Dear Friends and Family,
Happy Summer! I have now completed my last classes of the school year and am happily on summer holiday! It has been a very hectic and crazy month since I have last posted and I want to share with you a few fun moments from Ukraine!
The first experience was my birthday weekend spent in the ancient Ukrainian city of L’viv. L’viv is the third largest city in Ukraine on the western side about 2 hours travel time from the Polish boarder. I traveled there for my birthday and was met by a number of other Peace Corps Volunteers to enjoy the city and celebrate turning 24! (The train to L’viv from my oblast center, Kherson, was 20 hours long! Can you imagine being on a train for 20 hours! I had to do it there and back! Too long!) L’viv dates back to 1256 and has been under Ukrainian, Polish, German and Soviet control throughout its history. It is an incredible display of Eastern European architecture with many larger concrete buildings but with a Ukrainian flare of bright pastel colors and lots of architectural decorations. I loved walking around and talking pictures of the colorful fronts on the buildings! We also climbed to the top of the city’s governmental headquarters in the center square and had a view of the whole city from above. The building had a similar architectural look of a building in Florence and the whole city had a very Western European feel. I am attaching a picture looking down at the city. You will notice in the pictures below that I’m wearing bunny ears - my friends Kari, the volunteer living in L’viv, and Meaghan, the other NU ‘09 alum here, gave these to me. I was given the present as I stepped off my train and told I had to wear them all day – I didn’t argue but put them on and sported them proudly as we walked around the city – yes I am a proud representative of the United States of America! On May 2nd, my birthday, a few PCVS and I went to an outdoor restaurant with very cute little wooden fenced in private tables and I got to try a new Ukrainian dish I had not had yet, Deruny or potato pancakes. They taste like a bready hash brown and are eaten with sour cream. It was a wonderful birthday celebration weekend!
The following weekend on May 9th Ukraine celebrated “Victory Day.” WWII was a very devastating period in the history of Ukraine. One of my friends has told me that every single family in Velyka Lepetykha lost a family member in WWII and most lost many more as fighting did occur here in VL. From the Soviet Union over 20 million individuals were lost in WWII. For this reason Victory Day, the day the Germans signed a peace treaty with the allies, is a large holiday in Ukraine on which every town and city hosts a parade, presentation and concert to honor and remember those who fought in the war. My school prepared for this day for over 2 weeks, rehearsing after school for the concert and performance to be presented in front of the whole town on Victory Day. The day began at 8am when we had to be at school to line up for the parade. The students had to dress according to their costumes for the presentations – this meant that a lot of the boys were dressed as WWII soldiers (I have attached a picture as well as one with some of my 5th grade girls!) We walked behind a large number of Soviet Union flags and past WWII Veterans to the WWII monument. By the monument there was a stage set and those survivors of WWII were presented with flowers and speeches were made to remember those no longer with us. My students performed dances and WWII reenactments complete with fires and explosions, very interesting to watch. Following all the presentations, the day was spent among family and friends picnicking by the Dnipro River eating barbeque and enjoying the beautiful sunny day! I spent my afternoon with some of my new Ukrainian friends eating and drinking by the river too. I was very glad that I got to experience such a united town event! The day was completed with a concert and fireworks. Though one interesting fact is that Ukrainians don’t really understand firework safety – so the fireworks were shot off directly overhead meaning that the ash from the explosion fell right on top of us – it was hard to watch, as we had to shade our eyes from the falling debris. Oh Ukraine.
