and the countdown continues

I feel so horrible that I am so incredibly anxious for this weekend. To finally be on a plane flying out of Ukraine. Only because I know that I will be on my way to France. To Paris, France. This is finally so real and its happening.

First of all; 

I have loved my time here in Ukraine. It has taught me so much about myself, culture, teaching, people, and the gospel. Once again I was forced to live feeling so alone, which is sometimes the best thing for me, because it helps bring me to find who exactly I am and so much more. 

My host family was the greatest. I got so lucky, to not just have one family, but another one right next door that I was able to spend so much time with as well. I love them both, and always will. They really helped make my experience what it has been.

The kids I got to teach were perfect. I could not imagine teaching anybody else. We grew so close and they learned so much it amazes me how incredibly smart they are. 

But come Saturday I will be outta' here. 

 

I got these gems here in Kiev. What a find. Although I'm still not exactly sure what price I paid for them. I try my best to bargain, but eventually it just turns into no questions asked, hand over the money, and walk away, head down, defeated.

My bags are packed though, and I'm ready to go. All set. Except for a few last minute things to do. I did send a package all by myself today, no russian translator present. My twelve new & free antique books are safely on their way to America.

I don't know if I ever even officially announced whats happening. 

My mom, dad, and two of my brothers - nick and shane, are flying to Paris where I'm meeting them on Saturday. We will have entire week together to spend in my favorite city in the entire world before we fly back for christmas on the 22nd. I finally get to show my family how Paris stole mon cœur one year ago. Its like introducing my future husband to them. Its so exciting and I could not be more happy, but also a little nerve raking. I feel in charge of the whole thing, which is usually my mom's job because she's so good at it. Taking us to all the important sights and reading her history books out loud to us. This probably won't be much different than that. My parents have been before, but it feels like a lot of pressure to make sure I show them EVERYTHING I absolutely have to. Hopefully we can fit it all in. And hopefully I remember how to get everywhere. I do though ;) So I made a nice itinerary for us. Changes are allowed. To squeeze in more macarons and amorino's at any point necessary of course. 

 Now can we relive some of Paris 2011? 

And of course can't leave these lovely ladies out of this. They contributed majorly to my love for Paris. Love these girls forever!

 

No sleep

Sometimes weird things happen. Like the last couple blog posts of mine. The next one included.
This was the end of my second to last week. I have one week left. Seven days. And I just want to shout it across the entire world. I am done! I get to see my family! I am going to Paris! The life that I feel gets put on hold EVERY single fall semester can finally start back up again. And I could not be more excited.
But this entire week I have not been able to sleep at all. And when I say that I mean it literally. Literally wide awake no sleeping. Case and point, it is currently four am. I have successfully completed a movie, Facebook stalked [barely because I'm so bored], made the most random crap on adobe illustrator, journaled, come up with and written upcoming life goals, counted down my days numerous times, and sat cross-legged on my bed staring at a wall listening to music. Staring.
What is going on?!

Goodnight. Hopefully..

i'll be back

so soon

I don't know, you tell me..

the more odd parts of my second trip to Poland

 ...

 somebody PLEASE tell me how this is happening. I stood there forever amazed, trying to figure it out. MAGIC

 doritos and tomatoes = chips and salsa. Nice try poland

why taxi drivers have cat noses on their mirrors? you tell me...

I was fortunate enough to go to Krakow for thanksgiving. Our first trip there was only for one day, and it happened to be the country's national holiday and everything was closed. Nice planning eurotour. We were super bummed that we missed a lot there, and were disappointed to leave so soon. But thanks to bad planning, we were forced to go back in order to renew our visas, and we got paid to go. Easy money. 

I'm soooo glad we went back, because Poland ended up being one of my favorite places. And after going to so many places I have realized that its not always the place that you are, but the people you are with and the way that you spend your time there.  The memories you make. I had an amazing time this trip, and am in love with Krakow thanks to those memories. Can't wait to go back.

three posts in one night

Can't sleep, as usual, so instead I'll blog.

This saturday was eventful. After spending the morning in the forest, me and Taylor met up with Julie and Olia - their host mom / our coordinator at the school. Olia took us to this part of the city that has a bunch of awkward statues. The main theme was cats..
We took the metro over the river and walked around for a bit while Olia tried to remember how to get there. Luckily she's Ukrainian though and can actually ask somebody for directions. & read a russian map.

