warning: this entry is crazy long... dont feel like you have to read it all.

As teachers we switch subjects every two weeks. Our subjects are all about getting the kids to say things “in context” so the first two weeks I taught “arts and crafts,” and this past week I taught “drama.” For the most part with drama I’ve been using books and with the younger kids we talk about what is on each page and the emotions the characters are feeling, because if you bring out costumes you are destined to be overrun by children who all want to wear the same thing at the same time. With the older kids I mostly have them read the book to me while I explain what they are reading. A lot of them know what sounds the letters make but don’t know what they are reading. Then we act out a couple lines from the story if I can keep the kids attention directed to the story long enough to do so!!!  And I thought I had ADD…. Haha oh well, I’m getting better at teaching and learning a ton in the process.

Friday my group of teachers went to Domino’s. It was so AMAZING. We all were craving something normal to eat, so it was very nice to have something from home.

Saturday some of us went to the ballet again (dearest parents, just so you know and can be proud, I was the first one to the place we were meeting at, weird huh?). We saw the Nutcracker. SO phenomenal. It amazes me how people can do that. And they all have killer calf muscles. (:  no duh. Pretty much all their muscles are crazy. Anyway, after the ballet our native coordinator Tanya taught our whole Kiev 2 group how to make borsht, which is a soup, and also an essential dish in Ukrainian cuisine. Also I may have spelt it wrong. But it was very cool.

Tressa and I went to the temple after our cooking lessons. It was so incredible. I love temples. So much. I love how everything is the same no matter where you go. Sure, I couldn’t understand anything they were saying while I was being baptized and confirmed, but I was holding back tears a lot of the time because it was the closest I’ve felt to home since I’ve been here. Interesting tidbits about the temple: they only have one session at 5 on weekdays and then 3 sessions on Saturday at 8, 10, and 5. the water is about room temperature in the font. Also, the temple has a mud room where you take off your shoes and put on white socks since it’s always wet outside. You also wear socks in the font with awesome grippy circles on the bottom. It was interesting because the man baptizing was reading all these ridiculously long and difficult Ukrainian names with no problems, and then an English name like Robert E. Smith or something along those lines came up with some other English names, and he had the hardest time with it! It’s weird when your language is the crazy one. (:  

As a side note, I totally recommend the book Three Cups of Tea. Very awesome.

Sergey, my host brother, has warmed up to me this week he started out slipping things under my door and now I have an ever growing pile of random things he got from school and little assorted knick knacks an 8 year old boy is prone to collecting. Once I got home Friday night I ended up chilling with him. Pretty much he brought out things then started playing with them, and I’d just go along with whatever he was doing. Then once he got tired of something he would just pack it up and get something else. All this happens pretty much in silence. Saturday he actually just brought a bunch of stuff into my room and started playing. He’s a very curious kid and I’m starting to think maybe I should childproof my room a little better. He will get into anything and everything. He’s walked in a couple times and started rifling through whatever he wants without talking to me. It’s kind of entertaining, yet a little scary. He’s an interesting kid. He is a pill at school a lot of the time.

After church I came home to a celebration for Sergey’s birthday (which was Friday). Larisa had set up a long table in her room and it was filled with weird salads and gross looking fish and many other things that I have no idea what they were. I tried some of the salads, but nothing was really that good to me, and we have been warned not to eat the fish so I declined that. Also, they had a ton of alcohol on the table. It was very interesting. Larisa ended up bringing in some chicken and potatoes later for the kids so I ate some of that. I was kind of uncomfortable because I was stuck in a seat that I couldn’t get out of without making someone else move and I was stuck in a conversation that I couldn’t understand. I escaped as soon as I could and went to my room. Larisa’s niece Kate came in, who is my age and speaks English and we ended up talking for a couple hours. It was so nice to have someone to talk to; especially since this weekend I have been missing my family and feeling very alone while I am at home because it is so hard to communicate. It was cool to talk to her… most Ukrainians are already bilingual because they all know Russian and Ukrainian, while a lot of the younger generation know a little English. Kate was studying Persian and Turkish as well at university, so she is eventually going to be fluent in 5 languages!  

Well, if you have made it this far through this post, I apologize for the length! (as always, i added many irrelevancies.)  

I love and miss my country, family, roommates, friends, and bed in America!!