Ketchup

Yet again I find myself having fallen down on  the blogging job.  I have been meaning to sit down and give an update for about a month now.  Unfortunately, blogging has gotten the shaft on my to-do list, and has been one-upped by things such as drinking hot chocolate, staying warm, and watching bootleg copies of American movies.  Now that I am finally here, I will do my best to catch you up on what has been going on.

First, I now have a more set schedule at work.  It only took 3 months, but it has finally happened. For the past 3 months, I have been observing and co-teaching a plethora of different English classes.  Not only do I have more English classes, but I am also observing and co-teaching some healthy lifestyles classes.  This is a bit of a challenge for me, because I have to do it in Russian.  It takes A LOT of planning and a lot of time with my dear friend, Google translate, but the first one seemed to go smoothly enough.  I also am meeting twice a week with the director's assistant, who I will be working on projects with.  On top of these things, I have also started spending 2 afternoon's a week at the children's center, which is basically a place where kids go after-school and participate in plays, arts and crafts, and clubs.  I have always been someone who enjoys being busy, so my new and more hectic schedule suits me just fine.

Jessica, my wonderful site-mate, has moved back to America.  She finished her service and got to head home a couple of weeks ago.  It is definitely a little more lonely around here without her, but I am so proud of her for completing her service. I will definitely miss our weekly dinner dates, though. 

I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with the other volunteers in my oblast.  I have to say, we did America proud. Although we didn't have turkey, I think the delicious chickens we had were a good substitute.  It helped that we had plenty of fixins' to go with them, including mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and homemade stuffing.  We even had homemade apple and pumpkin pies!  Of course it wasn't the same as celebrating in the good ol' U S of A, but the spirit of Thanksgiving was definitely among us.  It was also Jessica's birthday and her last weekend in Ukraine, so it was a pretty packed weekend.  

And here are a few things that don't require much description:

My camera broke.  I have no idea how, but it decided to stop working.  I think it didn't like Ukraine.  Or maybe I was just using it to much.  Either way, I am camera-less and in desperate need of another.  

It now gets dark at 4 p.m., which is just awful.  On the other hand, it does make me feel better about putting on my pjammas as soon as I walk through the door everyday.  

I got sick. I had a stomach virus that felt similar to what I imagine an exorcism to be like.  I developed it the day that I was set to leave for a 17 hour train ride to Kiev, which I still decided to take.  Don't worry though. A tall boy that I am quite fond of took care of me once I arrived :)

And that is about all you have missed, dear readers.  It is my goal to not wait so long before my next post.  We will see how that goes.

I will leave you with some of the last pictures that Connie the Cannon camera took before her demise.  They are of one of my favorite classes, 6V, making hand turkeys during my lesson on Thanksgiving.  

  Happy Holidays, my friends.