Lavra: A Day In A Monastery

February 27, 2011
This week was a pretty stressful one for me. I was super nervous because of 3 things: 1. I was teaching Kitchen and Games for the first time 2. The parents were going to be watching us teach 3. I was going to be making pudding for the first time.  These may not seem that stressful but believe me they were. I could hardly eat or sleep. However, those days actually went pretty smooth. The parents weren't quite as intimidating as I thought they would be. They just sat in the back of class and watched. For the most part I think having the parents there helped the kids behave better! That was a nice change for some of the rowdy kids. I even was able to make pudding and not mess up thanks to the help of Natalie and her amazing 'whisking' skills. The kids even enjoyed the crafts! The theme for this week was pirates. On Wednesday we made pirate ships. We had a hot dog be the ship and the sails were pretzels and then we put gold fish around the boat and attached a pirate flag! I was pretty impressed with how they turned out. Then on Thursday we made crocodile swamps. We used a banana as the crocodile body and then put M&M's on the top as eyes, used pretzels as legs, and graham crackers as the bumps on the crocodiles back. We then added the pudding around the crocodile as the 'swamp'. The kids really enjoyed this activity. 
They kept saying 'one more crocodile, more swamp!' It was pretty cute =) I was pretty nervous with having the parents watch the lesson that I didn't take pictures of the finished project... This week I'll definitely take pictures of the food we make! As for the rest of the week it was pretty much a breeze. On Friday, after we finished teaching, a few of us headed over to ASHAN.  It is pretty much a Ukrainian Costco. It has EVERYTHING, except free samples =) We explored around there a bit and then headed home. It was nice to finally sleep at my house on a Friday night instead of at the school. On Saturday we all met up to go to the Lavra. A Lavra is a senior monastery and some priests dug out a bunch of caves for living, worshiping, and studying. When they died their bodies were naturally preserved in the caves. They're still there today, and for the Church it's confirmation that these men were holy. Above ground, they built the Dormition Cathedral. Our coordinator Tanya took us through the caves.  It was interesting to walk through and see this underground place they spent their lives. A little odd, but definitely interesting. We were given candles before we headed down since there isn't any electricity below and then we walked through a maze of preserved bodies in caskets. After that we headed back up and Tanya showed us around the grounds.  We took some pictures, made snow angels (because Rockie had never made one) and then headed into a museum. Tanya told us we could sing a few songs if we wanted. So we sang Silent Night, As Sister's In Zion, and The Spirit of God. It sounded pretty neat.  When we finished the lady who lets people into the museum came up to us and told Tanya since we sang so beautifully it touched her and we were allowed to take pictures. So that was pretty neat! Unfortunately my camera was dead... so no pictures.  After that we headed to the bell tower and listened to it chime and then we went inside the Dormition Cathedral and listened to some of the meeting. It was a lot of singing/chatting. We only stayed for about 5 minutes then left. It was ... interesting :P Afterwards we headed over to a little cafe and had some hot chocolate and then headed home. The weather has been FREEZING here! I cannot wait for spring to come! This weekend we are going on our first vacation! We are taking a night train over to L'viv and staying there from Saturday to Wednesday! It will be pretty exciting =)

I just want to fit in!

February 24, 2011

So before I came to Ukraine I always said I was going to be careful with how I spent my money and only buy things I really needed and not what I wanted.  Well this plan worked for about a week and I thought I was doing pretty good but then we went shopping and it went downhill from there. I just can't help it! There are so many cute things here and I figure I will only be in the Ukraine once so might as well try and fit in while I'm here. I have realized that I really love hats:

                                         

and boots...

There is a quote that says, "In many women's lives, shopping is a hobby and a must for some. When we're up, we shop. When we're down, we shop even more." What can I say? I love to shop and it definitely helps cheer you up after a stressful day of teaching. =)

Anyone want a numb bum?!?

