Visit to Window on America center in Lviv

The head of Dnipropetrovsk WOA Svitlana Usenko has visited the city of Lviv where she met and exchanged ideas and  working methods with her colleague Ludmyla Piasetska – the head of Lviv WOA.

Christmas party

The Center was decorated with red and green colours.

The English Language lecturer Tamara Gavriluk prepared and showed a slide-show, which told the club-members about the traditions of celebrating Christmas in the USA. We have learnt a large number of different interesting things like the traditional colours of Christmas, traditional dishes and drinks, popular characters of Christmas and songs which the USA likes and sings. We have listened to a few of them.

This day the center was visited by two American guests Aaron and Avital, volunteers of Peace Corps. They told how they usually celebrated Christmas in America. They also asked questions to club-members, they were interested in the topics we had already discussed and we would like to discuss in future.

A real surprise for everybody was Santa Claus who visited our Center. It was Roland Clemenceau who congratulated everybody and gave gifts! There were some musical performances: Julia Mischenko, Julia Klimenko and Alice Piven' sang a song "Jingle bells". A international band (Natalie, Alexander, Solo, Mohamed) played and sang wonderful Christmas songs.
After performance we communicated and ate a very delicious cake.
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"Carlos Castaneda Quotes" and "What is Slavery?"

The first part of the meeting was dedicated to American writer Carlos Castaneda. Svitlana Kolesnykova acquainted the members of the ESC with the biography of the writer. Everybody read, translated and discussed a few of his quotes.

New club-members told some facts about themselves and shared their experience of learning English.

Roland Clemenceau prepared a well-grounded report on the topic Slavery, serfdom and  The abolition of slavery in the US. The report was about the history of slavery in the world and in the USA. He illustrated his story with pictures and documents. We learnt the difficult life conditions of slaves in North America, the peculiarities of their everyday life. The struggle against the slavery finished with accepting the 13th amendment to the American Constitution. The club-members gave their view on the slavery in America and serfdom in Europe.

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English Speaking club - poems by Emily Dickinson

The meeting was dedicated to American poet Emily Dickinson.

At the beginning of the meeting the club-member shared with their attitude to winter, what they like in winter and what they don’t like.

Then we listened to poems of Emily Dickinson and tried to definite the peculiarities of her literal style.
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In the end of the meeting we discussed some questions thanks to Cathy's Cards. It allowed us to improve our communication skills.

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Information Day for Ukrainian teachers of English

Svitlana Usenko, the head of Window on America center took part in the Information Day for Ukrainian teachers of  English. She presented the resources of the Center and offered some variants for cooperation with the local schools.
The  teachers of English learnt about the Dnipropetrovsk library web-site, WOA center blog, pages on Facebook and Vkontakte.
It was interesting to get acquainted with a program Rosetta Stone which can be interesting for self-studying of their pupils.
It’s always pleasant for us to share our experience with our colleagues.

The teachers received advertising materials.

The number of the visitors – 20.

English Speaking club - Mark Twain quotes and Tennessee

The Guest of the Center  was Luba Zhovtonizhko, the ex-participant of the  schoolchildren exchange program  FLEX. At present she  is a 1^st year student of the Ukrainian Academy of Customs. She told us about her 10-month long stay and study in Tennessee, about her host family, subjects at school, school friends, sports in America. Luba shared  her impressions about the differences in American and Ukrainian cuisines.

 Luba was a volunteer in the USA, and she continues her volunteer activities  here in Ukraine. She was a wonderful example of charity traditions in Ukraine. Luba promised to come next time and to tell about her trip to Washington,  to show the pictures and video.

The second part of the meeting was dedicated to American writer Mark Twain. There was a book exhibit of his books in WOA. 

Svitlana Kolesnykova reminded the clubbers the biography of Mark Twain and his magnificent contribution to the development of American Literature. Everybody discussed the famous quotes of Mark Twain.

Twain.

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Book display «American writers - December memorable dates»

Book Display: «American writers - December memorable dates» is presented.

It’s the works, literary resources, pictures of Emily Dickinson and Carlos Casteneda.

December 10^th – the 180^th – anniversary of Emily Dickinson’s birthday, American poet, author of 1800 poems.

December 25th – the 85th anniversary of Carlos (César Salvador Arana) Castaneda’s birthday, an American and Mexican philosopher, writer, professor of anthropology in the University of California, author of 11 books.

Skype connection with Window on America center in Vinnytsa

At 13.00 a Skype connection with the Vinnitsa WOA was planned ( director Yulia Kashparuk). Technically connection was perfect.  WOA  visitors introduced themselves  to each other and exchanged thanksgiving greetings. The Vinnitsa group included American volunteers and ESC activists. They told us about the tourist attractions of Vinnitsa, their hobbies, we exchanged  jokes and ideas about future contacts.
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Thanksgiving Day

At 14.00   started the Thanksgiving slide show. It was prepared and presented by the English Language lecturer Tamara Gavryluk.  In the presentation she focused on  certain historical aspects of the celebration and curious facts: how the  Pilgrims reached the American continent on the ship “Mayflower”(miniature model was displayed). It was  interesting to learn about American hereditary Mayflower Society which unites all the descendants of the first settlers. 

The participants of the club read a classical Felicia Hemans’s poem «The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers» and the texts of the grace prayers.

The historic details of the First Thanksgiving Dinner were depicted on several  pictures of the classical artists. It turned out that at the first Thanksgiving Indians were among the guests of the Pilgrims. So it was logical to initiate a competition – who will make the best Indian head gear with real feathers. The Atlas of American Indians helped the participants to decide about the meanings of the different shapes and colors of feathers. The winner was Kyril Galaburda. 
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Tamara Gavrylyuk  presented the outfit of the lady Pilgrim. On the photos one can see the active efforts of the English Speaking Club members to reproduce the atmosphere of the First Thanksgiving dinner.

In the second part of the function the English Speaking Club members refreshed in the memory the traditional  ceremony of Thanksgiving celebration. They  recollected the names of food staffs for  dinner and tried the following refreshments: baked turkey meat with cranberry sauce, pumpkin pies, seafood, red devil boiled eggs, green peas, corn, beet, seasonal fruits.

Katerina Ivchenko presented her version of a song “Only you”.
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The participants highly appreciated the efforts of the Window on America center Head - Svitlana Usenko. She created the scenario, managed the preparation and guided the running of the most successful event of this year so far.
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Picture slide show here