Wrapping it up

Well, my last week or so in Kiev was eventful, to say the least. Yes, I'm already back at home in Minnesota (Thank goodness, because my flights were a MESS) and trying to be in the Christmas spirit (impossible without snow, really) but until now, I haven't had much time to update the blog. My final days in Ukraine were emotionally draining, but nevertheless happy and memorable!


As you can see, I DID manage to make it to that soccer game with my friends. A great first half, followed by some ridiculous red cards in the second half that lead to our demise (but also a very exciting game --- incredulous yelling, chanting, and fights on the field). The game, however, began the cycle of goodbyes for me as well. Time to say farewell to all my friends in Kiev, one at a time.


First of all, I had each of my students to say goodbye to. We had our final classes, and at the end of each one there were lots of hugs and "I'll miss you's" and promises to return. My favorite student, an AWESOME 12-year old, was my last goodbye on Friday evening. Every week we met and talked about everything, from the difficulty of his Math courses to Japanese martial arts practice. I couldn't help but cry when we said goodbye, and his parents gave me a framed ruble note from the USSR as a Christmas/Going away present. I gave them all about a million hugs, and it still wasn't enough...


Although I'm not very fond of goodbyes, I invited my friends and coworkers to spend some time with me on my last day, just relaxing and talking in my kitchen, keeping me company while I finished packing for my long journey beginning at 5am the next morning. We had tea, coffee, and food of all sorts (because people brought snacks, and because I had SO much food in my fridge to use up). It was nice to have that final good-bye at my own place.


It was a great three months, there's no denying it! I'm so glad I clicked on that stupid facebook link that started the whole thing. I'm so happy I such a wonderful chance to teach, to practice my Russian, and to travel! I'll miss Kiev, especially all the amazing people I've met there, but I know that I'll be back someday soon. Goodbye, and goodnight!

Love always,
Sarah

Just some things:

I like lists. Here's one.

1. I leave Kiev in 5 days...

2. My last Italian roommate just left for Italy this morning, so I am lone in my apartment.

3. There is A LOT of food in my apartment right now.

4. I have less than 200 grivna left in my wallet ($25)

5. I cannot stop sneezing, coughing, or being late to Russian class at noon every day (so early!)

6. I stopped taking so many pictures because I'm getting lazy, sorry!

7. Today I am (hopefully) going to the last soccer game of the year today (which I thought was against Great Britain, but is actually against Tel-Aviv. Why did I think Maccabi was british? Don't ask.)

8. I found bacon in my fridge! And it's not old!

9. I made Draniki for Barbara the other day, and they were delicious even though I added too much salt.

10. There is no money left on my phone but I hate to add more when I'm just going to leave in 5 days...

11. There is still no snow in Kiev

12. I have exactly one class left with each of my students. I love them all.

13. I may try to go on a tour of a chocolate factory before I leave... We'll see.

14. Didn't want to end with a list of 13. I'll give a more substantial update later!

Sarah

The Kiev apart(y)ment

I know, you've all been reading my blog and thinking "Goodness gracious, Sarah is such a bump on a log. All she ever does is teach, travel, and cook --- she needs to get a life over there in Kiev." Well, I'm here to tell you that I DO have a life, and although I am by no means a partier, the party always finds you when you live in Kiev ...Especially if you have an apartment, and you live with two Italians.


Weekends are practically an open invitation for anyone and everyone we know to come to our apartment and enjoy good company, our fancy living room, and free food (The Italians make pizza, bruschetta, and whatever else they can think of. I usually provide chips and pickles...)


We usually end up playing a silly game or two, once everyone arrives and we decide what kind of party we're going to have. Here we're playing personalities, and I was Cheburashka (a famous androgynous soviet cartoon character).


Aaaaand things usually get silly, we have lots of laughs, and take waaaay too many pictures. Because of the hodge-podge group we have, we're constantly speaking a mixture of Russian, Ukrainian, English, and Italian --- This is one of my favorite aspects of our get-togethers. The language barrier is never an issue for anyone, everyone tries on every other language for size and we have a great time. I personally love adopting Italian for a few minutes, whereupon I exhaust my entire Italian vocabulary and simply repeat the word "Perfetto!" because that's what we are.


