librarians and Ukrainian roommates

I've always gotten along well with librarians, going back all the way to my pre-school-aged days, when I couldn't see over the counter but brought my invisible pet dinosaur to Story Hour. My rapport with librarians has gotten me out of study hall in middle school, found me a Quiz Bowl coach in high school, and helped me get a private tour of MSU's Special Collections in undergrad.

So today I found out that this isn't just something that happens to me in the U.S. I had to go to L'viv Post-Graduate Institute today to drop off a stack of questionnaires, and I decided to stop by their library to see if a lesson plan that Nelya and I submitted to a Ukrainian pedagogical journal for English back in fall 2007 ever got published, so I could know whether or not I could put it on my resume. The librarian was very helpful, and found me many, many bound volumes of the journal. Unfortunately, it looks like our lesson plan never got published, but the librarian, who is herself a history teacher and apparently has a lot of things published, assured me that what I should do is submit the same lesson plan to a Kharkiv publisher (instead of Kyiv), because they aren't as backed up. She even gave me the phone number of the publisher and told me to mention her name. I don't actually want to publish anything right now--I just was curious what had happened to our lesson plan, and I'm not even sure if I have the files for it--but I was amazed at how helpful she was.

After that, I told her about my thesis, and she bustled around finding me journals in Ukrainian with articles on Communicative Language Teaching, let me check them out to go make copies, and even told me where the closest copy center was (of course the library wouldn't have a copy machine...). I was pleasantly surprised at how willing she was to be helpful, and she told me to come back again if there was anything I needed. I've experienced this level of helpfulness several times this summer, but usually when I was introduced to the person by someone else who had some level of authority. This was just me going in and asking a question.

~*~

Yesterday, I visited Zhanna, a woman I met at church. Zhanna immigrated to the US in her early 20s and got a degree from Fuller Seminary, but now she's back in Ukraine doing seminars in schools on drug and alcohol abuse. She and I, along with her roommate Vira and their friend Tanya, hung out all afternoon, eating homemade pizza and cherry coffeecake (Lisa, if you remember my blueberry cake that took forever to finish baking, they had the same problem) and talking about life, religion, and randomness. Lots of fun.

I particularly enjoyed watching Zhanna and Vira and realizing that roommates are roommates the world over. (Zhanna told me before we got there, "Vira and I get along well. But sometimes we even argue." I believe I have 3 former roommates and 1 roommate-to-be reading this blog, and I doubt this surprises any of you.) I asked Vira, "Does Zhanna ever mix things up and speak English by mistake?" since I occasionally do so in Ukrainian, particularly when startled. She grinned and said, "Yes, and then I tell her I have no idea what she's saying." Lisa should appreciate that. :)

Kracow this weekend, barring unforseen circumstances (such as no train tickets available when I go buy one tomorrow, which seems unlikely).

the last few days

Oh, a lot's been going on.

Thursday through Saturday, our group went on a trip to Transcarpathia, which is in southwestern Ukraine. It was part of Hungary and Czecheslovakia at various points, and has a slightly different feel to it than other regions of Ukraine. We stayed in dorms at a camp belonging to IFNU (the university here), which was in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains. I loved driving through the mountains...they're absolutely beautiful, and although Balaklia is home for me here in Ukraine, I felt a slight twinge of regret that Peace Corps hadn't placed me there. We visited the cities of Mukachevo and Uzhgorod, complete with a castle and quaint little downtowns. At some point I'll try and post pictures.

Last night, after we got home, John (the other student who's staying with my host family, an ethnomusicologist in his 50s) and I were chatting with Olgert, our host dad, about L'viv history and all the interesting things that have happened on our street. Then, around 10:30 pm, Olgert said, "Let's go over to the President's house. I know the housekeepers there, and they're over there now getting ready for someone to come tomorrow." So John, Olgert, and I walked across the street to the presidential residence, and since the gate was locked, Olgert (who is probably close to 60) climbed over the fence and knocked on the door. The housekeepers, who were getting ready for the head of the safety department for Ukraine to come this morning, were happy to see us, and we had ice cream and tea in the living room (out of cups that I realized were probably used by the president!). John played his guitar, we sang in English and Ukrainian, and Olgert yodeled. (He likes to. Don't ask.) I love my quirky life.

