City center.

Today turned out to be vairrr exciting. The sore throat has progressed and Tanya and her motherly instincts asked if I felt okay this morning. I said no actually, I've got a bit of a cold, so she promptly called Andre who was already at the store and had him get me meds. He got me this powder stuff that you pour into hot water and drink and apparently it's chock full of vitamin C. It tasted like really strong Tang. Also Tanya had me eat plain old honey cause she says it helps sore throats. Such awesome host parents.

Then a couple of Tanya and Andre's friends came over and we ate sushi, of all things. It made me miss Happy Sumo! The dad told me about how he has been to America several times and then started asking me questions about whether or not I think America won WWII and what about Japan and also if they celebrate Christmas on January 7 and we do December 25 then which church is right? It was  really kind of awkward. But other than that....they were really nice and asked me all about good ol' Utah! 

The other day I met Andre's younger brother Vova and he said he and his girlfriend Yulia would take me to see the cool parts of the city. So Andre called them and they picked me up this afternoon. I've got some sweet hookups, I tell ya. They took me to see a park full of really neat statues made of mosaics, to a couple of cathedrals, and to the city center where Khreshatyk Street is. Khreshatyk (I hope I'm spelling that right) is the huge street where only people can walk and cars can't drive on weekends. That whole part of town is really modern and there are really nice stores and restaurants. I loved it. Oh and they took me to a traditional Ukrainian restaurant and bought me lunch too. I had these amazing perogie/ravioli things filled with cherries, and I had borscht. BORSCHT. What did I say about the sweet hookups. It was such a nice Sunday. 

Amhazing buildings.

Love it. They were all weird like this.

It reminds me of the Beatles.

There's a huge water drop balanced on his face.

 Cool mosaic alley cat.

Alice in Wonderland playground.

Cool graffiti.

 So beautiful!!

 Queen Olga's cathedral.

Queen Olga and her sons. The cathedral is in her honor because she was the first woman leader in Ukraine.

At night, this lights up as a rainbow.

Beaute view of Kiev.

I start teaching tomorrow!!! I'm so nervy nervous. Wish me luck.