Day 83 - Piano, Pasta, People and Legos! :D

Okay, one thing most people know about me is that I absolutely LOVE piano. Last Saturday at Conference, I was talking to Sister Powell and it turns out her kids are in need of piano lessons! I've been their music-teacher at church for a while now, so I know most of them pretty well. Anyways, yesterday was my first day teaching piano over at their house, and it's already a great learning experience for me! Who would have thought that four different kids could all be at such different levels of piano :P (PS any ideas for teaching a three year old piano??)

I can't get paid while I'm here in Ukraine because of my Visa, but the trade is food for extra piano-teaching experience, which is just a double bonus for me! We had pasta, with garlic bread, and COLD water! Haha you wouldn't think it's so amazing, but I rarely have real pasta with real garlic bread here, and I never ever get cold water! So it was an awesome treat for me. 

After dinner I ended up hanging out and talking with A, their oldest daughter. We sat in her room with all her toys (my favorite, Littlest Pet Shop!) and talked about random stuff. The other kids started trickling in until all five of us were in A's room just chatting away. The parents came in after a while too and we all just talked about random things (like AFV and random funny moments). We had "family prayer", then the little one's all had to get to bed. 

So A. and I talked for a while longer before deciding that we should most definitely go work on the Lego house she had just started (which was in her other room/ the guest room). We worked on that for a long time (it's a pretty detailed house, with stairs, a doorbell, and even a barbecue-grill outside!). But I eventually decided I should probably be heading home (it was already past her normal bed-time). We were just about to finish the roof, but we decided we could finish that next week. 

So I've decided that that's my current equation for a fabulous day. I just need to be able to share my love of something I think is wonderful (like piano!), eat some tasty food (like pasta!), have good people around to talk to and be with (like the Powell family! :) ), and do something that really brings me joy (like LEGO's!!). Yep, pretty sure that's all I need in life, thanks for reading! :) 

Day 82 - Sugar Overload?

At school, we had doughnuts for our "Kitchen" activity (We divided each doughnut into four parts), and I was pretty hungry at that point, so I had two fourth portions of the doughnuts. I had lunch; veriniki I think it was, then came home and decided I felt like eating a ton of fruit, because we had all this dried fruit out, and it was really tasty and I knew I'd be having cake for Anetta's birthday that night. At Anetta's we had cake, white-chocolate covered bears (provided by the sisters), ice-cream, and fruit juice. Right near the end of the visit, I started feeling really off; my skin hurt really bad and I was feeling slightly dizzy, and I couldn't figure out why. Sister Smith said it could have been something I ate, like food poisoning, but all I could think was maybe it was the doughnuts and fruit and cake and chocolate bears and ice-cream I had eaten that day. I'm not used to that much sugar, but I've never really had issues like that with sugar before. Whatever the reason, I was in this weird sort of pain all the way home. I couldn't pin-point the pain, which almost made it harder; it was like my whole body was aching. I felt like an old lady getting up and sitting back down on the Marshutkas (little buses) and Metros. I can't believe how much of a struggle it was to get home. I thought I could trick myself into thinking it was all nothing, but that didn't work. I did say a lot of prayers though and even started saying, "I think I can, I think I can" as I started going up that endless uphill climb back home. I did make it though! And I was SO glad at that. I felt super fever-ish all night, but by some miracle the only pain I could feel this morning was a lack of sleep :)

Day 81 - Saving the Worms

I was standing at the crosswalk waiting for the light to change, when the person next to me bent over to pick something up off the ground. I imagined that he had picked up a kopeck (the highest value kopeck is equivalent to about a nickel). He went over to a grassier area and bent over again. "Ah he's hit the jackpot today!" I smiled inside. The walk signal changed (making a fast clicking noise), and everyone crossed the street. I was following behind the picker-upper-guy when he did it again. I watched him carefully this time. He picked the object up with his pincher fingers -it was something almost string-like - scooped it in his hand, then set it in the dirt area by the sidewalk and kept going on his way. I observed as I passed the same area; it was a worm! I almost cried I was so happy :) It made my entire morning!

