The End Is Near

What even happened??!?!? These last two weeks FLEW BY and now I'm leaving my beautiful home in Ukraine in under 12 hours! My feelings are in a flurry! But before we get to my sentimental musings, let me fill you in on the happenings since I last wrote!

Hahaha....do you see those crazy hair accessories? Ridiculous....

Just casually walking through a forest on my way to school

The second to last week of school was pretty normal. Teaching went well and we started working with the kids on their Spectacle performance for their parents at the end of the year. It's been raining and thundering a lot, but I don't mind. It just makes things here greener which is something I love! I've also been working on my online class and preparing myself to go back to school in just a month! I've been updating my resume and applying for jobs, so wish me luck because I am basically broke after my European escapades!

In case you wanted to know what the outside of my house looked like

Look at that archway workin it

Still my house, just greener

The last week of school was a blur of eating candy, playing Hide-and-Seek with the kids, and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes! We spent a lot of the time practicing the end of the year performance with the kids and most of my "teaching" consisted of playing with the kids and taking pictures. But they could still only speak English!

He really believes I can't see him...

I know it's blurry, but look at these cuties!

Partying it up like there's no tomorrow

On Tuesday (May 27) Alysha and I went to a movie theater in Kyiv to see the recording of the live performance of "Coriolanus" a Shakespearean play starring the one and only Tom Hiddleston. It was long and a little tough to understand sometimes since I've never read the play before, but I really liked it and it was fun to be in a movie theater again! Even though the theater was really hot and stuffy and halfway through the movie the screen randomly shut off, it was still a fun evening out.

I approve of this princess

Oh Billa Market....only Kate understands the significance this building
has in our lives

Funny story: one of the Primary kids, Armon, gave us candy and back massages almost every day this past week. It's really sweet, but then when he misbehaves and we try to discipline him he reminds us that he gave us candy. When we say he still has to be good, he demands his candy back and starts hitting us on the back to get the candy out of us. It's hilarious! I'm really going to miss that kid.

Finally the last day of teaching came. We actually didn't teach at all on that Friday. Before school, Alysha and I went to get some croissants and on the way back our marshrutka's tire blew out! That was a first and I'm actually surprised it took almost five months for me to experience that. The kids came at 4pm and we practiced until 5pm, which is when the parents came. We performed, passed out diplomas and balloons, and took pictures, and that was that. It feels incredibly surreal. I can't imagine not seeing these kids ever again. I can't fathom not taking marshrutkas to get around town. I can't believe that soon I won't hear any Russian/Ukrainian being spoken around me. I'm so excited to go home and see my family and friends and eat Mexican food, but Ukraine has become such a big part of my life that I don't know how I'll adjust to life without it.

The Pre-K Crew

This kid is seriously my favorite

He wouldn't get out of my lap--he just wanted to cuddle

Yeah getting a picture with this many kids and then adding balloons...
it's impossible

My point is made again

 

Got some fancy chocolates for my services

Like do you even see this? This is fancy right here

I came home on Friday to an empty house without electricity. The thunder storm was raging outside and my host family was with my host siblings watching another school performance. I gathered some candles and settled in with my McDonald's chicken sandwich that Nikita was so excited to leave for me. He was so excited all week that we were getting McDonald's for the last day of school.

Sitting by myself in a room only lit by candlelight gave me some time to reflect on my experience in Ukraine without the distraction of the Internet. I thought about what I would be doing if Kate were still here. I had Skyped her the night before and she told me about her awesome experiences at BYU and how she knows it was the right thing for her to come home early. Maybe that was just for her, but as I look back over the six weeks I've spent in Ukraine on my own, I can't help but think that Kate leaving was the right thing for me too. I have learned so much about myself and have become more confident and self-assured because of the time I've spent on my own and with my own thoughts. Being alone has also made me draw closer to my host family and to Ukrainians in general. I've been able to develop better relationships with some of the other teachers and with the kids. I've also come to appreciate and love the time that Kate and I got to spend together, and I am so grateful for the friendship we developed. I can't wait to see her in just a day! (She's picking me up from the airport!) This has been a really beautiful time of development in my life and although I've had some challenging experiences, I've learned that I have people everywhere who support me, and most importantly, I have Heavenly Father who is more aware of me than I will ever fully know.

