September 30, 2013

first, let me just explain the pics. that thing is a spider, not just any spider, the one that caused me to bruise my finger! that thing was as big a my palm, furry and all. we came home to fing a frog hopping around in the house and then as the hermanas walked into their room, found this pleasant little surprise. the first thing i thought was, this thing needs to be killed. because./.....after all. i am not going to leave that thing alone in the house to wander and crawl in places that i dont want to find it later! the other 3 hermanas just couldnt seem to get the courage to do it, so finally i volunteered myself. i got one of the old elder's shoes(i dont know why they left it there but that's not the point) i walked over and before i went to whack it i thuoght good and hard on what tactic i was going to use. FORCE. lots of force, because i knew that spider wasnt going to die with just a whack. i confessed that i came from a home where we didnt kill spiders. that they were all "good" and that this was a little weird to me. they were all laughing and then; mom, just for you. i apologized out loud to my mom! haha then i whacked it. i hit the wall as hard as i could! and then i looked down at my finger. it was black and blue, not only did i take out my finger on the ledge of the molding(OUCH) BUT....i missed the spider. how on earth does this happen. we then spent the next 30 mins with a polewhacking the wall. it was a dodgin game, me and that spider. i squished off a few of its legs but boy was it quick! the sad part was, i didnt even kill it! i felt bad that i wounded it, but finally it ran out through the window. it better not come back, because i woke up and boy was my thumb sore!

it's s soo good to hear from everyone! jess, i just cant believe you are getting big! i just want to see you and him and everyone! im glad you all had a fun week canning. i talk about your cooking every day mom. hermana jorgenson wants to come over and cook with us after the mission. :) AND she volunteered herself for the fourth of july talk when we get back. just make sure to tell uncle steve! haha i think she is pretty serious. 

this week was good. so many things do happen! we found another investigator through knocking doors. her name is dridem and she has a little boy. she has so many queswtions about the gospel and has a lot of confidence in god. im sure she can feel the spirit when we are in lessons. she told us that she would for sure come to church, but when we called yesterday she was sick. bummer. we didnt have any of the people keep their commitments in coming to church, which is a bummer because church is so great! we have a sister in our ward that i abisolutely love. she kind of reminds me of aunt blanche. she is known as the best cook. she makes some mean food. mmmmmmm! BUT she wan converted about 6 months ago and she has some strong faith. whenever she teaches i can feel the baptist side of her comin out. she raises her arms and just starts shouting. this week we had it in a "room" they use big curtains for doors. and the primary was in the room next to us. the lights started going in an out and they all started screaming! endlessly. one man went to shush them but wasnt having much luck. hermana jacqlyn didnt even miss a beat. her voice just got stronger and louder and louder. 

during sacrament and relief society i am almost in a trance. i cant help but fall asleep. not comepletely, but i think that after so much spanish i cant focus and then i lose every intention in focusing, but during her class i always, ALWAYS, stay awake. there is no possible way that me, or anyone else for that matter, could fall asleep. shes hilarious with all that baptist energy but i love it. when we walk home at nights we walk through one street that has 2 or 3 churches on it. they are just in small rooms, but the doors are always open and people sit in their plastic chairs in the street and take part of the service. they have a microphone and just sing praises to the lord and sing and dance. its fun to see but a little crazy. they all do this at the same time so the streets are filled with halelujahs and music.

 as we were tracting this last week we went into an older ladies home and asked if we could sing a hyms. her eyes got big and she just said no! she was almost terrified and then asked, evangelists?? haha we had to explain who we were again and then she decided to let us sing. when we ended, she was glad we had sung. 

life is good and the people are great here. the work is never easier but so worth it when you find yourself testifying of the very thing that has brought you  the most joy, success, and love into your life. its so neat to be sharing it to a people youve never seen or met and in a language you thought youd never speak fluently in. i am grateful to be here. i hope you are doing well and that you are using the lord to help you through anything because he wants to ! and he's more capable of helping yourself than you are! i have definitely learned that here in my 2-3 weeks of being here. i just love you all soooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!

 love hermana rachie poo hamblin :) hugs and kisses

September 23, 2013

the clothes are working great! we dont ever have time to shop so i dont think i'll be getting anything new. my danskos dont work because the velcro had come off of a spot and it is just a nuisance to try to

walk in them, maybe i can sew on some ther velcro? im not sure, but i have only worn them once sadly. i would LOVE for you to send me pics. there is a place here i think, but we dont have much time for it. i absolutely love my photo album we made. i look at it all the time. :)

ahh im so glad you had fun at the festival. it sounds like so much fun!

