My Dearest Readers...

...I am in love with Kiev right now. I can't even explain it. What we have --- it's something special. I had a wonderful Saturday exploring the north-east corner of the city center with my new Ukrainian tour-guide friend. We walked through Andreevskiy spusk/uzviv/street/whatever, which is a famous old street that turns into a giant flea-market during the day. We also found our way on top of an abandoned building to take some sweet pictures of St. Andrew's Church:


Afterwards my fellow intern and I went to the Kiev National Opera which was BALLER as I'll get out. We saw Tchaikovskii's "Yolanta," about a blind princess who grew up not realizing that there was such a thing as light. It's a crazy plot, but it got lost in the fact that they were singing complicated unintelligible arias... I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have understood it even if it was in English. Good thing I read the synopsis on Wikipedia beforehand :) Anyway, it was really fun, and a good excuse to get dressed up. Ta-da!


The other day I FINALLY was able to explore my neighborhood a bit, and found out that there is a GIGANTIC park just a few blocks away. I spent my Sunday afternoon walking around the trails there, people-watching and listening to the Russian and Ukrainian conversations around me. It was kind of nice. Also there were lots of dogs, ducks, and babies which made me happy :)

Then Monday happened, and now I'm back at work. I loooooooove my students, they are so COOL! (some of them are reading this... Hi guys!) They tell me that they will celebrate my birthday with me, with poppy-seed pie, pirozhki, coffee and 3 liters of milk. We might celebrate at McDonalds, but perhaps we'll go to Barcelona. It's all up to Serendipity. My life is fantastic.

Sarah

This post is about Footba--- I mean, Soccer.

Hello, beautiful people! Sarah is here to tell you another story about life in Ukraine. First of all, I started a new class this week, and my new students are AWESOME! They are funny and smart and our discussions are fantastic. We laugh a lot, but not too much :) Yesterday some of my students came to an earlier class. "...Why are you in my early class?" I was pretty confused, but I found out that they were going to the soccer game and wanted more time to prepare. "I'm going toooooo!" I was so pumped, I felt like a REAL Ukrainian who liked the same things as other REAL Ukrainians, like soccer (which I keep calling football on accident, because all of my students call it football...) I went with a new friend, probably the coolest person I've met so far.


The game was actually pretty slow, no one made a goal in the first half, and it didn't look like anything exciting would happen in the second half either. But my friend and I had a great time people-watching, I bought a new scarf to show my support for Dinamo Kiev, and we sat right next to the "fun" section full of people cheering loudly, waving their scarves in the air, and banging on drums. It was awesome. I also heard a LOT of bad words in Russian and Ukrainian... which was fun, I have to admit :) lots more laughing. Then, when we were 3 and a half minutes into stoppage time, FINALLY Kiev scored a goal! It was GLORIOUS!

(Note the fireworks, as well as the scoreboard: Kiev 1, Besiktas 0)

The crowd was COMPLETELY nuts. The cheering went on even as we walked out of the stadium, across the street, to the metro, down the mile-long escalators, and on the train, even all the way to the last stop on the metro there were fans cheering at the top of their lungs and pounding on the sides of the subway car:

"Динамо КИЇВ! Динамо КИЇВ! Біло синій --- самий СИЛЬНИЙ!"

Totally awesome. And then my class was canceled this morning and I got to sleep in :) This is the life! Missing everyone at home, loving my time in Kiev, and looking forward to more adventures. This weekend: The Opera!

Sarah

Vacation? Oh, ok!

It's been a while since I updated, but that's not because I've been busy working --- I was given an unexpected vacation! The school postponed the start date for our next session by a week, giving me a week to explore more of Kiev, as well as to take a looooovely weekend trip to...


...ODESSA! Southern Ukraine, right on the Black Sea, and small enough to walk around in two days. I got tickets on a night train for less than $25 round trip (I love Eastern Europe). Highlights: Watched the sun rise over the sea, went swimming at the beach, spoke a LOT of Russian with some new friends (travelers from Russia), went to a vintage market, took TONS of pictures, and went out for Georgian food (Hachipurri!) I also saw jellyfish for the first time, and learned that the Russian word for jellyfish is "Medusa." This was my favorite "Jellyfish-watching" spot:


Earlier in the week I explored more of Kiev with a new Ukrainian friend. First stop was the Marinksii park, which is full or memorials, statues, and great views of the river Dnipr. Next up was the Lavra, a maze-like construction of churches built on the slop of a giant hill, and finally Mat' Rodina (Mother of the Motherland): An enormous statue to commemorate military heroes. Look, pictures!