At the end of the night, we slowly make our way to respective taxis, bedrooms, or the pull-out couch bed if you're lucky enough to call dibs. In the morning, I make coffee and tea for anyone who's still around, and we spend the rest of the weekend relaxing and soaking up the few hours of daylight we have left on Winter Kiev days. On this day, there was no food or water left anywhere in my apartment, so we had juice for breakfast. Good morning!


So, this is my first time having my own place that isn't a dorm room, and although at first I was disappointed not to be in a host family, I don't feel like I've missed out on the cultural immersion. Living with other people my age, I have the opportunity to learn from so many different people, from so many different cultures and backgrounds. It's definitely a change from living with my Russian host mother in Novgorod, but it's another great learning experience. Constantly learning more about myself, and other people in general. I dig it.

One weekend left in Kiev, and then it's back home for Christmas! I think I'm making Pel'meni with my favorite Ukrainian family today... I'll keep you posted :)

Loooooooove,
Sarah

T-Gives!

Here's a post about Thanksgiving, before I forget about all of it! Unfortunately, I was REALLY sick last weekend, but something magical happened and I was able to pull myself together for our Multi-cultural Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday afternoon. I got up early, met my cooking partner/co-worker, and started cooking. We may have bought rotisserie chickens from the store to save time, but everything else was made from scratch! Look at this beautiful spread...

Mashed potatoes, stuffing, green-bean casserole, corn, chicken, berry sauce (not cranberries, because I couldn't find any) and mushroom gravy. We also had some beautiful pies, apple and pumpkin. Although there were some troubles with the pumpkin pie, i.e. a baking time of about three hours, it still tasted de-li-cious!

It was really nice to just sit down with all of of my friends, Americans, Italians, and Ukrainians, and share a thanksgiving dinner. We all said what we were thankful for, and most of us were just thankful for having each other for support in this crazy country and with this insane language. Good people. Good times. Good Foooooood :) I'm also thankful that by Tuesday of this week, I was finally feeling well enough to leave my apartment.

Thanks to everyone who reads my blog, to my awesome students who make my work so worthwhile, to my great friends here in Kiev, and to my family back home. Stay tuned for more adventures, and another blog coming in February 2012: "Sarah Chao does Georgia (the country)" Wooooo!

Love,

Sarah

Lviv-cation aaaaaand sickness.

Hello, Beautiful People! I'm a little late on updating this time, but earlier this week I MEANT to tell you all about my day-trip to Lviv/Lvov, a BEAUTIFUL city in Western Ukraine (where, by the way, people are a-speaking the Ukrainian and not-a-so much the Russian). I went with two great American friends, one of which has lived in this city before and took us to some of her favorite places. Here I am with Pushkin (notice the chops, A.S. Pushkin style) outside the Lviv/Lvov Opera.


We decided to take the night-train on Saturday night, arriving in Lvov at 7:30am (just in time for sunrise!) we had a lovely walk into the center of the city, encountered our first non-Russian speaking establishment, and then began studying some simple Ukrainian phrases. Ukrainian and Russian are very similar, but some important words are completely different, like "Bud' laska" instead of "Pozhalusta" (please), and "D'yakuyu" instead of "Spasibo" (Thank-you). We successfully avoided any further language issues as we made it to the center. Here's a lovely market where I bought myself a pretty Ukrainian scarf!


We spent most of the day just exploring the city --- it's quite small, so it wasn't hard to do. The architecture was GORGEOUS and even though it was a Sunday, the atmosphere was lively and there were plenty of people milling about. (Not that you can tell from my photos, because I try not to take my bright-pink camera out in crowds of people... but I promise, it was a happenin' place!)



