these kids are the reason that I am here

These little girls are my favorite. I love that I get to teach them last, so I always end on a good note. I remember the first few weeks of teaching being so stressful, especially with dear sweet Sasha crying everyday. Now that we have a routine though, these girls brighten my day with their smiles and their crazy personalities. I love teaching because of them.

Sofia, Liza, Masha, Miss Amanda, Anya, Michalina, and Sasha - my favorite class

These kids are from both Basic Reading, and Kindergarten - my first two classes of the day. Sometimes I like them, and other times they are a handful (just kidding... they are always a handful) but I always miss them when they are gone. 

Mark's birthday party (a while ago) - starting with girl in stripes and going
clockwise is Sofia, Masha, Slava, Roman, Mark, Michalina, Dima, Tereza, and Maria

Such a handful, but so stinking cute. And SO smart. 

Miss Rachel with all of our kids

Miss Rachel and Mark

Mark and I

 Next in the lineup of kids is Sofia, who you have already met. Her mom is generally late picking her up, so we color with her after school. 

And sometimes we take pictures

And sometimes those pictures end up taking 10 tries to get a good one

These little ones make me smile. :) Like a real big smile. They all have unique personalities. Dima is so cute, with his overalls and button-ups. I remember when he wouldn't come to class without his Babushka. It was a little bit stressful when she had to sit in the class everyday. And then the day that we finally convinced her that she couldn't be in there anymore, Dima had a complete and total meltdown. I was trying to do opening, and Rachel was trying to calm him down, and he was so worked up we thought he was going to vomit. Eventually Tania, our coordinator had to come in, and by some miracle he stopped screaming. I'm sure it helped that she spoke to him in Russian instead of trying to console him in English. After that moment, he has been the sweetest little boy, unless we sing The Wheels on the Bus wrong. Boy oh boy is that a life ruiner. One time I made the mistake of singing the wipers before the horn, and he wouldn't stop starting over until I did it the "right" away. It really was precious, and I loved seeing him so worked up about something, and he wasn't speaking in any Russian. :) Today his dad talked to me after class to see how Dima was doing. He told me that Dima adores me and loves it when I hold his hand to walk him to class. *heart melted* One day I hope I have a little boy of my own, just like him.

Next is Taia, a sweet little girl who only whispers. Sometimes we try to get her to say things and the only way you know she is listening is if you watch her lips. Every once in a while I can get her to say something with some sort of volume behind it, but mostly only if she really wants something. Or, if you put her in the Kindergarten class above her and they keep saying "Miss Amanda! Miss Amanda!" That is ALWAYS a good way to get someone talking. On the bright side, at least she knows my name. :) 

Standing next to Taia, is Mark. Oh Mark... sometimes he throws things (that's a lie. he always throws things) across the room. When we first started teaching he would hit me and pinch me, now he is much more well behaved, and he loves to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. If I start to sing it with him though, he stops. It's kindof funny. The class would not be the same without him, and even though there are days when I wish that I could just take a break from teaching him, I realize how much I miss him when he is gone. 

And then comes Roma, the biggest handful of all. He likes to run around the room, and jump up and down, and throw things, and grab things out of my hand, and he is just crazy. But, despite all of that I love him. I mean how can you not love that sweet little face. and when I say "English only" when he is speaking Russian, he repeats me with "Engeh only!" Today I was trying to get him to say "Have fun" and it made me and Anya (from the kindergarten group above) giggle. He kept saying "Ghave fun!" I was trying so hard to enunciate the "h" sound, and he would repeat it, and then say "Ghave fun!" It was precious. 

Dima, Taia, Mark, Roma

Miss Rachel and Dima

Miss Rachel, Roma, Dima, Taia, and Mark

Mark, Taia, Miss Amanda, Dima, and Roma

 Sometimes I let my kids play with play dough. I get so frustrated though when I have to open 5 billion different containers just to find the good stuff. After class yesterday I decided to clean it out. This was the result. 9/70+ good ones.

