Dead Bodies

Monday, October 1, 2007 6:41 AM 

Hi everyone,
     I've been sick lately which has been annoying, especially since my ears are plugged and hearing is
such a vital part of my job. My students have been so sweet, although I have been yelled at for not wearing
warm enough clothing and not bringing tea to class.  

    On saturday we went to the ballet, Master and Margarita. It was very good but R and I had
horrible seats. Everyone else sat in a good section but R and I sat on the highest balcony, right
behind a pole. Our tickets were $1, though, so it was worth it. 

      At intermission we moved to some open seats which were much better but both of us were sick so we almost fell asleep through some of it. The ballet is from a book by a Russian author. It was interesting and strange.
       Other than that I spent the week in bed trying to feel better. Teaching six hours straight takes it toll and
my voice would be non-existent by the end of the night.
    One strange occurence is that while we were at a friend's house one night her roommate called to tell
us that there was a dead body outside. This isn't anything new, although I haven't seen my first dead body yet, there are sightings by other teachers all the time. Anyway, she was coming home from work and saw some police officers hanging out by a dumpster. She looked closer and saw that they were all examining the body of a man leaning against the dumpster (she assumes they had dragged it out of the dumpster). She said it was very grotesque and described it in detail. We didn't go out to see it, I'll wait for my first dead body to come to me
naturally.
     Anyway, other than dead bodies and colds nothing else is new here. Hope everyone is doing fine. Love, Jacy

Teachers Running Off in the Middle of the Night

Wednesday, September 19, 2007 7:51 AM

So,
     This week is my first week of real classes, with my very own real students. It is so exciting! Mondays and Wed I have three classes: 4-6 is Level 5, 6-8 Level 6 and 8-10 level 6. Luckily, all the level 6 classes use the same lesson, so its not too much work. On tues and thurs, I have level 6 from 4-6 (once again using the same lesson) and then conversation club from 6-9. In conversation club, I sit in a room and wait for
students to come in and then we just chat. We get worksheets to chat about but they're pretty boring so
I just ask the students questions.

      Last night, I had 5 guys in my convo club which was a bit intimidating, but we had a good time. It's hard sometimes to give everyone a chance to speak but I try my best. I like teaching, and the students are great so I'm having a good time.
       A bit of a scandal just happened here. The school we work for is a little frustrating because they make a lot of promises they can't keep. Its mainly the HR guy, J, who is doing this, the owner of the business (O) doesn't have any idea what he is doing. J is a bit creepy so that already leads us to distrust him. He is 38 years old, has been in Ukraine for 4 years and talks a lot about drinking, his past scoring drugs for famous rock stars, and how much Ukrainian women love his muscles. Not the ideal HR person.

     He also likes to tell us things that he can't possibly make happen. For example, in his job offer email, he says we will get an acclimation tour when we first arrive, which never happened. What is actually meant by an 'acclimation tour' is, G (who is very busy and almost impossible to get ahold of by phone) could walk you around the neighborhood showing you sights. When I arrived, after a 14 hour plane trip, she said, "Do you want me to show you the neighborhood?" I said, "No, I'd rather take a shower and rest for a while." She never offered again. 

     Also, payment is very confusing. I went to pick up the check I was told I would get 7 weeks after arriving and found only $100. When I asked about my money, J said O would pay me on Sunday. This is a bit inconvenient because I had to pay a bunch of money for rent and other necessities. The fact that I
haven't been paid in full for my month+ work makes what I am going to tell you even stranger.
      Yesterday D was pulled out of class, the class he was teaching, by J for questioning. Apparently
two of the new teachers (S and J2) have disappeared (they had been rooming with D, and J thought he might know a little about it). They disappeared with their luggage. J claims, after asking for an advance from him and, then also from the school they were working for, S and J2 took off with $2000, never to be heard from again. Now J and L have to go to the school where they were working to take over their classes
and, according to Jonathan, they have hired some off duty cops to track down the boys. Cops who "would cut off their heads for $50." 

     D and E have actually talked to J2, who was last heard from waiting for a connecting flight in Germany. He said the part about the advance is false. He and S saw what a crapshow this company was and decided to take off. He said S is in Italy right now eating pasta. None of us are surprised. We knew S was trying to find a different job from the moment he got here, and others have already lined up jobs after the semester ends. What I find interesting is that they give out advances to people who haven't worked a minute and yet I, who have been working for over a month, cannot seem to get any money. 

      E and I have drafted a letter to J with all of our complaints and we are going to bring it to O and

tell her her choice of HR director is less than appropriate. I have even been looking for other options but am going to stick it out to see if any changes will be made. We actually think all the problems are due to J
and not the fault of the company itself, but we'll see. Anyway, we find the whole situation with S and
J a bit funny, not so much the stealing $2000 part, if that even happened, but running away is
something we've all considered at one point or another and all of us are kind of cheering them on. However,
if they do end up with their heads cut off it won't be quite as funny. Hope everybody is well. 

 Love, Jacy

The school where I work.

Not Getting Lost in Translation

Sunday, September 9, 2007 6:33 PM

Hi everybody,
    So, lately my luck with jumping on a bus and getting to the place I need to go has run out. Today I had to take three different buses to get to someplace not that far away. Maybe its an omen I should start walking more. Once I finally got there, I went to my favorite second hand store to see what wintery things they have because it is actually very cold right now. I was going through the goods on the table, when the owner came up to me and started talking. I had headphones in so I had to take them off. He spoke Russian which I clearly didn't understand so he left me alone for a little while.

