Updates!

So it turns out that the wind/snow/rain storm that knocked in my windows pretty much hit everything on the Black Sea and has been described as a cyclone by some weather service folks. It even overturned and sunk some oil tankers in the Black Sea, eeek! I guess only having my sugar container knocked onto the floor of my kitchen isn't much to complain about compared to spilled oil or the giant trees I saw knocked over in my recent visit to Crimea!

Also, I checked the election results for the ballot my students and I filled out, and it turns out that Ukrainian teenagers vote exactly like the majority of people in my Congressional District back home do--FOR re-structuring zoning laws, AGAINST tobacco taxes to fund child health care and FOR more police and fire fighters in Forest Grove, Oregon. When I told them they were "correct" in their votes and that their side "won," they were all really excited!

Today's Thanksgiving but I'll be teaching. Peace Corps was really great about it and gave all PCV's the day off, but I want to talk about Thanksgiving with my students instead of missing work since most of them have never heard of the holiday. I'll just call my parents and family in the evening my time/in the morning in Oregon, so everything will be fine. Actually, I probably couldn't afford to miss tomorrow anyway because of the recent schedule changes--when I got to school yesterday, I found out (like everyone else, apparently) that the 9th, 10th and 11th
form students would be missing every period after the 2nd (so basically the whole day) so they can "plant trees in the woods." In addition to it being just bad forest policy to plant trees in late November, I'm probably going to have to make up those lessons tomorrow, when I normally would be sleeping in. I'd like to say that last-second schedule changes like this were new, but, well...they're pretty much the norm around here. At this point I'm mostly just entertained by it all. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!