Ah the swine and the Ukrainian Government have conspired to give us at least two weeks off of school. Because of confirmed cases of H1N1 in the west of Ukraine, the Prime Minister and President have ordered all schools, both private and public, closed for three weeks. Our school looked at the options and decided that having the secret police come into the school with riot gear to forcibly remove us was not a good option. Hence, we have been charged with creating online classes for all of our students. Cassie and I have been using a program similar to “Blackboard” (for those of you who have not taken online college courses, this is a program that most universities use to deliver distance learning instruction). Cassie has high school aged kids, so this works well. I have 9 year olds (4th grade in the States), this was a huge concern. However, thus far it has been very good.
It has taken us a week to get the information together and the sites are now working. The upshot is that while the students are dong distance learning, we are doing “distance teaching.” That’s right two extra weeks of paid vacation. You have got to love Ukraine!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
October Update 1
Hello all and sorry for the long break. We have been busy. It turns out that teaching 17 year olds to think is twice as difficult as it sounds and 9 year olds don't just finger-paint all day (who knew?). Seriously, our jobs are okay; at times they just plain suck (like last week when the school decided to pass out all of our personal contact information to all of our students--including our cell phone numbers...). However it is all balanced out by the pay, the no taxes, the living in a foriegn country, the city life, the fact that a 2 liter of beer costs less than fifty cents, the ability to travel around Europe for cheap, the fun we are having with people we meet, and the fact that there are no intelectual property laws in Ukraine (you can buy any movie in the subway for like 2 cents -- even ones that don't come out til 2010).
I have some pictures I will post later this week, but I do not have the time at the moment, as I need to grade some papers. Keep your eyes peeled, as I will get them up.
Oh, I also wanted to let everyone know that we will not be home for Christmas. We looked into it, but we decided that the cost would be too much and we would not have enough time to really hang out all that much. Hence we will be spending Christmas in Italy. We have booked the flights (220 dollars round trip), reserved hotels, and even ordered a guidebook. It should be a great deal of fun.
Well, I need to get back to work.
Da Svadanya
I have some pictures I will post later this week, but I do not have the time at the moment, as I need to grade some papers. Keep your eyes peeled, as I will get them up.
Oh, I also wanted to let everyone know that we will not be home for Christmas. We looked into it, but we decided that the cost would be too much and we would not have enough time to really hang out all that much. Hence we will be spending Christmas in Italy. We have booked the flights (220 dollars round trip), reserved hotels, and even ordered a guidebook. It should be a great deal of fun.
Well, I need to get back to work.
Da Svadanya
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Fun with Cyrillic
Hey all, just wanted to update you all and share some pictures.
We live in the Sviatoshin section of Kyiv. In Cyrillic it kinda looks like "CyberTown." You be the judge...
We have been wandering the streets here for a few weeks and have found some crazy things. First, it turns out that you do not want to buy fruit from the local farmer's market, as most of produce is grown in Chernobyl. Don't get me wrong, it tastes great, but the glowing is a bit off-putting. Below is a picture of one of those markets just below our apartment window.
The "farmers" stand outside the entrance to the subway stations and hawk their radioactive goods. Fortunately, the stuff in the stores has been checked by the local government gieger counter office, just down the road.
Here is another cool thing. Kvass, is a liquid bread drink that is slightly alcoholic. It is sold on the streets from a large yellow drum on wheels. The stuff is dirt cheap: like 2.5 Hryvnia (greev-na), which is only about 20 cents. Here is a picture of one of the drums.
While on the topic of cheap things, I thought it might be interesting to share with you all a wonderful fact about Ukraine: it is cheaper to buy a liter of beer than a half liter of water.
Let me run that by you one more time:
It is cheaper to buy a liter of beer than a half liter of water.
The current rate for a liter of Slavutich (a decent local beer) is 3 Hryvnia (which is $0.24 US). A half liter of Bon Aqua (the Coca-cola brand of water) is 4.5 Hryvnia. You have got to love Eastern Europe.
Speaking of drinking in Eastern Europe, the cost of Vodka here is frightening. A half liter of the local favorite (Nimeroff) costs 8 Hryvnia. For those of you doing the math, that is less than one dollar... You have got to love Eastern Europe.
This last picture is of a bottle of ketchup I purchased the first night here. At the time I could not read the type of ketchup, I simply recognized the bottle and lable. I got the bottle home and it tasted very strange. A week later I was finally able to read the lable.
