Many of you are probably wondering what happened to me. I know it has been over a month since the last post. I'm doing just fine and am living at my new site which is only about an hour and a half from Kiev. It's nice to be so close, I've already visited a few times and I think I will know the city very well by the time I return to the states. My city is fairly small, about 30,000 people, but I like it very much. It is a historical cities with many museums.

I am working at a pedagogical university training future English teachers. The students are having their winter break right now, but there is still lots for me to do. Right now I am working on preparing lessons for the next semester, editing a textbook on American Studies, and trying to put a grant together so that we can get the money to have this textbook published.

I miss my host family quite a bit and may go back to visit them next month. Some of the things I miss most are my host mom's cooking, having people to speak Ukrainian with, and their very nice apartment.

Cooking for yourself in Ukraine is hard. When I explain to my friends here that I've hardly ever cooked before they are confused and wonder how that could even be possible. Food in Ukraine is very different than in America. It doesn't usually come in boxes, frozen and pre-made, or in just-add-water form. I go to the bazaar and I buy vegetables, flour, spices, etc. and I need to figure out what to do with these things. That isn't so bad by itself, but it takes TIME. Time to try out new recipes, cut and peel vegetables, develop new routines, etc. Even though I spend far more time cooking than I ever did back home I'm looking forward to developing the skill and have already come a long way. I remember when I first got here and how when I peeled vegetables as much of the skin would end up on the floor as in the trash can. Small steps!

You would think it would be easy for me to practice my Ukrainian since I am living in Ukraine. The difficulty is that I work with English teachers who are training future English teachers. Most of the people I talk with speak far better English than I speak Ukrainian and they want to practice their English with me since I am a native speaker and an English teacher. This is great, but it means that about the only time I speak Ukrainian is when I go to the bazaar or the store to buy things. I have a Ukrainian tutor that I spend an hour with every week, but that isn't much time. I think my Ukrainian may be worse now than a month ago when I arrived at site. But that's okay, I'll do my best with it and try to keep in mind that the reason I came here wasn't to learn Ukrainian. My time is focused on teaching, editing books, and writing grants, as it should be.

There are many ways that my host family's apartment is nicer than the one I live in now, but the number one thing I miss is the hot water. I knew when I joined Peace Corps that it would be possible that I would be taking bucket baths, but I pictured myself doing this somewhere in Africa or South America. Taking a bucket bath in Ukraine is a whole different thing! The first time it was pretty scary, but it's something you adjust to and I've done that pretty well. In fact, I've even come up with some ways that it is superior to taking a regular bath or shower. Here's one example:

If your phone rings or someone knocks on your door you can just take a break in the middle and finish later! Since you're in Ukraine and it's cold you only keep the part of your body bear that you're currently washing. That means all you have to do is rinse off, put your shirt the rest of the way on and off you go!

There are others too, but I won't bore you with those here. You can ask me later if you feel like listening to me go on for an hour about all the advantages to a bucket bath.

The other thing I've been busy with is celebrating the many Ukrainian holidays that happen this time of year. Christmas is the big holiday in the states, but here it is the New Year. I celebrated in a Ukrainian home where I learned a tradition they have of writing a wish down on a piece of paper, lighting it on fire, throwing it in your champagne glass, and then drinking it down. Sounds like fun, right? It probably is if you haven't already had a few drinks, hold onto your wish for too long after you light it on fire, burn yourself, and then spill your champagne in your lap. Oops!

In Ukraine they celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January and then just yesterday we celebrated Old New Year. That's all I have time for right now, but I'll try to make the next update quicker than the last one.