2.14.11

Its official. I've been in Kyiv for exactly one month! It has flown by, I can't even believe it. I feel like so much has happened in the last week, I just don't know where to start.. I know, I shall start at the beginning- Last Friday. 


I was so excited to move hostfamilies. After class, Oksana rushed me out of the school with my luggage into a van and we were off. I was expecting a whole family like my last.. instead I got a Nina!
Nina is amazing. She is a 19 year old university student and I live with her in her flat. I've only been with her a short while, but it feels like we've known each other for years. It is so great to have freedom to come and go as I need and not have to worry about living a million miles in the country. Needless to say, I lucked out:) 


Last Saturday, I got the chance to go to the Kyiv temple. It was quite the experience. Since it is the only temple in the Slavic countries and east of Germany, people come from all over to do work there. It is sometimes quite the journey, sometimes we take for granted that we live so close to temples in the States. The Spirit was so strong there. It was amazing how I could feel so much at home, thousands of miles away.


The rest of my week was pretty typical, except wednesday was the start of my Valentines week. I had been getting calls from strange numbers for a few days. I finally answered but of course, no english. Finally on wednesday, after calling me 13 times, I answered again. It was a miracle, they figured out I don't speak Russian. The lady told me that she had a present for me.. from Jim.. weird haha. Long story short, I had the best pre valentines day ever. Derek had ordered me the most beautiful flowers and amazing ukrainian chocolate. I've never had anyone do something for me like this.

For some reason, maybe its just because I am my mother's daughter, I am not easily surprised. Some how, involuntarily or not, I have figured out every potential surprise, ever. It's been pretty detrimental the last few years.  But this came pretty close. 

They delievered the package to me at school, I was rather speechless, they even insisted on getting a picture.. Derek said he had sent me something, but since I had been sick, I thought it was a box of tissues (Kleenex here are scented and have the texture of cardboard and are about as absorbent as sheet rock). 


On Monday, we visited the all infamous lock bridge of Kyiv. People have been locking love here for years, so we figured it was our time too. I wish I would have had more time to take pictures, but it was -13 degrees celsius and I was afraid of losing a limb. 

Still loving it here! 3 months to go!

A new start to new.

I have been updating on my not so simple day to day life lately and really have not had a chance to just write. Writing; my anit drug.

Not that I would need an anti drug here. Fruit tea is my new addiction.

My first three weeks here have been life changing already. I have already grown so much. I feel like I can almost conquer the world.. or maybe just the west side of the Dnieper river. I am definitely shedding my perinoia, I so acquired from my wonderful mother and taking Ukraine on full force.

Now that I am finally over my jetlag and culture shock, I am starting a new, new. My first few weeks was a bit about trial and error. Lots of error on multiple ends. My host family was my biggest challenge. A large family consisting of Igor and Natasha- my parents, Anya- 9 year old sister, Dima- 20 something host brother who never spoke to me and Tanya, his girlfriend. The house is always so crazy. My room is right in central to the kitchen, living room, and stairs. I seemed to be in the middle of everything, all the time. The best part was the lack of communication. I could never expect someone who does not speak english to constantly try to include me, thus I spent countless hours in my room until I was called to eat, ate alone, then sent back to my room. Luckily, a few wonderful people in my life were willing to stay up all hours so I would not be lonely. Facebook is good at that also.

Last week, I was sitting in my room, like usual, and realized, I am in Ukraine, freaking Ukraine! Yet, I am sitting here on  my butt in a small room on my computer. I am here to teach, to serve. I love being here and having parts of home with me, but there is a difference of those things keeping me grounded and holding me back.

I am moving host families tomorrow night, its time to start over and do this right. No more facebook. Skype and email with the few that I can. I am tired of certain people dictating the way I feel. I am tired of waiting for that one email or that one post. Quite frankly I am sick of the crap on facebook and how it is such a big part of everyone's life.  I am here to do a wonderful thing that has already changed me in so many ways, this is where my focus needs to be. This opportunity has been just what I needed. I am surrounded by some of the greatest people I have ever met. This is not by chance. We call it a spiritual revamp of our lives and that is exactly what it is. How many times do we really take a look at our busy lives and reassess, what really counts? Why do we need to post our lives on the internet? Why in the world do we do things to spite others in doing this? We need to get off our butts and do something extraordinary.  I am having the time of my life losing myself in service.

