November got colder...

Well, a year has come and gone. Or is it came and went? Actually, since I used the word has, we need the words come and gone (past participles). If I had just said "a year" then I could say came and went. But, in the original case, the Present Perfect tense was needed… Can you guess what I'm teaching in school right now?

Grammar aside, I have been in Ukraine for over a year. 13 months, to be precise. And it's still here. "It" is the country, the language, the starchy foods, the school, and everything. The TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) group before mine (They're Group 27, I'm Group 29) is leaving the country. Some of them have already left. Some of them are friends of mine. It's weird to say goodbye to them, when I've only just met them.

It's weird to look at my service on a longitudinal plane. One year ago, I was a fresh-faced, wide-eyed trainee. Group 27 was a year into their service. Group 25 was going home. Now, a year later, I'm a cynical, weather-hardened, veteran volunteer. I'm not even an underclassman (There are 4 groups in the country at all times [Ok, so there are currently 5, but 27 is on the way out… they're like the post-grads who just won't leave], and we like to use the High School/College hierarchy. And when Group 31 arrived in country, Group 29 moved from being the sophomore class to being the junior class.) And in another year, it will be my group who is checking out. Time flies when you're having fun. And when you're not.

Winter snuck up on us. During Autumn Holiday (a week of vacation) it snowed. The temperature in my town dropped below zero. It was cold. I argued with my students that winter had arrived, but they claimed it couldn't be winter because November is an autumn month. That was the whole of their argument. I read them our textbook's text on winter and all of the adjectives were present outside: Snowy, grey skies, cold, no leaves on the trees, ice on the streets. They countered with the argument that November is an autumn month. So I assigned homework that required them to write a 10-sentence argument proving that it was autumn and not winter. And no, they can't just write, "November is autumn months" 10 times.

Unfortunately, in the meantime (that was on Monday), Mother Nature decided to make me eat crow. It rained on Tuesday, thus melting all of the snow. Yesterday and today have been mild and sunny. Yes, it would seem that November is an autumn month.

My apartment has no heat in the kitchen, bathroom, or toilet. This makes for a not-so-fun time when I wake up. I can see my breath as I wait for my water to boil for coffee. And, as a chilling reminder of the temperature, steam rolls off of my body as I splash with tepid water. Peace Corps gave me a small, electric radiator, and I stand it behind me, on high, while I shiver over my sink and shave. I'd like to take this chance to point out (humbly, natch) that it's still autumn. And January, according to our textbooks, is the coldest month of the year. Send me warm thoughts, please.

Two rooms of my apartment do have heat. And I have sealed off those two rooms from the cold parts of my house. Within those two rooms, I'm quite toasty. I'm warm when I sleep and when I'm sitting around reading or planning lessons. But when nature calls…I'm actually waiting for the day when the water in my toilet freezes. That ought to be a fun problem to deal with.