A sad realization

Today, Rachel, Hannah, and I began teaching a new class. Now, you may be thinking, "Hey Crazy- aren't you just about to wind down classes? Why did you add a new one?" Yeah...I think Hannah and Rachel were thinking the same thing. But, this is a class that I will continue into the summer when I don't have anymore classes in the schools. That's a good thing, I promise.

We met in a room maybe twice the size of a Union bedroom (not big, trust me) with 6 students. They are all still in high school, but they have excellent English. This 'school' that they attend is actually a private tutoring organization. Most of these students come from families that are a little more well-off than most; their parents send them to this school as a supplementary education. They're very conversant.

Because this was the first class, I was prepared for it to be rocky. The thing about teaching ESL/EFL is that you never know what you're going to get: they may speak fabulously, they may speak nothing, they may understand a lot but speak little, there may be a mixture of all the aforementioned levels. It's hard to plan for a class sight unseen. I take my Mary Poppins' bag of ESL tricks everywhere so that I can pull out a different plan on the fly. I've learned by experience.

Today, we played several games and worked on several activities. One of those activities was Hannah's letter game. After the students created their words, we asked them to choose four of those words and write a story in their groups. One of the groups ended up with a story about several people getting drunk on vodka. Later, we played a hypothetical scenario game. Each group had to pretend that they were stranded on an island but could choose 5 items to take with them. Some of them chose practical, MacGyver items. One of the guys, though, chose several things that- on the surface- seem like basic, 15-year-old boy silliness: alcohol and a house full of beautiful women.

It wasn't until later that the sad realization truly sank in for me. These concepts are not just idle jokes. These comments were formed out of the influence of his society. In this society, women often have little value outside of physical appearance and usefulness. Drinking alcohol to many Ukrainians is the same as drinking Coke to an American. Both of these "silly" comments stem from an education that he's been getting all his life...just by being a part of culture.

I look around and see these vices everyday, but it didn't occur to me until today just how much it may affect younger generations.

It's all Greek (Slavic) to me

Interesting facts about Ukraine:
1. There are two languages spoken here: Ukrainian and Russian.
2. The government made a ruling that all new signs that are posted must be in Ukrainian (to promote nationalism).
3. In the western half of the country, Ukrainian is primarily spoken.
4. In the eastern half of the country, Russian is primarily spoken.
5. Poltava is a special little hamlet. We're in eastern Ukraine, so there is a lot of Russian. But, we are also a little pocket of Ukrainian-speaking people, as well. This also lends itself to a special dialect that mixes the 2 languages together. This is called "soorzhik."

Ok, for your educational advancement, I'm posting some signs that I see occasionally. See if you can tell the difference between the Russian and the Ukrainian:




Answers: Russian, Ukrainian, Ukrainian

Could you tell the difference? The first is a sign from the bowling alley in Dnipropetrovsk. The second is the soccer stadium here in Poltava, and the third is an add for potato chips. By the way, the add for the chips is an add for SQUID flavored chips. Yep. True story.

Official 6-month mark

I have officially been here for 6 months. Wow!

Thanks for being a part of my adventure.

American-ish dinner

Most unfortunately, Hannah and Rachel are in the last leg of their sojourn in Ukraine. I'm quite sad about it and daily connive to change their plans. Alas, until I can win them over (or hold them captive), we've been trying to squeeze in activities that need to happen before they leave. One of these activities was "American dinner" night with some of our friends.

We've spent a lot of time at Tanya's and Ira's and with Nastiya. We decided that we wanted to cook dinner for them here at our house. There was a multi-purpose reason behind this:
1. We wanted to do something nice for them.
2. We wanted them to try some of our food.
3. We wanted to prove to them that we do, in fact, cook. Many of our Ukrainian friends wonder over how we survive, seeing as how we don't know how to make borsch. Amazing, isn't it?

We invited them over this last Monday night. The menu: chips and dip as appetizer, my mom's lasagna (a la Erin's Ukrainian tweaking), broccoli (Ukrainians aren't so into green vegetables), garlic bread, and cupcakes for dessert (compliments of Rachel's aunt, uncle, and cousin).

The whole group (minus me...you know, camera): Tanya, Hannah, Nastiya, Ira, and Rachel

The dip was regarded with skepticism but it started to disappear. The lasagna was a little too meat-heavy and saucy for Ukrainian palates. The cupcakes were inhaled. Overall, it was a hit!

Post-dinner massage.

Post-dinner exercise: Electric Slide.

Going to the chapel...er...monastery...

Yesterday was a national holiday. Since Sunday was Easter, the whole country was off on Monday (I'd compare it to how things are often closed on Good Friday before Easter). Our friend, Nastiya, suggested that we go on an excursion to the monastery. Before I came to Ukraine, I read Bradt's travel guide for Ukraine, and this monastery was on the top 10 list of places to see. Score!

Primary building at monastery compound.

Here's us doing the tourist thing. We love this picture. Just thought I'd share that.

We invited our friends Al'ona, Galya, and Dasha to go with us. Dasha is actually studying to be a kind of tour guide, so she was able to give us lots of interesting information along the way.

Rachel, Dasha, Nastiya, Galya, Hannah, Al'ona...I'm behind the camera!

We took a bus to the center of Poltava and then began our walk. Our walk quickly turned into a hike as we ventured out of downtown, into a residential area, and then up a dirt path on the side of a steep hill. I totally wore the wrong shoes...I have a blister today.

Hannah, me, and Rachel at the base of the stairs to the monastery.

At the top of the stairs. That's Dasha (black figure) about halfway down.