This is the hardest thing I have ever done. It's hard for me not to complain sometimes.  Sure, teaching is stressful but we do it. Walking thirty minuets in the cold when the bus does not come sucks, but we do it anyway. This is such an eye opening experience for me. I can't run to my car, turn the heat on and drive away. I have to walk in the snow, stop to try to find a bus, run to the bus, miss the bus, walk another thirty minuets to the metro, fight for room in the metro, wait for the marshutka for thirty minuets, pile 50 people into a vehicle made for 10, hope it stops, then walk another twenty minutes home and miss dinner. This is what I am doing, I am GREATFUL for it and loving every frozen minuet!

Sacrificing my comforts at home has really helped me see God's hand in my life, every moment, everyday. Leaders of the church are always telling us to SIMPLIFY, this is why. Small things that normally would not make much difference in my day are things that I have grown to love. Tender mercies of the Lord are so great. My Father knows me, He knows my fears and trials and He loves me.
I could have not and I still cannot do this alone. There is no way.

Its in His hands, I have to remember. I get to start new with my new family. Beginning now, the complaining stops. The distractions are going away, facebook will not dictate my life, stupid people are not going to matter anymore and I'm going to start anew:)

Email: b.jones91@hotmail.com
Skype: b.jones91

If my life were a Doctor Suess story..

This past week I have been horrible at blogging. There is just so much to do! I hardly have time for anything, so I will try to compile all of my recent happenings into one post and hopefully you will get the drift. 

My Kids. 

Teaching elementary boys is still the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I team teach with Anna but I am having problems always coming up with ways to keep them entertained, speaking and hopefully get some spelling in there too. It has been chaos but there has been little glimmers of light in the silliest things. 

In my level one class, I have three boys. Illiah #1, Illiah #2 and Big D.. (Daniel). They are all nine and full of energy. I think I like them best though. They are at the age where they still think I’m cool. I defiantly earned brownie points with Daniel when we talked Star Wars. This kid is brilliant and all he talks about is StarWars. He asked me to call him Annikin last week, but I told him I would settle with “Big D”. He is so determined everyday to get his homework done in class so he can go home and watch StarWars. He said he has watched every episode 15 times. He sounds a bit like my brother:) 

I love my little Illiahs’. They are my thing 1 and thing 2, and just as much trouble. Illiah ,  ( I feel bad for numbering them, but I have yet to figure out how to pronounce their last names) he is so curious, about everything. He is always the first to ask questions and I love it. He is so innocent, except when conspiring with his counterpart. The other Illiah, just makes me laugh. I’m pretty sure he is a little old man in a 9 year olds body. He is so cute with his button down shirts that he is constantly tucking in and complaining that he needs suspenders. They may drive me up the wall, but I’m really starting to love them. 

I’d love to go off about my level 4 boys.. but I don’t have much good to say unfortunately. This week another teacher is coming in from Utah. His name is Derrick and Anna and I are giving this class up to him, figuring that the boys might respect him a bit more. They are a lot of fun, but sad to say that they are all mostly just rich stuck up little brats.. I know I shouldn’t say that, but I really don’t like them that much.. except Bogdon, the one who gave me the tin heart. He is also the one everyone picks on. I feel bad for him. Hopefully Derrick will be able to whip these boys into shape!

When I am not teaching elementary, I am teaching Kindergarden and Pre K (the fun stuff). It is still hard, but they are just so cute, it doesn’t seem to matter as much. Here are some of  my girls. Sophia and Melissa. They are only five and speak fluently. Sophia  has such a little attitude and has very dramatic facial expressions, remind you of anyone?:) I love her. Pre K is a blast and super easy. As long as you sing “Tiny Turtle” and make stupid faces, they love you. 

This is really the hardest thing I have done. I feel like I need to switch off posts between school life, and everything else. So much has happened. I can already feel myself and perspective changing. This was not by chance. 

PS. Ill post pictures when I get to school on Monday. My internet at home is not very good. 

Tin Foil Hearts & The Wrath Of Oksana. 1/17

Today was my first day of teaching. I’ve never felt so unprepared. Basically my daily routine is as follows; wake up at about 7am to the sound of Natasha cooking and yelling at Anya (my room is right next to the kitchen). I hurry off into the bathroom across the hall and get ready. After that at some point, I am called to breakfast. One thing I am realizing is that, you never serve yourself. For some odd reason, at every meal so far, they serve me twice as much as everyone else. Of course I feel horrible if I don’t eat everything.. so I try my hardest. Then Natasha asks me if I am ready to go, well I am assuming.. its in  Russian, but my guessing has proved right so far, so I’ll stick with that.  The drive to school seems to be taking about a half hour, even though I’m pretty sure its just a few blocks away, but because of traffic, we go around town. 

