Yet another weekend has passed by entirely too quickly here in Ukraine. It's Sunday, and although I am pretty swamped with never ending to-do list, I have found myself to be really happy today.
So, let me give you a quick re-cap of the events of the past week. Last weekend, my fellow group member, Becky, and I were responsible for baking some cookies for a bake sale that the school was having on Monday. The bake sale was my groups idea. It was a part of our community project and the proceeds from it and other events we will be having will go towards purchasing a laptop for our local school.
Anyways, Becky and I both have some experience in the kitchen (although I can't say I have too much ). We thought making American cookies in an Ukrainian kitchen would be a piece of cake (or a piece of cookie). Boy oh boy were we wrong. First, the power in my house went off. We proceeded to pack up the batter and ingredients in order to re-locate to Becky's. Then the power came back on. We took that as a good sign! With my curious host mom peeking over our shoulders and telling us we were doing it wrong, we went ahead and put the first batch in. Thinks just went downhill from there. Here is a picture of our first batch.
Pretty awful huh? We were discouraged, but decided to keep trying. After another 2 batches, we were out of ingredients and had no choice but to plan a re-do the next day. We woke up early the next morning and went grocery shopping. We got home and surprise, surprise, the power was out at my home yet again! This time it did not come back on. So, we relocated to Becky's and tried again. It was basically as disappointing as the first try. The story has a happy ending though! After some brainstorming, my group decided to use whip cream to make them more appetizing! It was a genius idea, if I do say so myself. The students loved them!
With the help of the students, we raised 600 hryvnia!
My language classes are now 3 hours instead of 4. However, I now have 2 hours (instead of just 1) of individual tutoring a week. Frankly, I'm really happy that I'm getting more one-on-one time with my language teacher. I have to admit that learning the language has been one of the most stressful aspects for me. I definitely feel like I get better each day, but I also feel like it just doesn't come naturally too me. Thankfully I have an amazing language teacher and host family who are very patient with me. I think they also just enjoy laughing at me and the charades I use to get my point across. Whatever works! We are not teaching for the remainder of our training, but we will start working this week with some of the students who will be helping us with our summer camp!
On Wednesday and Thursday, we went to PST University in Chernihiv. A majority of it was spent in a conference room with the other youth development volunteers. However, Wednesday night we all decided to have a little fun so we went to a pub called Chicago. It was definitely one for the books :)
Me and Becky
Best awkward smiles in town
PC pals
I also got to room with my pal Lydia who lives further away that I'd like for her too!
On Saturday, I did a little sightseeing with my group and link group in Chernihiv (Unfortunately I don't have the pictures loaded yet, so those will have to come later!). Our technical coordinator, along with one of the language teachers, took us to a church in the city where we got to go up in the bell tower and look out over the city. We also went to an old monastery in the city. The coolest part is that their are a series of caves under the monastery that date back to 1096! We weren't suppose to take any pictures, but I've always been a little bit of a rebel :) Pictures coming soon!
I hope everyone reading this is having as good of a day as I am! Pictures and an another update soon.
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