Did you know that dry play dough crystalizes?

 Today I read my favorite story with my favorite Kindergarteners. Rapunzel. I was pretty excited, and may have talked with funny voices, and been really animated. 

This is Sofia dressed up as the Evil Witch

Liza was our Rapunzel for the first half of the story.

And then Anya got to take a turn. 

This lesson was a lot of fun, and I loved my Rapunzel braid. 

 I may have even walked around after school with a Rapunzel braid of my own. :) Today reminded me of why I love teaching so much. 

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I forgot to mention the reason that I wanted to write about all of these sweet kids. As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, this week has been really weird. We still have only a couple of kids coming. We had 6/12 this morning, and 6/13 this afternoon. From what I have heard the ones who are absent are all sick, but everyday that I see a new face, I get so excited. When I saw Liza today, I gave her a big huge hug because I missed having her in my class. 

a different kind of post

Well, since I am a failure at all things journal related, it doesn't surprise me that I never update my blog. I think my biggest issue is that I wait so long, and then I just have way to much to post, that I just give up... Which is why after writing in my journal today (the actual paper one - I post here more often than I actually write in it), I had a thought. :) Here is goes... Why don't I just start writing about the highlights of my day instead of trying to write out every single detail? I mean, what an idea! Sorry it took SO long to come up with. Okay... Maybe I'm not really all that sorry. Whatever. I've decided that instead of just leaving you hanging and never telling you anything about the past month and a half, that I should start from when I got here and go from there. I know what you are thinking. "That will NEVER happen." But alas, it will. Right now. I already have it written down. :) Maybe if you are lucky I will throw in some pictures, just the highlights, maybe more if you are lucky. Oh who are we kidding... One step at a time. 

