Days Sixty to Sixty-Three.

Since we have vacation next week, we did our Halloween party with the kids yesterday. While we were supposed to still have lessons planned, it was a very relaxed day. Well, relaxed in that the kids basically did whatever they wanted for at least half of the time they were there. The parents all brought in loads of food, they all dressed up- it was pretty great.

[I'm sorry about the plethora of pictures. I'm trying to write down as mcuh as possible about pictures, so I actually remember.]

Mayham. And of course, Kuzma is in the center of it.



Andrew and Dasha. Andrew is such a ham. Dasha USED to be timid, but Andrew is rubbing of fon her.



Nastia and Alice. They are both constantly smiling, but the second you try to take a picture, she will stop smiling. It's actually custom here to do that- they think not smiling makes them look sexy, or something outrageous like that.



Nika. Oh do I love her. As her mom said, she knows a ton of English, but her attention span is zero to none.



Zenia. Isn't she precious?



Little Vlad. He was running around so much and wore that costume the whole time. By the end of the day, it looked like he had just jumped into a pool with all of his clothes on. Gross.



Left to right- Nika, Ania, Alic, Nastia, Andrew, Dasha. It's crazy how much food their parents brought. Of course, they hardly ate any.



Starting with Dasha- Varvara, Kuzma (they're in love), Masha and Vlad.



Singing "You are my Sunshine" with the kids. It's become tradition. Since it's never sunny outside, we always pick whoever is being best to be our sunshine.



If Varvara doesn't get to be our sunshine every day, she'll cry. To avoid that, we sing "You are my Sunshine" at least four times each opening.



In an effort to gain control of the kids, I came in singing "I'm a mean old witch with a hat! And I ride on my broom with my cat! I have a long pointy nose and a pointy chin too! If you don't watch out I'm gonna get YOU!" They always settle down if you shock them, not so today. Instead, I was brutally attacked.



What a surprise...



...they're attacking eachother. (Zahar is the smallest kid- he's my pre-language favorite- yet he attacks the most.)



Wolf (Nazar) attacking the pirate (Arseny).



This was how it all started. We were trying to play a Duck Duck Goose. Instead, Jess almost lost her life to the hands of an evil pirate.



Liza isn't mad, she's just really shy. WHen she comes to school in the morning, she stands by the door, as close as she can, and doesn't move. When you can get her to laugh, it's quite the feat. She never used to even talk, now she talks all the time. It's so rewarding to see.



One of my pre-language kids. Sophia is a little rascal, but I love her. She didn't talk for the longest time, then a few weeks ago, she decided that she could speak English, and repeats everything I say. She was singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider here.



Isn't that a sweet pumpkin? Kuzma's Gramma gave it to us to carve in his class, so on Thursday I carved it with his class, then yesterday we put candles in it and had a real Jack-o-lantern! Alas, it was shortlived, as Arseny promptly blew out the candles. You're probably saying- hey, just relight them. Am I right? Well, it's wasn't that simple.
You see, we didn't have matches. Or lighters. Or anything of the sorts. So, since the oven was on (that's a whole other story) Vera put the candles against the electric part of the oven (she was brave) and they caught on fire. It wasn't something that was going to be repeated.



This picture is incredibly embarassing. Nikita was trying to take a picture of just me in this wig (disgusting, yes, but I thought you all might enjoy it), but I pulled him into it.



Are they not the cutest witch and wizard you ever saw? I'm not sure where they found these hats in a country where Halloween isn't celebrated, but they managed somehow. Nikita and Sophia are inseperable. They're adorable.

Days Fifty-Eight and Fifty-Nine.

Dolphin Show!

Casey, one of the directors of ILP, is here visiting our schools this week. He's doing observations, interviews, etc. Last night, we a group of us went with him and Tania, our native coordinator, to a dolphin show. Not something I expected to do for the first time in Ukraine, but hey, it was worth it.

These guys were amazing. Good thing they didn't fall.



The cutest darn seal ever. I just wanted to hug him.



They said it was a dolphin show, but there was only one dolphin, and then these adorable beluga whales. Hey Mom, remember when I was obsessed with the song Baby Beluga? I was singing it all night.



Insane? I think so. It only gets better.



This wasn't photo-shopped, I promise. I almost didn't beleive it, even though I was practically right in front of them.

Days Fifty-Five until Fifty-Seven.

The last few days have been quite eventful.
I picked mushrooms in the forest, stood in a metro for a almost an entire hour trying to get Genevieve unlost, bought my tickets for my trip next week (Poland to Krakow, Sunday until Sunday), tried way to many kinds of baby food at a baby shower, saw a bridge of love where you can put a lock on the bridge with your significant other and then throw the lock over the edge. It's getting cold here, and I saw geese flying south and finally, bright red leaves. I also saw Babushka's on mopeds and a lady fishing by herself (GASP!). I was almost late for church- when I was supposed to give my talk and realized that all branches are inevitably freezing.

