I was inside a bubble.

This is our pose

Today was a lot of fun. My group and I had a cultural activity and two of our school’s coordinators took us around town. We wandered the streets of Kiev. It was nice to explore other parts of the city other my just my ghetto part. Kiev is actually a pretty city. We ran into Minnie Mouse and we saw a couple of statue people on the street. And we have a signature pose now. I love my group! We have so much fun together. Because we teach at three different schools and we teach at different times, we are only able to see each other on the weekends. But when we get together….I can’t even begin to describe the fun we have.

As we walked around I saw several weddings. We counted 12 brides and admired most of their dresses. One of them was just awful. That is a lot of weddings for just one day.

We went to the water museum. It was pretty boring to me but it had some interesting parts to it. I got to stand inside a bubble! How cool is that?!?! I can check that off my bucket list. It wasn’t on my list before but it is now and I can proudly check it off. And I sat on a giant toilet, again, something that wasn’t on my bucket list but is now. ;) We had a tour guide at the museum and she spoke English. I learned that people waste a ton of water. She said that their water goes through a lot of filtration and I want to know why their tap water is not drinkable.They also had an aquarium. We could only put our hands over the water and let the fish come to us. Our tour guide told us something about couples. She said that if a woman puts her hand over water and fish comes to her then the man knows that she is ready to go fishing. When she told us this, I was expecting her to say that the woman is ready to get married, or something. I was expecting it to be more dramatic than fishing.

We also rode a boat. It was tranquil.  I just sat and watched the beauty that is Kiev while the rest of the girls chatted amongst each other. Before we got on the boat, we were told that we could have free ice cream or free juice. Some of the girls and I asked about it but the lady didn’t speak English but it seemed like we had to pay for it. So the head teacher called one of the school coordinators and she cleared things up and we had our free ice cream and juice. I chose the juice because I hadn’t had it in a long time. I was expecting it to taste differently because everything that resembles something from America has tasted different but this juice tasted like something I would have back home, just not cold. Now that I spent a lot of time talking about my juice, let me tell you the rest of my boat ride. This ride was just what I needed. I have been under a lot of stress since I have been here and when that ride started I felt so peaceful. I didn’t feel a bit of stress and I didn’t worry. If I could I would ride it every day.  It is those little things like riding on a boat that one has to focus on in life instead of all the stress and worry. Life is a lot more enjoyable with that train of thinking.

Kiev, Ukraine

I saw one of my students, Nazar. It was so nice seeing him. He just happens to be one of my favorites. I didn’t think that I would ever see my kids outside of class because Kiev is so large and I live over an hour away from my school. At first I didn’t recognize him. And I don’t think he recognized me but his mom did and she was very friendly.

 Life is good...crazy…but good and that is just the way I like it.