Cheers to the freaking weekend!

This weekend was hands down one of the best weekends of my entire life!

(And I have had some pretty rockin weekends before...)

Saturday we woke up super early to go do baptisms at the Kiev Temple.

SO WONDERFUL!!!

One of my favorite things about traveling is being able to attend church or go to the temple. I love seeing first hand that the church is the same everywhere in the world. I love being able to feel the spirit so strongly in so many temples all over the world. It is so nice to be able to know that no matter where I am in the world, there is a place that I can go to feel that familiar spirit and feel at home.

Christ truly loves all of his children ALL over the world.

Afterwards we were just sitting on the grass for a while waiting around to go to the picnic.

After a little while a babushka comes over and starts talking really quickly and kind of angrily at us in Russian. The head teacher that was with us just kept saying that it was okay in Russian.

The babushka was telling us that we shouldn't be sitting on the ground because our ovaries would freeze.

Bahahahaha too funny!!!!

They believe that if girls sit on the ground without sitting on a plastic bag or something of the sort, then our ovaries will literally freeze.

Finally it was time to go to the picnic and to our "pleasant" surprise it was not a picnic in the park as we had previously been told.

False.

It was surprise camping.

We were seriously in the middle of these woods building a fire and eating off the ground.

It was too funny.

We made the best of it though and had fun exploring.

Toree being a total fatty and eating ALL of the food! :P

Our little snake buddy we found while exploring by the river.

Okay....so all of a sudden out of nowhere we hear this loud terrifying sound and it sounds like hundreds of little animals in the water coming closer and closer to us and I was FREAKING OUT!!! 

We couldn't see them but we could just hear them getting closer and closer!

Of course I was the only one that was scared though.

My friends just laughed at me and got it on tape.

After our "picnic" we headed to go find a field and we played some fútbol with the Ukrainians!! 

(We call our friends from Institute the Ukrainians haha)

I definitely suck at soccer BIG TIME. But hey, at least I tried.

Then we went to the legit fútbol game.

OH.MY.GOODNESS.

SO AWESOME!!!!!

If I thought the metro's were packed before? Psh...that is nothing compared to how they are when there is a game!!

There were FLOODS of people!! I swear the entire city came out for this!

Everyone was cheering and screaming and it was all just so exciting from the second we got on the platform!

Then the game was SO AWESOME!!!

This was my first fútbol game and I absolutely loved it!! 

The stadium was packed and everyone was so enthusiastic and totally into the game!

Drunk Ukrainians are HILARIOUS!!

They were all dancing around and cheering and yelling and these two guys got the entire stadium to do the wave. It was pretty impressive!!

Kiev won 2-0!!!

Afterwards we all went to Krishadick and went to a coffee shop for smoothies and then a few of us hit up Friendship Arch for a little bit. 

Most definitely the BEST day in Ukraine thus far.

Sunday we woke up super duper early again to go to church.

Our church building is right next to the temple which is pretty neat, but it takes almost two hours to get there and then two hours to get home.

 

Spencer, Chelsea, Audrey, Katlyn, Toree, me and Lynn

Spencer is our new teacher and is so awesome and SO hilarious!! 

But none of us are a fan of the stache...

Sunday night we went to the ballet and saw Romeo and Juliet.

AMAZING!

I absolutely loved it. The dancers were amazing, the music was even more amazing, and the building was breathtaking!!

All in all it was so impressive!!

See what I mean?

Kind of a freaking awesome weekend...

to say the least.

The Barking Parrot

As we were walking to the metro after class one day, we heard a dog barking-which isn't out of the ordinary because everyone has a dog here and stray dogs are every 10 feet- but there wasn't a dog in sight.

Instead, we found this little guy as the culprit of the mysterious barking noise:

This is home.

Oh. My. Lanta.

My life is so freaking awesome lately!!

Okay so Wednesday was crappy. Like, super crappy.

I woke up and sick and had to teach while sick. Trying to teach 15-20 Ukrainian with a pounding head, stuffy nose, sore throat, and a smoker's cough is not fun at all.

Shocking. I know.

Then since I was sick I got suuuuper homesick which really stunk.

All I wanted to do was go home.

However, Thursday and Friday TOTALLY made up for it!!

Thursday I had to teach morning and afternoon sessions. (Which meant I taught from 9-1 and 3-7) Surprisingly it was way better than Wednesday and I was way more positive. 

Thursday after school Toree, Kennedie, Alia and I went out exploring and found this super awesome and pretty park with a really cool memorial in the back of it. 

We walked through the park to the memorial and realized that there was this amazing look off point where you could see the city!! It was so awesome!! Probably my most favorite spot we have been to so far!! We are already planning on going back during the day sometime.