It turns out that this is "mexican-ski" ketchup. I am not sure what that means, other than it is not the normal type...
Have a great week people...
We live in the Sviatoshin section of Kyiv. In Cyrillic it kinda looks like "CyberTown." You be the judge...
We have been wandering the streets here for a few weeks and have found some crazy things. First, it turns out that you do not want to buy fruit from the local farmer's market, as most of produce is grown in Chernobyl. Don't get me wrong, it tastes great, but the glowing is a bit off-putting. Below is a picture of one of those markets just below our apartment window.
The "farmers" stand outside the entrance to the subway stations and hawk their radioactive goods. Fortunately, the stuff in the stores has been checked by the local government gieger counter office, just down the road.
Here is another cool thing. Kvass, is a liquid bread drink that is slightly alcoholic. It is sold on the streets from a large yellow drum on wheels. The stuff is dirt cheap: like 2.5 Hryvnia (greev-na), which is only about 20 cents. Here is a picture of one of the drums.
While on the topic of cheap things, I thought it might be interesting to share with you all a wonderful fact about Ukraine: it is cheaper to buy a liter of beer than a half liter of water.
Let me run that by you one more time:
It is cheaper to buy a liter of beer than a half liter of water.
The current rate for a liter of Slavutich (a decent local beer) is 3 Hryvnia (which is $0.24 US). A half liter of Bon Aqua (the Coca-cola brand of water) is 4.5 Hryvnia. You have got to love Eastern Europe.
Speaking of drinking in Eastern Europe, the cost of Vodka here is frightening. A half liter of the local favorite (Nimeroff) costs 8 Hryvnia. For those of you doing the math, that is less than one dollar... You have got to love Eastern Europe.
This last picture is of a bottle of ketchup I purchased the first night here. At the time I could not read the type of ketchup, I simply recognized the bottle and lable. I got the bottle home and it tasted very strange. A week later I was finally able to read the lable.
It turns out that this is "mexican-ski" ketchup. I am not sure what that means, other than it is not the normal type...
Have a great week people...
Sunday, August 23, 2009
We have arrived
Hello all, sorry for the lapse in posts but it has been a bit of a whirlwind here. We are in Kyiv. We love our apartment. We have had a bit of time in our classrooms. We have made friends with other new teachers. And we are finally feeling a bit settled.
My previous post was from the airport in Frankfurt. Up to that point the trip had been very smooth. The flight from Frankfurt to Kyiv was a little odd. As it turns out, the Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans on the plane with us could care less about directions from the airline staff, rules, etc. Most of them spent the entire flight standing in the aisles, drinking, and generally being a pain. When the plane was landing, the steward actually got on the intercom and yelled at a passenger to “be quiet, sit down, and behave! Or you will be going to court!” This made everyone quiet down for a few minutes. However, five seconds after touching down everyone was on their feet getting stuff out of the overhead bins. This led to more scolding from the airline staff.
Our next experience with culture shock happened while disembarking. As it turns out, there is no such thing as lines here in Eastern Europe (which surprised me, as all I think of when I think of the former Soviet States is bread lines). Seriously, if you are not right on top of the person ahead of you, people will jump right in. It is like being in pre-school. Needless to say the line to get through customs was an absolute joke. People were yelling at others, there was pushing, people watching here is awesome.
We were met at the airport by Cassie’s boss. He is a really nice guy and was very helpful. As there were other people coming in on the same day, we waited around the airport for two more couples before heading out to the school. One couple was coming from another QSI school and we clicked with them immediately. Since our arrival we have hung out with these two several times.
Once we got to the school we were separated and each taken to our apartments. The ride up the elevator and walk down the hall to our apartment reminded me of our stay in Romania. However, on the other side of the door, our apartment was awesome! It has been newly remodeled and looks very modern. We were shocked and very pleased.
This is our kitchen
this is the view out our kitchen window
Since that first day we have been tied up in pre-orientation lectures, group trips around town, and getting used to the city. We were able to set up internet and water delivery. So we now have a great connection in our apartment. If anyone wants they can contact us on our Skype phone, it is on most days. Probably the best day would be Sunday, as we will be at home most Sunday evenings (we are 7 hours ahead of East Coast Time).
Well, I have to get to work on planning for the first week. I will update later this week. Talk to you all soon.