as for me-its week two! i am not quite as homesick and it is easier to transition for me. i am sweaty allllll the time! but everyone is. haha every time we go teach a lesson we greet the women with a kiss on the cheek and they tell us that we look really hot and sweaty...haha some people even offer us napkins to wipe all the sweat that continually runs haha the  other day as we were tracting this older man come over to hma gorgenson and i and felt soo bad for us and took out his hanky and just kept wiping our faces. stroke after stroke. shoot, it got a little uncomfortable! ha the people are so nice here. as we walk the street people yell god bless you or blessings with you or god be with you. i love it! 

i had my first baptism on this last saturday! her name is cristina and she is 75 years old. she is always smiling with her one tooth grin and has a cackle raspy laugh. like an old southern woman would have, she has lots of spunk and energy. i just love her! we have 2 other people challanged for a baptism on october 12 and that is fatima and her son franklin. they are progressing very well, but her mother died a few days ago so it has been really hard for her. 2 days ago we were contacting in a cajone. this is a place that is pretty poor, and we found a young lady, about 23. her name is dradem and she has a 5 yr old boy. we have only had 2 visits with her and she has lots of questions for us. its fun because she is our age. when i try to talk she cant stop herslef from smiling. her little boy ALWAYS makes fun of the way i talk. i have a funny accent he says haha. we all just sit on the bed and laugh and laugh...because after all, that is all i can do. 

today for p day we went to a new members house and had a bbq with our district leaders and it was fun. we helped make the food so it was okay! 

i took some photos, funnny enough, of how we do our laundry. s oit will answer your q's perfectly :) we have the washer and then a hose that we fill it with. we turn it on with a butter knife and we have to turn on the spout for the water with a wrench. then we hang all our clothes on lines on the porch. i kind of like it. 

we have about 70 people in our ward. and they are all so great! all the missiionaries that have served here say that this is the best area in the entire mission for help from the branch. they are so organized and have every member working as a missionry. they are all so dedicated and love helping the sisters! they take us home each night, take us home from church. wow they are great. our house is about a mile from where we tract so it can get a bit hot. the ward has found a house that is a lot nicer and that is a lot cloer so we might get to move in a few weeks. im keeping my fingers crossed! a few nights ago we came home to no light. it was off for almost 2 days! everyone else in the neighbor had light the entire time we didnt so im not quite sure what happened. its a good thing i had my jar of peanut butter with me because we didnt have a refrigerator!!!

 as for mail, the mission pres told us that packages sometimes take 8 months or so to get here...bummer! but they said they can get here in a month if you send small packages like the pb package you sent. so a chritsmas package might not make it by christmas even if you sent it now. who knows! haha BUT if you do send a christmas package i would love some roll on dry idea deoderant and a christmas cd of amy grant spiritual christmas music like emmanueal or come all ye faithful. the good stuff :) 

i love you so much mamma. i think of you each and every day and how extrememly grateful to have a mother like you. you are so loving and so supportive and have been my entire life. i have never given you the appreciation that i should have, but i hope you know how much i love you!!!!! i do i do!!! i hope that you are healthy and that you and dad are happy. :) i hope you have a wonderful week! loves and kisses!

-rachie

September 16, 2013

Hey mamma! 

wow it seems like i havent talked to you in a LOOOOOOONNNNGG time. my companion is hermana jorgenson. she is from vegas! she is very sweet. she is 21 and has 5 months here.yes, i use my repellent AND my tent net. we were all laughing so hard when i pulled that thing out and POP. it saggs big time over my bed and almost engulfs the rooom. but im safe right-!!!!!! my living conditions are qute different. hmm yeah. i cant flush the toilet paper ha we had a cocaroach in our shower and i was the brave one who tried to sqush it in the shower curtain. of course i onl wondeed it and now it waunders wherever it want without us knowing where to find it. blast! 

the people here are great. the sister missionaries keep commenting how this is the best area that they have ever been in/meaning that the members are so involved in helping us missionaries. our branch president has been praying for sister missionaries and is so pleased that we are here. but this is the first time that sisters have ever been in this area and so we dont have a lot of investigators and we are trying to establish boundaries. we live in a house with another set of sisters too. there are so may misionaries in rv!!! sisters!!!! take care of those sisters! (and elders) 

i have felt so much more peace here mainily because of the members here opening up to us and being so kind. it makes me less homesick. i have been reallllly homesick lately and it has been the hardest thing in the world to be here. i knew it was going to be hard, but i have come to realize i just didnt understand what hard meant. it's getting better though. i am learning to put myself in the saviors hands and have more faith. say hello to everyone! also, could you forward this email to maybe lieke and janice. i cannot email anyone other than my family.  its a bummer but i want to be as obedient as i can.

