heart-warming comments from a host family

|| "You look like a flower."

|| "We don't like American smiles, but we like yours."

|| "You are not a crocodile."

|| "You are not a gorilla."

|| "You are not a dog."

|| "Hello Cinderella!" (post fairy god mother version...pretty sure)

|| "How do you not have boyfriend?"

|| "It's like we won the lottery!"

|| "You are a fairy princess."

|| "Whether you are good girl or bad girl, we love you."

How am I going to leave? I love these people so much.

peace and family
even if they're a different nationality

rrw

ukrainian remedies

Ukrainians have a variety of remedies for different physical ailments. It has been an adventure to learn of them, let me assure you. When my stomach wasn't feeling quite right about a month ago babushka had me lie down with my shirt pulled up while she massaged my stomach. The head coordinator here heard me cough and demanded I go home and drink a mug of warm milk, honey, and butter. unfortunately i just didn't manage to try that one out. About 15 minutes ago my host mom insisted I do a sort of dance thing with violent breathing in order to clear up my lungs. Between the twisting of my torso, flipping of my hair, attempts to breathe at the right time and with accurate force, I ended up just bent over laughing/hacking up a lung, which seemed to please my host mom.

You wish you would have seen it.

On a different note, I've had fun looking through some of my photos from my week spent in Bulgaria. I apologize to all those who are friends with me on facebook and have had their feeds blown up with my face. Except for I'm not actually sorry because dang those pictures are fun. And just so you know, I haven't even posted any of mine, so just buckle up.

But today I'm not posting any from the trip. A popular day activity for the younger generation here in Ukraine is to take portrait style pictures. And I mean heck, I have a camera and a member of the younger generation right here in my Ukrainian home. A photo shoot was inevitable.

I told her to look American.

I have taught her well.

And then the camera was turned on me and I didn't know what to do.

So I rocked the backpack like a full on 7 year old.

This is me trying to look more Ukrainian.

When my host mom saw this she said, "Maybe better if you stay American."

I hear ya momma.

Life here is great, even if going back to teaching after adventuring through Europe is super dang hard. At least one of the little girls brought me a flower today. Can you say "hashtag precious?"

peace and piano lessons
i'm helping my 8 year old host sister understand that looking at the music helps you know what to play. #mindblowing

rrw

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

дедушка

The Russian word of the day is дедушка. It's pronounced "jdedushka" and translates to "grandpa." (compare with бабушка, or babushka, for grandma) This is the word of the day because yesterday I did Macklemore proud and went to the thrift store, where I'm pretty sure I bought and wore a Ukrainian grandad's clothes. Or, a дедушка's clothes. What can I say, I look incredible. And have totally mastered the Ukrainian pose. #ducklipsforlife

I know you were all so worried that you'd never see another selfie of me because my phone is no longer in my possession. Don't worry. I've obviously got it covered. There's no getting between a girl and her selfies.

And oh my gosh did I just do an "outfit of the day?!"

 #ootd #styleblogger #sothisiswhatitfeelslike

The jacket and shoes were purchased at the thrift store. Because someone was super smart and brought shoes that make her feet bleed. And my host sister and mom insisted on the jacket because they have some that look just like it. We're twins now. Precious. no but really, it is. They take such good care of me. Speaking of jackets, I wish I had a picture of what went down in this place last night. The second night I was here my host family invited me to go skiing with them in December. Obviously I was all over that, but was sad because I had no ski clothes with me. My host dad said he'd figure something out and last night he pulled out his old ski jacket and had me try it on, including a helmet he must have found somewhere.

It buried me, but dang it, it'll work And I'll be the most attractive skier on the slopes come December.

In other news, I'm still teaching English. The kids are adorable, especially when 1:00 pm hits (or 13,00 as they say here) and I get to say, "Goodbye! Goodbye! See you tomorrow!" Yeah, that's when they're most adorable. And I guess in this picture too.

I teach a class full of girls. It's a party. They give the most precious hugs.

Although...should I be worried about this?

Well, now that I've showered, emailed, drunken my herbal tea (given to me by the bishop so pretty sure it's ok), eaten my Ukrainian cake/eclair wonder thing and blogged, I think I call it a night. Yeah all you Americans, it's nighttime here.

peace and marshrutkas

someday i'll tell you about my experiences on these beauties

rrw