P.S. We have a maid… I promised everyone I would get one, and sure enough we have one…
My previous post was from the airport in Frankfurt. Up to that point the trip had been very smooth. The flight from Frankfurt to Kyiv was a little odd. As it turns out, the Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans on the plane with us could care less about directions from the airline staff, rules, etc. Most of them spent the entire flight standing in the aisles, drinking, and generally being a pain. When the plane was landing, the steward actually got on the intercom and yelled at a passenger to “be quiet, sit down, and behave! Or you will be going to court!” This made everyone quiet down for a few minutes. However, five seconds after touching down everyone was on their feet getting stuff out of the overhead bins. This led to more scolding from the airline staff.
Our next experience with culture shock happened while disembarking. As it turns out, there is no such thing as lines here in Eastern Europe (which surprised me, as all I think of when I think of the former Soviet States is bread lines). Seriously, if you are not right on top of the person ahead of you, people will jump right in. It is like being in pre-school. Needless to say the line to get through customs was an absolute joke. People were yelling at others, there was pushing, people watching here is awesome.
We were met at the airport by Cassie’s boss. He is a really nice guy and was very helpful. As there were other people coming in on the same day, we waited around the airport for two more couples before heading out to the school. One couple was coming from another QSI school and we clicked with them immediately. Since our arrival we have hung out with these two several times.
Once we got to the school we were separated and each taken to our apartments. The ride up the elevator and walk down the hall to our apartment reminded me of our stay in Romania. However, on the other side of the door, our apartment was awesome! It has been newly remodeled and looks very modern. We were shocked and very pleased.
This is our kitchen
this is the view out our kitchen windowSince that first day we have been tied up in pre-orientation lectures, group trips around town, and getting used to the city. We were able to set up internet and water delivery. So we now have a great connection in our apartment. If anyone wants they can contact us on our Skype phone, it is on most days. Probably the best day would be Sunday, as we will be at home most Sunday evenings (we are 7 hours ahead of East Coast Time).
Well, I have to get to work on planning for the first week. I will update later this week. Talk to you all soon.
P.S. We have a maid… I promised everyone I would get one, and sure enough we have one…
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Most of the way there
Hey all, just wanted to check in with you and update while I had the chance. Cassie and I are currently in the Frankfurt Airport waiting for our flight to Kiev. So far everything has been smooth. We checked 10 pieces of luggage in at Grand Rapids. Each piece was exactly 50 lbs. Seriously, anyonw who travels from now on needs to invest in a luggage scale. This thing saved us a ton of money.
Well, I got to catch this plane. I will update this as soon as we have internet access in the other side.
Talk to you all later,
Well, I got to catch this plane. I will update this as soon as we have internet access in the other side.
Talk to you all later,
Monday, August 10, 2009
Further Complications…
As if the final 24 hours in the United States were not stressful enough, Mother Nature in conjunction with Detroit Thomas Edison have ensured that the last day stateside will be without power. We needed to get a few things done online, so I am currently making this post from a Panera Bread in Grand Rapids. I am enjoying being “that guy” who sits in the corner of a restaurant and types. I find that writing in public is so cool…
Anyway, for those of you we did not get to see while we were back, I am sorry. We will be back next summer for sure (and maybe this Christmas). With luck the next post will be from Kiev.
We will talk to you all later:
Anyway, for those of you we did not get to see while we were back, I am sorry. We will be back next summer for sure (and maybe this Christmas). With luck the next post will be from Kiev.
We will talk to you all later:
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Summer wrap-up
Hello all and welcome to our blog. Cassie and I have decided to once again venture into the “blogosphere” as we travel to Eastern Europe. For those of you who remember the blog from Japan, this should seem quite familiar, for newcomers welcome and enjoy. We will be making every attempt to keep this up to date and want you to make comments, give us feedback, and tell us what you would like to see.
Our summer vacation officially started on the 7th of June. We were going to meet some friends in San Diego on the 30th of June and the thought of spending a month in the Yuma sun did not sound great. Thus we planned to travel the American West camping in the national parks and just enjoying the beauty of America.
After two and a half weeks of camping in the rain, we gave up on roughing it and finished the journey “camping” in hotels. Below are some pictures from this part of the journey…
The car with all of our belongings
The area around Yuma
Our first real stop was Northern New Mexico. We went to a National Monument and a National Park while there. The first was called Tent Rocks. We were able to climb through a canyon and then climb to the top of a mesa and look all around. It was very cool...
We then went to Bandelier National Park to see the cliff dwellings
Next we travelled to Colorado to visit the Ojennes's...
