My Last Week in Ukraine: Visiting the Hydro Park, Chernobyl Museum, Pechersk Lavra, and the Motherland Statue in Kyiv

So I'm a bit behind on my posts as usual... this is from my last week in Ukraine (which was about 3 weeks ago). I spent the week in Kyiv, and since I didn't have any plans to meet up with people, I just hung out with new friends that I met at my hostel - TIU Kreshatyk. I stayed in that hostel almost every time that I went to Kyiv during my 2 years in Ukraine, and its my favorite hostel because its not too big and you always meet friendly travelers there. I actually helped them paint a little during my stay there in December since they were remodeling : )

Hanging out in the kitchen while the guys painted. 

Starting to paint the wall in the common room. 

At 1:30am - we are almost done and Olya is refueling with coffee. 

Finished! In this house... we are family! 

I went exploring around the Hydro Park area of Kyiv with an Austrian guy named Dominik, that I met at the hostel. I had never been there before, though I'd passed it while riding the metro (the subway) and our friend Roma (who works at the hostel) recommended visiting it. There is a small stretch of the Kyiv metro where the metro trains run above ground, mainly to cross the Dnipro river. The Hydro Park is located along the banks of the river, and apparently its a very popular swimming place in the summer even though the beaches are small. 

Walking with Dominik and Roma on Kreshatyk street, near the Maidan.

Ukrainian street dogs aren't afraid to stare you down. 

The view from the bank of the Dnipro - you can see the Motherland "Родина мать" statue in the distance on the left. 

The other side of the Dnipro, with lots of new fancy apartment buildings along the waterfront. 

Dominik left a few tickets to the National Chernobyl museum, so I snagged one of them and went to check it out. It was not very easy to find - I spent about 30 minutes slushing around the streets trying to find it. I had to ask about 5 passerby which way to go, and not all of them knew where the museum was. I can't imagine how tourists who don't speak Russian or Ukrainian can find this museum. 

There was a small sign for the museum on the right hand street corner, so I turned left (following the sign)... apparently I turned too early because it was the next street down. 

Notice how the streets aren't really plowed here... so I really did slush my way around. 

I finally found it - the entrance to the museum. 

Once I got inside, the cashier lady was extremely angry and displeased that I had brought a ticket with me - I guess there had been a slight misunderstanding, Dominik thought the tickets were free and they apparently weren't. The cashier lady insisted that they did not sell or give out tickets in advance, so she argued and screamed at me for a while and then eventually let me in with that ticket. This happened to be one of those situations where I was glad that I spoke Russian but found that it was unfortunate that I spoke Russian, because the cashier lady was super offended that I was arguing back and said some very mean things to me. After this, I was afraid to ask the lady if I could purchase a headset so I just walked around the museum by myself. The museum was small but interesting, and I'd definitely recommend getting a headset in your native language if you visit because all the exhibits are in Russian.

Documents and artifacts belonging to people who worked at the Chernobyl factory - many of them were in the military. 

Portraits of loved ones who passed away in the explosion. 

Some kind of full body nuclear radiation scanner. 

Cards and paper cranes from children worldwide.

Photos taken some years afterwards, when all the homes and buildings were deserted and partially destroyed. 

Photos of those affected by the explosion. 

I also met a group of 5 Swedish guys at the hostel, they had come to Ukraine to watch a Swedish football team play in Dnipropetrovsk and were just staying in Kyiv for the weekend before they flew home. We had a great time hanging out and walking around the city center, we even went to Puzata Hata so that they could try local Ukrainian food. Puzata Hata is great because its the most affordable place to eat downtown and you can see what you are ordering, since its a cafeteria style buffet line restuarant. They wanted to check out some of the city's sights, so we went to the Pechersk Lavra "Печерская лавра" - a Eastern Orthodox cathedral built as a monastery by some famous caves. After that, we hiked up to the big Motherland "Родина мать"statue. 

The view of the Dnipro river from the Dnipro metro station (which is above ground). 

The Pechersk Lavra cathedral. 

The bottom of the cathedral's walls, where you can walk down into the caves. 

The Motherland statue! It reminded of the Statue of Liberty, though its not quite as tall.

After wrapping up all my COS (close of service) paperwork for Peace Corps, I ended my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer on December 14th! There is a tradition for COS-ing volunteers at our main Peace Corps office in Kyiv - you get to ring the bell to signify that you are officially done! 

Officially finished with my 27 months of Peace Corps service! 