Saturday was really fun, except for the morning. All the teachers traipsed around in the rain for a few hours trying to get something sorted with our visas. I still don't really know what was going on. All I know is that I was wet and cold, so it wasn't very fun. After that Alysha, Cheila, Keeley, and I went to the temple one last time to do baptisms. Then we waited at the church for a couple hours until our little branch party started. It was awesome because we had pizza and chocolate chip cookies! We also played some games, and afterwards Alysha spent the night at my house.

Sunday was a really great day. It was a Fast and Testimony meeting, which I think was perfect for our last Sunday in Ukraine. This branch has been so wonderful and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I've had to be a part of it. We took pictures with everyone afterwards and then Alysha, Cheila, Keeley, and I headed to this place called the Lavra. It's basically some caves with dead priests. I don't really know much about it--I'll have to read about it later--but it was cool to see a part of Kyiv I haven't seen before.



The whole group (minus Kate)

Now add in some missionaries we found

I was cold so naturally we shared a cardigan

Thanks to the great branch members who gave us a ride in the rain!

We're a bunch of babushkas

And now it's Monday! It's actually my host sister Sophia's birthday today, so a ton of people are over. I'm almost completely packed and it's so sad looking at my empty room. I'll get picked up sometime around 2am or 3am so I can be at the airport by 4am for a flight that leaves at 6am! (Or 8pm on Monday California time.) Then I'll be traveling for almost a day before I arrive at the Salt Lake City airport and then the next day I fly to California! It is insane that this part of my life is coming to an end and I feel such an overwhelming mixture of happiness and sadness. But I've been told that life only gets better as you keep moving forward, so I'm ready to go!    

No big deal...just my swanky breakfast this morning

What A Crazy Life

So it's been a while since I posted...and here is the sad reason why. On Monday May 5th, I spilled water on my laptop. Like the technologically challenged person I am, all I did was wipe the water off and then I continued to use my laptop while it was plugged in to the wall. *Cue face palm* Consequently, when I got back from lunch I discovered that the keyboard to my laptop was severely malfunctioning, read: not working. I basically panicked and set it up so it could hopefully dry. After a day or two of drying, the keyboard was still not working. I wasn't sure what to do, but luckily my host mom saw my computer in its awkward drying position and asked me what was wrong. After explaining my predicament, she told me that they have a friend who works on computers and it was possible that he could fix it for me. So I handed over my precious laptop and waited on pins and needles for about a week. But I'm happy to report that I got a new keyboard and I am up and running again, with one minor change. My  keyboard now has English and Ukrainian letters occupying it! I think it's pretty cool, even though it was kind of weird to work with at first. I'm just happy to have my laptop working again!



Can you spot the difference?

That same day was Cino de Mayo! To celebrate, I went with some of the teachers to the one of the only Mexican restaurants in Kiev, Tequila House. The fake margaritas, entrees, and décor weren't exactly the most authentic I've seen, but I am also from Southern California so I might be a little biased. Regardless, it was a fun evening and it reminded me of home in the smallest way, which is always great!



Looks pretty Mexican to me!

There was sugar on the rim of the cup...

...and I was determined to get every last bit of it

On Wednesday I met a couple of teachers for a little lunch picnic in the park. It's actually kind of a sad place. It's called Babi Yar and is a ravine where a series of massacres took place, with Nazi soldiers killing over 100,000 Jews and other prisoners of war. It's a site where truly terrible things happened, and I would encourage everyone to read about it because those people who were murdered need to be remembered. When we visited it was a bright and sunny day and the weather was perfect. We ate croissants and fruit at the base of the main memorial and talked about different things. The ravine is now covered in tall grass and the occasional flower and it's so hard to think that so many people lost their lives here.

