Of Epic Proportions

Last night was crazy. It was Audrey's fault. Ok, my fault in the long run (if you want to look at it THAT way), but still mostly her fault. Let's take it from the top.

That's Life

Ok, guys. Life is kind of sucking right now with what's happening at home, but I'm trying to keep up with everything here. So, in honor of the optimistic person that I'm not, I made a list of awesome stuff from this week that will hopefully keep me distracted for a while. Here you go:

Oh, We Live With a Host Family?

We have been making major progress with out host family lately! This weekend was mostly a relaxing weekend for us and the only thing we did on Saturday was walk home from sleeping at the school and then we spent the rest of the day doing nothing. Actually, we slept for about an hour.. Then when we woke up and went into the kitchen we found this:

What Happens in the Kitchen...; Food: Part 3

Oh boy. It's been two weeks since I last posted about food. This is a long one..

Party Like It's Friday

It's Friday night! After a VERY long and tiring week we have finally made it to the weekend! How did we start out celebrating? We bought chocolate and took a nap. Not even kidding.

How to: Dress For the Cold

When it's really cold outside, you have to dress appropriately. No hat in winter? You'll get weird stares from people. Wearing Converse in the snow? You'll get weird stares from people.

Just follow these tips and you will blend in as best as you can (for being a non-Ukrainian).

Russian Roulette

Some days when I wake up I feel like it's going to be a good day. You know, like when time and place mesh perfectly and then the day goes smooth and fast and before you know it you're already in bed waiting for the next day. Other days, it starts with a shower.

Happy Valentine's Day. I Love You, Kiev.

Our Kiev 2 group just started a blog to share with each other and today was my day to post on it. So this is what I wrote! It's really short, but it says a lot about the culture as a whole :) Have I mentioned that I love it here? 

When Is Your Happy Birthday?

It officially feels like winter here. Ew. It was seriously cold on Saturday, but we had good food, warm hiding places, and fun company.

Quick Update: 3

A lot of you have been asking a few questions through emails and comments and I guess it's time you all get some answers :)

THE Hat

This is the hat I bought on Saturday! It all started because my other hat lost a ball. But it's fixable, don't worry.

I love it!

It's That Time Again

It's Sunday night and Audrey and I are at school preparing for the upcoming week and planning more lessons.
 

"It's just clothes in here.."

I totally forgot to post about our new best friends! On Thursday night, Audrey and I were sitting in our room watching TV, with our door open, as it usually is, and our 8 year old host sister randomly came in and started showing us her nail polish. I guess the fact that we also had nail polish instantly made us best friends. I'm pretty sure she thinks I don't speak much, because whenever she talks to me I look back at her with a weird face. Obviously I don't understand a thing she's saying, but she keeps trying. Maybe she doesn't understand that I can't understand Russian and she just thinks I'm stupid. Oh well, been there, done that :)

Anyway, after about 20 minutes of her showing us her nail polish and new make-up kit, her 10 year old brother joined us (after walking back and forth past our door 50 times watching us) and we ended up playing hide and seek in our tiny room. Our host sister, Masha, is hilarious to play hide and seek with. At one point it was Misha's, our host brother, turn to look for her and she was kind of in an awkward hiding place so she yelled out, "Make it quick!" and Audrey and I were cracking up the whole time. At another time, Audrey and I were stuffed in the closet and they were looking for us and as they walked closer Audrey whispered, "It's just clothes in here.." in Russian to them. SO HILARIOUS.

Having a lot of crap makes for good hiding places, I guess. We played for about an hour and then started coloring in Audrey's coloring books (hahaha). By the time I colored in 3 full pages, it was well past 9pm and we were exhausted. "We" as in Audrey and I, the kids were still full of energy and we had to tell them like five times that we were going to bed.

We're really happy with this new turn of events. The kids make it a lot less awkward to practice Russian with, even though our host mom keeps telling us to speak English with them. Hopefully they stay interested in us for a while longer :)



Masha (blonde), Misha, and their friend camped out on our floor coloring

What is in my Stomach?; Food: Part 2

I took pictures of everything we ate this week and random food we found in our kitchen!

Home Sweet Apartment

This is our apartment! Ignore the mess on my side of the room.

Needs

Ok, this kid is named Matthew and he has really good English. I'm assuming he speaks it at home because his father is a native English speaker. Anyway, he always says 'need' instead of 'want'. We think it's hilarious because he apparently NEEDS everything.

Lesson Planning

Every week Audrey and I need 10 planned lessons each that we teach. The subjects are Drama, Games, Sport, Art, Shop, and Kitchen. Since Audrey and I are the only teachers in the morning, we get to choose what schedule we rotate on and stuff like that. I teach 2 lessons, 4 times every day. So this week I have Kitchen and Shop. Today, for example, I made banana rockets (4 times) and tornado bottles (4 times). So this week I needed 5 lessons for kitchen and 5 lessons for shop. We rotate subjects every two weeks and next I'll need activities for sport and drama, Audrey will take over kitchen and shop and art and games will be put on hold for two weeks.

An Educational Post: Money

I'm rich! ...In Ukraine. The currency in Ukraine goes by Grivnya (pronounced greeve-na, abbr. 'r'). 1r = 8USD.

An Indoor Outdoor Market

We found a cute market a few blocks from our school!

No Parking Spot? No Problem.

I'm not joking when I say the people here drive like maniacs. Even if you're in the middle of a crosswalk, THEY have the right of way. So really, it's not a huge surprise that they don't know how to park. Or maybe they do and they just don't mind if their cars aren't accessable for a few days.

Videos

Cute kids we filmed at the ballet on Saturday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32QWCiq-ad4

Audrey.. yeah:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkzv6mIv-1g