To whoever is reading this....

Mom? Grandma?

I should probably post on this thing that after finishing up from my adventures in Ukraine, I went back to the old blog. So feel free to follow me here:)

Don't worry. I have probably watched this a hundred times since finishing it...

Missing Ukraine... felt like making this video to try and help myself feel better :) The music is kind of off with the pictures... but enjoy! I had so much fun making this.

Back to the Beginning Again

Well, there you have it. I am sitting in the Frankfurt Airport, about to fly HOME. I came, lived in Ukraine for 5 months, and then traveled Europe with half of my amazing family for the next month. I have learned so much. I have seen so much. My body is exhausted and my mind is running a million miles a minute trying to digest . . . everything. When I left Kyiv, I was just numb. Then I flew to Frankfurt and spent the most incredible week in the world touring around the Heidelberg area with a person I will never, ever forget. I had the time of my life! I learned more in that week than I think I did my last 3 months in Ukraine. And then I saw my parents. My brother. We toured Europe roadrunner style-- as fast as humanely possible. We got a little taste of the places we visited, enjoyed and soaked it in as best we could before speeding off to the next one-- and I wouldn't have it any other way. We tasted London, Paris, Heidelberg, Salzburg, Zurich, Luzern, Rome, Mercury, and more. We went to museums and explored ruins. We dipped our toes into the Mediterranean, hiked (sort of) in the Black Forest. We stayed in fabulous hotels, remote hostels, old wineries, and a hole in the wall right smack in the middle of the red-light district in Switzerland (ha ha, that one was definitely an accident). I am still in shock that I even came here, and experienced all of these places.
What is it that makes us love to travel so much? Is it walking so long your ankles get swollen? Hauling luggage around and getting lost until your entire body aches? Being stuck in taxis, cars, busses, metros, trains, and planes, until your head is screaming? Running on 2 hours of sleep? Driving in Italy and feeling like you are going to get hit by all the INSANE drivers? (Seriously, don't ever drive in Italy.) Waiting in lines in the blinding sun, train stations, dealing with tourists and scammers, getting completely fried despite applying special SPF 50 for special people like me who get burned in 3 seconds, paying 5 Euro for a bottle of water, paying to use the bathroom? Really, why do we travel?
I think the answer, to me, is people. It's being able to broaden your perspective, see a completely different way of life. To meet people who live and think and believe completely different things than you ever imagined. People who are so giving and loving despite barely knowing your name. The humbling experience it is to walk into an ancient Roman ruin and realize that real people were standing, breathing, living in that very space centuries before you even began. To walk into a church and know that this was the space where people found refuge from their fears and found hope there during the dark ages. To discover what they cared about and what they lived for. To see the huge, magestic Alps and understand exactly why people lived and loved that place for all their years. To climb to the top of a fortress tower and peer out and see the exact view that they saw. The art they created. The things they loved. And to learn from them. This is why I travel. And I feel I have only scratched the surface.
Sure, I don't always love people, I think it's sickening that the Romans decided to crucify 6,000 of Spartacus' followers and hang them on crosses spanning 100 miles, or glory and laugh at the shedding of so much blood at the Colosseum. Tourists are completely obnoxious and it's always great when the French cut in line and the Italians honk at you for nothing and officials treat you like an idiot for being an American and people push and shove and judge you for wearing baby blue sneakers. But when it comes right down to it, I love them. I am fascinated with this world and I love how many diverse cultures there are all throughout it. I can't believe how privileged my life has been, and is. I wouldn't have appreciated as much had I not seen and experienced a different way of life (even if so slightly).  I have realized exactly what I love about America and also the things that I wish to change. I am going to miss these people and places. But now it is time to go back home, right back where I started, as if this was all just a big crazy dream.

And there you go. Thanks to everyone who has been following on this so called blog since I left.

I can't wait to come home.

:)

Goodbye my dear Ukraine, hello Heidelburg!