      I continued my search and found some sweaters I liked, when he came back over to me. He started gesturing to my ring finger (in Ukraine the ring finger is on the left hand and I wear a ring on it). I said, "Ya ne gavaroo pa-ruski" which means, 'I don't speak Russian', but he ignored me and kept gesturing to the ring and then pointing at himself and then at me. I kinda figured what he was trying to say, but feigned ignorance for as long as I could. Finally he said "Angliski?" and I said, "Yes," He said, "Married?" I said, "Yes, I am in fact married." He didn't believe me. He continued to speak Russian to me and I figured out he was asking me how old I was so I said, "25." "How old is your husband?" "27." "Do you have any children?" "No". "Why are you in Ukraine?" "To teach." The conversation continued like this for an excrutiatingly long time.   

      Most of the time he would speak to me in russian and I would say "Ya ne panimyu," (I don't understand), which he would ignore and continue speaking to me. He asked me if I would like to trade English lessons for Russian lessons and I said no. He asked why and I said I was very, very busy. Finally I put all my stuff down and walked out, which he made a squeak about, but I did not turn around. I was very sad about this occurence because I liked buying stuff there and all the other shops are too expensive. Also it 

is pretty close to my house, the other second hand shops are a metro ride away.

       When I got back home, I decided to try to make a pizza in the oven, which has to be lit by match. I wasn't about to stick my hand down there so I lit a piece of paper on fire, turned on the gas and dropped it in. The over went Whoosh and fire shot out at me but it did not ignite. I realized that our oven doesn't work at all. However, in the process my hand was burned (it was the closest part of me to the flame that tried to attack me). For the rest of the day I sat and watched TV with my hand in a pot of cold water. It is still really sore, and blistering, and red but I think it will be okay (I'm typing with it right now and it isn't too painful). It's frustrating though, because J had just brought over some typing I could do to earn extra money. But on the bright side I got to watch a show on the Queen Mother of England. I miss all of you. Love, Jacy

Babushaka

Saturday, September 8, 2007 2:23 PM    

       It was barely the crack of 10:30 when Emily and I were woken up by our doorbell buzzing. We both jumped up to answer it. Unlocking our front door from the inside was a process. First of all, there was our front door, which had to be locked from the inside with a key, and could only be unlocked by turning the key 300 times in the lock (in most doors you had to turn keys full circle at least twice, and at my old apartment it was 4 times). Then we had to go open the door to our suite (the door that led to our apartment along with three other apartments-luckily that door didn't have to be opened from the inside by key). When we finally got the door open and were standing groggily wondering who was visiting us at such an insane hour, an old woman (probably 60s) wearing a see-through dress came walking into the suite and then continued on into our apartment. We stared at her confused as she yelled at us in Russian. Finally, I made out the name T and realized she was talking about the American guy who used to live in our apartment. This was our introduction to our landlady.

    She continued to yell at us and we continued to stare at her until I got the bright idea of calling Gayla to translate. The landlady (babushaka) got on the phone and proceeded to walk around our apartment yelling at Gayla. After a while, during which Emily and I just stood patiently in the hallway with our tussled hair and in our pajamas, Babushka handed the phone to me. Gayla translated, "You can't put things on the wall, you must keep the apartment clean, and the oven doesn't work very well." Babushka gestured for the phone and continued to yell at Gayla. When she handed it back, Gayla said, "So hows your internet working? Do you need me to get the guys to come over?" (this was obviously not what Babushka had said, but Gayla must have deemed her muttering irrelevant).

      I got off the phone with Gayla but babs was still here. She took me around the house pointing to various things. These are the instructions she left me with (I think): Scrub the bathroom sink and toilet, don't fill the teapot too full (she showed me the level that the water should never exceed), make sure our balcony window is closed at all times because someone could climb in and take our stuff (we only live on the second floor but that would be one desperate robber), always keep the doors locked and when someone knocks always ask "who is it?" Finally, she left. Later, I saw her on the street and waved to her as a friendly gesture, which she obviously saw but chose to ignore. 

     Later that day, I went over to some of the new teachers' apartment and when I was leaving I just grabbed the first bus that came my way. This was a mistake because it took me no where near where I

wanted to go and I was very lost. After a while, I asked the bus driver about the metro near my house and
he said no and pointed me in the direction of a bus that would take me there. It took about two hours to get home; my friends live a 20 minute walk away (that's how lazy I am).

     Today I went with Genie to Brisbel where she and her mom teach English. I was to be a guest in the class. It was rainy, windy and cold, and I wasn't prepared. I was cold all day long. When I
got to Brisbol, (which consisted of taking a bus-metro-switching metros-another bus-a train- and a
final bus,) Gayla called me. She said I needed to pay rent today. If I had been informed that rent was due
perhaps I would've been prepared, but I was no where near Rusanovka (the little island district where I live in Kiev). Gayla asked if I had any money in the apartment and I said no. She said if we didn't pay today Babushka would be mad, (which is something I would really like to avoid since G told me that while she was living here, Babs had gone through her underwear). I didn't know what to do, so she said she would call me back. She never did, but when I got home Emily told me that they borrowed money from a friend of Gayla's and we need to pay her back on Monday. And from now on we need to pay Babs directly. Of course they didn't tell us when rent would be due or how much, so we're thinking of baking some cookies for Babs so we stay on her good side.

Front door of my apartment building

      I'm still substitute teaching but this week is midterms so I get to take it easy. I miss everyone and hope everyone is well. Love, Jacy

My apartment

Keypad at front door

Stairs to my suite (on right)

Hallway outside my suite.

Door to my suite

Hallway in my suite, my door is straight forward

My front door

My balcony, 2nd from bottom

 

Jacy's 30th Birthday Orphanage Adventure

If You Feel Like Dancing!

