Where Does The Time Go?!?

Time is speeding up and so many things are happening! Each day I'm so tired, and blogging just seems to be one of the last things on my priorities list. Between journaling, emailing, and Skyping, I feel like I tell all of my stories multiple times. If you really want to know everything, you'll just have to read my journal, which most likely will not happen, so sorry if this wasn't as in-depth as you were hoping! I'm usually a very open person, but most of the time my desire for eight hours of sleep a night wins out. I'm a wimp I know, but I can use all the beauty sleep I can get!

I'll just do a little review of the highlights of the past two weeks.

Let's see. Church has been great! Kate and I haven't had any more mishaps getting to church, which is always a good thing. Three Sundays ago (that's including today,) my group of teachers was invited over to dinner at the First Counselor's house. It took us a while to find it, but it was so worth the cold! They are an American family, and you could smell America when you walked in the door! We had good ol' pulled pork sandwiches, complete with salad, ranch, and chocolate chip cookies! I have never been happier...

The Kiev 1 group of teachers...we're all young and lookin' fine

Enter the coldest week of my life. That whole next week was freezing. The school was freezing, outside was freezing, everything was freezing! Since that means Kate and I are mostly confined to the indoors, we've developed some new "habits." First of all, we have started exercising, if you can count trying to do five pushups and then collapsing on the floor as exercise. Seriously though, we are a sad, sad mess. In Ukraine, we hardly walk anywhere since most of our transportation is taken care of for us, and we eat so many sweets! So we made a little workout calendar with prizes and everything in an effort to not become beluga whales. (Nothing against beluga whales, it was just the first thing that came to my mind and it's a fun word to type. Beluga.)

Also, we have been mediating! I read about this cool app called Stop, Think, Breathe. You check in every day and assess how your feeling mentally, physically, and emotionally. Based on your answers, the app provides you with several five to ten minute meditations focused on either uplifting or maintaining your mood. It's really fun and easy, and I feel like it really does bring my day into focus. It helps me to clear my mind and be silent and restful, which is something we don't do very often. Everyone should try it! I promise if you give it a shot, you'll love it!

During the last half of last week, it got incredibly cold. This meant that half the usual number of kids showed up to school. Even the kids in my host family missed school for a couple days (for one of those days, school was actually canceled.) This was a nice change because such a small number of kids meant that one teacher was always on break. It was good to slow things down a bit.  However, the cold also meant that our host family's car broke down in the middle of the week! Luckily, they were able to fix it because using public transportation in the bitter and windy cold is not one of my favorite things to do.

Introducing small children to the art of selfies

Drama might be my favorite because I can make small children
wear hilarious costumes

That Saturday was a busy and super fun day. I woke up early in the morning because it was the day I could register for Summer Term!! I love registering for classes. That might be weird, but I just love thinking about all the new and fun things I'm going to do and learn. I'm especially excited for Summer Term because I'll be taking some really fun classes like Social Dance 280 and Beginning Tennis. Of course, I'll do some "real" classes like the second half of the Book of Mormon and Western Humanities 201, but I'm still really excited for those classes. Book of Mormon is obviously amazing, and I'm taking the Humanities class from the same professor I had for Honors Writing 150. She is a great teacher and I am excited to take another class from her!

But that was just the beginning to a long day. Kate and I met our group in Old Town Kiev (not sure if that's really the official name, but let's roll with it.) As we were walking to the bus stop, a guy was getting into his car and he said something to me in Russian. After telling him that we didn't speak Russian, he gestured to the car and he was offering to give us a ride since it was so cold. I headed toward the car immediately, which I think scared Kate a bit. I figured since he was our host family's neighbor he was pretty harmless. It worked out pretty well, except I totally butchered the Russian word to say 'Thank you' and they laughed at me. But, oh well. We had Domino's Pizza for lunch, and while it wasn't very Ukrainian, it was very tasty and a much needed reminder of home.

We'd been waiting for this moment all week

 

My grandma told me to always be in the picture-I'm
there somewhere, I promise

After lunch, we headed to the Chernobyl Museum just a few blocks away. We had an English tour guide, but he was incredibly difficult to understand and so I can't really tell you many minute details about the Chernobyl tragedy. Essentially what happened was a nuclear power plant in Eastern Ukraine exploded leading to the deaths, illnesses, and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. Many villages that had been around for centuries had to be evacuated because of harmful nuclear effects, and the traditions and heritages of those people were largely lost. Ukraine still feels the effects of this tragedy today. It was eye opening to see the very real hardships that people all over the world experience and suffer.