Today Vanessa and I went to L'viv Central Baptist Church, and the pastor mentioned that this afternoon, there would be English conversation. Looking for ways to get to know people (and a bit convicted by the sermon, which talked about different ways to reach out to others), I introduced myself after church and said that I'd love to come. After today's meeting, I am now helping out with a weekly conversation group, am hanging out tomorrow (which is a holiday here, Constitution Day) with a woman I met from the church, and had several people tell me that they were looking forward to trying to speak English with me on Thursday. All of which makes me very happy.

Kyiv, Part 2, Take 2

Blogger ate my post. Grr. And I don't really have enough time to type it all over again.

In short: Vitaly Yukhymets and I hung out Saturday afternoon, I showed him the main sites of Kyiv, and we had an awesome time. I realized that I miss having friends around, as I don't know many people in L'viv.

Also, I have started talking to the full-time international students here, as they are often in our hallway studying for exams. The ones I have talked to are from China and Serbia, and the weirdness of an American girl and a Chinese guy having Ukrainian as their common language appeals to my sense of quirky.

That was all, really, just expanded a bit. Plus, it rains a lot here. I think Seattle must be a bit like L'viv--in the west, often rainy, and lots of cafes/coffee shops.

Kyiv, part 1

I have to confess, I wasn't crazy about going to Kyiv for a program trip last week. I've always thought of it as big, noisy, and expensive, and I've been there 15-20 times already. That said, I had a great time.

We arrived Thursday night at the Post-Graduate Institute for Taras Shevchenko National University, where I had stayed a couple of years ago for a Peace Corps function. Group 36 (!) had had their swearing-in ceremony there last week, but unfortunately, they left before we arrived. I would have enjoyed sharing my (and Tif's) horror stories with them to scare them before moving to site (just kidding).

Friday, we spent the day doing things I'd never done before. In the morning, we went to the Kyiv-Percheska Lavra, which is an Orthodox monestery complete with museums, churches, and monks buried in caves, which we got to see. Very interesting. Then we went by the Parliament building, and while we couldn't go inside, we still could take pictures of the outside. (Our professor told the guard on duty that we were a "delegation" and therefore got us a good parking spot.) After lunch, we took a boat cruise a ways down the Dnipro River and back, which was something I'd never had the chance to do before, and I really enjoyed it, particuarly because it came after the Lavra, which we could see quite well. Having been there first meant that I actually knew what I was looking at. After that, we went to Saint Sophia's Church, which dates back to the 11th century. A lovely day, particularly because even though I'd been in Kyiv so many times, I hadn't seen any of the things we saw.

Saturday morning, we went to Petrivka, a big book/CD/DVD market in Kyiv, where I loaded up on English textbooks used in the schools here in order to have them as references for my thesis. The vendors looked at me a little strangely when I asked for books by specific authors and didn't care what grade they were for, as most people would be looking for a book for a specific grade. I also got a movie, Metropolitan Andrey (about a Greek-Orthodox priest) in Ukrainian with English subtitles, and a CD of Ukrainian folk music.

And now the lady at the computer lab tells me I must go, so more later!

languages and research

Monday night, we had a very international evening. Natalya and Olgert, my host parents, have friends visiting from Poland, and those friends had invited friends of theirs from Germany to come stay for a few days. This brings the total number of people in the house up to eight, with me being less than half everyone else's age. More interesting is the fact that we all speak a slightly different set of languages, with six languages total between the eight of us. Everything that gets said has to be translated for someone, but we're doing pretty well. The breakdown is as follows:

German man: German, English, French
German woman, German, French, some English
Polish man: Polish, German, Russian
Polish woman: Polish, Russian, some German
Natalya (Ukrainian): Ukrainian, Russian, Polish
Olgert (Ukrainian but of Polish ethnicity): Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, French
John (American): English, rudimentary Ukrainian and Russian
Me: English, Ukrainian, and Russian (and I'm surprised how much Polish I understand)

As you can imagine, it's quite something. Everyone's here until Thursday, when we all leave (our program is going to Kyiv for a few days), and Natalya said she's going to pretty much collapse at that point.

Language classes are going pretty well. I've decided that partway through a grad program in learning how to teach languages is a horrible time to take language classes, as I've spent a year developing opinions how it should Be Done Properly, and while this isn't at all how I would teach grammar, I can tell that it's paying off, at least in how I write. My oral language may be fairly fixed by this point, and I have a few Russianisms that my teacher continues to comment on that I can't seem to shake loose, but the classes really are helpful.