Our previous Lviv/Lvov-inhabitant friend took us to some sweet places, including a cafe named for the inventor of masochism (where the waitresses will handcuff and whip you if you let them) and a place called Dom Legenda (House of Legends) where a large part of the waitstaff are under 4'9 and you can ride in a flying car on the roof. No pictures allowed inside, but here's a nice view from the top :)


A good trip, and we made it back to the train station in time for our 15-hour train ride home. I love train rides in Eastern Europe --- this time the Ukrainians next to us taught us how to play "Durak" ("Fool," a Russian card game) and we played for HOURS until bedtime. I sleep like a baby on the train, but honestly, sleeping on my bed in Kiev is like sleeping on a set of overly-creaky stairs wrapped in burlap... So I guess the train compartment has something to boast about.

Also, I got REALLY sick this weekend, and am still recovering... but we had thanksgiving anyway. Stay tuned for details!

Love,
Sarah

New Students, Sister-Weekend, and Cultural Diversity

I find myself with some spare time to write a post, since I am currently waiting for my Landlady to visit about our broken washing machine... Good thing, because quite a bit has happened that's worth writing about. Since my birthday I've been keeping busy --- Last Sunday I had another "Master Class" on Ukrainian cuisine with a previous student, and this time we made Borsch! It was incredibly delicious, don't worry I'm bringing back a recipe. We also watched a VERY famous Russian film, "The Diamond Arm," and some famous soviet cartoons: A Ukrainian folk-tale as well as The Russian version of Winnie the Pooh (my all-time favorite)


The next day I started a new group class, and my new students are (as always) FANTASTIC! We laugh a lot, and sometimes we go on crazy tangents (like discussing the names of different facial-hair styles) but we have a lot of fun and my students don't complain :) This is a really sweet gig, and I'm very seriously considering moving back to Kiev in the future and working as a REAL English teacher. However, I am missing my family more than ever... My wonderful sister came to visit me in Kiev this past weekend, and we crammed as much Kiev-exploring and sister-bonding time as possible into the 48 hours that we had to work with. I actually cried for about a day after she left, but hopefully I'll end up in France soon. Here we are with a Monkey in the city center (there are always crazy people dressed up for pictures at Independence Square).


The weekend was fantastic, we had a lot of coffees from the coffee trucks (they sell espresso from mobile coffee-shops based out of hatch-back sedans all over the place in Kiev), we went to the Lavra (caves monastery), saw the churches Sofia, Mihailovskij, and Andreevskij, ate Pirozhki, Borsch, Chicken Kiev, and everything else I could think of that was especially Ukrainian. We also ran into some Pizanka (Ukrainian painted eggs)


Also, I am happy to say that last night my Italian roommates invited me to hang out with them for the FIRST TIME, because one of their boyfriends is here and he brought fancy chocolate liqueur from his region in Italy. We had that, some tiramisu ice-cream cake, and Butter cookies from Bretagne. It was a total breakthrough in our roommate relationship. All in all it's been a good week! I have three days left of this group class, and I think I'll be going to Lviv/Lvov this weekend to explore and take more pictures (which means another TRAIN RIDE! MY FAVORITE!) I'll keep you updated.

Good Gravy, I love Kiev!
Sarah

Birthday happenings:

С Днём Рождения! Here's a rundown of my Birthday weekend:

-Early celebration at Lviv Handmade Chocolates

-Daisies, Malina berries, and a book of Pushkin Fairy-tales from my Russian Teacher

-Long text messages wishing me success, beauty, happiness, love, etc. from 3 of my previous students who remembered my birthday

-A Putin/Cheburashka themed Birthday card (score) and Crocodile Gena stuck in my head for hours

-A bottle of Champagne, chocolates, and a birthday song from my Coworkers

-Ukrainian-style pie after work with a good Ukrainian friend (and the cat who sat next to us)

-American party at my apartment with Kievskiiy Cake (actually, the cake is kind of weird, but cool that it was Kievskiiy!)


Amazing weekend, but tomorrow it's back to work. I love my students, but for some reason I haven't been given the schedule for classes tomorrow, so I just have to get there early and hope that I can find out where to go/what to do with enough time to spare for planning... I live life on the edge! (literally, because the name "Ukraine"/"Украина" means "On the edge") Wish me luck!

