Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies . . .

Things I definitely took for granted about America before these past 7 days:

1) You don't have to PAY to use the bathroom (what the heck?! I did in fact pay to use a squatter this week, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you? Welcome to Europe?)

2) Free WATER at restaurants 

3) Free refills of that free water

4) ICE in that free water

5) No Smoking in hotels

6) Swimming pools and hot tubs at hotels 

6) American contintental breakfasts at hotels (as much as I LOVE saurkraut and salami in the morning...)

7) You don't have to wear a noobish passport belt everywhere you go 

8) People actually form lines for bathrooms, restaurants, etc, instead of just shoving you out of the way

9) Top sheets on beds.

10) US currency. I can't wait to go to a store in America and really know how much I am holding in my hand..instead of having to stand there stupidly attempting to convert from Grievnas to Crowns in my head and make sure I'm not getting ripped off 

Let's just say that currently, my wallet contains a few US dollars, Greivnas, Forints, Crowns, AND Euros. Yeah... what?

Okay, I now realize that this post sounds a little bit like I'm just complaining. I really loved visiting Europe, I promise! It was amazing and I definitely had the time of my life.

Needless to say, I have now gained a lot more appreciation for many things about my dear America. :)

Trains, Blini, and Fungiformpupilli

So L'viv rocked. That's pretty much all there is to it. It is a gorgeous city out in Western Ukraine that has a European feel to it along with plenty of Ukrainian charm, and I absolutely loved every minute of it!
Our trip basically consisted of exploring the city and eating food. Everyone in L'viv speaks Ukrainian, not Russian, so we just kept our mouths shut. Luckily, a native, Igor, came with us, and he was able to keep us functioning by translating things and ordering everybody's food for them whenever we went anywhere.
Here are a few of the highlights that ensued that made this trip so awesome:

--Leaving for the train station. I was so excited I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. My host mom is so fantastic; she packed me about 6 sandwiches just for breakfast (ha, ha...) and as I left she handed me the bag of food and said, "Katroosya, I packed some herbal tea for every night. Every time you have some.... remember us!"
.............I love my host family. :)

--Britney trying to order "Cherry" ice cream, but getting "Chai" (tea) instead (oh, the joys of not knowing the language)

--Riding my first train. It's official: I. LOVE. TRAINS. The fact that I didn't get much sleep wasn't really an issue, because I just loved the whole experience of just being there.

--Our traveling companions. We were in 3rd class, which is just open compartments that everybody shares. Not as bad as it sounds. We were kept company by a drunk man who tried so hard to speak English to us but could never get through a full sentence coherently without laughing hysterically, as if we were the most hilarious people he'd ever laid eyes on. Good times.

--Our hostel. "Mister Hostel," was great except for the lack of toilets. There is apparently a whole science to using a squatter, and unfortunately we all had to master it

Our "inspiring" view from the Hostel

--Got to go to church on Sunday. The missionaries were able to translate the testimonies for us, and the spirit was so strong. It is the same everywhere you go. I love it.

--Women's day. We all woke up and were instructed not to leave the room until we were told it was okay. Turns out, Derrick and Igor had woken up early and trekked in the cold over to McD's, to get some tasty breakfast-- Blini and Seerniki! Those champs! (Yeah, the food at the McDonald's here is so much cooler than in the States)

--And of course, on of the most memorable moments on the trip was our visit to The Golden Boar. We visited a lot of amazing places to eat, but this was definitely our favorite of them all.  It is this awesome little place on Rynok Square that is made to look like a Castle (pretty sure it WAS a castle once upon a time..who knows) all of the walls were stone or brick, and there were Medieval looking things everywhere. I grabbed a menu, and upon seeing the extremely strange, exotic things you can order, I knew I was definitely feeling adventurous. I decided I was going to try cow tongue. Yes, indeed. Why not? Derrick and Igor were feeling daring, too, and so they ordered them, yeah I'll just say, Rocky Mountain Oysters. Yummy. Yikes. It surprised me how quickly I made up my mind though, that I was going to try them, too. Is something wrong with me? I am like the complete opposite of a picky eater, so much that I didn't even hesitate when offered...um, that is definitely strange. Whatever.
Well, once my plate arrived, I was still feeling okay. Until Derrick saw them. Yes, the Fungiformpupilli. I really was completely okay with my meal until I saw what he was pointing at--"Are those tastebuds?!!"
ack, Derrick! No!
Shoot.

He was right. You could definitely see the tastebuds....

I was a little grossed out, but I still made sure I ate the whole thing. It was so delicious and yet so revolting at the same time.
It was hilarious watching Derrick try and "get himself in the zone" throughout dinner, trying to get his dish down.

