Burn up/ burn down, break in/ break out/ break even, etc.

I've finally gotten around to working on MY lesson plans for my first Ukraine trip. I've basically finished writing everyone else's, and yesterday, I started working on mine. Since I'll be teaching an advanced class, my lessons will include more intensive vocabulary, slang, and idioms. I taught some idioms last year, and they loved it! Students who have studied English for a while really love to practice speaking with native English-speakers, and they especially love to learn the less-formal ways of speaking English.

Part of my advanced class last year

Idiom: an expression in the usage of a language that has a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meaning of its elements.

I've been generating all kinds of idioms that we use and have been very proud of myself. The only thing is...I realized that I have to explain what all of them mean. It sounds easy, right? Not so much. Although they speak English fairly well, they are still from a completely different culture and a language that may or may not have complimentary syntactical elements. Try explaining the difference in these, using fairly basic English words and NOT using another idiom in the definition:

1. Burn up
2. Burn down
3. Break in
4. Break out
5. Break even
6. Catch a cold
7. Catch on
8. Catch on fire

I'm taking suggested definitions from anyone who is feeling word-smithy...

Don't drink the water...

It's a pretty well-established fact that Americans should not drink tap water from most overseas taps: Mexico. Everywhere in Africa. China. Tap water isn't generally purified and taken care of the same way it is in the States. For the most part, I hold to that rule and am discriminatory in my choice of drinking/ teeth-brushing water, etc. when traveling.

However...

Last summer, while in Ukraine, Amiee and I were at camp. We hadn't packed much bottled water simply because we were planning on buying water when we got there. Not so. We were quickly immersed into a "minimal fluids" lifestyle. For anyone who knows me at all, you should be very aware of the fact that "minimal fluids" just doesn't cut it for me. I drink massive amounts of water on a daily basis. We didn't know of any access to bottled water and had been warned about tap water because of geographical proximity to Chernobyl. Instead of parasite water, the taps would carry radioactive water.

I was SO good for about two days. I drank the tiny portions of hot tea and the tinier portions of juice...but then I cracked. My hypochondiatic brain kicked in and convinced me I was dehydrating. I couldn't take it any more. Amiee tried desperately to keep me from caving, but it was no use. I drank the water. Lots of it.

I now glow in the dark.

I will always and forever be writing lesson plans...

All last semester- come rain, come shine, come life-disrupting tornado- I spent my time writing lesson plans. Summer was supposed to bring a hiatus in lesson planning until around October. False.

For my summer trip to Ukraine, I'm leading the part of our group that will be teaching English at a Ukrainian English camp. It's a camp for college students/ young adults who want to work on their English skills. Amiee and I worked at this camp last year, and it was so great. This year, more of our group is going with us. They are great people: full of energy and excitement...the only catch is that none of them have taught ESL before. So, I've been crash-course training them HOW to teach, and of course, I've also been writing all the lesson plans. Good thing I've had so much practice.

I've been putting that degree of mine to good use: writing lesson plans, creating ways to integrate kinesthetic activity into those lessons, etc. We've also been making all of the flashcards, games, and whatnot to use in class. It's not really my thing, but everybody else is great at it.

Amiee, Rachel, Ryan, and Katie

Katie, Amiee, and Me

Katie and Amiee and the tic-tac-toe boards
that happen to be the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

I've written five days' worth of lesson plans for two different ability levels. However, I have not planned out one single thing for the class that I'm supposed to be teaching. Yikes!

Ukraine 1 + Ukraine 2 = all Ukraine, all the time!

Rule #1 of overseas living: things never pan out exactly as you plan.

For me, this means a complete change of overseas living destinations! So, to play catch up for anyone who may not know, I am now in the process of preparing to move to Ukraine. The story is quite long and twisty, so if you would care to catch up on the complete version, email me at erinbrassart@yahoo.com, and I'll write you a novela.

So, this is me...documenting the process. This process actually starts with a week-long trip to Ukraine in July...Ukraine 1. Then comes the massive task of packing and eight weeks of formal training before leaving in October...Ukraine 2.

That's the really really REALLY short version. More to come...