i'm back in kyiv after spending 4 days in pidvolochysk. located in the ternopil oblast, pidvolochysk will be my new home as of december 27. it's a town of about 10000 people, and i will be teaching 4-7 forms (grades) in the school/gymnasium (gymnasiums are for 'gifted' students). the town is cool...quaint, very 'ukrainian', and more well off than most rural towns. by 'very ukrainian' i mean it has dirt roads, random chickens roaming the streets, no streetlights, and the requisite number of sausage shops. the family i'll be living with for the first three months are nice...it's a mom, dad and grandma and they speak NO english. scary as that might sound, i'm excited. it should really help with my ukrainian...even in the past four days i learned lots by attempting to converse with grandma (mostly to say 'no...i don't want more food!! and there was butter on everything!!) the house is also super nice...three stories, hot water, heat, satellite TV (i was watching CNN the other day) and two bathrooms. no complaints there ;)
as far as my job assignment, the school is very ready and very excited. there are high expectations, mostly because they had a volunteer two years ago who did a lot. part of me dreads to walk in her shoes, but part of me is excited because it means i won't be hitting too many brick walls when i introduce 'new' ideas (because they won't be so new...) and i have lots of ideas :) mostly, i can't wait to get in there in january and get going...
tonight i'm heading back to cluster (a.k.a. training site), which i'm feeling mixed emotions about. the next five weeks will be nothing but language and practicum teaching...rather anti-climatic after ten days traversing the country by train and getting pumped up to start *living* life over here. BUT, that said, i really need to learn the language better and i think that will be my focus. besides, since my cluster is down to two (my two other cluster-mates early terminated for health and personal reasons) it's not like i'm going to be having a hoppin' social life. the only *fun* stuff i do in zgurivka is hang out with my host sister, occassionally grab a beer at the bar in the woods, and talk to nick on the phone. yeah...laugh it up. the rage rages no more. but that's ok...i'm enjoying all the parts of this experience, even the strange ones. and speaking of strange, i'll end on this note, by describing my new favorite snack. when ukrainians drink beer they like salty foods...especially salted fish. the best little fishes are the smoked ones...they look like sardines and you eat them by snapping their heads off and peeling the meat off with your teeth. SMACHNO!!