On a happier note, here are some beautifully painted buildings.
New life goal: own a yellow house

Look, a road!

Afterwards, we got a little pick-me-up at the Lviv Chocolate Factory. Their chocolate is "handmade" which still doesn't sound right to me when applied to chocolate. Anyway, it was delicious! Kate and I both got melted chocolate, which is, you guessed it, straight melted chocolate that we drank from a cup. It was amazing. I also got some little chocolates and those were good as well.

 

On a melted chocolate high.
Warning: don't take it into the freezing cold, or it will freeze.
You think that would've been obvious

Then we headed up a long, steep street to St. Andrew's Cathedral. Along the way, there were a few street vendors, but since it was so cold, there were hardly any sellers. Kate and I decided to go back the next week to do our souvenir shopping so we could decide what we really wanted.

I never get tired of these beautiful buildings

We were so cold, so Kate and I went to that huge mall, Ocean Plaza to do some shopping. After a couple hours, we met our group at the metro station and went to an organ concert in a reconstructed cathedral. I was so happy to be at that concert. Kate and I went to several classical concerts at BYU and we both missed it. Listening to beautiful live music like this gives me time to sit and reflect on my life. I don't even necessarily listen to the music; I use it to drift in and out of different thoughts. I think it's really healthy to be essentially forced to sit and stop all of your every day distractions, and just listen and reevaluate where you are and where you want to go. I always feel relaxed and rejuvenated after concerts like this, so I'm glad we had this opportunity.

Sorry about the terrible quality.
Cathedrals are not optimally lighted for pictures

Sunday was more of the same, except Kate and I were asked to help out with the nursery. There are just two little boys and it's pretty fun to play with them.

One of the cute boys in nursery. When he cried, we'd
take him to the window to see the temple.

That night was my host dad's birthday and he had a big party. Kate and I ate so much, which was good because it also happened to be Fast Sunday that day and we were STARVING! We tried rabbit, among other things, and it was a lot of fun.

This last week has brought warmer temperatures and sun!! It's been so beautiful and I loved walking outside with the snow on the ground and the sun shining and feeling the cool, but not overly cold 30 degrees air! It was also a week of success since Kate and I learned how to say 'one' in Russian so the marshrutka drivers stopped yelling at us because we don't understand them when they're asking how many tickets we want. Yay for us! We also tried our first pomelo which is this gigantic fruit that's some odd combination of oranges, lemons, and grapefruits, I think.

This was delicious. New favorite fruit?

Yesterday on Saturday, Kate and I tried going on our first run while we've been here. Key word: tried. It was relatively warm and the snow wasn't bothersome and we live in a village so there aren't a ton of cars around. But the one thing we didn't count on were the dogs. For some reason there are loose dogs running around everywhere and once we ran past them, they started chasing us! We were scared out of our minds and after some awkward speed walking/running, we headed back to the house and called it a day. I don't think you understand how scared I was--my life flashed before my eyes. So I guess we'll try again next Saturday!

Kate and I headed back to Old Town Kiev later that afternoon and I'm so glad we did! There were at least four times the amount of vendors as there had been the Saturday before! We got so many fun things, like Ukrainian nesting dolls, handmade stuffed animals, and beautiful paintings done by the woman selling them.

The beautiful dolls we bought...they each have ten pieces!

Today was church again, and of course, picture time in front of the temple! It was a bit foggy today, and it was really beautiful to see the temple stand above the busy and dirty road.

The beautiful temple

I can't even describe to you how proud I am of
this red coat 

A couple of random of things that have also happened: first of all, the chinchillas gave birth! All of a sudden, on Friday there was a third little chinchilla in the cage! Our host family also bought a piano so that Kate and I could play and now the mom is decorating it, so that's pretty cool. Kate and I have been making cakes in a mug non-stop! She has been obsessed with her chocolate cake recipe and I didn't really understand it until I tried it for myself....this recipe is amazing! Just pop it in the microwave for a minute or so and drizzle some glaze on top and you have an intense emotional experience. Seriously, all of my senses felt overloaded. I think she's ruined my ability to stay away from sweets for the rest of my life because this recipe is so easy and incredible! Onto the next week!

You can't really see it, but there is a baby chinchilla
beneath that mommy chinchilla.
I'm obsessed

 

Pixi perching on the piano