Day 31 - Kyiv Tour, Birthday Package, and PICTURES!

Saturday, we met up with a lot of other ILP's for a tour with Nelya (our coordinator). 

Tania brought me a package sent from my Mom with a ton of goodies inside!

One of my favorites was my cow hat that I got!

This was in the underground mall, there were a TON of things to buy down there, but this section of the mall seemed to have very traditional sorts of items to buy. 

(Most of ) us listening to Tania explain something about Kyiv. There's Cami!

If you squint your eyes real close, you can see a statue in the center of this picture that's supposed to represent a great leader of Ukraine. If I remember right, there're Soviet Guards on post there to make sure people don't trash the statue. 

Us walking on the street that get's closed for Saturdays :)

I don't know why the street gets closed

But we thought it was pretty cool :) 

This is the theatre that we ordered tickets at for the ballet we went to the next week.
(Look at "Ballet at the Kyiv Opera House")

I think something big was happening that night at the Kyiv opera house, because people were setting up this red carpet and lights and camera's while we were walking by. 

These guys were doing something up there, but I'm not sure what, that was right next to the opera house.

Statue of a really respected guy - I think his name is Voladamir? He did a lot for the building up of Ukraine. 

This is the old entrance to Kyiv (If I remember right, I'm feeling too lazy to check the facts on that right now)

Our group looking inside of the gate. 

Proof I was there :)

Proof others were there :)

Clint trying to lift the gate up. 

Adrienne and Maddy smiling for the camera!

From this point, our group could see two aMAZing cathedrals (St. Michael's and St. Mary's)

We could also see this statue from that point.

We also got to go into St. Michael's Cathedral, which has a whole entire amazing story to it. Maybe later I'll fill you in on some actual facts and info that I learned while I was there. Ultimately, the whole experience was great for learning a little more about this place that I'm calling home for the next three months. It really was awesome to understand the history and culture a little bit more.