Friday, September 7, 2007 7:42 AM 

Hey Everybody,
     So, last night we went out to a dance club and had a great time. I had talked with my Ukrainian friend Genie the day before and she asked if we wanted to go to a club called Sex Farm. The name is what won me over. However, once we got to the club I saw that it was called Saxon; with genie's accent I had heard wrong (I was a little disappointed). It cost 10g to get in, which is about $2. Genie, my roommate E, another teacher D, and I went. D had come with E to the metro stop where she was meeting Genie and I, but he had intended to go out with some other teachers. However since he couldn't get a hold of them, he had to hang out with us. The dance club wasn't exactly his scene and he had to pay 20g (girls got a discount) but I think he had fun.

    The dance club had two floors. The first was techno music and Genie, E and I started out dancing there. Watching people dance to techno music is so funny, I just pretended I was a robot and moved in mechanical spasms (I'm sure I looked hot). Then we all headed upstairs to where there was hip hop. We were sitting talking and a Ukrainian guy asked if D wanted to play pool with them. Ukrainian pool is slightly different than the kind we play in America. All the balls are white, you can hit a ball with any ball, and the balls are twice the size of regular pool balls, however the pockets are the same size. I guess the strategy is to hit a ball as hard as you can, aimed into the midsts of a bunch of balls and hope that one goes in, because lining up a ball with a pocket is pointless, its too big to go in from straight on. I was very confused. 

     Another observation I made was about what the women at the club were wearing. When Ukrainian women dress up the really go all out. Most were wearing skin tight something or other, and skirts that should have been bandanas. The back of one woman's dress was so long you could see almost her complete butt, red thong included. We actually had a really good time and didn't get home until 3 am. Tonight is a birthday party for a friend and then, tomorrow, I'm going with Genie to her home town to do some shopping and meet her family. I miss everyone, Love, Jacy

My friend Genie and I, along with her cousin and her boyfriend

Garden outside my apartment

New Apartment

Sunday, September 2, 2007 11:49 AM

Hi everbody,
So, I finally moved into my very own apartment and had to spend the whole day cleaning it because the last
people who lived here trashed the place. I spent about 2 hours on the kitchen, scrubby grease off of everything. I also don't have sheets or a blanket and my bed is a bunch of pillows, but at least I can start to unpack (after moving the stuff the last people left and scrubbing all of the shelves). My computer still won't take internet, I'm not sure why but I'm trying to figure it out. I'm using my new roommate E's computer. She is very nice and just got off of doing a stint in the PeaceCorps, in Madagascar-shout out to Mariah. I met some of the other teachers too and they all seem very nice. And I won't be so bored these next coming weeks because I will be subbing for a teacher who will be gone. I'll send pictures as soon as I get internet on my computer. I miss all of you and hope you are all doing well. Love, Jacy

Wednesday, September 5, 2007 5:53 PM

    I finally have internet. E, my roommate, and I talked to her computer genuis friend via the internet
on her computer, and we managed to set up a wireless network from her computer to mine. I am so happy to finally have it and now I can send pictures!!!
      E is really great and we get along very well. The apartment is looking pretty good to. I bought a down
comforter at a second hand store for $15 to put over top the pillow bed, which makes it very comfy. I've
also been teaching, substituting for another teacher who is out of town. I really like my students but the
class is from 8-10 PM on MW, which is hard because everyone is exhausted, and then on T-TH I work 6-8 and 8-10. The 6-8 class is fun but, once again, 8-10 seems to drag. Luckily I won't be working at the school I'm subbing at (the walk is long and uphill). So my classes will end at 9, which makes a huge difference for some reason. 

    Tomorrow night some new teachers and I are going to go out with my friend Genie to a club.
The new teachers are all really nice, although I don't get to see them much, but that will change once I
start work. I miss you all.
Love, Jacy

My bedroom

 

Look Out Below!

Sunday, August 26, 2007 7:33 AM

Hello everyone,
Friday was Ukraine Independence day and so I met my friend Genie on Khreshytic (the main street in Kiev) and it was jam-packed. it took us a little while to find each other, she said she was waving her hands but I really couldn't see much over the mass of people. She introduced me to her boyfriend, cousin, and his friend and we all went out to eat. Later I met up with the American teachers at a Chinese restaurant that was literally a hole-in-the wall. It looked like the building had been bombed and people had decided to make a restaurant in the hole from the bomb. I didn't eat
anything but everybody said it is the best Chinese in town.

       It was around 12 when we left and so we grabbed a bus and tried to make it to the metro but when we got there it was closed. While we were standing around deciding what to do, a bus pulled up to drop some people off and one of the Ukrainian teachers ran up and got the bus driver to drive all of us to the center of town (the guy was done for the night but bribes go along way in this town). So we had a huge bus all to ourselves. The bus driver turned the music up and everybody had a lot of fun. When we got to the center of town we caught a cab and went back home.

      Yesterday I met up with some American teachers for coffee. I was waiting for them on my front stoop,
sitting not on the bench provided but on the cement steps. An old man sitting on the bench started scolding me in Russian and I kinda guessed he was telling me not to sit there because people drop things
out of their windows all the time. I decided to stare at him incomprehensibly for a while and then chose to
ignore him. A couple of minutes later a red bull can came flying out the window and dropped near me. The
old man looked at me and said, in Russian, "I told you so." Then he started talking to a woman next to
him, gesturing at me, "I told that girl not to sit there but did she listen to me, No!" I did move and
stood under the protection of a tree for the rest of the wait, not willing to concede defeat and join him
on the bench.

          I told that story to my American friends and they regaled me with stories of being hit by random things flying out of windows. G once was hit with a bunch of chicken bones. The thing is these people are throwing the stuff on the sidewalk, not the ground or garbage heap. G said she looked up and an old woman (babushka) started yelling at her for walking where she was throwing her food.