apparently i am the new adele here. so many people; escpecially one of my investigators(mario) and the tennage girls here basically refer to me by that name. it's so funny because no one in the states has ever told me that! 

about some of my investigators; we have mario. he is amazing. he has been taking the lessons for 2 years and is completely active and comes to missionary meetings and everything else. his faith is outstanding. he cant get baptized because his esposa are not married. she doesnt want to get married and doesnt take the lessons. it must be oh so hard for him but he doesnt show it.

im sure i can print things off i just have to find a place and then find the time haha. i am in la venta caobas..i think that is how u spell it. its outside of the city but is still part of santo domingo. my companion and i try to always speak spanish in the streets, but once we go inside of a home, i cannot understand anything! i keep telling myself that it hasnt even been a week, but i just yearn to say something and to help teach! this is humbling having to lean on my companion and the Lord of course. i love you all so very much and i hope you are all well. i think of you and the family very often and i just love you all so very much. mom, thank you for spending so my time helping me prepare for my mission. it really means a lot. i know jesucristo and dios live and that they are there for me and for you and for dad! in anything that you need. whatever joy or harship you face, face it through faith! have a blessed and wonderful week!! i love you bunches!!!!

/hermana hamblin

September 6, 2013

 I am so sad to hear about Sister Wilkins and Jared. I hope Kerri is sure okay. I wish I had her email to send her something. Do you think that you could ask for it sometime? 

We had another great devotional this week and we actually had someone come! It was Elder Andersen and his wife (the people President Nicoll knows). It was cool to see them. I also saw brother and sister Gray (the couple from St. Johns that Travis talked about. They had been looking for me and finally found me! So tell Travis I saw them! 

This has been a good week and I can't believe it is my last one here! I leave on Tuesday morning for the field with about 50 other missionaries. I don't know where I am going though. So last Friday i got to go on my first cambio (exchange) for about 7 hours. It was so cool! I got to be with 2 sisters. They were from Utah and one of them knows an elder in Hong Kong! And I think it is an elder that Blake had a class with. He's really tall and has red hair and his name is Spencer? So we got to make a connection in Hong Kong haha 

Anyway, as we walked the streets it amazed me to see how different it is here. They are very very poor here. so many buzz around on their little mopeds. Little old men drive their banana stand bicycles. It's exactly how it sounds. They connect a huge basket that has bananas hanging from it as they drive around selling them. They also do that with ice cream! It was so incredibly humid and I was sweating up a storm. We got to do 4 lecciones, lessons, with people. I bore testimony and prayed, but not much else! I'm still progressing with the language...but I have quite a ways to go. The Lord is definitely helping me learn it though! 

Funny story-we had been wakling around for a little while and finally made it to our first house. It's hard to describe the place, but there were so many houses crowded in such a small area. The homes were about 2 feet apart on every side. No sidewalks so streets. nada. Ee got to the house and the front was just metal bars. Anyway we sat down and started with an opening hymn. We were talking about the book of mormon and she was asking questions. We were having a good time. She was holding here baby-probably almost 2- all of a sudden I look down and her shirt is half off and she's feeding the babe. I saw everything. I mean, I am a woman but I just couldn't focus because it was just so random! ummmm I'm just wondering why no one didn't tell me this was normal. haha Anyway the Hermanas took us to get some frozen yogurt which was really sweet of them. As we walked around it started getting darker and you could hear all of the little resturants and stores cranking up the latino/american music. I loved it! 

I only got bitten by mosquitos 4/5 times so that's not too bad. The Hermanas said that with every transfer you will get bitten a lot because it is a new area and you are fresh meat. Oh joy! Maybe I should purchase one of those electric fly swatters. It electrocutes any bug you touch. Lieke had a really nice one. That sounds nice right?? haha I think I'll just have to painfully learn how to have fast reflexes. Well I should go, but I love you and the fam! By the way, when we leave on Tuesday I might not get to email you for over a week and my p days will be on Mondays from now on I believe. They might let me email you once I get to the mission home on Tuesday night, but just in case they don't I wanted to warn yoU! 

