So much to say

The last week was crazy

Tuesday my birthday came off beautifully
Chocolate cake with sour creme milk chocolate iceing, banana bread with and without chocolate, the cookies, and ice cream. The teachers brought pizza, salad and alcohol.

Wednesday evening I saw an Edward Curtis exibit in L'viv, the ambassador spoke and I got invited to the reception because I'm a pc volunteer. Stopped to buy dress shoes on the way, good old second hand stores, already broken in.

Thursday I gave a seminar on some communicative TEFL methods to a group of teachers from the surrounding villages. I think I did a good job. Later in the day there was an open lesson for one of our teachers, which means anyone can come watch. It was mostly a performance, because there was no new information introduced, but the teacher did not know in advance that she would be evaluated on the presentation of new material. I thought it was really unfair to not share the basic points of evaluation with the teachers. Hopefully I can somehow set up a meeting to discuss this small point and some others with the 'director' of our group of English teachers. Authority is hard to buck here, or even question, but I figure I'm in less danger of loosing my job if I do happen to make an enemy while questioning the way things are done. If I do it right (in a way that keeps authorities in power and makes it look like changes came from them), there should be no problems.

Friday down to L'viv again for a meeting with other volunteers and my regional director. He asked that we password protect all of our blogs so that we can be sure who is reading them. I always try to write things that I could give to my director or co-teachers without shame, but I do see how explaining my experiences from an american perspective could be offensive, especially when it comes off as "the american way is better", which it's not. It's just different, but the frustrations of different come off as 'better', because harder and easier are easily confused with worse and better. It's not a judgment like that, it's just my personal experience of learning new systems, or fighting old problems, most of which exist in the US and every other country in the world. So, one more week to officially give you warning, because I think it's not hard to get an invite, but you need to contact me. If you are smart enough to find this blog, you are smart enough to figure out a way to contact me. One week warning...

After the meeting, we made chicken volunteers together, really delicious. Then overnight train to Kyiv for environmental working group meeting. We provide resources and support for any environmental project that any pc volunteer might want to do in Ukraine. I did some database updates, and will be helping with the website later this evening. The free internet at the pc office explains the length of this post.

Last night visited my host family in Kivshovata, really nice to see them, they fed me way to much, and I had to prove that I havn't lost weight by weighing myself on the scale. Really glad they care about me so much, also hooked me up with some hard to find food items. Maybe I'll post again later tonight, unlimited internet, a super luxury.