Monday, July 10, 2006
Week two
Today the girls are going to a new babysitter. It's really the situation we were looking for: a non-English speaking sitter that is also looking after other non-English speaking kids. We'll see this afternoon how things went.
I now have a constant number in my class: 4. The students are overwhelmed, but hard workers. I have full confidence in them--and have to repeat it to them often--that they will know a lot in the end. The amount they need to know seems endless to them at this point, but their progress is always forward. Like with sharks, there is no time to stand still.
Yesterday we had a nice day. We planned a meeting at a church, so that after church we met a teacher at UCU and his 10-year-old son. They both spoke English, which helped Hollie and the girls. We had a nice lunch. As I said before, beer is the cheapest drink around, so we had beer and hot dogs, believe it or not. (Here, though, the hot dogs had shredded cabbage, carrots, horseradish, and a bit of corn with mayonnaise.) Next, we had a second lunch at the apartment of the head of my department here, along with another Classics professor. The girls did a great job playing and pretending. On our way home, the other professor showed us the biggest playground in town, where the girls played for a while, and playing with other children is an added treat.
Liturgy at church was kind of what we expected, although shorter than St Ignatius (take note!). There were very few children, but many from about 20 years old up. Most of the people were not old babushkas, but plenty of younger, middle-aged, and white-haired older men were there. The girls did a good job, but it was hot and crowded, so they couldn't see and felt uncomfortable. The music was incredible, as they have a professional choir. At this church the liturgy was in Slavonic, not in Ukrainian. Canonicity is a mess here, and we're trying to work out a regular place to go.
The girls' character is moving more to the extremes, either because of being in a new culture, or having to be with Mom and Dad so much every day. Nellie is becoming very adventursome. She is becoming a bit braver with her language, and climbs on everything. She even eats what she doesn't like much. Kali is having more difficulties with new situations. She only really wants bread with jam, juice, candy, and ice cream. Having to speak in Ukrainian or even Russian makes her nervous. When they pick books at night, Nellie is excited to read her "Snow White" in Ukrainian, but Kali likes her standard English books she brought. However, both enjoyed watching the World Cup final match last night when they were in bed. (Last night we moved up to a new apartment in the same building, and now they have the TV in their room.)
Hollie is at work now. This should be her first full week there. There tend to be way more participants than volunteers, so she likes that with her "free lance" status, she can give some of the participants more one-on-one attention than they might normally get.
I now have a constant number in my class: 4. The students are overwhelmed, but hard workers. I have full confidence in them--and have to repeat it to them often--that they will know a lot in the end. The amount they need to know seems endless to them at this point, but their progress is always forward. Like with sharks, there is no time to stand still.
Yesterday we had a nice day. We planned a meeting at a church, so that after church we met a teacher at UCU and his 10-year-old son. They both spoke English, which helped Hollie and the girls. We had a nice lunch. As I said before, beer is the cheapest drink around, so we had beer and hot dogs, believe it or not. (Here, though, the hot dogs had shredded cabbage, carrots, horseradish, and a bit of corn with mayonnaise.) Next, we had a second lunch at the apartment of the head of my department here, along with another Classics professor. The girls did a great job playing and pretending. On our way home, the other professor showed us the biggest playground in town, where the girls played for a while, and playing with other children is an added treat.
Liturgy at church was kind of what we expected, although shorter than St Ignatius (take note!). There were very few children, but many from about 20 years old up. Most of the people were not old babushkas, but plenty of younger, middle-aged, and white-haired older men were there. The girls did a good job, but it was hot and crowded, so they couldn't see and felt uncomfortable. The music was incredible, as they have a professional choir. At this church the liturgy was in Slavonic, not in Ukrainian. Canonicity is a mess here, and we're trying to work out a regular place to go.
The girls' character is moving more to the extremes, either because of being in a new culture, or having to be with Mom and Dad so much every day. Nellie is becoming very adventursome. She is becoming a bit braver with her language, and climbs on everything. She even eats what she doesn't like much. Kali is having more difficulties with new situations. She only really wants bread with jam, juice, candy, and ice cream. Having to speak in Ukrainian or even Russian makes her nervous. When they pick books at night, Nellie is excited to read her "Snow White" in Ukrainian, but Kali likes her standard English books she brought. However, both enjoyed watching the World Cup final match last night when they were in bed. (Last night we moved up to a new apartment in the same building, and now they have the TV in their room.)
Hollie is at work now. This should be her first full week there. There tend to be way more participants than volunteers, so she likes that with her "free lance" status, she can give some of the participants more one-on-one attention than they might normally get.