After a long day of packing and praying that my bags wouldn't weigh over 20 kilos, hugging my host-mom goodbye at 2 in the morning, and waiting in lines for hours, we made it to Frankfurt, Germany! I said goodbye to the amazing girls (and derrick, ha ha) and ventured off into the airport to see if I could figure out where to get my baggage and where the bus was to get myself to a town an hour outside of Frankfurt and meet up with the family I am staying with, all without a cell phone. I am definitely experiencing reverse culture shock, because I am staying on an American army base, and it feels almost exactly like America. We went to taco bell a few hours after I arrived, and I even got to have a bowl of cheerios and fruit loops this morning. I saw some chocolate syrup somewhere in there, too, so rest assured that I will be having chocolate milk a lot in these next few days, to make up for 5 months without it! There are screens on the windows here. Everyone is speaking English. The post has a store with a bunch of American products that felt almost exactly like Target, and we didn't have to pay for the bags after we bought stuff. Also, we didn't get yelled at for not having exact change. I feel bad for Yvonne because she had to listen to me all day say things like, "Oh my gosh, are those free? Seriously?? There's ice in that water? You can drink out of the tap? I understand what that says! It's in English!" just little things like that.
Today we saw some old Roman ruins, and I got to explore some castle ruins, as well. The little kids were pretty tired after the Roman ruins, so they stayed in the car while I ran up the mountain to see the castle alone, and explore a few of the stone hallways and tunnels and rooms. It got a little creepy in some of those tunnels without a flashlight, and nobody was around so I had this irking fear that some creeper would just jump out of one of the corners (thanks mom, for always watching those lifetime television for women shows) but I sort of loved it. Just jumping out of the car and exploring some ancient castle in Germany? Yes, please!
The black forest is beautiful. Heidelburg is beautiful. The drive to Frankenstein is beautiful. I once again look like rudolph with my newly acquired sun, but it was all worth it! I am exhausted and ready for a nap, but the day is not over yet. I still can't believe how lucky I am to get to spend an entire week in this amazing city. I'll try and post pictures soon.

T-10 hours and counting

These are some of the things I love most about my dear Ukraine. Things I will miss, including the quirky stuff. I know this list will grow as I think of more... but here's a start.


-Spring. It is SO GREEN. I've never seen so much green in one place... they weren't lying when they said you can walk from one side of the city to another in the middle of the day and be covered in shade the entire time.... (no I didn't actually do it but I can attest that it is true:)
-Teaching the munchkins. I won't miss coming up with lesson plans, but I will miss seeing their faces light up when I have a really good SPE or hearing little Sofia spontaneously spout out an entire grammatically correct sentence of english when she hasn't said a word almost the entire semester
-The fact that everyone walks. Everywhere. You are never alone in this place.
-Hearing "WOAH! WOW! OI! CLASS!" from the shower because my host dad loves taking ice cold showers in the morning... 
-Making Chocolate chip Cookies with Ae
-How excited Ukrainians get when I finally figure out how to say "hello" correctly. I got a full round of applause in Crimea for that. It was great.
-Dictionary moments with my Babushka. Sitting at the kitchen table and trying our hardest to formulate a conversation... with many charades, laughs, and pausing to flip through one of the many dictionaries sprawled out on the kitchen table.
-Adidas.
-Taking the metro every single day of my life. I got kind of used to it. You see a lot of really great things on the metro, I'll tell ya
-Being so squished in a Mashrutka you can barely breathe (maybe I won't actually miss that)
-Fresh Flowers every single day, at every single metro stop
-Fresh fruit every day
-Пузата Хата with Britney. And Cherry Vareniki every time.
-How everyone just ignores the constant strain of car alarms 
-The awesome superstitions that they have. The latest one I learned was after accidentally breaking a plate and watching it shatter into a million pieces... waiting for the rebuke... instead everyone smiled and said "that is very good luck!"
-The fact that they take it upon themselves to help the stray dog population out.
-The colorful playgrounds everywhere.
-Super Konmik cookies.
-Kreshatyk when the fountains are on.
-The fact that they wear jackets even when it's 70 degrees F out.
-SCRUNCHIES!
-Fur. Wintertime fur wonders. Oh the coats that we saw....
-That they wear whatever they want. 
-When they get excited that you are an American and they try their very hardest to communicate to you in caveman english. 
-Gift-giving. It's a big thing. 
-Picture sharing. It is a gesture of friendship, and I always felt like I had been accepted when a Ukrainian would whip out their pictures to share.
-Juice. It tastes amazing here.
-Yogurt. Way better than in the states.
-The fact that McDonalds is classy. 
-Our international branch. Every single Sunday was amazing, and the people in that branch were so interesting to talk to! Most of them were from the embassy and knew everything there was to know about everything, I swear.
-Our institute teacher. Once again, one of the most genuine people I have ever met.
-Trying to order stuff at restaurants, and hoping that what you got was something edible
-Laughing at Britney every time she tried to order something (Chai anyone?)
-Night trains. Although stuffy and hot at times, I loooove trains and will miss that part of the experience.
-Andrievsky street.
-Ice cream on Kreshatyk
-Buying an entire loaf of bread for only 75 cents
-Reading stuff in Cyrillic and the rare times where you realize you actually understand what it says
-My host dad rocking out on the guitar
-Dandelion crowns on little girls
-Zoloti Vorota
-Anya, Olya, and Eena, the amazing coordinators at our school
-My ghetto-tastic christmas-bell shoes 
-The gorgeous acoustics in the metro, and every single kind of instrument you'd ever think of being played at some time.
-That women are so strong and feminine, and men truly respect them.
-High heels anyone?
-Drunk moments. (no I did not get drunk. But it was fun to watch)
-Techno remix music.
-Murses! Man-purses galore. (thank you Christina ;)
-Babushkas. DON'T get in their way. Or forget to dress appropriately (scarf and hat) in the wintertime. 
-Ukrainian Standard Time. It is worse than Mormon standard time, believe it or not. 
-The cleaning lady. She came every Thursday. She was so sweet. She always tried to talk to me and I'd try to talk right back, and we always ended up getting so confused but we both loved it!
-The ladies in the window at the door of our building who scan everyone who comes in . . I always got a smile out of them when I tried to speak Russian.
-Smiles. When you get a Ukrainian to smile, you feel like you've really accomplished something. And you know that it's a genuine smile. It is more rare here, consequently, it means so much more, and I love that.
-Zoryana's little happy dance 
-Dinner parties. 
-The Kyiv Temple.
-The fact that they are really good bad drivers. It amazes me...
-The thing I will miss most of all is the people! I have never met so many passionate, giving, genuine people in my entire life. 


