"The Day of Knowledge"

We are now in Ukraine - our trip was without much drama save for the $50 "heavy luggage" fee and the incredibly turbulent flight from Frankfurt to Kiev - the only bumpy flight we've ever been on where the bumpiness continued all the way down to the ground! The plane even lurched a little to the right once on the runway!! The wind must have been strong as there aren't many mountains to cause weird air pockets.

Yesterday, September 1, was the official "Day of Knowledge" which occurs before the first day of school every year. The children from 6 to 18 dress up to attend a ceremony at the school. Their parents come, their grandparents come, and their great-grandparents come (and this year the American Fellow and her husband came too!). The kids are given flowers and march into formation to stand, squirming in their suits, while the principal gives a pep talk to ensure success in the coming school year! We atteded the ceremony at the "English School" which focuses, from an early age, on teaching English to all the kids to prepare them for their future.

It was so refreshing to see such respect for education and the children. Something I think many other cultures can learn from. The kids were so excited too to stand in line in front of the crowd like little movie stars (except for one who started crying and ran to be held by his mom for the rest of the event).

In the afternoon, we went to the university to meet the director and university teachers. My position will involve providing training and development opportunities for teachers at both the university level and at the elementary/secondary level. We brainstormed some ideas for projects to be developed over the next few months.

The rest of the day was dedicated to looking for an apartment. We have seen about 10 so far and actually decided to take one near the river. But... once we finally decided, it had already been taken. Or so the landlord said... apparently, someone offered $300 more than he had originally told us, so if we could come up with that differential, we could have it. HA! We'll keep looking, thank you!

I forgot to mention that the day before yesterday we had a tour of the US Embassy and met our key contacts. Everyone seem so nice. We also went to the English Teaching Center at the University (my principal working area) - the resource room for English teachers is incredible - I will include a photo soon - not to mention the incredibly helpful people at the university. They are all really positive and eager to get started with the teacher training! More news and photos soon!