Break out your kazoos--I just graduated pre-school!

Training ended today! We had our last Ukrainian class Thursday morning, and today was the LPI (Language Proficiency Interview), plus one more official thank-you visit to the local administration—and now we’re free! The LPI was a 10-minute conversation, kind of anti-climactic after 2 months of training (but I did feel satisfied when she said my conversation skills were especially impressive since I arrived 3 weeks late), and then we had tea with the mayor. On Monday, a bus comes to take us to Kiev for the 3-day Swearing-In Conference, and we also find out then where we’ll be living for the next two years. Next Thursday I’ll officially be a Peace Corps Volunteer, after swearing to uphold the U.S. Constitution to the best of my ability in front of the Ambassador. Then all 100+ new volunteers head off to our various permanent sites, cut off from the crutch of our cluster-mates, together with whom we’ve spent every day of training. Just in time to be alone for Christmas! Good thing I came to Ukraine armed with digital copies of my favorite clay-mation Christmas videos! Maybe I’ll make my students watch them, since December 25 is a regular workday here and I’ll probably be teaching.

I still as yet have no idea what the particulars of my site-placement will be, so future internet access is TBD, but a little note about this blog and why I’m writing it: part of Peace Corps service is to provide asked-for technical skills to further the development of the host country, but another goal of Peace Corps is to facilitate cross-cultural understanding—both at home and abroad. So I envision this blog as an interactive forum, where my friends and family can learn about Ukraine and help me introduce Ukrainians to American culture, rather than a space for me to send thoughts off into the ether. To that end, I ask you all to contribute to this online conversation. I can keep a journal for myself, so I’ll only write online if this information is interesting and useful for you—let me know what you want to hear!