The Honest Truth?

My ILP duration is 97 days, and I have already completed 45. This finally means I am on the down hill for teaching, but not going home quite yet. When did that happen? But more frequently I also think.. is that all? Really? 

We lost our first teacher yesterday, she just packed up and went home $2500 later. Sadly I think we all silently watched her leave with envy in our hearts. If you asked any one of the teachers in Kiev right now if they enjoyed teaching I honestly believe they would tell you that they don't, and they might actually tell you that they hate it. Now I might be getting ahead of myself here. We are all just fine doing what we are doing. We all chose to be here, we all paid to be here as volunteers, but at the same time I don't think any of us had any idea what we were getting ourselves into. 

They tell you it will be hard, but you can't imagine it all when you are in training-- and even when they tell you some, you have no idea until you actually experience it. 

Everything is fine for all of us. But we will all miss you Brittani! 

My Baby Goldilocks

I am feeling sorry for myself. When I feel sorry for myself I go sit in my gorgeous car, I pull out a bag of dill pickle spitz, and I turn on the Harry Potter audio books. I'd hate to admit to how much I actually do this at home. I could use a pick-me-up. DP Spitz, HP, and Goldilocks. Best combo ever. 

yes, I have an unhealthy obsession with my car. 

I am 20!!

Or I should probably say "we are 20," Kenna and I work the same shift together in the same school and our classrooms are actually connected. We sleep in the same room, we go to work, church, or any other activity together, we eat together... what I am getting at here is that I share pretty much everything with this girl, and it just so happens that we share our birthday too.

"Hoppy Birthday Ribeka!"

"Hoppy Birthday MiKena!"

GREEN GRASS!!! It was so nice to see,
thanks mother nature for the birthday present! 

At school they had a cake for us!!
And we didn't have to teach our first two classes, it was great!! 

So this is called a "Kiev Cake"

I really enlarged this photo so you could see it. It was crunchy with what seemed like layers of pure butter and sugar. It was good, just EXTREMELY sweet.. and different. 

There is a lady here at work that is always around helping clean up. She works for the school kind of behind the scenes.. we had no idea she could speak english!! This was such a sweet surprise!

Another fun surprise!! The kids made Kenna and I crowns and bracelets!! It was so cute!! I really do love my students! 

We had fun lighting sparklers on the pedestrian bridge here in Kiev. It was awesome!

SO we went out to dinner for pizza and Sushi.. I decided I'd try sushi again. Yep. STILL DON'T LIKE IT. 

We also managed to get 2 meters (6 feet) of pizza. 

At home Lena and Oleg had Kiev cake for us again! and we each had our own cake. It was sweet. 

С днем рождения

The Beautiful City of Kiev

These are a few of my FAVORITE photos of Kiev so far!! I know I have posted some of them already, and I know they are in a funky order, and they are kind of random.. but I just love each and every one of them!! 

Saint Michaels

Down Town 

Kreshchatik Street.. I think

Saint Michaels

Saint Sophias 

Saint Michaels

Saint Sophias

Independence Square

Kiev Temple

Saint Andrews

Down by Independence Square

We call it "Souvenir Street"

Saint Andrews 

Opera House 

The Love Bridge

Because it is Valentines Day we decided that we wanted to go to a "Love Bridge"especially since we are in Europe and thats where they mainly are. You are suppose to write the name of your true love on the lock along with your own and throw the key off the bridge. Right now I do not have a "true love," so I thought I'd just attach a lock. It made me kind of sad and it would be kind of dumb for me to attach a blank lock on a love bridge, that is kind of the opposite of its purpose. I tried to think of who or what I loved enough to attach a lock and throw away the key for. Thats kind of a symbol of undying love. When I think undying love, without a shadow of hesitation my family comes to mind. I have an eternal family. Thanks to the most loving and giving parents that got married and started a family 31 years ago, I have everything that a human being could ask for. I have the gospel, I have support, I feel loved, I have an amazing family, and I have had every opportunity in life. I could go on forever. I really do have everything.

So this is what I put on my lock.   

Chris & Cathy 31

These are my parents names in Russian, as well as the number of years they have been married-- the number of years that my family has been established. 

Love to think about all the people who have come and put locks up in the past. So much happiness. 

Look at all these locks!  

Attaching the lock, it took a while to actually get in on there!  

Throwing the key away. 

С днём святого Валентина

(Happy Valentines Day)

Vareniki

In Canada we call them Pirogues. Here in Ukraine, where pirogues come from.. they are not called pirogues. In fact pirogues are something "boiled," or thats just what Lena told me. They are called Vareniki.
When I found out that I was coming to Ukraine I knew that one of the things that I had to do was eat some of the real deal pirogues, and learn how to make them.

CHECK.. and CHECK.

This was my very first plate of Vareniki here in Ukraine. They were to DIE for.
They lived up to every expectation I had and blew them out of the water. MMM.
This is also at one of our favorite restaurants.. just for the Vareniki. 

Pirogues have always been one of my favorite foods and they don't have them in the States. I have had a few "Poutine and Pirogue" parties before down at school. Of course I would just bring down a frozen bag or two from Canada and cook them up. Boil them, then fry them.. serve them with sour cream and bacon.. the whole deal. And really this picture is all there is to cooking them. 

In Rexburg cookin' up some pirogues for a P&P party

Here in Ukraine it is done a little differently.

I documented the whole thing, so here is a bunch of pictures.

Lena was telling us the recipe and said "two cups of flour" as she used a mug.. and later on said
"two tablespoons of oil" and used a regular spoon. I thought that was great. 

Here's your first view of Lena! I don't know what she's holding  here. 

here we have the potato innards and also the ground pork.. and the dough. 

Yes,  a wine glass. 

Stuffing and folding them shut.. not as easy as it seems! 

I FINALLY got a good one and I wanted to take a picture,
 then Lena put her  PERFECT one in my hand to compare it.
Suddenly mine doesn't look so great anymore. 

First batch all done and buttered up! 

Eating our DELICIOUS Vareniki. YUM. 

We ended the night by having an awesome game of phase 10
after teaching Lena and Oleg how to play!