Life is good, my friends. Жизнь --- хорошо.
Sarah

P.S. I forgot to mention one of the best parts of last week, which was when the great April Curtis came to Kiev from St. Petersburg and hung out with yours truly. What a Дама. Had some beers, shot the breeze, listened to some cool, cool jazz in the city center. SO glad she came!

It's the moooost wonderful tiiiime of the yeeeeeeear!

Dear Wonderful World,

It's my BIRTHDAY! I'll update you on how it goes later, but first I need to fill you in on what happened before I turned 22... in numbered format.

1. Master Class on Ukrainian Cooking: Sharlotka and Draniki. One of my students invited me to meet his family and learn some Ukrainian home cooking skills. We made a delicious apple cake called Sharlotka and grated potato pancakes called Draniki (or in Ukrainian, Deruni) SO good, and also the most adorable family I've ever met in my life. I have a soft-spot for Eastern-European children. LOVE them. The baby loves the apple cake. The boy likes staring contests (seriously, that's why he's doing the crazy eye thing).


2. Halloween! We had a party at work with some students form the Naval academy and our awesome receptionists. We carved pumpkins, played never-have-I-ever, had vodka with tomato juice (supposed to look like blood?) and went home early since it was, unfortunately, a Monday. But look how cute our sad pumpkin is! (btw, we did all the carving with that blue bread knife and a butter knife covered in old paint. We're pretty skilled.)


3. My birthday in the Philippines: As a good friend informed me, my Birthday began in the Philippines about 6 hours earlier than in Kiev, so when I met with my Ukrainian friend we didn't have to worry about the common superstition of celebrating a birthday early being bad luck. A poor excuse, but my Birthday lasts longer this way! We went to a famous Chocolate cafe called Lviv Handmade Chocolates where they also have great coffee (which we both love), and later I ordered CHOCOLATE TEA. Seriously? Yes. Chocolate tea. I have no idea how it works, but it was pretty good. In Russia and Ukraine you can put chocolate in anything and it will make it better, just like sour cream. Chocolate tea? Oh yeah. Chocolate condensed milk? Good idea. Chocolate Butter? Why the hell not. Chocolate is always good.


I love everyone here so much. I love chocolate and coffee. I love Kiev. I love my life.
Sarah

p.s. --- On Monday I have a skype interview for a teaching job in Georgia... Wish me luck!

My Dearest Readers...

...I am in love with Kiev right now. I can't even explain it. What we have --- it's something special. I had a wonderful Saturday exploring the north-east corner of the city center with my new Ukrainian tour-guide friend. We walked through Andreevskiy spusk/uzviv/street/whatever, which is a famous old street that turns into a giant flea-market during the day. We also found our way on top of an abandoned building to take some sweet pictures of St. Andrew's Church:


Afterwards my fellow intern and I went to the Kiev National Opera which was BALLER as I'll get out. We saw Tchaikovskii's "Yolanta," about a blind princess who grew up not realizing that there was such a thing as light. It's a crazy plot, but it got lost in the fact that they were singing complicated unintelligible arias... I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have understood it even if it was in English. Good thing I read the synopsis on Wikipedia beforehand :) Anyway, it was really fun, and a good excuse to get dressed up. Ta-da!


The other day I FINALLY was able to explore my neighborhood a bit, and found out that there is a GIGANTIC park just a few blocks away. I spent my Sunday afternoon walking around the trails there, people-watching and listening to the Russian and Ukrainian conversations around me. It was kind of nice. Also there were lots of dogs, ducks, and babies which made me happy :)

Then Monday happened, and now I'm back at work. I loooooooove my students, they are so COOL! (some of them are reading this... Hi guys!) They tell me that they will celebrate my birthday with me, with poppy-seed pie, pirozhki, coffee and 3 liters of milk. We might celebrate at McDonalds, but perhaps we'll go to Barcelona. It's all up to Serendipity. My life is fantastic.

Sarah

This post is about Footba--- I mean, Soccer.

