Time in Crimea

7th and 8th Forms

I got back to site this afternoon after a nearly 24 hour journey from Simferopol, Crimea. I enjoyed Crimea; getting to see friends, working with different students, and conversing in the cleanest Russian I've heard since training.

My friend who lives in Crimea invited me to work at her school's camp for two weeks at a resort on the western coast (not difficult at all to say yes to that invite). Her school is a gymnasium with a foreign language focus, so her students have quite large vocabularies. I truly loved working with these students, ages 10 to 15, because they were a complete break from my students. I'm not saying that my students aren't enjoyable or lovely, it's just nice to work with children who have a strong desire to learn the language and come from an entirely different socioeconomic background. A number of the students came from families of professionals, had traveled outside of Ukraine, and had skills and hobbies that require a means. I could talk at a decent length with these students about their interests and dreams, conversations that typically end with one yes or no with my village kids.

Big Atlash, Western Crimea

View from above Big Atlash. We took that boat out to the grotto.

Adrianne claiming the coast.

I didn't want this.

During the camp we had lessons, games, and team competitions. We went on excursions a few times as well, namely to the coast. It's a beautiful place and I'm glad that the school hired a guide for the children to talk about the history of the places we visited and Crimea as a whole. It was nice to swim in the sea too, but the beaches could use some cleaning up (I saw two syringes and can't quantify the amount of broken glass). One of our competitions was Capture the Flag. I wish I had the diligence to properly describe how great of a cross-cultural activity this was to observe. When the first round of campers played, it was disastrous. In part, it was my fault for not introducing the rules during the lessons because there was little to no chance that the students would pay attention to what I was saying when we were standing out in the field. They really got into it though, to the point that one of the girls got a black eye from protecting the flag during a surge. With the second group, the older group, they played as though they were fighting for their motherland. Often one team would break a rule, the other team would complain about it to me and demand a punishment, and then the complaining team would do something else that wasn't legal. This made me laugh, a perfect micro example of how it's difficult to maintain law and order in a society that doesn't think rule of law is almighty.

One of many Twilight themed projects.

The saddest collection of pinatas ever.

Cardboard box used as a pinata, excellent idea for strong hitters.

After the camp finished I spent a few days evaluating the camp and having a mini-reunion with my training cluster. We took a day trip to Balaclava, a sea port near Sevastopol (the city where the Russian navy is). Balaclava was important during the Crimean War and there is a great museum about it located inside the submarine arsenal there. Sadly, we were told the submarines are under repair but the tunnels were pretty cool. Also, if I'm ever in charge of a fashion collection it's going to be Crimean War themed. The museum had a lot of uniforms on display and I liked the French/Turkic twists on parachute pants, woolen blazers, and skull caps. Besides the museum, in Balaclava there are remnants of a Genoese fortress and rocky beaches only accessible by boat.

Adrianne, Sam, and Alisha at our reunion in Balaclava.

Port in Balaclava

Thankfully they were filming at Balaclava because a gorilla takeover wouldn't have been much fun.

Obuchov Reunion!

Cereal. Glorious overpriced cereal for sophisticated city folk.

Tolstoy was here. Simferopol

This Crimean steppe plant has two interesting qualities. First, it can last an entire year without water. Second, it's supposedly an aphrodisiac but I couldn't tell, perhaps because I was surrounded by 10 year olds.

Hopefully I'll head back to Crimea sometime during my service. It truly felt like an entirely different country in comparison to my part of Ukraine. The students at the camp often didn't consider themselves to be Ukrainian, often slipping and saying they lived in Russia when introducing themselves.

Now, I'm back at site but am leaving soon for "Survivor." "Survivor" is a camp in the western part of the country that takes place at a camping site. I'm looking forward to star-gazing and getting to know the students I'm taking with me a little better. Yes, I'll admit I've got it quite easy.