I really like my apartment. It's small enough that I use what I have and don't feel like there's too much to take care of. The ceilings are high enough it doesn't feel cramped. There are enough aesthetic details that I don't feel like I'm living in a jail cell. There's even a balcony, although it's pretty shabby and the weather hasn't been warm enough to use it much. My favorite thing in the apartment? My window sill, which is plenty wide enough for me to sit on and bask in the much-missed sunlight, protected from the cold air, and peer out into the courtyard if my mind wanders. I'M SO WARM!!
I would still like to talk about shopping in Ukraine at some point, but before that I'd like to talk about home remedies here. Since we're talking about favorites, maybe my favorite thing about my job is that it requires extensive cultural dialogue with locals. This is especially true for the conversation clubs, where we can literally talk about anything for an hour. But even in my lessons, where we usually are asked to focus on grammar, there are opportunities to talk about culture. Last week one of my lessons asked us to talk about traditional home remedies. There were so many that my students could think of! And, while some greatly resembled American home-remedy-logic (such as hot tea for a sore throat), some were totally different from anything I'd ever heard of (such as putting a dead bee on your tooth). Here are some of the ones I remember:
For flu and cold:
vodka with pepper
cabbage leaf with honey on chest
potato compress
cabbage leaf on head
breathe potato steam
hot vodka with honey and lime
hot beer
hot wine
smell burnt garlic
hot (dry) mustard on feet
hot egg or salt on nose
Other:
put just hand on the ground for a hangover
dead, fried bee or salo (traditional meat dish) on tooth for a toothache
I always feel like there are different levels of settling in when I go to a new place, or start anything new, really. The past couple of weeks have felt like a new level of settling, beginning inauspiciously with food poisoning. A couple days later my roommate decided this wasn't the job for her, leaving me as a the sole inhabitant of our apartment. The following week included our first excursion to a club and our first use of the Kharkov taxi.
Overall, this apartment has been feeling more and more like a home. It just needs a good cleaning that I'm reluctant to do because the previous inhabitant should pay for a "deep clean". But maybe the dustbunnies add to the sense of home...? Not that I've ever seen a single dustbunny in my mom's impeccable house....
Teaching has also been feeling much more comfortable. I feel like I'm getting the hang of maintaining energy and attention during class (the students' and my own), although it's something I'm still working on. And I'm getting positive feedback from students, which always makes me feel warm and fuzzy, much like the subject of this video:
In other news, it's been a lot warmer! Most of the ice has melted and, even though it snowed yesterday, I've actually been out of the house without a hat, and twice without my heavy snow jacket on top of my sweater-jacket! I saw my reflection in a store window and for a second thought I must have lost a lot of weight until I realized I just wasn't all Michelin-ed in a puffy jacket....
I also have sooo many things to look forward to, too! I've been invited to two outings by students this weekend, my director found me a seemingly good dance studio, and I have tickets to go to Turkey in March!!! I'm so excited for everything, much like the subject of this video:
In my next post, I think I'm going to talk about the interesting experience of shopping in Ukraine! For now, I'll leave you with some cultural differences that I've found interesting recently:
It is 100% normal for a teacher to read all the students' test scores out loud to the whole class
In private homes, the toilet is always (or seemingly always) separate from the room with the sink and shower
There often (not just at my school) aren't doors to the stalls of squatter toilets in public restrooms
People feel very comfortable talking expressively about their romantic relationships to strangers, such as too the whole class, even if their partner is in the room
There is much less personal space between people talking, even if they are relative strangers
Dancing on tables in bars is very normal and acceptable ;)
