9 Days Down, 130 More To Go...

Not that I'm counting or anything! It has truly been a different experience this last week in Ukraine. Definitely a week full of really high ups and really low downs. Monday was the first day of teaching for us. Kate and I arrived at the school at 9am since she was teaching the Pre-K children from 10am-11am that day. I sat in the back and began prepping for my lessons and setting up the classrooms. Pre-K went really well for Kate. There are four children who are three or four years old and they spent the hour quietly doing a craft with hardly any trouble. Little did we know that this experience was a once in a lifetime deal. More on that later. Kate and I spent the next few hours getting ready and learning Russian (still haven't quite gotten past that alphabet, but it's coming) and then we had lunch at 2pm.

Before the storm. We have no idea what's about to hit

The kids came at 3pm and so began the hardest three hours of my life. When 6pm rolled around, I was so exhausted and done, and I seriously asked myself how I was going to manage this for four more months. Not only do we have to control these little children (ages 4-6) for 25 minute periods of time through six rotations, we have to make sure we're teaching them English using the appropriate method! Kate and I are sitting over here trying to remember all our training so that we don't screw up these kids and on top of that, one decides to start crying, the other punches someone, they all fight over what color of paper they want, and we just want them to glue on a googly eye and say, "I'm gluing the googly eye." Is that so much to ask!??! Afterwards, we sluggishly cleaned up and headed home. That night we vowed to go to bed earlier as six hours of sleep was not enough to handle a day of teaching.

Our host family found us like this.
Drained in every sense of the word

We were lucky because on Tuesday we didn't have to be at the school until 1pm to plan and eat lunch. We went to bed at 11pm Monday night and slept until 10:30am the next morning. I don't think I have ever slept so deeply in my life. However, the price of sleeping in was that we had to get to the school by ourselves using the easy, reliable, public transportation in Kiev. That is to say, we definitely got lost.

The inside of one of the nicer marshrutkas

We caught one marshrutka from our village center and were supposed to take it to Nyvky metro station where we would board another marshrutka that would take us to the school. I don't know if you've ever been in Ukraine, but every single metro station looks the same, especially in snow. It doesn't help that Tuesday was the first day it was actually snowing during the day and the windows of the marshrutka were partially covered in ice. Also, even if I could speak Russian, it's not like I can read the signs, so you have that to contend with as well. Basically, we got off the marshrutka too early. We thought we could easily remedy the problem by taking the metro to Nyvky, but when we walked out of the station, we still had no idea where we were standing. Turns out we were actually pretty close to the bus station we needed, but how were we to know? We decided to try and find the right street and proceeded to wander around. We had a paper with the street name on it, and we showed it to a couple of people and though they knew where it was, they couldn't speak English so it was all gibberish to us.

Finally, we showed the paper to two ladies with children. They started rattling off in Russian and we just kind of stared at them, hoping that by some miracle we would understand. They started walking off and we just kept looking around. They turned around and started beckoning us to follow them. There was nothing else we could do, so we followed them and they talked to some guy who put us in this van thing. We just sat there and more people came in. No one we asked spoke English, so at this point, we were just hoping that things would work out. The van started going, and after about ten long minutes, we passed the school! Yes, we passed it. In a panic, Kate tapped the driver and he stopped at the next stop. And that's the story how what should have been a half hour ride to the school actually took us an hour and a half through snow and cold and Russian.


Kate and I smiling in the back of a marshrutka.
We're actually just amazed we made it this far

Tuesday was much better, as was the rest of the week. Wednesday was a rough one for me because it was my turn to teach the Pre-K. Remember their sweetness and innocence? That's what I thought I had in store for me. No. Nope. Not happening. Sorry Kristina. That hour seemed longer than all the hours in the world combined. That's a bit dramatic, but by the end of all the running around, crying, hitting, and throwing, I determined to never have children. I now have endless respect for mothers and teachers of small children everywhere. They need a pay raise.

Finally, Friday came! I feel like this was the easiest day, even though the bathroom flooded, a kid (kind of) threw up, the lights went out, and a kid threw a huge tantrum. All the past volunteers that I've met say that they love their kids and they love teaching. I think Friday was my first glimpse into the moments that make teaching crazy, unreasonable, sassy children all worth it.