Я люблю Україна!

the beginning of the goodbyes...

Tonight was a night of many goodbyes. Which I hate those, really, I do. (Does anybody out there actually like them??)
I've been listening to a lot of Noah and the Whale lately. Which, by the way, if you actually know who that band is, you get major brownie points. I think about 70% of their songs adequately reflect my mood right now. But now I'm just rambling. Let's cut right to the fact at hand.....

I am really going to miss this guy.

And these people, even though I have only known them for 3 days....

...I will remember them for the rest of my life. These people literally spoke about 3, maybe 4 words of English. And yet they accepted me exactly the way I was and showed me more love than I could have ever asked for, even just after they had barely learned my name. We connected instantly and I felt like I had known them for years. There is a different frequency that arises in the presence of the language barrier... and coming to Ukraine has made me more aware of it. There is this ability to sense people, without ever saying a word. Sense the goodness in them. Sense who they are... the love in them, their zest for life, for people. Sense that they love you, too. So many people here have shown me that. 

These people and my host dad just left on a train heading to Sevastopal tonight... and that's just it. I don't know for certain if I will ever see them again. I have hope to come back again sometime in my future but who knows how long that will be?

So we said our goodbyes, (about seventeen times). There were lots of hugs, lots of kisses, and wishes in Russian that I understood completely even though I didn't understand many of the actual words. And I wanted to just ball, but my body kind of hates me and has cursed me with the inability to cry for the past 4 or so months, so, I could only manage a sniffle or two. I think Sasha could tell I wanted to cry though... ha ha--

Tomorrow is our Spectacle, which means saying goodbye to all of the kiddies. I love these kids so much sometimes it feels like my heart is just going to explode, so maybe it's a good thing I have this inability to cry right now. I think I would probably be a mess. But we'll see...

However. In order for this post not to be a total downer, I will add that with many goodbyes come many more hellos... and I am so excited to see my family again. :)

And there are a few goodbyes that I am embracing.
For example. My dear friends the Mosquitos? Thank you for keeping me company at night for the past month or so... it's been a ball. I will gladly be bidding you all farewell on Wednesday, and saying hello to screens on windows. And there will be much rejoicing. :)

Pravda?

Let's just be honest here.

It hit me.

You know those moments right before a huge change where it feels like the whole world just sort of shatters and falls and hits you right smack in the face? And you get this swelling feeling and wonder why you didn't grasp the magnitude of the situation before, because then it may have been easier to cope with this moment, but instead it just piles and piles upon you and you don't know how you even feel because your heart is being pulled in a million different directions and you kind of just want to laugh and cry and scream all at the same time?
(and yes that feeling actually exists, believe it or not)

Just wow.

I am leaving Ukraine in less than a week. Just barely found out that my host dad is leaving on a business trip on Sunday so that's the last time I'll see him... let alone all these incredible girls...
(Brit? What the heck am I going to do when you are not just a metro stop away anymore? Now you're an entire state away??)
...all the adorable kids (who won't remember you a year from now, yet you know you'll remember them for the rest of your life)..
...my dear sweet babushkas....
...native friends...
and the most fantastic host family in all of Ukraine.

What? I really am leaving this place that I have lived for 186 days and learned to call home what??

