Update

It’s been a long time since my last update and a lot has happened since then. But still sometimes I doubt my utility here and wonder if I’m sitting around too much. It’s certainly true because I have spent whole days doing nothing but sitting around and watching Batman: The Animated Series on my laptop. But then again, sometimes there isn’t much to do in the midst of a Ukrainian winter where it’s already dark by 3:30 PM and a good portion of the town population decides to take a “sick” vacation for weeks at a time.

And when the sun sets, things get crazy. I’m speaking particularly about the stray dogs. There is one that lives right outside of my building and I pass by it everyday to work and sometimes it even saunters over to me, beckoning to be petted. But once the sun sets, the animals here can’t be trusted. The same dog will bark at me menacingly. Dog bites are a pretty common occurrence and not too long ago I was attacked by a little one. I kept walking and went passed its territory, or so I thought. It then ran up and bit me. Luckily, it only caught my jeans and didn’t touch me. Though I don’t like to think it, I know it’s left a small scar on my psyche and whenever I have a dilemma about stepping out to get groceries or to buy a train ticket when the sun has already set, I tend towards agoraphobia.

Vacation

Of course my visit home was a great time. All the weight I lost in Ukraine, I gained back during my two week visit, and then some. It was a bit hectic trying to squeeze in everyone I wanted to see into my schedule but it was worth it and I had a blessed time. But by the end of the two weeks, I was ready to come back.

On my flight over I had a 20 hour layover in London and I spent the night out on the town to make the most of it. I didn’t sleep that night. I saw Big Ben, Parliament, The London Eye, stopped by Ye Old Cheshire Cheese (one of the many claimants to being the oldest pub in London), had some fish and chips, a whole bunch of good ales and lagers (I’m in love with Samuel Smith’s Brewery), walked around an outdoor bazaar-like thing, went to Convent Garden and saw a street performer, went to Soho, saw a live jazz performance, met some Polish girls and befriended them, went to a coffee shop and got hit on by a gay guy, got steak and eggs for breakfast while it was still dark, wandered around Picadilly Circus until the Tube opened and finally headed back to Heathrow to nap until my 11AM flight: the best layover of my life.

Holidays

New Years and Christmas were both great times, though I spent both holidays in Ukraine. Christmas was in Kotovsk in Odessa oblast with my cluster mates. We cooked, ate, drank, conversed, played cards, and watched movies together. New Years was in Lugansk with some of the older volunteers. We did the usual cooking, eating, drinking, etc. And the food was amazing. I can say without any reservation that that was the best meal I’ve had thus far in Ukraine.

Work

As for work, everything has been dwindling but I’m learning that my work here as a youth development volunteer consists of finding more balls to juggle to replace the ones I drop. My 8th and 9th form English club has dwindled to 2, but they consistently show up. They asked me to teach them American history so I am now an American history teacher. I brush up on my history every week and prepare power point presentations to show on my laptop. They love it. My older students’ English club is extinct but to replace that, I have my 4th form students, who love attending. I’m still trucking along with my Russian tutoring and that’s probably the one thing that is consistent in my schedule. I haven’t taught a healthy lifestyles lesson (or other YD related topic) in months, but I did pick up a student for tutoring in English. I received my 20 lbs of books from Darien Bookaid, which my students and I are very excited about. And I finally took the first steps in doing a community project. I’ll update more on that later.


Making the News

In other news, I made the local newspaper. Although I think what prompted it was my town getting another volunteer. Oh yes, I have a sitemate, by the way. Coincidentally, or intentionally, she is Asian. Anyway, this is now the fourth time I’ve made local news in Ukraine. The other three times were during training.

 

This is Jing, my new site mate.

This is me with a couple students from the school. This was totally staged and awkward.

This is me with my school director.

Here are the videos from training and swearing-in:

Rap

One of my students is into rapping. He calls himself DFM. I find it interesting how hip hop has spread across the globe and how it is perceived by people. Of course because mainstream rap has a certain image, people associate it with what hip hop is. Unfortunately, a lot of people become acquainted only with a façade that is the result of commercialism. This is true even in America. I’ve taken it upon myself to educate people about hip hop and what it actually is. I’ve had many heated conversations about this back in the states with close friends and though I don’t know everything about hip hop, I think I know a lot more than the average person about it. And as a representative of my country, from where hip hop was born, I count it my duty to defend her image from people who wouldn’t know any better.

The rappers here, from what I gather, tend to go for the gritty, hardcore sound. When they do it, it sounds good. But get into a regular conversation with them and you’ll find that their rapping voice is fabricated. It’s all entertainment, right? Maybe, but I like to think of hip hop as real expression. Not a paradigm to be followed or attained.

So anyway, to the point. My rapping student, Nikita, asked me to record a rap with him. I obliged him and we went to Kharkiv to record. His soundman was very good and knew what he was doing technically. The equipment was decent and actually I can’t say much more than that because I’ve never been in a studio. But I wasn’t feeling their vibe because they were going for the gangster rap style and his soundman was too overbearing during the process. It’s not like he’s a producer. He’s just the soundman. But he kept correcting our work and my student puts up with it. It is probably because this is the Soviet mentality. Hip hop, in my opinion, is about taking what you’ve got and making something of it, not aiming for a particular pattern or mold. This is the epitome of black music: improvisation. Anyway, they had me record these “backs”, or echoes, to emphasize the rhymes and give it that hard gangster sound. They would say, “90% of rappers use backs, even in America”. Not true. Maybe if you’re Dr. Dre. But he’s only one producer. Anyway, I went with what they wanted, because it was their track. I’m just the guest rapper. At this point I would have posted the track here for you to listen to but Blogger doesn't have this feature. If you want to hear it, ask me and I'll send it to you or something.

The studio

My student, Nikita and the soundman.

I'm already working on a second track. I haven't thought of a rap name. Any suggestions?


Miscellaneous Updates

Apparently, I have hypertension (high blood pressure). So for the past month I’ve been monitoring my blood pressure daily and recording it. My doctor says I need to come in and get this looked at. Hopefully it’s nothing. Personally, I don’t trust this BP monitor.

Speaking of health, I signed up for the Prague Marathon this coming May. I’ll be spending 5 days in Prague with a group of other PCVs running the marathon relay. Yea, there’s no way I’ll run a full marathon without serious training. I’ll save that for another day.

I got stopped by the cops yet again. That is now 6 times in 8 months.