February 21,2011
When I get done teaching I usually feel 1 of 3 emotions: exhausted, relieved, or ready to do something else! Tonight was definitely one of those nights where I just wanted to do something else and get out of the school.I was going to be smart and get things ready for my elementary classes but what's the fun of being smart? Since the weather is quite chilly there is a lot of snow on the ground and everyday when I take the metro across the river I see TONS of people ice fishing and ice skating and I get so jealous! So after we got done teaching Jennii, Natalie, and I were walking to FHE and I kept glancing at the frozen lake... I was longing to just run out onto the frozen lake just so I could say I did it! I brought up that it would be fun to walk on the lake but we didn't see anyone else on it so we weren't sure if it was safe or not. Then I noticed that we were wrong! There were some people skating on the lake. Without hesitation we ran down the stairs and onto the lake! We made a track on the ice so we could run and slide on it. Being the graceful person I am I fell on my first try. Then I had the brilliant idea that we should sit on the ice and take a picture... ya I dunno what was going through my head because after we took the picture our bums were FROZEN! All in all it was a fantastic Monday and I can finally say that I've played on a frozen lake!

Home Away From Home

February 20, 2011
It's strange how so many of the stories they told me in training are becoming reality! They told us that there would come a point where you would start to feel like your area was 'home.' I think I am beginning to understand this. I am gone for the majority of the day Monday-Friday because of teaching and planning lessons and then weekends are always packed with exploring and adventures so I am not home much. When I first arrived in Ukraine, I looked forward to these outings because I didn't enjoy being home with people I didn't know who couldn't really communicate with me because of the language barrier. It was not until this week that I began to feel bad because I'm gone so much. I started to miss home and my host family! Things are starting to finally fall into place! I can actually ride the buses

and metros without getting lost (most of the time). I have also learned to eat more than I ever have in my life! I swear I'm like a bottomless pit! A huge part of Ukrainian culture is sitting around and drinking tea. My host family is always so shocked when I tell them that I only drink herbal tea. I'm usually not much of a fan of herbal tea but they got me this raspberry kind and I LOVE it! The food here is delicious and I feel like I'm hungry ALL THE TIME! 

I blame it on the fact that we walk so much =) So I figured since I've been here over a month (time is going so fast!) I should post some pictures of my home!  There is only 1 bathroom in the whole house. 1 bathroom to 5 people means you get really good at being patient and waiting your turn. =)  My room! I sleep on a pull-out bed! I feel like they give up so much to host me because the parents and 

their son all sleep in the same room.  They definitely are the sweetest host family ever!  This is the kitchen/living/dining room all in one! They make the 

most delicious food here!  Something I have learned to get over since I've been here is my fear of dogs, especially big dogs. EVERYONE has a dog here! My host family just so happens to have 3 HUGE Rottweilers ! The only thing I knew about those dogs was that they were big and scary.  I have learned that even though they look vicious sometimes, they are actually just big softies =) I can actually say that I enjoy their company in my room.

Their names are Masha *the mom* Martina and Maxim *the two pups* Me and Maxim are best friends! He walks me to the door everyday when I leave to school and then greets me with his big slobbery face when I get home. Oh and for some reason all the dogs love to just smell my boots...its a little strange. Also, since they are so big it makes moving around the house very interesting. They are part of the family and I love them! At least I know I feel very safe and protected when I'm home because they are the best guard dogs ever! =)