Hello, beautiful people! Sarah is here to tell you another story about life in Ukraine. First of all, I started a new class this week, and my new students are AWESOME! They are funny and smart and our discussions are fantastic. We laugh a lot, but not too much :) Yesterday some of my students came to an earlier class. "...Why are you in my early class?" I was pretty confused, but I found out that they were going to the soccer game and wanted more time to prepare. "I'm going toooooo!" I was so pumped, I felt like a REAL Ukrainian who liked the same things as other REAL Ukrainians, like soccer (which I keep calling football on accident, because all of my students call it football...) I went with a new friend, probably the coolest person I've met so far.


The game was actually pretty slow, no one made a goal in the first half, and it didn't look like anything exciting would happen in the second half either. But my friend and I had a great time people-watching, I bought a new scarf to show my support for Dinamo Kiev, and we sat right next to the "fun" section full of people cheering loudly, waving their scarves in the air, and banging on drums. It was awesome. I also heard a LOT of bad words in Russian and Ukrainian... which was fun, I have to admit :) lots more laughing. Then, when we were 3 and a half minutes into stoppage time, FINALLY Kiev scored a goal! It was GLORIOUS!

(Note the fireworks, as well as the scoreboard: Kiev 1, Besiktas 0)

The crowd was COMPLETELY nuts. The cheering went on even as we walked out of the stadium, across the street, to the metro, down the mile-long escalators, and on the train, even all the way to the last stop on the metro there were fans cheering at the top of their lungs and pounding on the sides of the subway car:

"Динамо КИЇВ! Динамо КИЇВ! Біло синій --- самий СИЛЬНИЙ!"

Totally awesome. And then my class was canceled this morning and I got to sleep in :) This is the life! Missing everyone at home, loving my time in Kiev, and looking forward to more adventures. This weekend: The Opera!

Sarah

Vacation? Oh, ok!

It's been a while since I updated, but that's not because I've been busy working --- I was given an unexpected vacation! The school postponed the start date for our next session by a week, giving me a week to explore more of Kiev, as well as to take a looooovely weekend trip to...


...ODESSA! Southern Ukraine, right on the Black Sea, and small enough to walk around in two days. I got tickets on a night train for less than $25 round trip (I love Eastern Europe). Highlights: Watched the sun rise over the sea, went swimming at the beach, spoke a LOT of Russian with some new friends (travelers from Russia), went to a vintage market, took TONS of pictures, and went out for Georgian food (Hachipurri!) I also saw jellyfish for the first time, and learned that the Russian word for jellyfish is "Medusa." This was my favorite "Jellyfish-watching" spot:


Earlier in the week I explored more of Kiev with a new Ukrainian friend. First stop was the Marinksii park, which is full or memorials, statues, and great views of the river Dnipr. Next up was the Lavra, a maze-like construction of churches built on the slop of a giant hill, and finally Mat' Rodina (Mother of the Motherland): An enormous statue to commemorate military heroes. Look, pictures!


And as if that weren't enough, I also bought tickets to an opera for next weekend, went to a book market with my Russian teacher, found new friends at an English conversation club, and made plans to go to a soccer game on Thursday. So much news! But this week I'm back to teaching classes, so that means less time for exploring the city. Plenty of time for that on the weekends, though, and I'm sure my new students will keep me entertained :)

'Til next time!
Sarah

Update update update

Guess what I just did? I just finished teaching a two-week English conversation course. Hurray! It was stressful, but a lot of fun! Next week I'll be giving some individual lessons, and then I start a new two-week course on the 17th. I feel cool.

One of the best things about this week, besides my awesome students, is that I've started taking 1-on-1 Russian lessons --- The group Russian lessons were below my level (ego boost GO). My new teacher is FANTASTIC if only because she is completely hilarious. She speaks a mile a minute, occasionally using French exclamations, and thankfully I understand almost everything she says. She gets REALLY excited whenever she finds something new for me to drool over (like a Russian ballet in town, directions to a good restaurant, or new vocabulary), and she tries to fit as much as possible into our hour-and-a-half lessons ("That's so little time!" she always says). She's got me reading some Bulgakov and some Bunin, brushing up on my reflexive verbs, and she's taking me to a book market tomorrow after class. Super excited.

