Happy Men's Day

So today, February 23, used to be Red Army Day. In Ukraine, they now celebrate this day as Men's Day. It's a day where men are honored and showered with gifts and compliments. At school, the female teachers all pooled together and bought flowers and chocolates for the male teachers at our school. During the break, students would go to the director's office and leave gifts for him.

The girls in my classes even took it upon themselves to decorate their classrooms in honor of their male classmates. In my 8th form, the girls adorned the room in balloons. There were balloons everywhere. I had to take a whole bunch off the chalkboard because there was no room for me to write. Hmmm, come to think of it, that was probably their plan. Five minutes into class one popped and it scared everyone half to death. One girl squeeled really loud which actually scared me more than the initial pop.

Most of my time outside of school has been consumed by reading Harry Potter. I finished book 5 two days ago and honestly, I'm grateful. I was reading like a crazy person. On monday, I read 700 pages. My sleep stopped being restful because it was full of Hogwarts and magic and wands and people flying on broomsticks. I certainly could have read the books at a more reasonable rate but I have no self control. Jennifer has book 6, but I need a little break from Harry Potter before I can tackle it.

Last Saturday, I spent the night at Jennifer's house. We worked on our joint English club. We spent hours working on our Tuesday lesson. The kids said they wanted to learn about France so we found all sorts of information about it. We made a power point presentation, we made posters, we made little bookmark cards with facts and french phrases. We went all out and then on Tuesday, when we finally had the club, two students came. Two. And one was Jennifer's host sister so she doesn't really count. Oh well, that's just how it goes here.

I can't believe that February is drawing to a close. Of course I'm thrilled because it means one more month of waiting for my own apartment. My host mother has calmed down a lot since I returned from Kiev. She has stopped harrassing me and for the most part, treats me like an adult. I think it shocked her that I was able to go to Kiev and back again alone. I for one, am thankful that she's toned it down. It makes being at her apartment better than just bearable.