Easter and Odessa

Well last weekend I celebrated a Ukrainian Easter (the most significant holiday in Ukraine), which was one of those experiences that you just can't describe to someone. On Thursday, our host mom had us wash and clean everything, because on Good Friday we were not allowed to do any of that. Audrey and I left with our host family to go to church at about 11:00 on Saturday night, and we were there until 5 in the morning! It was an experience I will never forget, but 6 hours at church was a bit long for me :). We started off the night by following the Priest around the church with our candles and then into the church where the service began. The singing was beautiful, and the elaborate paintings inside kept me from being too bored for about an hour haha. After a couple of hours I thought I was going to fall asleep; I didn't really understand everything that was going on and the incense was starting to give me a headache. But around 3:30 a.m. everyone left the church and lined up on the sidewalks with their baskets full of Pascha (a very large round bread with frosting on top-looks REALLY good but sadly is kind of bland), eggs, wine, and other foods. There, everyone waits for the Priest to bless them.

After that we went home and ate a ton of food with the family. There was one dish that looked somewhat like jello with some kind of pink frosting on top. I have lived in Ukraine long enough to guess that the "pink frosting" was beets and sour cream-I was right; but I did not expect what was inside. I'm not even sure what all was in it, but for sure there was fish, beets, sour cream, and other vegetables. It was interesting haha. One of the traditions here is that you hit your boiled eggs with someone else, and if your egg doesn't crack, you will have good luck. I won twice and lost once :). There are other traditions related to Easter and Spring that are really interesting. One I thought was kind of funny is when on a certain day (I cannot remember exactly what day it was) everyone carries around willows and taps one another with them while saying a poem. In English it's something like: "The willow hits, not I: a week from now it will be Easter."

A couple of weeks ago about 9 of us went to Odesssa for a weekend. It was really nice there and it was a fun weekend. We went to a couple musems and walked on beach (the Black Sea). We also had a good time exploring the catacombs. The weather has been really nice lately so this weekend Audrey and I walked around Kreshatik and watched the random break dancers that are always there haha. It was nice; there were a lot of people out and something seemed to be going on at every street corner.

Excursion in Europe!

Last week we had our trip-the Ukrainians who were touring with us called it an excursion. Whenever we headed to a new city or went on a tour, they said that we were going on another excursion-it was just funny the way they said it too :).

When we were crossing the border to go to Hungary, we saw the guards pretty much tear apart this guy's car. He kept tossing out handfulls of cigarettes and and stuff-apparently he was trying to smuggle all of it into Hungary. It took so long to cross the border, we were sitting there for a few hours before we finally got into the country.

Our first stop was BUDAPEST, HUNGARY. This and Prague were my favorite places. I just really enjoyed my experience in Budapest too. It was beautiful there. I loved the churches and castles. The people there were very friendly and were interested in talking to us. We happened to be there for Peace Day which was really cool. We went to Heroes' Square where everyone gathered around with torches and listened to music and a few speeches. We talked with some people there and they told us a little about what was going on and stuff. After that some of us ate dinner at a Turkish Hookah Bar. Turkish food=amazing! When we finished eating, it was about 9:30 p.m. so we decided since we didn't know the city, we should probably go back to the hotel, but soon found out that there was no #25 that would take us back near the hotel like we were told. We ended up wandering around for a bit before finding a taxi-luckily we didn't have to pay too much; some people paid 3 times as much as we did for a taxi!

After that we went to VIENNA, AUSTRIA. If I could describe Vienna in one word, it would be "elegant." It was very clean and everything seemed so proper and elegant. It kind of surprised me how many people were speaking English. I could talk to almost anyone I wanted to without using "the language of getsures," haha. I really liked Vienna, but it was a bit too touristy for me.

Next stop was DRESDEN, GERMANY. Dresden wasn't really what I expected, maybe that's why it wasn't one of my favorite places. To me, it seemed like a huge city with no one there. It kind of felt like a ghost town to me. I loved some of the buildings, but there was A LOT of construction going on. My favorite part about Dresden was actually one of the art museums. Too bad we were only there for a day, I probably could have spent a week just in the museum-it was so big.

