Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello! I haven't been to the internet in almost three weeks, so this might be a long one :)

I guess I'll start with my site visit. On November 13th I found out my permanent site, which is a small village in western Ukraine. The village, Mertyuky, has a population between 6 and 700, but borders a much larger city, Stry, of 65,000. If you're curious you can probably find Stry on a map of Ukraine, it is located in southwest Ukraine, south of Lviv.

I traveled to site with four other volunteers, three of us got off the train in Stry and the other two continued west. We left Kyiv last Wednesday night at 615 pm and arrived in Stry at 6 am. It was my first experience with an overnight train and I was very excited. I brought along my new sleeping bag, which was fun for about thirty seconds until I realized that the train was about 100 degrees.

When we arrived in Stry I was picked up by two English teachers from my new school, Iryna and Vira, and my new host father, Orest. I don't think they realized I had been studying Ukrainian for six and a half weeks and were thrilled that I could say "hello," "nice to meet you," and "thank you." Orest immediately invited me and another volunteer, Shannon, to his son's wedding that Saturday. We did not understand the word for wedding and Orest couldn't figure out why we weren't excited. The English teachers translated for us and Shannon and I eagerly accepted the invitation.

My new house is similar to the one I live in now. It was indoor plumbing and hot water (most of the time.) I have a younger brother, Andrey, who is thirteen, an older brother, Roman, who is 23, and an older sister, Anya, who is 25. Roman and Anya do not live at home, but I was lucky enough to meet them (and many, many, many others) at the wedding. My host mother, Lecya, is a cook in the school cafeteria. I'm not sure exactly what Orest does now, but I did learn that he worked in Italy for eight years.

At 630 Thursday morning it was of course necessary to toast my arrival. My sense of time was thrown off by the train ride, so red wine at 630 didn't seem too odd. Around 830 Iryna and Vira took me to the school. It is literally two blocks from my back gate. The school building is only eight years old and very nice. There are six English teachers at school, and the students English level is pretty high. Unlike many schools in Ukraine, they have English four to five times a week starting in the first form. I will most likely be teaching the older forms, including 11th form American Literature and United States country studies. Thursday after classes Iryna, Vira, and another English teacher, Halya, took me into Stry for pizza. I ordered a pizza with onions, peppers, and chicken, and a Coca-Cola. Probably my best meal so far in Ukraine :)

On Friday I arrived at school just before 9. For the first period I observed a competition in the fourth form on fairy tales. It was in Ukrainian and I was lost for the most part. I did know the correct answer to a few questions and was very proud of myself- can't wait until my language level reaches that of middle (or MAYBE even high school) students! After the competition, I observed two 10th form English classes. As I mentioned before, the English level of the students if high, but the classes still rely heavily on translation. My job will be to introduce more communicative methods. I did not observe the last few English classes of the day because it was time for a Ukrainian fashion show. Since I hadn't known about the wedding Saturday, my coworkers were very worried that I wouldn't be dressed appropriately and all brought in items of clothing for me to try on. I ended up in a black satin diamond embellished skirt and tight black top. I haven't worn anything remotely girly or tight for two months so it felt very odd, but did help me to blend in well at the wedding!

Now for the wedding itself- I was told to be ready around 1230 Saturday afternoon. My host father picked Shannon up from her site (only a few kilometers from mine) and around 1 pm a large number of my host father's relatives began arriving to the house. Shannon and I were then ushered into a car with one of the few English speaking guests and joined a caravan of cars and one bus traveling to the bride's home. When we arrived at the bride's home the bride and groom's families began talking on the front steps. Shannon and I didn't follow much, but it seemed as if Roman was asking Veronica's parents for permission to marry her. The two families then had a champagne toast, smashed the glasses on the ground, and entered the home. There Veronica and Roman asked for the blessing of their parents and grandparents. When they left the house they walked under a loaf of bread, and once outside were sprayed with water by Veronica's father. After the bride's house, we got back into the car and drove to Stry. There Veronica and Roman were legally married in a town hall of some sort. Next, we drove back to the village for the church ceremony. The church was beautiful, and I really enjoyed that part. My new host grandmother was whispering to me the entire time in Ukrainian trying to explain what was going on. I didn't really follow, but her effort was appreciated!

Finally, we drove to the reception. It was held in a gorgeous hotel/restaurant in a resort town nearby. The reception itself was similar to one in the U.S., but with A LOT more food. The event was catered, and the families brought food, too. Shannon and I sat at the "young table" as we were told. It was a lot of cousins, my host sister, and Roman and Veronica's friends. A very, very good time. There was also a band, and I did my fair share of dancing with my third form host cousin, grandmother, host father, and Roman's friends. We did not leave for home until 330 am. Needless to say, I was exhausted.

You wouldn't believe my surprise when I woke up Sunday morning to find that the party had not actually ended... relatives and friends piled into the house and the afternoon was spent eating left over food, drinking, looking at pictures, and congratulating Roman and Veronica again. I was overwhelmed, but have been told that a wedding is nothing compared to the holiday season approaching- wish me luck :)

Sunday night I took another overnight train back to Kyiv and spent Monday and Tuesday attending training sesssions held by current volunteers. It was nice to hear about everyone's sites, and meet the current volunteers, but I am definitely happy to be back in Kivshovata now.

We've had our first taste of winter weather. It snowed a rather significant amount in Kivshovata the weekend before we left for site visit. Upon arrival in Kyiv it started snowing again, and when I reached my site it began snowing within two hours. I had even asked the English teachers if there had been snow yet, to which they responded no. Maybe I'm just bad luck! I will be purchasing a long winter coat and maybe some black lined boots the next time I'm at a large bazaar, but overall I'm keeping warm.

I'm about to run out of time, but I have so much more I'd like to report. Hopefully I'll get another chance this weekend.

As you can probably tell I'm having an amazing time, but missing you all immensely on Thanksgiving.

Keep in touch and let me know what's going on with all of you!