More Odessa

Hannah and I in front of the opera house before seeing Carmen!

The Girls at the beach in Odessa. Hannah is putting on a great face for how sick she felt!!

Tomorrow is our last day of teaching...

Sorry its been a while since we've posted. Haley always makes me do it anyway...

We're wrapping up our third and final session tomorrow--part of me says THANK GOODNESS. And part of me is somewhat melancholy at the thought. This session has been tough--the younger kids are less focused and the older kids...well, let me put it this way: we are expected to not only teach but entertain a gaggle (ten or so) thirteen and fourteen-year-olds for four hours every day. ....

Ukraine has been so fabulous. It really is such a beautiful country. The green fields and smatterings of wild flowers give it color that contrasts with the more drab, dirty streets and buildings. Many of the buildings are quite colorful themselves, actually (there's a yellow one near the school in particular that I know SOMEONE would appreciate...). There are some beautiful traditions and interesting idiosyncracies about this place that have been fun to discover. However...

I am ready for home. Being away and in a country like Ukraine, with some of the less appealing idiosyncracies and frustrations and mindsets, makes me so appreciate America. Even more than that, though, it makes me so appreciate familiarity! There simply is nothing like home. We still have many adventures to come, though! Tomorrow our group starts dispersing. Two girls are headed to Poland tomorrow afternoon. The next day, two more girls head to Italy and one heads home, and then at o'dark thirty on Sunday morning the rest of us leave, two to France (us) and three to Egypt. It'll be so strange (and quiet) to only have one roommate, after having nine for the last six weeks.

We aren't really sure about our internet availability in France, so enjoy the last few posts while they last ;)

Odessblehhhhh

So, six of us went to Odessa this weekend, and it was quite the trip! We really had a great trip. The train rides were...less than restful. Those overnighters are killers. We survived, though. Sound sleep is one hundred percent impossible on the third class overnight trains. We left at six and got into Odessa at about...six. But that didn't stop the train people from waking us up at quarter to five. Lame. The train always makes me feel sick, but as we left the train station, I felt particularly out of sorts. We went to McDonalds for breakfast (I can only manage McDonalds when I am in countries like China and Ukraine) and I kept feeling worse and worse. We didn't have a place to stay for the night, so we set out to find a place before doing anything else. We walked around quite a bit before finally finding the perfect place. It was relatively cheap and very close to the beach. It was called OK Odessa...heh. It was definately OK! Anyway, I still felt pretty nasty; my stomach was killing me. Walking made it worse, so thank heavens we took a break before heading back out! After a quick cat nap we headed to the beach. I felt pretty much right as rain until we'd been walking for a few minutes, and then my stomach started hurting like crazy again. I had to sit down for a minute because it was pretty overwhelming. We went to Arcadia Beach, and it was crow-how-ded! Sooo many people. We found a spot, way up on the sand and close to the sidewalk. We settled in only to find that we'd picked a spot right by some creeper guys. They were annoying for a while, but then a really nice Ukrainian English teacher next to us told them to leave us alone. She was super nice. So, we laid in the sun for a while. Some of us got in the sea (The Black Sea) but I didn't because I wanted to wait for my stomach to calm down. Well...it didn't. Pretty soon I knew exactly what was coming. I asked Haley if she knew where the bathroom was, and she said she thought it was just up around the corner and we could go try to find it. I said nope, I'm not moving until I know exactly where I'm going. I asked her to ask the English teacher if she knew, and she said she'd show us. So, we start walking. Well, to make the story a wee bit shorter, I didn't make it to the bathroom. I pretty much puked my guts out into a nice little dirt patch. Multiple times. And what happened when I tried to make it to the bathroom, which was about thirty steps away? Yep, did it again right outside the door. So, after making sure I wasn't going to do it AGAIN, Haley walked with me up the hotel, where I spent the rest of the day sleeping and resting. Sorta lame. When I woke up, several hours later, I decided that I needed to make the most of my hotel imprisonment. So, I went on a photoshoot in our little room. The girls all got back around five thirty, and told me we had tickets for the Opera and needed to get ready and go! We had a rather expensive dinner (35 grivin...which is like, five bucks...which is a lot here...) and then went to the beautiful, beautiful opera house (By now I was feeling lots better. Still a little unsettled, but pretty good, especially since we were going to the OPERA). The Odessa Opera House, apparently, is one of the most famous in the world. And rightly so. Ah, it was so, so beautiful! Haley and the girls told me that since we got our tickets so late, we had seats way far away. I totally bought it, and when we went and found our BOX SEATS...it was amazing. Those girls--that was an awesome surprise. The only tickets they had left were the best ones in the house. Haley and I got lucky--we were in different boxes, but they were right next to each other and our seats were only seperated by a wall. We saw Carmen, and it was awesome! Kind of a strange story, but the music was so, so beautiful! It was in French, but with a Russian accent, so I could barely understand anything, even when they were just talking. Oh well! The next day we slept in a bit. It was raining, which was a nice change from the heat. We went to the beach, and due to the rain, it was practically abandoned, which was AWESOME! We didn't swim because it was cold, but we did put our feet and legs in. It was so nice!...minus the garbage everywhere. It was really beautiful with the unsettled sky and the taller waves. And fewer nearly-naked people. We spent the rest of the day walking around beautiful Odessa. It's a really charming city with different colored buildings and fun streets. We had the most fabulous ice cream. Bubblegum, but not like Baskin Robins. This was...phenomenal. The best ice cream ever. We all got it twice because it was just so good. We walked down (and back up) the Potemkin Stairs, we saw all sorts of famous statues and monuments, and got a taste of what Odessa is all about. There definately is loads more that we didn't see, but we all felt pretty good about what we did see. The train ride back to Kiev was another doozy. We got on the train to find two rather large women sitting in our seats, with about eight bags between them. Something they had with them smelled awwwwwwful. Aubrie described it (remarkably well) as such: 525 fishes in a vat of rotten milk with a fat man with B.O. thrown in. We got in at six thirty this morning and took a bus back to Boyarka. We showered, got ready for the day, and taught for four hours. And then what? Took a three hour nap.

