The Day for Teachers. Kind of.

Since it's been a long time between my updating, I'll go back a month and report on one of Ukraine's favorite school holidays: Teachers' Day.

Teachers' Day is the first Friday of October. It's the day when Ukrainian students honor their teachers and laud them [the teachers] for all of their hard work.

In theory.

My Teachers' Day began with a knock on my apartment door. I don't have the first or second lessons on Friday, so I usually take my time in getting to school. I assumed it would be the same on that Friday. I had just finished tying my tie then the knock at the door came. It was my friend Volodya (he's a student at the Technical Institute in L'viv, yet always seems to be hanging out in our town. Long story.) Volodya had come to wish me a happy Teachers' Day and to remind me that the lessons at school were shortened 10 minutes due to the holiday. This was news to me. Apparently no one had thought it prudent to inform me, a teacher, on the revised schedule. The revised schedule meant that my first class began in five minutes. I scrambled into my socks and shoes and crossed the street to school.

A lot of the students were really dressed up, suits and dresses. I thanked Volodya and headed to the teachers' room. I gave a few teachers a hard time about my lack of information, but they just laughed and said that's how Teachers' Day usually goes. If you're asking me, which you obviously are, that's how most days go, not just Teachers' Day.

So I went to my first class. Half of the students weren't there. The other half didn't seem to mind that I had entered the room. One boy was playing music from his cell phone. In Ukrainian (it's the most efficient way of getting information), I asked them what was going on. They replied that it was Teachers' Day. I asked what that meant. It meant that it was a day of rest for the teacher. They said that we wouldn't have a lesson, and that I could relax. I said if we were going to have a rest, we should have taken the day off. Since I'm here, we're going to do something. They grumbled, but turned the music off. It was obvious that we weren't actually going to accomplish any learning, so we talked about their lives in Ukrainian. It was productive. Kind of.

My second class went much the same way. At one point, I looked out the window and saw most of the 11th graders outside in the yard smoking. It was quite a holiday.

After the second class, I was told that all of the teachers were heading to a classroom for lunch and a performance from the students. I still had two classes to teach. I was told not to worry about those, because the 11th grade students would be teaching the rest of the day's lessons. Nope, I didn't worry one bit. Not one bit. The same students who had been smoking in the yard would now be running my English classes. Granted, I wasn't planning to speak English (based on the two previous lessons), but I knew that whatever I did would be much more beneficial and productive than whatever the 11th graders had in store.

Reluctantly I proceeded to the classroom where we would have our lunch. It wasn't so much a lunch as it was chocolates and fruit. And coffee. This wasn't really a surprise (I've been here a year, c'mon.) We were "serenaded" by students. It was entertaining.

During the lunch I was "interviewed" by a member of the regional committee. He wanted me to tell him about how we celebrated Teachers' Day in America. I explained that I had never celebrated it before coming to Ukraine. He then asked about how we celebrated Christmas in school. I told him that we couldn't really celebrate Christmas in school. He didn't believe it. I tried to explain the whole separation of church and state concept. I'm pretty sure he stopped listening to me after I said we didn't celebrate Christmas in school. He then proceeded to ask me the usual questions (How much does a car cost in America? What is the average monthly salary of an accredited statistician who only works the night shift? Ad nauseum.)

Teachers' Day ended and I wasn't really sure that we had been lauded in the way we had (I had) expected. In fact, I felt like someone was playing a big trick on me, and that the real Teachers' Day was about to start.

It never did.

Speaking of interviews, I had an interview with a reporter for our local newspaper. The reporter and my director interrupted one of my lessons so that we could set up a time for the appointment. I didn't really realize what was going on at first. I thought that the reporter was going to interview me on the spot, and I was declining in favor of teaching. Then I understood that she didn't want to take me away from my lessons, and we set a time for after school.

The reporter, it turns out, is the older sister of one of my 8th grade students. I'm not exactly breaking news, but the reporter (Ruslana) had heard so many good things about me from her sister that she decided to interview me for a personal interest story. To be completely honest, the whole interview kind of felt like a first date, and I'm not entirely convinced that it wasn't.

Ruslana met me at school after classes and we adjourned to the local caf�. We bought coffee. She turned on her recorder (her cell phone) and set it on the table in front of me. She asked me a few standard questions, like how did I end up in Ukraine? and how do I like the students at our school? I answered her questions and then sat waiting for another question. Sometimes she just smiled at me. Eventually she would ask another question. A few of her questions were over my head and I had to admit I didn't understand them (keep in mind that the entire interview is in Ukrainian.) Her final question, well the final question with the recorder on, was "How do you like Ukrainian girls?" I responded with something like "Who hasn't asked me that question…" I then gave the stock answer that they were very friendly and attractive, but most of the female Ukrainians I interact with on a regular basis are my students and at least six years younger than me. She laughed at that. Then turned off the recorder. Then she asked me about my free time activities. And where I live, etc. So I think that there were two interviews: A business one and a personal one. She thanked me for the interview and said that she'd get in touch with me again (I'm assuming for a photograph?)
If nothing else, it was great Ukrainian practice.