Archive for ‘Ukraine’

February 1st, 2009

Setting Goals Part 2: Start something.

My nickname around this part of the world has become Artsy McCrafterson. I have a knack for making something from nothing, and I LOVE doing it. This is nothing new for me, but for Tanya… well, she seems amazed at all my little creations. She actually said I should start a crafting portfolio from just around our apartment. Interesting idea, eh?

Anyways, some of my creations have involved the following:

1. Making a Christmas tree from a house plant and doing it up right with gummy bears on a string for that extra burst of color it needed.

artsy mccrafterson

2. Making party decorations out of old colored papers we both had.

jess and shatan

3. Making birthday party hats and a sceptor out of The Economist and old newspapers.

party hats

My mind constantly radiates creative ideas (hopefully that’s not a Chernobyl-related thing now), and if I don’t put those good ideas to use, I start to go a little crazy. This might be why I love playing around with my websites so much. I love colors, creating, and design, so this is where my next goal comes to play: start something you can continue to be creative with.

Over the past couple of years, I have been playing around with different web-based business ideas that I can really focus on and grow with. During this time, I have realized how much I really love building websites/blogs, so I think I finally figured out that a great idea to appease my creative mind and build a business is brought to you in the following form: Free Custom WordPress!

Yes, I will set up your WordPress blog, and you won’t have to lift a finger! I know, I know, a WordPress blog setup can be done for free, but what if you don’t have the time or know-how?! I’ll do it for you in a snap with that little extra bit of love that you won’t get anywhere else ;) I’ll even help you customize your template to fit your blogging needs. All I ask is that you buy your hosting through my partner, GoDaddy.com (who I’ve been using for years now!), and we’ll be square.

Sound cool?

I’ve done this before for a few people, as you can tell from the website, and I really enjoyed the process. I am also constantly giving little tips and whatnot to other readers who send me emails. I’m sure they can attest to my abilities, right? ;) Really, I want to take this seriously because it will 1) allow me to be creative, 2) force me to learn more about it all, and 3) help me get a little extra cash now and then. And as for you, you receive your own blog at your own domain with no fuss! Nice.

Thanks again, everyone, for reading, and I hope you can help me spread the word. We’ll see how this goes!

Yours,

Artsy McCrafterson

update: this venture has stopped. internet access was poor when arriving in Sydney and i needed to work a lot to pay rent :( but, it was a great idea!

CategoryTech & Gear, Ukraine | Comment6 Comments »

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January 30th, 2009

My Life as a Teacher

I believe I told you all a while ago that I would be sharing more information about my working life here in Ukraine, so I have finally decided to make a post dedicated to doing just that.

For starters, my job is really not difficult. The Ukrainian teachers here focus on the grammar, while the American teachers focus on repeating these lessons and making them speak while using the target language. As easy as this may sound, I am still beat by the end of the night. It takes a lot of energy to focus, correct, explain, and be as animated as possible in front of a class for hours. Really, I’ve got to give a big round of applause to elementary school teachers now that I know the difficulties surrounding such presentation.

Since most of the students are university students and working professionals, we teach in the evenings. I actually don’t mind this schedule whatsoever as I kind of enjoy being a night owl, and I enjoy not having to go directly to work as soon as I wake up. At this point, it seems a bit difficult to ever picture myself in a normal 9-5 job lifestyle again.

In class, I have developed a teaching style where I try to have as much fun as possible, while being strict about the lesson at the same time. Yes, it is possible, and they do like it ;) Basically, I figure these people are here on their own volition and to do one thing: learn English. I know most of them don’t have a lot of money, and a lot of them have even lost their jobs recently, so I want them to get the most bang-for-their-buck. The other day I actually had a few students in a higher level ask me why I was not their teacher this semester. They continued by saying that they liked their new teacher, but they thought I was stricter and they need that. Ha, imagine that!

Overall, I love my students. I think they are all very bright and interesting people. Here are some of my students from last level:

lev3small

lev3small2

lev5small

I wasn’t really sure what to do when we got these pictures taken, so I basically stood there with my hands in my pockets and whatnot. I later found out that other teachers were doing group shots with their arms around each other and looking all buddy-buddy. Even if these pictures don’t show it, I really do love my students! :D

And, that’s about it on that one. I don’t work on Fridays or Saturdays, so it is my weekend now, and I’d really enjoy focusing more on that right now!