In other news, this morning I accidentally poured sour milk in my cereal but ate it anyway because I was running late. I also made cheese ravioli the other night that was NOT cheese ravioli --- they sweeten the cheese so it's like a dessert dumpling. Too bad I had already covered it in tomato sauce, sour cream, and gouda. On the other hand, I have discovered instant buckwheat cereal (Grechka) which has always been my favorite thing, and now I can make it in three minutes. Ta-da!

I stay up way too late! Goodnight!
Sarah

life is good :)

It's the Weekend!! Slava Bogu (Thank God). My schedule during the week is pretty crazy, and I quite literally have no time for myself: I have to get on the metro by 8:45am in order to make it to my 9:30am Russian class. Class goes until 12:45, when I go out to Lunch at a nearby cafeteria, and make it back to school around 2pm. I have to teach class at 5pm, so I plan my lessons from 2-5 and I teach for four hours... making it to the metro just after 9pm and getting home at 10pm for dinner. After dinner I take about an hour to myself (to digest, to plan for the next day, do some homework) before I fall asleep completely exhausted at midnight. Repeat four times, and you have my week.

BUT I don't teach on Fridays! I was totally zoned out in morning class and then came home with J (the new intern from the US, more well-adjusted than the other guy) to plan ahead for our lessons, finally go grocery shopping, and buy her some Ukrainian-appropriate items (stylish boots, large purse to replace her backpack, hairdryer with a European plug, etc.)


Once again fate has re-directed my plans, probably for the better: I was planning to go to a village on the outskirts of Kiev, a tourist spot to view old-style architecture and lifestyles, with some of my classmates today. I overslept and had to miss out, but because of that I got to spend some time with my roommate over brunch and meet our landlady who came to visit. Our landlady is Ol'ga, she is a total sweetheart, and very talkative. She told us all about her feelings on post-soviet life, about her granddaughter in New York, and where to get clean drinking water for 10x cheaper than the grocery store. I also found out that in the tourist village, there is a huge religious festival on Oct. 14th, so my roommates and I will wait until then to visit. Awesome!


On another note, I'm getting a lot better at grocery shopping and making my own food, but it's hard to really get produce here. I have bananas... and apples... I drink a lot of coffee/tea, and eat a lot of sandwiches and eggs. But the restaurants I go to for lunch are fantastic, usually traditional dishes for really cheap. I bought some more complicated ingredients at the store yesterday, so maybe next week I won't be living off of macaroni, omelets and Russian grilled cheese (although they are extremely delicious).

Off to meet a couchsurfer for lunch and go for a walk in the park!

Love,
Sarah

Yeah. Buckets.

Of the Holy variety.

First of all, I love my roommates, even when they speak Italian to eachother and I have no idea what's happening. My roommate Barbara took me around the Kiev Center yesterday, and it was AWESOME. Have some pics to keep you involved while I get into the bizarre explanation of Today's events:


Today was INSANE. My boss told me to show up to class today at 9:30am with the books he sent me (very interesting, both in English, about Russian politics and world culture systems). I assumed that I would have class at 9:30 and that we would use these books. WRONG. I wait in the computer lounge for a while, because I showed up early. Then a woman shows me around the school, telling me where my class is. Once the tour is done, I go to my class, where no one is expecting me and the teacher has no idea what my books are for (This type of disorganization is so Russia, it must be an Eastern European thing). I sit it on the lesson, which turns out to be a test, and the teacher realizes that I understand everything that is happening. She gives me the test, I finish it before the other three students, and the teacher and I have a conversation in Russian about putting me in a higher level. I later find out that this class currently IS the highest level offered, but it was fun and the teacher was very nice, so whatever. Some grammar review is always good. Went out to lunch with my classmates (who were super nice and easy to talk to, all in Russian of course) and then hustled back to school for my 2pm meeting with my boss.

