First Impressions...

So I am officially in Ukraine and I have been for about a day or so. I'm in love. This country is so awesome. I thought it would pretty much be just like Slovakia or the Czech Republic and it is, but it isn't.

The flight here was terrible and long. But I expected that and was able to brace myself for it. I met up with 4 other volunteers in the DC airport and then with 3 more in the Munich, Germany airport. So we got to chat and get to know each other a little better. Good times. I wasn't really able to sleep on the flight to Munich which was my longest one. But on the flight from Munich to Kyiv, I straight up passed out before the plane even took off and woke up as the plane touched the ground. I was so dead.

The native coordinator with ILP was waiting for us at the airport. Her name is Oksana and she is super great. Love her. So me and the 7 others with all of our luggage got piled into some man's van (I still have no idea who he is) and then he and Oksana took up each to our host families. This is what I saw on the drive around the city:

(Kyiv Temple!)

Finally meeting my host family in person was absolutely amazing. These people are so great. I seriously am the luckiest ILP volunteer ever. They're just so dang nice and welcoming. They really just go out of their way to help me and sacrifice a ton to let me stay here with them. They even made this sign for me:

Before I left to come here Max (host dad) told me that the 2 little boys love beef jerky. So I brought them 4 bags of it. I haven't even been here for 48 hours yet and they've already eaten 2 of the 4 bags. He wasn't kidding....

This is a picture of my room. Love it.

Here are a few more random pics of things I found cool or interesting...

Just some really cool building by the place we ate lunch. Lunch was..... interesting. I had borsh with some drink that tasted like campfire in a cup.

I went with my host mom to the park with the boys right outside of their apartment. I don't know if you can see it or not but in their hands are Spider Man walkie talkies that I brought them from America. They take them everywhere and even sleep with them. They're seriously the cutest.

The juice isle. Oh my gosh. I went to the store with my host dad last night and this is the juice isle. Just. Juice. All of it. So much juice. There are so many brands and flavors. It was seriously blowing my mind the entire time. Max bought a few kinds for me to try such as plumb, pear, and one more made of some other fruit that I have never heard of. All three were delicious even though I don't even really like plumbs or pears. But I could drink this juice all day long. Fo' real.

So I love it here. Every detail of it thus far. Yesterday morning we went on a walk with the elders. It really makes me miss my mission being here. It even feels kind of awkward for me to be walking by myself around the city and I still feel obligated to talk to everyone for some reason. Hopefully this will pass. Haha. Because I do not speak Russian or Ukrainian. 

I got my school assignment and I will be teaching at the Nyvky school. It's a fabulous little school. I still have yet to find out what ages I will be teaching. I'll let you know when I do.

It's morning here now and it's pretty dark and rainy. I love this kind of weather though so I am happy. I have a meeting with the other volunteers at 10:00. We are going to have more training so we can be good teachers. That's all for this post. If you have questions or want to see pictures of certain things, just ask away!