Skiing in the Carpathian Mountains!

Over winter break, I had the opportunity to go skiing with Kharkov Gymnasium No. 82. My friend Whitney used to work as a Peace Corps Volunteer there, but she already finished her service and went home so her counterpart Svetlana invited me and another PCV to travel with the students instead. We spent about 6 days skiing at Bukovel, a ski resort in the Ivanko-Frankivska Obast (in western Ukraine), skiing during the day and teaching English lessons in the evenings. It was really beautiful out there, it was almost like being in a whole different country! I had never been skiing before but I loved it, it was awesome :)

Me with a bunch of the students on the ski slopes!

The Kharkiv - Ivano Frankivsk train has been cancelled recently, due to construction and repairs of the railroads... so we traveled through Kyiv. Many of the students had never been to Kyiv before so they really enjoyed walking around Independence Square and seeing some of the main sights downtown. We also saw the "national" Christmas tree of Ukraine, the one located in the Maidan  (Independence Square).

Olya and Nika, two adorable girls from 6th grade. 

Everyone by the Christmas tree.  And a panda photobombing. 

Ty (another PCV) with Illyaz, Marina and Julia. 

We actually stayed in a small town called Yarmche, about 45 min from Bukovel. I roomed with 6 girls, ranging from 5th grade to 11th grade. We had an apartment with 2 rooms and a kitchen. At first I was really nervous to go skiing, because I've heard from so many friends who have gotten skiing-related injuries from falling and whatnot. But after I actually tried it, I found that it wasn't that bad... kind of a cross between the balance of surfing and the coordination of ice skating.

with Darina and Liza. 

Riding the ski lift with Olya!

so many people!

Ty and I taught lessons focused on healthy lifestyles in English. Svetlana and the students wanted to film a series of social advertisements, so we taught topics such as anti-smoking, anti-drinking, the environment, sports, music, leadership, diversity, etc. I felt a little like a Peace Corps LCF (language facilitator) because I was teaching groups of kids and using the strips of paper method that is the signature of many LCF's :)

Maxim and Vadim (7th grade)

Matching American slang words. 

The girls on the couch. 

Olya, Dima and Sasha. 

Ty working with the students on their rap. 

We also celebrated Christmas on January 7th by cooking shashlik (like shish kabobs). Ukrainians celebrate Christmas on the orthodox date because most of them of Eastern Orthodox. Children walk around the neighborhoods, dressed in interesting costumes and singing Christmas carols. However, I was told that this is only a tradition in western Ukraine and its not so popular in eastern Ukraine.

with Ira and Anya, two university students who are alumni of Gymnasium 82.

Bros!

Nika, Elvira, Olya and Julia. 

Konstantine, Sergey, Marina and Ty. 

The carolers!

I had a ton of fun hanging out in western Ukraine, especially since Kharkiv didn't really get any snow until last week (and now its already -20 degrees C). I walked around the ski resort with the kids and we bought tons of souvenirs :)

near the ice skating rink with Julia and Liza. 

Sasha, Julia, me and Liza. 

Liza, Julia, me and Dina. 

A huge ice-sculpture advertisement with the girls. 

After we got back from the trip, the kids put together a video slideshow of photos and videos from the trip...   enjoy!! I was very thankful to have the opportunity to go on this trip and I hope that I'll see these kids around in the future, they were a ton of fun to be with and they all loved learning English :P

Springtime in Ukraine: Shaslik and Healthy Lifestyles/Sports Day

Springtime is finally here in Ukraine and the weather has been beautiful! Everywhere that was previously covered in ice and snow when I got here in the winter is now green and blooming :) I went to visit my friend Alison in her town and we went with a few friends to cook Shaslik, aka meat skewers over an open fire. Before we cooked the meat, we had to gather our own firewood and build a pit for the fire.

Vadim starting the fire from small pieces of paper and wood.

Tiago rolled over a log for us to sit on.

The view of the river.

So calm.

Heading into the woods to gather some wood for the fire.

I have two small trees in my hands haha.

Alison and I put the meat on the skewers.

Our skewers of meat, onions, and cucumbers (sounds strange, but it was what Alison had in her fridge and it actually turned out okay).

Our school year has gone by so fast! We are finishing up the last two weeks of classes now, with graduation for the 11th form on May 28th. However, the 9th and 11th graders have all of their final exams during June. And I will be running a mini-camp for my English teachers 8th form for the first half of June. In the midst of all of our standardized end-of-the-year exams, my school decided to have a Healthy Lifestyles and Sports day. The 5th through 10th forms participated in different competitions around the school grounds.