And as if that weren't enough, I also bought tickets to an opera for next weekend, went to a book market with my Russian teacher, found new friends at an English conversation club, and made plans to go to a soccer game on Thursday. So much news! But this week I'm back to teaching classes, so that means less time for exploring the city. Plenty of time for that on the weekends, though, and I'm sure my new students will keep me entertained :)

'Til next time!
Sarah

Update update update

Guess what I just did? I just finished teaching a two-week English conversation course. Hurray! It was stressful, but a lot of fun! Next week I'll be giving some individual lessons, and then I start a new two-week course on the 17th. I feel cool.

One of the best things about this week, besides my awesome students, is that I've started taking 1-on-1 Russian lessons --- The group Russian lessons were below my level (ego boost GO). My new teacher is FANTASTIC if only because she is completely hilarious. She speaks a mile a minute, occasionally using French exclamations, and thankfully I understand almost everything she says. She gets REALLY excited whenever she finds something new for me to drool over (like a Russian ballet in town, directions to a good restaurant, or new vocabulary), and she tries to fit as much as possible into our hour-and-a-half lessons ("That's so little time!" she always says). She's got me reading some Bulgakov and some Bunin, brushing up on my reflexive verbs, and she's taking me to a book market tomorrow after class. Super excited.

In other news, this morning I accidentally poured sour milk in my cereal but ate it anyway because I was running late. I also made cheese ravioli the other night that was NOT cheese ravioli --- they sweeten the cheese so it's like a dessert dumpling. Too bad I had already covered it in tomato sauce, sour cream, and gouda. On the other hand, I have discovered instant buckwheat cereal (Grechka) which has always been my favorite thing, and now I can make it in three minutes. Ta-da!

I stay up way too late! Goodnight!
Sarah

life is good :)

It's the Weekend!! Slava Bogu (Thank God). My schedule during the week is pretty crazy, and I quite literally have no time for myself: I have to get on the metro by 8:45am in order to make it to my 9:30am Russian class. Class goes until 12:45, when I go out to Lunch at a nearby cafeteria, and make it back to school around 2pm. I have to teach class at 5pm, so I plan my lessons from 2-5 and I teach for four hours... making it to the metro just after 9pm and getting home at 10pm for dinner. After dinner I take about an hour to myself (to digest, to plan for the next day, do some homework) before I fall asleep completely exhausted at midnight. Repeat four times, and you have my week.

BUT I don't teach on Fridays! I was totally zoned out in morning class and then came home with J (the new intern from the US, more well-adjusted than the other guy) to plan ahead for our lessons, finally go grocery shopping, and buy her some Ukrainian-appropriate items (stylish boots, large purse to replace her backpack, hairdryer with a European plug, etc.)


Once again fate has re-directed my plans, probably for the better: I was planning to go to a village on the outskirts of Kiev, a tourist spot to view old-style architecture and lifestyles, with some of my classmates today. I overslept and had to miss out, but because of that I got to spend some time with my roommate over brunch and meet our landlady who came to visit. Our landlady is Ol'ga, she is a total sweetheart, and very talkative. She told us all about her feelings on post-soviet life, about her granddaughter in New York, and where to get clean drinking water for 10x cheaper than the grocery store. I also found out that in the tourist village, there is a huge religious festival on Oct. 14th, so my roommates and I will wait until then to visit. Awesome!


On another note, I'm getting a lot better at grocery shopping and making my own food, but it's hard to really get produce here. I have bananas... and apples... I drink a lot of coffee/tea, and eat a lot of sandwiches and eggs. But the restaurants I go to for lunch are fantastic, usually traditional dishes for really cheap. I bought some more complicated ingredients at the store yesterday, so maybe next week I won't be living off of macaroni, omelets and Russian grilled cheese (although they are extremely delicious).

Off to meet a couchsurfer for lunch and go for a walk in the park!

Love,
Sarah