Day 79 - Conference Time and American Football

Last weekend was the actual general conference broadcast, but my Branch had to wait until this week to watch it because of the time it takes for the other part of our stake (all Russian/ Ukrainian speaking) to translate the words to their language (or something like that). Our entire branch (or at least all those who came to watch conference) gathered in the Relief Society room where we listened to the words of the latter day prophets. It was an awesome experience, and definitely a different one than I've ever had before. In the back was the "kids" table, where President Powell and his family (their three primary children make up half of the primary!) sat. There were about five or six rows of chairs, half of them filled with the missionaries/ temple presidency/ embassy workers, and the other half filled with ILP volunteers. I've just got to say, I'm in an awesome branch! Most everyone in attendance there is volunteering their time and life in some way for the better of the world. To me, that makes up a great group of people :) Anyways, we watched the first two hours of conference (which was amazing!), then had a two hour break. They provided pizza and a whole assortment of other goodies (fruit salad, cookies, cut fruit, soda, juice, etc.) for us to eat. A group of us decided to eat outside because it was such a fabulously sunny day. (I may be able to steal pictures of us eating out in the grass later.) After eating, we proceeded to start a game of good old American football. At first there were maybe eight of us playing, but then some of the other ILP's came and joined, then some missionaries, and then some kids from one of the local branches. We had a full field of people by the end, and it was all just a ton of fun. Near the end of the break, we went back inside and watched the second session of General Conference. Man, I should probably tell you some about Conference! It was so amazing too! I don't know if I can really recap the experience for you, but I hope it suffices for me to say that my understanding of life and my part in it has become so much more clear to me, and my determination to do good and be happy has grown much more too :) I know that's not really enough to show you how much I love Conference, but I really really do! I've only got a couple months left here in Ukraine, but I am determined to make the most of every moment, and to enjoy every bit of it, even when the going gets tough.

Day 78 - Breaking the Language Barrier

Friday night I went to FHE, where we played "Psychiatrist" (and had SUCH a blast at it too!), then I went and played the piano for a while. When I was heading out, I somehow got into this conversation with this lady, her name is Ana. She speaks such little English, and I speak such little Russian that the whole conversation took a super long time to figure out. Basically what I got after about ten minutes of talking is that her name is Ana, she’s Maxim’s mom, she teaches piano (and loves it!), and had some music for me if I want to have it. There was a lot more between, like how I absolutely love music - Ya (I) OCHEN (VERY) lyoublyou (love) musik! (music!), or how Maxim learned piano for three years, but then didn’t like it so quit. I really loved talking to Ana, I could tell she enjoyed the conversation too. Eventually someone came and asked if we needed a translator. I asked Ana, and I think she said that she didn’t; It was too fun trying to talk to her and recall the oh-so-few words that I even know in Russian. He translated a little anyways, saying that Ana didn’t know when she could get the music to me because she hardly ever sees me. We figured next Friday at FHE would work perfectly. We all headed out together and Ana and Maxim ended up walking me almost all the way home. Maxim didn't talk much, but Ana talked enough for the both of them :) We talked and laughed and learned words the whole way. My perception of the “gift of tongues” has definitely changed after my conversation with her. I in no way was able to fluently talk to her, but the “language barrier” between us seemed to be quite broken as I forged this new friendship even without understanding hardly a thing being said. That night, I had some great conversations with Lena and Sasha and George-o. We talked about how sometimes you can say something and people don’t understand it, but when you let them see what you mean, it sticks so much better. Recalling back to my experience talking with Ana, I didn’t understand a majority of the words she was saying, but after she explained in many ways, I would figure it out. I’m not sure she ever actually said, “I am so glad to have talked with you this night, thank you for letting us walk with you.” But I really felt it in the way she talked and smiled and laughed with me. Oh, and Friday night? That was her Birthday :) What an awesome thing that I was able to be a little part of it! I feel truly blessed for that absolutely amazing experience!

