best second day EVER.

Yesterday was an amazing day! The Jet Lag was definitely the worst part. As Kenna and I were lying awake wondering what we were doing in Ukraine, I think we kind of freaked ourselves out a bit. Later on in the day when we had our first ILP meeting here in Ukraine our coordinator told us that the first time she went to America she was awake all night wondering what she had gotten herself into. That was a very comforting thought, just to know that we weren't just freaking out over nothing, or over something very big. And the other ILP teachers were kind of in the same boat, whereas others were still very much honeymooning their stay here in Ukraine. -honeymooning-
There was some luck yesterday too. I was under the impression that the school was about a 20 minute walk away from where we live, but it actually turned out to be like.. 4-6 minute walk away, and that's trudging through snow. I think Kenna and I are probably the closest ILP teachers to the school, but we all figured out that for our school (there is 3 or 4 here in Kyiv) all of the teachers-- there is 7 of us-- live in the same neighborhood. We were told in training that Kyiv sometimes spread teachers across the city resulting in sometimes having a 30 minute to an hour commute.
After our meeting we decided to explore Kyiv a little. Down the street is the biggest mall in Europe, the metro, and.. everything else you might need. However. Russian. In all 11 countries I have been to, 7 of which are not english speaking, I have never experienced such a language barrier. No one knows a word of English, and none of us know a word of Russian. (well.. I'll get to that in a sec). It got so awkward.. people would approach us and then realize we didn't speak or understand them and just walk away.. very quickly. Awkward. The feeling of being so isolated kinda freaked me out, and it almost gives you the feeling of being stupid. It also doesn't help that we dont necessarily look like tourists.
When we got home we were beat due to the long day and of course the Jet Lag. We took a nap and then woke up for dinner around 7:30. I must say, Lena is quite the cook. :) She makes fantastic food. She told us that you drink tea after dinner.. everyday. That explained why she looked a little taken aback the day before when she asked is if we wanted either tea or coffee after dinner the night before and we declined to both. She pulled out some herbal tea that she bought for us, so that we could be part of the nightly routine. This family is honestly the best in Kyiv. I'm convinced. Lena has the hardest time with english in the house, so when we sat down at the table she really took the time and effort to understand every word we said. It then turned into a fantastic Russian lesson for Kenna and I, especially when Olag came home and joined us at the table. We finally met him. He is great! He speaks perfect english, he is funny, and he is so welcoming!
The worst part of the night is when Olag and Lena found out that we were only staying till April. Until about 4 weeks ago we were all under the impression that we would be in Kyiv till the end of June. I was very upset when I found out that my trip was cut 2 months short. Apparently they never heard about it. They seemed quite upset, and Olag even said he wanted to find out exactly why our visas can't last that long with the Canadian embassy,  because the whole situation never made that much sense in the first place.
And to conclude this post.. The chocolate here is to die for. It's amazing. I thought I would lose weight here because of the weird food and the walk to school everyday.. but no. Since the school is down the street, Lena cooks amazing food, and really.. the chocolate. I'm only here for 3 and 1/2 months.. gotta try everything that I can't get in Canada and America. And there is lots of chocolate here..