(Shows where my priorities are, right??)
OH & I can't stress it enough: I am in love with the fact this is a country of bread and cheese!
This morning we learned something new about our apartment, the shower is a trickster..
Really in need of a shower (ha kidding! she looked and probably smelled great), Cami turned on the hot water and found it to be unforgivingly cold! We let it run for ten minutes or so thinking that us being on the tenth floor had something to do with it taking so long to warm up but really this had no effect, the water only got colder. After an hour or so of turning the faucet on and off to see if there as any change in temperature, smarty pants Cami tried turning the cold knob and voila - mystery solved! The knobs are in the wrong spots so we just ended up being water wasters.. boo us! Turns out the water stays nice and hot and takes little to no time to warm up! At least we figured this out sooner than later because after traveling for 24 hours the day before I looked/felt pretty grimy.
Today Alina (coordinator from Central school) picked me up and showed me the ways of Ukrainian public transport. The schools supply myself and the teachers with a monthly metro and bus pass, if you are a true Ukrainian you have one of these nifty passes. The metro system is so wildly convenient! I especially love it because all three of my schools are evenly placed on the further most ends of the city (or so it seems) and each of the three metro lines (blue, red and green) get me within walking distance of each school building. Wonderful!
This afternoon I met with all of my teachers at Nyvky school where we held our first meeting which was full of various bits of information ie. Codes of conduct (all the glorious ILP rules, all simple and easy - for example NO ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS please and thank thee!), host family guidelines (luckily each teacher seems to be be enjoying their families so far! I must say I am very jealous of them!) and most importantly/tediously teacher training (the in's and out's of how a typical teaching day will go!).
I am crossing my cold little fingers that what we covered today made everyone feel a little better and more prepared. Truth is no one will really know what they are doing until the first few days of teaching which is completely fine and normal! We will get everything worked out to a T.
(did I use that expression correctly? what is that supposed to mean exactly? to-a-T... hm.)
After the long hours of training all of us made our way to the cafeteria for lunch which consisted of borscht (beet soup with various vegetables), rye(?), two meat loaf-ish slabs and a small tower of rice. I have heard through the grapevine that Ukrainian food is kind of bland but I enjoyed our lunch! It wasn't super exciting, but it was edible and recognizable - two qualities many Chinese dishes hardly had - and never at once it seemed!
Along those terms- Ukraine thus far has been sooo luxurious compared to Planet China. I am so in love with everything already! The people here aren't as outwardly friendly as in China (no one smiles) but they are very classy looking and everyone is decked out in either fur or leather. PETA would HATE this place!
Though smiles aren't shared on the streets, in more intimate settings the people are wonderful.
Yes, I think it is safe to say that I love it here.
Well it's time to try out going to bed, I curled up in my little chair earlier and fell right to sleep. I woke up to my guy calling me via FaceTime - nice wake up call if you ask me!
WELL Добраніч Ukraine and good afternoon America!
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