So I've been in Kiev for a week!! It's gone by soon fast! We've done so much every day that it kinda all blends together. :P
I guess I should start with last Thursday. :P I packed up Wednesday night, then got up at about 4:30, and headed to the airport at 5:30. My flight left about two hours later, and I got to Houston around 12:00. I had about a 4 hour layover, so I got lunch and Panda Express, and watched some shows on Netflix. :) Around...4ish my flight to Frankfurt left. :) About an hour before landing, I realized that we'd probably get to Frankfurt late, and so I figured I'd have to hurry to make it on time for my flight to Kiev. Unfortunately, I underestimated the....adventure...that is the....
FRANKFURT AIRPORT(AKA Adventure #1)
So I got off the plane, and expected to be in Terminal 1 at an A or B gate (my ticket said Lufthansa flights tend to arrive/depart from one of those). I got off the plane and saw a Z, and just a sign for ABCDE gates. I looked for the closest screens that listed the gate for Kiev, and tried to get there as soon as possible. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the Frankfurt Airpot is a MAZE. You go right then left then left then right then up then down...and repeat it several times. Finally I made it to the tram from A gates to the B gates, and discovered that I had to go through security (security is weird -- it's done in groups of about five gates -- so you find the group that your gate is in, go through security, and then go to your gate. :) Of course by the time I found the gate, the plane was long gone. :P I found a service desk, got a ticket for a new flight, found where my new gate was, and then ate at Burger King. :P It was delicious!! They had this awesome sauce that looks like ketchup but was waaay better! :) A few hours later, I got on the plane, and we landed in Kiev around 5:30-6:00. :)
KIEV
Once I got to Kiev, "Big Tania" (There's two Tanias -- Big Tania that's over all the ILP programs in Kiev, and Little Tania that just supervises the school that I teach at). and her husband picked me up, and took me to my host grandmas apartment (While some girls stay with families, I'm with an older-ish woman named Luda). Luda's amazing!!! After I got there, she showed me around, and then when Jessica (Jessi for short) got there we had dinner. Jessi's a girl who's been in Kiev since January...she leaves on Sunday. It's been soooooo nice having her here! She knows how to get pretty much everywhere, and is so nice! She actually got her mission call to Ukraine, and reports to the MTC on August 3. :)
Anyway -- right after dinner, I went to sleep. The next day, I had training at noon. :) We went to the Obolon school, which is where I teach. :) I got to meet the other three girls that got to Kiev the same time as me -- Cathryn, Lauren, and Raisy. They're all awesome!!! That day we had training, and then went to the Lviv Chocolate factory. Oh. My. Goodness! It's soooo good!!! They serve melted chocolate in a cup with whipped cream, and also have this amazing rose petal tea. Oh -- that's another thing. In Ukraine they drink tea with pretty much every meal - -don't worry, it's herbal. :) So yeah -- the chocolate was delicious!! I mean I love American chocolate, but....Ukrainian chocolate is better. :) After chocolate, we went home, and had dinner, then went to sleep. :)
On Sunday we went to church; the chapel is right next to the Kiev temple!!! We would've gone to the temple today, but the only times were either early or right before we needed to be at our schools. :/ We go to an English speaking branch, and it's amazing! The mission president and his wife are in our ward; I really only got introduced to them, but they seem nice! After church, we had another day of training, this time at Central school.
On Monday we had our last day of training at Pozniaky school. We also got to go to Maidan, aka Independence Square, which is where all the protests happened back in 2013-2014. It's super cool! I took lots of pictures. :)
This is a cool tower -- not sure what it's called. :P
This is the Saturn building that got burned during the protests -- it looks good now, but they just put up a facade - the building itself hasn't been repaired.
Cool structure! Apparently during the protests they made the women and kids stand on the steps and around the pillars to keep them safe.
This is the view from higher up. :)
Cool house! I think this is the Governor's mansion.
Selfie!! #TiaandLauren
Tuesday morning we went to "Big Mama" -- aka Ancestral Mother -- a huge statue in Kiev. It's right above the WWII museum, which is amazing!!! I wasn't able to take pictures, because they charge you for pictures that aren't in the main hall of the museum, but I got some. :)
Truck!! And yes, I climbed on it. :P Because I could. :) We all had fun taking pictures, and taking advantage of the relaxed rules here. :P
Statue!
This is part of the Lavra -- a cathedral near "Big Mama". We haven't gone yet, but will soon!
There's a tunnel as you walk to Big Mama, that has lots of carvings like this. :)
"Big Mama"
This is in the front entrance of the museum. The museum was suuuper interesting! Kinda depressing, but interesting. There's a room where they have thousands of pictures of people who died in the war. It's sad, but also an impressive sight.
These two are in the last part of the museum; it's right under the Big Mama statue. The pillars have about 12,000 names engraved on them, all of people who died in WWII.
After we saw the museum, it was about time for our first day teaching, so we went to the metro station, and went our separate ways. I rode with Lauren and Cathryn most of the way to the school, then switched lines at Ploshcha Lva Tolsoho, and rode to the Minska station. The metro here is super intuitive -- they announce each spot before hand; it's very obvious which side of the platform you need to be on, and we've ridden it so much these last few days that I feel like a pro. :P Once I got to Minska, Jessi met me, and we went to school. :)
I was a little nervous about my first day, but it went super well! I love all the kids so much!! I work with three groups of kids each day -- PL, which are preschool age, KG, which are 5-6 year olds, and FUP (follow up), which are older, more advanced kids. :) I love my FUP 3 class on Tuesdays/Thursdays!! One of them, Masha, is a genius, I'm sure of it. :p She apparently speaks like 5 languages, and is a master at art and music. We talked about King Tut, and then she drew this picture:
The other kids are great too! I have the cutest KG class - -mostly girls, and they're adorable!! I'll have to take pictures one of these days. :)
Anyway...sorry for the long post. I'll try to post updates more often, so future posts won't be that long. Das vidanya!! :D