(Sorry the pictures turned out so crappy. Night time + picture taking = no bueno)

I loves these three SO MUCH!!

Exploring buds

Awful pictures of the monument.

Afterwards it took us a while to find "Big Mama" (like Ukraine's statue of liberty) which is what we were actually trying to find. After a potty break, an accidental slide down the ramp, and almost peed pants we finally found her! 

Another WAY AWESOME place!!!

This was probably one of the best nights in Kiev so far!!

Then Friday night after teaching we met up with the Center School teacher's and Audrey & Jonathan and went and saw the Ocean Plaza Mall.

SO cool and SO fancy!!

Side note: Some of the fruit here is GINORMOUS!!

This is a grapefruit...

Afterwards some of the crew went home but Toree, Audrey, Jonathan and I headed to McDonald's for a late night snack and ran into some friends from Institute and chatted with them for a while and then took the metro home. 

Today was finally the first day that Kiev started to feel like home to me. :)

Cats, you've been replaced

So I have this really bad habit of really dramatically pointing out animals to whoever I am with when I seem them.
(Caleb can attest to this...SQUIRREL!)

Last night Toree and I were walking home and as I was in the middle of telling her about a weird, creepy video I all of a sudden stop mid-sentence and just point into the dark and say,

"Rat!!! RAT!!!!!"

And this huge rat just scurries in front of us.

Toree was FREAKED OUT!! haha She thought that I was pointing to something much worse in the dark.

About 15 minutes later we see a small little hedgehog walking along in the grass beside us.

Naturally I freak out and follow it around until I can pull out my camera.

Then we see that it walked up to another hedgehog!

TWO HEDGEHOGS!!

Oh my goodness. We were freaking out, to say the least.

They are so dang adorable.

We finally compose ourselves and walk a few steps more before we see another one!! And then another one a few steps after that!! We were so excited!!

Kiev has stray hedgehogs!!!

After 3 more minutes we found one that was right next to the sidewalk and totally posing for us.

5 hedgehogs.

We saw 5 stray hedgehogs.

Needless to say, that was honestly the highlight of my trip so far.

If you guys thought I got excited when I came across a cat, just imagine about 100x the excitement when I come across a hedgehog!

Friendship Arch

Sometimes teaching is really really hard and I think to myself, "Why am I here?? This is not fun!" 

But then we go on exciting adventures and I remember why I wanted to come.

Friendship Arch!!

This is where Ukraine and Russia decided "to be friends".

Found this little goodie up there

List of Ukraine. Volume I.

-Apparently the word hasn't gotten to Ukraine that mullets are out. Waaaaay out. I have never seen so many mullets or rat tails in my life....Especially on children...

-People LOVE to rollerblade here. I love it. It's about time rollerblading came back in style. However, judging by the mullet trend, maybe it never went out of style here.

-Women are GORGEOUS here! They never go out in public in sweats and a tee shirt. Ever. And they are almost always wearing ridiculously tall stilettos. (And that is pretty impressive considering how much walking people do here on such uneven surfaces.)

-Toree and I are pretty much bosses at maneuvering the around on the metro now.

-There are little shops down in the metros that you can literally buy anything. They have everything from flowers to clothing and fresh fruit to live animals. (So far we have seen kittens, puppies, gerbils, hamsters, and bunnies) We call it the Wal Mart of Ukraine.

-Russian is hands down the most confusing language I have ever seen/ heard.

-The guy sitting next to me in Stake Conference today gave Toree and I a biscuit. It was delicious.

-Last night walking home we got scared by what we thought was a large rat, then a possum, but we decided to go with a hedgehog. 

-Although Ukrainian food is delicious, I still miss American food.

-The juice here is made and sent from heaven. It is seriously the greatest thing to ever touch my lips. (Sorry old boyfriends...it's got ya beat)

I seriously want to leave all of my clothes here and fill my suitcases with juice...and chocolate,

-In the states I am not the biggest fan of chocolate. In Ukraine I am a total fatty when it comes to chocolate. Oh my goodness. And apparently if you ask for hot chocolate here they will just give you a melted cup of chocolate. Yeah...that's definitely happening.

-I went to my first Ukrainian FHE with the singles ward here! That was pretty interesting!

-Stake Conference today was all in Russian. Super! (Funny story, I was writing in my journal during church and after the meeting was over the guy sitting behind me started talking to me and said, "I noticed that you were writing in English in your book. Do you speak Russian?" And I just go, "Uhh...no?" Haha he thought I was listening to the speakers and translating it into English for my journal. I wish I was that cool.)

-When I wear sandals for the day I come home with what Toree and I like to call "homeless feet" because the streets are so dirty here.

