Days Thirty-One and Thirty-Two.

Last night I went to a ballet, after teaching the morning and afternoon sessions. I was beat, but it was completely worth it. It was so beauitful.

Tomorrow I am leaving in the morning for a twenty four hour bus ride to Budapest. We will spend a day there, then travel to Vienna. After a day in Vienna, we are going to Prague. We'll spend the rest of the trip there, with a day trip to Dresden on one of those days. I'll be coming back to Kiev on the eight day.

Though I haven't had many exciting pictures lately, I promise I'll have plenty from my trip (providing my camera doesn't break). I know you're excited. Don't hold your breath too long.

Day Thirty.

Thirty days. That's a whole month (unless it's February on a leap year, then it's two days past a month. Or any of the months with thirty-one days.) Time passes by so quickly.

For the next three months, Jessica and I have decided we needed to at least two times a week have a random adventure after teaching. We took all of the Metro stops on the Green Line and decided one random thing to do at each on.

-Chervonyi Khutir: learn the Clapping game
-Boryspil's'ka: Buy lunch
-Vydytsia: learn a Russian Vowel
-Kharkivs'ka: Karate chop tree
-Pozniaky: Pee in a Public bathroom
-Osokarky: Open a random door
-Slavutych: buy Soup
-Vydubychi: Vow to say hello to a random person
-Druzhby Narodiv: Drink a Delicious yogurt
-Pechers'ka: Play tag
-Klovsk'a: Kick a spoon
-Palats Sportu: Paint a Picture
-Zoloti Vorota: draw a Zebra
-Lukianivs'ka: Lick an icecream
-Dorohozhychi: Drink something random
-Syrets': find a Swingset

I'm not sure how some of these tasks will be accomplished- it'll be an adventure.

Day Twenty-Nine.

Yesterday, David had a birthday. He turned six. Though we didn't have a formal Birthday party, we had a huge dinner with their family, the Sister Missionaries and their family friends, who are investigators.

Victor, David and Volva reinacted David and Goliath.

Days Twenty-Six, Twenty-Seven and Twenty-Eight

On Saturday, the Angel Moroni was placed on top of the Kiev temple. Because of Ura's wedding, I didn't think I would be able to go. But, it turned out that we went before the reception.



Anna, Jessica and I. I ran into almost my whole group here. I didn't realize how badly we stick out until I saw from the outside. We look like a pack of lost sheep.

While I added the pictures in the right order, they of course upload backwards. I guess you can watch Moroni descending.

Over 600 members gathered together,

watching intently as Moroni was lifter through the air.

The spire was just put on the temple on Friday- they wasted no time in placing Moroni.

Before they lifted the Moroni, there was a devotional of sorts. Being entirely in Russian, I have no idea what was said.

Joseph Smith was a popular topic though, as they showed a video of him- speaking in Russian. It almost made me laugh.

This is the area around the temple. It was the most beautiful day.

Maria, Victor, Cola, David and Zenia- half of the Vashchenko family.

Tanya and I outside of the temple.

Now you get to see Moroni up close and personal.

Of course, the wedding pictures are backwards as well. They had fireworks at the very end!

I almost caught the bouquet-

but Tanya was the lucky one! (Darn it! Haha)

It was really cold- we spent most of the time wrapped up in blankets.

The recpetion area looked out over the Dneiper. It was beautiful.

Ura and Marina (sp?) doing the cake deal.

Apprantly it's normal to have Vegas style dancers at wedding receptions.

I think I'm falling in love with Kiev.

First dance.

Their greeting area- I loved her flowers.

Sunday, I went to the Botanical Gardens. They are in the Western part of Kiev.

Throughout the gardens there are a lot of old buildings that the Monastary used to use. There is still a functioning Monastary there.

This is looking towards the east, across the Dneiper. The blue church tower is from either a Russian or Ukrainian Orthodox church. There are both in the gardens.

This well is from 1711. Don't drink the water.

The inside of these churches are even more beautiful than the outside. My lack of a head scarf was disrespectful enough- taking a picture may have caused a monk to get violent.

I'm starting to really learn to appreciate what Ukraine has to offer. I'm learning to really love it here. It's finally turning into fall here- I could see my breath this morning! It's wonderful.

Days Twenty-Four and Twenty-Five

The highlight of the past two days has been the hour and a half I spent cleaning this closet. It was time consuming, but worth it. Look how nice and organized it is! As usual to my fashion of cleaning, Jess and I tore everything off the shelves then seperated and placed everything in it's specific spot.


And if anyone messes with my clean closet, their done.



Tomorrow I am going to Ura's wedding. I should find out whether or not I am going to be able to live there as well.

Days Twenty-Two and Twenty-Three

Though I have no pictures to show for it, yesterday really was quite fantastic. Teaching was difficult, and I didn't want to do anything for the rest of the day, but alas, I already had plans for lunch and dinner.
My lunch plans involved meeting Emily. Who is Emily, you may ask. Well, because Jess's mom checks people in at the airport, she frequently asks where they are going. Emily happened to tell Jess's mom that she was coming to Kiev- and lived very close to where Jess and I live. She has lived in Kiev for four years, and works as a missionary and in an orphanage. Jess and I ended up meeting her for lunch, and she told us all about places to go in Kiev, and how to survive here in Kiev.
After lunch, I met up with Lena's family. Tanya (she's 14 but looks 17) and her cousin Ura (he's getting married on Saturday) both speak English. They translated for me as I met the rest of the family. I absolutely loved them- they were so welcoming, and I felt right at home. Ura's parents have offered for me to stay at their house because Ura is moving out, and they want me to stay there. Their offer was completely random- I hadn't even talked about my host family to them. I'm not sure what's going to happen with this, but I'll keep everyone posted.

