Long awaited.. the weekend!

We ordered Pizza in Thursday night!

holla!

Unfortunately it was really cold by the time we got to eat it.. talk about BAD service! Just kidding.. I maaaaay have given the wrong apartment building to the poor pizza delivery guy (we are building 21 NOT 32!!! just incase any of you wanted to drop it.. again)

Friday night Marie and I hopped on a bus headed to a spiffy little office building (right next door to a Ferrari showcase room! Man, those things are spifffffffyyyyy!) where institute, local ward meetings & Friday night FHE are held. all church related activities take place on the 5th floor.
Come to find out this floor is where church was held for many (if not all) of the members in Kiev before the temple and church house were built. Now it holds institute a couple nights a week and YSA (of sorts) friday night FHEs, Sunday it serves as a ward house for the locals in that part of town (we attend the 'international branch').
Marie (who is one of the HT's I live with and love) came to Kiev for her first ILP experience five years ago, fhe was extra fun because I got to meet some of her old friends from the last time she was here! One of her friends Serge just got home off of his mission and speaks pretty much perfect English - he was called to southern Russia but he had a lot of American companions - it was nice to have someone local to interact with that could understood us and our humor (Americans - we are strange people).
After a little devotional and some treats we played a wonderful internationally friendly game of 'signs'. If you haven't played it, you should -hours of good fun are to be had!

Saturday morning Kiev 2 groups coordinator Tania came to our apartment and taught us and some of our teachers how to cook Borsch - a famous Ukrainian soup! It is made primarily from beet root, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, tomato sauce.. and other stuff? Yes. I don't remember the rest. You throw it all in a pot, cook it up and serve it with - you guessed it, a dollop of daisy! Yes! You top it off with a spoon full of sour cream! and it is delicious. What's even better its that it is even better (repetitive much?) the day after and since it was cooked in our kitchen we have the left overs and that was my yummy Sabbath snack, mmmm.

After our cooking lesson most of our teachers went out for a night on the town, a couple of us - the smart ones - boycotted the cold, stayed in, built a fort, got out lots of snacks, watched a bunch of movies and most importantly stayed warm!

Don't get me wrong, I am ALL about exploring! and I will do lots of it! However, I am all about not getting sick again.. and as Cami and Marie know it is good to pace yourself with these things so you don't end up feeling like you have 'run out of things to do'! 

The last couple days have been beautiful but COLD! 

After almost a week of snowy overcast weather we have finally got some blue skies. Before everything here looked grey but when the suns out it is like a whole new city!

Church was great as ever today. I can't express enough how much I love this gospel and that it is here in Kiev Ukraine! I love that I get the opportunity to really  make an effort to get to church every week it makes me feel much more appreciative of what I have at home (a five minute commute as opposed to the hour via metro, bus and walking!), we are so blessed!

Speaking of church and being blessed - Ty is giving his farewell talk probably as I am typing this! I am so proud of him and I will miss that kid so much even though he lovvvveeesss driving me nuts like when he eats my food or acts like he is tougher than me and picks me up in awkward ways and when he pesters me... oooohh he just loves pestering everybody like most recently the pennies in the water jug (mom - you know what I am talking about!) Regardless, he is my brotha and I love him so much! He is an awesome guy and will be an awesome missionary. I bet your talk is rockin' right now (neither Alyssa or Preston will FaceTime me into Sacrament... those jerks)!

Well...

I need to take more photos! The temple looked so lovely today against the blue sky! It is just hard to get my hands to want to come out of my pockets, they are so warm and cozy in there and don't appreciate the cold as it tries killing them swiftly and silently! 

I will get tougher though. My hands will get tougher (or I will just start remembering my gloves). I will take pictures. And you will see them. Eventually.

To close, here are some pictures of the death-avtor. 

I love our scary elevator.

Don't worry about me..

 I have my public transportation etiquette almost down that is - don't smile at people or look at people for that matter, and walk with purpose. If you are lost - don't look it. I thought the whole smiling thing was an exaggeration but really, people are very stone faced on the street here and especially on the metro. I have found (like I thought I would) that in more intimate settings these people are very kind and loving. They have lived under some pretty rough conditions for such a long time I wonder if that contributes to their public demeanors..

