Last Week of Training

Stray kitten and mom that I have fallen in love with.

June 6: "I am a study machine!" I was a flash card making maniac last weekend and then spent the nights leading up to my LPI studying the crap out them. The cards consisted of mostly phrases and I barely used any of them during the actual interview. Grr..


June 8:  "I have my language proficiency interview tomorrow.  Let’s just say that I am not too stoked despite my LCF (Language and Cultural Facilitator) telling me that my Russian is some of the best she has heard from most trainees (which I am not quite sure I totally believe her). I am stressing myself out over this interview and I am not quite sure why. I know that no matter how I do on it, I will still have a site to go to and will still be able to swear in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer next Thursday.

Maybe it is my slightly perfectionist nature when it comes to work that makes me want to do really well on it. Even if the past 3 months are only considering training, I have approached it in a similar fashion to how I approached my last job: be the best and be an example (I know, this is rather egotistical, but it is a part of my nature). And to be honest, I know that I can rock it when it comes to quite a few aspects of Russian grammar considering I have only been studying it since the end of March, but I get WAY nervous to speak when someone tries having a conversation with me. Words I know fall out of my head and I wind up looking like I can’t communicate. This is a downside when the point of this particular interview is communication." 

Deruny!

June 9: "LPI complete. Let's hope I didn't suck so bad!";"Tacos and deruny? Delicious!"  So I was pretty nervous for my LPI, but I pretty much gave up on studying since I had mastered my flashcard phrases the night before. I was the second person in my group to have the interview and it went okay. When asked how it went, my response to my LCF was "Well, I didn't cry out of frustration." Which, let's be honest, it something that has happened with me on occasion in the presence of my LCF. Plus I made the interviewer laugh when asking questions as a part of my scenario. My final question was basically "Well, they may not understand what I am saying, so will you be my translator?" and after she said okay, I replied with the Russian version of "Wow" followed by thank you. I find out how I scored tomorrow, though I am no longer stressing it (much). 

After the LPIs, we decided to make tacos and deruny (potato pancakes) with our LCF, Vika, and share with TCF Julia and Vika's younger sister. It was Vika and her sister's first taco experience and they were fans :) That day, I learned that salsa and sour cream on deruny is AMAZING. Also, we made so much deruny, that I have been eating it for the past few days for breakfast. It also compliments yogurt nicely! While Joe, Kip, and Rachael headed of to the river for some swim time, I stayed behind to hang out with Julia, Vika, and Katherine while Julia and Vika took movies from my hard drives. I had planned on meeting up with the others for some swim time, but forgot that I told Katherine that I would go look at shoes with her. Unfortunately, we couldn't find shoes that suited us :(  I met up with Julia and Vika later in the evening to get some ice cream and we hung out at the ice cream shop for a couple of hours talking. It was a great end-of-official-training kind of day.

Me with my link cluster and TCF on a boat!

June 10: "Kyiv today!"; "I am determined to get Julia's iPod working again!"  So there is an English teaching resource center in Kyiv that is run, in part, by the US Embassy. A tour was set up for both Obukhov groups and our links for 11A on Friday. We wound up leaving Obukhov at 9 and arrived about 9:45. After taking the metro to our stop, we had about 45 minutes until we needed to be at the University for our tour. A few of us went to a rather pricey coffee house (for PC allowances). Instead of coffee, I opted for what was pretty much pureed fruit in a glass. It was rather intense and quite delicious after I mixed the three fruits together and added fruit. After the coffee house, we headed to our destination. Overall, the meeting was a little boring, but I was glad I went, nonetheless. I now know what they have, what they offer, and most important, where this place is! After the resource center, we headed to lunch and then Katherine and I (the only 2 that went to Kyiv from our cluster) went with our link, Julia, and our link's LCF on a boat ride on the Dnieper River. Oh, and for the record, I totally got Julia's iPod working again! It only took a couple of hours to figure out, but at least now she doesn't have a useless iPod on her hands.

I am going to miss these kittens. Look at him lounge!

June 11: " Laundry and packing. I should have thought this laundry thing through a little better since I have no clothes to go outside in..." My original plan for Saturday was to go to the river for a bit with the other Obukhov cluster, but alas that didn't happen. You see, on Friday I thought I would come home after Kyiv and do my laundry. No such luck. My host mom had just finished hanging her laundry up to dry when I got home which meant I had to wait until Saturday. I took advantage of being able to sleep in without really meaning to. The sun usually wakes me up pretty early, so I don't really feel the need to set my alarm on the weekend if I don't need to wake up for something in particular. Color me surprised that I didn't wake up until 10! I started laundry as soon as I woke up (1 of 3 loads) and therefore found myself unable to go when someone called me telling me it was time :(  Since I wouldn't be swimming, I took advantage of the day at home and did some organizing and packing.

June 12: "I am quite stoked that by this time tomorrow I will know where I will call home for the next two years and more about it!"  Today I learned that I need to improve on my reading skills. Yesterday I received a text from a cluster mate about meeting at 3PM for ice cream with Julia and Vika for a goodbye shindig. I had already told him that I probably wouldn't make it since I had no clothes to wear since all of my laundry was drying so he pretty much knew I wouldn't make it, so I didn't worry about replying back to him. Cue today when I get out of the shower and see 5 missed phone calls! I called back and was asked where I was to which I replied "huh?" The message said we were meeting TODAY, I just missed the word "tomorrow" in his text. BOTH times that I read it. Insert face palm here. I used the hairdryer quickly and threw on some clothes and headed out. After pizza (because it changed from ice cream to pizza), I went to the store where I ran into my friend Marina. I am supposed to go out with her for a bit later, so I hope she calls me sooner rather than later! As it stands now, I am pretty much repacked aside from the few things I need to throw into my backpack. Tomorrow it is off to Kyiv and on Thursday off to my new Ukrainian home!


Oh and I wrote post on my slight jitters on the Snapshots blog. You can read that here.