last bell

The Last Bell ceremony for the end of the school year was yesterday. I watched this year's eleventh formers, dressed in traditional school uniforms from Soviet days (with some of the girls' skirts indecently short, but no harem costumes, Tif), and remembered when they were 8th formers, back when I was brand-new here. Then I taught Nelya the basics of how to use a computer mouse and how to type in Microsoft Word, which made both of us proud that she was learning how to do more with computers.

Later, I visited an English teacher who I had known when I lived here before and who is now on maternity leave. Although it was a social visit, she was interested in my research and is willing to be interviewed. Interesting fact about Ukraine: women can take up to 3 years of paid maternity leave (not full pay, but their job will be there when they get back). Everyone is shocked that we only get 6 weeks.

I spent the night at the Kotlars', which was fun and a change from one set of kids to another. Much to the amusement of her family (and myself), Lilia K. (age 6) has an enormous crush on Yura Yukhymets (age 14/15?). Apparently he bought her ice cream once, and she's utterly besotted. She told me that they're going to get married when she grows up and he'll go to work and she'll stay home and cook and clean. When I asked which church they were going to go to, she thought about it and decided that they would alternate Sundays. Lilia and Natasha walked me home, and they weren't going to come in, but then Lilia started to cry because she wouldn't see Yura, so they stopped in to say hello. Yura walked by and said "Hello, Lil," and she just beamed. (Personally, I think Yura's got a lot of growing up to do before he's ready to be the object of anyone's adoration, much less Lilia's, but perhaps she'll be a good influence. :) )

Lilia reminds me of why I actually do want children at some point (although not 12!). She's a very deep-thinking, loving, little girl, who likes to cuddle and take care of her little brothers. She said to me very seriously at breakfast this morning, "I missed you while you were gone [to America]. Sometimes I looked at your picture and thought about you. I don't want you to leave." Aww...

This afternoon Viktor and I took 6 of the Y kids to the playground at one of the schools in town to get them out of Nadia's hair so she could garden (of the other half, 1 was at a church conference in Kharkiv, 1 helped Nadia, and the other 4 were with their grandmother). We stayed at the playground for about 4 hours. I played football, excuse me, soccer, with the boys and Viktor for a bit, proving once again that I have very little aptitude for sports.

In case you all hadn't picked up on it, I love being in Ukraine again.