CategoryUkraine | Comment7 Comments »

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January 25th, 2009

Applying to Taco Bell

The world is in a huge crisis right now. This is true. I can’t even put a number on the times I hear “economic crisis” in class, or the number of times I hear my mom talk about someone losing their job back home. It’s really hard to gauge how bad it actually is when I’m out country-hopping and dealing with foreign currencies that change every week.

Now, however, I’ve been settled for a while, and the crisis is becoming more and more real to me. I’m not sure what to think, do, plan… All I know is that I’m making way less money here in Ukraine than I thought I was going to be, and it is really frustrating. Right now, the dollar amount would be less than people make working at Taco Bell. If you factor in any hours spent prepping classes you are… well… not near minimum wage. And, if you get technical and factor in that you lose money during an exchange situation then your dollars are even fewer.

taco bell dog

To sum it up, I would kill to be making Taco Bell wages right now! Heck, I would kill to just be eating Taco Bell right now! Apparently, Ukraine doesn’t understand that spice makes food tasty. Yeah, that’s right. You’ll find me in the kitchen eating “chili sauce” on bread just to have something that somewhat tickles my tongue in my mouth.

The value of the dollar is becoming more and more precious to me. The other day, a very kind reader donated $10 to me through PayPal and I was seriously floored. It made my day! Donations or beers bought don’t happen very often, and this time it just seemed more special because that was really X-hours of teaching English!

There are various ways I try to monetize my website in order to supplement my income, but most are unsuccessful. Maybe one day I’ll get it down like Nerdy Nomad and become a true working nomad. A girl can still dream, right?!

Until then, I’ll be scouring Ukraine for a Taco Bell I can apply (eat) at!

CategoryUkraine | Comment4 Comments »

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January 21st, 2009

How To Brush Your Teeth

After all of the holiday goodies and chocolates I had been consuming, I decided it was definitely high time to take a trip to the dentist for a cleaning. When you’re never in one place for a long time, getting all those little bits done – like seeing a dentist – become pushed to the end of the list until one day you realize its been… how long?!… since your last visit. Yeah, not good.

The school here provided me with a doctor’s name they like to work with, and who apparently has a dentist on his staff. After multiple phone calls to the doctor, and multiple responses about needing me to call back in a few days, I decided to go to a swanky place that I found online. It still cost me less than a dental cleaning back home and was probably the best cleaning I have ever had. Congrats, Ukraine, you got me again.

However, my one question about the whole appointment was when we discussed a proper toothbrushing technique. This has been a huge concern of mine for the past few years when I noticed increased sensitivity in my teeth, one or two in particular. I was then told by my American dentist that it was due to minor gum recession in those areas. Small circles they said. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had heard many times when growing up that small circles was the proper technique, but I guess I didn’t quite understand that it was because an improper brushing technique could cause you to actually “brush away your gums”.

Who knew? I used to think that scrubbing the shnikeys out of them was the better way to go. After all, I always received rave reviews from my orthodontists and such about how great of a brushing job I did. Well, apparently I was wrong and have been administering the small, soft circles since.

Now, I get to Ukraine and am even more confused! They demonstrated yet another toothbrushing technique that didn’t involve any small circles whatsoever. They said to take the brush, start at the gums in one area, and stroke straight away from them maybe 5 or 6 times before moving to the next area. What?!

So, I immediately consulted the ADA website and found an animation on toothbrushing and of course it kind of showed more of the small circles technique. I’m so confused people. Any hygienists out there who can shed some light on this subject?!

CategoryUkraine | Comment5 Comments »

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January 17th, 2009

Mmmm… Chocolate

Tanya happily walked in the front door a few days ago after a short getaway. “Hey, roomie! I brought you back some delicious treats from my trip to Lviv!”

“Noooooooooooo!” I screamed. What was she trying to do to me? I’ve already shared my concerns on how I need to cut back on sweets after the holidays, but there she was, all smiles and holding chocolates in her hand. I had to resist.

“Wait, what’s going on here?” I began to think as I was watcing my hand quickly snatch up a piece, then proceed to unwrap and pop it in my mouth. It all happened too quickly, and there I was, all smiles and munching on some decadent sweets.

svitoch

The chocolates were made by a company called Svitoch, which is indigenous to Lviv in western Ukraine. Svitoch has actually been around since 1882 in one form or another, according to this in depth history found here, and even though it was acquired by the Nestle company in the mid 90s, it is still ranted and raved about by the locals.

I immediately stopped thinking about how festively plump I had become over the holidays and just enjoyed the serotonin being released in my brain. Man, I love chocolate! Thanks, roomie, for a great present!

*p.s. Malena, if you are going to Ukraine, you should check these out!