One of the sweetest kids, Kolya, was cracking up
because of the little tongue he added to his beautiful butterfly

After school would finish each night, Kate and I would either get picked up or find our way back on our own, (I'm proud to say we have not gotten lost again since Tuesday) and we'd usually relax, plan, watch movies, or hang out with our host family. Wednesday we went shopping to get scarves, hats, and snow boots. We eat so many sweets and cake and pies, but it's something you got to do, right? It's now Saturday and we've spent the day sleeping in, planning lessons, trying out the piano our host family bought, and eating more sweets. It's 0 degrees outside, so even though Sophia wants to go sledding, I'm not sure if I'm quite up for that one. But it's all about adventure, and I can certainly say that so far it has been quite the adventure.

Watching movies and planning lessons with our host family

For those concerned about my safety: This last week the riots in Ukraine have escalated to a new level of violence. According to reports, several people have been killed and hundreds have been injured. There are whispers about more scary, dangerous things going on, but I don't have any real knowledge about those things. In all reality, the volunteers here are very safe. We are not allowed to travel to the city center where these riots are taking place. Kate and I actually don't even live in the city; we live in a small village just outside it. Our home and the school we teach at are at least 45 minutes away from the city center. We have not experienced any effects from the riots except that our electricity and internet have been down a couple of times. We obviously take precautions such as remaining in groups and not drawing attention to ourselves, but I have never felt threatened or afraid in any of the places I have been so far. ILP keeps in close contact with the US Embassy, the Kiev mission president, and other groups like ours in the area, and if things were to escalate, they are arranging for ways to make sure that we are safe and can be sent home if the need arises. Your prayers and thoughts are always needed and welcomed, but be assured that I am not in any immediate danger. I love you all and I love the support you have given me! Thank you for being wonderful! 

My little village amidst the falling snow...welcome to Ukraine

Well Hey There, Ukraine!

I'm here everyone! I am officially (as of Thursday 4:00pm Ukraine time) in Kiev, living the life. That's actually a bit of an exaggeration. It's been an overwhelming, exhausting, and slightly terrifying four days. On Thursday we were met at the airport by the foreign coordinators and our head teacher, Alysha. We rolled all of our luggage out to the pitch black airport parking lot (remember that it's only 4:30pm) and had them loaded into a green van driven by a nice man named Sasha. This was our first experience with the Ukrainians' version of "driving." As far as I can tell, the only rules are to go as fast as you can, wherever you want, as long as you don't hit anything. Also, seatbelts seem to be optional because even my host family's car is only equipped with one for the driver.

Fresh off the plane and confused in the dark...also there's luggage

 

The inside of the wall that surrounds our house

 

Nikita and Sophia and the front of my their house

As we were each dropped off at our houses, Kate and I were given a little surprise: we are both staying with the same host family! So in addition to teaching at the same school at the same time, we get to share in the experience of living with the same people! ILP also provided Ukrainian phones for each of us, along with money each month for any of our transportation needs. When we arrived at the house, it was a lot more than we ever imagined. The family we live with hosts girls from ILP year round, so they are used to having foreigners living with them. We have a spacious shared room on the bottom floor of the house and we have our own bathroom, complete with a see-through floor and a shower that squirts water from all sorts of directions. The family also has a ton of pets, including a rabbit, two turtles, a fish, and two chinchillas. The mom and dad are named Tatyana and Alex, and they have two children, Nikita (12) and Sophia (8). They are all very kind and the kids seem to love having us around.


Our great and spacious bedroom...my bed is the one with the glowing screen

The bathroom. Notice the sweet seashell exhibit

This bunny hates Kate

The chinchillas are in there, I promise

Friday we spent most of the day at the school organizing our supplies and receiving additional training. Kate and I teach at the Nyvky school. We both teach the Primary level Monday through Friday from 3pm-6pm along with another girl. Then between the three of us we rotate teaching Pre-K in the mornings from 10am-11am. Friday was mentally and physically exhausting because we were a day behind due to our delayed flight. This stress, combined with our jetlag made for a rough first day.

