Who Can It Be Now?

     That was the question today in the big event; the Living Library. But, unlike the story in the song, it wasn't a bad thing today. For those who don't remember or who don't want to dig through my backlog of posts, the Living Library is an event to encourage relationship growth between students and staff (both American and Ukrainian).

     After the morning's festivities (exercises, 2.5 hours of English, and lunch), we were given our directions for the two hour event labeled on the schedule as "Fun." There would be three stations. The first was table games, the second was the American staff, and the third was the Ukrainian staff. The color teams would rotate among the different stations every 45 minutes. And in both staff stations, the students would rotate among the staff for a chance to talk to whomever they wanted. With a total of 19 students this year, the ratio was really good for students to get a chance to talk.

Young Blood

     Is this what it feels like to grow old? To see the younger generation come up through and take over the program? Without getting the input of the older members of the team, I'd have to say yes. But, in this case, it's good to have young blood in the driver's seat. Allow me to explain.

Zhenya bestowing instructions to the camp.

Come Together

First weekend accommodations. Mine is the messy bed.

     I'm still feeling a bit jet-lagged today so this'll be a light post again. There are challenges every year and they're starting early for me. This year it's sleep. The past two nights I've gotten barely over half my usual amount of sleep. And for some reason, it was split into two parts each night. Even with the opportunity to sleep in way past the usual time. In lieu of that, I decided to take Sunday afternoon for myself and just relax. But back to the beginning.

Before the Deluge

Dark hot chocolate from Aroma Kava

     For those of you in the back row of the class, that title is what I like to call foreshadowing. But there was plenty of before/during/after deluges, drizzles, and "mushroom rains" today. The forecast was calling for rain off and on all day and we got it. On our sightseeing day too. That's OK. It certainly didn't dampen our spirits.

Ramblin' Man

L-R: Austin, Brian, Joan, Rich, Guilio, Kristen, Bryson, Jesse.

      Yes folks, it's that time of year again. The time that I and my friends travel to the land of borsch and bobushkas for a frenetic week of English-teaching, friendship-making, culture-sharing camp in Ukraine! And yes I'll be a bit rambly (talking) while I ramble on (fly).

Do You Feel Like We Do?

     Do you feel like we do? Probably not. Reading about the trip on the blog is miles away from actually being there. Although several people have commented to me since our return that reading the blog was helpful in getting an idea of what it was like and what we were feeling. I'd agree with that. But for a true picture, you really need to come with us next time.
     So what's this post planned for since I'm back and not likely to return to Ukraine for a little while? Mostly, it's to collate my thoughts about this year's camp into a somewhat coherent stream of ideas and feelings. Because it's not like you can open up my head and see what I'm thinking. Stop it. Put that hacksaw away. Don't even bother trying. You might not like it if you did. Kids have visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. Mine's full of Jeeps, mountain biking, and all sorts of other crazy things.

Riders On the Storm

     Thus Saturday ended camp. With rain, photos, hugs and goodbyes. It's been a long few days. As usual, it will be some time before we are all able to completely process our thoughts about the camp. I've been doing it along the way through this blog. But there's is still much more to think about. I've already been asked if I'll be coming back next year. I also need to think about my effectiveness as a team leader. But as it is, I think I can offer some preliminary ideas. And since it's the weekend now, I'm going to include Sunday into this post as well. Both were long, busy days. I guess I'll throw a little Monday into the mix as well....considering this is Tuesday and I'm typing in my kitchen at home. There are a lot of photos here so you might want a cup of coffee or tea as you read and peruse this post