Fishy

Yesterday I did something fishy. Very fishy indeed. I got a fish foot massage! There is a giant mall here called "Dream Town" and this just happens to be apart of it. Strange I know, but our theme is "when in Ukraine!" So we went for it! You put your feet in this little fish tank and the fish just nibble at your toes. It was the strangest feeling I've ever felt! Very tingly and ticklish. Especially when they slithered through your toes! I can say it was one of the strangest things I've ever done.

Laria was the first to get in and she was dying! As shown by her face.

Kalley could not stop laughing the ENTIRE time!

Then there was me....just enjoying it.

The gray nail polish and lighting definitely are making my feet look like part of a cadaver lab. But there are the little guys nibbling on my toesies!

Oh the adventures I have here! Speaking of adventures.....here is a sneak preview of our Thanksgiving trip adventure. Yes, I went there. Yes, that was taken with my camera. Yes, it was incredible. Yes, I will blog about it soon.

homesick

I am feeling a little homesick. My family is all home right now. They are there without me. That just doesn't seem right. And it makes my heart ache.

Oh did you think I meant Salt Lake City home? Now that is just silly. I will be there in three weeks! No need to be homesick for that. I'm homesick for Disneyland!

And I guess I kinda sorta maybe miss these people too....

Ok, so I miss them A LOT. (The above picture was taken the very first time my entire family could ride a "big" ride together! Jared was finally tall enough. No one waiting with the little ones in the strollers! A monumental day in our family's lives.)

The Larkins (my mom's side of the family) are all in Disneyland right now. I guess it was cooler to go between Thanksgiving and Christmas then to go with Sarah. It is a good thing we are going again in January. And in May. Or else I'd be a little more upset about missing this trip.

Czech Me Out! (Part 2)

Almost a month later and I'm finally finishing my last post about my trip. But I have to finish now because I leave on another trip tonight! Just a little getaway to Odessa, Ukraine. It is the southern part by the Black Sea. It should be low key and hopefully wonderful.

This was our second day in Prague where we toured the newer side. We saw the most beautiful views the entire day!

This was the coolest cathedral I have ever seen in my life! My jaw was touching the floor the entire time inside and outside of it. It was probably my favorite place we saw. It was breathtaking! Seriously. I'm sorry pictures don't do it justice.

Wild Wild West pride!

The group with our miniature tour guide. I told you she was like a midget!

My beautiful best friend enjoying ice cream and the scenery on our "buffet cruise". The last little hurrah of the trip.

A weeks worth of European magic finally came to an end and it was back to 30 hours on the bus. The trip was ________(fill in blank with any awesome word you know, because it was all of them). I LOVED every second of it.

And since I don't know how else to end this post, I will leave you with this photo. This was above one of the toilets at a gas station. And I will also use this moment to curse my small bladder in Europe where you have to pay for toilets. Lame. Anyways...interpret this as you wish.

For my Papawnwa

Once we made pictures of our families. I posted this blog about it. Shortly after the post, I received this email from my dad.

"Oh yeah, I enjoyed your last blog, but was surprised that I don't have a
beard in the picture of our family. What's up with that?"

I know this happened a while ago, but I still wanted to make up for it. (Even though it was perfectly legitimate because my dad does not have his beard right now.) But a bearded father is the father I am used to. And I love his beard. So I fixed it. Here you go Dad. Better?

p.s. Does this mean you will grow your beard out so you'll have it when I get back?

Tuesdays

Tuesdays are busy days for me here in Ukraine. The schedule goes like this.