Me working hardcore on a BYU puzzle

Me smiling so I can get back to hardcore puzzle

Saturday was more of the same, except that after planning and training at the school, we went as a group to this huge mall called Ocean Plaza. We took this crazy little bus called a marshrutka. These things are privately owned buses that are faster than regular public buses. Much faster. You have to stand by the stop and flag them down, and then you better hurry and get on or it will leave with you hanging out the bus. This nearly happened to our group since we were trying to pile nine girls into this tiny bus. Then you just make your way to the front and put your money down and the driver makes change for you while he drives around recklessly. On top of that, you have to let the driver know when you want to get off, something that at the time none of us Americans knew how to say in Russian. (We now know to say, "Nastanovkay." That spelling is definitely wrong, and half the time we don't remember how to pronounce it, so we just hope someone else has to get off at our same stop.)

Somehow we made it to the right stop and then it was onto the metro. We learned how to buy tokens and then how to read the directions for the different stops and metro lines. To get to Ocean Plaza we took M1 and then had to transfer to M2, which took us about 45 minutes to do, all the while standing with our heavy backpacks and trying not to topple over every time the metro started and stopped. We eventually made it, but it wasn't too great of an experience because Kate and I were tired and hungry and not really in a shopping mood. But the mall was very beautiful and impressive, so we'll probably be making our way back there sometime in the future.

Ocean Plaza. It's big and bright and not a friend to the
severely jetlagged

Because of our exhaustion, Kate and I wanted to get home as soon as possible. This meant tackling the metro all by our wee selves. Luckily, the station was right by the Ocean Plaza. We found the right place to be, but as we got onto the metro, tons of people crowded on with us. We were completely squished up against everyone, so much that we couldn't even reach anything to hold onto when the train began moving! It didn't really matter though because we just swayed a little when it started and were held up by everyone packed around us. We transferred metros successfully and were picked up by our host mom at the station. I'd say it was a success. The rest of the evening was painfully spent creating our very first lesson plans and trying not to freak out too much about our impending first days of teaching. Although there is something to be said about how adultish we felt (it's probably not a word, but just go with it,) I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

Sunday was church day! We were going to learn how to take the marshrutka to get to church, but Kate and I took too long to get ready so our host mom just drove us. The international branch we attended is on the temple grounds, right next to the Kiev temple. Church was wonderful. I think I dressed warmer than I ever have before, meaning that I wore tights and gloves. Church in Ukraine is exactly the same as church in the US, which I already knew, but it was comforting to have that reaffirmed. The branch basically consists of ILP teachers, so they were happy to have us. Hopefully we will be attending Institute on Thursday nights as well as any other branch activities that happen.

Repping that young sister missionary look

Getting back home was definitely an adventure. Kate and I were supposed to take one marshrutka down to Billa station. We crossed the street via a super sketchy underground tunnel and then waited in the cold for bus number 56. We hurriedly got on, paid, and grabbed onto a pole before the bus began moving. The only problem was, it was really hard to see where we were. I was a little fidgety about missing our stop, so I accidentally made us get off a few stops early. We had no idea where we were, so we called our host dad and then caught another marshrutka for another couple of stops. Then down the underground tunnel and under the street, and we were picked up and whisked away back home.

The rest of the day was pretty laid back. The family took us out (Why yes, we did fit six people in a five person sedan. See what you can do without seatbelts?) and we bought some delicious candy. Expect candy if I give you something from Ukraine. It's simple and delicious. Then we drove around the city a bit and took some pictures by some pretty buildings. Pretty standard stuff. But it was fun and now we're gearing up for the start of school tomorrow! It'll be a long day, but I'm sure it will all be worth it!

All the candy you ever and never want

 

Kate, Sophia, and me with some buildings

 

More buildings

  

See You In Five Months! Hopefully....

Here I am sitting at the airport, getting ready to board my plane in about half an hour. My bags are checked, my electronics are charging, and I'm trying to decide if I should use the restroom before boarding the plane. On typing that, I believe the last one is a good idea.

You might think this is an artsy picture looking out over the runway and my future.
It's actually a sneaky picture of the man sleeping in the corner.

The question on everyone's mind: how are we planning on moving all this stuff??
Spoiler Alert: It worked out, kind of.

