I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in Chicago. But I am too worn out to fill in the blanks, so expect it in the future. Enjoy what is here. I'll get more down later.

16 December

So while that name day is over it is high time for the next holiday this month, on the 18th-19th. Basically the Ukrainian St. Nicholas Day for those of you who celebrate it in the states. Otherwise commonly known as Santa Claus in many circles. The basic idea surrounding it is as I understand is you write a letter to St. Michael of what presents you want and it is a gift giving day. Christmas day itself in this country is Jan. 7 (which happens to be the day I get back in country) and is mostly a religious holiday and a day when people visit one another, other holidays surrounding it include the gift-giving aspect found in American Christmas. Like I said, Ukrainians just like to party!

This past Thursday I went with students from the eighth form to watch a play and look at a display of wax people. My Ukrainian language tutor invited me. While the wax museum was mildly interesting, it was the play I found more interesting, although I won’t dare say I understood all of it. From what I understood, it was a group from the Ivano Frankisk Oblast where the play was also set. Much of the language was also an older dialect familiar to the area, which probably contributed to the fact I wasn’t following it all, plus the fact a professional photographer with a really nice camera was there taking pictures, I was jealous.

The play centered around what I assumed was a small village and followed them as they celebrated several different celebrations, including Christmas, Easter and a marriage. The parts Although I didn’t always understand all of the language, it was well acted and I could follow along pretty well from just the actions. It was a really enjoyable night and I will put some photos I took on my Flickr site. I was seated in the front row plus (explanation: there was a front row of regular seats and then a row of chairs in front of that. I was seated in that row of chairs with other students, which meant I got a REAL good view of what was going on. But by the end of the night my head had about enough of Ukrainian and was ready for bed. Made for a long day.

But this past Friday found me in the old town of Zhovka where fellow PCV Shelley Swendiman works and was helping host an English Week capped with an English day. Four English speaking countries and Ukraine were presented during an “summit” for these different countries to explain a little about their cultures. Five of us volunteers made the trip to help her out and basically be the American guests for the summit. It’s always fun to see how Ukrainians view other cultures from their studies and is enlightening to me as well since I am sure we have some of the same stereotypes about other cultures that we try to study, but don’t always have a full idea of what is going on. One example was the American group dressed up in “cowboy” outfits that wouldn’t be very practical if they were actually out on the range. But it is how they view American culture, for better or worse, and put a lot of work into their presentation. Overall it was an interesting night and I learned more about other countries I hadn’t know very well before and other things I did. For instance Canada has a large automobile industry, I guess. But the kids seemed to have a good time at it and enjoyed having the Americans there. The highlight of the night was the Canada group’s choice of song. Each group had to perform a song from their country. Canada chose, wait for it, Celine Dione “My Heart Will Go On” and chose a guy to be the lead singer. Yes, a guy dressed up in a wig, short skirt and balloon boobs. It was extremely disturbing and hysterical at the same time. Oh, the performance was entirely performed by candlelight as well. Let’s just say it left all of us in shock, and awe of the guy who had guts to do that. He knew the words too. Team America’s representation of Britney Spears had nothing on him.

One of the places I have had the hardest time really adjusting is the lack of people my own age to hang out with in my own town. That is slowly adjusting as I’m meeting more people my own age and had the luck of meeting one guy early on in my service here playing basketball, but didn’t see for a while. A few weeks ago, maybe a month ago I ran into him again and he expressed an interest in playing again, we had stopped playing over the summer. I said I would try to find a place to play, but wasn’t having much luck so I guess he took matters into his own hands and called me saying he had arranged for the local professional school’s gym so we played last week and this week. It has also allowed me to meet about a half dozen other guys who are about my own age at least in that environment, haven’t really interacted much with them outside the gymnasium, but maybe that will happen later. Any way I look at it, it is an improvement and even fits into my role as a youth developer as far as I can tell. Just part of my 24 hour work day.