I feel like I'm hitting my stride here. I should probably check the peace corps health material and see if it says that this is where I should be in terms of my mental state. A lot of volunteers always tell me that the Peace Corps mental health pattern really closely follows there own; so I suppose it may be worth checking out to see if it's a product of my evolution here naturally or if I like most follow the grain. I wouldn't be surprised if it really is just following the grain.
Teaching seems more manageable, freer and not so much like work. The kids, especially the younger kids, are having ridiculous amounts of fun in the classroom. I'm so excited to be able to play games with them. The best part is that I get to reinforce what they're already learning in class. As we move along in the year, they will progress to more difficult units, BUT for now I'm working with them on remembering basic vocabulary, letter identification, number identification and pronunciation. Mostly with the younger kids. My middle ages are working on team games. Giving each other directions or whatever I know their weak points are from last year. The older kids have really varied English skills. But I'm having a good time, getting them to speak and experimenting with different class formats that I haven't been able to experiment with up until this point.
Socially, life is going really well. I, of course, spend most of my time with other volunteers and I have to say that my network while it grows remains pretty tight knit and helps me keep my sanity. One of my new friends, Blythe, arrived in Lviv in June and I've really enjoyed Blythe coming to site. I have someone to cook with during the week and just kind of debrief. She is a big source of calm in my life right now and she's really adventurous and excited to learn about new things so she makes a great companion at site. Beyond that, I'm REALLY looking forward to traveling to Poland at the end of October with Linnea and meeting up with Ama from Lac du Bois. I think it'll be great to relax and explore with them and enjoy some time outside of Ukraine. The newest group of trainees has arrived, so have my two advisees who I'm really looking forward to meeting. November and December bring more work and the holiday season which I'm looking forward to celebrating with everyone here. AND THEN, of course, heading to Egypt with people! SO wonderful
Extra-Curricular work stuff, I'm working on my grant still and am hopefully going to be finishing up by the end of the month and have it submitted in october so stay tuned for information on how to help fund my schools' project ! Beyond that, I'm the new facilitator for The Collaborative in our oblast, which is a group that tries to share information among PCVs about all sorts of things. I'm really excited to be involved in the planning and I'm hoping to get more involved of course. I have some ideas I think would be helpful. We'll see! I'm still acting as the safety warden for my region, which really isn't too much work, just knowing where people are. And I should have another training soon! I will be headed to my training site (hopefully) in early November to be an adopt-a-cluster person. Which means I will be visiting a training group and acting as a kind of visitor to let them know what service is like and to give them someone to listen to if they ever want to contact anyone should problems arise. I'm working on a safety manual with another peace corps volunteer for women and I'm hoping that will be finished up by December! AND I'm going to help another volunteer work at his field day event for kids with special needs!
Other stuff wise, I'm still reading a lot and have been doing tons of crocheting. AND Blythe and I have had the opportunity to can and preserve stuff from teh bazaar and make lots of tasty dinners. I'm loving the fall produce and atmosphere at the bazaar which brings a sense of fun to my life. I've been hooked up with two girls studying at university who want to meet up with me and take walks and speak English. One is the daughter of a teacher here at school and the other is a friend of a friend of a friend. I'm excited to have the opportunity to spend time with Ukrainians. And it'll be great to have something to do some evenings. Although in all honesty my schedule is a touch crazy and I could use the downtime in some ways.
I've started the grad school search in earnest and have some top schools and a premium contender as well. Now it's a matter of putting together a schedule for some other stuff.
My new goals for the new schedule include getting ready for the GRE, improving my language, more/continued healthy lifestyle goals, new responsibilities for collaborative and just trying to challenge myself while still remaining sane.
I suppose this was a kind of information dump. BUT currently, I would say I'm in the best place emotionally, physically, socially, professionally etc. that I've been in Ukraine and I just like to think about why. I'm celebrating my one year anniversary in Ukraine in a mere 7 days. And with just 14 months remaining in my service it's hard to believe everything going on in life right now. I feel really lucky and really peaceful.
missyouloveyou
this is my winter song
12 years ago
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