It's Very Cold Out There Folks

February 13, 2011
I was very excited to receive a package from my family this week! They sent me some candy and other items that I needed. They also included little letters to me. Thank you family for being so supportive! It definitely made my whole week =) I wouldn't mind if more are sent, but its up to you.  People always questioned why I decided to choose Ukraine over going to China or Mexico. My reply was always because I wanted to go to a big city. They then came back with "well isn't it really cold there" to which my reply was well duh! "Don't you hate the cold?" oh ya...
I don't think I quite realized what I got myself into when I signed up to come here. I think the weather was mocking us the first week we got here because it was actually pretty nice out and I just kept thinking 'wow this weather is not any worse than it is in Idaho! Maybe people were just kidding about how cold it gets.  Well this last weekend proved me wrong. It was absolutely FREEZING outside. Snow+wind=not my friend. Although the weather was awful for some crazy reason we decided to trek through it. On Saturday we celebrated Rockie and Ameri's birthdays and Jennii's half birthday by going out to eat at TGI Fridays! It was so hard to choose what to order because everything looked so 
good but I ended up ordering shrimp and fries! It was delectable! And just to 
prove that I loved it, I took a picture of my finished plate! Yep I finished my whole plate; it was a miracle. Oh and to make it even more unbelievable I ordered dessert as well! Yep I'm definitely learning to eat a lot more here! The waiters even sang to the birthday girls in Russian! It was pretty cool. We decided to make that our 'birthday restaurant' while we're here. The only hard part of the whole lunch was the fact that all of our orders were on one receipt and they were all in Russian, so figuring out who had what and how much it cost was interesting. I bet the people at the restaurant were just laughing at us because it seriously took like 20 minutes to figure out the bill. Afterwards we met up with our native coordinator Tanya. She took us on a tour through a cathedral, St. Sofia's. This is the one that I mentioned earlier that was 1,000 years old! It was pretty neat because a lot of the paintings have survived this whole time and are still in good condition! After going through the cathedral we went into the bell tower! Keep in mind that it was snowy, windy, and freezing and we were climbing slippery stairs up to the top of this tower. It was quite the adventure. But once we reached the top we were able to see out over Kyiv and it was so pretty! I'm sure it will be even more beautiful when the weather is nicer out. =) After being wind blown we headed over to Brother Roberts house for a ward social/potluck. They have the most beautiful house! Sister Roberts made us tacos and they were so delicious! We were able to just eat, hangout, and play Rock Band! I didn't realize how much I miss playing the Wii! It was so much fun. However, I was pretty bummed because for some reason I could not pass a song on expert on the guitar... I guess I'm a little rusty. The best part of the night was when 4 of the men in our ward that are married in their late 20's wanted to have a 'band off' against ILP. We chose a few songs and then jammed it out and the team with the highest points won that round. They wanted to do best 2 out of 3. Ameri was our drummer, Auvi was our guitarist, I was the vocalist, and another girl (i'm so bad with names) was our bass. Well we kicked their trash the first two rounds so they decided to make it best 5 out of 6. We continued to kick their butts and win but even so it was so entertaining to watch these guys jam out to the songs and dance around! =)

Bowling with Big MAMA

There are 5 of us in our group that work in the afternoon from 3-7 and we decided that since we don't have a lot of time, or energy, to explore after we teach that we would try and go exploring before we teach. This requires us to get up early... I am not much of an early person but I figure I might as well sacrifice my sleep so I can see Kyiv while I'm here because who knows if I'll get this chance again. Our first outing was on Friday. We all met up at 9:45 to head over to a museum/statue. We had nothing but Jennii's Lonely Planet Guide telling us where we needed to go. You would think in a group of 5 girls and 1 map we would be able to find our way right? We headed out of the metro and picked a direction. We were looking for a really large statue called "big m
ama," and I kept thinking to myself 'this statue is huge! How are we missing it?' After walking for a bit with no luck we stopped and tried to figure out where we 
needed to go. Rockie thought that if we just started to say "where is big mama" some Ukrainian would stop and help us... this did not work very well. We finally ended up asking someone at a side shop how to get there. Turns out we are pretty blind. We just had to go down the street and there she was, big mama. As we got closer to our destination we began to question where the entrance was... all we could see was that she was standing on a large hill. We all realized this meant we would have to climb to get to big mama. We met up with the staircase and with the burn in our legs we made it to the top and it was BEAUTIFUL!  This is "Big Mama" the famous statue of Kyiv that houses a World War II museum.  "Big
Mama" is also known as "Mother of the Nation" and was the symbol used during Soviet times to rally national support. We were able to go through the museum
inside and it was SO neat. It amazes me how much thought and care goes into howa museum is designed. Every little detail counts! After we saw Big Mama we had to head back to the school to teach. Teaching went really well and afterwards we met up with everyone at a mall called Dream Town. It has 3 stories, a bowling alley, skating rink, bumper cars and more. We decided to go bowling which was so much fun! I actually think I am getting worse at bowling. I only bowled a 42! It was so fun!