A Typical Day at Lady School

I was thinking about how we usually write about more...momentous events, but that's not really the bulk of what we do over here. So, here is the rundown of a typical day here.

I generally set my alarm for about six thirty, allowing myself a good half hour to wake up. Around seven, Haley and I start legitimately stirring. Most of the time it isn't by choice. Every morning starts out nice and cool and quiet. The noises slowly pile up until it is impossible to stay asleep any longer. Whether its a fly buzzing in my ear, someone sweeping obnoxiously loudly outside our window, people yelling, dogs fighting, or the music they turn out (right outside our window and SUPER loud), the peace doesn't last long. It isn't too long (usually) before we are up and ready to go for a run. Well, in my case, its more of a pathetic half-jog half-walk. Haley has to run circles around me most of the time. We come back and do a little bit more working out (Haley works those abs for like an hour. I last maybe ten minutes). We usually don't have to wait too long for a shower, since we get back later and everyone else has already showered. Usually. We have breakfast at 9:30, and start teaching at 10. Haley's rotations are a bit different, since the has the younger groups. There are four teachers (equalling four classes...) in the upper group. We teach for about thirty-five minutes for two rotations, then have combined class with another teacher, then do two more thirty-five minute rotations. At 2 o'clock, we're done teaching and we all go to lunch. Frequently we are so exhausted from teaching that we take a nap after eating. At 4 o'clock we have a glorious thing called middle dinner. Usually its just a fruit, juice, and a cracker (or cookie. Or better--a yummy wafer!) but we love it. Only two hours later is dinner, at 6 o'clock. After teaching and before bed, we do a variety of activities. Napping is one of the most popular. We go for walks around Boyarka, sometimes we go into Kiev, we read, write in our journals, email people, sit around and talk (rarely, with ten girls, do we run out of things to talk about), occasionally play with the kids, plan lessons, and chill. We do a lot of chillin'. Usually its just so hot that doing much of anything doesn't sound like much fun. The last few days, though, its been cool and rainy. A nice change, except that the rain makes it really humid. In the evening we sometimes watch movies or go exploring again. And that's about it! Four hours of teaching is a lot, but it leaves us lots of free time. I keep wanting to work on my book, but I'm afraid Haley's and my computers (uh, grammar check please??) are popular and we usually don't get tons of time on them. Hmm...maybe I'll go work on it now while everyone is busy...

Wha????