What's most frustrating about the program is that I feel like I primarily speak Ukrainian in class. It isn't like Balaklia where I did basically everything in Ukrainian (except teach, I suppose, although I ended up using a lot more Ukrainian in class by the end than at the beginning). Here, I spend time with the American students, or we're going on trips to museums and everything gets translated (which makes sense, as we have some beginners in the group), or I'm wandering around by myself and can order things in cafes in Ukrainian. But I don't have a social life in Ukrainian, and I miss that. Or perhaps I just miss having a social life in Ukraine. I'm not quite sure how to meet people here. I asked about getting a conversation partner, but that's difficult right now because it's summer vacation and there aren't many students around.

However, I did get to speak Ukrainian this afternoon, and it was directly connected to my thesis! An English professor at the university who I had been introduced to connected me to the head of social programs at the university, who called the head of the teacher recertification institute (for all subjects) for L'viv Oblast, who introduced me to one of the people responsible for running the English recertification program, who said (slightly condensed), "You only have 9 surveys with you? I'll take those now, and can you please bring 35 copies on Monday, as we're getting in a new group of teachers? And would you please speak to the teachers about your life and what you're learning about TESOL and how people teach English as a native language in the U.S?"

Not to mention, I got several surveys turned back in to me today already from other sources and have an interview scheduled for next week! I'm really impressed with people's willingness to be helpful, and it's nice to be going through the university, as that gives me access to contacts I wouldn't otherwise be able to get on my own.

mistaken national identity

Well, the answer to how much of the liturgy I could understand at the Catholic service on Sunday morning is "very little," as the service was in Polish, not Ukrainian. There are enough cognates that I had a slight idea what was going on, but not much.

After that, I met Allie and Vanessa for the opera Natalka Potavka, which was nice, even though the plot was somewhat predictable. Allie had quite the experience before the opera--she had been going to come to church with us, but then ended up at the Greek Catholic church instead of the Roman Catholic church. A very cute (in her words) guy helped her find her way back to the opera theater, and was talking to her in Ukrainian the whole time (Allie speaks some Russian but is a beginner in Ukrainian). At the end, he said something she didn't understand, and she said, "Yes." He then kissed her! I've asked many people for directions over the years in Ukraine, but no one's ever kissed me. :) (Allie said that that was because I actually understand what they're saying...)

However, I did have a funny thing happen last night. I went to L'viv Central Baptist Church for the evening service. The third sermon (there are generally three short sermons at Baptist churches in Ukraine, interspersed with lots of music) was given by a visiting American pastor, who was in charge of a missions trip who would be teaching English to people in L'viv. After the service, I decided to go up and say hello. The visiting pastor was saying hello to some kids in English, so they could practice what they knew how to say. I walked up and said, in what I thought was fluent English, "I appreciated your message. What state are you from?" Very slowly, with a great deal of enunciation, the pastor replied, "I am from the state of Texas." He thought I was a Ukrainian who spoke English! I replied, "I'm from Michigan!" "Really?" he said, and we chatted for a minute or two. I've had people think I'm from all over here, but it's rare that Americans don't recognize me as one of their own!

I did have a similar experience once when I was in the Peace Corps. I was at a Kyiv McDonald's, and a woman there (who might have been a native speaker of English...at any rate, she wasn't Ukrainian or Russian) was having trouble ordering (which is sort of amazing, as it's all cognates). I helped her out, and she said something like, "You must be an English teacher" (because I spoke English). "Yes," I replied.

This afternoon I met with a professor from the English department here, and she took some of my surveys to pass out. I'm glad to have made the contact with her, because I've had some down time on my thesis research and I'd like to get started again.

We head to Kyiv Thursday through Sunday, taking a university van for the 7-hour trip rather than taking an overnight train. It'll be interesting to do Kyiv as a tourist, rather than running errands. On Friday we're going to the Percheska Lavra (Cave Monestary), which is somewhere I've never been, as well as some other places. On Saturday, we have a free day, and I'm hoping to meet up with Sasha Malko and Vitaly Yukhymets, although probably not at the same time. The universe might implode with that odd combination.

settling in

Well, my first week of classes in L'viv is over. It's different from what I expected...not bad, just taking some getting used to. I'm used to Peace Corps, which crammed as much Ukrainian in our heads as possible, and then sent us off to live on our own--with their support, of course, but we learned how to be self-sufficient fairly quickly. Here, I'm an international student, our language classes go at a much slower pace, I find that I use Ukrainian primarily in class and English much of the rest of the time, and we're given a lot of support...in English. It's weird for me, because for the first month I was here, I was speaking Ukrainian all the time I was awake (except for my interviews), and here, since us students are together a lot, I use English much more. But I'm hoping to get a conversation partner so I can speak Ukrainian more.