It's so strange to think that while many of my peers are walking to and from classes, I am on my way to Kiev, Ukraine. I never thought I would end up going to Ukraine; it's not exactly the ultimate vacation destination, but it feels right to be going. (Side note: not to be annoying, but it is just Ukraine, not THE Ukraine. It's a country just like France or Russia.) We will first fly to Detroit where we will stop to have a technical checkup. After that we'll be headed to Amsterdam where we have an hour layover. From Salt Lake to Amsterdam it's a twelve hour flight. Our last leg of the journey is a three hour flight to Kiev, Ukraine.

Quite cozy in the back seat

As you can see, all of us traveling teachers have tons of baggage!! There wasn't any space in my roommate's little sedan, so I got to share my luxurious back seat with the weight of my packing decisions. But Kristina, you say, why did you bring so much stuff? Surely you don't really need your entire closet? Not to worry, one of each of our three bags is completely filled with teaching supplies.

I'm hoping these kids appreciate me hauling all this stuff

STOP!! Everything you have previously read is a lie. Well, sort of. As I was furiously typing away at the gate, my traveling buddies and I were called up to the desk where the gate agent was. We showed our passports and our boarding passes and then were asked for our visas....which we don't have. After numerous phone calls to ILP and awkward negotiations with an incredibly stubborn gate lady, we were told that we would not be boarding the plane. So that was uncomfortable. We met up with the other three girls in our group (making six of us) and headed back down to the front ticket office to see if we could get things sorted out. More phone calls, more awkward negotiations, but finally we were booked for a flight that leaves today at 5pm. We will be flying into Paris and then hopefully on to Kiev. We are all crossing our fingers that we will be able to get on planes and navigate the dauntingly large Paris airport, but we know that at least one person flying out of another airport made it to Kiev earlier today, so my hopes are high. It's all part of the adventure, right? And maybe I can put a bit of my rudimentary French to use, namely to help us get to where we need to go. We only have an hour to get to our next flight in the Paris airport, so it'll be a squeeze, but with six girls I'm sure we'll figure it our, right? Right.


We are sad and dejected

We are falsely happy, but it's all okay because of the airline person in the corner. 

So now we are on our way once again. We have successfully passed through security and we are waiting at the gate. Our bags are on board, our boarding passes are in our hands, and we have been reassured by a personal visit from one of the directors that we will reach our destination safely and without issue. So here's to the world of travel and the problems that occur, but ultimately to the adventure that makes it all worth it!


Those are not peace signs. Rather they are symbols of our readiness
 for round two of our attempt to board an airplane!

Get It Done and Move It Out!

This last week has been a crazy one. Of course it's been finals week, but I've also been busy filling out documents and packing up my entire life. Isn't that sad? Everything I own and place material value in can be stuffed into a few boxes and stored at a minimal cost. All of my things needed to be moved out by Friday and my RA made it seem as though it would be okay to leave my things in the apartment over the break until my aunt could come back from Hawaii and pick everything up. Unfortunately, Thursday night we found out that that wouldn't be possible. In a frenzy I called a student storage place to see if they could pick up my stuff last minute and store it over the break. Luckily, they could and all I had left to do was worry about my final and my ride back home.

On Monday, the person I thought I was riding home with bailed on me and left me to find someone else to ride with back to California. This was not an ideal situation because most people tend to try and finish their finals early so they can go  home early. I had a final scheduled for Friday morning at 7 a.m. so finding someone staying that late was not easy. I eventually found someone, but that left me racing around trying to get everything ready Friday morning. I woke up disgustingly early and trudged through the freezing cold to take a French final, which I got an A on! It only took me an hour and then it was back up to my apartment to finish packing and cleaning, check out of my apartment, meet the storage lady, and catch my ride! But now I'm back in my Californian bed soaking in the warm sun, so everything is back to where it should be.




My beautiful Before




 

The sad After

Maybe it's a good thing that I don't have very much stuff, but it was disheartening packing away everything that I had painstakingly put together just four months ago. That's strange to me. Four months ago, even four weeks ago, I had no idea that I would be doing anything like flying out to Ukraine, but here I am! In just a few weeks I will be living somewhere completely different, and I don't think it's really hit me yet. In the words of my mother, "These four months have really flown by." You are quite correct, mother dearest; my freshman year is essentially over. That was my freshman experience. So I would like to reflect on these four short months because even though they have been short, they have also been amazing.