CategoryUkraine | Comment5 Comments »

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January 15th, 2009

What has been the best year of your life?

In one of my conversation clubs in school here in Ukraine, I asked my students what the best year of their life has been. Questions like these, followed with a simple, “Why?”, are a great way to get them all to talk (my main goal for my classes), while also killing a ton of class time. However, a lot of the time they like to turn it around and ask me the same thing, so after thinking for just a few seconds, I confidently answered:

“It has definitely been 2008.”

“Why?” they asked (They also probably thought this was a good way to kill class time!).

I felt kind of odd answering their question. Imagine trying to explain to people in Ukraine, most of whom have never even left their own country, that travel has been the most amazing thing you have ever done. Instead of rambling on about my travel lust, I tried to keep it short and sweet and save all the details for my lovely readers (that’s you!). So, here are some of the wonderful reasons why 2008 was so great!

1. I got to travel… A lot!

In 2008, I saw many different countries: Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Poland, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Hungary.

In the grand scheme of things, that probably doesn’t seem like much. It was a whole year, afterall! But, I like to think my approach to travel is still just as interesting as those people who are taking on the whole world in a single year. Don’t get me wrong – I love to be on the move (I miss it right now actually!), but hitting up a major site for just one long weekend doesn’t quite give you the perspective I’m looking for. What happens when people go back to work and all the tourists go back home? How does life look then?

2. I did some interesting things!

3. I met some amazing people!

The people you meet on the road really make it something special – they set the tone, and even shape the memories of a place forever. Travel with someone for a few weeks, or few days even, and you feel like you’ve known them forever. I would say I’ve been lucky to have encountered such interesting and wonderful friends from my travels – all the way from my Bishkek Crew and my Baltic Gang to my now Ukraine Posse. Yup, lucky. Last year will forever be shaped by the people I’ve laughed with, cried with, smiled at, hid from, been annoyed with, been surpised by, dreamed with, dreamed about, hated, and loved.

4. I learned a lot about myself!

As cheesy as it sounds, I did learn a lot about myself during my year of travels. Well, maybe learned isn’t quite the word I’m looking for. Perhaps notions about myself, and the way I am and deal with life, became fact in my mind. No, there were no life-changing, earth-shaking discoveries, but I would say I have a better understanding of where I stand.

Cheers to the good and the bad! Nothing is perfect. In spite of all its amazingness, 2008 still had its breaking points. Oh, I’ve been all over the place. I’ve been up, down, left, right – happy, sad, you name it. Maybe I’ve been good at times at hiding such things from my blogging life, but maybe other times I haven’t. Heck, I sometimes even forget that people are actually reading this! But, what else can I say? I wouldn’t change any of those experiences or decisions in 2008 because without them, where would I be now?

What about you? What has been the best year of your life? I’d love to hear back from my readers! ;)

CategoryEstonia, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Ukraine | Comment5 Comments »

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January 6th, 2009

Well hello there, 2009! Guest blogging, travel planning, and more!

With only one word to describe 2009, I think I would have to go with sneaky. Yes, 2009 – you little sneak, you – you are definitely here now in full-force, but only after giving me quite the impressive surprise party on New Year’s Eve. Thank you, Kiev, for that one. The twenty minute fireworks display and the free concert thereafter was amazing!

Sure, it was never my plan to stay in Kiev for New Year’s, but now I’m glad I did. We had a lot of fun running around downtown, which was probably helped by the Ukrainian approach to vodka we decided to take in the process.

Yep, we took shots of vodka on the escalator… (please don’t mind the hideous picture of me)

escalator vodka

In the phone booth…

phonebooth vodka

In the bathroom…

bathroom vodka

And then some…

and then some

Luckily, it was still a memorable experience for me :-)

So, here we are in 2009. It’s hard to believe that I actually started blogging about travel planning back in 2006, but my archives tell all. Actually, travel planning has been a huge part of my life since I can remember. Whenever I learned about a family trip when I was younger, my suitcase was always packed at least a week in advance in anticipation!

I recently wrote a guest blog post for Viscape about such travel planning experiences and New Year’s travel resolutions, which was just published today. Make sure to check it out here:

I Want to Leave in 2009? New Year’s Travel Resolutions!

And, as for my New Year’s travel resolutions…?

I don’t think I want to spoil all the excitement just yet, but you know me – I usually have something up my sleeve. Let’s just say I see 2009 getting very interesting ;)

Happy New Year!

