meet the family

So I've been here in Ukraine for a month. Can you believe it? I know, I know. You woke up this morning thinking, "Man, Rachel has been in Ukraine for a month. I wonder what her family is like. I hope they treat her well and feed her breakfast...mmm...breakfast. I think I'll go eat some Lucky Charms..."

Yeah? Those your exact thoughts? Well, I can't help you out much with the Lucky Charms, but I can tell you what my family here is like. I realized that basically none of you at home know anything about the people I live with. For all you know I'm living in a park somewhere with a clan of hobos. Or with the mafia. Which would be so cool. But I guess if I were living with the mafia I wouldn't really know it...

Anyway. I don't know for sure whether I'm living with members of the mafia or not, but I do know that I'm not living in a park with hobos. What a relief, right?

My family here is hilarious and kind and resourceful and grateful and completely hospitable. They try to teach me Russian and every night that usually just ends in laughter. They teach me Ukrainian and European history and give me perspective on what others really think of America-both the bad and the good. They share and they compliment and they tease. They sometimes teach me slang terms, take me thrift shopping, and show me around town. They demand that I put on warmer shoes to go the park, which made me laugh for an hour because it reminded me so much of my mom. #illneverlearn

I scored, right?

Two nights ago my family invited me to go for a walk through the nearby park. Aka, GIANT FOREST IN THE MIDDLE OF KIEV. Seriously. It was so cool. There were ponds and rides and ropes courses and paved trails and dirt trails and little fires and a babushka with goats. The air was the cleanest I've smelled in over a month. I convinced my mom and sisters to go on the Ferris Wheel with me because sometimes I'm a five year old.

Do you see how endless this park is!?

We found a squirrel and fed it walnuts that our babushka had grown herself at her home in the village. (aka country.) My 8 year old sister held my hand the whole way through the park while my 16 year old sister told me how we can go ice skating on some of the ponds during the winter if they freeze over. I had brought my camera and they love it so naturally a little photo session went down. Dang man. If I could look like a Ukrainian...

I obviously really knew what was going on here.

Are we Ukrainian, American, or Asian?

And then this happened and I'm still not sure about it.

Upon returning home, I found that I wanted to eat everything. Which is normal if you know me. Exasperated, I said, "Man! I have the munchies so bad!" Curious, my 16 year old sister asked, "Munchies? What are munchies?" I explained that the munchies are a state of being in which everything salty, sweet, and nice must enter your body, despite the fact that you are not actually hungry.

She chuckled and translated for my family, who looked at me curiously. All of the sudden my host dad jumped up from the table, went to the fridge, and pulled out a full on cake with chocolate, whipped cream, and peanuts. He held it out to me and said, "Munchies?" I tried to refuse, but it was too late. We all sat down and ate cake together, them laughing and repeating "munchies" over and over again and me smiling and eating cake, proud that I had successfully introduced them to my way of life.

These are the type of people I live with. They understand the munchies. I am being taken care of.

peace and peanut cake

rrw