ukRAINe

Last night it rained for the first time since we've been here. Today it is raining again so we got to walk to our bus and metro stations with umbrellas. I love it! And I love my umbrella. Thanks mom!

These last two days we decided we aren’t wasting any time while we are here so we went to explore Kiev!...even though we had no idea where to go or what we were doing. I’ve got the metro system down so that makes life a million times better. Wednesday we went to Central Park because it was the only place we knew how to get to. Found the cutest little thing of my life straight out of a movie: old men in the park playing chess. We had to stop and sneak some pictures because it made our day. And of course we ate ice cream as we strolled. It was lovely.




We came across an underground mall on our way back to the metro. It was clean, shiny, and actually smelled good. Very different from everything else here.

Thursday my roommate and I met up with some girls downtown. Downtown is wonderful! I wish the pictures could do it justice, but they just don’t. Plus, I’m not a photographer. I wanted to soak up every second because a place like this cannot be real life, not for Sarah West! But it is! It was a moment that life was just unbelievable. And I couldn’t stop smiling.




We ran into a political demonstration and I had to blog about it for Anna Solomon, she’s an international studies major. Anna…Yulia “the braid” just got arrested and the people in Kiev LOVE her. They were taking a whole block waving flags and had music blaring chants. You would have loved to see it.



And Winona a.k.a. Tahitian Noni, this one is for you!

Now let’s remember that I am here to teach English. Did you know I love it? Now I know why they told us to bring clothes we might want to leave….so we can pack the kids in our suitcases to bring home! I start the day teaching three 4/5 year olds kindergarten. After that I teach three 5/6 year olds basic reading. Oh my, I love it. Most of teaching is doing fun activities to get the kids talking. Lots of questions and repeating answers. You’d be surprised at how fast they catch on. I also teach letters and sounds to the basic reading kids. Today we talked about pizzas and made our own version. Meet my children and their pizzas:

Katya

Alex with Katya. He is in love with her and brings her presents. I saw him kiss her on the cheek!
!
Misha

Marina and Genya

Ilia

Showing off our Wild Wild West pride as we worked on the alphabet

Aren’t they the cutest? But let’s be honest here, keeping children under control that don’t speak your language yet is harder than it seems. They can be little boogers, but I love it. Every time they jump in my arms yelling “Teacher Sarah! Teacher Sarah!” my heart melts and I know why I’m here.



p.s. I'm craving one of these waffles. Best way to spend a dollar. Good thing there is one on the way home from school.