7:00-Wake up, shower, breakfast.
8:00-Walk, drown in the metro, walk some more to school.
9:00-Teaching teaching teaching. Little adorable crazy children.
12:00-Teaching ends. Work out begins. Tae Bo to be exact. Billy Blanks and I are tight. Don't be too jealous.
1:00-Small break to write this blog.
1:30-Russian lesson. One of my very favorite parts of the week! Learning Russian is so fun and also overwhelming. I wish I could learn more and actually become fluent someday.
2:30-Lunch.
3:00-Walk and metro some more.
4:00-Arrive at the Powell's. The Powells are a family in my branch here for 2 years working for the embassy. The father is the branch president. The mother is the primary president. They have four children from ages 13-2. Two of which were the stars of the primary program this past Sunday. Did I tell you about the primary program? Oh it was wonderful! We had practiced lots and with just three kids I was a little worried. But it was beautiful. The spirit was very powerful. I am so glad I get to work with the primary kids! Back to schedule. The next few hours are spent teaching piano. We've arranged a nice little trade where I teach the kids piano each week and they feed me dinner and let me do laundry in their washer AND dryer. Yes a real dryer. It is always a pleasant night to be in a house that feels so homey.
7:30-Walk again. It happens a lot.
8:00-Institute. We have the sweetest little Ukrainian teacher. She works so hard to plan our lessons. It is hard for her to teach in English, but you know how much she really cares. We are studying families in the Old Testament. I love having a little spirtual boost in the middle of my week from our small institute class.
9:45-Get home, scripture study, possibly skype, and try to make it in bed by 11:00.

A very full, but very happy day. I love Tuesdays. And it is sad to think I only have 3 left after today. So much of me is craving America. I'm so excited to see people again and to be home. But a lot of me doesn't want to leave Ukraine. I don't want it to actually be over. I will miss this place so much. I keep realizing that more each day that goes by. I'm scared to say goodbye to this place that has taught me so much, that has provided so much adventure in my life. I'm scared to leave a piece of my heart here, because I know that will hurt. Change can bring pain, but it also brings new joy. Goodbyes never get easier. New chapters come in our life. But it is comforting to think the best is yet to come. I really do believe that. Even though life will move on, I'm grateful that we can always take our memories and experiences with us. Ukraine has become a part of me. And as I leave a piece of me here, I take a bigger piece back home. A piece that will never leave me the rest of my life.

I know that you may think I am jumping the gun. I still have 27 days left. But that means I've already had 83. And that means I only get to see my kids 16 more times. It already hurts to think of saying goodbye to them. Today in basic reading the kids were saying "Miss Sarah we love you!" So of course I said "I love you too!" Then Illia looks at me and gets a big smile and says "I love you forty five!" He didn't know I meant I love you too, not two. Then Marina, Genya, and Illia kept yelling numbers that weren't really numbers "I love you six hundred forty two seventy sixty eight!" They kept trying to think of the biggest English numbers they could. Then there was some attacks of hugs and tickles and kisses and giggles. And it made me so happy. And I knew in that moment that they were going to be one of the biggest pieces I take home from this. I really really love these kids. I love them nine hundred twenty four eighty one thirty seven ninety fifty eleven.

What is that smell?

A few weeks ago I got a big hole in my jeans. That is really bad considering I only have two pairs of jeans here. So my loving mother put a package together quickly to send me another pair. To my surprise it took two short weeks and arrived yesterday! (Sorry roommates....no sign of yours.) I had to go on a little trip to meet my director to pick it up. Arriving back at the school I pulled out a pair of scissors and started cutting the tape. I could smell something, so I started sniffing it. Kalley looked at me confused, "why in the world are you smelling that?" "Does this smell like hot chocolate to you?" Oh, I thought to myself, they must have put hot chocolate packets in. Cute. Yes, adorable UNTIL....it was all over my stuff! The package was awesome minus the chocolate powder.

It consisted of:
-a pair of jeans
-a cute new scarf (which I'm wearing today, thank you)
-socks at my request because mine are getting holes in them. Oh wait, the ones sent have holes in them. Haha!
-hershey's cookie and cream, almond joys, and reese's pieces. some of my favorites!
-a hot glue gun, the school desperately needs one
-oh and HOT CHOCOLATE.

You can kind of see the chocolate powder.

The holes in the hot chocolate.

Me sitting on the bathroom floor at school wiping the chocolate off everything.

