Summer highlights

Another summer draws to an end. Two months of traveling, camps, meeting new people, parties, work, and learning. Well, not so heavy on the last two, I suppose, but they were present in varying quantities. This summer began with my day camp in Pavlograd, and it ends with me back here again. In between, my parents came to Kiev, I went to Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Turkey, I went to Russian language camps, worked Camp Republic, and more. I've spent more time on the road in the last 3 months than I have at home, so much that traveling honestly feels more like home to me than my dingy Pavlograd apartment with its rickety pullout couch and flood-prone kitchen does.
I thought I'd include a few photos from all the places I went to this summer on this post. Not too many, but just so y'all can see what I've done. You can see pics from my day camp in Pavlograd below, so I'll avoid repetition by starting with...

 In mid-June, a bunch of volunteers went to Kiev for various meetings and to go to the swearing-in ceremony for Group 41. This is me (ruining the picture I guess) with Avital, Catherine, and Colette

 Before my parents came to Ukraine, I was in Kiev with Anand and his family, seen here. We never knew why there was confetti all over Kreschatik Street. Some random holiday, probably.

I don't have any pictures yet of my parents in Kiev (ahem, Dad), but this is the view from our house in Croatia.

 I can't imagine any place further from cold Ukrainian winter than balmy, beautiful Dalmatia

I split from my family in Croatia and headed to Prague...

..where I met my friend Meredith. It was really humid that night, as I recall (and you can probably tell)

 Hanging out the second night in Prague with Alex, a pretty cool Canadian dude I met in my hostel

Czech guards

From Prague, I took a train to Munich. This is at the Hofbrauhaus beer hall. My camera never actually made it out of my duffel bag in Germany, so these photos were lifted from Facebook.

Met up with my friend Michael there. Note the background here...

You can see 4 Japanese men, with socks, shorts, and dress shoes, one of whom ordered a glass of wine at a Bavarian beer hall

We found this amusing

Later we went to the English gardens and enjoyed some Bavarian brews in the river (nature's fridge)

School starts tomorrow here. It was a little strange at first since high school in Georgia started in early August (my senior year began August 1, 2005) and college was already back in by the middle of the month, but I've already gotten used to it. When I say "School starts tomorrow," what I actually mean is "There will be a ceremony tomorrow taking up most of the day and the vice-principal may finally decide the class schedule, then they will have one lesson about Ukraine or something after the ceremony. The schedule likely won't be done until Friday, however, so you won't start teaching until Monday." That works for me, I guess. It will be good to get back into working and teaching, and I'm especially happy to get the students for a whole year this time. This could be my only complete school year in Ukraine, so I plan on making the most of it.

I'm leaving you (for now) with a video made by the students of my 10A (soon to be 11A) class in our summer camp in June. It's a short tour of Pavlograd and our school, narrated by them and with subtitles. Hope it's illuminating.