I came down with something yesterday so I have spent the day home sleeping a ton and taking care of my self - I can't really afford to be sick here!! I am feeling better but man the temperature drop we are experiencing this week (by monday high will be around 0 degrees) makes me a little bit nervous! I have been here one whole week now and goodness it feels like a whole lot longer. I am in charge of 12 teachers and three schools, it has been challenging getting everyones schedules in order and making sure each school has the appropriate resources.. It has been a lot of work! Each week to come should be a little bit easier once everyone has some experience and are more familiar with the teaching method.. I am so excited for that! 

I am so happy I am here. It has been kind of tough but I love it! I love living in a little two room Ukrainian apartment and walking everrrrywhere I go. I love the public transportation which I think I have become a miniature pro at. I live closest to the Red line, pretty close to where it connects to the Blue and Green. Each school I take a different line to get to and not to mention different buses. I have become more comfortable with the feeling of not knowing where I am because I know that people around me are willing to help - all I have to do is point to my stop and they point me in the right direction.

One thing that really impresses me about Ukraine is what happens on the buses. When you board a bus and take your seat, all you do is take out your money and pass it to the person in the seat in front of you. If you need change, the change will make it back to you. I don't know I noticed how awesome this is until I realized that would never happen at home! People don't trust each other like that, especially on public transport! I love taking the bus because if somebody behind me taps my shoulder I know they are handing me their money and if there is more than the usual 2.5 grivna I turn around and put up one finger- they nod and I know they need change back so I just pass it along and hold up one finger to the person in front of me, after making it to the front the appropriate change comes back to me and I give it to the owner. Yeaahhh.. Ukraine is pretty cool.

Dirty bath water

Today is the first day I have experienced Jack Frost clawwwwing at my nose, yiiikes it was COLD! By Monday the high will be 2 degrees (fahrenheit). THE HIGH PEOPLE!!
Speaking of this strike of insanely cold weather, I am under it! I woke up today feeling a little groggy and by the end of it.. noooo bueno. I am giving myself the day off tomorrow - even though I really wish I wasn't, I feel like I am abandoning my teachers but if I don't nip this in the bud it could take me out for the count. I'm loaded up with emergan-c, vitamins, ni-quil and lathered up in vicks vapor rub under layers of sweats and fleece! I will overcome!

Since I am not feeling super dandy this post will be a random bunch of pictures and things I have to say.

Oh, so want to know where the inspiration from this blog title came from?

..Freshly drawn for a nice soak..

Did I still bathe in it? Why yes, yes I did.

If I look at that water too long it makes me question too many things so moving on...

Last night I had a yummy creation of toasted bread, mustard, cheese and tomatoes (a Chris Goering original).

This is a picture of a sign in the metro that switches from the blue line to the red line. My stop is  BOK3ArbH, you know.. in case any of you want to come visit me sometime. 

Signing out - 

Amanda

And so it begins!

I have quite a bit to catch up on, but since I have so much else to do and so little time, you are getting the shorter, sweeter more illustrated version!

Sunday morning twenty something ILP-ers trekked (and it is a trek let me tell you) to church by metro, buses and of course lots of walking. We attend church at a wonderful little chapel sharing the same property as the beautiful Kyiv temple! After a forty minute travel from the apartment to the end of the red line on the metro and from there another 20 minute bus ride to our actual stop, the temple was a wonderful sight for so many reasons!
Though I was bringing in the tail-end of the group, we only missed the first twenty minutes which is pretty good for our first day tracking everyone down and managing to find it with out any help from our Ukrainian friends!
Sacrament meeting was amazing. I adored it. The speakers, all fairly recent converts, touched my heart and dare I say I felt the spirit more in this day than I have for a while. It's amazing that within minutes of arriving to sacrament the spirit could testify so sweetly and strongly that this church is indeed true, not just in Utah but here in Ukraine - it is the only true church upon the whole earth! It testified to me the power of missionary work and its importance, and how we can all be missionaries through our examples and our willingness to share the gospel with others. These speakers, the two sweet young Ukrainian women and the man from Turkey upon hearing the truth each embraced the gospel so strongly and based their lives around Christ with out any hesitation, they are amazing examples to me. I know I am supposed to be here at this time and no I will learn and have much to learn about the gospel for myself!

..some of the group!..

Church was awesome. I am so thrilled we have it hear to attend each week. They have institute and family home evening, after this first week of settling into teaching schedules I will look forward to attending those as well!

We had to break the Sabbath. We literally had no food in our apartment and it being evening time and our last meal being the veggies and chips the branch supplied for munch and mingle, it had to be done! 

Forgive us.