The End is Near: Group 40 COS Conference

As you may or may not know, Ukraine is currently the biggest Peace Corps post worldwide. We've had almost 500 volunteers in country at one time, which is absolutely amazing compared to some the smaller Latin american countries and African countries that only have about 50 volunteers. I came to Ukraine a little over 2 years ago, as part of a big expansion wave of volunteers in groups 39 and 40. I'm part of group 40, which consisted of about 90 TEFL-secondary volunteers (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). Group 39 was about the same size, the only difference is that they had a handful of volunteers who had higher education degrees (PhDs, MBAs and lawyers) and came to teach at the university level.

Group 40!

A week ago, most of the PCVs from group 40 gathered together in Chernigev, an oblast in central Ukraine.We had a short "Continuation of Service" conference, also known as COS. I'd always thought that COS stood for close of service, but the acronym was carefully explained at the conference. We had sessions on post-Peace Corps life, resume building, how to join the Foreign Service, how to say goodbye properly to your community, and of course a Talent show. It was great to see everyone again, I hadn't seen a lot of people since our Swearing-In conference in December 2010.

Pretending to eat Semechki (sunflower seeds) with my fellow Region 6-ers (Kharkiv and Lughansk oblasts).

Holding up the Ukrainian flag with Charley, Nathan, Laura, Danielle and Jun from my cluster/link cluster! 

Taking a token flower photo with Nicole... we've been friends ever since we sat next to each other on a flight from Chicago to DC for Staging!

Our conference was only 3 days long, with the first and the last day being arrivals and departures. So it was short but sweet, and we managed to have fun at a little place called Chicago nearby. Here are a few photo highlights :D

With Nathan and Laura from my cluster :)

For old times sake: the classic asian photo of all the asians in group 40.

Caroline, Grace, Egle and Sara popping their 'bows.

Alison and I repping the East as the only two group 40 volunteers in Kharkiv oblast!

Actually, I tried to organize a Fashion Show with categories like "Most Integrated into Ukraine", "Best Free Box Find", "Most Original", etc but it totally flopped because no one brought any extra costumes to show off. But the Talent show was much more interesting than a standard Ukrainian concert - we had a variety of acts from singing, rapping, playing the guitar, a hairy chest contest, and a saxophone!

Cary, Dara and Kurt proudly belting out Lughansk oblast's anthem.

Nitai rapping about Nathan.

Sing-a-longs with Ryan and his banjo were awesome.... especially the  "Rock Me like a Wagon Wheel" song :) Fun fact: Ryan is the only person in our group who brought a banjo to Ukraine. 

The session that I thought was most interesting was the one focused on saying goodbye, there were a lot of little things that I hadn't thought about. Oleg, the Peace Corps Regional Manager who was leading the session, explained to us that Ukrainians are very sensitive and they are easily offended if you don't say goodbye or if you give unequal presents (such as favoring one person with a really expensive gift).True to Ukrainian tradition, they recommended that you should throw yourself your own goodbye party (and pay for everything, including small gifts for people who meant a lot to you). This is a cross-cultural moment, for Americans would expect just the opposite... similar to birthdays, where Americans expect to be treated by others and Ukrainian birthdays mean that the birthday boy/girl has to pick up the tab.

We worked in small groups to think of different gift ideas that would be appropriate for different people such as the Ministry of Education or our Ukrainian friends. 

Brainstorming on flipcharts... classic Peace Corps style. 

Andrew and Katie presenting on what to get your school director and counterpart. 

Another thing that I learned was that its bad luck to gift someone with a knife - Ukrainians believe that this means you will cut all ties to your relationship, so you should ask the person to pay you 10 kopecks (Ukrainian cents) for the knife.  This is interesting because I'd never heard this before and I figured that knives would be a great gift here, considering that most households have super old and dull knives from 50 years ago. Good, quality, sharp kitchen knives are hard to find in Ukraine and expensive... but they're definitely worth the price because having to work with a dull knife in the kitchen drives me crazy. One of the first things that I did when I got to site was immediately go out and buy new knives!

The dull Ukrainian knives that were in my kitchen when I moved in . The knives in my first kitchen were way worse - I only had 2 and they both couldn't cut through meat or potatoes. 

The knives that I use now - I bought the 2 on the right for about 40 UAH each, and the far left is  a KitchenAid knife (my most prized possession, passed to me by a PCV friend). 