From there we travelled to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks driving through Wyoming we took these pictures:
At Yellowstone we had to get a picture of Old Faithful aswell as some of the wildlife
These are the Tetons
From the Tetons we went to Glacier National Park. This was our favorite, even though there was snow.
We then hit Seattle, Portland, the Redwood Forrest and San Francisco, where we met up with Rita. Rita showed us around the bay area and I was able to catch a Tigers game in Oakland.
After that we met up with Tom, Alister, and Doug in San Diego. With them, we travelled to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.
Cassie had training in Toronto, so she flew there and I drove across country to meet her. Nebraska and Iowa never end…
Since we got to Rockford we have been busy, busy, busy. I built a shed for Barb. Cassie has been prepping for the mother of all classes: she gets to teach high schoolers philosophy. We have been getting together with friends and family. Not all of this has been joyous: my cousin Matt lost his battle with cancer last week. It was a shock, but I was very thankful that I was near Chicago and able to attend the funeral services.
As I have posted this same thing twice and succeeded in erasing it both times, I will end here. With luck I will not delete it again. We look forward to hearing from all of you..
By the way, here are some photos we just got from our new apartment in Kiev, it looks as though we will have an extra bedroom: perfect for guests...
Our summer vacation officially started on the 7th of June. We were going to meet some friends in San Diego on the 30th of June and the thought of spending a month in the Yuma sun did not sound great. Thus we planned to travel the American West camping in the national parks and just enjoying the beauty of America.
After two and a half weeks of camping in the rain, we gave up on roughing it and finished the journey “camping” in hotels. Below are some pictures from this part of the journey…
The car with all of our belongings
The area around Yuma
Our first real stop was Northern New Mexico. We went to a National Monument and a National Park while there. The first was called Tent Rocks. We were able to climb through a canyon and then climb to the top of a mesa and look all around. It was very cool...
We then went to Bandelier National Park to see the cliff dwellings
Next we travelled to Colorado to visit the Ojennes's...
From there we travelled to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks driving through Wyoming we took these pictures:
At Yellowstone we had to get a picture of Old Faithful aswell as some of the wildlife
These are the Tetons
From the Tetons we went to Glacier National Park. This was our favorite, even though there was snow.
We then hit Seattle, Portland, the Redwood Forrest and San Francisco, where we met up with Rita. Rita showed us around the bay area and I was able to catch a Tigers game in Oakland.
After that we met up with Tom, Alister, and Doug in San Diego. With them, we travelled to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.
Cassie had training in Toronto, so she flew there and I drove across country to meet her. Nebraska and Iowa never end…
Since we got to Rockford we have been busy, busy, busy. I built a shed for Barb. Cassie has been prepping for the mother of all classes: she gets to teach high schoolers philosophy. We have been getting together with friends and family. Not all of this has been joyous: my cousin Matt lost his battle with cancer last week. It was a shock, but I was very thankful that I was near Chicago and able to attend the funeral services.
As I have posted this same thing twice and succeeded in erasing it both times, I will end here. With luck I will not delete it again. We look forward to hearing from all of you..
By the way, here are some photos we just got from our new apartment in Kiev, it looks as though we will have an extra bedroom: perfect for guests...
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The Day I Got RIF'ed
I know it has been a while, but as no one is reading this or has visited the site, I do not feel all that bad. We are still a few weeks out from leaving Yuma. What a glorious day that will be. Things are happening all around us. This week I learned that one of the other 4th grade teachers in Kiev is from Grand Rapids. He and I will be planning together and working with some of the same kids in reading and math: it is a very small world. But more on all that later.
As I have mentioned in the past, and as no doubt you have seen o the news and felt in your wallet, the country is in a recession. I know, it surprised me too. Arizona has not escaped this recession, though Yuma is only starting to show the first signs of it. However, to save money, the state of Arizona has decided to cut school funding, because who cares about the future? Right? Anyway, that has caused our district to look at making cuts.
When the idea was first introduced the superintendent claimed he wanted to be as open as possible. All the teachers and support staff were told to make a list of things they could live with and things that should not be cut at all. Then we had to vote. Finally the superintendent ignored all of that and decided to screw the teachers and support staff, while making no cuts (even adding a position) at the administrative level. The whole time we were asking, "if we need to loose staff why not loose one of the five people in the Human Resource office who collect larger paychecks than teachers?" But, the fix was in.
