Sometimes we gather on a hillside to watch an AMAZING firework show put on by the French Embassy.
Sometimes I go nerded out to WW2 Museums
Sometimes blossoms appear on trees
And sometimes Tressa makes herself a crown out of them
Sometimes you realize you only brought boots and long pants and it actually gets hot in Ukraine
Sometimes you realize you can by ginger snaps in bulk for about 30 cents a pound at Ashan. If Costco and Wal-mart had a baby in and added a ton more alcohol, chocolate and sausage it would be Ashan.
I'M PACKIN UP KIDS I'M HEADED TO THE BLACK SEA!!! pictures next week ♥
Normally I devour books. I don't feel satisfied until I know what happens. It started when I was little, with Harry Potter. My brother Kyle would tell me how long it took him to finish each one, and I would always try to beat him. We are talking through the night reading here.
I am still reading 7 habits of highly effective people. I started it last week. I don't know if it has ever taken me longer than a week to read a book. But I don't want this one to end. Read it. It's the kind of book you savor and ponder. I will read for half a bus ride.. and then just think about it, and how it applies to me. It has so much advice about leadership positions, which is very applicable in my situation, and a lot of things that will apply to my marriage which begins in A MONTH AND A HALF. Yes, that is all.
Here are some gems from this week's reading:
"It is the weak who are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong."
" Whenever love is given on a conditional basis, when someone has to earn love, what's being communicated to them is that they are not intrinsically valuable or lovable. It's like saying that value does not lie inside, but outside them."
"Who is winning in your marriage? is a ridiculous question. If both aren't winning, both are loosing."
anddd my favorite quote this week
" Maturity is the balance between courage and consideration."
I have never heard a better definition.
This book just really gives you so much insight to how you deal with others.
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Kiev has turned into a new place these last few weeks. The sun is shining, there are LEAVES ON THE TREES, which I had ruled out as impossible by the looks of things in the winter time. It smells like spring. Which I adore. And I am enjoying myself. There may be room in my heart for Kiev.
taking out your headphones when you run and just listening to your heart beat and your shoes hitting the pavement.. thinking your own thoughts. don't get hit by a car should be one of your thoughts, though. they don't think twice about that in these parts.
changing the way you part your hair. I did. And I feel whaa bam awesome! Little changes do that sometimes.
reading 7 habits of highly effective people. I love that it is written by an LDS author with concepts derived from values and standards, rather than quick fixes. Great perspective for my engaged self : ) "Love is something you do: the sacrifices you make, the giving of self. If you want to study love, study those who sacrifice for others. Love is a verb. The feeling- a fruit of love, the verb."
I feel so proud of my little Brother for getting his Eagle Scout!!
I know that takes a lot of work. He is a good kid. I feel so full of gratitude for the lessons that I am learning here and for all of the people who are helping me along the way, especially my sweetie fiance who is works so hard to support the little family of him & I that will be official in LESS than two months. I am ecstatic.
I have a fear of birds. Mainly of them flying at me and impaling me with their gross beaks. This fear is only validated here in Ukraine. Pigeons fly at you all the time!! They get down in the metro entrances and don't have a lot of places to escape so they get kind of desperate and crazy. One time a whole flock was flying right at me I swear so I just covered up my head with my scarf and waited till they were gone. If it wasn't obvious that I'm not from around here, it had to be after that.
When the landlord is coming, we have to make it looks like no one lives at our apartment. I guess Ukrainians define clean as "empty" rather than you know, showers, windex, toothpaste, ect. The first time they came, they asked if we didn't have enough drawers because there were things on the shelves... like books. And they were disturbed by the fact that our dirty laundry baskets were inside the house instead of on the porch. I guess if I wore my clothes for a week straight maybe I would feel pressure to put them out on the porch too. Today he was convinced that we had been letting hoards of people come over and crash every other night, that people were complaining. I think he overestimates how many people can fit in the two beds that we do have. I think it is a natural tendency to blame the Americans for being the loud ones. And I thought clean checks at the Ridge were bad.
Someone starts speaking to me in Russian on the streets at least once a day.Normally I just tell them I don't speak Russian, in Russian, but sometimes in Spanish, just for kicks. My Russian skills finally came in handy the week after we learned numbers. Last week. I was in the elevator with an old lady who kept saying, "vosim vosim" because she couldn't see it in the dark ( our elevator is pretty dark) Vosim is 8. And I pressed the 8 button for her. Go Russian lessons!
I overheard one of my teachers telling the kids that smoking was bad. They acted like she was crazy. They share the sentiment of all here, when I go running in the morning it's more like smoker dodging. It is super unpleasant to take a deep breathe and inhale a bunch of 2nd hand smoke. I have to dodge them so that my lungs last longer than my running shoes. Lung cancer aint no thang here, there are bigger things to worry about like girls unknowingly freezing their ovaries and people not looking in the mirror after they forget something at home.
Something that is awesome about Ukraine though is how cheap most things are. I can buy 4 kiwis for less than an American dollar, a loaf of bread for about 30 cents, and a king size snickers (which I have been known to enjoy once and a while) for 5 hryvna. There are 7.9 hryvna in a dollar.
The world is the bathroom here. As just confirmed by the guy who is going right now, outside the window of my school as I type this. It's not the first time that has happened. It's a regular occurrence, guys just going to the bathroom by trees in front of passerby. Amber and Tysen saw a babushka pee on the sidewalk actually. Which is a tiny bit more awkward.
Sometimes I go nerded out to WW2 Museums
Sometimes I go nerded out to WW2 Museums
Sometimes blossoms appear on trees
And sometimes Tressa makes herself a crown out of them
Sometimes you realize you only brought boots and long pants and it actually gets hot in Ukraine
