The First Day of Spring...

March 1st is the first day of spring in Ukraine. It doesn't mean that the weather follows suit but it is a holiday in this country and claims the first day of spring in March. However, I have noticed that the sun is coming up earlier and staying up longer and it is actually sunny everyday instead of grey! Tuesday is Women's Day and last week was Men's Day. My work had a little celebration for the men in my organization. I couldn't believe that only 6 men work in my organization but there are like 40 women. It kind of changes the statistics a little.

Today Jud had an event at the Technical School. He opened up their English Books Library. He raised money from the states and used it to buy English books for the school. They had really old and useless English books so he decided to help them change that. It was a big event and all the volunteers from Ktop came and our country director! They gave us a nice lunch and put on a wonderful ceremony. Each one of us donated a few English books of our own too. It was really a great event and I was glad to be apart of it. We also did a little something for the 50th anniversary celebrations.

This past weekend I spent some time in Slavske. It is a ski resort in Ukraine in the Carpathian Mountains. It was really beautiful. The skiing was awesome. There are a few mountains out there but the one we went to was downright Ukrainian. The lines were like free for alls. The chair lifts were on the ancient side and you know you are in Ukraine when you come to the bottom of the hill and people are making and eating shashlik and pouring you some hot wine. Because after you drink the hot wine you can ski right on over to the chair lift and do it all over again. This is the first time I have skied in a few years and it was so much fun. There were quite a few of us volunteers there this weekend and we all had a blast! I had a little trouble with the "T" lift but other than that I skied pretty darn well. I was proud!

In other news...my career development program is really underway. We just finish our second class this week. We discussed goal and objectives and how to write an action plan. I lost two participants but gained two so it was fine. Lyuda did a good job of leading it to some extent. She is still not comfortable leading to a group of adults but I hope to change that by the end of the program.

I am having a dinner party at my house on Friday night for some of my Ukrainian friends. I will make them chilli! It is not that American but it will be something they have never had before. I am looking forward to it.