That's the memorial in the background

Speaking of good weather, it's been amazing here! I really love getting home by myself because I get to walk through this little forest where it's cool and green, and then I make my way around our little lake accompanied the whole way by a blue sky and fluffy white clouds. It makes me smile to be around such beauty, even if the air is getting a little sticky.

The cute little school I teach at!

I've also been running a lot on my own and teaching the kids has been great! They're so fun to be around and even though it can still be frustrating, I know I'll miss them when teaching is over!

I love the Pre-K kids!

That Saturday (May 10) I met up with some of the other teachers to go see a circus! I've been to a circus before, but not in Ukraine so I wasn't really sure what to expect. It was pretty small and we were very close to the stage. And it was weird. It was like this strange mash-up of Halloween dancing and acrobats with some big trained cats thrown into the mix. I actually felt kind of sad seeing the lions and tigers performing tricks, even though I thought it was cool to see them up close. The whole thing ended with a musical number about world peace which was odd after a show of barely dressed monsters and dancers. But whatever. It was definitely an interesting experience!

So this happened...

No caption needed

The next week our streak of having only 11-12 students show up drastically broke. On Tuesday we had almost 20 kids there and it's stayed around there since then! It's been a lot of work, but a lot of fun at the same time.


Woah. There are 24 kids in this picture

Starting on Thursday there have been severe thunderstorms here every night! The lightening lights up my room and the thunder is so loud! I'm not really used to that, so it's been so much fun! Plus, everything has been getting even more green with all the rain! Basically, it's just awesome!

Saturday held another interesting adventure. There's this website called Kontakte that's basically a Facebook for Eastern Europe. I made an account after we met those Ukrainian guys in Lviv. Anyway, a lot of random people have been sending me friend requests, which I don't accept, and one person started messaging me. I didn't really see any harm in it, so I messaged him and eventually he asked if I wanted to meet. I asked Alysha if she'd be willing to come along so I wouldn't get kidnapped or something, and of course she said yes. We planned to meet on Saturday in the afternoon.

I got up early Saturday morning because Alysha and I were planning on getting waxed that same morning! Some of the other teachers had told us about a lady they went to for waxing and we decided to give it a try! That's how we found ourselves in a random woman's kitchen laying on a makeshift bed. I traveled for over an hour on the marshrutkas and metro, and finally I met Alysha in the northern part of Kiev. We headed off to an apartment complex, rode the elevator to the 16th floor, and were greeted by a child in underwear when we knocked on the correct door.  The lady didn't speak any English so we motioned towards which areas we wanted hot wax applied to and she got to work! I was really nervous so Alysha went first. The picture is of her because I got my full legs, bikini line, and underarms waxed, so I'm not going to post a picture of myself practically half naked! (Sorry to disappoint) It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Getting your legs waxed kind of just feels like a Band-Aid getting ripped off over and over again, and my bikini line stung like that, only a little worse. But my underarms. Sweet heavens above that hurt. Oh my goodness that was painful. But I would probably do it again because who likes shaving? Definitely not this person. PLUS all that waxing only cost me about $10 so I think that makes anything worth it.

You know...just casually getting waxed

After that experience it was almost time to meet my Internet friend. We headed to the McDonalds by the Minska metro station and there we met Artem. He's a 25 year old software developer who likes extreme sports like sky diving and scuba diving. Apparently he's been sky diving 70 times! We went to lunch at a cute little Ukrainian place with another teacher and just talked and got to know everybody. He was really nice and even paid for our meal!

