Oh the Holidays...

Hello dearest family and friends,

I am sorry about the delay in posts, I have been without internet for a while but now I am back in action with the cyber world. I appreciate anyone that reads these! Thanks for your support.

After christmas, I returned to Kivertsi to do some individual tutoring with some students whom will be participating the region Olympiad. The Olympiad is an academic competition regarding all subjects in school, of course, I was tutoring those students who were moving on in English. I loved getting some one-on-one time with students, allowing me to get to know them better.

For New Years, I returned to Kolky to hang out with Ben and some other friends he had already developed in the community. We attended a rather large gathering of Ukrainians meaning we were the only ones who spoke english. It was a great experience! We ate so much food for hours on end while dancing the night away. We left 'early' which in Ukraine means 2:30 a.m. It was wonderful to be apart of such a celebration in a country that knows how to celebrate!

A couple days after New Years, Ben and I were invited to join six other volunteers in the beautiful city of Lyviv. Lyviv is suppose to be only 5 hours away but Ben and I found ourselves venturing for nearly 8 hours to get to Lyviv but it was so worth it. Lyviv is the most beautiful city I have visited in Ukraine especially around the holidays. The city was lit up with colors and tress decorated everywhere and it was snowing! Lyviv is suppose to be considered "the heart of  Ukrainian tradition" and it lived up to that indeed. The architecture was original and classic. It was all I imagined eastern Europe to be. The volunteers and I climbed to the top of "Castle Mountain" which gave us a 360 degree view of Lyviv. I can describe how amazing the view was, my pictures do not do the view much justice either. When people come to visit, I will be taking them to that very spot, for sure.

I have been attending other random parties for teachers and their families which has been a pleasure. Ukraine celebrates christmas on the 6-7th of January so for Christmas day I gathered at my counter parts Ivanna Ivanivna's home to meet with her family and some of her close family friends. I probably ate my weight in food and before I knew it, guitars were brought out playing some of my favorite classic rock music artists like Pink Floyd and Led Zepplin. It was such a treat and an experience I won't ever forget.

Today school started back up again and I have yet to recieve my final schedule regarding classes. I have a rough idea but the school is trying to figure out its' own schedule as well. I will let you know I figure out what forms I will be teaching.

I hope you all enjoyed your holidays! Much love to everyone.