       I'm still kinda bored because the school that I will be working at is closed for three weeks and there really isn't a lot for me to do until then, which is frustrating because everybody else is in the full swing of their jobs. More teachers come at the end of this week so, hopefully, they can entertain me. And hopefully I will
be getting my own place soon. I still don't have Internet which is also frustrating since I have to take a bus to the nearest Internet cafe and pay for Internet. Its not that expensive but I can't wait to have it in my house. I'm still not sure about the mail situation but hopefully that will be figured out soon too. I miss everyone and hope all is well. Love, Jacy

Downtown Kiev

Downtown Kiev

Ukrainian Funeral

Wednesday, August 22, 2007 7:06 AM

Hello everyone,
  The other day I woke up to the most somber music being played from outside. It sounded like a band was standing outside my building and playing and when I looked they were. Well, outside the building next door. I couldn't see real well but I saw some guys playing trombones and trumpets. Linda) came down, she is my roommate but she has been staying upstairs with someone else while I've been there. She said it was a funeral. Apparently when someone dies they remain in the house for a couple of days, all the mirrors are covered and someone stays to watch the body whole time. Then a band comes to play while the body is taken out of the house. We watched as the casket was carried by family members down the street and toward the cemetery. The whole thing took a couple of hours and was really magnificent. I talked to a guy and he said superstitions abound in Ukraine. For example, if you sit at the corner of a table it means you will never get married. And if you drop something it means you will have a visitor. It was interesting.

I also went out dancing the other night which was a lot of fun. Gayla (the girl who picked me up from the airport and acted as our concierge) has a friend who has a band, so we went to a bar called Dakota to listen. They played a lot of American songs so we knew all the words. They also served us food which consisted of french fries, fresh veggies, and lots of sausages.

I've also been teaching more often, although I haven't gotten my own classes yet, I've just been subbing. Apparently they hired too many people and I'm the odd girl out which I don't mind. I've been teaching at Rusonavka, a school right accross the street from where I live, so its nice. Everybody else is teaching at Khreshytic, which is 15 minute walk-metro ride-10 minute walk uphill. Some new teachers will be coming in September and some of them will be teaching at Rusonavka, so I won't be so alone.

I've been meeting the Ukrainian teachers and they are really nice. Tomorrow night is a pizza party at Khreshytic which sounds good to me. I'm having a good time but I miss everyone a lot. As soon as I know an address I'll send it but people are being confusing about that. They do say the Ukrainian mail is iffy, sometimes you'll get everything, and sometimes you won't. And sometimes it takes a couple of weeks, sometimes it takes months. Hope everything is well at home, Love, Jacy

Bathroom at my school

Classroom

The Break In

Thursday, August 16, 2007 11:57 AM

Hello all,
    I've taught another class and everything went well. My own classes starts on monday. My schedule will probably be 4-6 PM level 3, 6-7 PM Conversation club, 7-9PM level, M-Thursday. Then on Sundays I will have class probably from 10-5, teaching level 1 and also conversation clubs. I'm a little intimidated now but once I get everything figured out I should be fine.
     On sunday, we observed some classes and then I went home to relax. A couple hours later my friend called me from her apartment which is in the same building as mine. She was crying. She said that two men had broken into her house and she had locked herself into her room. She could hear them moving around outside the door. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't call 911 and we weren't even sure if the Ukrainian police department would care. I ran over to her house and started yelling to her landlady (babbushka) that I needed help. She said (in Russian) she didn't understand english so I called Gayla, a uUrainain girl I know, and asked her to translate. The line cut out so I ran to the elevator and was planning on beating up the guys who had broke in, when the elevator door opened and Gayla was there. Gayla went over to the landlady and I ran onto the elevator.
    When I got to my friend's door, I didn't know if the guys were still there so I banged on the door and yelled, "Are you okay?" my friend opened the door and was crying and clearly very upset.
     Apparently while she was sleeping she heard some keys rattling outside her door and the doorknob turn. Expecting her roommate home any day, she unlocked the door and two guys barged in. She yelled at them but they pushed her out of the way and she ran for her bedroom. When she had locked herself in she realized that her purse was in the kitchen so she ran for it. The guys cornered her and yhe only thing she could understand was Coffee, so she grabbed the coffee can and pushed it in their faces while running for her room. She got to her room but a guy tried to push his way in. She was stronger.Once in her room, she called Gayla and then me. The guys were gone by the time Gayla got there which had to be 5 minutes later.
     Gayla called the police and they came. They caught the guys because the landlady didn't see them leave the building so we knew they were still there. The police dusted for fingerprints and took pictures of the apartment, it was very CSI. While Gayla and my friend were downstairs talking to the police I stayed in the apartment. After a little while I heard a knock on the door and looked through the peephole to see a man and a woman. They kept knocking and finally I yelled, "Who is it?" The woman said, "I am your neighbor, open the door." Well, I wasn't about to open the door so I yelled, "What do you want?" "Open the door." she yelled back. I ignored her. She kept knocking and yelling "open the door" and I refused. Finally she said, "Look, is this your's?" she held a plastic bag up to the peephole. "I don't know," I yelled back. "Open the door and look." "Just leave it outside the door and I'll look later."
      Meanwhile I called Gayla and she said, "Do not open the door, I will be up with the police in a minute." The woman kept knocking and yelliing but finally she left the bag outside the door and went into her apartment. I waited some more and in about 15 minutes she was back at the door knocking. "Is this your's?" "No." I yelled and she left. A couple of minutes later
Gayla came back upstairs followed by Carolin and the police. Gayla knocked on the neighbor's door and the neighbor lady said that she had found a plastic bag full of stuff by the elevator. We looked through it and thought maybe it was the roomate of my friend's stuff, whose room was open. The cops took everything to the station with them. The roommate is away and should be coming back this week, we haven't been able to get a hold of her, so she's in for a surprise.
     Other than that nothing too exciting has happened. I was lost in Kiev for a while, roaming around, but luckily I found some people who spoke English who could guide me. We were supposed to go to a new school to observe some classes but I had never been there so I asked T2 to go with me, because he had been there. He stood me up, which I figured would happen, he's a bit of a jerk and is starting to piss some people off.
     Anyway Gayla tried to guide me by phone but it is a hard place to find. I was very proud of myself for finally getting there. Everybody else has had a guide to take them to the school, I found it on my own.
     Today I went to a huge second hand clothing store and bought a lot of nice clothes. They had a lot of H&M stuff for cheap. Tonight Olga and my friend and I are going to watch a movie. Jason, one of the new teachers, is leaving o go teach in Odessa so we might also go out with him. I'm starting to feel accustommed here and am having a good time. I'm excited for when more people arrive. I miss everyone and hope all is well.
Love, Jacy

