Did you know that Ukrainians do not like it when you say "the Ukraine" instead of "Ukraine"? It's a country no longer part of the USSR is the reasoning I heard from my English students the first year we came for Summer Institute. I hear "the Ukraine" all the time in Canada, so if you are planning a visit here, remember it's just Ukraine.
Anyway Seth and I are back in the village, getting to Dnepropetroesk just before midnight on September 1st on the train. Garry and Jonah met us at the station with all our baggage. I just made my connection in Frankfurt (the plane was delayed out of Toronto) and long lines at passport control took an hour to get through in Kiev, so Denis and Seth were beginning to think that I had missed the plane! They had no problems with their flights and breezed through customs.
Garry and Jonah attended the school opening ceremony in the village on the morning of the first, where all the first graders are presented to school by their parents (he said that he felt funny in his shorts as the parents were all dressed up) in their little suits, them after some presentations and introductions of the classes, a little girl ringing a big bell led the classes into the school. All the students in Ukraine wear suits - black dress pants for boys, skirts for girls, white shirts and black jackets.
There was some rain last week and again on the first, some of the millet has sprouted (Garry dug some up to look) now we will see if it has enough moisture and heat to do someting in the next 6 weeks to get a crop to cut for silage.
Anyway we are heading to Crimea for a couple days of vacation before starting school next week.
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