All ready to move out!

I learned a lot about myself this semester. I learned that I like hiking and ballroom dancing. I learned that I enjoy attending symphonies and operas, and that I want to become an expert rock climber. I learned that I can be extremely spontaneous, but that I also crave the quiet moments sitting on my bed when I'm alone. Most of all, even though I didn't exactly learn what I want to do with my life, I did learn that I want to become good at living life. I don't know if that really makes sense, but it does in my head.

Overall, I really feel blessed to end up where I did. The classes I took and the people I met could not have been any better. BYU is a great place to receive an education and I feel grateful everyday that I chose to go to school there. I went to football games, art exhibits, and international movie screenings, all on campus! I lived in beautiful on-campus apartments and had great roommates. Obviously not everything was picture perfect and there were times when I felt sad and lonely like any other new college student. Of course I've experienced the awkward unrequited crushes and the freezing cold weather (who would've thought I would ever have to walk through snow on a daily basis??), but I really have loved my college experience and I can't wait to do it again!

I am especially grateful for the people I have met this year. I was so lucky to receive a wonderful on-campus job working in the research department of the library. Not only did the job come with good pay and flexible hours, but it also introduced me to a group of great new people. I will really miss these people and I hope I see them again in the near future! I have also made some great friends from my writing class. They're all going on missions very soon, so I wish them luck and I hope to see them in a couple of years! But for now, it's time to put my college experience on hold and look forward to Ukraine!

Adventure is Out There!

So after much prodding from various family members (actually just my mom and sometimes my grandma) I will actually be starting and maintaining a blog. The main reason for my sudden change of heart is that I will be heading off to Ukraine in January to teach English to children for five months! I don't know what kind of communication I will have on a regular basis besides with my immediate family, and I figured some people might want to follow along with my adventures in Eastern Europe! It was a big decision to make and might sound a little crazy, but hear me out. One of my roommates Kate and I have been looking into this program, International Language Programs, for a little while. I was planning on taking time off to go next fall, maybe to Thailand or Lithuania. However, a couple of Thursdays ago, Kate got an email offering her $1,000 off the program fee if she changed her semester to Winter/Spring, and any of her friends were offered that same price. That meant that we would only have to spend $1,520 to fly, live and eat in Ukraine for five months! It was something that was too good to pass up.

We flew into a whirlwind of getting things ready to go. We both got our housing contracts canceled, we looked into how to take a leave of absence from school, and we dropped our classes. (That was a sad moment since we had fought long and hard for some of those classes.) We've started packing up and moving out. On Friday and Saturday we attended 8 hour training meetings that were crash courses on how to teach English using the ILP method. These were very overwhelming and exciting days. So much information was thrown at us and we began to realize that this adventure is not going to be a walk in the park.



Learning how to teach Elementary Level



 

After the session of Friday, Kate and I walked out to her car only to realize that she had left the lights on all day and that the battery was dead. We frantically called all the people in our contacts and finally I found someone from my French class whose roommate happened to have a jumper cable. The car next to Kate's car pulled out so we decided to stand in the spot so the kids coming to help us would have a spot to pull into. Little did we know that there was traffic and that it would take them 25 minutes to come help us. Our toes were so cold and frozen by the time they came that we thought we would lose them to frostbite. But we were saved and were able to make it back to our apartment, frozen toes and all.

Saturday went by more quickly, but a large portion of the afternoon was spent on how to be safe and the various cultural aspects of the places we would be living. It just hit me really hard that there is a lot I need to do to be prepared to go. I have to bring tons of supplies to use for my lessons and I need to make sure my passport doesn't get stolen. I probably have to pay for an extra suitcase. I have to think about things like if I need to bring shampoo and conditioner. I have to worry about figuring out a bus system written in Russian. I have to live in this place and that's not something you just pick up and do. It was a crazy two days and I'm sure the craziness is just starting, but I'm still really excited to be experiencing something like this and taking advantage of it when I'm still really young. Who knows, maybe I'll come back speaking Russian.