At my meeting I ask my boss about the books, which he thanks me for and takes away. I guess they weren't for me... I miss those books. Anyway, I meet another American intern who lives in Chicago --- the first thing he wanted to talk about was that he can't believe Americans elected Obama as president, since Chicago politicians are "the worst, the most corrupt" in America. "And a black man? C'mon!" I've never met anyone like this guy.


So this meeting with my boss was our orientation for teaching... which I realized, began in three hours. "Oh, ok, you want me to teach a class today? Cool. What? Two classes? Okay. Back-to-back? Wow, alright. How long? 2 hours? Each? Bring it Oooon!" So anyway, my boss basically told us that we should talk about travel (because it's interesting!), so I look through some teaching resources and find a few good worksheets. I plan some exercises. Not knowing anything about my students, and only having taught children in the past, I realized soon enough that perhaps these were a little juvenile, but my first class liked it. My second class had some troubles... but I think we can get through it. I love my students, they are all SUPER interesting, all adults except for two law students (which are not like any law students in America --- think more along the lines of Elle Woods from Legally Blonde, minus five years).


At 10:30pm I finally got home so I could eat some dinner, forgot how to speak Russian because I was so exhausted and had been speaking English all evening, and knew I had to write about it. This sounds like I had a crummy day, I realize this, but actually it was really awesome. I was so happy, all day long. Everyone here is incredibly nice, people smile (UKRAINIANS SMILE!), I made some new friends, my coworkers are AMAZING, I made a great dinner with the few ingredients I had (eggs in olive-oil and sour-cream macaroni&cheese with fried kielbasa), and plenty of people asked me to spend time with them outside of work! So cool! I have a list of people in my phone that I can call whenever I have free time, which is the BEST because when I finally do have free time, I'm not going to want to sit in my apartment by myself.

Oh, and I want to take a trip to Odessa before it gets to cold.

Love you all, I had a great day (...seriously, it was great!)

Sarah

Packing and Bubbles

Hello, all!

It's hard to believe that in two days, I'll be in Kiev... Seriously, it's still kind of hard for me to believe that. Maybe that's why it's so hard to make myself pack? I've told myself that I can pack a little more for this trip than I have in the past, since this time I'll have a home-base to keep all of my things (and I won't be traveling to 5 more countries afterwards). Unfortunately, as soon as I give myself the option of packing more than the bare necessities, I have a hard time keeping my extraneous outfits and personal things down to a manageable size. I spent all evening stressing about it, but eventually I was able to close my suitcase (once I sat on it... and tilted it slightly to one side).

Whoa, so I've got my tickets, my bags are packed, and I fly out on Friday. How do I feel about that? I checked in with myself a few days ago, as I was preparing to leave St. Olaf (where I had been working on my Fulbright application, woo!) and I started to feel like I wasn't mentally prepared for this trip. For two weeks I had been reconnecting with all of my friends, trying to spend as much time with everyone before I left, I even had a farewell concert with my beloved band, Dirty Petrov and the Gentillionaires. I was having a blast! How could I leave? I am excited about Ukraine, but honestly, it's going to be a rough transition. This isn't study abroad: I won't have a host mother to take care of me, and there won't be any Oles living down the street ...I am out of the bubble! That beautiful, comfortable, friend-filled bubble with the nation's #1 college cafeteria. It's a little scary, yeah --- but you know what? It's time to grow up a little, and to distance myself from that surreal hill-top life.

Hurray for being a big girl --- Here is Gogol Bordello, singing about growing up (sort of...)

I'll write my next update from Kiev!

Sarah

I can has an Apartment?

I have an Address in Kiev! Apparently I'll have my own room living in an apartment with two Italian interns --- OMGmylifeisawesome. We also have a washer/dryer, microwave, and internet. I'm all set. Here it is on Yandex street view:


ул. Михаила Ломоносова, 24
Киев, город Киев, Украина


Woooooo!!!
Sarah

My Life: An Outline

Lots of people have been getting confused about where I am going, when, for how long, and just generally asking me for clarification on all of my plans.... SO I thought I would make a nice little outline for reference. Here's what I am working towards for the next year or so:

1. Kiev, Ukraine

• Accepted
• Leaving on September 23rd, returning to USA on December 2oth
• Teaching English and taking Russian language lessons as an unpaid internship
  

2. Georgia (the country, not the state in southern USA)

• Applying, not yet accepted.
• Would be leaving in January, returning to USA in June, possibly going back to Georgia in September until December 22nd.
• Teaching English and getting paid!

