Ok, a real update!

Well, I put the last vestiges of my family on a plane this morning. It was quite sad. I was a wee bit teary as I left the airport (at 4:50 am, due to their 6:45 am flight!), and even the taxi driver felt sorry for me. He tried to make small talk on the way to the train station, but I was having difficulty keeping it up (what with the sniffing and all), so he eventually surrendered to the silence.

On the train, I made a new friend: Slavik. He is studying at a university in New York. He heard me answer my phone and realized I was American. We then proceeded to chat for the next 3 hours.

Once arriving back in Poltava, I decided to take a taxi home rather than the bus (I was just ready to get home...). My taxi driver was SO chatty and wanted to inform me about various and sundry Ukrainian holidays. It was really cute. I'm quite glad he did, because I'd already forgotten that tomorrow is Old New Year. Yes, you read that correctly: OLD New Year. It has to do with the Orthodox calendar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_New_Year). Last year, I woke up at 4:00 am to my doorbell ringing incessantly...the handiwork of young boys who go around to wish everyone a good year (they throw grain into your home and sing and expect you to give them some money). Thanks to Mr. Taxi Man, I'll remember to sleep with earplugs. :)

Last week, we celebrated Ukrainian Christmas (January 7), which was very fun and exciting. On Sunday, Amiee sang in church, and everyone loved it! On Monday, we tried our hands at making a copycat Chick-fil-a recipe for chicken nuggets. It was so good! Granted, it wasn't exactly the same (I mean, we were aiming pretty high), but it was sooo good. Tuesday, we trained into Kiev and nearly froze to death. Sadly, this morning was D(eparture)- day. I am now somewhat moping while doing some cleaning around the apartment.

Family: please know that there is even MORE snow outside! And, this journey to Kiev and back was just chock full of friendly taxi drivers. What luck! Miss you!

Happy Old New Year, everyone!

Amiee and Mom at the mall

Amiee singing in church...sorry it's so dark. I was camera inept this particular day.

Amiee and me after church. We're looking all smart in our glasses.

Great Chicken Experiment 2010: success!

When we spent the night in Kiev, we took the supplies to watch a movie: Netbook, dvd apparatus, external speakers, and tv stand (aka, chair). Clever, yes?

Still alive

I am. I promise.

Happy New Year!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful New Year! We did, but it was very hectic (what else is new?). We traveled back to Kiev on the 30th in order to spend the night and drop Daddy off at the airport on the morning of the 31st...for his 6:45 am flight. After dropping him off super early, we had to get to the train station to catch our 6:30 am train back to Poltava. We made it back and napped all afternoon so that we'd be up for the New Year's celebration at the church. Now, Ukrainians take New Year's celebrations very seriously: you stay up ALL night. Ergo, we didn't even leave the church until 2:30 am, and didn't get in bed until around 4:00. This is all after we had gotten teeny tiny amounts of sleep the night before. It was tiring, but a lot of fun! Here are some more pictures of the family in Poltava. I'm kind of on hold work-wise for a while, since the students are out for the holidays (holidays being a. New Year: Jan. 1, b. Christmas: Jan. 7, and c. Old New Year: Jan. 14). More to come (hopefully)!

Mom and Dad at Celentano's- our favorite pizza place that has apparently shut down in the past few days. Tragic.

New Year's tree in the Kiev train station.

At the New Year's Eve celebration: me, Ira, Amiee, Mom, and Mom's new friend.

Ukrainians are so handy with crafts. Sometimes, I would call them crafty...

Food...please note the dish on the right. It is, in fact, raw herring. I did not partake.

Amiee and her friend, Leeza. They became friends this summer. She's all bundled up for a reason: it's COLD! Today, it was -1. Sick.

Some highlights

Sorry for being so remiss in blogging! Here are some highlights of what we've been up to:

1. English club at one university.

2. English club at Christian Center.

3. Christmas Eve party with Nataly and Victoria.

4. Family Christmas on Christmas morning

5. Immediately following family Christmas, we packed up and headed off to teach an English class. Ukraine does not celebrate our Christmas; they follow the Orthodox calendar and celebrate Christmas on January 7.

6. Had tea with a teacher, deputy director, and president of the college. Amiee and I were forced to eat caviar and salo (pig fat). It was rough...

7. English club at the Christian Center.

8. Church and visiting with Ukrainian friends.

We've had a lot going on! It's been quite fun, and we've gotten to accomplish a lot.

Hannah Ray and Mom after their super long journey to Ukraine! This is right before the Brassarts boarded the overnight train from Kiev to Poltava.

Nataly, Victoria, me, and Amiee on Christmas Eve. We had a blast playing Speed Scrabble and Apples-to-Apples.

Gift/card exchange time!

Christmas morning. Don't mind the hair...

I hope that all of you had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! Blessings on your new year!

Update...

I know it's been approximately 1,000 years since I updated. I promise to really update soon, but let me just say that this past weekend brought many surprises and...um...challenges. It involves a lot of snow, lines, waiting, and vehicle-ing.

Whew!

You know I love a good video

This morning, in church, the youth sang a few special songs and led the congregation in a few. I videoed this one because a) I love it and b) I know that the Rowlands really like it. The song is a prayer for Ukraine. Rowlands, this is for you (everyone else is, of course, free to love it, too!). You can probably recognize the voice of the person I was standing next to. :) Enjoy!

The goose is getting fat

I've fallen down on my duties as an American: the Christmas decor did not go up the day after Thanksgiving. This is mostly because I was actually celebrating Thanksgiving on the day after Thanksgiving...in another city, no less. Then, I got back and got busy.

