Ukraine

I tried really hard to write something nice and sentimental, but at the moment, my nice feelings are leaving. Not towards Ukraine though. I love Ukraine. I do however want to be home for Christmas, but mostly just on Monday, when I am supposed to get home.

Sometimes things don't go as planned. That is something that I have learned while here in Ukraine, and you just have to go with it. Take things as they come, and just let the hard times roll right past you... Okay. That was a really pathetic way to say what I was thinking. I have decided that I hate English, because I can't speak it (or write it) anymore. It is a struggle. Okay. Moving on. Well, when you notice something is up like a flight home being unconfirmed odds are it needs to be addressed. And when it is ignored, sometimes you have to push harder because let me tell you how stressful it is when you notice it is still a problem a week before you are supposed to leave. Ukraine has taught me that in so many ways. Remember the little demon child girl that made me cry? And how I refused to teach her? Go ahead and judge me. You try teaching her, and tell me how you feel afterward. Imagine how miserable the last two weeks of school would have been if I had just dealt with it? It would have been awful. Sure I would have grinned and born beared born it again with the hating English thing. Whatever. I don't care. #sorrynotsorry but I would have been miserable in the process. Where am I going with this... OH! I remember. Here is where the whole flight craziness fits back in. 

imagine this:

I wake up just kidding... I have to be at the airport so early that there will probably be no sleep involved way too early in the morning to be picked up. We pack all of my belongings in a van. Me and the other teachers make it to the airport and do the whole flying thing insert routine procedures here (checkin, security, customs, blah blah blah), and make it to our gate where we sit and patiently wait for our first flight to Munich, Germany. Who are we kidding? Us waiting patiently. That will never happen. More like us pacing around waiting and waiting until we can FINALLY board our plane! We leave right on schedule, and make it to Munich in perfect time. Once in Munich, I venture off on my own to my gate all by my lonesome. I wait patiently again with the whole patience thing for my flight to North Carolina. Then it comes time to board. I then sleep through the whole flight I wish and wake up as we are landing in North Carolina. :) I finally make it to AMERICA! And then... My connecting flight does not exist. Because it was canceled. And I noticed it a month before, but wasn't persistent enough to get it fixed. So there I am. In America. In North Carolina. Stranded. So close, yet SO far. 

Had I not checked, and realized that my final flight was still unconfirmed I would most likely end up stranded in NC. This is where the whole persistence thing comes in. Had I not checked again, and made sure to push the issue, I would not have been able to fly all the way home. I would have flown to NC and been really upset. 

Now don't get me wrong, being stranded in the Charlotte, NC airport sounds wonderful. NOT! However, I really want to go home. All the way home. So here we are, waiting ever so patiently to have my flight fixed. 2 days before I am supposed to fly home... 

Southern Belle in Europe

Don't worry, I will think about writing a happier post better post about Ukraine and my last week here when I am not in the middle of packing, and trying not to cry because I am going to miss my kids so much. Oh, and once I get my flight figured out, because that will make life so much happier better.

Here is a picture of all well almost all of my kids. I sure am going to miss them.

I WILL be home for Christmas, even if I have to fly the plane myself.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas: Teacher Edition

This cute rendition of the classic 'Twas the Night Before Christmas sums up my life perfectly as the holidays draw nearer. :) Feel free to laugh as you read along. :)

'Twas the days before Christmas,

And all through the school, 

The teachers were trying 

To keep their cool.

The hallways were hung 

With Christmas art

(Some made in November 

to get a head start!)

The children were bouncing 

Off ceilings and walls, 

And seemed to forget 

How to walk in the halls.

With ‘holiday shirts’ 

And ‘jingle bell jewels’, 

The teachers looked festive 

Enforcing the rules.

When out of the teacher's lounge 

There came such a chatter, 

The principal went in 

To see what was the matter.

The teachers were hiding 

And trying to refuel, 

On coffee and cookies 

And treats from the Yule. 

When what to their wondering 

Ears do they hear,

But the ringing of school bells - 

It's the children they fear!

More rapid than reindeer 

The little ones came, 

And the teachers all shouted 

And called them by name;

Walk, Vincent! Walk, Tanner! 

Walk, Tyler and Sammy! 

Sit, Jamie! Sit, Laura! 

Sit, Tara and Tammy!

To your desks in the room! 

To your spots in the line! 

Now walk to them! Walk to them! 

No running this time!

So straight to their places 

The children all went. 

With fear of detention 

Where they could be sent.

With manuals of lessons 

Cradled in arms, 

The teachers began 

To use all their charms.