-hermana hamblin

September 6, 2013 To write a letter to me please use this address: Elder Rachel Hamblin (yes put Elder) haha, C/Hatuey #73, Urb. Los Cacicazgos, Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana

August 29, 2013

 I have bunches to tell you! I sure hope I have enough time to email. I am not acutally going to Florida. They sent us that flight so the DR knows we will be leaving. I get out into the field on Sept. 10th. How exciting! I can't wait! I got the package so thank you VERY MUCH. I just love everything in there!! I received the letter from you but none from Dad. 

To answer some of your q's- we have church here, so I never talk to any locals other than my teachers. And I did give my talk in sacrament the first week in Spanish. Gringo Spanish may I add! Last week was the first time that we went "tracting" we went to the university. I was so scared. They let us go for about 2 hours with just our companions. Hermana Scholes and I walked up to our first people. It was a group of young college students. The moment we headed their way I could tell that they were not happy to see us, my companion insisted so we continued. As we walked up I asked them how they were doing. One of the girls muttered something with an annoyed tone and walked off. At that point I panicked inside. I could feel that all confidence was lost and my face was definintely showing it. I stumbled with my words as I continued to pathetically testify of Christ. I'm not going to lie, becasue that's exactly what happened. The young woman I was talking to had head phones in and would look at me for a few seconds and then look back at her friends, like who are these people and why on earth are they talking. It was a pretty sad experience and honestly I didn't enjoy it too much. We got to talk to some pleasant people, but that experience scared me. As we walked back, all the other missionaries talked about how they had such a neat experience and how they could have done that all day long. 

As I was studying the scriptures the other day I came across a scripture that was an answer to this problem that I was worrying about. I can't remember the reference but it said that if you have faith in Christ he will build your confidence and you will be able to testify boldy. It comforted me a lot. I should never be lacking confidence when I am bearing testimony becasue it is truth! We get to go tracting tomorrow so I am excited about that! 

As for my schedule, We start at 6:30 and then we do personal study for about 2 hrs and then language study and more study and more! It's a lot of studying, but it's definitely needed! Every Sunday they feed us ice cream at night and then we get to walk around the temple and take pics. It's very nice to finish off the week that way! 

By the way what are the names of the temple president that Travis knows and the area seventy- I haven't met any of them and I haven't seen any Flakes. This week has flown by and I can't believe I have less than 2 weeks left. I am ready to be out in the field though! I just can hardly wait. The electricity goes out here a lot. It'll only go out for like 5 secs or less, but it's just a norm. I love you very much and hope you have a wonderful week! Love you all bunches!!

August 22, 2013 

 Mom, I stinkin LOVE YOU!! It's so great to hear from you every week! I am glad that your back is doing better and that you are walking. over a mile a day?!!! sheeesh that's great! 

This week has been good. I sent some pics so I hope that you get some. I sent one with me and a palm tree. 

I hope that sent! I can see an improvement with the language. We do about 2 practice investigators each day. Sometimes our lessons go for about 35 mins and we speak Spanish the whole time. It's great! I know I make lots of mistakes, but they always understand what we are saying. It's a really cool feeling. At lunch I try to talk to the latinos..we have one elder we talk to all the time and whenever he responds, we can't respond back. We have no idea what he is saying. 

 I have not yet received the PB package,....but as I read it, a huge smile took over my face. HA! I told Hermana Scholes and she just laughed. oh man! Last week somehow the elders got my fork story out of me......I should have NEVER EVER told them. They all poke jokes about it EVERY day at least a few times. They all think that it is hilarious. My district wants to take a photo with us and our forks. That will probably come next week! So I hope you enjoy it :)

 I heard that we are leaving the MTC on sept. 10th. that is a rumor, but I'm pretty sure that is correct. Well I should probably go because I have only 45 mins to email and I have to read everyone else's but I will reply more if I have time. I love you and thank you for all of the support! I really appreciate and need it :)
 -Hermana Hamblin

