Day 2, pre-pre service training retreat. September 19th, 11pm.
So today there was still no internets which is extremely frustrating but I didn’t have a whole lot of time to think on it as they kept us pretty busy throughout the day. I’m so sorry to those I promised to call/email once I got here. I had one golden moment yesterday to do it but it was too early in the morning for ya’ll for me to call and I spent my time on my blog/facebook instead of emailing because I thought I would have internet for the entire time. The general consensus among the volunteers is that the hotel intentionally turned it off. I don’t know though. I tried to find the modem to fix it myself but I couldn’t. It was probably locked in someone’s office or something.
Anyhow…
Today we got talked to a lot. There was an introductory session were the country director introduced himself and said some inspirational things. Then there was more going over Peace Corps expectations. Then a little overview of what we will be doing at our pre-service training sites. In a nutshell we will be in Ukrainian language classes 4 hours a day 5x a week. There will also be field trips, practical training at schools, teacher observations, and methods training. This was all a little overwhelming and made me doubt myself and my abilities hardcore but I talked myself down out of it and spoke with some of the other trainees and of course they all feel the same way. It’s going to be rough but I think I can handle it.
Next on the agenda was a medical interview. Here the doc just went over my medical survey I had to fill out and then he surprised me with 4 immunizations. 4! Now, shots don’t scare/bother me in the least but, this guy. This doctor decided that he was going to give me all these 4 shots not only in the same arm but also in the SAME EXACT SPOT OVER AND OVER AGAIN. 4 TIMES! WTF. Jerk.
My arm is very sore now and it wouldn’t stop bleeding for a long time.
But I suppose it might be a little my fault because I asked him about keeping up with a fitness routine and he got very excited to learn that I was a runner because, surprise, so was he! In fact, some of the trainees that he saw yesterday he took to what they call a stadium but sounds comparable to a community center, and went for a morning jog! Jealous!
Apparently it is perfectly acceptable to go running, however, it is best to do it in these little stadium things. Running outside isn’t common but I might see it every once in a while. Also, very community has a stadium so I should be a-okay.
Next was my first language class with my cluster group! There are five of us and we will all be sent to the same training community and studying together for the next 11 weeks. The class was a lot of fun and focused on the alphabet and simple phrases. My teacher (Natalia—like, the easiest, most stereotypical Russian name ever) seems like a very elegant and graceful person but also very motivated and good natured. I think I will learn a lot from her.
The training site I will be going to is called Kozelets and it is directly in-between Kyiv and my current location of Chernigiv (I think I spelled that right…), about an hour away from both.
Oh! Side note. Because the name of my current city reminds me of Chernobyl I remembered this: I’m not completely sure but I think we might have flown over Chernobyl on our way to Kyiv. We definitely flew over a nuke plant, no mistake. I wonder…
End side note.
Our teachers announced our training sites to us in different little skits that were pretty funny. Our teacher introduced out site by first introducing Kyiv and how it was a huge bustling city. Then she moved on the Chernigiv which is also a fairly big, bustling city with a local McDonalds. This got us slightly excited because it sounded like she was going to talk about how we were going to stay in a city just like them.
Nope.
She made it very clear that Kozelets is nothing like those cities but rather it is a cute little village that is very hospitable and also has a giant cow statue in the middle of town.
I’m okay with staying in a village, I’m just super concerned about the internet situation. Not only because I want to stay in contact with you lovely people but also because the internet is rife with so many resources for teachers that being without makes teaching a struggle.
We shall see though. I am hoping for the best but if I’m not able to communicate with you lovely people on a regular basis (I can only get access at an internet café or my school or something) then there is a plan B. Our cell phone plans apparently have this service where we can receive free international calls, no charge to us. However, making an international call will be expensive as fuck. So, as soon as I get my phone I will provide those who want it with my number and to make it cheap for you I recommend buying some Skype credit and calling me that way. I probably won’t be getting a smart phone because the phone itself is expensive. I don’t know about international texting but I will find out. I think we’re going on Saturday to get our phones so hopefully I will be able to find out sooner rather than later.
Last on the agenda was learning about Ukrainian history and the mentality of the people. Ukraine has only been an independent country for 22 years and thus, the soviet era of utter shit conditions and total lack of trust of strangers still resides in people’s minds today. This will be a likely hurdle as we try to integrate ourselves into our communities but it won’t be all that bad so long as we stay motivated and interact with the locals as much as possible. Also, the country went through a depression about 1,000x worse than our so-called “great depression”. Serisouly. Our depression was like, what 30% inflation? Perhaps a bit more? People in the States would start to panic at 25% inflation non-the-less. Well, try 10,000% inflation. For real. Let that sink in. Toilet paper was unaffordable. That period was from about 92-99 and now they are doing a lot better ( don’t remember exactly what the inflation rate is but I do know that I received 1,150 in Ukrainian currency which we figured out sums up to about $150.
I also learned the reason why no one smiles at strangers like we do in the US. It has to do with that soviet mentality of zero trust of strangers. Makes sense.
I’ve been going a bit stir crazy being stuck here in our training facility. We are not allowed to leave it for the possibility of being stopped by the police and asked for our documents is a high one apparently and we don’t have our documents. They’re currently being processed in Kyiv to get our proper visas. However, we leave tomorrow to meet our host families, which is exciting and nerve racking at the same time. They most likely won’t speak English so I won’t be able to communicate with them other than introductions. Shall be interesting indeed.