But the lessons presented 

All fell on deaf ears. 

The children were thinking 

Of Santa's reindeer!

With a toss of their hands 

They put manuals aside, 

Went straight to the cupboards 

Where videos hide.

And laying their finger 

On the TV remote 

They sat back to write 

Their last Christmas note.

But you could hear them exclaim 

At the end of the day - 

Have a wonderful, happy and 

LO -O-O-O-O-NG HOLIDAY!!!

http://www.primarysuccess.ca/freepdf/Christmas-Poems.pdf

Southern Belle in Europe
Miss Amanda

what a weekend

This weekend was so surreal. I feel like it didn't actually happen, and like I made it all up. But before I talk about the weekend, let me catch you up on last week.


November 27: Teaching and Lice
Well. This was quite the eventful day. I woke up and smelled some weird chemical concoction, but couldn't quite place what it was. Then my host dad left the house in something other than a track suit, which was strange, because A) He never leaves the house. and B) He only ever wears track suits. Anyways, I continued to get ready, and as I was leaving my host brother and sister were sitting on the couch half dressed/wearing a bathrobe, and obviously not going to school. They always leave before me, so I thought that was a little strange too. Well, I went to school and taught my students, and it went well (thank heavens demon child wasn't there). On Wednesday I made cute little caterpillars with my students. :) They turned out SO well.

Aren't they just the cutest thing you have ever seen? I love them.

After teaching we had Russian lessons, and I pretended to understand what we were learning. Haha. Really though, I feel like I have learned so much already, and I am sad that we are almost done!

Once I got home, I realized that things were a little bit off... My host siblings were still home, and seemed to have been all day. I walked into the bathroom, and that is when I saw it.

That my friends is a box of lice treatment.

It didn't take a whole lot of knowledge of the Russian or the Ukrainian Languages to notice to plain and simple pictures clearly printed on the box. A picture of lice, something that I have grown all too familiar  of over my lifetime. I guess that is what happens when you have a house full of five girls. When one of you gets it, every one else is subject to mandatory quarantine. Multiple lice checks, multiple times a day, for as long as it takes to kill every single bug. It is awful, and as soon as I saw the box I panicked... I tried to tell myself it wasn't so... Then I turned around.

The infamous lice comb.

There was no denying it. My host siblings had lice, and I needed to do everything I could to avoid getting it myself. I locked myself in my room, and only went out when absolutely necessary. I was hoping that google translate would tell me that it was really for something else... Well, it wasn't. And I was right all along.
November 28: Teaching, Teaching, and Thanksgiving
The next day, I woke up and debated whether or not to take a shower. I know that may sound gross, but just bear with me. In order to take a shower, I would have to go into the bathroom (which had become the lice room). The thought of showering just to be infested with lice was less than appealing. I mean who can blame me. Right? My other thought, was that if I had dirty oily hair, the lice wouldn't want to eat me (since they only like clean hair). So, I didn't shower, instead I put my hair up, and put on a head band to help disguise the need for a shower. (Don't worry, I still smelt fine, my hair just needed to be washed). When I was leaving for school, I made sure to lock my door behind me (remember how I locked myself out on accident? Well it came in handy). I taught my students, and then waited around until the afternoon classes started, since I had to teach them as well. Well, I taught them and then I hung out at the school. The thought of going home to lice just made my head itch, so instead I ate cake and played with one of our little students who hadn't gone home yet.

Tessa and Zach then offered to let me go home with them, and eat dinner at their place. I was so grateful for that offer. For dinner we had yummy Italian food, and ice cream with honey and cinnamon. It was all SO good! Thanks guys! (and Olia for making us dinner, and allowing me to come over)

Before I went home, Tessa let me wash my hair so that it would be nice and clean for our weekend in Poland. :) As I walked home at 11:00 at night, it was so peaceful. The lights on the buildings were on, and not a whole people were out and about. I enjoyed my walk home. Once home, I went to my room. Luckily, it was still locked, and still quarantined from the lice epidemic.

Instead of packing and going to bed, I decided to skype my family for Thanksgiving. :) They were eating Thanksgiving Dinner, and I skyped with them while they ate. It was nice to be included from so far away. I ended up going to bed at about 3:00 in the morning, but it was so worth it.
November 29: Flight to Poland, and Schindler's Factory
The next morning, I woke up 5 minutes before I was planning on leaving my house... Whoops. I got dressed as fast as I could, and BOOKED it to the school in order to catch our Taxi. Don't worry though, I made it. Tessa, Zach, Rachelle, and I all hoped into our Taxi and drove to the airport. We got there right as they opened our check-in counter, so we didn't have to wait. It was nice. Once checked in, we went through security which was a walk in the park. Ukraine's security is so lax in comparison to the US, and I already know I am going to hate going through security even more now than I ever did before coming to Ukraine.

