Here's an update

Hello Everybody,

It has been a few days since I updated my blog. I hope those reading it are not bored.

On Saturday, I hung out with the girls and we just relaxed at the Nyvky School. We got to know each other better and just ate junk food. Being away from home and from familiarity as made us bond quickly and it feels like I have known these girls for years. I love each and every single one of them. I can’t imagine being a part of another group of girls to work with.

I can’t help but to have a tinge of jealousy. Their host families take them out and show them around town and do things with them.  My roommate and I haven’t done anything with Galina since we have been here. I am not saying that I am not grateful for Galina and what she has done for me. She has given me a roof over my head and puts food on the table. She paid for my bus rides the first week I was here and she didn’t have to do that. Another thing that I am jealous about is that they can communicate with their host families.  It is hard communicating with my host mom because she doesn’t speak English. She tries to talk to us but we can’t understand her. Though we discovered that she loves animals! She has a cat named Salamandro….I am not sure how it’s spelled, snails, and a ferret named Margo. I am trying to not be so envious of the other girls because I am truly blessed to be here and to be living with Galina.

Life is good. I finally understand Ukrainians when they speak. All they say is, “Blah, blah, blah.” ;) I am just kidding. I feel, however, like I am in a cartoon of Charlie Brown and it’s stuck on replay. ;) I do know how to count up to 10. When I was talking to Galina about breakfast, I tried to imitate what she said and she just laughed at me. She said that it was okay. She always ends up laughing when we try to communicate. J I recited the numbers to her. She said I did a good job and gave me a thumbs up. :D I think she thought I was silly for reciting the numbers to her but also happy to know that I have been trying to learn Russian. I love Galina.

Last week, Taia and I were coming home from school and it was down pouring like no other! We got on the trolley bus which takes us from the Metro to a stop close to our flat (apartment). At one of the stops, the driver opened the door, people got on and then the driver said something over the intercom. Whatever he said made those people get back off. But there were still several people on the bus and then he repeated whatever he said louder and everyone else got off so Taia and I followed suit. We were about four stops away from our flat and he kicked us off and it wasn’t even late. It was about 7:30 so there was no reason for him to end his route. Of all the days to kick people off the bus, it had to be a rainy day, really?!? I enjoyed it thoroughly!

Man, oh man, oh man. School has got me going crazy. To work at my school, one needs to have a go with the flow attitude because things are constantly changing and you don’t even know until it’s happening. Let me tell you what is going on in my school. My roommate Taia and I were assigned to work with kindergarten level children for 3 hours a day for 5 days a week. Within the first week our hours were cut down to just two hours a day. And all this time we didn’t know who our kids were and if we were getting more. The kids kept changing on us. But we were able to make things work. We got into work on Monday to find out that we had to teach a Basic Reading level, which is one step above the kindergarten level. We were brought two kids and we didn’t have anything prepared but again we did the best we could on such short notice. Then on Tuesday, we were expecting to do the same thing we didn’t yesterday. We found out that the reading group is only MWF so that was a relief. Then we found out that we were only teaching for one hour, which was nice, though it meant that we had to redo our schedule again, which we have done so many times already. Then we changed our schedule again today to accommodate the Basic Reading children (which we assigned to Taia and I took over the other group all together) and get them on a rotation with the kinder kids. We had it all work out until the kinder kids parents came by after an hour of teaching throwing everything we planned out of the window.  I thought that the one hour teaching was a special treat for us only to find out that it is a daily thing, which meant that once again, my hours were dropped from 15 hours a week, to 10 hours a week, and now to 5 hours a week. And I am supposed to have a minimum of 15 hours a week. So I called my head teacher and luckily she was with the main school coordinator and she found out that I will still have my 10 hours but I will just have two groups of children for one hour each. I was really worried about losing my hours. I have the least amount of hours out of all the girls.  I am the one of the few who came to actually teach the children and I feel like I am not really teaching. But I know that things will get better and everything will work out. Things are always rough at first.

I am thankful for my time at Discovery Elementary. Not just because it gave me teaching experience but because when I worked there, I never had a set schedule. It changed about 80 billion times in one year. The constant change doesn’t make me happy but at least I am used to it. It helps me to just stay calm when I could have easily have lost it (a skill developed over the four years at Discovery).

As frustrating as things are, I am grateful for the children that I work with. They are just as adorable as children can be. They just bring a smile to my face and they warm my heart. I have only known them for just a couple of weeks, but I fell in love with them the moment I met them.  They are so precious and I don’t know if I would have been able to handle everything if it weren’t for this group of children. They give me something to look forward to and I can just relax around them.