The soccer season is going to start! I turned in my mug shot and a copy of my passport. All set to play with my Великі Мости soccer team. Now I just need to find some new cleats, which will break my budget for March the same way the running shoes ate up my February allowance, and a light green jersey. First scrimmage on Sunday, and then the real season starts the following Sunday, the 16th. Other than that, everything seems to be up in the air, and by everything, I mean my living situation.
My landlady had a miscommunication about how much rent I am supposed to pay. The visit with my PC director tomorrow should clear everything up, I hope. With current Ukrainian inflation, about 16%, the PC budget cannot keep up with expenditures, so I may be moving back in with a family, a pensioner, or… Who knows? Ukraine is now the most expensive country for the PC to operate in, mainly because of the cities. In the smaller towns and villages, the standard formula that the Washington DC side of PC decides on works fine. But since the office and many organizational activities must occur in the cities, there is no way to avoid the expensive side of the wealth division. In Kyiv, food is now more expensive than in NYC!
Teaching is going well, a constant challenge to find interesting material, and organize lessons so that they hold the students' attention constantly. Tomorrow in my most challenging class both my PC director and my school director will be observing. Just bad luck that they picked the hardest class. Part of the reason is that I have two kids in that class who are absolutely incapable of sitting still. In the US they would be medicated for attention deficit disorder. In my other classes, I at most have one of those kids. While I haven't decided whether or not I support medicating kids who are more kidlike than most, it would be nice if I had a little more training on how to engage someone who's natural tendency is to engage in many things simultaneously.
Well now to go learn about the EU. I decided to sit in on the Euro club meetings because it is great Ukrainian practice, and I might actually learn something. Sort of miss the academic environment. Then to make some corn tortillas to complement the amazing beans I cooked last night.