Biography: The Beginning of My Life and What Lead to My Two Metal Hips Part 1

       In 1975, my parents moved into the forests of Wisconsin from Minneapolis. Originally, they moved out to the country with another couple, sharing space in an old farmhouse they rented. However, not long afterward, my parents bought a piece of land and began building their own house. They did odd jobs for money. My mom worked in Minneapolis (an hour and a half away) at Planned Parenthood. My dad worked, at different times, as a school bus driver for the High School, a dishwasher at a nearby restaurant, and a disc jockey for the local radio station. They weren't the only hippies in the area. There was a little enclave of hippies surrounding them; mainly artists who had moved out of Minneapolis and St Paul to reconnect with nature. Many lived in rundown school houses or had built their own places. They would meet often for pot lucks and sweat lodges, and had even put out a cookbook for their little community.

               My parents had moved to Minneapolis shortly after marrying in the fall of 1973. My dad was from Dubuque, Iowa, and my mom was from just across the river in East Dubuque, Illinois.  They had met while working as orderlies in the Mental Health ward of Sacred Heart Hospital in Dubuque. They had gone to the same High School and had hung around at the same parties, and had known of each other prior to meeting. My mom trained my dad in as an orderly and they started dating. Less than a year later they were married and on their way to Minneapolis.

               They had moved out to the country with dreams of making their own way. My mom baked fresh bread and worked on the garden as my dad built the house. For a while they lived in a tent. My dad says that summer was when he was healthiest he had ever been. He was tanned from working in the sun, and buff from hammering all day long. Soon they had a one room house built, with a loft for a bedroom. The house wasn't large; it had no toilet or TV.  My parents lived 10 long years using an outhouse, something our guests (mainly my grandparents) were not pleased about. Luckily, for me, I was still young and using a baby toilet, when they built on a second and third floor that included a bathroom with a toilet. There was also a wood stove for heat and a gas stove for cooking. Even as a small child it was my responsibility to run out and grab some logs for the stove. After school, before my parents got home from work, I would start up the wood stove while my younger brother brought in the wood and kindling. Until I was 5, the wood stove was the main source of heat for our house, and after that it continued to be the source of heat for the entire downstairs and my parent's bedroom. 

My mom

My dad

           Nine years after getting married, and seven years after moving to the country, I arrived into the little world my parents had made for themselves in the forests of Wisconsin. I was their first child and they were excited to be parents. There is a video of me at about 8 months. It was made by friends who had a son my age. They lived about a quarter mile away, and we were the only babies in the neighborhood.  In the video, I can be seen pulling myself up and walking unsteadily with the use of couches and chairs. I had bright blue eyes and dark hair and at one point I looked directly into the camera and said 'Dah'. Our friends had brought all their son’s pacifiers along, hoping to make a video of us fighting over them. However, never having used a pacifier, I didn't know what to do with them and for the most part was disinterested. The other baby and I would paw at the pacifiers and eventually he would get one in his mouth. If I did manage to pick one up, I'd simply chew on it. The video was filmed on a very cold and snowy day, and everyone was dressed warmly, sitting downstairs at our house. My parents were in their early 30s at the time and looked the part of young parents. There is such an innocence about the scene. Two sets of young parents playing with their toddlers. When this video was filmed, the tumor that wouldn’t be discovered for another month, was already making a home for itself within my small frame. In fact, when it was discovered, it was at such a severe stage it is possible it had all begun in the womb. At any rate, what happened a month after the video was taken, makes the video itself seem all the more innocent. A simple glimpse at a time 'before', where most of my parent's concerns were wrapped up in whether, as my mom mentions in the video, they were spoiling me. 

Taken from the porch of our house in the country. Mom holding me, dad holding my brother, and my dad's parents.

Email 3 from Ukraine

Bus 

View of church from my apartment.

Email titled: No water but plenty of vodka

Note: I've decided to not use people's full names, just the first letter of their names. In this post there are two guys whose names start with T so I've decided to call them T and T2.

Saturday, August 11, 2007 9:29 AM

Hey everybody,
   So Thursday night I taught my first class and I was
very nervous, but I think it went pretty well. I was
being observed by my training director and three
american guys, so it was a little nerve-racking. Also
the cirriculum here is so structured, I have so much
to memorize. But I think I will enjoy it once I get
used to it.

         Thursday night, we all went out to a
German pub and hung out. Then T, who is the
ring-leader of our little group, announced that we
were going to go back to his friend Artur's apartment.
We all went outside to get taxis but Artur was no
where in sight and T didn't know where he lived.
So, we stood outside for a while and eventually Artur
showed up. There were so many of us that we had to
take three different taxis. The first taxi held Artur
and others and they made it to the apartment right
away. The taxi I was in roamed the city for over an
hour in search of the apartment, but we eventually got
there. The third taxi dropped everyone off at a metro
station somewhere, so they had to get another taxi and
try again.