-Ukraine doesn't have peanut butter... :(

-We love seeing missionaries because they are the only people that will smile back at us and speak English with us.

-We have pretty much gotten used to the weird looks we get from everyone.

-I met Stephanie's mission president today!! :)

You guys...I live in freaking Ukraine!

Crazy.

This Is My Life Now

The lake near Pozniaky (the school we teach at)

Alia!!

Alia and I walking to the Metro

This is how we feel about group tours...

St. Sofia's Cathedral

St. Nicholas' Cathedral

Gorgeous city of Kiev, Ukraine

Our awesome head teacher Audrey!! We would be so lost without her...

Today was just a tad windy...but still gorgeous!

(Note to self: Flowy skirt + windy day = no bueno)

The Raccoon Girl

Toree and I planned to wake up early this morning and go running, but when our alarms went off at 8 a.m. we came up with enough excuses to roll back over and fall asleep:

1. We don't know the city at all yet

2. Considering #1, we would most likely get lost

3. We spent 22+ hours traveling the day before

4. Sleep is better than running

We did eventually get out of bed though and walked to school with our host mom, Olia (she is actually the coordinator at our school so that is awesome!) 

On the way there she was telling us that before we got to Kyiv all of the coordinators and head teachers referred to me as "the raccoon girl" because of my profile picture on Facebook haha

Haha it cracked me up! 

Thankfully though they all call me by my actual name now.

So today was just tons and tons of training! 

Audrey-our head teacher-told us pretty much everything we need to know and everything we wil be doing over the next few months each day in class.

We are all still extremely confused though.

Oh and we had a wonderfully authentic Ukrainian lunch!...Domino's Pizza!! haha

We got to ride the metro for the first time today and that was NUTS! 

It is SO PACKED on there all the time! 

'Packed like sardines' is a complete understatement.

There are stray dogs all over the place here!! And they are super nice! I love it!

Also, Toree had to stop me from buying two baby kittens that a little babushka (grandma) was selling down in the metros this afternoon.

They were just sooooo cute!

Olia, my host mom, is so precious.

She is always so concerned about my cough and that I am sick, and she never believes me when I tell her that I am really okay.

So tonight, she brings some medicine in for me to take and when I tell her that I am "really okay!" she goes, "It's okay! It will help your cough!" And so I finally consent to taking it after she tells me it is natural and pretty much just a vitamin.

But then, she whips out some nose drops and tells me to lay on my back so she can put some in my nose!

Olia is very stubborn...and now all I can smell is minty medicine.

I promise more pictures to come soon! 

We haven't done anything too picture worthy yet.

We really really did it!

Я, нарешті, в Україні!

We finally made it!! I never thought this day would come but I am finally in Ukraine!!

I have never spent so long traveling in my life, but it will all be worth it!

We started off our journey at Phoenix Sky Harbor leaving at 7:05. 

We flew to JFK Airport in New York City followed by a 4 hour layover.

We met up with 2 other girls in our ILP group here.

Next stop was the Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris, France; accompanied by a 5 hour layover, and met up with three more girls from the group.

And Paris just isn't Paris without Ladurée macaroons. 

By this point we were all dead tired, but we only had one leg of the journey left!

After 22 1/2 hours of traveling, we made it to Kiev!

We went through customs and were picking up our luggage at baggage claim when a male airport worker comes up to Toree and starts speaking Russian super quickly and all she does is look at him with a big wide eyed stare. Once he realized she has no idea what he is talking about, he shakes his head and mutters "English" and walks away in disgust.

It was hilarious!! He was so upset that she was American, but we all sure got a kick out of it!

Afterwards we walk out of baggage claim to find our ILP coordinators and all we see are tons of Ukrainian men standing around just staring at us, the "fresh american" girls. We were all pretty terrified...but thankfully our native coordinators, head teachers, and host mom found us shortly after! 

Great news....Toree and I are in the same host family!! Hallelujah! Prayers answered!!

Also, our host Mom is so wonderful!!

Afterwards we just headed to the apartment, unpacked our stuff and our host Mom made us probably the best salad we have ever eaten in our lives for dinner. I was so scared that I was going to be anorexic for the next three months because I wouldn't like the food. Now I am just terrified of gaining 50 pounds in the next three months...

Toree and I were laying on our beds just talking, when I look down at my feet and say, 

"What the heck?! Why are my feet swollen?!"

Toree and I died laughing!!! 

I have no idea why, but my feet were randomly super swollen! 

I'm accrediting it with having traveled for so dang long. 

I was able to Skype home and let them know I arrived safely, and got a surprise Skype from Bryant!! You're the best!! Sorry I was so out of it.. :)

I am so excited for this new adventure!

Stay tuned to hear more!