September 6-7: I flew to Ukraine
It was also Marissa's birthday on the 7th, so I made sure to tell her Happy birthday. 
September 8: Training, and I went to the Temple Grounds with Rachel, Zach and Tessa
September 9-13: I had my first week of teaching. It was long, and my children were crazy. On the 9th it was Zach and Tessa's second wedding anniversary, so we all went over to Olia's and had a party with games, lots of yummy food, and cake
September 14: Tour of Kyiv with Big Tania
We had hot chocolate, which is literally melted chocolate - like fondue.
September 15: Long trek to Church for the International Ward. The metro ended up stoping for an hour, so we were late and went to the Russian sacrament. Luckily the missionaries were nice and translated for us.
Or at least they tried... One girl told a story about some home teachers and a table, and it was really confusing...
September 16-20: Another week of teaching. Not much more to say.
We had our first Russian lesson on Wednesday.
September 21: We had played games and had training. Then Danielle and I went out for dinner. We had pizza.
September 22: I was sick with an upset stomach and stayed home from church.
September 23-27: I taught, and taught, and taught some more. 
I also subbed for Tessa one day since she was sick. 
Oh, and we had our Russian lesson on Wednesday.
September 28: We left for our week long trip! :) This is where things get exciting.
U-Hungary border - We ended up getting to the boarder at about 1 in the morning, and with it being so late all sorts of craziness ensued. We had to stand outside in the cold, and were told not to smile or laugh, because they would think we were doing drugs. Luckily I was towards the front of the line and didn't have to stand outside in the cold very long. When everyone got back on the bus though, Zach told us all a really funny joke about U-Hungary (the Ukrainian Hungary boarder). Too bad I don't remember it.
September 29: Budapest, Hungary
Hungary was probably my favorite place of all. It was really cool being in the land of my ancestors. Not to mention the wonderful spa that we went to with the thermal pools and the sauna. It felt so good to relax after the 20+ hour bus ride. After the Spa we went on a Russian walking tour. I understood very little (since I don't speak Russian). Crazy, right? Then we went to a castle, which I loved. We also got talked about by our tour guide. (I'm pretty sure she hates Americans. We just wanted some souvenirs...) That night we stayed in a pretty awesome hotel, and I went out and walked around Budapest with Rachelle, Andrew, and Mandi.
September 30: Vienna, Austria
We started our trip to Vienna on Monday morning, and on the way we got in a car accident. Our bus hit a car that bumped a car in front of it. Don't worry, every one survived, and we even made it to Vienna in a decent amount of time. (Although it helps that we switched buses, and then our Big Blue Whale - the bus - met us at our hotel that night). We got to Vienna where we had another Russian walking tour. We saw the building that Hitler gave his big speech at, and saw a lot of the city. Then we were let loose to wander around the city on our own for the rest of the day. Rachelle, Katie Rose, Katie, Andrew and I wandered all over the place. It was a lot of fun, and I was glad to be able to see so much of the city. That night we drove back to Hungary where we stayed in a hotel just across the boarder. It wasn't as nice as the night before, but I didn't really care.
October 1-3: Prague, Czech Republic
October 1: We drove to Prague and stopped at this little amusement park when we crossed the boarder. Too bad we didn't get to play there. OH MY GOODNESS! They had Mountain Dew at the store! I bought two, and mint chocolates, and a giant thing of gummies. :) SO GOOD! Once in Prague we went on yet another Russian walking tour, where we understood nothing. It was fun... NOT. But that is cool. At least we got to see a lot. That night we went on a boat tour and had dinner. :) Our hotel was pretty nice. Danielle and I were in a room with Rachelle, Rachel, and Samantha. :)
October 2:Rachelle, Katie Rose, Danielle, Andrew and I spent the day with our new Ukrainian friends Andre and Serge (I have no idea how to spell his name...). It was a fun day. We just wandered around the main square. It reminded me a lot of Tangled. :) We also laughed and made lots of jokes (Czech out that... and Praguably...).
October 3: This day I went with Tessa, Zach, Andrew, Danielle, Rachelle, and Katie Rose to the Bone Church. We rode had to ride the train from our hotel to the main square, and then we walked to a bus station where we caught the metro to another bus station. There we waited for our bus. While on the bus we napped (since the bus ride was like 2 hours long). Once we got to our stop we walked to the Bone Church. It was way cool. I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that all of the bones are real. All of the bones in the Church were the remains of people who were found dead as a result of the Black Death (or Plague). It was really interesting. Once we got back to Prague we had to head straight to the end of the Red line on the metro to meet our bus and head to our next destination - Polland. We drove through the night, and arrived at our hotel. It was a ski lodge up in the mountains in Polland. It was definitely my favorite hotel that we stayed in. I was in a room with Cassidy, Caitlin, and Mandi. We were on the top floor up in the penthouse. We had our own little lounge area, and a beautiful view. :)
October 4: Krakow, Poland and the Salt Mines