I am kind of freaking out.

Just a teeny tiny bit.

Left my heart in Scandinavia...

They always say that good things can arise even out of the most terrible of circumstances. 

That is definitely what happened, because after an emergency surgery and lots of anxious prayers and scary foreign hospitals.. three friends were given permission to go have the time of their lives. :)

You see, what happened was this. In Ukraine, you must leave the country after about 70 days or so in order to keep your visa valid. Well, we had a huge Eastern European tour planned, and only a few days before we left on that infamous bus ride,my dear friend Britney was rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery on her appendix. Scary?? I think yes!  Consequently, she had to stay home from our EU tour, as recovery time dipped right smack into the middle of it. 

But the fact still remained that she had to leave the country, and the other fact remained that we are not allowed to leave the country except in groups of three. 

So, Britney, Derrick and I were quickly given permission to go! 

And thus we hopped on the cheapest Wizzair flight, which just happened to be to this amazing place: 

Stockholm, Sweden.

3 friends. 

One weekend.

A lot of growing up (it is hard to plan a trip without your parents and get there from a country in which you don't speak the language! Get from home to the vokzal, to the right mashrutka, to the right airport, to the right terminal, to the new country, to the right bus, to the right city, to the right metro, to the right stop, to the right hotel. 

But did we do it?
Absolutely.

sorry it's so blurry... we accomplished as much of this stuff as we could!

falafel=pure joyousness

Can't go on a vacation without the ice cream!

Heaven.

I love it here!

And all because of a spiky appendix. ;)

And Part 3... finally!

(wow, this is taking a lot longer than expected! If you're still reading this, props to you :)

Day 6: Free day in Prague
My favorite part of this day was the Lennon wall. I took probably a million pictures. This is a wall that people would come and paint on lyrics from John Lennon and the Beatles during Soviet times, and I didn't even know it existed until we stumbled upon it! I found out that the soviets would come and paint over the lyrics, but by the next day there would be more artwork, inspring lyrics, and other quotes all over it, and so eventually they just gave up. People have been adding to the wall ever since, and it is constantly changing. (is that not the most awesome thing you've ever heard?! I thought it was pretty cool)

And our exploring continued...

Up and down endless quaint little streets such as this

 hiking for the views..

 lunch for only 50 crowns

We walked literally ALL DAY, and couldn't have done so without a few rests in-between!

Once again Prague is BEAUTIFUL at night

....well into the night. It was our last night in Prague, and we wanted to spend as much time there as we could. We wound up on Charle's Bridge, and knew it was time to head back. It was sad to think our trip had come to an end, but we were grateful for the experiences we had been able to have.

Goodbye, my lovely Prague.. hopefully I will see you again!

And that, my friends, is the conclusion of our adventures in Eastern Europe, in the longest chain of blog-posts I have ever done! WHEW. Congratulations on getting this far!

Eastern Europe left a great impression on me, and I left a part of myself in each of the places we visited. Maybe someday I'll go back, but for now...I am grateful to be exactly where I am!

Easter European Tour, Part 2

When I left off, we were just boarding the tour bus from Vienna to head to Prague. Yes, we did in fact visit 3 countries in one day... Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic...just wow. It was an exhausting day, but totally worth it! After arriving to the hotel in Prague, Anna and I completely collapsed in our hotel room.
Day 4 arrived. I woke up early, had breakfast, and headed out to this optional tour to the Sychovy Castle. It was . . alright, but I'll be honest, I felt pretty ripped off. It ended up costing about 50 bucks for us to go, and we couldn't even understand the tour guide, as she was of course speaking Russian. So it was basically us looking at old things in this drafty castle, being shuffled around by a lady who reminded me exactly of a female version of Mr. Filch.

Sychovy Castle

Back to Prague for us, where we spent the day with an ENGLISH tour guide! It was so great. Here are some of the places we visited with him:

"The smallest street" in Prague.. has it's own red/green light, you have to push a button and wait for the green man to appear so as not to run into anyone coming from the other direction.. pretty great.

The Venice of Prague! Beautiful!

These people enjoying their lunch don't know that underneath their feet
is the very place where the bodies inflicted with the Plague
during the Dark Ages were piled...

Charles Bridge! Definitely one of my favorite places in Prague.

The Astronomical Clock! The people of Prague are so proud of their lovely clock.
 Legend has it that the king had the clock-designer's eyes gorged out after he created it,
 so there would never be another clock like it in the world....

After exploring with our tour guide, it was time for the dinner cruise! I was pretty dang excited. A dinner cruise along the Vltava River in Prague? What? So surreal! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the cruise:

After the cruise a few of us did a little more exploring.... Prague is beautiful at night.

