If anyone still checks this...

then you are faithful readers indeed!

I know I wanted to do a wrap up entry on Ukraine, but time is running drastically short before college, so I'm just going to do a quickie.

Ukraine was... an experience. Many people ask me how I liked it and I have a hard time finding an answer. Academically it was fascinating, and I learned a lot. Overall, I'm glad I went. It just wasn't as... exciting as I thought it would be. My whole life I had wanted to do something like this, and so I had huge expectations of what it would be like. A lot of Ukraine was better than I imagined beforehand, especially our apartment. But I found that my view of Ukrainians was drastically different from the truth. Up until we left the only Ukrainians I knew were the Tereshchenkos, and, through them, the people of their church. They were all hardworking people, with fun attitudes, and extremely wonderful, Christian people. Well, as we all know, stereotypes are often misleading. There are some wonderful Ukrainians, but many people I met were non-Christian/ drank a lot/ or had low work ethic due to remnants of Soviet life (where everyone got a job, no matter what). It was disillusioning. At the school where I volunteered the security guards never once let me walk in alone, because they "didn't know me". Many times no one would even tell me that my cooperating teacher wasn't even there. Maybe I shouldn't let little things like that bother me, but it was frustrating, and so, unfortunately, my memories of Ukraine will never be completely positive.

Again, I do want to stress that there were a lot of great things. I learned so much, it's unbelievable. My history teachers would be proud.

Some things I liked:

• The fact that Kyiv closes its main street to traffic every weekend for outdoor concerts, vendors, beer tents, and just hanging out.



• Being able to buy ice cream on any corner. Anywhere.



• The ice cream next to the Kreshatyk metro station.



• The convenience, super-easiness, and cheapness of public transport.



• Watching the park across the street go from winter, to chestnut blossoms, to summer, all in two months.



• Nastia taking me to see all of the historical sites.



• The outdoor art market on Andriyvski street.



• Shashlik (shishkabobs) on the top of a mountain in the Carpathians.



• Swimming in the black sea. Or at least laying next to it... it was cold!



• Pastor Fraise's sermons at Christ's Church.



• Watching a ballroom dancing competition at 57.



• Practicing English with Andriy.



• Telling Alla about the US.



• Going to the ballet or opera, anytime I wanted.



• Getting DVD's delivered to our apartment by a guy with a yak on his moped.



• Watching brides on Saturdays go around to all the different monuments for pictures.

Speaking of weddings, I was in Tanya Tereshchenko's wedding this very weekend! (Now she is Tanya Korol). It seems like a good end for our Ukrainian experience, doesn't it? The wedding was beautiful. It was, of course, practically all in Russian, but I was still glad to be in it. I didn't pay too much attention to the sermon *shock* but I understood.... wait, no, I didn't understand much at all. Haha, gotcha, didn't i? you thought that i know russian now, didn't you? LOL, if only. Well, the highlight of my Russian language experience was when we went to a folk village and i was able to pretty much translate a baba's spiel about one of the houses. Of course, those are all home and family words, the ones you learn first, but hey, i was pretty proud.

Well, thanks for reading, if you care to know more, ask to see the pictures!

Love to all,

Kjersten