Our flight came on time, and we were able to make it to Poland in good timing. Once in Poland, things got a little bit difficult, although not so bad that it was unbearable. We found a bus to take us to Krakow, but we had to get Zloty out of the ATM before we could go anywhere. I was able to get money out no problem, as was everyone else, with the exception of one girl. Her bank kept rejecting her, and wouldn't let her pull money out (we later found out that it was because there had been a lot of problems with theft in Poland recently). Well, we figured out a solution and then we were on our way. We got on the bus and each paid 50zt. It seemed like a little much, but it was our only option.

After a long bus ride, we made it to Krakow and took a little food break. I had the most wonderful Cinnabon. It made me SO excited to get back to the US where I can eat yummy cinnamon rolls to by hearts content. After a food break, we found the tram, and headed towards Schindler's Factory. :) I was pretty excited!

The mall made me SO excited for Christmas!

This is a little mini tank that fits two people.

This was tile in part of the factory.

This makes my skin crawl.

All of the names of the people that Schindler saved. :)

A gate from one of the concentration camps.

In one part of the museum there were toys and puppets from a family. I thought this one was cool.

Although learning about the Holocaust, and reading the history of the war was sad, and at sometimes disgusting to hear what the Nazis' view was on the Jews, I enjoyed Schindler's Factory. It was nice to see what one person can do for others, especially with so much bad in the world.

After Schindler's Factory, we decided to walk around Krakow and look for the Jewish Ghetto. After looking at a map, and reading the plaques on some of the buildings, we realized we were walking in it. On some of the buildings it would have information about who lived in that building. There was one that had been a home for the elderly, and when the war started they were kicked out, and members of the Nazi party moved in.

In the middle of the ghetto, there was this giant church. It was really interesting to us to find a giant Christian Church in the middle of the Jewish Ghetto. It was really pretty though.

Back behind the church was this little stone wall, with a path up to these stairs. The stairs were blocked off though, so we couldn't go up them. There was a little fire pit or something, and some more stairs that led up a hill.

Back behind the church.

While we were trying to find the big gate into the Jewish Ghetto, we found this cool bridge. :) It is another one of the love lock bridges. I am convinced that they have one in every city in Europe. One day I am going to go with my Husband and lock our love on all of them.

Sorry for the terrible quality of this picture. But, at least you can see the bell on the building.

This building had a cool bell painted on it. 

After walking through the Jewish Ghetto, we hoped back onto the tram and headed to the center of the city. :) Here we were welcomed with Christmas music, lights, and even Santa Claus. :)

November 30: Auschwitz - Birkenau
This is Auschwitz I, or the first of the three camps. This camp was mainly a concentration camp, although a lot of deaths took place here as well. The majority of the prisoners here lived for only 2 months. They were subject to horrid conditions, no one successfully escaped from inside of the camp. Only a few who were working outside of the camp were able to escape, and when they did, 10 people were taken to the camp prison (the prison inside of the prison) and subject to cruel inhumane punishment as a result.

"Work makes you free."

Throughout our tour, our guide kept saying how cunning the Nazis were. They were the masters of disguise, and had everything so strategically planned that panic wouldn't break out until the very last minute when it was already to late. It was sad to see, and to think about the place where thousands upon thousands of innocent people where tortured and killed.

The blocks (buildings) where all of the prisoners stayed, were originally built as barracks for the Polish soldiers. In my mind I always thought of the wooden buildings, and I was kindof taken aback when I saw all of the brick. I think that would have made being a prisoner there even harder, to see such nice buildings, and think that you were finally in a nice place. You were finally home, and then to realize that it was probably going to be the last place you ever saw. I can't even imagine what it was like.

Here is a memorial with some of the actual ashes collected in the gas chambers.

This is a model of the gas chambers and crematorium at Auschwitz II - Birkenau.

First they were led down the stairs into the room where they undressed. 

Then they were led into the gas chamber where they thought they were going to take a shower.
Once the gas was poured into the chambers, they were left for 30 minutes to die.
After that, some of the prisoners went into the chamber and had to extract any gold teeth, and cut off all of the victims hair. Once that was done, the bodies were put onto a lift up into the crematorium where the prisoners were forced to burn all of the bodies. 