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC was definitely my favorite city. I loved everything about it-the food, people, buildings, and just the overall experience of being there. Our tour guide was really fun too; after the tour, he would hang with us for a bit and take us to some really good places to eat. My favorite part of Prague was Old Town Square. We got to see a lot on the boat tour-that was a lot of fun. Oh and I also had caviar on the boat tour-it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, I actually kind of liked it! The only downside was that it too was VERY touristy; for some reason it just didn't feel as touristy as Vienna though-I still felt like I was in a different country in Prague. Vienna felt a little too much like America.

Our last stop was KRAKOW, POLAND. I liked it there, but we didn't get to see too much of it; we were only there for about half a day. A lot of it looked very similar to Kiev.

We almost missed our train back to Kiev from Lviv. It took much longer than expected to fill out our immigration cards and everything at the border. I guess it was supposed to take about 2 hours to get to Lviv, but somehow we made it there in 1 hour and 20 minutes, with about 7 minutes to get onto our train! We were all a little nervous driving there though-we were in this tour bus, passing cars on the highway in the rain. Totally felt like we were in Ukraine again-the driving is pretty scary here! Haha.

It was weird how comfortable I felt coming back to Ukraine. I was happy that everything was in Russian and Ukrainian, I could actually read everything! (even though I don't know what most of it means, I can at least read it haha). After going to all of those places, it makes me want to stay there (especially Prague!). I like Kiev, but it's much nicer and cleaner in the other cities, and tons of people speak English there. Anyways, the trip was great, but now it's back to teaching!

Living like a true Ukrainian

Teaching has been keeping me pretty busy lately. We have midterm evaluations coming up and monthly reports so I've been spending a lot of time at the school. Teaching is still going great-the kids are so fun. 

Some of the other teachers and I were talking about how when we come back to America, people are going to think that we are so rude. We have gotten used to the culture here, and back home I would never do act the way I do here sometimes haha. On the metro, I am not shy about pushing through crowds of people anymore. I remember I thought people here were so rude at first. If you're standing in someones way, they won't even say anything to you, they will just push you aside so they can get passed you. Also, I've gotten pretty good at the staring game :). People are always staring at us, especially in the metro, probably because we stand out so much here. I used to feel awkward about it, but now I'll just stare back at them until they stop haha. We've learned to be very blunt and rude to all the guys and drunk people here too-I usually am not like this! lol

I've really adapted to the culture here, and I have to admit, I'm actually starting to like the fashion here! At first I thought the clothing here was so bizarre, but now I have even started wearing SOME of the things that they wear here. I just bought a pair of boots the other day (EVERYONE here wears boots-and all the girls wear those knee-high boots with heels). I also really like some food that I never would have expected to. One of my favorite things to eat here is varenki (which is like tortellini stuffed with cabbage). Cabbage is becoming one of my new favorite foods! 

I really wish I had brought more books with me on this trip; that's all I do on the metro and when there isn't anything to do at home. Just the other day I was reading on the metro, and looked up at one of the stops and realized I had no idea where I was. So I got off  and realized that I had gone about 3 stops further than I needed to; I guess I lost track of time when I was reading. 

When I was at church yesterday, I was thinking about how lucky I am to go to a school and live where there are a lot of members of the church. I could just walk to the church and to the temple any time I wanted to. Here, it takes over an hour to get to church and the closest temple is about a 24-hour train ride to Germany. One of the members was talking about how hard it was for her to be LDS when she joined the church. She told us that shortly after she was baptized, the missionaries were deported from Ukraine and the government had spies questioning the members. She said that they threatened to hurt her and her family and things like that-I can't even imagine what that would be like! I'm really grateful for the opportunities that I have in America.

It's a...POMANDA!

Yup, that has become my new nickname-Pomanda. For some reason, the kids can't say my name the right way. It's really funny because when the younger kids see me, they always say "Look (to be said like "Luke") it's a Pomanda!!" It's really cute when they say it because of their accents too.

The kids have been really fun to teach. For the first 20 minutes, all of the classes combine and they pick songs to sing and play games. The funniest song has been "Old McDonald" because they will pick THE MOST random animals that they could think of, and we would have no idea what "sound" to make for the song. They choose animals like porcupines, swans, dolphins, spiders...it's hilarious. 