Thursday, August 16, 2013 * Hey Sweet Mamma! It's so great to hear from you! I am trying to upload pics but I dont know if I will have enough time to figure it out. Sorry if I can't! I got my first letter from Dad yesterday! Tell him thanks! I wrote both you and Dad a letter and so they should be sending it out any day now. Today we got to actually leave the gates of the temple and MTC. HOLY COW! It is a very differnt world out there! The traffic is ridiculous! haha We walked about 15 mins to go to the store and I was pretty much drenched in sweat. I bet Blake knows all about that! We had about 50 missionaries all go to the store so you can imagine the looks and stares we got! People kept pointing and say "Americans! Americans! I couldn't stop myself from buying an almond Snickers and a dominican chocolate bar. I am just missing chocolate!! The only time we have sweet things are at night after "family prayer". Sister Freestone has a little basket of choclate and so we line up and say goodnight and receive a chocoalte. It's a very special part of the day! After walking to the store I am so excited to start proselyting! But I am a little nervous about how to teach people on a busy, noisy street! I can't believe Blake has a companion that does not speak any English! That is good in a way because she will learn the language the best in that scenario. I kind of hope that happens to me! Each week we are given a topic that we are supposed to prepare a talk for. Then on Sunday President Freestone announces who will talk and bear their testimonies. Of course, I was the first and only sister asked to speak on the first Sunday. It went well, but it was kind of ironic because the night before I was talking to my companion and telling her I hoped I would be called on to speak,,,,,sure enough I was!!! As for the language, yes, we still speak English. I still have to take in written notes to teach my lessons, but it is coming. We had a new bunch of new sisters come in from JAMAICA!, and a few from other Central Amreican places. It's so much fun to be surrounded by people from different cultures. I think I will have the same companion the entire stay at the MTC. I think they are counting this as our third week and that we only have two weeks left, but no one has clearly communicated anything yet. I honestly have no idea how many missionaries are in the West mission, but there is an island that is part of my mission too! I am so glad that your back is getting better and that you are feeling well! It makes me happy. How is your deal of no chocolate working out?? I shouldnt be craving any because you haven't had any for a LONG TIME. Jess is having twins. I just know it! Then I can come home to find 2 lil bundles of joy! Maybe I should start praying for that!! haha Today was the second session that we went to the temple. I had a really neat experience. I might not have time to email Granny so tell her for me :) At the end of the session before I went up to the veil I was just praying. I was kind of falling asleep but I was praying for the lady that I was going through for. I prayed that she would receive the ordinances that I was doing for her. At that very moment a thought popped into my head...Papa Hamblin knows this lady. I dont know how or anything but I immediatley woke up becasue it was so strong! I felt that she accepted it. Then I looked down at the place and it said from Massachusetts. Didn't Papa serve there? I don't know but the date was 1776. It was a cool experience! for the deoderant, we have only gone to the store once and we weren't given much time and I'm not sure if they will have a good brand here. I should go but I love you bunches!!!!! Tell everyone hi!!! -Hermana Hamblin!!

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Hi Mom! And Dad! Thursday at 12 your time is when my p-day is! Thank you for writing me. It is always good to hear from someone you love. Well, I really love it here! I met sister Huish in the airport. She is darling. I room with her and 3 others. My companion's name is sister Scholes. She is from Boise Idaho. pretty cool huh?! It is beautiful here! We can barely see the water from the MTC but that is enough for me! It is definitely humid, but I can't tell too much until gym time. For the last few days I've been playing volleyball with like 30 other people. By the end everything is COMPLETELY soaked. My district is awesome! we have 8 people in my district. 6 elders and me and my companion. 
We have a Haitian in my group that speaks Creole/French and knows Spanish pretty well. He is older and is such a nice guy! His name is elder Joseph. My Spanish has been getting better by talking to him. We still speak English here..lots actually, but when we are in class they pretty much just teach in Spanish. I have taught a practice investigator 2 or 3 times and it has gone okay. It is all in Spanish, but I write all of it down on a piece of paper. I read it, but I can say things off of the top of my head as well. There are only about 60 missionaries in this MTC, and I love that it is so small. We know pretty much everyone, including the janitors. The people here are so kind. We also stay with all of the temple missionaries and those who come to be temple workers from all over. The other day we met some people that were from a tiny island located in the lesser Antilles :) We also met some older ladies from the West Indies that come here to go to the temple to work. They take their vacation time to fly 10+ hours to work at the temple. What an example they are to me! The teachers here are amazing. I really love all of them. One sounds like he is from India and is soooooo sarcastic. Everyone loves him though. He reminds me of people at home interestingly enough haha. It is hard to switch straight to Spanish and sometimes I ask myself if I can do this....YES I CAN!! because it is the greatest thing I can be doing right now! There are lots of people here that have been such an example to me and have lifted me up! Well, it is great hearing from you and I love you a ton!!! please share this with Dad. :) Love, Hermana Hamblin

First we went to Germany and visited Janice and her family!