    When we had all arrived we went up to
Artur's apartment which was huge and beautiful. From
the outside all apartment buildings look the same,
like crap. The lobbys are falling apart, not all of the lights work,
and everything smells horrible. But once inside an
apartment, everything changes. Its the communist
mentality that nobody can seem like they have more
than any one else.

   At the apartment everybody got
really drunk and Artur played guitar and sang to us,
songs that he had made up. They were very beautiful
and I was very impressed.

   At 330 in the morning another American teacher,

D, wanted to go home, so
I said I'd join her in a taxi. This was very upsetting
to Artur who couldn't understand why we were leaving
so early, were we not having fun? We had to keep
explaining that we were tired. D had to work the
next day, but still Artur could not understand. Finally, we
got a taxi and went home.

    The next day, I traveled into the city by myself.

 I got a little switched around on
the metro and had to do some backtracking, but
eventually I got to where I wanted to go. Petrivka has
an outside market that, although very ugly, has a lot
of cool stuff. I bought some things and wandered
around, then went back home.

My local grocery store.

   One thing I should mention is, when I woke

 up yesterday morning I had no
water. However, do to my waterless time in Mexico
City, I was prepared (I spent a vacation visiting a friend in Mexico City and the water kept being turned off. We would leave the faucet turned on at night and wake up to the sound of water flowing in the sink. We'd jump out of bed and fill ever bucket we could find, bathe really quickly, and fill up the toilet tank before the water shut off again. We had about an hour of flowing water to work with). When I got back that night (after going to the market),

 I was going to just buy some water at the store but then I
noticed a guy carrying buckets and decided to follow
him. He led me to a well right outside my apartment
building so I ran in and grabbed some water containers

The well where I got my water.

and filled them up. I'm such a survivlist.

   When I got back to the apartment C called me and told me
everyone was down by the canal. I walked down and met
T2 and another American teacher, S, and his
Ukrainian girlfriend along the way. Everybody was just
hanging out drinking and playing guitar, so I sat and
talked with them for a while. T kept on me about
why I didn't drink, he thought it was because I was a
bible-thumper and wanted to convert Ukrainians. Let's
say he learned never to make assumptions again. After
a while everybody got so drunk that our conversations
didn't make any sense and I went home.

     Everybody is really nice and I am having a good time. Today C
and I are going to the old part of town to explore, and
we will probably meet up with an Ukrainian teacher.
Tomorrow we have class. And just in case you are
worrying, my water is back on. I miss you all and hope
everything is going well. Love, Jacy

View of the statue from my apartment.

Preface to the second email I sent from Ukraine:

               When I arrived in Ukraine the school was not ready for me. Apparently the guy who had hired me thought I would be coming a month later than I actually did. I had to wait for the next batch of American teachers to arrive before I could have my own apartment and start teaching. They arrived a month after me. I spent the first month in Ukraine staying at another teacher’s apartment while she was on vacation. She had been living in Ukraine for over ten years and had remodeled an apartment to make it more comfortable. I could sleep in her bed until she came back and then I would be relegated to the couch. However, she was a very nice lady, and stayed with the director of our school until the new teachers arrived, letting me have her apartment to myself. It was a great place to stay, but I was incredibly bored. After a week of training, there was nothing for me to do. All the other teachers had classes, but I spent my days at the apartment afraid to venture out. It is interesting how palpable that fear was. I knew no one would understand me and was scared that people finding out I didn’t belong. I spent my days inside the apartment, only going out to get groceries. I was lonely and bored. I have never been more aware of world events than during that month, thanks to Aljezzera, which I watched constantly, it being the only English TV channel I had. I also read a lot. I didn’t have internet at my apartment, so those were my only two activities. It was a bit of a miserable start. Soon, however, my loneliness and boredom outweighed my fears of venturing out of the apartment. I was forced out of my comfort zone. To this day, whenever I travel, I spend the first couple of days in a frightened stupor, scared to leave the house. They’ll find me out, I think, buried beneath blankets, afraid to move. However, I’m never allowed to stay in that state for very long. It’s an excellent lesson in conquering your fears and pushing yourself.


Wednesday, August 8, 2007 3:00 PM

Hi all,
So, I still don't have internet in my apartment and am right now at a friend's house using hers. It's a
little frustrating but everything in Ukraine is slow, I'm used to the American way of getting things done
 instantly. Waiting is the word of the year. But It’s nice to have a little bit slower pace of life.

My apartment is gorgeous, (I should have written that the inside of my apartment was gorgeous. As you can see from the following pictures, the rest of it was a bit sketchy), although I don't get to stay there forever. Right now I'm by myself living at another teacher's house while she is on vacation. She will be coming back next week and I hear that she likes to cook, which works very well for me. The apartment has a Jacuzzi bathtub, which is pretty sweet, and cable, but really that just consists of Aljazeera in English, which I watch.

The hall outside my apartment.
My door is on the left.

My apartment building.
My apartment is on the left, on the 8th floor.

The front door of my apartment building.

The two keys I needed to get into my front door.

Underneath my apartment building.

 One for the doorknob lock and one for a lock higher up on the door.

                                                                                                                                         



The view is amazing also. I can see a beautiful gold towered cathedral and an enormous statue from across the river. They say the statue is bigger than the statue of liberty (it also is of a woman) but I haven't been there to check it out yet.




'Mother Motherland', the statue

 I could see from my apartment-203 feet tall.