In some of the blocks, there were items that were found after the war had ended. One of the rooms had a glass case full of hair. Others had hair brushes, or pots and pans. There were glasses, and another section with prosthetics, crutches and braces. The one that struck me the most though, was the one with the children's shoes. The thought of so many children being killed hurts my heart, and I couldn't even fathom just how many there were.

This room was full of only 1% of all of the children's shoes.

And all of these suitcases made up only 1 trainload of prisoners.

This wall is where many of the prisoners were shot.

This is inside of the only remaining gas chamber.

The entrance to Auschwitz II - Birkenau. When people commonly think of Auschwitz and the death camps, this is what they are thinking of. This camp goes on as far as the eye can see. So much of the deaths that happened during the Holocaust, took place here. Sometimes they would run out of room in the gas chambers and crematoriums, so people would stay in the barracks until there was room again. It was shocking to see just how big it really was, and to think of the millions of people who were killed there.

Our trip was so good, and it was such a humbling experience to see so the place of so much evil and realize just how blessed I am.
December 1: Flight to Kyiv
Nothing to exciting about flying back to Kyiv (I wrote home... weird). Although we did realize that the next time we are on a plane we will be on our long journey back to our homes in America. :) And can I just tell you how excited I am?
December 2: Teaching and SNOW

Ania and Michalina. :) I love these girls. 

It started snowing while I was trying to teach, and we were all mesmerized (myself included). Needless to say, I gave up teaching and we just watched the snow fall while we sang Christmas Carols. :)

This is my walk home. Although, it was already melting. :(

Outside my bedroom window. 

December 3: Teaching
December 4: Teaching and Big Mama
After teaching, I helped decorate the school for our Christmas Party, and ended waiting until the other teachers were done teaching. :) We headed to Big Mama, a giant statue in Kyiv. There was also a WWII memorial.

December 5: Teaching
December 6: Teaching, SNOW, sugar cookies, and a sleepover
As I'm sure you have noticed, the majority of my days are filled with teaching. Although sometimes something exciting happens as well. Like hot gluing five billion kernels of popcorn onto a string because you can't thread the needle with the thick thread. But this particular day was awesome. Friday's are always awesome, because they it is Friday. The last day of the week (teaching week), and we finally get to take a break. Olia had invited me over to help make sugar cookies, and I ended up having a sleepover with Zach and Tessa. :)

While walking to school it started to snow again. :) And let me tell you, I was SOOO excited! :) I mean look at it! It is SO beautiful! :)

During teaching we took lots of pictures of all of our sweet kids, and I realized just how much I am going to miss all of them! :(

Outside of my classroom.

After school I went home, and relaxed. :) Then I walked back to the school and got ready to PARTY! :) I walked with Zach, Tessa, and Olia to there place where I hung out with Zach and Tessa. Then we ate some yummy dinner, and sugar cookies. After that I took a nice hot shower (which was wonderful. I got to stand up, AND there was a shower curtain!). After my shower we watched The Grinch and then went to bed. :) I even got to sleep in. :)

December 7: Day in the city, and more snow

On Saturday we walked all around the city. :) We bought souvenirs and played in the snow. We also walked all over to find the rainbow arch, and then down a snowy hill to the rainbow bridge. :) Overall it was a great last Saturday in Kyiv (one without 5 billion parties). 

I would post pictures to show you all of the cool things that I saw, but for some reason my phone turns off when it's cold outside, and because the power button is broken, I have to plug it in to charge in order to turn it back on. So sorry... Kind of. Just take my word for it. It was awesome. Or I guess you could just look at all of the pictures that my friends post...

December 8: Church, more snow, and Thanksgiving Dinner

Today Zach and Tessa showed Rachelle and I a faster way to get to church. :) It only took us an hour. I can't even express how excited I am to only have to drive 10 minutes to get to church. Although, because of the time and effort it takes to get to church, I have grown to love it even more, and I miss it when I am out of the country traveling through Europe. 

Church was wonderful, and I am going to miss my little International Branch when I go home, and all of the wonderful people I have met. Like my home teachers. :) My home teachers are Elder and Sister Hansen, a senior missionary couple who work in the Temple. They invited us (me and 3 other teachers) over for a late Thanksgiving Dinner. We had chicken, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, corn, olives, juice, and pie (I think that is everything). SO YUMMY! I ate so much I thought they were going to have to roll me out of there apartment. 

Going back home and eating American food is going to take so much self control. I will want to eat EVERYTHING! Haha. :) So basically my weekends, and week has been/have been great. :) I am going to really miss Ukraine. 

Southern Belle in Europe