-Jamie
P.s. our current facility has a Soviet era nuclear bomb shelter in the basement that we get to go on a tour of tomorrow morning. Hope they don’t lock us down there…
So today there was still no internets which is extremely frustrating but I didn’t have a whole lot of time to think on it as they kept us pretty busy throughout the day. I’m so sorry to those I promised to call/email once I got here. I had one golden moment yesterday to do it but it was too early in the morning for ya’ll for me to call and I spent my time on my blog/facebook instead of emailing because I thought I would have internet for the entire time. The general consensus among the volunteers is that the hotel intentionally turned it off. I don’t know though. I tried to find the modem to fix it myself but I couldn’t. It was probably locked in someone’s office or something.
Anyhow…
Today we got talked to a lot. There was an introductory session were the country director introduced himself and said some inspirational things. Then there was more going over Peace Corps expectations. Then a little overview of what we will be doing at our pre-service training sites. In a nutshell we will be in Ukrainian language classes 4 hours a day 5x a week. There will also be field trips, practical training at schools, teacher observations, and methods training. This was all a little overwhelming and made me doubt myself and my abilities hardcore but I talked myself down out of it and spoke with some of the other trainees and of course they all feel the same way. It’s going to be rough but I think I can handle it.
Next on the agenda was a medical interview. Here the doc just went over my medical survey I had to fill out and then he surprised me with 4 immunizations. 4! Now, shots don’t scare/bother me in the least but, this guy. This doctor decided that he was going to give me all these 4 shots not only in the same arm but also in the SAME EXACT SPOT OVER AND OVER AGAIN. 4 TIMES! WTF. Jerk.
My arm is very sore now and it wouldn’t stop bleeding for a long time.
But I suppose it might be a little my fault because I asked him about keeping up with a fitness routine and he got very excited to learn that I was a runner because, surprise, so was he! In fact, some of the trainees that he saw yesterday he took to what they call a stadium but sounds comparable to a community center, and went for a morning jog! Jealous!
Apparently it is perfectly acceptable to go running, however, it is best to do it in these little stadium things. Running outside isn’t common but I might see it every once in a while. Also, very community has a stadium so I should be a-okay.
Next was my first language class with my cluster group! There are five of us and we will all be sent to the same training community and studying together for the next 11 weeks. The class was a lot of fun and focused on the alphabet and simple phrases. My teacher (Natalia—like, the easiest, most stereotypical Russian name ever) seems like a very elegant and graceful person but also very motivated and good natured. I think I will learn a lot from her.
The training site I will be going to is called Kozelets and it is directly in-between Kyiv and my current location of Chernigiv (I think I spelled that right…), about an hour away from both.
Oh! Side note. Because the name of my current city reminds me of Chernobyl I remembered this: I’m not completely sure but I think we might have flown over Chernobyl on our way to Kyiv. We definitely flew over a nuke plant, no mistake. I wonder…
End side note.
Our teachers announced our training sites to us in different little skits that were pretty funny. Our teacher introduced out site by first introducing Kyiv and how it was a huge bustling city. Then she moved on the Chernigiv which is also a fairly big, bustling city with a local McDonalds. This got us slightly excited because it sounded like she was going to talk about how we were going to stay in a city just like them.
Nope.
She made it very clear that Kozelets is nothing like those cities but rather it is a cute little village that is very hospitable and also has a giant cow statue in the middle of town.
I’m okay with staying in a village, I’m just super concerned about the internet situation. Not only because I want to stay in contact with you lovely people but also because the internet is rife with so many resources for teachers that being without makes teaching a struggle.
We shall see though. I am hoping for the best but if I’m not able to communicate with you lovely people on a regular basis (I can only get access at an internet café or my school or something) then there is a plan B. Our cell phone plans apparently have this service where we can receive free international calls, no charge to us. However, making an international call will be expensive as fuck. So, as soon as I get my phone I will provide those who want it with my number and to make it cheap for you I recommend buying some Skype credit and calling me that way. I probably won’t be getting a smart phone because the phone itself is expensive. I don’t know about international texting but I will find out. I think we’re going on Saturday to get our phones so hopefully I will be able to find out sooner rather than later.
Last on the agenda was learning about Ukrainian history and the mentality of the people. Ukraine has only been an independent country for 22 years and thus, the soviet era of utter shit conditions and total lack of trust of strangers still resides in people’s minds today. This will be a likely hurdle as we try to integrate ourselves into our communities but it won’t be all that bad so long as we stay motivated and interact with the locals as much as possible. Also, the country went through a depression about 1,000x worse than our so-called “great depression”. Serisouly. Our depression was like, what 30% inflation? Perhaps a bit more? People in the States would start to panic at 25% inflation non-the-less. Well, try 10,000% inflation. For real. Let that sink in. Toilet paper was unaffordable. That period was from about 92-99 and now they are doing a lot better ( don’t remember exactly what the inflation rate is but I do know that I received 1,150 in Ukrainian currency which we figured out sums up to about $150.
I also learned the reason why no one smiles at strangers like we do in the US. It has to do with that soviet mentality of zero trust of strangers. Makes sense.
I’ve been going a bit stir crazy being stuck here in our training facility. We are not allowed to leave it for the possibility of being stopped by the police and asked for our documents is a high one apparently and we don’t have our documents. They’re currently being processed in Kyiv to get our proper visas. However, we leave tomorrow to meet our host families, which is exciting and nerve racking at the same time. They most likely won’t speak English so I won’t be able to communicate with them other than introductions. Shall be interesting indeed.
-Jamie
P.s. our current facility has a Soviet era nuclear bomb shelter in the basement that we get to go on a tour of tomorrow morning. Hope they don’t lock us down there…