I've been into the city only once, we went to a famous street, which I will be working on once I'm done with the training. We walked down the street and into Independence Square, where millions of people rallied during the Orange Revolution in 2004. There were some cool statues and the views were magnificent. We also did some shopping and then had dinner with a bunch of teachers. But since then we've just been training, so I haven't had time for any more site-seeing. My trainer says that she will take me to a nice second hand store, so I'm excited about that.


So far its been pretty warm here, not as bad as Florida but still sweaty and humid. The
worst is there is no air conditioning and Ukrainians don't believe in opening windows, they are afraid it
 would create a draft and make everybody sick. However, I'm not one for suffocating, so I open the windows in the classroom.

Right now my diet is pretty pathetic, mainly consisting of bread, cheese, cereal and pasta.
I did have some beets the other day. I've been cooking my own food which is really not a good idea, my
 standard of cooking just doesn't work for me. But my laziness usually wins over my want for good taste.

This weekend we are going to do some more site-seeing and maybe head to the beach. Carolyn (the only other american girl here) and I are hoping for some more girl teachers, some more teachers will be arriving in a couple of weeks. The American guys are gaga over the Ukrainian women. They also like to drink, a lot, and the director of my school who is 38 is right there with them. It is kinda annoying because whatever we do turns into a big drinking fest and Carolin and I are always the only American girls, the Ukrainian girls are always being flirted with by the American boys so we tend to get bored. But it has been very interesting so far. I miss everyone and hope everyone is doing

well. Love, Jacy

Here are some of the sights we saw on our sight-seeing tour:

A church in Kiev

The Chimera building, a governmental building

The beginning of Ukraine

Saturday, August 4, 2007 2:08 PM

Hi Everyone,

A recent photo of Cari and me

My trip to Ukraine began with the frantic anxiety that comes with moving overseas, albeit a bit more than necessary. In hindsight, moving places for me is never a good idea, and I should have realized all would not go as planned (the year before I had moved from Wisconsin to Florida, losing my car in a spectacular and traumatic road-side break-down somewhere in Tennessee, forcing us to rent a car the rest of the way.) Nevertheless, I woke up the day of my flight anxious yet excited for what was to come. I had stayed over at a friend's house, my flight left from Chicago around 6:00 PM and she lived two hours away. I had come to Illinois to say goodbye to friends and family and, after a couple of farewell parties, I was ready to be on my way. My friend, Cari, had to work the early part of the day but planned to arrive home around 12 so we could have lunch and take a leisurely drive to the airport, arriving a good two hours before my flight left. She was at work when I realized the contents of my hotel sample shampoo bottle had spilled into my cosmetics bag, but by the time she arrived home, I had it all cleaned up. We pulled my two enormous suitcases up the stairs of her basement apartment and out into the car. All was ready and we joked as we prepared for the drive. It was at this point that our smiling faces turned to teary-eyed paniced ones. The keys, we soon realized, were not in her purse. Nor were they in her car or (and believe me we checked) any of her pockets. It so happened that the very item we needed to begin our two hour trip to the airport (and my seven hour flight to Poland where I would then take a 2 hour flight to Kiev), were sitting on the kitchen table, along with the house key. We were, as it turned out, locked out of the house and therefore, refused access to starting our car. Our first thoughts were to try the windows, perhaps one had been left unlocked, however, that was soon deemed unlikely and we sat to go on to plan two.

            Plan 2) Call the landlord and beg him to run over and let us in. This too, failed, as the landlord refused to pick up the phone. Plan 3) Knock on the neighbors' doors and gain access to a phonebook in order to call a locksmith. The woman who answered the door, wearing a  muumuu, daytime soaps playing in the background, was very kind and understanding and lent us the use of her phonebook. Cari called the various numbers of locksmiths in town but received answers from no one. Plan 4) Call the Sheriff's office and see what advice they could have for us, advice that turned out to be call a locksmith. In the meantime Cari had put in a call to her boss, explaining the situation and hoping she would have some better advice for us. In a moment of inspiration, and salvation, she offered the use of her car, so plan 5) became, borrow bosses car to drive to the airport.

            45 minutes after our planned departure, Cari's boss Jessica pulled into the apartment building parking lot and we loaded my suitcases into her car (we had to get them out of Cari's trunk by pulling them through the backseat, not an easy feat). Once inside Jessica's car panic set in one again, the car was a manual, and, although I would be able to get us to the airport, Cari wouldn't be able to get back home. Plan 6) Take Jessica's husband's truck to the airport. So, finally Cari and I were rumbling down the highway in the biggest truck I had ever seen, and Cari had ever driven, on our way to the airport. And we weren't doing too bad on time, I'd arrive an hour ahead of time, instead of the leisurely two I usually like to have.

            Being a little late, Cari decided perhaps our best chance of making up that time was to take a way that could end up being a little faster, a shortcut if you will. This shortcut however, ended up being not nearly as much on the short side as we would have liked. In fact, it turned into a dead end and we had to double back, (a quick note, doing a y-turn in an enormous truck is not as simple as it seems.) What is more, within doubling back we became ensnared in a construction related traffic jam. I had now become a bit nervous, we were losing precious time and I was afraid I would miss my flight altogether. Once through the construction site, however, we flew down the road and finally found ourselves on the entrance ramp to the freeway. From here on in, we foolishly thought to ourselves, it will be smooth sailing, we were a mere 20 minute away and the truck was equipped with an I-pass, enabling us to cruise by tolls. Yet again, our plans were foiled, traffic on the freeway had begun to accumulate and we found ourselves anxiously chewing our fingernails in agonizingly slow-moving traffic again. Plan 7) get a new flight for the following day and spend the night in a hotel, so as not to have to go through the same thing again. Having finally arrived at check-in I tumbled out of the car, suitcases in tow as Cari wished me luck.

