The good times keep on rolling over here in Ukraine! Teaching is.....fun. Ok, here's the thing: I like the fact that the kids are adorable (ages 3-6), that I get to do arts and crafts with them, and that they are actually learning English from me. I just don't like the fact that their attention spans last about a second, approximately. Or the fact that if I do not keep their attention, they'll go crazy and overrun the classroom. Us teachers definitely take advantage of the fact that they can't understand us. Some common phrases I've heard/used are "I am going to punch you in the face, crazy" or "I WILL kill you, child." Not gonna lie, if I was told to put some of my kids on a hit list, I know which ones I'd choose. =P It's really not that bad though, just some days that are worse than others; I actually am really enjoying working with the kids!
The soccer game last week was a really fun experience. I love soccer, for one, and this country gets really competitive! People flocked by the thousands to the stadium, which was also crawling with more police and militia than I've seen since I got here- for a good reason, probably. That night, we got flashed by a gross man, got taught Russian swear words that we thought were just cheers, watched a small section of the stadium catch fire, and saw at least 2 fist fights right in front of us. It was awesome though! We were in the 3rd row, so we were very close to the action. It was a great game- England was ahead by one until the last 2 minutes when Ukraine scored, tying up the game! I cheered so loud I lost my voice that night. I hope I can go to more soccer games while I'm here :)
Last weekend, me, Jamie, Peter, Megan H, and Megan U (other teachers from my group) accompanied Christina on her border run to Poland to renew her visa, stopping in Lviv. We spent the night at Christina's on Friday where we made homemade crepes (so yummy!) and pizza (eh, we tried). We caught our train at 4 in the morning and I had my first sleeper train experience. There's a lot I could say about it, but basically it was incredibly cramped, smelly, and stuffy, but I was just glad to have a place to sleep! This is the compartment where me and Jamie slept.
Eleven hours later (which flew by, since I was asleep for most of the trip) we arrived in Lviv! Lviv is simply, in a word, gorgeous. Cobble stone roads, European buildings lining every street, jaw-dropping baroque cathedrals, horse-drawn carriages driving past us, wide streets and sidewalks filled with vendors , musicians playing lovely music for money around most corners, and the list goes on. We kept saying to each other that we felt like we were in Italy, because that's what it looked like! We stayed in the Kosmonaut hostel that was decorated with authentic items from WWII, which I thought was way cool. We stayed up till 1 am playing games, and probably woke up our neighbors with how loud we were laughing :)
The next morning, me and the other 4 teachers went on a tour of our own while Christina made her border run to Poland. We passed 2 memorial sites of Jewish synagogues destroyed during the Holocaust,
, went inside Lviv's oldest church, St. John the Baptist, for about 50 cents. It was built between the 12th-13th century, it was sooo old! I'm learning that I love historical things. Which is weird, because history was always my least favorite subject.
After the church, we walked up an adorable street and a small hill and a long flight of steel steps to get to Castle Hill, where we were expecting a castle. Much to our disappointment, all that remained of said castle was a wall. But the view sure was beautiful!
We hiked back down to vul Zamkova street and walked past Gunpowder Tower, the Greek Catholic St. Michael's Church where we went inside and saw an actual traditional baby blessing (interior was breath taking, very baroque and ornate!), and to the yard/archway of St. Bernardine Church and Monastery where we went into the absolutely beautiful inside and ended up seeing a husband and wife being married. After that, we walked around pl Rynok square and ended at Amadeus restaurant by the Boyim Chapel and Roman Catholic Cathedral. Later on, we went back to the hostel to grab our stuff and hang out, and caught our train back to Kyiv at 1 am. Our train ended up getting back in Kyiv earlier than expected. Since I relied on Christina to tell me what stop to get off at, and since I was in a bathroom three cars away when our train pulled into Kyiv, I very nearly got stuck on a train that was leaving Kyiv. Luckily, we all made it back in one piece, with a new love for a little city called Lviv.
Next week, it's off to Poland! 5 days in Krakow, one of which will be spent at Auschwitz and Schindler's Factory. I am so stoked.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment