"Last Bell"' Out with a Bang!

On Friday, May 29, the official last day of school, we had a concert at the Palace of Culture. I was prepared this time and dressed appropriately for the occasion (PHEW!). When I arrived at the Palace of Culture, Vika (far left, the music teacher), Lena, and I snapped some photos before heading into the concert hall.

Ivana, my Ukrainian tutor's daughter, sat next to me at the concert. Isn't she adorable? She was all fancied up with her curly hair and a huge white bow (fashion report: which most of the young girls are sporting nowadays)...

We all stood for the Ukrainian national anthem, as the graduating class of 24 students stood on stage.

Our director was the MC of the event and students would bring her flowers after accepting an award (reason for the wingman holding the flowers).

Vlad and Ania, two of my 5th grade students, passed around little bells to each graduate. Apparently, it is tradition for the younger students to wish the graduates good luck, health, success, etc. and then the graduates ring their bells for a few minutes. I was a little teary-eyed watching the graduates!

Nastia, one of the best English students, is planning to attend a university to study medicine. Both of her parents work and live in Moscow as doctors and she lives with her grandparents in Novoukrainka. Sweet girl!

2009 Graduating Class of Novoukrainka's Gymnasium n. 7

Then, it's time for the teachers to party! I'm with Tania at the teacher's celebration at school.

Here is our school dog, who is often found in the cafeteria constantly being fed. What a life!

I wasn't expecting another award, but sure enough, I was called up to the stage to accept an award (I'm not exactly sure how it is different from my previous award). But, many students presented me with flowers to congratulate me.

Lena, Sasha, Yura, and I left the teacher's celebration early to have a BBQ at Yura's house. Here is Yura's property, looking up from the river. You can see his house straight ahead (if you follow the path). Beautiful place!

Lena, Sasha's daughter and one of my 10th grade students, and I hanging out at the BBQ (otherwise known as "shashleek," the shish-ka-bobs that are made).

Flipped over a boat for our table! Here, Lena and I are with Aloyna (Yura's wife).

Lena being silly! Yura (physical education teacher) is busy on the grill and Sasha (foreign literature teacher) is relaxing.

The famous "Shashleek" (before grilling and consumption).

Yum! The delicious shashleek is finally ready! Rather than cooking it all at once, in Ukraine, I think it's typical to slowly cook the shashleek throughout the day, so we continued to have hot shashleek throughout the afternoon.

Lena, pretending to be the chef!

I enjoyed all of the celebrations we had on the last day of school! It was hot, but we were continually hit with rain showers. We started shashleeking at about noon and at 6pm, we finally had to call it a day because it poured down rain on us! We were soaked! In for some tea and then we all caught a taxi home. The following day, I made my way to Kyiv and stayed with my host family, Tania and Ania. I love spending time with Tania and Ania, they're as close to family as I have in Ukraine....and we certainly laugh a lot when we're together!

While in Kyiv, I received the green light to launch a mentor-type program for new volunteers who accept their invitation to serve in Ukraine. Time to get started!

Wow - this has been a long post and only covers four days! I hope you enjoyed!

Love,

Nat