Today, I was hand delivered a letter by my principal from the superintendent of Yuma Elementary School District # 1. The letter was to inform me that I was part of the RIF (reduction in force) and would not have a job next year. This just made me all the more happy to be getting out of Yuma. It is amazing because this town for the past two decades has been hiring more than 150 new teachers each year. The local college could not produce enough teachers to meet this demand. Now, we are letting teachers go. We are not the only district in this state doing this. We have friends in Phoenix, who just lost their jobs (along with every other 1st year teacher at their districts --- about 250 teachers per district [and there are 20+ districts in Phoenix]). It is a sad time for education in Arizona...
Now, back to the Ukraine. We have joined a message board of people currently in Ukraine teaching at the school we will be and all of the new hires coming in next year. It has been a great resource for us, as we have been able to get advice from people who have been through the exact experience we will be. This is where I discovered that the person I will be working most closely with is from Grand Rapids. We have also had great advice for packing and what to bring. We are so excited about this adventure and have discovered that Google Earth offers us a look at where we will be living.
As we get more information, I will update this site.
As I have mentioned in the past, and as no doubt you have seen o the news and felt in your wallet, the country is in a recession. I know, it surprised me too. Arizona has not escaped this recession, though Yuma is only starting to show the first signs of it. However, to save money, the state of Arizona has decided to cut school funding, because who cares about the future? Right? Anyway, that has caused our district to look at making cuts.
When the idea was first introduced the superintendent claimed he wanted to be as open as possible. All the teachers and support staff were told to make a list of things they could live with and things that should not be cut at all. Then we had to vote. Finally the superintendent ignored all of that and decided to screw the teachers and support staff, while making no cuts (even adding a position) at the administrative level. The whole time we were asking, "if we need to loose staff why not loose one of the five people in the Human Resource office who collect larger paychecks than teachers?" But, the fix was in.
Today, I was hand delivered a letter by my principal from the superintendent of Yuma Elementary School District # 1. The letter was to inform me that I was part of the RIF (reduction in force) and would not have a job next year. This just made me all the more happy to be getting out of Yuma. It is amazing because this town for the past two decades has been hiring more than 150 new teachers each year. The local college could not produce enough teachers to meet this demand. Now, we are letting teachers go. We are not the only district in this state doing this. We have friends in Phoenix, who just lost their jobs (along with every other 1st year teacher at their districts --- about 250 teachers per district [and there are 20+ districts in Phoenix]). It is a sad time for education in Arizona...
Now, back to the Ukraine. We have joined a message board of people currently in Ukraine teaching at the school we will be and all of the new hires coming in next year. It has been a great resource for us, as we have been able to get advice from people who have been through the exact experience we will be. This is where I discovered that the person I will be working most closely with is from Grand Rapids. We have also had great advice for packing and what to bring. We are so excited about this adventure and have discovered that Google Earth offers us a look at where we will be living.
As we get more information, I will update this site.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
First Post
As we have mentioned to various friends and family, Cassie and I will be moving to Kiev in the Ukraine next year. Currently we are finishing up the school year in Yuma and just waiting to get going. The timer at the top of the page counts down to June 15th, the day we plan on leaving Yuma. While we are happy for the opportunities living in Yuma gave us, we are glad to be leaving (especially at the beginning of summer).
Besides the hellish weather, the school district we both currently work for is facing some serious budget problems (the same can be said for all districts in Arizona). Because of this, next year in Yuma does not look very good for teachers or students. At budget meetings, I have been the only person at my school who can guarantee that they have a job next year. We are very concerned for our friends that will be staying here next year.
As we get closer to the date (August 11th) we will be posting more information, pictures, and plans. We are very interested in this blog becoming much like the one we had in Japan (ably hosted by Adam) so please post comments, questions, ideas, etc. And as time goes on we will do the same.
Thanks everyone,
Besides the hellish weather, the school district we both currently work for is facing some serious budget problems (the same can be said for all districts in Arizona). Because of this, next year in Yuma does not look very good for teachers or students. At budget meetings, I have been the only person at my school who can guarantee that they have a job next year. We are very concerned for our friends that will be staying here next year.
As we get closer to the date (August 11th) we will be posting more information, pictures, and plans. We are very interested in this blog becoming much like the one we had in Japan (ably hosted by Adam) so please post comments, questions, ideas, etc. And as time goes on we will do the same.
Thanks everyone,
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