselves that first time our parents let us walk home all by ourselves?
it was the proudest moment of my life. i was a part of the "big kid club." i could do anything. i felt cooler, i felt older, i felt like i could take on the world, and nothing would stop me!
well guess what folks, i am reliving that dream.
today was my first day of teaching...and lets just say it went as well as the first day of teaching should go when you're in a foreign country teaching english to kids who expect to be as great as the last teachers.
so this is how my day went
7am. wake up. i didnt want to shower, BUT i didnt shower the two days before. and my hair was starting to hurt...sooo i dragged my fat butt out of bed to get in the shower.
my cute host mom was already awake making me breakfast. she is so sweet, every night she asks me when i wake up so she can get up and make me food. i tried to tell her i can get my own food, but she insists. she is sooo sweet!
so this was the menu: ( i swear..the food here is WAY too amazing) bread with cheese and butter (the three best things all in one) and some sort of gruel (thats what her russian/english dictionary translated it to be...it was delish...practially cream of wheat) and tea...I LOVE THE TEA HERE I WANT TO DRINK IT 24/7. maybe it's because they dont drink water here...or maybe it's because it's freezing and it totally helps...but I LOVE THE TEA HERE. i cant say that enough. it's not like the nasty tea at home.
maybe i was making it wrong, or maybe it's differerent but...
I LOVE THE TEA HERE.
haha, okay..i'm done being annoying.
for now...
so after breakfast (and getting ready) i packed all my stuff up to go get ready for my first day of teaching!
since i brought so many supplies from home, i decided i was going to just bring my rolling suitcase with me and pack everything to the school in that.
i encountered a few problems with this "amazing" plan:
1. when i walked out of my room with my suitcase, my mom thought i hated her and i was moving out.
i had to explain and show to her that it was for the school. she kinda had a heart attack
2. they dont shovel their snow here. so after a fresh snow, it takes a good 24 hours for the snow to get packed down to "sidewalk material" aka...a sheet of ice that is completely dangerous and i shouldnt be allowed to walk on... so anyways...it had freshly snowed last night..to the point of like...3 inches of new snow (on top of the 2 feet we already had) but i was bound and determined to get to the school. with my suitcase.
so on my journey i went...
at first it wasnt so bad. exited my apartment building, and walked down the road where the cars had made tracks.. then i got to the grocery store (my landmark of where i make an abrupt right hand turn, and can see my school in the distance) at this point i was sweating. three pairs of pants?
two shirts? a sweater..AND my coat?!
not to mention my hat and gloves, too.
i was dying.
even worse, i made the mistake of wearing three pairs of THICK socks and trying to wear my normal shoes (i made the fashionable decision of wearing my rain boots today..awesome outfit..not gunna lie)
have any of you actually TRIED to wear that many socks with your normal shoes? it's the worst idea anyone could ever have!
my feet were falling asleep. they hurt so bad i couldnt walk anymore. i was ready to throw in the towel and go back home. but no. i could see the school, nothing was going to stop me now. not even my sweaty brow, and my over-used lungs.
at this point in the journey, there was no more "patted down" snow to walk on (or to roll my extremely huge suitcase on) so..i did what any brave american girl would do in this situation.
i cried.
hahaahahaha just kidding, i didnt.
gosh, i'm not that big of a baby you fools!
i picked up that 50 pound red suitcase filled with construction paper and glue, and i carried it all the way through the snow, not setting it down ONCE so it wouldnt get moldy. i was panting. sweating. cursing every child that would use that construction paper. and then, before i knew it, i had made it. the glorious gate with shoveled sidewalks. it was a success.
so long, dramatic story short...i made it to school.
blah blah blah, i get into the school and start unloading my supplies. the school is a ghost town all the time...its kinda creepy. we just have 3 classrooms in the huge building that nobody else uses..it;s strange...i'll make a video of it someday and show you guys.
so i was unloading my trophy of a suitcase that i had carried all that way...(mind you, i had a backpack while carrying it as well)
none of my group had shown up. we were supposed to be teaching in an hour, and nobody had anything planned out. i figured it would be a disaster, and we'd reconvene tomorrow and figure out what we were actually going to do for the rest of the week.
they showed up, we attempted to plan, but honestly we had no idea what to expect..so we just went for it...and we were blind sighted.
i was so excited to start teaching and meet all the kids.
i made a mistake...wanna know what? it was in the sentence "all the kids"
there were two of them. a girl named liza who is 3 and cried the whole time because she was scared of us. and a boy named sasha who is 5 and he growled at us the whole time. they sat there like frozen statues not moving, not talking just crying and or growling
it was awful.
BUT we whipped out the stickers, and they warmed up to us a bit. so that was an interesting experience.
glad it's over.
so then..we waited..and "prepared" from 11-3. at 1 the school serves us lunch
the menu?: pot stickers with only potatoes inside. aka amazing.
soup. of course. bluh.
bread.
pear juice
i think that was it
we had so much organizing of supplies and such, we didnt have time to even go outside....it was a good time though. we chatted, and got to know each other more
not much happened..
oh except i broke a chair. yup. i did. i was the fat girl that broke the kiddie chair.
it was awkward.
i tried to glue it back with elmers glue, it didnt work. dont ever try it. baaaad idea.
then it was time for our 3 hour block. and let me tell you, THREE HOURS IS A REALLY REALLY LONG TIME.
we got our classes (there are only 5 kids..so we do one big class, and the teachers switch off teaching for 30 minutes each.) and then for the first and last bit of class we sing and go over the days of the week and the weather and everything.
none of us had our lesson planned out. i was frantically searching, and i found an ink pad and paper, so guess what we did? i made them make thumb print people of their families. wanna know the best part? the ink was green. i dont know why but it was hilarious to me.
anyways, i wish i could tell more. but i am going to be honest with you and say this " i am being honest when i say my eyes are closed while i am typing this post.
i am going to bed my friends. tomorrow will be interesting, if only you knew what i have in store for tomorrow! :) okay adios.
comment.
okay thanks bye
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)