Andrew made a scary monster in Jess's class. He is such a nutcase.



Ania and her monster. I wish that I could take a video of her laughing, it is the most hilarious thing in the world.



Nastia- she's so sweet, I'm pretty sure she never misbehaves.



Oh Kuzma. His dimples make me melt, but sometimes he drives me insane.

Day Fifty-Four.

Rain, rain and oh yah, more rain.

The daily forecast for, well, every day in Ukraine. I've been pretty stressed out the past few days, hence the reason I haven't been updating as well. I've been figuring out where I am moving, what I'm doing for my trip, planning lessons, writing my talk for church and getting ready for Casey, the director of ILP, to come here next week. I've also been sick, which hasn't helped with the stress levels.

Mom sent me a little package (thanks Mom!) in the mail, and I just got it today! One of the things she sent me were leaves. Call me crazy, but one of the things I miss most about home is the feeling you get walking outside in the fall. I miss hiking, trees, mountains, cold air, sunny days and those stormy clouds that are always in the sky on cold, windy fall days.

These pictures are from last year.







How could anyone not miss this?

Days Fifty to Fifty-Three.

The past three days have been quite busy. I'm in the middle of deciding where I am going to move, I had parent day at school yesterday, visited the Vashenko's at night (it was their Babushka's birthday), I've been sick (having no voice doesn't make for effective teaching) and now I'm trying to figure out my trip in a week and a half.

I squeezed a few pictures out of my reluctant camera. Finally. And I got a picture of...

the pumpkin patch and tree I made. These little buggers are my homeroom- from left to right- Dasha, Varvara, Nika, Vlad and Ali. Masha ran out of class right before the picture, and Zhenia wasn't here today.



This is one of my morning groups. I wish I had been able to get a pre-language picture, but alas, my camera wouldn't work. In no particular order- Nazar, Sasha, Sophia, Nikita, Arseniy, Georgiey and Liza. Sasha isn't actually in my class- he goes to the afternoon session- but he came to the morning session just for today.

Days Forty-Six to Forty-Nine.

Arts and Crafts is my favorite SPE to do- surprised? Well, last week I decided to have a fall theme to my lessons. So, I made the most adorable pumpkin patch, and a fall tree with handprints on the leaves, with my kids. I wish I could get a picture, but my camera has not been working.
Today, one of my students, Kuzma, had his "Happy Birthday" (it's not just a birthday here, it's a Happy Birthday). He's quite a rambunctious kid (he's been described as a "hands down punk" from prior teachers) and it was adorable to see him all focused on setting the table, getting chairs and putting out food for his party. It is tradition here that when someone has a birthday, they throw a party for the rest of the class. It was a welcome break from teaching for twenty minutes.

As I mentioned before, my camera has been quite tempormental and so I'm still posting pictures from my trip.

This was on top of a cage that surrounded a fountain that used to be drinking water for the city. You can't drink it anymore.



Jewish cemetary where over 500 people are buried- it's in the Jewish Ghetto in Prague.



Christ on a pine tree. And a Saint with a pigeon on his head.



I really incredible statue. I honestly can't remember what it was of. Sorry my memory stinks.



Old Town Square, Prague.



The group in front of the Charles Bridge. There was a couple taking their wedding pictures to the left of us.



These trees reminded me of when KateLyn and I would make forts in the woods.



These delicious breads that they wrapped around what looked like a metal rolling pin which then rotated over coals. I'll post a picture of them cooking, it's really cool.



There are vines everywhere here. I love it so much.



My boyfriend. Isn't he handsome? I must say though, it was a bit too cold for bare feet.

Day Forty-Five.

Because nothing exciting is going on over here, I'm going to continue posting random pictures from my trip.

Oh, on a side note: I got bit for the first time today. (Kira, I'm sorry that I bit you in church that one time. Thank you for not hating me forever because of it.) I was reaching in front of Arseniy to take away a toy from Nikita, and Arseniy put his mouth near my arm. Now, I assumed he was just going to kiss it (he always kisses my arms, my shoulders, my hands- anywhere he can, really). How wrong I was. The next second I felt his sharp little teeth biting into my arm, and by instinct I tried pushing his head away, and he DIDN'T LET GO. It was terrifying.

When we got into Budapest, we had an early morning picnic of day old rice in the park. Mmmm.



If anyone could explain this Hungarian sign to me, please enlighten me.



The Ukrainian country side is not very technologicaly advanced. From what I could see, most people plow their gardens with horse pulled plows.



Nothing feels better than brushing your teeth. The sunrise made the prior 20+ hours of driving worth it.



Our bus was really kind of creepy. We had sleeping lions, a leering moon, giant mice, a grinning sun, and many other odd pictures. It was a one of a kind tour bus.