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).
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.