I got to the school and met up with the other girls and we began training. A lot of it was review and we spent most of our time just chatting. I love these girls! It was decided that Anna (abba) and I would be teaching elementary level. Elementary is basically real school with planned lessons, not like with kindergarden, which you basically just play. This scared me. Anna and I had no idea what to do. Our school did not have all the books and teacher manuals required so finally we decided just to wing it the first day. Oh boy, was that a mistake. 

Class started at 3, the kids started coming in way early, so that put more pressure on us. I was teaching first. I was hoping that my hidden “teacher instincts” would kick in at some point.. if I had any.. I was hoping countless hours in my mom’s class would instill SOMETHING in me..

My first class was level 4. All boys, ages 10 & 11. Needless to say it was rough. Slavic is the kid I can already tell that I am going to hate to love and love to hate. He is so stinkin cute but has an attitude. 

Here is where we meet Oksana; our native coordinator. She is over our program at school and helps out with our host family situations and well, she is basically out tour guide. She is also over all of the discipline at school. These kids fear her. Oksana is one of the most gorgeous Ukrainian I have ever seen. She is about 5'9, long blonde hair, and always equipped with a mini skirt and six inch heels. Looks are deceiving. This woman can stop trains and make grown men cry. She is kinda my hero;)

 Anyway, Slavic's cell phone went off in class..  What ten year old has a cell phone.. well, iphone, in Ukraine! So on my first day of teaching I unleashed the wrath of Oksana and made a ten year old boy cry. Awesome. 

The rest of the class was not horrible, but after they saw what I could do to one boy, they were much more clam. Lets hope they stay like that. I have a good feeling about it now. After class, Bogdan came up to me and told me he had made me a present. It was the sweetest thing! I almost felt like crying when he held up a little tin foil heart, just for me!  Rough day, turned sweet. Well, we are off to find the institute so we can go to fhe!

Toodles! 

Hard at work..hahah

Which way to the kitchen appliances? 1/15

As we began to drive around Kiev in the dark, we were so lost and all sorta began to panic.. this was when we would be dropped off at our host families homes. I don't think I have ever been so nervous in my life. I had known nothing about them before I came to Kiev. My friends and I would joke about the slight chance of me getting lucky and getting paired with a super rich family and all would be good, but it was a very small chance.. For all I knew, I could end up in a sketchy flat in the middle of no where! 


Soon enough, our girls were being dropped off, what seemed like, all over the city. I was one of the last to be dropped off. As our big ugly green bus/van thing pulled into a parking lot, one of the girls said "Look Britney, you live in a 4 room furniture store!" My heart stopped. Full on cardiac arrest. No joke. I can just imagine, would you like a sleeper sofa or lazy boy? Of course, it would be my luck to live in some bizarre situation.. But don't worry! 


I got out of the bus, van thing with Oksana (our school coordinator) and walked over to a very nice new Tuscan.. A woman got out of the car, Oksana said her name was Natatsha.. and then she rumbled something in Russian, left me alone and walked back to the van.
So here I was, getting into a car with a woman I assumed was my host mom. I get in and introduce myself. "Hi, my name is Britney"......... I got a quirky smile and silence.....
Great. She did not speak english. 


Ok, I can do this- I kept thinking to myself. After about a fifteen minute drive, past the furniture store (thankfully), we arrived at a gated community near an outlet of the river. I was really surprised, considering the girls before me, had been dropped off at high rise flats. No, I was in an actual house! This was relieving.  The house was rather big. Three stories... maybe I did luck out! I was escorted in and there, I met my host sister, Anya. Anya is 9 years old and has a never ending amount of energy, she also speaks very good english! They showed me to a den area and brought my suitcases in. It took me a few minuets to realize, oh, this is my room. I looked around, a couch, a computer, entertainment center, and a glass door. Oh boy. I kinda started to freak out and thought to myself, what an interesting semester this will be.

This morning I woke up (Saturday) and hurried to the bathroom, across the entry way by the kitchen, to take a nearly disastrous shower, but all worked out fine in the end. My host family then drove me to the Metro to meet up with everyone else. It's not hard to spot a group of American Teenagers here. I could not wait to get to the school to start training and get internet! I called my mom last night but I feel so horrible for running the phone bill up. I was excited to tell everyone I had made it safely. 


Today we spent the whole day training..not my favorite thing. 
Anyway, I've calmed my very worried mother, read my little heart out, made some great friends and now it's time for lunch! Papa Johns Pizza baby! (It sounds pretty legit)
I can't wait to go to church tomorrow!