Today we went on a bus tour of L'viv with a history professor from the university as our tour guide. It was really interesting...since L'viv was part of Poland and the Austrian-Hungarian Empire at various points and didn't come under Soviet control until 1939, it feels so different than out East in Kharkiv or Balaklia. In some ways, it feels like a different country, just with the same language. I'm reminded of my impression from the time Tif and I visited here--the people who built this city took the effort to make things pretty, with great attention to details like wrought-iron balconies and sculptures on the facades of buildings. I also love seeing all the old churches.

On the subject of church, I was hoping to go to the Baptist church here tomorrow, as that would be something that would feel familiar to me. But Vanessa, Ally, and I have tickets to the Ukrainan folk-opera Natalka Poltavka, which starts at noon, so there's no way the Baptist service (which starts at 10 am) would be done by then. So I think I'm going to the Catholic cathedral downtown, which should be a neat experience. I'm interested in seeing how much of the liturgy I can follow, as the last time I went to a liturgical service in Ukraine (which was several years ago), I couldn't understand a thing.

good fences make good neighbors, and good neighbors make good water?

Having not had Internet access for several days, I had typed up a blog post detailing some of the amusing highlights of my weekend (Carmen ended up being a Ukrainian musical, not an opera!), but I can't get my flash drive to work in the USB port here at the Internet cafe, so I'll just skip the weekend and go straight to L'viv.

I am living in a gorgeous, shabby old house in an old neighborhood in L'viv. The grandfather of my host dad was a professor at the Polytechnic University in L'viv back when L'viv was still Polish Lwow. The family had to leave the house during WWII, but it wasn't destroyed by the Germans, perhaps because they weren't in the area long enough. After that, the family eventually got the house back, but Nikita Krushchev lived for a while on the first floor, in the days before he was the Premir (which I can't seem to spell right now) of the Soviet Union. When the President of Ukraine or other important political figures are in town, they live across the street from me, which has a great side benefit..unlike the rest of L'viv, we get water all day long! (L'viv has a chronic water shortage, as it's not on a river.)

My host parents are in their late 50s or early 60s. Pan Olgert, my host father, is a retired engineer whose interests include airplanes, architecture, and Jules Verne (he's apparently the secretary of the Jules Verne Society of Ukraine). Pani Natalya ("Pan" and "Pani" are terms of respect used in western Ukraine) is a physician. She's cheerful and chatty, whereas Pan Olgert is quieter. They have a son, Pavel, who's about my age and works as a physician in Poland. I haven't met him yet, but he's supposed to be in town for a few days starting today.

There are only four American students in the program here. One of them, John, is also staying at the same place I am. He's in his mid-forties and interested in the Ukrainian folk instrument, the lyra (lira?). He and his wife, whose area of expertise is textiles and fabric, were here last year, but she didn't come this time. The other two students are women about my age--Ally (Allie?), who's interested in energy politics, and Vanessa, who's interested in folklore. I think it's going to be a fun group.

Lutsk

Well, the people in my compartment from Kharkiv to Kyiv thought I was from Western Ukraine, and the people in my compartment from Kyiv to Lutsk thought I was Polish. If the trend of thinking I'm from just west of wherever I'm going keeps up, I will apparently be German if I go visit Jes in Cracow in July.

Lutsk is very nice. Via the recommendation of my trusty guidebook, I booked a single standard room for three nights at the downtown Hotel Ukraina, which cost me in total about $30 less than one night in Kyiv. In addition, both the room and the attached bath are about 3x bigger than my hotel room in Kyiv, plus there's a fridge and a comfortable mattress. As breakfast is included in the deal, I think I lucked out.

I also lucked out with my interview, which was with someone who was not only informative and interesting, but also gave me several books of materials used in teacher recertification. Apparently, I was their second researcher to come through in the past month...the other one is a PhD student at UPenn in Educational Linguistics, who I'd run across a mention of while looking at UPenn's program. I should email her at some point to see what particularly she's interested in (although that will wait until I'm using a computer where the keys don't stick like the dickens).