Another fun trip I took this month was my first trip to The Republic of Crimea. Originally I had a Peace Corps meeting planned for May 15th but after purchasing my bus ticket to Simferopol, the oblast capital of Crimea, the meeting was canceled. So it became a nice tourism weekend instead. I headed down on Thursday the 13th and was able to stay with Adrianne, another Peace Corps Volunteer, in her apartment. Adrianne is a very fun PCV from Los Angeles who surprisingly decided to attend Grinnell College in Iowa (why she’d choose to do this I cannot understand). This allowed us to bond over Midwest culture – she greatly enjoyed my Minnesotan accent! Since Adrianne had school on Friday, I decided to take a day trip to Bakhchisaray, a town about 30 minutes outside Simferopol. This town is known for its Turkish Palace called the Khan’s Palace built in the 15th century and a network of cave cities in the rocky hills where the Tatars, a Turkish ethnic group, lived while escaping death by the Cossacks, a Ukrainian Militant group. At the bus station I met a Polish guy named Pierre who is living in France, working in Belgium and who’s life goal is to see all the European countries. I made him my tourism buddy of the day – he had a guidebook! Pierre and I went to the Khan’s Palace where I felt like I had been swept back into Southern Spain with the Arab influence and colorful open palace rooms and many many fountains. We did a tour of the palace and museum seeing Turkish clothing items from the 15th century including very cool looking platforms shoes. While we were in the palace the afternoon call to prayer was sung from one of the minarets and we watched the men take off their shoes and head into the mosque inside the palace walls. Outside the palace we ate baklava, which was very different from baklava I’ve had before but was more fried dough strips coated in sweet syrup. Pierre and I then took the bus to a monastery carved out of the mountainside; unfortunately it was closed so we began the hike up to the cave city. I had not brought tennis shoes to Crimea so Pierre laughed as I did the hike in flip-flops – I was not going to miss out! The cave city includes caves of all sizes and a few two story cave homes with stairs even. It was quite interesting and hard to describe. I felt like I was back in Pompeii, Pierre agreed, but in all honesty the life seemed like it would have been quite comfortable as the Tatars would be left alone and not bothered by Cossack threat simply as they wouldn’t have been able to find them! While walking around we ran into a film crew and were told it was an American film named “The Fighters of Freedom” – a few actors were dressed as Taliban and we got to watch a little filming. The only one on the set who spoke English was the director – though she sounded Canadian. Keep an eye out for the film!
The next day Adrianne joined my day trip along with a Fullbright Fellow, Elizabeth, who is studying Tatar education in Crimea and we went to Yevpatoria, a city on the west coast of Crimea. The goal was to lie out on the beach but the overcast ruined those plans. In the end we spent the day walking around the “old city” with its Turkish influence of crooked streets and a very beautiful Mosque from the 1500s. We did stop to put our feet into the Black Sea! I’ve attached some pictures from the city below. On Sunday I walked around Simferopol with Kevin, a PCV who had originally been my neighbor in the Khersonskaya oblast but had unfortunately needed to move sites and is now in Crimea. Kevin came down to join me and we walked around the river along with a Ukrainian friend of his. The best part of the day was getting to see my Russian Language teacher from Training, Yevginia who is from Simferopol. She took us to the Botanical Gardens, which were beautiful! Yevginia is doing well and is considering accepting PC’s offer to teach Russian again to the incoming group of TEFL volunteers this next fall when there will be 170 volunteers arriving! I headed back to site on Monday very happy with my first adventure into Crimea – unfortunately, I did not have time to go to Yalta so I will have to return at some point in the next 1.5 years to check it out – then you can look forward to the pictures of the castle from the famous Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin Yalta Conference!
Cross-Cultural Experience: Ok, now is time to tell you about my most recent cross-cultural experience! In Ukraine the first thing a PCV notices is the difference in dress styles from that of Americans. The boots story from a few posts back is just one such example. But in Ukraine anything goes – stripes match polka dots, an entire black outfit with brown shoes is ok, pink red blue and black are a great combo, especially all at once, and if your knee high stockings hang out from under your skit that is totally allowed and kinda in fashion right now! It has been an interesting experience to watch the teachers file into the teacher’s room – I never know what combo of animal prints with flowers and bright blue shoes will come in next. My preference for Gap classic look is clearly not the norm! So for Meaghan, the NU alum’s, birthday this last weekend another PCV and myself decided to get her a few items that are very Ukrainian to add to her wardrobe. The first was a mesh shirt – mesh is HUGE here! But unlike in America where if we do wear mesh, (which is seldom) we wear mesh over things. In Ukraine you only need to be wearing your bra. Most of my students have come to school in push up bras and a see through mesh top – that is totally allowed! I stand in shock, but cant say anything as a few of the teachers have also worn this outfit! So we got her a bright blue mesh top. Next, lace stockings – these are huge with flip-flops, sandals, tennis shoes, anything! Think ankle length with shorts or a skirt. Lastly, a big white bow with lots of excess curly cues. Every girl in grades 1st-11th owns one of these bows if not two for pigtails and they are worn on special occasions – even the 11th form graduation if you can believe it! The bigger the bow the better – if the kid behind you cannot see the black board then your bow is just big enough! I got Meaghan one and made her wear it the entire day we were in Kiev and out to eat for her birthday (think of it as payback for the bunny ears!) Please check out the amazing picture below of Meaghan pulling off her very Ukrainian outfit (note: a compromise was made that Meaghan got to wear a tank top under the mesh shirt).
