Another Week Gone 2

I will try to remember what I wrote last time.
Thursday we visited a school where the kids are taught English. On top of that, they are fluent in Polish, Ukrainian, Russian and German. I can barely handle 2 languages. We met with the principal where she said we could show up at any time to teach a class at her school. I think I would like to try that if I could find some free time. We also broke into groups of 4 and got to sit in on a class. There the students asked us questions about America and American people. It was rather moving when one girl said her dream was just to see the statue of liberty even once. Here we have it at our disposal and we sometimes take things for granted, I think. The best question was what extreme sports do you play. Apparently they know about the X-games and snowboarding.
Friday we had our language class where our project was to come up with a recipe, go to the bazaar and order the ingrediants and then come back and cook it. We ended up doing spaghetti. After language, we went to a social welfare center where part of the group sopke Ukrainian and the others spoke Russian. It was a complete mess and from here on out we realize we need an interpreter at all times. After that meeting a small handful of us were invited to a different school where the students put on an hour-long production entitled "Welcome to Ukraine" ALL IN ENGLISH! It was simply amazing as these kids did traditional dances and songs, played instruments and taught us about their culture.
Earlier in the week I was really down in the dumps, but after these 2 visits, it sorta uplifted my spirits and re-energized me little.

This last weekend was pretty laid back. I got to talk to my folks and my brother and Karen in her birthday. Friday was that insane party, Saturday we just sat around the apartment drinking beer and talking and Sunday I studied a ton, ate a great dinner and Olga and her son came over and we took some hilarious pictures. I think I'm up to 200 pictures now.

Today after language, we visited an NGO that speciaized in collecting data for the economies of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. They want us to work with them on some projects, some of which involve NATO and the Embassy. It was a laid back meeting and most people thought it to be very productive. After that, a small group of us went to get some pizza...now I'm here. Using Rachel's advice, I shrunk down some pictures and will attempt to post them now (kinda nervous). If this works, you will forever be known as a goddess, Rachel.