The grocery store made me so excited though, our cooking resources are endless! Whole aisles of artisan bread and cheese! Pastas, chips, muesli, crackers, yogurt, kefir, veggies, fruit - I even found one of my most favorite fruits from China! Ooh, I am such a foody, I love food. They have really good fruit juice here too so I guess I am a juicey now as well! 

 Cami and myself (notice my ginormous bag)

now with John - one of my teachers who enjoys foods like frog legs and horse meat

We ended our long, beautiful, super cold Sunday with a delicious pasta dinner. Lights out and in bed my 8:30 - we. are. CHAMPIONS!

-SIDE NOTE- Last night, I was pretty positive we were being bombed. After my heart nearly jumped out of my chest and I was trying to figure out how to gather all 12 of my teachers in the rubble we realized that the load window rattling cracks were from a VERY RANDOM fire works display going off two blocks away?! What the heck Kyiv! Are you trying to give me a heart attack??

Today was the first day official day of teaching for my teachers. I can only visit one school per day since the travel for me to any school is forty minutes to an hour long so I spent ten hours at Nyvky school (+two hours traveling too and from) with six of my teachers doing my best to help them feel more adjusted and familiar with the teaching routine and method. It is a whole different story once you get into it and are actually in front of the kids! Everyone is doing great though. It will take us this week and then some to really get it all figured, but I know it will get better. My group is great. I couldn't ask for a better bunch.

Tis late and another long day is ahead, so like always - good morning Utah and good night Ukraine!

 ..on the way to the metro..

 ..the most epic landmark on my way to Nyvky school..

 ..outside attire (notice my amazing, practical, so worth telling Ty to get it for me for Christmas FANNY PACK)..

 ..inside attire + awkward stance do to being a nerd and using the 2 second camera timer..

take a deep breath

That's what I keep telling myself. Everything will fall into place, all will be well.
Ok that was a little bit dramatic!

Since it is so late, I think I will leave this posts to a few preview pictures. Tomorrow after church (!!!) I will elaborate on this grand-long day.

ze first official day

Due to a very busy and bustling official-first-day, I didn't get any pictures of the city, school or my even my teachers. I did however take a picture of one of the very lovely grilled cheeses Marie and I enjoyed for dinner! 

(Shows where my priorities are, right??)

OH & I can't stress it enough: I am in love with the fact this is a country of bread and cheese!

This morning we learned something new about our apartment, the shower is a trickster.. 

Really in need of a shower (ha kidding! she looked and probably smelled great), Cami turned on the hot water and found it to be unforgivingly cold! We let it run for ten minutes or so thinking that us being on the tenth floor had something to do with it taking so long to warm up but really this had no effect, the water only got colder. After an hour or so of turning the faucet on and off to see if there as any change in temperature, smarty pants Cami tried turning the cold knob and voila - mystery solved! The knobs are in the wrong spots so we just ended up being water wasters.. boo us! Turns out the water stays nice and hot and takes little to no time to warm up! At least we figured this out sooner than later because after traveling for 24 hours the day before I looked/felt pretty grimy.

Today Alina (coordinator from Central school) picked me up and showed me the ways of Ukrainian public transport. The schools supply myself and the teachers with a monthly metro and bus pass, if you are a true Ukrainian you have one of these nifty passes. The metro system is so wildly convenient! I especially love it because all three of my schools are evenly placed on the further most ends of the city (or so it seems) and each of the three metro lines (blue, red and green) get me within walking distance of each school building. Wonderful!

This afternoon I met with all of my teachers at Nyvky school where we held our first meeting which was full of various bits of information ie. Codes of conduct (all the glorious ILP rules, all simple and easy - for example NO ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS please and thank thee!), host family guidelines (luckily each teacher seems to be be enjoying their families so far! I must say I am very jealous of them!) and most importantly/tediously teacher training (the in's and out's of how a typical teaching day will go!). 

I am crossing my cold little fingers that what we covered today made everyone feel a little better and more prepared. Truth is no one will really know what they are doing until the first few days of teaching which is completely fine and normal! We will get everything worked out to a T.

(did I use that expression correctly? what is that supposed to mean exactly? to-a-T... hm.)

After the long hours of training all of us made our way to the cafeteria for lunch which consisted of borscht (beet soup with various vegetables), rye(?), two meat loaf-ish slabs and a small tower of rice. I have heard through the grapevine that Ukrainian food is kind of bland but I enjoyed our lunch! It wasn't super exciting, but it was edible and recognizable - two qualities many Chinese dishes hardly had - and never at once it seemed! 

