woot!!

This weekend was loads of fun.

Friday was chillin’ at the branch presidents apartment, playing rock band and other such nonsense. It’s interesting having the opportunity to visit the branch member’s homes. Everyone lives in apartment buildings, but once inside, it’s easy to forget that it’s not a house like back home.

Saturday I went with Janelle and her host family to a little celebration. It was held outside, and there were performances by a girl’s marching band, a military brass band, and then there were these adorable children performing songs and dances that were wearing traditional Ukrainian scarves and headbands. Lena, Janelle’s host mom, also bought us beautiful hand stitched dolls. They do not have a face, and are holding two babies. Lena said that these dolls are supposed to be protectors of the home. It was very sweet of her to get me one!! I love it a lot.

Saturday night, I rode on my first train! We traveled to L’viv (Lvov in Russian) by sleeper train. Train is definitely not my favorite mode of transportation, but we had fun. We got to Lvov around 4 in the morning, then took taxies to our hostel. Our taxi driver had a fun time trying to find it, but we eventually made it there!! We thought we were going to have to spend the morning in the lobby, but a very very drunk employee ended up letting us stay in a room free of charge for the remainder of the morning. She was walking like a zombie with a really bad limp and at first kinda freaked me out, but then someone figured out she was drunk. Anyway, we were hoping she would remember in the morning that she had helped us out.

Sunday we ventured out to find where church was. It was quite an adventure, but we got there. The church building was pale pink. We went to sacrament, and it was interesting because everything was in Ukrainian. It makes me extra grateful for our international branch. After church we went to a gigantic cemetery. It was crazy how big it was!! There are pictures of it, but none of them do it justice.

Monday we went sight seeing. We went to high castle, which is just the point of a huge hill that overlooks Lvov, and a bunch of random buildings, like churches and a palace thing and just walked around the city. It’s really pretty!

Tuesday was Souvenir day. there is a small market there that is pretty awesome, so I bought a lot of gifts. (:

We also found this building that used to be the Jewish Synagogue before WWII that now is a maternity ward. Lvov had around 100,000 Jews at one point, but at the end of the war, only 1,000 had survived. However, it’s not allowed to have a memorial and they tried to cover up what had happened there. It’s really sad.

Tuesday was Women’s day, so that’s why we had a long weekend. it’s like mother’s day and valentines day combined.

Mmmk. Well, only a week and a half til we go on a European tour, and right after that is the half way point! It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long, craziness!!! LOOBLOO! (love)