Old Town Square

Day 5: Day trip to Dresden, Germany

This city was basically completely destroyed during WWII, and has since been rebuilt from the ruins. We didn't have a tour guide, and so we spent the day exploring wherever we felt like, and of course the occasional Gelato... (sarcastic emphasis on occasional...I definitely have a chronic addiction)

Holding Rodya up in front of an old church that I think survived

At the "Zwinger"

It was cool to think we were just "spending a day" in Germany, as if it is just the most common and natural thing for us to do. I loved Germany, and I am excited to go back in June!

Eastern European Tour, Part 1

So, this blog post has been a bit daunting, and for that, it is long overdue. Sorry about that. But for the sake of the fact that I still have to write about Sweden, and Easter is coming up, plus another trip to a different city... yeah, I'd better attempt to get caught up. Here we go--Easter Europe, part one: Budapest and Vienna :)

The night before I left, I came home from teaching to find all of this on the counter waiting for me:

My host mom was so worried about me "starving to death" on the bus, that she went out and bought ALL this food for me! I tried to fit it all in one backpack but could barely do so. It was so cute! (and delicious)

Needless to say, I felt very loved. This trip was off to a great start!

The "Castle" that we found whilst exploring 

The next morning it was off to the Vokzal to find our tour bus and begin our adventures. After a VERY long day and night of a 25 hour bus-ride, we finally made it to Budapest. They dropped us off in a parking lot and turned us loose to the city for a few hours. We just walked around and explored. It was a little cold and overcast, but we didn't care, heck, we'd just survived a Ukrainian winter! This was child's play. :)
After our exploring we met back at the bus for a walking-tour, and the Ukrainian leader of our bus surprised us by finding us an English tour guide! We were ecstatic. On the bus, there were many times when a Russian tour guide would come on and babble words we could not understand for sometimes 2 hours at a time. We thought that this would be the case for the entire tour, but luckily, we were wrong.

Rollerblading right on the town square
is a perfectly acceptable thing
 to do in Budapest, apparently. 

It didn't take me long to realize that I completely LOVE BUDAPEST. It is such a friendly city. It is all about recreation and getting out and enjoying yourself. There are parks everywhere, and walking/running trails too. There is even an entire island on the river dedicated to solely recreation, ie running trails, and no cars are allowed on it.
There were so many people out walking their dogs, rollerblading, riding bikes, etc. I loved it!



Budapest is divided by the river into two cities: Buda, and Pesh.  One side is all flat, and the other side is set on a hill, and this was my favorite part. We hiked to the top of this hill and the view was marvelous. Pictures can't really do it justice, but I tried:

The view was worth the hike!

After a while the sun decided to come out, and we enjoyed the evening just exploring the other side of the city with our ENGLISH tour guide. That was my favorite part, just walking around the little cobblestone streets and watching our tour guide greet all of her friends in the shops and on the streets. Everyone was so friendly, or maybe it was just because it was our first time outside of Ukraine for so long? We were a little bit in culture-shock, and I had to keep reminding myself that I could take off my "Ukrainian stone face" and be a little bit more myself in this city.

We met up at the bus and were taken to our hotel, where Anna and I made a tasty backpacker's dinner (soup and mashed potatoes) and collapsed in bed. What a day!

The next day I woke up feeling a little bit like a kid on Christmas morning. I was practically jumping up and down-- this was it, the day I would finally get to go to VIENNA!

We hopped on the bus and were on our way, only a few hours away.

We spent exactly 4 hours in Vienna.

Was I content? Was it everything I hoped it would be?

Absolutely.

Let's be honest, I would have been fine just staring at a brick wall, as long as I knew it was in Vienna. I was just glad to have made it there after dreaming about it so long. I knew nothing remarkable would happen, there would be no huge parade or fireworks, and there would be no "Shvenn"...(ask me about that one later). But, I was content just being there, because it is such an amazing feeling to know you worked your tail off and now something you have anticipated and hoped for has finally happened. 

It was a gorgeous day. We didn't get an english tour guide this time, so we just explored, and had a blast in the process.

Janelle and I

I don't think we ever quite figured out which church this was, but it was beautiful.

On the Metro trying to find Marie Antoinette's palace

After getting a little lost...we found it!

The gardens behind the palace were HUGE

Our group in the *FREE* bathroom that we found...ha

After 4 hours of exploring my lovely city we were back on the bus and headed for Prague. I don't have time to write about it now, as I have to go get ready and teach the little munchkins, but...I am pretty proud of myself for blogging this far, so I'm just going to post this. 

To be continued................