The last experience to share this post was the recent graduation ceremony I attended on Friday at school known as “Last Bell.” At this ceremony the 11th grade girls wore the traditional Ukrainian school uniform, a navy blue dress and white apron with their huge white bows. It all reminded me of my Paraguayan uniform! The boys wore suits or dress slacks and white shirt. All the students and parents stood on one side of the field and the 11th form walked in to stand on the other side. The ceremony was simple with a few speeches and gifts presented to the school director, but the great part of “Last Bell” was when two 11th form boys lifted up and carried two 1st form girls on their shoulders as the little girls ring bells to signify the last bell of the school year. The 11th formers then did a choreographed dance, which ended in throwing pigeons into the air (this failed as most them dive bombed the crowd!). All students on this day bring flowers that they present to their teachers; I walked home with over 20 peonies, 4 roses, a batch of lilies and a few carnations – clearly the favorite teacher!! Lyuda and I are living in a garden right now of flower smells at home – it is wonderful! Tomorrow night is a concert in honor of the 11th formers, which I am excited to attend. The ceremony was very nice and brought me some nostalgia for my own Shattuck graduation – too bad we didn’t get to throw pigeons!!
Ok that is it for updates on May. This summer will be a busy one as I head to Russia in a week (June 9th-19th) and then I will be going to L’viv once more at the end of June and off to Budapest in July! All of which I will be sure to update you on when I have a chance this summer!
One side note I would like to make is that I would like to greatly thank all of you who went to the ABCamp website and were able to contribute to our upcoming summer camp. I have recently been informed that we have completed our fundraising needs for this year’s camp and I am so thankful for your help! If you did not have a chance to give to ABCamp, but wanted to, there will also be a fundraiser for Camp MASCOT, which I am doing in August. I will be sure to provide a link to this website when one is available.
I hope that you all had a wonderfully warm and enjoyable spring and are looking forward to a great summer – I know I am!! Thank you again for all of your support!
Best, Меган Филипивна Траут (Megan Daughter of Phillip Trout)
Pictures Include:
Meaghan, Kari and myself, wearing my new bunny ears, at the L’viv train station * PCVs in L’viv to celebrate my birthday * L’viv governmental building in the center square * 2 pictures: center square beautiful facades * street beers in the center of L’viv * a view of L’viv from above * L’viv Opera House * walking around L’viv * Birthday Dinner * Birthday cake from Lyuda “Happy Birthday Megan” * With my 5th graders on Victory Day * 11th form boys dressed as WWII soldiers * 11th form girls with WWI Veterans in line for the parade * VL mayor addressing the audience * WWII veterans with flowers from the students * WWII monument * 5th grade performance * Khan’s Palace in Bahkchisaray * Summer room in Khan’s palace * Gardens of Khan’s Palace * Monastery carved into the mountain side * One of the sets of caves in the cave city * other side of the mountain * Elizabeth and Adrianne in front of one of the sites of Yevpatoria * Cathedral in Yevpatoria * Adrianne and I in the rented robes to enter the mosque * inside the mosque – very Spain Cordoba Mosque feel! * Adrianne and me in the Black Sea * Kevin and Olya in Simferopol * at the botanical gardens with Yevginia * fixing Meaghan’s new Ukrainian white bow! * Meaghan’s Ukrainian outfit complete with bow, mesh top and lace socks * out for a steak dinner in Kiev (steak dinner with salad and 3 beers- $10 each!) * Graduation with English teacher Lyuda (left) and counterpart Tonia * my favorite 9th grade students Natasha and Ira * 11th form students walk under Ukrainian decorated towels * 11th form lined up with “class moms” my counterpart Tonia and another * 1st formers present 11th form with flowers and a pin * 11th formers throw pigeons into the air * 11th form boy carries 1st form girl ringing the last bell * with the director, Tamara and all the flowers we got! * my flowers