I didn't mind being lost for a while though. Got to see some favorite sights, like Saint Andrew's. And the back side of Saint Sofia's, which I hadn't seen before.

But once we finally found the park, or street, or whatever you want to call it, we "made lots of pictures." [how all the ukrainians say it. you don't take pictures, you make pictures].

This place was so fun. There's a playground, and tons of interactive statues. Its basically a place that you go just to take pictures with all the things. There were dice, fake hobo benches, giant babies peeing, rabbits, and so much more. So strange..
Before I came I looked up a ton of pictures of Kyiv, obviously. I found this one that showed a super colorful street. And I was completely in love with it, and picture Ukraine to be just like that picture. Thanks a lot google images. I've been on the search for that street since I've been here. While we were walking through this park I look down and there it is! Right through the trees, not the perfect view, and not the same view from the picture, but it was definitely the exact same street. So happy to have finally seen it.

Wouldn't you want to live here?

Here is a forewarning. After proof-reading this post I found out this next part is so super boring and has no relevance to anything. Read if you'd like. Otherwise, just look at the pictures, that's all I ever do too. 

After roaming the streets we split up and me Jule headed to dreamtown, ukraine's mega mall. This place is awesome, and it has everything. Its where I went rollerblading a couple weeks ago. We rode the metro there and were starving so we hit up the first place we saw... mcdonalds. Don't judge. I hate myself too. I did order in Russian though, pretty completely and I'm really proud of myself. You should be super impressed. The mcdonalds' here are always incredibly packed, I don't understand it. There are always a million people inside, and in line, but its super quick, hello fast food. But the downfall, never a seat available. So even though it was freezing outside, we had to sit outside. I went to get us a table while julie finished ordering, trying to figure out the words for "sweet and sour sauce" - good luck.
She finally came out with her two burgers and sat for maybe two minutes until she realized her sauce was the same label as mine. Curry. Mmm yeah that's right. They have a curry sauce here and it is delicious. Maybe I'll just stock up on those for souvenirs. Or my own personal supply. JayKay. So she went back inside to get her sweet and sour. I secretly snuck one of her burgers into my pocket to see if she'd notice and get even more mad and go hassel the Ukrainian mcdonalds workers some more. Didn't work, I'm horrible at lying.

We didn't really go to dreamtown.. we just told everyone that was where we were going. We actually flew to Italy and hung out by the Trevi fountain. Sorry guys. 

The reason for going to dreamtown was to go to the WATERPARK there. So stoked. As we walked around the mall, trying to first find a store for Julie to buy some boots, we were walking around only home and furniture stores for about an hour. I had been there before, and was so confused as to what happened to all the stores. There were NO clothes stores. So after literally walking back and forth through the huge mall we walked outside to see if there was a different entrance. And thats when we saw it; "dreamtown 1" down the street. 

Us - "Oh that's why this one had a 2 next to it."

Duh. Made our over to the other one. Where we needed to be. Luckily, because thats where the park was too. 

And that dream island water park was indeed, a dream. SO MUCH FUN. I love love love water parks. And had a blast. There were a ton of slides and tubes and creepy old men. It was GREAT!

And inside of a mall.. It was seriously HUGE though. One of the biggest in Europe actually. Oh my gosh I loved it. And lets face it, all those Ukrainians loved having a couple of Americans to party with at the water park. Even if we almost walked through the mall in just our bathing suits not realizing there was another entrance through the locker room.. oops.

 is that an alligator? Oh you mean hellboy..? shout out to Jessica Johnson.

 pasty white. thank you Ukraine.. not.

We rode all the slides in that place. And adored it. Screamed everytime. Used up our entire two hours. Two hours well spent. Thank you dream island, thank you dream town, and thank you Ukraine.

this was such a weird post. I'm so sorry.

in the forest

So while we were in Poland, me and Taylor had talked about taking pictures once we were back in Ukraine. We decided to do it in the forest by my house here in Kiev. We met up on Saturday and journeyed in. I'm not really one to do this sort of thing, I always love the idea, but I think the last time I had a 'photoshoot' was senior pictures. But I loved it. And Tay tay is gorgeous, model status. Seriously, that girl has got the sm-eyesing technique down to a T. We had a ton of fun, and made a music video while we were in there too. That'll be uploaded shortly.