Oh the Cold Winters/ In a Sundress

Don't worry I'm not really this sad. I am in Character in the Museum of Soviet Kitsch where we stayed during the second session of the International Outreach Camp.

Photo Shoot

Dusty old History: Discovered While taking a Bucket Bath

In the museum of soviet kitsch there was one piece of true soviet HISTORY. This cup is a little blurry but it is from the opening of McDonalds in Moscow in 1990. That was a really big deal in the bridging of east and west, capitalism and communism in the first days after the collapse of the soviet union. And it was in the corner of this woman's bathroom on a shelf so high only I could se it.

The babushkas outside our apartment in Mykolaiv.

My South Africans (from issues and debate) during the UN Debate on migration

Old Soviet Neighborhood

Capitalism a la Ukraine

Nothing spells Ukraine to me like a trunk full of produce fresh from the fields, no seriously.

Commerce

A typical sidewalk scene in Ukraine.

Group Hug

WE are pretty big on group hugs at IOC. With a multi-national staff there were a lot of culture clashes and as lame as it my sound and sometimes was, we were all eventually brought closer together by the internaional language: hugging

Musical Chairs IOC style

This is Yulya and Our Issues and Debate class doing an warm up. The issue up for debate at our UN forum was the minimum standard for global migration. This version of musical chairs where a chair is taken out after each round but there are still the same amount of people emphasizes the point about distribution of resources being a reason for world migration but a reason people need to work together in order to solve the problem as all people need somewhere to sit.

Model UN

This is Tom teaching my class. During our preparation for Model UN all the campers were assigned a country. These are my Moroccans learning about Iran from the "Iranian Ambassador" Tom.

My other teaching partner Marta

This is the two of us on star day. I am Marilyn Monroe and she is Yuyla Tymoshenko.

My Team

This was my team at the second camp, the Extreme Chili Cucrachas. We won the team competition of the whole week which consisted of team building like the Human Knot where everyone grabs a random hand and you have to untangle yourself. We also wrote the best cheers. This is Star day at Camp.

The Museum to Soviet Kitsch

This was how our apartment was the day we moveld in. The lady who actually lived there was there everyday during the day. Futsing around with I couldn't really tell what, but she was busy all day.

Living Space

In Mykolaiv Hannah, Elizabeth and I lived in the Museum to soviet kitsch. This place was above, below and around you- just full of stuff. There was barley enough space for me to put my back pack.

Watermelon Season

I told you the sidewalks were piled high with watermelons. Late summer early fall is amazing for produce of any kind, it costs less than a dollar, some times way less for a kilo of amazing organic what have you.

The Creative Block

These are some of my little reporters. In the Creative Block which I wrote one class reported on all the happenings of the camp using journalism, creative writing and photography. The other group did performing arts. Also my reporters reported on the Civics projects and "Inside the Staff room" which was quite sensational at the time.

One of our classroom spaces at the camp in Ternopilska Oblast.

The Nature

This is a statue out doors at the first session of IOC in Borschiv (meaning many bowls of borshch, the beet soup). This site was beautiful and well suited to our camp. As always I was captivated by the stone statues that seem so natural.

The City of Mykolaiv

The apartment blocks in the southern city of Mykoliav where the second session of Camp IOC.

Behind the scenes at Camp IOC

Bugging Out

We love it here.

The Saga Continues

Yulya And I on Hat Day at Camp

My teaching partner/ partner in crime Yulya.

The Final Countdown

I plan to say it all with pictures really soon everyone. I promise. The computers here just don't want to upload allllllllllllllllllll the photos I have. The one-two punch of my new camera and getting ready to leave Ukraine has made me a photo-a-holic.
I have a million and a half pictures from my summer camp which was amazing. I also have a bunch from my Close of Service Conference and just around town.
School has just started and we are still working out my schedule. I feel in everything I do the fact that I am leaving soon. But for the moment it is nice to be back to my own personal daily routines, teaching, reading, writing, walking, getting a good nights sleep. All things which were lacking in my life at camp and COS. I have a ton of admin work to do and work on our English classroom here at school. My host brother Arsen just returned from a summer work study program in New York where he spoke exactly no english as everyone he worked for or with spoke spanish, polish and russian.
But it is very nice to have him home again. On sunday we went with some friends and had a picnic in the woods. The weather has been perfect, sunny but a touch cool. A nice change from summer when I was sweating through my clothes by 10am every morning and using a painted fan in ernest as air contitioning.
Well I have to go back to school and teach now. Hopefully I will get those pictures to you this weekend, I am going to Ternopil.