There aren't enough days in the weekend

February 6, 2011
Another week has flown by, leaving me wondering where the crap time goes? Can I just say that after a week of teaching I finally realize why teachers look forward to their weekends so much! I love the kids, don't get me wrong, but teaching definitely tires you out. On Monday I taught just like usual and then had FHE afterwards. By the time we got there they were playing Sardines and making the refreshment. Best parts of the activity if you ask me. =) After FHE we all decided to head over to the bakery down the road because after 7 o'clock they sell everything for half off! Of course we couldn't resist that! I got this croissant that had a chocolate bar melted on the inside and was also drizzled with chocolate on the top. It was HEAVENLY! On Tuesday night I didn't feel very good and had trouble sleeping and Wednesday morning I was throwing up. I still went to school because I didn't want to ditch out on teaching because its so hard to combine classes. I lasted about 5 minutes with the kids and then told Ameri that I needed to go home. She finished teaching my lessons for me and I went home and took a 4 hour nap. That made me feel LOADS better. I must have just had a little bug or eaten something that didn't agree with me because the next day I was all better. Friday before teaching  Natalie and I decided we were going to have lunch at McDonalds
since it had been over a week being there! Plus we just wanted to get out of our houses and do something =) Afterwards we looked around at some of the small markets.  I ended up getting some brown tights that I love. Teaching was so fun, we were all excited that it was Friday. Mood really does effect teaching SO much! After teaching was done we ordered pizza and Natalie, Kenzie, Jennii, Audrey and I had a sleepover at the school. Yep, another sleepover.. but I'm thinking we should start calling them wakeovers because we don't get much sleep! The pizza took 2 hours until it was finally delivered and by that time we were starving! Good thing we got two larges because we thought we were going to save some of it for breakfast... but ya that didn't work out too well because we ate it all that night! After we were all stuffed we played some card games. I didn't realize how much I missed playing cards! We played nerts, slap, and spazz. We were all just laughing so hard at everything it was great. Well 1 am rolled around and we decided we should probably start our movie. We ended up watching Juno because me and Jennii had never seen it, and it was actually a pretty funny movie. Plus it has the girl from Inception so I loved that =) On Saturday we all slept in until 10:30 then got ready and headed out to Krashadic. We wanted to go find the souvenir street that our coordinator had pointed out the week before but believe it or not we got lost.... but we ended up running into one of the other groups and they pointed out the way for us. Turns out we were going the complete opposite way! By the time we finally found the street we only had 15 minutes to look around before we had to go to our next appointment. 15 minutes does not sound like enough time to buy something right? Well we did! We all bought amazing russian hats! Everyone wears these and I have always wanted one so 4 of us decided to buy them! I dunno about you but when I wear mine I feel like Toad from Mario Party! I feel like I have a mushroom on my head. =) It's the best. We got so many silly looks. Yep we're American what can we say? After we bought hats we made our way to center school and Tanya, our head coordinator, taught us how to make Borsht! It pretty much has beets, carrots, potatoes, and onions in it and it's AMAZING! The perfect soup on a cold day that's for sure. Afterwards we headed over to Ameri's apartment and made brownies and played 'things.' We all were getting pretty tired around 7 so we headed out. On our way to the metro stop we passed a boot/purse/coat shop and couldn't help but go in. And believe it or not I got another pair of boots and I LOVE THEM! What can I say I love to shop =) Today we left for church at 8 and made it there by 9:50! We totally have got it down now. No more being late to church for us! Church was so amazing! The spirit was so strong during testimony meeting and the lessons for class were well prepared. I love the gospel so much! I really look forward to Sunday's each week.  They really help the week go by much better. For dinner my family made noodles, chicken liver, borsht and rice. Everything except the liver was DELICIOUS! It amazes me all the food I can eat now! It's funny they told us in training that when we first arrived we would feel a lot of culture shock.  They weren't kidding. Being in a different country has really opened my eyes to the world around me and made me so grateful! The sun is starting to come out more and today there was even blue skies! I can't wait to see Kiev in the Spring! It is going to be so beautiful.