I loved Poland. :) We went on another walking tour in Russian, and then we had a couple hours to wander on our own (I think... Now that I think about it I don't actually remember... Maybe we didn't. Nope, I remember now.). We most definitely went and wandered on our own for a couple of hours. It was fun. Poland was pretty. We had some gelato (even though it was super cold). But it was SO good. I was in a group with everyone at some point, but mostly Katie Rose, Rachelle, Katie, and Hillary. After we met back up with our group, we drove to a different part of Poland to the Salt Mines. There we had an English tour! I loved EVERY minute of it! The salt mines were beautiful, and I may or may not have licked 5 billion walls while I was there. After the Salt Mines we got back on our bus and headed home.
October 5: Home to Kyiv, Ukraine
While on a bus for a really long time with people, you really get to know people. You also come up with the most random inside jokes. Like "muffin crusher." Don't ask, somehow in the middle of the night this ended up being the most funny thing. I'm pretty sure it was while we were crossing the Polish Ukrainian boarder. (Sorry. No fancy name here.) Luckily the guy checking our passports was really nice and even smiled! Which doesn't happen very often in Ukraine. We got home around 5 or 6, and it was so nice to be done traveling.
October 6: I went to the school and watched Saturday's sessions of General Conference with Rachelle. It was really cold, so we ended up sitting on the floor against the heater for four hours. :) Then I went home and hung out with Danielle (my roommate).
October 7-11: Back to teaching. It was a nice break, but I was happy to see my kids again (well most of them). On Wednesday I had Russian lessons, and then I subbed for Danielle (her back was bugging her). OH! And on Friday night I walked all over Pozniaky (my area of Kyiv) with Rachelle and Katie. It was fun.
October 12: We went to the Lauvre with Big Tania. We went to an underground monastery, and to all sorts of Cathedrals. I also went to a microscopic museum where everything had to be seen with a microscope. It was pretty cool. That night Rachelle, Katie and I went to Katie's house and had a girls night with Pizza and She's The Man.
October 13: I stayed home and watched Sunday morning Session of General Conference with Danielle. Then as were were about to start Sunday afternoon session, her back was really hurting her, so she ended up going to the hospital. By the time the ambulance came and left, it was time to get ready for the Ballet. All of the teachers went and saw Swan Lake. It was BEAUTIFUL and I am so glad that I went!
October 14: I taught, and then I went and hung out at the hospital with Danielle. She found out that she had a herniated disk. :(
October 15: I taught, and then I subbed for Danielle.
October 16: I taught (it was open doors, which means the parents were allowed in the classroom), we had Russian lessons, and then I went to the hospital and visited Danielle for a little while.
October 17: I taught, and then packed up Danielle's stuff. Because of her back, she needed to go back home to Utah. It was sad packing up all of her stuff for her. 
October 18: I taught, visited Danielle at the hospital, and then took a night train to Kameniets, Ukraine. Our train was SO long.
October 19: Kameniets, Ukraine.
We saw fortresses, castles, the main square, got scammed by some guys with hawks, walked across a sketchy bridge, went to a Cathedral, and walked home in the dark. Oh, did I mention that it was really cold?
October 20: We took a train home, it was an all day thing. When we got back we went to the Hospital and hung out with Danielle one last time.
October 21: Danielle left in the early hours of the morning/middle of the night, and I taught. Steve (one of the directors of ILP) came to our school. Too bad I didn't even have half of my kids show up. It was a really weird day. I had 5/12 show up, and then 4/12 show up. A 5 of those kids were only kids that come for 1 hour though, so we had lots of breaks (we had to combine classes since only one kid from our Kindergarten classes ever showed up).
October 22: Today (FINALLY) I taught. Oh boy. We once again had barely any kids. It is kindof weirding me out, and I'm sure I will get super sick soon. Hopefully not though. I also went through all of our play dough, and of the 70+ containers, only 9 of them were actually good.

Now you are officially updated, and that took entirely TOO long. It is time for bed, so no pictures tonight. Perhaps tomorrow.

Here is one picture for now. This is outside of my hotel room in Poland. :)

*****I wish I could have been done... but the font was too small, and you couldn't read it*****

It's already been a whole month!

How did that even happen? I feel like I have only been here for a week, but then I think back on all the things that I have done so far, and I know there is no possible way that it has only been a week, or even a month for that matter. (I know. That was a really long run on sentence. Judge me). Since I have been here a month and only blogged once, I decided to fill you all in. :)

If you are my friend on facebook, than I'm sure you saw all 673 of my pictures that I have posted. Be proud. I have uploaded more pictures in the last week then I have in the entire seven years that I have facebook. :) I actually feel quite accomplished, because dang that was a lot of pictures!

SO. Where did I leave off... Right, the tour of  Киев, or for all of you Americans Kyiv/Kiev. The weather was not very cooperative, but that's okay. It was still fun. We went to the center of the city, which is called Center. I know, super original. :) We walked around for hours, took lots of pictures and felt like the ultimate tourists. It was fun, although being in a group of 14 Americans was a little overwhelming at times.