I wandered around Lutsk a bit yesterday and plan to do so more today, including visiting the town castle. Tomorrow is church in the morning and the opera Carmen in the evening, as I got a 3rd row center aisle seat for about $3.33.

Will post more when not battling keyboards.

paris when it sizzles, kharkiv when it thunders and lightenings

Having typed my post title, it occurs to me that I might have used a similar title last summer the night I watched Paris When it Sizzles in a thunderstorm. Oh, well...

Yesterday was my last day in Balaklia, which was primarily spent packing and making arrangements for the next leg of my trip. I'm in Kyiv now, for a lunch date with my friend Tanya and an interview for my project, then off on another train tonight to Lutsk in north-western Ukraine, where I have an interview tomorrow morning and then will just hang out there for the weekend, as I found a decently priced hotel downtown there (I can stay there for three nights for the price of what I spent for one night in Kyiv...). (I also found a church online to visit on Sunday, which amazed Nadia that I was able to accomplish all of this via Internet, and somewhat allayed her worries that I'm headed across the country by myself with heavy luggage. I keep calling her to check in so she doesn't worry quite as much.) Then on to L'viv on Monday.

At least 11 children were sad to see me go yesterday (Yura wasn't around to say goodbye, and when the van pulled away, I saw him brushing Nadia off that no, he didn't intend to. But he wears the t-shirt I brought him a lot, which is enough for me.). Valera told me that he's going to visit me in the U.S. when he's 25 (in 13 years), and then asked me in detail where I would be living, who would open the door when he arrived, and what would happen if I wasn't home when he came, since he thought it unlikely anyone else in my family would speak Ukrainian. Snizhanna told me that she was going to come with Valera, but only if Nadia let her. I am going to miss them all so much.

Then I took the elektrichka to Kharkiv, which was one of those experiences that was just nice, as the scenery was beautiful and the ride brought back memories of when Tif and I used to ride up to Kharkiv for the day. I think that Nadia had expected me to stay in the train station and eat the sandwiches she'd packed, but instead, I went out to dinner at Adriano's (saving the sandwiches for later).

Adriano's is quite possibly one of my all-time favorite restaurants, up there with Sansu in East Lansing. The food is Italian, the decor is nice without being overdone, the prices are reasonable (my meal was roughly $8 USD), and the music is light, jazzy, and European. I got the lasagna with spinach, shrimp, and salmon. I think this is the first time I'd ever been there by myself--it was a popular place for PCVs to hang out, and I think I took pretty much everyone who ever visited me there (Tif, did you go there with me? You're the only person I'm not sure about.)

After dinner, I decided to go find a coffee shop I remembered around the corner, where we often went for dessert afterwards, but it had been replaced by a small casino. Grrr... So I decided to walk down to the next metro stop, but it was farther than I remembered, it was growing dark, and there was lots of thunder and lightening, although no rain (it had rained earlier). I was starting to question my common sense, but I had a rough idea of where I was, so I started heading in the direction of the Universytet metro stop, which I figured was pretty close. Just after a VERY loud crack of thunder, I spotted the huge Lenin statue near the metro. I never thought I'd say this, but I've never been so happy to see Lenin in all of my life. :)

Returning to the train station, I was disgusted to find out that the ticket counter for foreigners now closes at 7:30, instead of staying open until midnight, as I wanted to buy my ticket to Lutsk (which I got without problems in Kyiv this morning). I then, in classic Sal-and-Tif fashion, went to McDonald's for ice cream and clean bathrooms. And by that time, I could board my train.

The train was awesome. They've really spruced up the Kharkiv-Kyiv overnight train, with plushy seats, a control panel for lights, radio, etc. (which also tells you if the toilet is occupied), and clean windows. It felt very luxurious. The conductor was also friendly and helped get my suitcase on and off the train, bless his heart! My traveling companions were two sisters in their 50s and the daughter of one of them, who was about my age. The one woman was a former administrator of education for Kharkivska Oblast, and her daughter is a translator for international students at Karazin University in Kharkiv. They were friendly and I really enjoyed chatting with them. At first, they didn't realize I was a foreigner, but when they asked if I was really trying to read Les Miserables in English--the whole thing! (it's about 2 inches thick)--I explained that I was actually American. They had assumed I was from western Ukraine, which made my night. A lot less people give me odd looks when I talk to them, so hopefully my accent has gotten better.