Audrey and I had our first attempt of making Blini the other day-they turned out waaayyy to thick-almost like a tortilla. Our host dad makes really good blini and he showed us how to do it, but it was a little hard because he doesn't speak any English, and they don't have any measuring cups. So we thought it was 3 cups of flour, but the cup he used must have been really small because they did NOT turn out the way they were supposed to haha. 

One thing I have learned while living in Ukraine-NEVER eat the food they have at the street markets! I was warned about it, but I didn't think it would be so bad. The meat didn't even taste bad, but I got food poisoning from it. Now that I think about it, I really don't even know what kind of meat it was at all. Other than that...the food is pretty good :), although it can be really bland sometimes.

More fun in Kyiv

The weather has been much warmer and things are going well! Last week we went to a soccer game-Kyiv's team Dynamo again Spain (Valencia). That was really exciting-the crowd was crazy and we all had such a good time. Although trying to get to the metro after the game was a nightmare. There were so many people and we were all just being pushed toward the street; most of people were drunk and trying to ask us questions, and then they would get all confused when we started speaking English. I'll just say that I have a bruise on my leg because the crowd was so crazy that night!

The other day when I was at the grocery store with Audrey (my roommate) I accidentally spoke Spanish instead of Russian! haha. When the lady asked how many bags I wanted, I said "dos" instead of "dva." It was really funny-never thought I would speak Spanish on accident, I thought for sure it would be English. I always seem to have interesting experiences at the grocery store. The first time I went there, the cashier started yelling at me in Russian and I had no idea what I was doing wrong. She then made sure I understood that I had to follow her, and she showed me that I needed to get a price-tag thing to put on the produce I was going to buy. I was used to having them just do it when you pay for it in America! I also got lectured by a Babushka in a grocery store once-I think maybe I was standing in her way? I don't know. 

It's always funny when things like that happen though because, for the most part, I have no idea what they are trying to tell me. I'll tell them "I speak English" or "I don't understand" in both English and Russian, and sometimes that we still try to talk to me. They usually get really frustrated and then walk away or STILL keeping trying to talk to me. It's really funny to me that some people will still try to talk to me even after I tell them that I don't speak Russian. I just kind of stand there and stare at them until they are done and then shrug my shoulders because I have no idea what they are saying.

The other day we went to our head teacher's apartment (Cassidy) and looked through the closests there. We found some really cool old clothes, hats, and books. It was fun to rumage through a really old Ukrainian apartment and find all that stuff. 

One month in Ukraine!

Teaching in Kiev, Ukraine has been a great experience so far. The kids are great, and I enjoy teaching much more than I thought I would! The city is beautiful, although it's been really rainy and foggy since I've been here. I can't beleive I have been here for a month already! I feel like I have just got the hang of things around here, and knowing where I am going! The metros aren't so scary anymore now that I know the Russian alphabet and can read where I want to go. 

The food here isn't too bad-I got kind of lucky with my host family though, because they have a bigger family, and I also have an American roommate, so we have to make our own food. It's great because we can make food that is similar to what you find in America, but we still get to eat all of the Ukrainian food that our host mom makes. One of my favorite foods here is blini-it's kind of like a really thin pancake that you fill with jam, cottage cheese, or whatever you want. My host dad taught us how to make it too :). 

My host family is great. I live with the parents, Sasha (14-boy), Kristina (8-girl), and Vania (5-boy). They are all really nice. Sasha likes to play darts and soccer with us, and the younger kids always want to play card games. I'm pretty sure that I've played either "Uno" or "Phase 10" almost every night since I've been here! My host family is very traditional and they don't speak much English, especially the parents, so it's been interesting, but I've learned a lot about the culture.

Well it's kind of hard to sum up the past month, but I've seen a lot of really beautiful things here, and I'm having a great experience so far. We went to a Russian ballet, the circus, Lavra, and different churches. The people here are nice, but that was not my first impression! haha. They are just very reserved in public, and don't smile at strangers or talk much. It was a little depressing at first, especially with the winter season. Everyone wears black, or dark colors, and it's been really gloomy, especially because the sun goes down earlier here. The metro is always packed with people, but it is SO quiet; people just sit there and look at the ground, and don't really say anything. Now that I've gotten used to it though, it all seems normal to me. When I am at home or at the school, the people are very friendly and fun to be with.