Girls from the 8A class chalk about being healthy.

6B draws different environmental things related to health.

 The sports competitions were great and very different from the typical field day games that are held at schools in America. For example, they had soccer-related games instead of things like the egg toss and wheelbarrow race.

A pullup competition.

The first part of the relay race was dribbling a soccer ball around basketballs.

The second part of the relay race was dribbling a basketball. 

After the sports competitions, all the students and teachers walked to have a kasha cook-off. Kasha is a type of cereal that is small yellow grains that look like dried grits, but taste bit softer when cooked, like oatmeal. The picnic area was right behind the stadium, which is located right next to our school.

Me with Olena and Dasha from the 5A class.

Kasha is traditionally boiled in a pot over an open fire with potatoes, meat, and spices.

The kids were having fun playing volleyball outside.

The girls from 8V with the sandwiches that they prepared.

My counterpart Alina and the school nurse tasting the kasha from 8V, as the jury.

The boys from 5A class made their version of a human pyramid.

Super Camp Weekend: Teaching about the Regions of America

The last few weeks have been really busy for me, I went to my friend (and wonderful peer advisor) Sasha's town to help her out at her weekend camp two weeks ago. Her camp was called "Super Camp" and the theme was Regions of America. She had about 6 other Peace Corps Volunteers travel to her town and help her teach lessons to students from 5th to 11th form over two days (Saturday and Sunday) at her school. Overall, I was very impressed with how active and excited her students were about coming to school for extra lessons on a weekend! Sasha did a great job of coordinating everything from the schedule to tea breaks with the M&M candy icebreaker and even having dodgeball for a little lesson in physical education. It was an action packed weekend and a great experience, I hope to run my own weekend camp at my school in the fall!

All of the PCVs with one of Sasha's English teachers during the lunch break.

Me and Sasha with one of her English teachers.

Jillian taught lessons about the West coast, which included her home state of Washington. She brought some cool props to teach the class with, including a calendar with scenic photos of Washington. During the lesson, she had the kids design their own state flags, which was a really creative idea :)

Margo taught about the Midwest and her home state of Nebraska. I was originally assigned to teach about the Midwest, but I was very thankful that Margo wanted to switch regions with me because I don't know very much about the Midwest, except that there are a lot of farms with corn haha.

We began the 2nd day (Sunday mornning) with teaching the students how to do the Cha-Cha slide. To do this, first we reviewed some verbs of motion like to jump, to stomp, to hop, and then we showed them how to cha-cha and how to do the Charlie Brown.

Samantha taught lessons about the northwest and New England, which included her home state of New York. Her lesson was really creative and she had all the names of the states written as leaves on a tree.

Erika taught lessons about the Mid-Atlantic, which is the states around Washington DC. She brought a few maps of the USA from her town to show the kids where her states were located.

I taught lessons about the South, which was great because we got to talk about the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, Coca-Cola, the Wright brothers, Florida oranges, Cajun food, and a strong tradition of high school and college/university football!

Teaching about traditional southern foods and some fun state facts with my flipcharts.

Ty taught about the Southwest, which included his home state of Texas. The kids had a lot of fun learning about how to use a lasso during his lesson, and then they got to give it a shot for themselves afterwards!

Ty teaching a student how to lasso some chairs.

At the end of the camp on Sunday afternoon, we handed out certificates to all of the students that attended the camp. They were all super excited to get certificates in English and sad to see us go.

Sasha announcing the names of students from the stage.

Ted, Jillian, Erika, Margo, Samantha, myself and Ty with two of Sasha's teachers.

After a full day of teaching lessons back-to-back at school on Saturday, we grilled shashlik (chunks of seasoned pork on long skewers with onions) outside in the evening. It was my first shashlik experience in Ukraine and it was absolutely delicious! Sasha had two bags of marshmellows that someone had mailed to her in a care package - they don't sell marshmellows here! We roasted marshmellows over the fire for dessert, which was messy but tons of fun :)

Relaxing with the girls before grilling out.

Starting the fire with pine needles!

Shashlik was juicy and delicious!

You can also check out an article with some more photos from the local town website here (but its in Ukrainian). The first photo is of me teaching the Hokey Pokey dance with Ty and Jillian on stage... you put your right foot in!