I can't believe that its already been about a month since I left the states. I guess I can update with some pictures. But first off, let me update with what we've been doing. Nothing is very new on my end. I've been doing four hours of Russian language and lesson planning, teaching children from the 7th form. Its been very rewarding, strenuous, long days, ups and downs. But its been a quite interesting experience so far!
My host sisters like to have barbeques on the weekend. I've been lucky to get acquainted to many of their friends. And they are fun to listen to speaking Russian. Olya and Christina (the two on the left side are my host sisters).
One of the great things about being a different country is getting to taste the food here. Sometimes I feel like I 'm Anthony Bourdain. But this is the family having dinner at our LCF Zhenya's (Language teacher) apartment. We are having a dish called "Galupsee" - or cabbage rolls. It was so bomb! But this is the cluster and our LCF Zhenya, and TCF Yana.
One of the clustermates Danny who likes to kill the flies. Here he is with a kill.
Next, we do some touring of the nearby chity of Chernihiv. Here was last week when we went to the museum and walked around.
This is me on the rampart on Shevchenko monument. Messing around...on our free day.
Here are some pictures of our village...the good ol' Staryi Bilous. Its name translates to the old white mustache. I love it.
This one of the two shops we have in our village. The Harchi is one of main spots we like to get our juice boxes and bread from...also cookies!
Best believe that faimlies walk their animals DAILY, just like America! I even went on a goat walk with Jackie and her Babushka. No pictures tho...maybe next time.
Big kids need their juice boxes too!
This is from last night. We had a family dinner for Zhenya's goodbye...We are getting a new LCF for three weeks. Its sad, but not goodbye.
Yeah, don't worry this is suppose to feed 7 people. But this is only about half the amount of food that was for dinner.
The last to pictures were from our little jokes that we have accumulated over the month. I swear we were laughing for a good 20 minutes straight. Anyways....
Enjoy..... Update will prolly be in a couple weeks because I want to start spittin Russian. Dos Vidanya homies!
Man Jasmin, it is truly amazing how far you've come (and not just figuratively). The things you are experiencing now is more than most will get to experience in a whole lifetime. Not just going to another country, but by learning the norms and values of a completely different culture. The closest example of that would be people entering into the military, but not even that is as extreme.
ReplyDeleteCouple of things:
My friend did the same thing with the Japanese language. The way he sped up his learning was to listen to popular American music sung in Japanese. He already knew the words, so he could see how the syntax and vocabulary played out while he just listened to music.
The sure fire way to know if you have embraced a culture is when you start dreaming in their language. That is the best way to evaluate your immersion into the other culture. When you subconsciously take on that new culture, you are good to go.
So proud of what you have been able to accomplish.