Day Twenty-One.

I've been here for three weeks now. Though it's had it's ups and downs, I really feel like I just got here. Time feels slow in the moment; looking back, I wonder where it went.

During Drama, I found bunny ears, a pirate hat, witch hat, princess tiara and a pirate hook. I decided Jack and the Beanstalk was overrated, and instead made up a story about a princess who had a spell cast on her by a witch, and the bad pirate was was trapped by the good pirate and bunny rabbit, who went on a quest to save the Princess. It really didn't make sense, but it was entertaining.

Here are the stars of the play- Nikita, Arseny, Sofia, Liza and Georgiey.

It was Inna's birthday on Saturday as well, and so when I got to school today I made her a brownie cake. That was the attempt- I had no eggs, so I used sour cream instead and water, and no oil. I also baked it in a saucepan. Though the edges burnt, I had enough left to carve out a heart. Instead of icing, I melted choclate chips- and promptly burnt them in the microwave (is that even possible?) Luckily, my second attempt was a sucess, and she loved it.

Days Eighteen, Nineteen and Twenty

[In honor of Jess's birthday on Saturday, we planned a full day of cultural activities, as I mentioned earlier. The pictuers uploaded backwards, so I'll go in rewind through my day.]

We went to see La Traviata at one of the opera houses in central Kiev. It was so surreal- I couldn't beleive I was at an opera, in Kiev, Ukraine. That's not something you do every day.


I felt like I had stepped into a movie-


For only four dollars.


Ann, Emily and I. We're rooming together for our big trip in a few weeks.


For the first half of our day, we went to an outdoor museum. This branch/tree is a wishing tree, where people make a wish and tie on tissue paper, ribbon, etc.


There were a lot of windmills here- they're beautiful.


They were much bigger than our windmill at home.


All of these buildings have been removed from various areas throughout Ukraine, all in their original conditions. The oldest house here is from 1518.


There were people in traditional Ukrainian clothing doing doing different cultural things. This guys mustache was enough to make anyone envious.


No, it's not for mini people. It's a birdhouse!


The countryside here really is beautiful, and looks a lot like Maine.


Somebody decided it'd be a good idea to do an egg painting class. Intense concentration was needed. It really made me appreciate the time it takes to make a Ukrainian Egg that looks good.


This was our teacher. She was quite the eccentric lady, and amazing at painting eggs. Needless to say, I'm not puting a picture of my egg up- it was a disgrace to any artistic talent I may posess.


When waiting in the metro for our group, one finds ways to occupy their time. This was an especially beautiful metro.


I couldn't be happier about this class. While they were labeled as Kindergarten 3, they really are progressing enough to start Basic Reading classes. I was teaching them their letters by spelling their names with mini chocolate chips on Graham crackers with peanut butter.
This is Ania and Kuzma.


My two favorites in this class- Nastia and Andrew. Andrew is so smart and has a habit of getting over excited (can you tell?) but is still really respectful. I really am loving teaching them.

Day Seventeen.

I really have nothing to write, except that I am very excited about my trip in a few weeks, as well as this weekend. It's Jess's birthday, so we are going to an outdoor museum, painting eggs and then going to an opera (the opera is only 30 hyrvena, which is just around 4 dollars- how great is that?) Teaching went well today, despite being sick. I'm grateful that the kids were really good and listened.

Day Sixteen.

While contemplating the meaning of life,



I saw some cute stray puppies.


And a see-saw.

Then, a little man made out of a popsicle stick. Ok, not really. I did make this little guy though, for my arts and crafts SPE. They came out pretty cute.

(After taking pictures of the stray puppies frolicking in the flours, I failed to notice that they were vigorously attempting to tear up my scarf, bag and laptop. I quickly extracted my belongings from their grasp, which further fueled their mischief- unable to walk away, I realized that they had moved to attacking my skirt. Not so cute anymore, I quickly ran away. Luckily, I survived with a mere scratch on the cover of my laptop.)

"Try the yogurt in Ukraine, it's amazing!" says everone who's been here.

"Hmm, well, ok. I know! I'll buy some for my Kitchen SPE and use it to make fruit dip- then I can try it."

That was not to be. Upon entering the store, I stared in awe at the isle of anonymous dairy products. Milk in bags? Unlabeled cheeses? Eventually, I settled upon a container that looked like it was yogurt- there were containers with different pictures on the front of different fruits. I assumed those were flavors, so I chose the one without fruit. Excited to try it, I was buzzing into my apartment when it dawned on me: this looks like a sour cream container. Sure enough, I rush upstairs and immediatly consult Anna. To my dismay, I did indeed buy sour cream instead of yogurt.

(I ended up mixing it with peanut butter and having them put it on their apples. It was actually not bad.)