Some sad news. Since these children are not our own, we allow ourselves favorites. One of our favorites, from the very beginning, was Zhenia. He was scheduled to come to all three sessions, which was such a wonderful thought. We knew it'd be harder to part from him at the end of six weeks, but to know we at least had one kid we could count on to be awesome was comforting. Zhenia was so much fun to just sit and talk to. He has a good heart; he's influenced a bit by his friends, but he's smart enough to know how stupid is too stupid. At the end of this last session, we found out that Zhenia would not be allowed to come back. Why? Well, because one of the girls had chicken pox when she came to camp, and so they asked who had had chicken pox already and who hadn't. Zhenia hadn't, so they told him he couldn't come to third session. Not because they were concerned for his health, but because they thought that he was a threat to the other children...wha????? His mom even came to the school to try and make them let him stay for the whole time she paid for. To no avail. It's been hard to have class all day and not see Zhenia once. I miss him terribly.

Wrapping Up 2nd Session

I know we still haven't posted about Hotin Castle, our band friends (who we are NOT following around Europe, for those who may be wondering), or anything else that happened last weekend. Check that. Two weekends ago. It blows me away how fast the time is going. Haley and I will be home in three weeks, which seems so, so soon! After getting mostly over the homesickness part of our trip and really settling in, I'm starting to feel frantic--like there is so much I want to do here still! We've had a fun week, including dancing in the rain, a face-mask seance, break dancers in Kiev, a Michael Jackson tribute (with candles, gloves, sunglasses and all). We went on a walk the other day and discovered parts of Boyarka we didn't know existed. Boyarka isn't a prominent town by any means, but its actually rather large. We went to the forest near the school for the first time. Had we realized it was so close, we would have been going a lot more. It is so nice to run on the trail (ALWAYS with a buddy, Dad) and smell the pine and breathe the fresh air. It beats the track we've been running on by about a thousand times, or more. The only downside of the forest is that some parts are rather sandy. There's nothing worse than running in sand. Bleh. Anyway, the point is, I am so loving it here. I miss home, of course, but it is such a blast to be here with nine awesome girls my age, teaching fabulous kids. Speaking of the kids, it happened. Sigh. Try as I might to not get attached to this new session (mostly because I was bitter about losing the first session kids) it happened. My class is so, so darling. I have another wonderful Dima. There are four boys in my class, and they are all unbelievably sweet. We had our hard days, but we had so, so much fun. Dima is hilarious, and breaks out in wild-man dancing on a regular basis. He gave me his special football bracelet tonight and told me he was going to miss me. Sasha has a temper, but is so great most of the time. Oh man, can that boy DANCE! We had a dance-off so the teams could earn more points for the competition and Sasha ruled it. He surprises me with his tenderness. He comes off as a bit of a punk, but then he says things like, "I will never forget you" and other such things that make me want to take him home with me. DEN! My Den is such a gem. He is one cool cat. He is fluent (all my boys are, really) and said to me the other night, "I wish we could just talk and talk and talk, but I must go to my room." Later, after they did their show that they do several times a week, I was sitting by him and he said, "Now we can talk and talk and talk!" We are pals. He's making me a friendship bracelet. And then there's adorable Matwei! Mat is...ah. So precious. He is a lot more shy than the other boys, but underneath that gentle facade is a goofball as big as the rest. He randomly will make a goofy face and it cracks me up. He's so helpful and always listens in class. On Wednesday we did a "Spectacle" show for the kids, a farewell hoo-ha if you will. The next morning, on our way back from our run, Mat stopped me and said that he loved the show, and that "it was beautiful." He is a tender soul for sure. I have two girls in my class too, but they were pretty much doing their own thing the whole time. Didn't get as attached to them as to my boys. They were cute, too though. One thing that surprised me was how attached I got to all the teenage girls here! There are about eight of them that are all twelve and thirteen. I love Sammy, but when she and her friends get together...whew! It can be a little much teenager-ness. These girls definately have their drama, but so many of them are so, so sweet. Surprisingly so. Liza, Marina, Zhenia, Marta, and the list goes on. Thankfully our boy Zhenia (we had two girl Zhenia's this session, as well as our boy Zhenia from last session) will be here next session, along with Jason Secret (a definate weirdy. His real name is Yegor, and he's pretty sure he's the coolest thing in the camp, if not the world). It was definately a different feeling with this group, but we love them almost as much as last session (last session was hard to beat, so that's saying something). It was interesting with these older kids, because they are on the verge of leaving childhood and entering teenagerhood. I'm praying for them lots that they'll make good decisions and keep being the good kids that they are. Or, in the case of some, wise up and quit being drama dorks. It feels weird to say goodbye to them already. I swear they just got here. Den said he didn't think he could come back for the next session, but that he'd come visit and bring his baby sister so I can see her. Sasha said he "maybe, maybe, maybe" can come back next session, which would be SO wonderful. These kids. Ah.