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