The monastery was really cool. We got there as they were ringing the bells on the hour. There's a priest who physically goes up into the belltower and plays a kind of melody on the bells. It's really beautiful.

Smaller building in the monastery compound.

In Orthodox churches, there are a few rules:
1. No pictures. Thus, I have no pictures of the inside. However, the inside is the most overwhelming part. Part of Orthodoxy is an emphasis on aesthetics. Everything is indescribably ornate and elaborate. Murals are everywhere; they depict scenes from the Bible, as well as scenes from the lives of Orthodox saints. There are framed pictures of certain saints lining the walls, as well. Often, the faithful will pray to their specific saints (the ones whom they are named for) and will kiss the picture. The pictures are covered in glass and are accompanied by a rag to wipe the glass after kissing it. There are also stands for you to put candles in as you pray for loved ones, dead and alive.

2. Women must wear skirts and head scarves. If you didn't come prepared, no problem. There are stacks of wrap skirts and scarves in the foyer. The girls told us that we looked like gypsy girls in our borrowed clothes. I REALLY wish I had pictures of that!

Here are Al'ona, Dasha, Nastiya, and Galya. Dasha and Nastiya came prepared with headwear.

We had a great day out and about in Poltava. Wish you could have seen it for yourselves!

Hannah, me, Al'ona, Rachel, and Galya.

Happy Easter! (Again)

Xристос воскрес! (Kristos vaskress)
Воистину воскрес! (Vye eestonu vaskress)

Jesus is risen!
He is risen indeed!

Today is Orthodox Easter. We had a really neat experience, celebrating Easter in Ukraine. It was so sweet and neat. I'm including a video of part of one of the songs we sang this morning. I didn't think of videoing until halfway through, and then I didn't hold terribly still. Sorry about that.

Here's a list of Easter differences for you:

1. No Easter bunny. They think it's fairly ridiculous. I agree with them. The Brassart clan does Easter sheep.

2. No Easter candy. There are Easter cakes instead. These Easter cakes are called "paska," and they are EVERYWHERE. Hannah, Rachel, and I were adventurous the other day and bought some. They look like cupcakes, but they taste more like Wednesday-night-fellowship-church-rolls. With rock hard icing and sprinkles on top. The day after we bought some, our friend, Oksana, made us one (sans raisins, thankfully). She also decorated some eggs for us.

Oksana's cake and eggs

3. They decorate eggs much like we do, but they seem to go less for dye and more for fancy wrappers. I'm a huge fan of the wrappers!

4. There are Easter baskets here, but they are very different from ours. Easter here is very much like at home: many people only darken the door of the church on Easter. The Orthodox churches that stand empty for the majority of the year are full of people on Easter. Families load up baskets with the food and vodka they will eat and drink on Easter. Then, they take the food to the church and have the priests bless it.

I hope that your day was blessed, whether or not you celebrated Easter today. Hope you enjoy the really shaky, blurry video!

Turning native

This week has had a lot of activity, but this post is going to be all about our morning of Ukrainian cooking. Our friend, Maya, invited us over on Wednesday morning to make блины (my spelling might be a smidge off). You pronounce it "blen-nee", and the basic idea is that of a crepe. Ukrainians eat all kinds of things inside of блины: meat, a cream cheese mixture, fruit...you name it. Our task: cream cheese блины with chocolate sauce to drizzle over the top. Here goes!

Ingredients for блины :
*Please note that Maya does not measure.
1 Maya
1.5(ish) cups flour
1 egg
.5(ish) t. salt
1 tbsp(ish) sugar
1(ish) cup boiling water
3/4-1(ish) cup milk
2-3(ish) tbsp oil
skillet (Maya's is cast-ironish)
3 ready-to-learn Americans

Salt

Sugar. Let me correct the previously-stated measurement: HEAPING tbsp.

Boiling water. Ukrainians tend to use a hot pot/ electronic kettle. I have to say that I'm pretty in love with mine. I'll miss it.

Milk. That's right: it comes in bags.

Trying the mixture.

Ok, heat the oil in the pan for just a bit until it's a little bubbly. Then, pour it into the batter.

This is where you test your skill! Once the skillet is hot, you need to hold it so that you can maneuver the pan around in circles. Drizzle approx. 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and begin rotating the pan in circles so that the batter covers the bottom. It needs to be pretty thin.

This is me circling the pan. Rachel took an action shot. Thanks, Rach!

Waiting on one to cook.

This part is just like cooking pancakes: flip it with a spatula when the first side is cooked. It should look something like this.

Hannah bravely went first. Her flip didn't go quite as planned. This was the result. It tasted good, though.

Ingredients for cream cheese filling:
a Ukrainian block of cream cheese (I'm guessing about 8 oz(ish)
about 1/4 cup of сметана (sour cream...Ukrainian staple)
vanilla (Maya used a packet of vanilla sugar. I'm not 100% sure how that translates into extract. Any suggestions?)
Mix well.

Cream cheese and sour cream.

Vanilla.

This is our finished product! To finish up: put a dollop of the cream cheese mixture on the edge of one of the crepes. Then, if you've ever been to Moe's, roll it like a burrito! Fold the edge over the dollop. Then, fold the sides in. After that, just roll it all the way to the other edge. Presto.

Ingredients for chocolate sauce:
sauce pan
2-3(ish) tbsp of cocoa
2(ish) tbsp of sugar
*Rachel and I added a few pinches of salt when no one was looking.
2-3(ish) tbsp of sour cream
Mix well and heat over stove until melted.

Yep...sour cream comes in a bag, too.

If you've made it this far in the post, I'm congratulating you! If you become brave enough to try making it, PLEASE let me know how it goes for you!