Winter

As many of you have heard, Ukraine has been hit pretty hard this past week with snow and painfully low temperatures.  My school is not very well heated, and so when it dropped to -25C (-13F) on Wednesday, our administrators closed school and we haven’t been back yet.  My apartment isn’t very well heated either, but thanks to the handy Peace Corps issued space heater, I’m doing ok.  We’ve had our fair share of snow here, and when you add the strong winds, it makes it pretty uncomfortable to be outside.

Frozen pond in Rovenky

Walking to a friend's house

Here are some links to recent articles about the weather here:

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/europe-tries-to-shield-1329231.html

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/02/extreme_cold_weather_hits_euro.html

Since my last post, I’ve been busy!  I was fortunate enough to attend the christening of the son of a friend of mine here.  It was interesting to see a christening in the orthodox eastern European church.  And naturally, we had a celebration afterwards with the parents and a few close family friends.

Godparents holding Yaroslav, the new baby

Priest christening the baby

Priest blessing the baby at the end of the ceremony

Celebration after the ceremony

Oksana (my teacher friend), her husband, and their newly christened son

As I was getting ready to walk home, they insisted on a few more pictures with the amerikanka (Russian for American girl)

I left the next day to spend a week in Chernigov, a city a few hours east of Kiev, for a week of Peace Corps run language classes again.  Every six months, Peace Corps invites volunteers to come back together and brush up on our Russian skills.  Most of my Russian efforts come from listening to what people say and trying to understand (and then trying to repeat it), so it was great to have formal classes again.  I was able to straighten out some of my nagging grammar issues, of which there are many.  It was also nice to spend time with other volunteers.  I forget how good  it feels to be with other volunteers, until I start speaking English and everyone understands!  I can make a cultural reference or use slang, and no one turns to his or her neighbor to ask how to translate what I said!  In short, it was a really refreshing week.

I returned to Rovenky for two days of classes, and then school closed because of the weather.  I sort of wish the weather could have come after I’d been working for awhile and needed a break.  Instead, I came back to Rovenky fired up and ready to go, only to be sent back home for five days of hibernation.  However, if winter has taught me anything, it has taught me that everything will eventually end and the sun will always come back out again.  And so in the meantime, I’m reading a lot and daydreaming about when my parents will come visit at the end of April!

Finally, here’s an article I’ve been meaning to share for a while.  It’s about an American family who relocated to Russia and their experience adapting to Russian culture, life, schools etc.  A lot of the issues and struggles they went through really resonated with me.  Enjoy! http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/my-familys-experiment-in-extreme-schooling.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share