a multilingual evening and my current love life (completely non-exciting)

Well, the guests all came and we now have 22 people here (although one or two kids might have been sent off to Grandma's next door to sleep). One of the best parts of the evening included having a conversation in English with Hannes, an older man from Switzerland who is a friend of Valentin's (the friend of Viktor and Nadia who is visiting). Hannes knows some English, and he speaks English better than Russian, so we visited for a bit and he showed me pictures of the Swiss Alps on his digital camera. My other favorite part of the evening was when I played the piano and we sang "How Great Thou Art", and when we came to the chorus, people were singing in English, Russian, and German (and possibly Swiss and Ukrainian).

Less fun was getting accidentally elbowed in the face by Valera during a game of dodgeball. Fortunately, he missed my glasses, but the kid doesn't know how strong he is, and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm a bit black and blue there tomorrow. Sigh.

That aside, Valera is still as much my buddy as he ever was, and if the kiss on the cheek I got yesterday was any indication, the crush he had on me at age 9 is still extant at age 11 (albeit he also has a crush on a Roma girl named Sophia who went to our church for a short period of time). He loves to ask me questions about anything and everything, all day long, and it's thanks to him that I have gotten much better at conditionals in Ukrainian ("What would you do if...?").

To continue with the Y children's interest in my love life, the other day I was getting ready to go visit Robert, the 40-something PCV in town, for tea, and Ihor (age 7) asked where I was going. "I'm having tea with Robert," I said. "You're going on a DATE!" Ihor crowed. Nadia and I about died laughing, Nadia adding, "I didn't think he even knew what that was!"

Snizhanna (age 6) said to Liza the other day while we were playing dolls, "Miss Sally's going to marry Vitaly (age 19)!" I told her that that was in fact inaccurate, and when I told Nadia, she said, "That's what Snizhanna would like!" Snizhanna loves playing dolls, helping Nadia in the kitchen, and being a girl, and the fact that I am one more girl in a houseful of boys has endeared me to her deeply.

Due to all the extra people, Liza and Vlada are in the room next to mine on the third floor. So far they have thrown toys at me, stolen my key, knocked incessantly on my door, and played what sounded like the accordion. I've been utilizing the "ignore them and they will go away" approach, which is fairly effective. When Valera came upstairs to bug me, they told him to go away. "Miss Sally's sleeping!" And yet they play the accordion!

and then there were 22!

If evangelicals ever start canonizing people, I nominate Nadia Volodomyrivna Yukhymets for sainthood. There are currently 15 of us living here, and at least seven guests (including small children) are coming to stay for an unspecified number of days (their best friend, who's a missionary in Germany, and friends/family of his). Nadia's been cooking and cleaning all day.

I bought my ticket to leave Balaklia today. Honestly, there isn't a connection. :) The current plan is to head out Wednesday night, do an interview in Kyiv, hang out with/maybe spend the night at my friend Tanya's place (she's a Ukrainian with a penchant for Joss Whedon shows [there, there, Lisa] who I met when she was doing a TB training in Kyiv), and then hopefully head to western Ukraine, assuming I can get an interview scheduled for Friday (or Monday). Not quite sure where I'll be during the weekend, as my plans to visit the Malkos fell through because they'll be out of town for a family wedding. If I don't have any place to go for interviews/visiting, I may pick a city in western Ukraine out of my guidebook and find a relatively inexpensive hotel for a night or two ("relatively inexpensive" = less than $50/night).

Random bits about my research:
*I collected six questionnaires today (that had been distributed earlier during my visit) and did two interviews. With one more questionnaire to get back and one more interview to do tomorrow, that brings my Balaklia total to 13 questionnaires and 6 interviews, which is about half of what I need for a minimum amount of data.
*One teacher I interviewed offered to pass on questionnaires to some of her colleagues, who filled them out and returned them to me by leaving them at the store by my house (which I was told via text message), and then I stopped by to pick them up.
*So far most people I've interviewed have wanted to use English...I don't know if they want the chance to practice speaking or if they feel it's necessary, since they're English teachers (I'm fine with them speaking Ukrainian). One teacher didn't want me to record the interview on my digital recorder because she was worried she'd make mistakes...I felt bad, because her speech was fine.

Valera just came up to tell me that the guests are here...bye for now!