By the end of the night, everybody had succumbed to peer pressure and tried them, (even if it was just a teeny tiny little smidgeon of one), and we were sufficiently grossed out.

Sadly, our dinner had come to an end.
Except not so sadly, because we all had kind of ruined our appetites, just a bit. Thank GOODNESS Derrick had some gum, because I was just a little big sick from all the extremely new food items I had just ingested. It was such a great night! But I definitely won't be trying any of those dishes again anytime soon. :)


--Basically, L'viv Rocked. That's pretty much all there is to it.

Tomorrow morning we leave for our Eastern European Tour! Budapest, Vienna, Dresden, and Prague. I think I may die. I'm hoping my camera stays alive for it all!
And here we go. :)

The Antidote for Forgetfulness

My parents requested I share this one on my blog, so here ya go, my lovely little followers, I hope you enjoy :)

My host parents left a few weeks ago to spend a week in Israel (those lucky dogs). Whilst being gone, their "babuskha"  came to stay and take care of things (aka cook heavenly meals all the time-- the JOY). This fantastic woman and I bonded very quickly, which was awesome considering she didn't speak ANY English at all whatsoever, and whenever she tried to tell me something I never had a clue what she was saying.

(Oh, and for the record, it's pronounced BAH-booshka, not ba-BOO-shka. Yeah, I learned that one after saying it wrong and having 3 Ukrainians laugh hysterically for literally about 10 minutes. Good times.) 

So this event transpired on Friday. There I am, having a normal Friday morning... You know, frantically writing up the last of all of my lesson plans for the next week so I can turn them in to my head teacher. The usual. 

I finish them and get all my gear on in a hurry so I can go catch a mashrutka and not be late for Training. So I say paka (goodbye) to BAHbushka and leave out the door-- Pakapaka!-- and begin to lock the little gate thing. I then realize that my entire notebook full of all of my lesson plans since the dawn of time is still inside the flat, sitting on the kitchen table. Woops. 

So, I quickly unlock the door and run back in to grab it.

As I am about to leave, Babushka shows up looking frazzled. She grabs my arm, shoves me in front of a mirror, and quickly proceeds to babble at me in Russian (or maybe it was Ukrainian?!) anyway, I had NO IDEA what the heck she was saying! Is she telling me I need to get a warmer coat? I look bad? I look good? I need to fix my hair? Something embarrassing is stuck on my face? Nah, that can't be it....
This continued on for at least 2 minutes. After a few more moments, she seemed satisfied. She straightened up, smiled, and--Paka!-- sent me on my merry way. Ha. Okay, that was weird.
Well... about 30 seconds out the door I finally realized it! Of course! Ukrainians are superstitions about forgetting things! If you must run back inside to retrieve something you forgot, you must look at yourself in the mirror before venturing out again, otherwise you'lll be plagued with bad luck.
Thank goodness my Babuskha was looking out for me! It pretty much made my day. 

So, next time you forget something, remember to look in the mirror first. It'll save you a lot of grief. Trust me.

(Here's one for all of you who actually read this, and who were those little kids who never wanted
to read a book unless there were pictures in it... )

Irresistible, no?

SPRING!

Can I just say how awesome the holidays in Ukraine are??
Because they are.
This week is Blini week... to celebrate the coming of glorious spring.
Blini=heaven. (Just kidding... it actually means crepes. But for me those words are synonymous)
For all of you who know how much I LOVE anything breakfast...yeah, this week rocks!
The supermarkets are full of Blini... and everyone is cooking it, too.
Blini with ham and cheese... blini with honey... blini with chicken... blini with jam and cream and all things you could possibly think to stick inside a crepe.

And don't even get me started on Women's day... I know you all are smart and have already guessed what this holiday is all about. Yup. Honoring the amazing women of this world.
We're talking chocolate, flowers and gifts galore for all women.
There are colorful flowers of all different kinds everywhere. And the actual holiday isn't even until Tuesday. It is such an amazing change from the gloomy dusky weather we had only a few weeks ago!
I'm so excited to go hop on a train in two hours and continue to witness the celebration of these fantastic holidays!

Blini...chocolate...flowers...my first time on a train.... L'viv.... being appreciated....

It doesn't get any better than that.

:)

Февраль

There's not much to blog about this week so I won't go into any details...

Just counting down the days until our first trip!

Please enjoy a few pictures in the meantime...

Ae and I at home in the flat

Kiev Group 1! 

From Left: Tiff, Brit, Christina, Anna, Anna [ah-na], me, and Derrik

Parents day... yikes. We survived our first with flying colors!