This is how I know I've been in Ukraine too long: I took photos of our room at the sanatorium because it was so nice, complete with a mini-fridge and a tiled bathroom! Our bathroom even had a shower curtain! It was so nice to be staying somewhere that wasn't an old Soviet-style sanatorium with crappy beds and a bomb-ed out bathroom. Also, I was ecstatic about eating a pizza from Dominos Pizza because its been far too long since I've had real pizza from a restaurant (made without ketchup or mayonnaise).

Dominos pizza!!! 

Nicole loving her couch-bed :D

I have a real bed with a real mattress! Usually Soviet-style sanatoriums just have a lumpy mattress roll on top of 100 year old springs for a bed. 

Our bathroom is beautiful... its so nice to see tiled walls instead of wallpaper or painted concrete. 

I have mixed feelings about ending my time here in Ukraine - I haven't been home in over 2 years. While I definitely miss my family, friends, and American snack foods, I know that once I'm home I'll miss Ukraine. Its a different culture and lifestyle, filled with different foods, scary street dogs, endless babushkas (grandmas) and rich in traditions/superstitions. I'm glad to have had the chance to see my friends one last time before we scattered back to our sites all around the country! Group 40 is leaving the country between November 16th and December 14th - I'm staying until the last day because I still have some work to do with my grants, but I'll be home soon enough!

Back to School!

Yesterday, my lyceum had its "First Bell" ceremony, the traditional first day of school opening celebration... a full student body assembly outside with tons of parents and grandparents. And yes, yesterday was Saturday. All primary and secondary schools in Ukraine traditionally start on the 1st of September, so we started our school back up on a Saturday. This is what "First Bell" looked like: all of the students lined up with their teachers to form a huge circle in front of our school, with anxious parents and grandparents forming the outer ring. This is my last semester in Ukraine, so it was my last first day of school : )

Kids line up from 1st through 10th grade by class. This is the side with the younger students. 

The line stretches all the way around to the entrance to the school. The 11th graders (the graduating class) is placed in the center, directly opposite the entrance to the school.

In case you didn't notice, a lot of the girls are wearing GIANT fluffy white hair bows. This is part of the traditional Ukrainian school uniform. Most schools will describe their uniforms as "black on bottom, white on top" - meaning a white shirt or blouse, and black slacks or a skirt. However, the more traditional uniform for girls looks more like what many Americans would imagine a French maid costume to be like... a lacy white apron over brown or black pleated Girl Scout dress-thing, complete with white knee-length stockings and black shoes.  A lot of the boys wear suits and ties as their school uniform, and its especially adorable to see little 6 and 7 year old boys with little 3-piece suits.

The 5th graders from the 5B class, with their teacher Liliya Nikolaievna behind them. 

The 11th graders standing behind the 1st graders.

More 5th graders... they are excited to be start their first year of secondary school (primary school is from 1st through 4th grade here).

As with any other Ukrainian holiday, we had girls singing and dancing and even a few poetry readings by the 1st graders. They were really cute while reciting poems in Ukrainian. Usually there is a presentation of traditional Ukrainian-style dancing, but this year the girls prepared a beautiful dance with ribbons.

Girls dancing together. 

Beautiful ribbons! 

A few little girls singing during the presentation of the school emblem (the circular sign held on the left by a boy and a girl from the 10th grade). 

Its also a Ukrainian custom to present bouquets of flowers on holidays, therefore many of the children brought flowers for their teachers. At the end of the assembly, the schoolyard turns into a zoo of children running around to try to find their favorite teachers to shower them with flowers.

Liliya Nikolaievna being showered with flowers from her 5th graders. 

The First Bell ceremony ends after the ringing of the "first" bell by the oldest and the youngest student. Usually it is the oldest boy from 11th grade carrying the youngest girl from 1st grade on his shoulder, but sometimes it can be the other way around.

 Don't worry, we didn't keep the students for any lessons - we just had the opening assembly at 8am then all the students went with their homeroom teachers for a few announcements. I decorated the door to my classroom last week with the "henna hands" that my 6th graders drew last year, during a lesson that I taught about India as an English-speaking country.

High-5 for the first day of school!

If you'd like to read about the "Last Bell" assembly that is held on the last day of school, you can check out my post about a Ukrainian style graduation here. The post is from 2011, because it rained last May on the day of the Last Bell and we had to have the whole ceremony indoors... there is hardly enough space for all the students to stand inside a corridor inside our school, so everyone was really squished and unfortunately I didn't take any photos. And just for kicks, here is a photo of our World Map!

I'm very proud to say that it survived untouched throughout the summer and I hope it lasts for years... though that probably won't happen since all the kids will probably want to touch it and measure their hands haha.