Випуск

Sunday evening my school had its Випуск (graduation ceremony). The eleventh form has been preparing for this day for at least the past three months by practicing their waltzes, picking out songs, and preparing the program.

My counterpart mentioned that graduation traditions vary greatly between villages and cities. In villages, it's perceived with almost the same pomp as a wedding. In my village, the students parade through the streets, stopping at memorials before going to a church service. Then, there is a two plus hour ceremony at the House of Culture where teachers, families, and friends are invited much like a graduation in the US. I was happy to see that the House of Culture was ready in time for this celebration. Since I arrived, it's been a remodeling mess but they installed new windows and cleaned up the place.

How to describe the ceremony? It had the standard elements of a typical school assembly; singing, dancing, speeches, thank you speeches. I'm starting to think that assemblies here use that formula in math with the ! symbol. For example: There are x number of people on the stage and y number of people in the audience. Each person on the stage must give a congratulation speech to each other and two people in the audience. How many speeches in total will be performed? Repeat with song performances. I'd say that the graduation was the combination of a prom promenade, a graduation where diplomas are dispersed, and an old-fashioned Debutante.

The students were dressed to the nines. Current Krasni Okny fashion trends include shiny suits in metallic colors for boys and hoop skirts for girls. Beauty for a girl is measured by her ability to look like a wedding cake (just kidding... though kind of true). It was fun to see the students' personalities represented in their dress choices, especially since on a typical school day they stick to the realm of a "school uniform."

In the one picture I'm standing with Iryna, the girl in the white dress with the black corset. Iryna is one of those reasons why teachers come to school. She's shown me nothing but interest and kindness. This past week she's gifted me with bouquets of flowers and books in appreciation and invited me to a dinner after the Last Bell. To be honest, I thought we were just going to meet for coffee, not a full on gorgeous meal in a restaurant (a true treat!). She is planning on becoming an interpreter, so I hope to hear from her often during her studies.