For those who do not know. Billy Madison was an Adam Sandler movie from 1995. It was a tale of a grown man who goes back to school to prove to his dad that he is not a fool. I am confident in the fact that my dad does not think this way, but I did feel like a Kindergartner today.

My day started out with my host Mama walking me to my first day of school. My host sister also gave me two apples before I began the short walk to my classroom.   I used this gift to teach my Ukrainian Language Teacher an American custom by giving her one of my apples. Those who know me well, know that I was a teacher’s pet in school. I thought it inconsistent to stop this trend.

We were shown our classroom once all my cluster mates had showed up (also accompanied by their mama’s). Our schoolhouse is literally a school a school in a house. After our tour we receive our 10 books on the Ukrainian language, and after pissing our pants we went on a field trip.

We walked around our new village, and stopped at nearly everything along the way. It was a two hour walk that would have taken a normal citizen 15 minutes. We stopped at the church, bus stop, well, flowers, community administration building, market, smaller market, and etc. (you get the idea).

All in all it was a great day. We accomplished our tasks and did great things. However, I have to admit that my favorite part of the day was lunch. I was able to utilize the kitchen in our school house and cook for my cluster mates. On the table: pasta with tomato sauce and pig meat, sea salt, bread from the corner market, and fresh grapes picked from the patio of our school house. As the Ukrainian’s say, “you are not family until you eat 10 pound of salt with each other.”

*These are the thoughts of Richard J. Roman, and do not in any way reflect the views of Peace Corps or its affiliates.