After lunch he wanted to take us to see the Kiev sea (I don't know the actual name of it.) The other teacher decided to meet some other friends, but Alysha and I hopped in Artem's car and started off on our adventure. On our way we passed the ex-president's insanely big estate and we decided to go check that out. Once again, Artem paid for us to get in and we spent the next couple hours wandering around the gigantic grounds. It was a really nice day, despite the nasty humidity, and there were so many green trees and beautiful flowers and cute ponds. There were even ostriches! We still got to see the sea since the property is right up against it, and it was just a really enjoyable day. Near the end, Alysha decided she wanted to walk across some rocks in one of the ponds and she ended up slipping and getting all wet and covered in slime. That marked the end of our trip and Artem dropped me back off at the metro and Alysha off at her apartment. So for all of you who are concerned that I am a reckless and irresponsible child for meeting someone from the Internet, see? It turned out just fine! I was actually really happy to meet a new Ukrainian and learn a little more about their culture and point of view.

Because everyone needs a stationary boat

All those trees belong(ed) to one man

Haha....if you look closely you can see Alysha's wet pants

Finally I had a wonderful Sunday, as usual, and now here I am, sitting on my bed after the first day of the last two weeks of my teaching. I now officially only have nine more days of teaching and fifteen more days until I fly back home to the United States! It is fiercely raining outside right now and I still need to work out for the day, but I'm so happy to be here and I'm so sad to be leaving so soon! But I'm excited to see my family and friends again, so let's just compromise and say that life is really good!

Lviv-ing It Up!

Haha....sorry if that title was cheesy, but I couldn't pass up that golden opportunity! This past weekend has been of the four day variety for all the teachers here in Ukraine and it was great! The majority of the teachers went to visit part of the Carpathian Mountains, but three other teachers and myself decided to explore Lviv, often called the Paris of Eastern Europe.

We left Wednesday and rode a bus through the night. We arrived at 6:30am Thursday morning and were faced with the decision of what to do next. We couldn't check into our hotel until 2pm, but we had all of our luggage with us. We decided to walk to the hotel to see if they would let us leave our things there. Our little GPS told us the hotel would be a nine minute walk; it lied. Forty-five minutes later we finally arrived at our hotel, and luckily they let us check in right away. We set down all our things and ended up taking a two hour nap, which was probably the best decision we made all day. A night on a bus doesn't make for exactly the most restful sleep.

Rested and rejuvenated, we walked to the bus stop and boarded the bus to the center. It took around forty minutes, but it was fun looking out the window and seeing a new place. Everything was so green!

Our first order of business was to find a place to eat. We settled on a place called House of Legends. It's a well known restaurant that is basically a house. You walk up a narrow spiral staircase in the back and choose any room from the five levels. Each room is decorated differently. We sat down and ordered a delicious lunch, all while taking in our new surroundings and mapping out our activities over the next  couple days. My favorite part about the restaurant was actually the bathroom. It was in a long room, with the toilet at the end facing the door. On the back of the door was a screen where clips would play, making it seem as though people were opening a window in the door and looking at you while you went to the bathroom. It was really weird, but a funny idea.

Who doesn't want to eat in a restaurant that looks like this??

I'll tell you what this is: a fire hazard

After eating we caught a tram to the Lychakiv Cemetery. This is a very famous and historical cemetery, and it was really cool to visit. It actually costs money (although not very much) to enter the cemetery. The sun was shining and it looked beautiful shining in through the leaves of the trees in the cemetery. There were so many graves and some were incredibly ornate while others were broken down and forgotten. The grounds were huge and had an overgrown feel to them, though not in a bad way. We spent a good hour or two here, even making a feline friend along the way.

Cheesing in the cemetery

Hey Mom, I know how I want to be buried

Trying to be suave and graceful

Mad because I am not suave or graceful

Ivan Franko is buried here

Giggles in the cemetery

Meet my friend Beverly: the friendly cemetery cat

Finally we headed back into town and started on the hunt to find a pie place that our guidebook talked about. It ended up not serving pie as we know it, but had really good sweet buns. We got an assortment of blueberry, apple, cherry, and cinnamon (wow the cinnamon was amazing) and headed over to a nearby park to eat our treats. I probably got around seven or eight buns and it cost me less than $2, which only made them taste better!