Lesson for everyone to learn from this: Don't send people hot chocolate packets in the mail! Unless they are in 27 ziplock bags. Everything still smells like hot chocolate, but it is ok because I loved everything inside! Thank you family!

So yesterday just wasn't my day with chocolate. The Harshbarger's called Laria and I for some last minute babysitting. They left some chocolate chip cookie dough ready to go into the oven. Laria was playing some angry birds on the iPad with Pearce and I was just busy skyping with my father. 45 minutes later I smell something (both these stories include my super sniffer sensing something wrong). "Laria, is something in the oven? It smells funny." The pure terror on her face was priceless. She ran at the speed of light to the kitchen. Sure enough, the cookies that were originally supposed to cook for 5-7 minutes were still there. We rushed to open all the windows. Let's keep in mind that we are on the seventh floor of an apartment building. If the fire alarm goes off, the whole building will be evacuated while we stand there trying to tell them in Russian that it was ok, we just burnt some cookies. Bad news! So I stand in the kitchen fanning away with towels while Laria prepares to take the cookies out of the oven and rush them to the deck. We say a prayer as we fan just hoping this situation will not get any worse! All was well, Laria made it to the balcony and we got to do some awesome dance moves fanning the kitchen for the next few minutes. We were scared to actually look at them once they were cooled off. Well, there wasn't much to see. They blended right in with the black pan! You think I am exaggerating? I am not. Please look.

That one in the middle is what they are supposed to look like.

What? We didn't burn the cookies guys! We just wanted to make oreos!

Czech Me Out! (Part 1)

Prague was simply amazing. Maybe this was my favorite. I still can't decide.

Here is our tour guide Ana. I really think she was a legitimate midget. She was adorable.

What would you do if you found a candy bar in the street? Well I found one on the street in Prague and I literally screamed and jumped up and down in excitement! I got even more excited when I found out it was perfectly wrapped. Kinder chocolate is heavenly. And I took my chances and ate it!

This statue reminded me of the ghost of Christmas future in the Muppet's Christmas Carol. I am craving Christmas family traditions! Can't wait!

Since Levi complained about not being included on here....this is for you bud! I love you!

This is the famous clock tower in Prague (don't know it's name. oops).

It was a European version of small world! They gouged the eyes out of the man who built it so he could never make another one again. Seems like a very cruel reward for such hard work.

We waited til the hour to hear it go off! I was a little disappointed (don't get me wrong, it was beautiful) UNTIL a man came out of the highest part with a trumpet and played a little tune. In the best costume I've ever seen in my life he waved at all below him. I did not expect such a wonderful thing to come from this!

As the Ukrainians like to say "It is normal!"

The bridge across the old and new square was incredible.

Hundreds of years ago the queen of Prague confessed her sins to a priest. The king wanted to hear them so he took the priest and tortured him. The priest never spoke so the king threw him off the bridge at this spot. The Czechs believe you can make a wish at this spot if you put your left hand on this little thing and your right foot on this other little thing (great explanation...i know). They say it will come true in exactly one year one month and one day from the time you make the wish. So November 28, 2012 something awesome is coming my way!

These dolls are for sell everywhere.

One of my favorite moments of this trip, and possibly my whole entire life came next. Laria and I were exhausted after the days of touring and my scoliosis was kicking in. We were starving and Laria had been craving spaghetti. We found this cute little restaurant right next to the clock tower. It was outside, but they had heaters! And blankets! We had the most divine meal. It was the perfect atmosphere. The heaters with cool wind blowing. Perfect spot to people watch the streets of Prague. The square was gorgeous. AND we were there to see the clock tower guy play his trumpet twice! It was just one of those moments you have no worries sitting there with your best friend enjoying life. It was wonderful. And the food was delicious. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Oh and did I mention the homemade ice cream with hot raspberries? Oh I've missed raspberries.

The night was ended back in our hotel room with my 21 month letter and fireworks from our window. :)