More weekend fun in Ukraine!

Sometimes when we're not teaching or planning another upcoming trip, we like to actually have fun in Kiev! A few weekends ago, several of us met up at the Roshen Chocolate Factory which has amazing chocolate and is decked out for Christmas.

We walked to Riley's host families house, which is huge and very family-esque and lovely! After sunset, we bundled up and set out into the nearby forest with Riley's host dad Andre leading the way. We walked around a beautiful lake and up a hill to go to an awesome Byzantine cathedral that had nothing but forest around it. It looked like Aladdin's castle to me :) We went inside, which was lit only by candle light, and listened to the monks chanting for a while before we set back out into the forest. We passed a pony farm, where we stopped to pet them of course. We hiked through the forest in the pitch-black, freezing cold night, gathering small pieces of firewood and laughing along the way. We finally reached a clearing at the top of the hill where we threw in our little bits of firewood and Andre started a bonfire. We gathered logs to sit on and sat around the fire, roasting hot dogs and starbursts while passing around a bottle of Fanta to swig from. We sang girls camp songs to Andre and Andre sang Ukrainian folk songs to us. It was so much fun. I love bonfires!

We put out the fire and headed back home a different way than we came, which involved walking through deep ditches and down steep hills. For a while, we questioned our judgement in following a man we didn't really know through a dark forest. But Andre didn't let us down, we got back to the house safe and sound! We all split up after that, and me and Riley went to a movie theater to watch an English movie! There was an Indie Film Festival going on in Ukraine; the movie was one of the worst I've ever seen, but it was worth it just for the experience of being in a movie theater with an English movie!
Riley came over to spend the night for church the next day, and of course we stayed up late watching Grey's Anatomy while eating a mini-feast we bought from the local supermarket on our way home. After church, Jenessa and Riley came back to my apartment to watch MORE Grey's Anatomy and take Sunday naps. Later that night, we met up with a few other people from our group at the Kiev Opera House where we watched Cinderella opera.

This weekend, I met up with Natalie where we walked down Kreshatyk street in the beautiful and rare sunshine. Kreshatyk is the main street downtown, and it's shut down on the weekend so people can walk on it. It was great before, but now it's way more awesome as everyone's getting ready for Christmas! We went to a small cafe and talked for over an hour, and then came back to my apartment. Natalie stayed to read while I met up with Riley and Katelyn at the temple for baptisms :) After, me and Riley met up with Natalie to go to the store and buy food for our feast. We ended up making nachos that we ate with salsa and hummus, with a side of homemade egg nog. It was so good! Then we all settled down on my floor to watch Grey's Anatomy while enjoying fruit and chocolate fondue/ talking about ex-boyfriends/ laughing about inside jokes.

I love weekends in Kiev! It's a much needed break from teaching. And now we only have 2 weekends left! Crazy.