Buns, buns, buns

If you don't like old people, then I don't like you

We still had time left in our day, so we went back towards the opera house and encountered a charming open market. We shopped and got some food. We sat by the fountain of the opera house for a while, just enjoying being on vacation and not having anywhere to be. Then we caught a bus back to our hotel.

The opera house at sunset

But the day's adventures didn't end there. We went down to the lobby of the hotel because that's the only place we could get WiFi, and we ended up meeting a few guys who are on the Ukrainian Triathlon team. They spoke a little English so we stayed up until 1am talking with them. I haven't really met that many Ukrainian people my age, so it was really fun to meet some new people.

The next day we did a little historical walking tour that our guide book had mapped out. We started at the monument to Taras Shevchenko which is right by the market we had seen the previous day. This worked out perfectly because we wanted to get these really yummy bread things. I got mine covered in chocolate while the other teachers opted for coconut and cinnamon.

Monuments and such

That thing was SO good, yet SO messy

Markets 'errywhere

We then headed to the nearby Arts and Crafts Market to do even more shopping! After that we swung by a couple churches and some areas where buildings were destroyed by the Nazis or Soviet Union.

John the Baptist's Church--the lucky guy

Finally we began to make our trek up High Castle. It is the highest point of Lviv, and the remains of the castle that once served as the city's main protection can be found here. It was a little bit of a hike, but there were beautiful views, and once again the trees were so so so green! I am just in love with green after the long winter!

On our way up!

Up, up, up the stairs we go! (Name that movie nerd friends)

Getta load of that view

After High Castle we decided to cut our tour short and find some food. A lot of places were busy (since this was a popular tourist weekend) but we ended up wandering into a place called Churrasco Grill and Beer. We didn't know what it was, but it ended up being a place similar to a Brazilian grill. You pay a set fee and then servers bring you different types of meat every fifteen minutes or so, along with an assortment of Ukrainian salads and vegetables. It was really good and an unexpected experience.

Food--always my favorite part of the day

Waiting for the bus that never came

We planned on going home a little early to meet up with our new Ukrainian friends, but for some reason the bus we usually took wasn't coming. After waiting for a while, we asked a nearby taxi about how much it would be to get us close to our hotel, and after hearing the price, we decided to get in! It was the best taxi ride ever! This man was crazy. He had a fly swatter shaped like a hand that he would wave out the window at passing cars. He also had little signs that said "Hello" and "Goodbye" in Russian that he would hold out the window. He didn't speak any English, but he always wanted us to watch him to see what silly thing he did next. It was a lot of fun, plus we got back to the hotel way faster.

There's crazy in his eyes

Paka! Paka! It means bye bye!

Priviet! This means "Hello!"
In hindsight, I should've reversed the order of these pictures, but what's done is done.
Deal with it

Because we were so late, we didn't end up getting to spend too much time with our friends, but we still got to talk with them for a while. Then we headed back up to our rooms to pack and get some rest for the next day.

In the hallway of our weird and very far away hotel

The next morning we got to the bus stop forty-five minutes before our bus was supposed to leave. Alysha went to ask a ticket lady where we could find the bus and the lady told her that our bus didn't leave until 10:45PM! Suddenly, we had a whole other day! We threw our bags into the luggage locker, but soon found out that it was only our bus number that had changed, and that our time of departure was still the same. The bus picked us up and we spent the majority of the day traveling. I got home safe and sound, completely content from a wonderful vacation.

Sunday was a beautiful day, made especially good because the fountain at the temple got turned on! The temple gets more and more beautiful each week!

After church a couple teachers came over to my house to hang out. We watched "Up" and played with my host family's adorable new puppy!

Ahh he's so cute! His name is Marty

It's been a great few days, but now it's time to get back to teaching! Only four more weeks left!

So these are the kinds of hooligans I teach...