Frequently Asked Questions

A Fourth Conversation

First | Second | Third | Fourth

Hello?

...

Anyone there?

...

Hey!

Hmmm...what?

So you are there. Where have you been?

Sorry! Just busy. But I haven't forgotten about you, really.

Tell me about your summer.

Oh, right. I know everyone wants to know about my summer. It's just a hard question.

What's so hard about it? Start with where you went. You had lots of exciting plans last time I heard from you.

Right. Well, my summer was fun and travel-filled, but not quite as grand and exotic as I'd planned back in June. I never actually made it out of the country (except by accident). I went to Odessa, Bolgrad, and Izmail in the southern arm of Ukraine; Mukachevo and L'viv in western Ukraine; and Kyiv and Cherkassy in central Ukraine. Plus I got to travel around Crimea a bit. (Although that wasn't, strictly speaking, part of my summer travels.)

What was that about "accidentally" leaving the country?!

This is a fun story! You're going to need to look at a map. (If you have an atlas or a regular map, pull it out.) Now find Odessa. It's in the south west, on the Black Sea coast. Got it?

Yep.

OK, see how there's an inlet, or lake, or something that dips into the land just south of Odessa, and goes almost to the border with Moldova? Well the main road south of Odessa, in order to stay on dry land, actually goes through Moldova for about 5 kilometers. Pretty much all the busses heading south use this road, and the Ukrainian government has some sort of agreement with Moldova that allows them to drive on this road. There's very rudimentary border control: Ukrainian border guards count the number of passengers in each vehicle as it leaves Ukraine at one end, then count them again as it reenters Ukraine 5 kilometers later. There is no Moldovan border control, and no one checks documents.

I didn't know any of this last June when, along with another volunteer, I took a bus south from Odessa to Bolgrad.

My friend and I were both pretty tired from the overnight train from Simferopol, and the bus to Bolgrad takes about 4 hours. We both fell asleep shortly after leaving Odessa.

I woke up about an hour later, when the bus slowed to a near stop to drive over a speed bump. Outside I could see several small, white pillbox buildings in a row, very official looking. There were men in uniform wandering around and it looked for all the world like a border crossing.

Now let me tell you what Peace Corps told us back before our site visits in November. Keep in mind that, to me anyway, Peace Corps' general policy seems to be "scare them into good behavior." Volunteers living near the borders with Moldova and Belarus were told that they must be very careful not to accidentally wander into another country. "You might not have any problem getting in to Moldova or Belarus, but not be able to get back out." Americans don't easily get visas to either of these countries; they don't particularly like us (although the Peace Corps does operate in Moldova). So when I wake up and see those pillboxes and guards outside I get a sinking feeling in my stomach and an oh shit in my mind.

Heh.

Yeah, well I didn't know they weren't going to check documents! I wasn't even sure it was a border.

Anyway, my friend woke up. We had a hurried, whispered conversation: This looks like a border. Doesn't it look like a border? But she would have told us if we needed to worry about a border. Wouldn't she? What do we do? Look Ukrainian!

The bus stopped. A guard got on the bus, said something we didn't quite understand, and all the men on the bus got off.

At this point I was near panic. I didn't want to ask any questions because I didn't want anyone to know I was American. I thought about all the money I had on me--several hundred dollars, all the money I had in Ukraine. I pictured myself being caught and forced to pay a "bribe" to some sketchy Moldovan border guard.

The men got back on the bus, and we started moving. I anxiously watched for another checkpoint, the Moldovan border check. But it never came. I started to relax. Maybe it wasn't a border after all? I tried to look for signs that might tell me what country I was in, but saw nothing.

Then, of course, we came to another Ukrainian checkpoint and passed back into Ukraine.

How'd you find out what happened?

When we got to Bolgrad the volunteer there told us how it works. I've made two trips to that area now--once to Bolgrad and once to Izmail--so I've unofficially been to Moldova four times. Shhh. Don't tell.

I won't. What were you doing down there, anyway?

Working in summer camps. I actually worked in three camps this summer. The first in Bolgrad, then in Mukachevo, then in Izmail. It was a great experience. (And a lot of train travel! The trip from Simferopol to Mukachevo was 34 hours.) Working in a summer camp is not at all like working in school. We have so much more freedom with our lessons: I taught lessons on music and writing, the environment and budgeting. And I showed The Princess Bride, which was great. For the rest of that camp the kids went around saying My name is Inigo Montoya, inconceivable, and As you wish!

It was also great being around groups of volunteers, speaking English, sharing ideas, and seeing how others teach.

What about the other places you went?

Let's see. The first was Cherkassy. (South of Kyiv on the Dnieper.) I went there for a sort of technical seminar, with a lot of volunteers leading sessions on things like "classroom management" and "using music in the classroom." It was a great seminar and really got me fired up about all the great things I can do here. Of course, that was three months ago and I've calmed down a bit.

The other place I went was L'viv. L'viv is a big city in western Ukraine (kind of near Poland). It's the big cultural city of Ukraine, right up there in importance with Kyiv. It's a really beautiful city, with a lot of old churches and cobblestone streets. (There's also a really great little coffee shop, next to the Catholic church, that has fabulous ice cream sundaes.) I liked L'viv a lot. (Oh, if you have an older map L'viv is probably spelled Lvov, which is the Russian name.)

L'viv is a real Ukrainian city. They speak Ukrainian and call themselves Ukrainian. This is a big difference from Crimea. Here they speak Russian and call themselves Russian. It was a bit of a shock, really. Everyone knows Russian, of course, and will generally switch languages for you. (Though it helps if you apologize and say you only learned Russian, not Ukrainian.)

So, anyway, how's the Russian coming?

The perpetual question.

Yeah, well. Inquiring minds want to know!

The perpetual answer: it's coming!

No, really, I guess I'm getting pretty good, although nowhere near fluent. At that seminar I went to in Cherkassy I took the LPI again. (The LPI is the fluency test I took last December that I was so unhappy about.) I actually got the same score as I did before, Intermediate High, only this time I felt really good about it because I really think I deserved it.

The woman who administered the test told me she thought I had a real good ear for the language and seem to understand the grammar instinctively, and am already using constructions that she knows I didn't learn during training. Which is not to say that I don't mess up the grammar all the time, of course. She also said I need to work on my vocabulary, but that she can see me becoming near fluent before my two years are up. So that's something.

But that said, I definitely lost ground after a summer of English. I'm also feeling slightly less motivated lately, and haven't really been studying at all. I should probably start meeting with my tutors again...though there's that missing motivation factor.

Well, it still sounds like you're doing well. Congratulations!

Thanks.

And now you're back in school?

Yep. The first day back was September 1st. I took some time off when a friend came to visit, but now I'm getting back in the groove. It's a little tough readjusting--summer camps were way more fun--but things are progressing.

Is it easier this year?

Hmm. Yes and no, actually. I guess I do know the ropes now--as much as they are knowable, anyway. But I'm also dealing with some unrealistic expectations I'd built up over the summer. (All these grand plans for things I wanted to do in my town, that just aren't workable within the structure at school.) So I've been feeling a little frustrated over that.

But mostly I don't spend quite as much time lesson planning as I did last year, and I have more time to work on other things. My debate team is meeting again, and I realize more and more how much I like those kids.

Wow, I thought it would be all smooth sailing, now you've been in Ukraine for a year.

Yeah, me too! I think that's part of the problem!

Well good luck!

Thanks. And keep in touch, will you? I know I've been bad about letter-writing, but I'd really love to hear from you--email or post. And now that I've got a regular schedule again I should be updating more often again.