CategoryUkraine, Writing | Comment4 Comments »

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December 30th, 2008

Dear Russia

Dear Russia,

You definitely don’t know me, but I’m writing to beg that you please don’t cut off the gas supply to Ukraine on January 1. Without gas, I won’t be able to cook on the stove, have hot water, or even have heat in my home.

I know Ukraine owes you a lot of money – 2 billion dollars to be exact – but it is the middle of winter, not to mention a day for celebration when said deadline must be met. Can’t the deadline be extended for some time in an act of compassion?

I wonder if this note will have any affect on you whatsoever, or if I should scurry to the market tomorrow in hopes of buying an electric kettle, space heater, and extra blankets? Please try to come to an agreement with this poor country soon because if not, this little popsicle might not make it.

Sincerely,
Brooke

CategoryUkraine | Comment5 Comments »

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December 28th, 2008

What is this salo you speak of?

I heard stories that it existed. Oftentimes, the story was followed with shock and horror if someone actually had a personal experience to add. I didn’t know what to think. Would I ever encounter this thing myself? Would I one day have my own story to tell?

Thanks to one of Tanya’s students, I now have my own story to tell. On the night of a party at our apartment – one we decided to throw when we thought we were moving apartments… go figure we got a phone call that very day that we were no longer moving! – Vitaly brought a nice big container full of the infamous SALO.

You’re probably wondering what exactly this salo stuff is, right? Well, Wikipedia says the following:

Salo (Russian and Ukrainian: са́ло) is a traditional Central and Eastern European food: slabs of pork underskin fat, with or without skin.

Mmmm…

The Slavic word “salo” as applied to this type of food (it has other meanings as well) is often mistranslated to English as “bacon” or “lard”. Unlike lard, salo is non-rendered pork fat

Double mmmm…

Anyways, the Ukrainians love this stuff. Apparently what you do is put a slab on a piece of black bread, maybe with some onion, and eat with vodka. So, that’s what Tanya and I bravely did. I think these pictures explain all:

salo

salo 01

salo 02

salo 03

salo 04

salo 05

salo 06

salo 07

salo 08

Pretty good, huh? Yeah, it gets better…

I don’t know how many times in this one night Ukrainian people told me how HEALTHY salo is. Yes, healthy! I even had one guy tell me that he was so fit while showing his abs because he ate salo every day. And, in case you are fearing a nuclear war or explosion, it is also helpful to know that salo helps protect your body from radiation. Imagine that!

CategoryUkraine | Comment5 Comments »

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December 20th, 2008

Huddling Around Garbage Can Fires

Look, winter sucks. It just does. I have never liked it, except for when I was a child and we had snow days from school and could go outside and play. Whenever I complain about the cold or the snow, people always say, “But you’re from Illinois. You should be used to this weather!”

I will never get used to this weather. I’m cold every day. In Ukraine, we have NO control over how hot our apartment gets. There is no thermostat to turn up or down when you start to see your breath at night. We often have no hot water to take a nice refreshing shower with in the mornings. Both of these things are controlled by the government, and last weekend, it was awesome to find out that nobody had hot water because the government just said no (apparently some sort of payment issue from the water company to the government I heard?).

Awesome, right?

In class, everyone still wears their coats because it is freezing! I found out that some schools are not restarting lessons until mid-February (a month later) because it will be too cold and they don’t want to heat the schools then. And, I’m always bombarded with comments like, “You think this is cold? Just wait until January…”

Yet again, awesome.

I just don’t think it affects people here as much as it does me. Most of the time, people walk around here acting like its no big deal, even when I can look up from downtown and see the temperature sign read -3 degrees!

neg three

It was during this time that some of my wonderful students took Tanya and I around Kyiv last weekend and to an art gallery and modern art museum. This was in the bathroom!

my students

Normally, I don’t like modern art museums. They usually make me angry because I never feel like the person is actually being creative… but who am I to judge? However, the modern art museum here was very interesting. There were loads of random, random videos that kept me intrigued as I was desperately trying to avoid going back outside! Take for instance, this one of a woman eating an entire onion! It was absolutely bizarre. I wish I would have gotten the end, but I had to hide my camera.

Onion Eater Video Clip

Somehow I managed to survive the cold day and get some shots of being out and about (or oot and aboot as Tanya would say, haha!).

me by sophia

Marina
marina on square

Larissa
larissa small

Tanya
tanya on square

There have been much colder days than this one, but even on this day we knew it was bad when I was actually tempted to huddle around a random garbage can fire on the street in order to feel something resembling heat!

CategoryUkraine | CommentNo Comments »

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