Day 78 - On the Run

Just started up running again today! I've been post-poning it because of the cold or because I have a cold or because it's too hot or because of any other number of excuses. But today I set a specific time I would go running, and decided if I was at all up to it, I would go at 4 on the dot. Lo and behold, my alarm went off at 4pm (16:00 o' clock on my phone :) ), and I was out the door with my sweats and tennis-shoes a minute later. It felt so good to run! I was told by some other ILP's that running in Kyiv is a sort of anomaly to these Ukrainians and that I'd probably get a few funny looks. The streets were crowded and there were no other runners in sight. So of course I got a few, but it didn't seem the kind of look that said, "What're you doing?!" as much as, "Hey a runner!". I'm sure I could have interpreted the looks as the former, but I'm happy thinking they meant the latter :). (I hope I've got the definitions of former and latter right, correct me if I'm wrong!) Anyways, I'm definitely going to have to keep up this running business, it feels great and I get to see a lot more of Kyiv that way! Today I got to run past Maydan (where I was on Wednesday). The place makes so much more sense to me now!  Before, all these areas were just that; areas and points in my head. Now I've got lines between at least a few more of those spots, and it is so nice to have better bearings on this place.

Day 76 - Beauty through Tired Eyes

The night before Wednesday (Day 76), I stayed up till 1 in the morning. I thought then that I'd just take a short nap and wake up on time (to watch my Mom's wedding over Skype at 4am). As you might guess, my nap didn't end up being all that short. I ended up waking up late (5:30ish). But I made some phone calls and at least got to talk to my Mom for a moment, and that was good. Anyways, everyone in the house started waking up within the hour, so I gave up on getting back to sleep at least until Lena, Sasha and George-o headed out for the beauty-exhibition (explained later). Eventually I ended up giving up on the idea of sleep all together and decided I would probably be able to function all right on the nearly five hours of sleep. I had already set up for a teaching sub at school that day, so I had a full day ahead of me completely free, though it was to be a very exhausting day.

At around noon, I decided to head out to the beauty exhibition that Lena and George-o were working at. It was a GORgeous day; warm, sunny, bright and ultimately absolutely spectacular. I really wished I had had a camera with me so I could capture some of the moments there, but I thoroughly enjoyed it anyways.Going across the river was probably my favorite of the moments. The last time I rode the metro across the Dnipro River, it had all been frozen and cold and I could see little dots of people walking across it on the ice. This time, the sun was shining on the water and I could see the Lavra's gold domes and "Big Mama" (the big statue by the Lavra) looking over the river. It was really an amazing sight.

After getting off the metro and walking some more, I finally made it to the exhibition site. Lena's assistant came and met me outside so I could get a pass to go into the exhibition for free. The whole thing was pretty mind-blowing; It was kind of like the fair back home, except instead of rides and other things, there were just booths and booths of businesses and people selling products and services; anything from hair supplies to nails to cosmetics (it was a beauty exhibition). It was fun being able to see my host-mom at her work, she demonstrated facial-cleansing products on a volunteer's face, and talked about stuff (though I'm exactly sure what) with the people who sat to watch and listen. It was nice talking to George-o there too. I found out (well actually just finally connected the dots) that he's the guy who created/ designed a lot of the products (or maybe all of them?) that Lena's business uses. He told me he would give me a 1% discount if I wanted to buy something there :) I said I would think about it. Lena's Italian tutor, Olea, was there too. She was there to translate for George-o when someone wanted to talk to him (George-o speaks Italian and English pretty well, but not so much Russian or Ukrainian). Olea knows 4 or 5 different languages, and she says she finds all sorts of jobs where they need her as a translator. Definitely something to look into; I just need to become a pro at this Russian-speaking or some other language first ;P

Anyways after a long while at the exhibition, I decided to make my way home. I was starting to feel extremely tired. In fact, on the way home I stopped paying attention to where I was going and ended up getting a little lost. Which stunk, because at that point I was having a hard time even putting one foot in front of the other. I had gotten off at a red-line metro stop, and instead of transferring to the green line below ground, I took the escalator up. I knew how to get to the station from there though, so I just had to walk a little extra ways to get there. Again, the sights and scenery were beautiful; I passed this big statue/ waterfall, and a huge dome coming out of the ground and I'm sure some other awesome stuff, but can't really recall any details like that, because, as you know, I was pooped. I did eventually make it home safe and well though :)