Mmmm

Fresh milk with

Oatmeal, chocolate chip, peanut butter cookies

 

I am finally learning English grammar

Nothing like teaching to learn things

And grammar is difficult

Even for me, a native speaker

 

Dental floss search failed

Maybe L'viv will have it?

It's really time to get new running shoes

The tread if falling off and the snow comes in the holes of my wave rider 8's which are approaching 1000 miles.

 

Also searching for some other things

It feels like I should have free time, but I never get around to leisure activities such as reading or playing violin.  Always cooking or cleaning to do, or of course I could eat.  

Running is made less fun by achilles tendonitis, left side.  Need to find some strengthening exercises.  Don't feel like trying to wade though the PC to set up PT, or having to go up to Sokal to do the PT.  If anyone can send me some websites with clear explanations/diagrams, my internet time to search for such is limited.

 

That's all for today, actually going to study Ukrainian.

Starting to get settled

Learning the best places to get food

Fresh milk every morning

Who has an excess of what in their cellar

Taped the windows so the wind no longer blows through my apartment

Learning how to seat my students so that their attention is on me rather than the pretty girl or their best friend.

The tricky balance between fear and friendship, stick and carrot, grades and learning desire.

My mom shipped peanut butter, and I made my favorite cookies last night which were a great comforted at the same time as making me miss everyone in the states.

Trying to start an English club, any great ideas for an overall theme or first topic?

Got to go, a bit of lesson planning before my bi-weekly indoor soccer with highschoolers.

Week one complete.

Some scheduling juggling, a few pretty bad lessons, but overall good, and think I will be able to succeed at this teaching thing.   Moving into my apartment has been slowed by constant cooking, cleaning and lesson planning.  I'm not that busy, but I waste alot of time watching soccer and eating.   Cooking has been really enjoyable, and often I choose to make time consuming dishes, just because I can.  I buy some really weird food only to realize that it does not taste good at all, but the exploration is fun.  

            The younger kids are really fun to teach, because they love me.  They suck up language like a sponge.  The older kids are a bid jaded and take a bit more coaxing, but if I come prepared with a good plan and some patience, they normally get it.   I have almost doubled my teaching experience in one week.  I might attempt to make bread this evening, if there is no soccer on tv.   I live so close to Poland that I get polish soccer channels without cable.  I also have cable, but cannot decide if I want to keep paying for it.  

            I have a really nice fold out couch, if anyone wants to visit for any amount of time.  It's possible to live here on about 20 dollars a week.   The temperature has been much warmer than I expected.  This morning it was raining rather than snowing.  The wind whistles around my apartment, way up on the 5 ^th floor.  The sun comes up a bit earlier every day, but still really rushed to fit a run in on mornings that I teach or observe first period.  

            And that's about all I can think of this moment.  I will be able to keep my jersey number 16 on my new soccer team.  I have gone from worried if I would get to play to worried about if I will get really frustrated because some of the players have way more confidence than skill.  Hungry, got to go buy more food.  Now what to do all weekend?  Maybe I'll unpack my clothes, or embark on an epic multi-town search for dental floss.  I love free time.

Jan. 23, finally

Week one if classes is under way.  The students are well behaved for the most part, better behaved in the morning of course.  My schedule may be undergoing more changes, for political reasons which my principle asked me not to share.  But everything is good now.  The African nation's soccer cup has prevented me from unpacking my clothes, though I have gotten pretty well moved into my kitchen.   It's amazing how expensive luxury foods are here, and by this I mean anything that is prepared in any way.  Breakfast cereal, cooked/cured meat, fruit, vegetables, anything that is ready to eat costs the same as it does in the US (where as everything else costs 5 times less), which is not bad, except that the salaries here are 10 or more times smaller than the US, which does not help out families where food is a large budget item.   So I can buy a whole lot of grain, potatoes and beans but a week worth of yogurt and fruit wipes out my budget.

Three days of the week it's too dark before class to fit in a run.   So for a month or so I might cut down to 4 runs per week.  3-4 soccer scrimmages/week should be enough to digest 20kg of potatoes.  My finger is still too swollen to play violin, and I haven't found speakers for my ipod, which makes it hard to get my music fix.   The windows are old enough in my apartment to let in quite a draft, accentuated by wind flowing over the pipe where my stove vents creating a negative pressure in the apartment.   So wind flows in through the window and out up over the stove.  It's probably good to get some fresh are in to air out the new furniture and curtains, but I feel bad about the undoubtedly higher gas bill.  

Ready, wait.

My first day of teaching was aborted because of a badly jammed finger which I thought might be broken.   Really frustrating because I've been waiting so long to start.  Yesterday I was out playing soccer on the really slippery muddy snow melt rain soaked field, ended up on my stomach, and as I was getting up, the ball was drilled toward my face, and reflexively putting my hand to block, caught force of the ball on my third finger, left hand.   

Today, Monday was spent traveling to and from the region center (Sokal), the closest hospital with an x-ray machine (1 hour by bus).   The hospital was not quite as clean smelling as I'm used to, and the lighting was again in economy mode.  I found the x-ray offices, and then started trying to figure out the system of how to get my finger zapped.   Other people came and went; the line did not function according to any logic that I knew.  I finally got someone on my side, by giving my seat to an older lady, and she was able to make the nurses aware of my existence.   Then the machine was a bit stuck, so I helped to slide the emitter into the correct place.  The price for an x-ray is 3grn, about 60 cents.   I gave them a 5 and didn't stick around for change.  Then I had to find a doctor to read the x-ray, and tell me if the bone was fractured or not.   This time I didn't even try to wait in line, I just went to the front, walked in the office, and it worked!  Wanted to be sure that I understood correctly, so I got the PC doctor on the phone, handed the phone to the doctor looking at my x-ray, and everything was fine.   Just ligament damage.  The standard rate for a doctor's consultation is 50grn ($10).  He wrote out for me to get ibuprofen crème (I already have) and something else which my PC doctor said was unnecessary.   No prescriptions are needed for most drugs here.  The medical system is a bit unorganized, but overall I spent less time in the hospital than I would have in the US, and spent a lot less money. 

Yesterday I moved into my new apartment.   Everything works great, all the furniture is new and off-gassing some weird smells.  Food shopping is taking multiple trips, I keep forgetting all those things that you don't have to buy regularly, like matches, baking soda and kitchen scrubbers.   The road is a bit louder than I thought, but I'll have to wait until my finger heals before I attempt to move the bed.  The current bedroom is also really pink, and has a picture of the virgin marry, Jesus and some angels hanging right over the bed.   I should really write down some recipes while I'm online, but I always forget.  That's all for now, will report after I get through the first week of teaching.      

From Winter #1

Would 220V kill me?

In an effort to get more light and heat

I tinker in my office

Replacing flourescent lightbulbs

Disassembling outlets

I attempt to complete curciuts

High resistance electric coils convecting in oil radiator

Hot glowing gass in glass tubes

Quantum leaps, electrons dance

Coal power plant in Dobrotvir

Carbon splits, heat emits

Brown mist, workers cough

Open pit mines in Chervonograd

Cold and Dark

My mouse

Lives near my office

Comes out of the air duct

runs along the wall

banks her 90 left paw turn

and dives down the crack

where the pipes with no water

come from