3. Concordia Language Villages

• A real job that I do in the Summer, June-July
  
• Teaching Russian and being a camp counselor

4. Fulbright in Russia

• Applying, not yet accepted.
• Would be leaving September 2012, returning June 2013.
• Teaching conversational English and American culture in Russian Universities, possibly taking advanced Russian lessons and volunteering with younger kids/orphans.

5. Graduate School

• Applying eventually, once I get my GRE scores back and finish with my other applications
• Looking into about a million different schools with Slavic Language programs
• Start date dependent on Georgia/Fulbright results... also dependent on program acceptance.

So, there's the outline! Doesn't my life have the potential to be really exciting, although very low-income? I'll keep you all updated. For now, we're focusing on Ukraine, and being the cool teacher. I'll save that explanation yet again for another post, so that I have something to post about before I leave (25 days!)

Sarah

Preparations

Ok, so I leave for Kiev in exactly one month today. I am kind of ahead of myself right now, because I feel like I should be leaving, like, tomorrow. Unfortunately I'll just have to wait, and in the meantime I'm trying to get even more excited about it. If I haven't already showed up at your front door and shoved this website in your face, here is the link to the school I'll be at, Nova Mova International Language School: www.learnrussiankiev.com (...that's the site for learning Russian, anyway. The English school page is all in Russian, so I figured you'd rather see this one. It's the same school, just a different language section. They also have Ukrainian, Italian, and Portugese!)


Other preparations include looking at pictures of Kiev (see photo above), thinking about Kiev, talking to people who have been to Kiev, staring at maps of Kiev, and sending emails back and forth to my boss in Kiev. Pretty soon I'll have a photo and a biography on the English school website, so that students can see who their teacher will be --- How cool is that?? I wrote it the other day, in Russian and English. I'm going to be the cool teacher. I'll probably expand on that more in another post.

Anyway, I know you're all bored with reading about the stuff that happens BEFORE I actually get to Ukraine, so I'm trying to contain myself and not write a silly post every day just to say "OMG IM SO EXCITED YAAAAAAY!!!" Please forgive me for any such posts... it's hard to resist.

A final note on preparation: Today I'm having Beef Stroganoff for dinner. Score.

До встречи!
Sarah

New Trip, New Blog!

"Hey, what's this? Sarah Chao has another blog? Where is she going now? Well, as long as I don't have to keep track of seventeen bajillion cities like last time, I guess I'll check it out."

Yes! The rumors are true! I've been in the US of A for far too long (7 months?) and it's time to get the heck out of Dodge. Where to this time? Well, if you've managed to remain ignorant up to this point, past the website URL and around the big fat title, I'm going to UKRAINE! I'll be living in the capitol city of Kiev, the third largest Russian-speaking city in the WORLD.

"What? Where the heck is that?"

Well, I'll show you:



There she is, the Beautiful Black sea and her surrounding countries. The peach-colored area is Russia, by the way. Do you see Kiev? In that big Orange country labeled Ukraine? Yeah. I'm going there.

"But why? I thought you wanted to be in Russia, so why Ukraine?"

Why not? Ukrainians still speak Russian, and I wouldn't mind picking up some Ukrainian either. I'm going for a teaching internship, where I'll be teaching English and Learning Russian at the NovaMova language school.

"When do you leave? How long will you be gone? Why don't you love me anymore??"

Calm down! I leave on September 23rd, and I'll be back before you know it (i.e. December 20th). Don't worry, I still love you all, and I'll be back for Christmas. In the meantime, wish me luck! Send me mail! Wire me money! I'll spend as much time with as many people as I can before I leave in a month.

Borsch and Shii forever,
Sarah