One week later, now sitting in the airport in Kiev
on the way to Moscow . This trip has been so exciting. It’s been the best part of my year so
far!! I arrived in Kiev
and met up with my Regional Language Officer, Jerry Frank, and two other Senior
Fellows, one who is a former journalist, and one who is a lawyer. We spent three days in Kiev
touring and eating. Kiev
is just beautiful. It is so modern with
so many beautiful buildings. There are
onion domed churches everywhere you look, and they are all painted like
birthday cakes.
It was quite cold with about eight inches of snow on the
ground the day we arrived. The snow and
weather weren’t so bad, but there was a layer of ice almost everywhere and we
had to be on a constant lookout for falling.
It’s difficult to try to see the sights when you’re always looking at
the ground! We went up a funicular to
see a church at the top of the hill.
Christmas feels so turned around here.
Just as we are taking our decorations down, they are putting theirs
up. Now it is the end of January and the
decorations and Christmas music are still in full swing. I had received my Holy
Water in Armenia
before I left, only to get showered by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. People were also filling up bottles of water
and the priest was sprinkling water on the heads of the crowd. When one priest saw I was taking pictures, he
rushed to the side of the other priest and they both posed! It was quite comical. I’ll send the pictures when I have my
wire!!
We went to a McDonald’s in Kiev
that was the largest McDonald’s I have ever seen. People in this part of the world really like
McDonald’s; they are everywhere. I
think it’s really funny because all I hear is that Americans are fat because of
fast food! The restaurant was several
rooms with a hostess that tried to find a seat for everyone, often difficult to
do. Then other ladies clean up after you
when you finish. It was quite busy. We also went to a street market and picked up
a few souvenirs that were made by the locals.
On Saturday, we boarded the train to go to Lviv. The train was really nice and clean with an
overhead t.v. with movies, WiFi, and a food bar in the adjoining car. Every now and then a worker would wheel the
cart down the hall and sell food. We
arrived in Lviv quite late and couldn’t wait to get some sleep. We had spent the last three nights talking,
joking, and comparing notes about our local posts. The next three days were spent at the ELF
Conference. It was so amazing; these people
are all so impressive and such interesting people. The one thing about them all that continues
to amaze me is how quirky they are! I
just fit right in! They are almost all
quite creative people, actresses, and writers, teachers, who lived and traveled
all over the world. Some of them look
strange and some of them just act strange!
They are a lot of fun. After we
finished our ELF conference, we participated in the conference at the local Ukrainian
Franko University
My presentation was on teaching reading and writing for
elementary and beginning English speakers.
You would be amazed at how the teachers here receive the information
about teaching methods in the U.S. I am one of the few teachers here that has
actually spent a lot of time teaching in the U.S.
and certainly one of the few elementary teachers. They are so grateful for ideas and new
methodology. I used several foldables in
my presentation and showed them how to make different types of Word Walls and
graphic organizers. It was really fun!
My presentation for the ELF Conference was on using Social
Media. Because of the low budget for
materials I received from the Embassy, I have no money to buy supplies for my
universities. It has gotten to be a real
joke with all of us; every time someone says $900 all the fellows know what
they are talking about! Everyone else
received $2200. It’s a long story why this happened, but it has been difficult
and I’ve had to come up with creative ideas for materials unable to buy
anything! So, my presentation was on
using Edmodo to teach medical terms using the television show, “Grey’s
Anatomy”. I showed them how to use
Wordle for vocabulary, and they were laughing looking at words like rectal
exam, etc! It was effective and
practical though, and I certainly showed them what you could do with no money!
Wednesday afternoon we took a bus tour of a castle about one
hour out of town. The countryside was
quite beautiful with a lot of plots set aside for people who still use the old
system of using these little plots for growing vegetable in the summer. They said it is not very practical now as far
as making money goes, but many of the older Soviet people are stuck in that way
of life. The castle was small but very
beautiful and we enjoyed hearing about the history of how the area was
inhabited by the Poles, Austo-Hungarians, and Russians. They have such a history!
Last night we took our boss, Jerry, out to dinner for
opening his apartment to us when we arrived early for three days. We now call it the Jerriot! We went to a restaurant called Amadeus. The waitresses were dressed in pretty dresses,
and there was a two piece band playing Dr. Zhivago. The food was really good. I had gypsy shashlick, which is Russian
barbecue. We all laughed the whole
dinner and had a great time. The head of
the language department at the university where we presented joined us as well
as Jerry’s assistant from the Embassy.
We walked home in the snow and watched the ice skating rink, some kind
of igloo you could go into, and ice sculptures on the lawn. It was quite pretty.
Last night at 10:35
we boarded the train from Lviv to Kiev . It was an overnight train and arrived in Kiev
at around eight the next morning. I
slept in the cabin with Alyona, and it was more comfortable than I would have
imagined except that the temperature was way too hot! The train consisted of fourteen cars, all
sleeping cars. I felt like I was in a
Soviet mystery or spy story, everyone speaking Russian and the surroundings
looking like something out of a movie!
The conductor came and woke you up right before arriving and served
coffee or tea. I can’t tell you how much
I’ve enjoyed hearing Russian again. When
we arrived they said the temperature was -14 Celsius.
Now onward to Yerevan ,
and then home to Vanadzor. Comparing and
Contrasting Kiev and Vanadzor is shocking.
They are like two different worlds.
I hope I didn’t make too many mistakes; I’m quite tired!
