Privyet!!! that is hello in Ukrainian...most say hallo as well! anyways today was a much better day. I think doing stuff and having to learn how to travel here and where to go really help keep myself busy and my mind off of everything. Anyways, so i'm going to best try and remember everything that i did today. First, our Native Coordinater Oksana and her friend Alla came and got me and my headteacher from the apartment. They wanted to show us the way to the metro...They are huge! It surprisingly wasn't too overwhelming though...i just tried to not let the crowds get to me and just take everything in! Getting on though my frist time was a little scary...i was the last one and the girls didn't push their way in so i had to push them and the door seriously almost closed on me! So from the metro we went to the downtown of Kiev. You also have to walk underground some places...its really cool and it reminds me of the streets of San Francisco with tons of vendors and things for sale like sunglasses, purses, necklaces, food. Things like that! there was also a mall :) The school is not what you would expect schools in America to look like, but its really cute! There are 5 teachers and we will be teaching 3 to 13 year olds! so that means i will probably be teaching all ages at times. So that should be fun. It is a little nerve racking as i think about preparing lesson plans and making sure i get everything covered that i need to. I heard that teaching is the hardest thing, i hope that i can push through and catch on quickly!
Another girl, named Hillary lives with a mom, dad and a son who is 14. He wanted to take her to this Flower exhibition in the city, so we decided to go with him as well! :) it was so much fun! he was so nice and funny...so animated and liked to joke! he also took very good care of us, counting to make sure he had all 5 of us and made sure we stayed together! he even took pictures for us too. So on the way we went by a long walkway of markets! We also got to see two WWII monuments as well, one of them looks like the Washington monument! The markets were fun, they had honey, flowers, purses, food, anything you can think of! The boy told us to not eat meat from the street because its dogs and cats!!! gross! ha the flower exhibition is for Ukraine's Independence day which was on Monday Aug 24. Every year they have different themes for the flowers and this year it was Ukrainian fairy tales! Some of them were like our American ones, such as Cinderella and Pinocchio. It was so pretty! Walking from there we walked along a sidewalk next to a cobbled road, where i guess they used to drive tankers on there. It was a little scary because people drive SO fast!
On the way up a long stairway, our headteacher Jo, tripped on her sandal and cut the bottom of her big toe REALLY really bad! it was bleeding so bad...like almost gushing blood. But we helped her out and made a bandage out of a sock haha and got her back home. Poor thing, but she is doing okay! it was really deep though so i bet it hurts.
It is definitely an eye opener all ready to see that we are so blessed in America. What you would think would be really ghetto and dangerous or small apartments here are actually pretty nice for them i think. Its just very different. The people dont seem too mean, but they never ever say excuse me, they just push their way through. They don't really talk much to each other either, unless they are with friends i suppose. I am not sure that culture shock as hit me yet, maybe because i have not met my host family (the sister is my age and she speaks english well ive heard!) and i haven't traveled anywhere on my own yet, so we will see :)