            The line was short inside and as I panted up to check-in saying, “I hope I made it,” the guy merely glanced at me and asked for my passport. Ten minutes later, I at least knew my luggage had made it onto my flight, now I just had to get myself through the never-ending line for the security check-point.  At this point, according to my ticket my flight was boarding, however, I was still waiting in line. I asked a guy ushering people into straight lines if he thought I'd make my flight but he simply pointed to my line. I made it through security and ran to my gate and up to the desk to ask if they'd started boarding. The woman simply told me to take a seat, and finally I had a chance to breath.

     As I looked around, I saw that the waiting area was thronged with children and I overheard someone say, "there's 46 of them." A couple of the children were wearing shirts that said 'Children of Chernobyl Camp..'. They were all yelling and laughing in Russian. "Great" I thought, "I hope I'm not sitting next to any of these screaming kids." As it turned out my seat mate was a 6 or 7 year old boy, who, according to a name tag, was named Danil. Danil was seated by the window, and I on the aisle, across from all his friends. Danil spent a lot of time yelling over at his friends, especially to a boy named Vlad. I tried to relax into my seat excited to begin my Harry Potter book but Danil's yelling and constant moving made it hard. As the plane took off, I offered a piece of gum to Danil hoping to bribe him into good behavior. After a while Danil fell asleep and I got into my book. 

                    Soon there after, our meal came and Danil woke up. He asked for a coke from the drink cart and I prayed the flight attendant knew not to serve caffeine to minors after 7 at night. Unfortunately he didn't. I continued reading and tried to ignore Danil as best I could. As the rest of the cabin went to sleep the kids' behavior got rowdier, including pillow fights. I apparently was the only one watching them and spent my time reading and sporadically yelling, "come on you guys, you need to settle down." Finally I put my neck pillow on and tried to sleep. After a while I pulled out my eye mask, and after a little more time I put on my MP3 player. Every sense was blocked. Eventually Danil went to sleep and I dozed a little. After about an hour I woke to Danil throwing his head against my shoulder and encircling my arm with his little hands. I knew he must miss his family, and, with his hand holding on hard to my arm, I fell asleep too. 

               I woke to food being placed in front of me and soon we were descending to the Warsaw airport. After waiting in long lines for passport check, I arrived at my next gate and looked for a guy named Devin. We had exchanged emails, he also was a new teacher for the American English Center, and we had decided to try and meet up since we would both be on the same plane from Warsaw to Kiev. He described himself as having glasses, brown hair and a boyish face. I made eye contact with someone fitting this description but about ten years older than I imagined so I decided to ignore him and continue my book.

        On the next flight I got a whole row to myself. I stretched out and relished the hour and a half flight to Kiev. When I arrived in Kiev, customs went smoothly and my luggage came quickly. I walked through the exit and looked for a sign with my name on it. A tall girl with dyed red hair that was dreaded in the back was holding my sign and we introduced ourselves. She also introduced her friend, another faux redhead, and we waited for Devin. After about 45 minutes of waiting the driver came in and I  went back to the car with him to wait there. He didn't speak any English. A half an hour of waiting in silence was interrupted when the driver pointed to the steering wheel and said something. I just stared at him. He repeated himself and I said, a little hesitantly, "Steering wheel?" He pointed to the clock and said something else, I'm silent, he repeated himself and so I repeated him. He said the word more slowly, I copied, he pointed to the mirror and said something, I repeated, he pointed again and I said "mirror" he repeated me, then he pointed to the clock and I said "clock", he repeated. We sat in silence again. 

      Soon the faux redheads came back with Devin and they crowded into the back seat, along with all of Devin's luggage and I stretched out in the front. I watched the landscape as we drove by. We were in a suburb of Kiev and after dropping the friend faux redhead off, we headed into Kiev. It looked very gray, with tall apartment buildings unadorned and concrete. We dropped Devin off first at Jonathan's, the program's HR director, house and then went on to my apartment. I would be living at Linda's apartment for the month of August. She'd be out of town until the 13th, until which time I could have her bedroom. But after the 13th I would be sleeping on the couch. Her apartment was small but cute, and when I arrived I bathed and relaxed, after telling the redhead that I would prefer not to take a walk around town after a 14 hour flight

My first apartment in Ukraine

.

             At 7:30 I called Jonathan and he said 'we're going to meet everyone at 8 for dinner.' He said he'd meet me in the lobby of my apartment building. We walked down to a busy street with Jon pointing out the school I'd be training at along the way. When we arrived at a pizza place, we meet three other guys. And soon a girl named Carolyn joined our group. We wandered around for a while and then followed the river to a little outside eating area. We waited for about an hour but were finally served some slow-roasted pork and vegetables. It was delicious. We stayed and talked for a while but I was getting tired and Devin was absolutely exhausted so we headed back, and I soon found myself resting peacefully.

            Today, I woke up at 7 and couldn't fall back to sleep so I read for a while and then decided to try to take a nap in which I slept until 4. When I got up, I headed to the supermarket for some food. There was a slight mix-up when the lady asked if I wanted a bag and I just stared blankly at her. She pointed to the bags and I nodded. Apparently you have to pay for them..

      Afterwards I returned to my apartment and just read. I am now at Carolyn's apartment using her internet. I don't have internet at my place yet but hopefully soon. I have a cell phone but can't use it to call long distance but I can receive calls: I think the country code is 380, my house phone number is ... and my cell number is ... Hopefully you can get a hold of me. If not look up online how to call. Remember I am 7-8 hours ahead of you, so if you call at 5 in the afternoon, it will be midnight here. But you can probably call me anytime tonight since I got so much sleep today. I miss everyone and am a little lonely for you all. Love, Jacy