Where have the days gone?

I'm sitting at my desk, thankful for sleeping in a bit, a successful grocery shopping blitz this morning, and dreary weather that won't distract me from things I have to get done today. I'm amazed how fast this month is going by. Thoughts of personal side projects and carelessly spending time with the family seem impossible.

Currently at school, I've only got about 15 classes per week but because of the way the schedule is arranged and my desire to work with students after their lessons I'm at school almost everyday from eight till four or five (which for Ukrainians is very unusual and for Peace Corps volunteers even more so). After the school day, I sprint off to get errands done, since most places close before five. I allow myself a little cooking break and ibuprofen cocktail after so many hours of shouting before lesson planning and grant writing. I've got one week to streamline a USAID proposal that's swelled to over forty pages. Once that's turned in, hopefully I can get a few other smaller grants in by the end of next month and start working on other things including country-wide commitments I've been pushing aside. Just to clarify, I'm not complaining, I love being busy and I'm aware how much my concept of time and productivity has changed here. I have a lot less to show for what I've been doing than I'd like to admit. Also, I use this as an excuse for not responding to emails and other things. I PROMISE I'll get on that in a little over a week from now.

Other ramblings, I now have a posse of girls that get way too excited every time they see me and bombard me with hugs and requests for English games. It's really hard to say no to them. I got this card this past week, awesome. At the bazaar today, the tomatoes were lackluster, which is a sign that I've got to eat as many eggplants and peppers before my only choices are carrots, potatoes, and beets. Luckily, my landlady has been canning a lot (I help her when I can) so we'll have something this winter, even if it's pickled. I want to expand on food and the surging prices of energy sometime soon. It's going to be an interesting winter and I'm thankful that I will witness it from the comfort of a steady stipend and the promise that if things get really bad, Peace Corps will subsidize for us. The first picture is the garden outside of the school. If you go back a couple pages you'll see pictures of when it was sown. Ukrainian earth is quite magical in how anything grows here splendidly.

There's so much I'd like to share but for now I'll just take notes for later. If you happen to have an awesome granola/power bar recipe that can be applied to Ukrainian limits (finding ingredients and price) please let me know. Typically, I make oatmeal bars with raisins and sunflower seeds. Next weekend I'll be in Kyiv so I'll make a quick supermarket run to see if protein powder exists in this country. The school day kills me. I really miss the convenience of picking something up, including a Starbucks Doubleshot. Convenience isn't something that exists in the village, partially because it comes with a higher price tag. The youngest kids have lunch so I might start doing that because the snack stand white flour rolls and sugar cookies aren't cutting it.

Off to copying and pasting!