Last night, I finally decorated the apartment! Natasha and Vika came over for pizza (like, the homemade kind...don't go thinking we can get delivery in Poltava) and Christmas decorating. They loved it! Here are some pictures of the snow that came yesterday and the decorating that ensued:

Unfortunately, Ukrainians don't take snow days...but it is pretty from within my apartment.

Several hours later...I'm guessing it snowed about 5 inched total yesterday.

Here's Natasha posing with the ornament she decorated for my tree!

Vika's turn!

Hard at work!

She really got into the decorating. :)

My Charlie Brown tree. However, I LOVE it.

Here is a traditional Slavic New Year's stacking doll: Grandfather Frost, Snow Girl, bear, penguin, and teeny tiny snowman.

Expedition

This past Sunday, I embarked on an expedition. It was exciting and super fun.

Last March, I had the flu (not the swine flu- just the regular one). In total Erin style, I decided to become a part of pop culture while I was sick; I read/listened to the "Twilight" saga. I have a thing about reading literature that is really culturally popular (anyone remember my "Harry Potter" phenomenon?). So, I checked out the whole "Twilight" situation.

For those of you who aren't aware (although, I have difficulty imagining that there are many of you out there), the second book in the series was recently made into a movie ("New Moon"). Well, last week, my friends, Vika and Natasha, invited me to go see "New Moon" with them in the theater.

IN UKRAINIAN.

I don't study Ukrainian; I study Russian. I decided, however, that this could be a great adventure. So, I roped Nastia into joining us, as well, and off we went.

The theater made me feel like I was back in America for about 2 hours. It was so posh and fancy. I was the only one who didn't buy snacks at the grocery store; I have a thing about movie popcorn. I love it. The Ukrainians scoffed at my purchase of overpriced popcorn, but I thoroughly enjoyed that popcorn!

Now, Ukrainian and Russian are totally different languages, but they are related, so I wasn't completely lost during the movie (along with the fact that I a. know the story and b. can read lips if the situation becomes dire). I really enjoyed watching Vika's, Natasha's, and Nastia's reactions. It was super fun! I'm sure you wished you'd been there.

My friends look like models (Vika and Nastia). This is while we were waiting for Natasha to arrive. P.S. This is not a Christmas tree; this would be a New Year's tree.

Natasha arrived!

Popcorn and tickets. We like to document everything.

In the theater, take 1 (Nastia, Natasha, me).

Take 2. I wish y'all could meet these girls. They are so wonderful!

La. Zy.

I was lazy today. That's how I ended up with a bag of milk.

Back up.
I volunteered at a local language school today. It was really fun to work with students who were SO eager to practice and participate. They also fed me tea and dessert! It was super. On the way home (which is quite a trek, let me tell ya), I decided I needed to buy milk. I'm not sure why I thought this was a big deal, but I decided that I really didn't want to have to store my bag in a locker at the front of the grocery store (you have to do that here- they don't trust customers with bags). I've done it many times before and it's no big deal; today, though, I rebelled at the thought.

Instead, I went home via the bazaar. I really like the bazaar. It's kind of like a farmer's market/flea market, only everyone speaks Russian really loudly. I walked through, deciding that I needed apples and tomatoes as well. Then, I started peeking into little shops, in search of milk. Would you believe that the first 3 shops I checked didn't have any? No bottles of milk, no boxes of milk, no nothing. I stuck my head into shop #4 and asked the lady if she had milk, guessing that I was going to end up going home milkless. She did have milk...but of course, I had to buy the kind in a bag.

I really dislike milk in a bag. It kind of freaks me out, for starters. Secondly, it's just kind of a hassle. You have to transfer it to another container or live dangerously and just kind of prop it up in the fridge. This usually does not bode well for me.

So, the moral of the story, friends, is just to be a big girl and store the bag in the locker.

Thanksgiving

I'm a horrible person. I didn't take a single picture of our Thanksgiving celebration.

I know. You're ashamed. I am, too.

I'll try to paint word pictures for you, though. Thanksgiving was, once again, in Dnipropetrovsk (extra points for those of you who can pronounce that!) at the Rays' house. Because the Rays had just returned from the States last Tuesday night, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday. That way, the Rays could wake up a little bit. I arrived on Thursday morning (remember the incident at the bus station? Yeah, that early morning bus put me there way before lunch...), and the Woffords and Amanda arrived Thursday afternoon. Here's a recap of the weekend's activities:
1. Lots of talking
2. LOTS of eating
3. Lots of laughing
4. Lots of laughing at Ryan's shenanigans. If you'd like a more complete explanation of this one, message me. I don't think this post is long enough to write about all of them!
5. Movie-watching
6. Game-playing
7. Singing in English
8. Shopping (granted, I didn't really buy much...I was just along for the ride, er, walk)
9. Obsessive checking of football scores (that was mostly me)

It was so much fun and so encouraging! Wish you could have been there...

In honor of the holiday, here's a list of things I'm thankful for:
1. Technology. I love being able to communicate with home.
2. Family and Friends that remember me. Y'all are so wonderful.
3. Wonderful co-workers...even though we're all several hours away from each other.
4. A great apartment to live in.
5. Inconsequential answers to prayer (like, "Lord, please let me push my way through the crowd to the bus door in time to get off at the right stop").
6. My Ukrainian friends. They make my life here so full.
7. The great city of Poltava.
8. My home back in America.

This is by no means conclusive. Just thoughts that I've thanked the Lord for over and over. I hope that you had a marvelous Thanksgiving!