Along those terms- Ukraine thus far has been sooo luxurious compared to Planet China. I am so in love with everything already! The people here aren't as outwardly friendly as in China (no one smiles) but they are very classy looking and everyone is decked out in either fur or leather. PETA would HATE this place! 

Though smiles aren't shared on the streets, in more intimate settings the people are wonderful. 

Yes, I think it is safe to say that I love it here. 

Well it's time to try out going to bed, I curled up in my little chair earlier and fell right to sleep. I woke up to   my guy calling me via FaceTime - nice wake up call if you ask me! 

WELL Добраніч Ukraine and good afternoon America!

Completed: day one

Start: Wednesday 7:30 am mountain time
Salt Lake international for Chicago
from Chicago to Frankfurt Germany
from Frankfurt to International airport Kyiv
Airport to apartment
End: Thursday 8:30 am mountain time

It is currently 5:30 friday morning in Kyiv! I am sitting in our dark living room trying to calculate how I feel exactly to be here. I can tell you one thing, I really don't think it has hit me yet. I will be here until June 5th!? waaahhhhhhhattt?
While I figure out when it's all going to surface, I will tell you about my new home and role here for the next 137 days.
I am the head teacher over the Kyiv 1 schools being: Planet school, Central and Nyvky school.
This means I travel to-and-fro to schools and make sure everyone is comfy, enjoying teaching, and doing it right!
I am in charge of 11 awesome girls and one cool guy.
I work with our native coordinator Oksana who has proven to be super helpful so far - she has the personality I would imagine from a young Ukrainian blond model tall girl.. Kind of sassy, but funny and so great.
I live on the tenth floor of an old apartment building with the most terrifying elevators I have ever stepped into! There are two - the one on the left and the one on the right. The left one is a mean monster that will try to kill you if you don't move quick enough. It also happens to be the smaller of the two, like uncomfortably small so already being a little freaked out I did not appreciate it borderline violently shutting  on both myself and my luggage! I will only ride the left-vator from now on!
I live in room 69 with the blue door. I feel like I am locking myself into a safe when I enter the apartment, I first shut the blue door and lock it and then shut a thicker padded door and have the option to lock it in three different ways.. Classy?
Can I tell you about my room key real quick?! I love random little knick-knacks and do-dads, I also love pretty little things, I like to take pictures a lot of pictures of things that fit these descriptions (almost as much as I like to take pictures of food), so here you are!

It is so cool looking! And I am digging the Utah key chain with little moose, eagle and bear charms - it will help me remember who I am, a mountain child from the promise land - booyah

Ze Apartmento

 It's a fairly good sized apartment!

-living room-

..notice the beautiful rug adoring the wall..

..the door leads to a little windowed back porch deal, but it is far too cold to go out there yet..

-kitchen!! so cute-

I haven't snapped any pictures of the bedroom.. but basically we have one twin and a bunk bed and a little futon.
I live here with two head teachers from Kyiv 2, Cami and Marie. They are fantastic and partially insane (in a good way), there is much fun to be had!

Today will consist of familiarizing myself and the teachers with the schools, some orientation, some training and some good ole getting to know you type stuff which all and all will last from 10 until lunch time which is 2 pm! I am kind of excited to see what Ukrainian school lunch has in store for us..

Afterwards I plan on exploring and visiting the local market to see what foods are available and delicious enough to fill my belly for the next 5 months! Gahhh I could really do with finding an excellent brand of chocolate, cheese and bread. I CAN'T EXPRESS ENOUGH HOW THRILLED I AM TO LIVE IN A COUNTRY BOUNTIFUL IN BREAD AND DAIRY. Oh it would be nice to have some fruits and vegetables as well, and an exercise plan... I HAVE A WEDDING DRESS I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO FIT INTO WHEN I GET HOME!
Speaking of, I a lot of people have asked me how I am doing being away from my Love.

Let me tell you. I miss him, I love him dearly, I love seeing his handsome face and hearing his manly man voice as much as possible but most of all I love how happy and excited he is that I am having this experience! Bless his sweet heart, it makes being here so much better knowing I am coming home to my learned fiancé (he just the Pre-enginieering program at UVU so he is a busy LEARNER and WORKER) and then jump into planning our wedding! Preston, I love you more than peanut butter.

It is going to be an amazing year

That's all for now folks! Time to start a new day!

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