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.