Stardate: Wednesday, Sept 5, 2007

Kate and Patrick Reynolds’ Ukraine Journal
August 2007 to May 2008

Wednesday, September 05, 2007
First Day of Class
I started teaching today. I have two classes of “oral practice.” The students are very friendly,
interested, attentive, and cooperative. They take their studies very seriously and really want to be at the U, so my freshman are very receptive. I hope that I was stern enough with them that they take me seriously. Unfortunately, when I’m teaching an oral communication skills class, I just enjoy myself and the happiness just comes out. My lesson went well. They seemed engaged and several of them, well, almost all of them, were really contributing well. A couple of more assertive boys told me after class that it was a “good lesson.” There are some odd and interesting things to note about teaching there. First, you need the key to unlock the classroom door for class. The keys hang in the teacher’s lounge and are returned there after you lock the door behind you after you finish class. So, you have to wait for all the students to leave the classroom before you can take off! Second, the chalk boards are oddly transparent on the surface (you can see a couple of centimeters into them and see imperfections under the surface). Third, the students all stand when they are called upon. Fourth, there is no book for oral practice class and they just want you to ask them questions about topics. There are just no materials either. I mean, they claim to have some, but the ones they have are limited, disconnected, and incongruent. I could see using them as an activity, but I want more cohesive units and lessons than a bunch of disjointed and disconnected activities. Perhaps that is not necessary, but their approach seems a bit odd. I’m not sure what I mean by odd. I just don’t want to put too negative a judgment on it at this point. Perhaps I’m misunderstanding something…I could be. Fifth, the schedule still isn’t completed for courses. Although there is a central scheduling office, the Translation Department (English, German and Spanish) does one of their own. Not sure why. So I went into work today at 8am thinking that I would have an hour and a half long class starting a 8:30am and possibly one starting at 2:30pm. Instead, I had Group A at 8:30-10am, Group B at 12:35-2:10pm and then Group B again at 2:35-4:10pm. So, basically, I prepared for the first week’s class and had to teach Group A and B the first week’s class and Group B the second week’s! I wanted to stay on the topic “Students’ Lives,” but I wanted the 2nd Group B’s class to be meaningful, communicative, prepared/organized, etc. I didn’t want to just talk at them for another 1.5 hours! I was really tense about this. Finally, I decided that I would just tell Group B that we wouldn’t meet for the second session today. I’ll make it up to them at some point…I hope I did the right thing. It was just too unexpected.

On a positive note, my colleagues in the English Department are helpful and kind. They all want to talk with me. Sergey (with glasses) brought me two books to study Russian. The British accented Sergey and I chatted about my idea to work with the kids on the role of social responsibility on the part of citizens in a democratic society (e.g., Social Responsibility movement, Greenpeace, Habitat for Humanity, Service Learning, Philanthropy, etc). He says he thinks it’s a good idea. I’m still mulling it around though, so we’ll see. It may be more work than I want to put in.

Thursday, September 06, 2007
Things Small
• People toss 1 kopeck pieces on the ground all the time. They’re treated like we treat our penny. The only difference is that 1 kopeck is 1 hundredth of 20 cents-- .02, I think.
• The construction workers building the apartment building across Chubar Street are mixing their own mortar by hand and lay the heavy cement blocks by hand.
• There are lots of chestnut trees and they are beginning to drop their nuts. Maddy loves to pick them up.
• They typically use these brooms that look like they are straight out of Harry Potter. They are
super old school looking things.
• Frequently, they turn off the water supply without warning. Water gets shut off randomly with
no notice. This has happened for 3 full days out of 13 days here. Patrick fucking hates
this, but Kate just thinks it is par for the course. Maddy doesn’t notice.
• Beer costs only H5.00 for a liter (Or in this grocery store ad-H4,19=90 cents for a liter).
Pat is thrilled about this. You can walk around the streets drinking a beer.
• Men spit all the time on the street. They don’t hock a loogie, but all the spit on the
sidewalks repulses. You see spittal all the time on the sidewalks.
• Girls show lots o’ skin.
• We can’t get a café mocha to save Kate’s life. Every time we try to get one at the café
across the street, we get some mixed drink at 10:30am! Breathe a sigh of relief, those of you who hate the universal corporate take over of Starbucks (my personal mothership), the giant hasn't invaded here yet.
• We take a cab from the grocery, because there are just too many items to carry up the
huge hill and back to the flat. So, random guys will drive you for H10.00 ($2.00) in their old
beater cars.
• They have all Turkish delight (lokum) at the grocery store in the deli section.
• People just “pop away” from their jobs for a second without any rhyme or reason. They are
just gone and you either wait or leave. Tough luck!
• We don’t know where to pick up our mail.

Montessori for Maddy
On a walk near the flat, I saw an ad for a Montessori school that takes kids from 2-6 years old. At first I thought it might be too expensive, but since we’ve been having trouble with finding a nanny for Maddy, I thought to call the school to find out the cost, the location, availability, etc. Within 2 days, we had a space for Maddy at the school on T, R, and Saturday mornings from 10:30-12:30 for a cost of H580.00 per month ($115.00)! We met the Director of the school, Oksana, yesterday at 4:30pm. Maddy played for a few minutes in the classroom and didn’t want to leave! So, Maddy starts her first day today!

Well, we dropped her off at school and were much embarrassed by her behavior. She cried incessantly and would not participate with the other children. Finally, I just left. Later when we picked her up, she said she had fun. We were really relieved. The director said she did well particularly with English and Russian lessons. I think she will get better.