Katya

my adorable host sister turned 10 today! Like most Ukrainians, we celebrated with the whole family for hours, feasting and drinking home-made alcohol. I even made a toast IN RUSSIAN! It was kinda epic since the whole family understood me and even nodded in approval. Katya is my first Ukrainian friend so I had nothing but good things to say, but it was quite the accomplishment for my language skills. As my present, I gave her some sweet hair accessories, which are all the rage for Ukrainian girls.

Left to right: Katya, Darinka, Dima, Talya, Natasha (Katya's Mom), Volya

Today was a nice break from my hectic week. We (my cluster) had so many meetings with administrative/community/school officials and English classes to teach that everyday was packed! Not like that will change now that it's the weekend haha. Tomorrow, we're traveling to our link cluster in Kagarlyck for our technical lesson, then back to our town of Rzhyschiv for the Mother's Day Picnic/Disco for some good ol' community integration. Then, our day off is filled with preparing materials for the Pre-Service Training Conference, which is extra big this year and held in Kyiv's Opera House because it's also celebrating Peace Corps' 50th anniversary. So, we will again travel to Kyiv for this grand retreat where we'll spend the night and head home the next day. Only to return to.... more Russian lessons haha. We'll be welcomed back by a new Russian teacher (our 6th one), which will add to the chaos, and we are scheduled to travel to Kyiv a few days later to practice navigating trains and metros (in Russian)! I'm a little... overwhelmed but I know it won't be like this forever, it's just training and training is the hardest part, right?!

About 1/4 of our Russian classroom craziness

 It's really the small things that get me through the day; a fresh pair of socks, catching an episode of "Ukraine's Got Talent" with the family, watching the sunrise on early days. Also, thanks to everyone who Skyped/messaged me this week, it really made a difference :)♥
♥