many years ago (from 1999-2001), i used to live in Nagybereg, Ukraine and teach umpteen english classes every week. (When I first started, it was about twenty 45-minute lessons per week (quite a few which were the same lesson taught to a different section) and when i left it was about 35 lessons.) these are some stats of what happened when i returned to help teach for a week.
number of english classes taught: 16 (although most of the classes were a repeated idea taught to a different section of a class or modified to teach at a different level)
number of teachers who are still teaching there 6 years later: 3 - biology, ukrainian, physics.
number of staff who are still the same: about 10.
The high turnover happened in the last year with the breaking away of a group from the Transcarpathian Reformed Church. Many of the staff and quite a number of teachers have become part of the new church and thus were asked to leave the Reformed Church’s school.
special foods for the week: Canadian pancakes with maple syrup (ironically the maple syrup was actually from Michigan!!) And English tea, which wasn’t quite English in that the cooks assumed that everyone drinks their tea with lots of sugar and the milk was creamer and not milk. The pancakes were quite delightful but I passed on the tea… (there must be some privileges to being the guest teacher – and I had chosen not to sit at a table with students so no one was watching me too closely).
Number of meals for the week: 14
Meals skipped: 0
Meals chosen not to be eaten: 3. Not sure if my prior knowledge of the food was a blessing or not!
Foods skipped were:
- pasta with cabbage,
- pasta with crushed walnuts (it’s like eating sand on greasy pasta – i used to add paprika on the pasta instead of walnuts when i lived there), and
- some kind of porridge that has a funky toasted taste to it.
(I’ll have to admit that the porridge day I went back to the kitchen later for bread with butter so i could put hagel slag on it later – I used to have a bucket of a peanut butter and chocolate spread in my room for meals like that).
Foods that were not as good as I remembered:
- the bread (as you can imagine from the food description above, the bread was a pretty staple part of life and since i remember it tasted amazing, i managed not to lose any weight while i was teaching for two years even though i used more energy than as a student and skipped some meals).
- The tea. It is much too sweet for me now – but 8 years ago, i learned how to like tea because of this place.
- Pasta with hungarian cottage cheese – it’s quite lovely with salt (really) – but the cottage cheese was too runny and the pasta too greasy so… my friend assures me it was just a bad day and it’s still as good as it used to be.
Foods that were better than I remembered:
- Grecska – which in english is bulgar wheat, i think. We added a meat sauce to it. I remember really disliking it, and it wasn’t that bad. A bit of a funky aftertaste, but overall quite edible.
- Cabbage soup –i first thought it was boiled squash (which is generally stringy and unliked by most people there) so when it turned out to be cabbage and had the right spices it was actually relatively enjoyable.
- Fruit soup – although a lot of people like it, it never really appealed to me. but apparently absence makes the heart grow fonder with some things – and i took seconds.
Foods that were as good as i remembered:
- Dutch soup mix soup: yep, still like it – even though most of the students don’t. probably because it’s not greasy enough and has too many different strong spices. But it reminds me vaguely of my mom’s soup and i love spices, so… i ate half our table’s bowl.
- Rice cooked in milk with cocoa and sugar on top. For breakfast. Still one of my favourites. Ask my mother – i’ve even tried it back home in Canada. I happily stuffed myself on it.
average amount of time sleeping: about 9 hours per day. The normal used to be 7. The number is ridiculously high as i was fighting some bug for half the week. Thankfully, the sleep helped and i was never really sick.
Number of students sick: 40 (out of 100 students)! The whole area is struggling with sickness because of the strange weather and influenza.
Movie watched: Take the Lead (2006)
Students reaction to the movie: very, very positive. (no surprise). What high school student doesn’t appreciate a movie about dancing, high school students, and unexpected dreams becoming true?
Activities not yet mentioned:
- English Competition (I remembered how much I like standing in front of a 100 people trying to organize relays and get everyone excited about participating!)
- Cultural Talk: I talked about Canadian culture and my life in Amsterdam.
- Folk Dancing: lots and lots and lots of fun…
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