Первый Сентября и Первый звонок

First of September and First Bell

First Bell and Day of Knowledge is what the first day of school (Sept. 1) is known as in Ukraine and, I'm assuming, most of the former USSR. After three months of summer (less for some classes with summer exams), the students and teachers come back to school with, from what I've sensed thus far, similar attitudes--summer's over, we have to work again, and cold weather is just around the corner.
Anyway, the first day of school is not really what you'd call the first day of class. My school had a big ceremony outside on our soccer field. There are several traditions associated with First Bell. One is flowers--each student brings flowers to their teachers. I have dozens of students and got more flowers than I knew what to do with, as well as some that Ukrainian teachers tried [successfully] to pawn off on me. I don't have a vase in my apartment, so the flowers that made it home were placed in a beautiful stadium cup from Turner Field. At any rate, here's a few thousand words to better illustrate the day than my clumsy English (and even clumsier Russian):

Showing the general madness prevailing around the school at 8AM

Everyone and their babushka was there

Ring around the field

The ceremony is special for the 11th graders, for whom it's their last year, and the 1st graders, for whom it's the first year of school

Some of my 11A students are entering the field

And now the first graders...part of the school uniform for little girls is apparently absurdly oversized hair bows

There was all kinds of entertainment there...

Like this group (one of the PE teachers and some random students), who dressed as Cossacks (I think) and did some martial arts moves and dances and poses

I wish I was more attentive, because this dancing team (in blue) came out with the girl in the suitcase.

They were pretty talented, not that you could see that from the mediocre photo work

Something with balloons. I don't really know why, everything was still in Ukrainian at this point and I tend to just zone out when someone's not speaking Russian or English

One of the girl's balloons wouldn't float up because it was tied to some non-helium ones, so she chased it around the field for a good thirty seconds

...seen here

and away they go

One of the traditions is for an 11th-grade boy to carry around a 1st-grade girl around on his shoulders as she rings a bell to represent the start of school. Not sure how you get picked for this role, but that's Dima from my class

Dima and the little girl, along with Sasha and Zhenya carrying a torch of some kind, paraded around the field

Bringin' it back home

The little kid with the mic in front is Anton, one of my 6th grade students. He sang at Last Bell in May as well, and he has a great voice.

And now the students and their teachers exit. Papa Tolik, the head PE coach, is the teacher in front of Anton in the black suit

So that was my first First Bell ceremony. After the ceremony, which lasted just under two hours, the students have one lesson with their homeroom teachers about Ukraine, which I think is intended to invoke patriotism in them (they talked about national symbols and such). Then they went home. The first few weeks of school are not exactly what you'd call "well-planned." There is still nothing resembling a finalized schedule for any teacher, and they basically go day-to-day for the first few weeks while they figure out when every class should be. Not sure who exactly "they" are, but I've started teaching at last. New and improved! I'll update sometime this month with some stuff from my classes (hopefully).

-Andrew