Pazhata Hata's! 

(Delicious Ukrainian Cuisine...my new favorite place to eat)

Next weekend the fun begins (drumroll please!)-- we are finally going on our first trip! 

L'viv, HERE I COME! 

We are taking a night train Friday after classes...

 (my very first real train, I might add... something I have always had on my imaginary list of things to do in my life)

...and spending 4 glorious days there. 

Can't wait!

Пoка пока!

Language Barriers

I really wish I knew Russian. Every single day of my life. I am learning, but not as quickly as I would like. I still only know the very basics.

I thought I was doing pretty well with the language, until I went to get a haircut last week. Yeah, when you sit in that chair you sort of realize that your limited knowledge of Russian really isn't going to get you anywhere when it comes to having an actual conversation with someone. I sat in the chair, completely silent, formulating in my head exactly how enlightening that potential conversation would be, with my limited vocabulary of course. Da Svidanya! I can count to fifteen. adin, dva, tree, chetiree.....How about I recite the days of the week? Should I ask you to pass the juice?  Excuse me? Thank you? Chai? Seerniki? You're welcome! To health. Open the window. Close the window. Please? Sorry! Nice to meet you. Dirty Swindler....Goodnight. Hello!

Yeah, my vocabulary stinks. But hey, you gotta start somewhere. 

Anyway. Next realization: this language barrier thing sort of means that I can't really tell her how I want my hair cut to pan out. Didn't take me long to realize, there's no stopping her. She's just gonna keep chopping. 

And chop she did. She just kept going and going and going. I decided that I didn't mind. Just laughed inside at the whole situation and my ridiculous inability to speak Russian.

An hour later...

Well.

Yes.

I now have short hair.

I like it though. :)

In other news:

• I recieved a gift recently. A full on real-Ukrainian-fur scrunchie. BIG WIN.
• My host family continues to be more and more hilarious the more we get to know each other. The other night, as we were sitting at the table, we just started making ridiculous faces at each other. I'm so glad laughter is a universal language.
• Went to a dance concert Friday. It was called something along the lines of Baron Minkhousen, a production of modern dance. A love story. So many interesting costumes, and gorgeous Ukrainian music. My first Ukrainian performance! Brava.
• Liver? Not nearly as gross as I thought. Just pretend it's steak, get it down. Move on with life....
• I've been trying to find Finding Nemo in Russian for my host sister to see. (Want to know how to say "just keep swimming" in Russian? ha ha) I still haven't found it, but I did end up finding Surf's Up, (of all the random movies to find in Ukraine). Watched it with Zr yesterday, she loved it. I have missed movie nights. 
• Free oreo samples at the megamart. The joy.
• I have now experienced the real side of a Ukrainian winter. Holy COW it's cold. When we got here it was unusually warm, so we all just sort of breezed through the days thinking we were pretty tough stuff for living in Ukraine in the "winter." Yeah, we had no idea what was coming to us. These last few days it has cooled down to absolute frigid freezing bitter biting COLD, and it is going to get colder still.
• Actually found some peanut butter. A Teeny tiny little jar? Fifteen bucks. 
• Valentines day rocked. We went to the lock bridge, also known as the Love Bridge (not sure how to say that in Russian). Everyone locks their name and the name of their significant other onto the bridge. I think they cut off all the locks about twice a year to make room for new locks, because there's just a whole lotta lovin' out there. I put one on there, too. But despite the dire temptation to put something like "Kaitlin + Nephi" or "KJ + My Gideon" (hope you caught the sarcasm there...) I wrote something on my lock that had nothing at all whatsoever to do with romance or the manly men in my life. Sort of tied in with Valentine's day, but it was more of a commitment of sorts; a commitment to change a certain aspect of my life for good. Here are some pictures:

Ours.

The girls at Mariinsky Park

Zr loves wearing my hats!

That's all for now-- Happy Valentine's day! :)

Rebel

I already mentioned that one of my most favorite things in the world is listening to the music that people play in the metro. Accordians, trumpets, clarinets, violins, saxaphones, violins, banduras... you name it, they play it. This one stopped me dead in my tracks, though. These talented manly men just whipped out their violins and began playing a piece very dear to me-- one that my mother has always played on her violin for as long as I can remember. I know you're not supposed to have cameras inside the Metro stations, but... heck, I didn't care. I turned around, grabbed my camera and started filming.
Fact: Upon hearing this, I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach with homesickness.
Fact: I am the world's worst camerawoman.
(Excuse the two moments where I bend down to give them some cash)
Fact: It is short because I sort of chickened out.
Mom, this one's for you. :)