"Any fool can paint a picture, but it takes a wise man to be able to sell it"

February 6, 2011
My host family surprised me one day with a big piece of wood and explained that every host student they have had paints them a picture and they hang it somewhere in their house. I love doodling but I'm not very good at painting so I was a little nervous that they wouldn't like what I drew. First i sketched it out on the board had to erase it like a million

times because I didn't realize how much space I had to work with. My host brother let me use his paints so that was really nice of him since 

 I don't have any =) I painted a lot two weeks ago but this last week I didn't have much time. Yesterday my host mom came in and told me they would like it finished on Sunday because they need to hang it up. I painted a lot of it today and FINISHED IT.  I'm actually really proud of it and my host family loves it too!! Not quite an artist yet, but it was fun and I never realized how much a stress reliever it is to just sit down and paint! No wonder so many people enjoy it. Maybe someday I'll see abstract art and be just like Picasso... what do you think?

Teaching the Munchkins

February 6, 2011
Teaching+little kids+foreign language = A HANDFUL of SMILES!

After teaching for 3 weeks I think I am finally starting to get the hang of it! I guess ILP did have one thing right, "It just takes practice." No one can really teach you this method without you actually trying it yourself. Every week Jennii, Natalie, and I need 5 planned lessons that we each teach plus one elementary lesson. The subjects are drama, games, gym, kitchen, shop, and arts and craft. We each take 2 of the activities and keep them for 2 weeks and then rotate them around. Since we were getting used to teaching we have kept the same activities for 3 weeks.  I have been teaching Drama and Shop. For drama you read/tell the kids a story and then have them act out certain scenes by using costumes and other props. For some reason I thought since I had an acting background I would be really good at this rotation.... boy was I wrong! It is so hard to keep kids entertained to a story when they don't understand 90% of the words you are saying! I have definitely improved my charades skills. =) We have each group of kids for 30 minutes and so far I have not been able to keep them focused for that whole time. I guess that is something to work on!  For shop you build something and either use it or destroy it.  This is

a lot like arts and crafts so I really enjoyed this rotation. The kids are just so cute =) I am usually not very good with names,

but I think I almost have all their names down. We each have"home" rooms that we take care of and one of mine

is the kindergarten class! From left to right in the picture above is: Dasha, Valia, and Zhenia.There are usually 5 kids, but winter brings a lot of colds. They are so much fun to teach and play around with! This last week for Drama we did Peter Pan, and The 3 bears. With Peter Pan we made little Tinkerbells out of Popsicle sticks.  For The 3 Bears we acted out the story with the porridge, chairs, and beds. We also got evaluated this week, our first time since we've been here. Our head teacher, Ameri, came and sat in on one of our lessons and graded us on a 5 point scale. It definitely made me a lot more nervous having her in the class with me while I was teaching.  Overall it went pretty well. I got a 3.5 so i definitely have room for improvement. =) Another one

of my "home" classes is a group of boys that we have for elementary. In the picture below from left to right: Lubko, Leonid, Andree, and Yurmia. They are around 9 to 10 years old and have so much energy. It amazes me everydayhow much they are able to do! The two in middle, Lubko and Yurima are twins and are SOO smart! They make us feel dumb all the time with how much they know. They can read and write in English really well!  I guess that proves the fact that this program is working. =) For this lesson I was teaching them about the 'flow of air.' Its amazing how much a balloon can entertain a kid! Here are some of my other classes I taught throughout the week, they are just so much fun!

Sophia, Alex, and Nastia

Masha, Dasha, and Sophia

Max, Dima, and Violetta

Alex, Maxim, Artem, Max