TRAIN CONCERT

Yes, this is train. My sisters and I grew up on Train. And loved it. We LOVED TRAIN. So...while I was in Ukraine Jess decided to get all of us sisters Train tickets. It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.!

Matt Kearney was there. He has a beautiful voice live.  Andy Grammar was there..but sorry no pictures. He was great though!

Barbequing with a Ukrainian Fam

Anya is one of the students that I teach in Ukraine. Her dad drops her off for English class and aslways stops by to say hello. He lived in Montana on a foreign exchange student program so he knows English very well. That is honestly very rare to find someone in Ukraine that speaks English well. He invited Mar and I to have dinner at his home.
On Monday, he and his girls picked us up and drove us to his lovely neighborhood. Oh my goodness, it was so nice to drive in a car! We pull up to an actual house! I would say 87% of people here live in flats (apartments)...yes, that is my guess,-87%! They have a beautiful home! They are still building their home and are staying in their guest house. Their guest house is bigger than the flat that I live currently in. My flat has two bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a t.v. room, and a very small kitchen. We have 6 people living here too! Anyway, we got there and met his other girl and wife, Sasha. They couldn't speak English, but were so inviting and eager to have us. We looked at paintings and pictures and just talked. Sergey, the dad, showed us part of the pyramids that he had in his closet and talked about all of the places that he's visited-Tunisia, China, Egypt, Turkey, sheesh all over the world! Then he took us on a walk near his home. We walked along the beach. It was such a fantastic view. There were people camping out with their portable radios and umbrellas. People were starting fires and cooking. ....and of course nude oldies tanning it up. We walked back and we started up the barbecue. We had veal that was marinated, mashed potatoes, salad, pickled sweet peppers, and for dessert we had homemade cheese and honey as well as fresh milk from the village. The cheese was more like a sweet cheese that was really smooth and white. The milk was extememly sweet and thick. It was so thick, it had a film over it. Usually I would not drink that, but I hadn't had a cup of milk since I got here! They fed us and fed us until I could not eat another thing. Then they sent us home with the extra cake, veal, a few apples, as well as fresh cherry blossom tea he got from China and some Chinese currency. It was such a great day sunbathing on their lawn chairs, playing with the dog, and the girls. I felt like I was back at home in America visiting good friends.

Sundays!

I went to church today. Let me just say, my day was great! I love going to church and feeling Christ's love for me. It makes me have so much hope and I feel so much joy. It makes me smile more. I laugh easier. I can be more friendly when I've felt the Spirit. I love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I am grateful I have it in my life!

Little Godsends

Today I was cheered up by an unexpected someone. I was having a rough start with my day and just couldn't get into a good mood. I had planned to meet up with some friends for a temple trip and had got on the wrong trolley bus that took me who knows where. I was at least a half hour late and had no phone. I showed up at the metro finding no one. I sat there in the metro in despair and frustration. All of a sudden a little boy about three years old took a seat at the corner of the bench. He sat there swinging his little legs back and forth with a small bouquet of dandelions. He seemed to take notice of my gloomy figure. He looked over at me with the biggest eyes and scooted closer to me. I think he was just curious. His eyes were just beaming with all the joy a little boy could have. He eagarly looked at my ipod, captivated by the weird language it was in. Then, without a hesitation he held out his bouquet of dandelions to my nose and just gave me the biggest grin his little mouth could hold. I sniffed them and told them how wonderful they smelled, even though he didn't understand English. We both just sat there and giggled. A minute later, my metro pulled up and it was time for a goodbye. I smiled and said bye! He quickly gave an excited wave and kept shouting pica! Pica! ..which is goodbye in Russian. He walked off with his dad and glanced back one more time for a frantic, yet excited wave and a beautiful smile. I got onto the metro and was just beaming with joy from that simple experience. That little boy was a little godsend to me today.

A day at the Ukrainian Zoo

What is this might you ask? Apparently, it is a Phoenicopterus roseus......a translation from Russian to the English word for flamingo. Wouldn't it be just be easier to say...flamingo????
I guess it wasn't the best time of year to visit the zoo in Ukraine... Before my host family took us, they had told us that a lot of animals usually die in that zoo. They don't have the best reputation.Gigantic mass waste lands and bomb shelters were seen. It was an adventure in itself. We didn't get to see a lot of animals. Gorillas...nope.Monkeys...nope. Hippos, cheetahs, elephants, flamingos, turkeys, nope! We just got to see the massive signs advertising for the animals. We got to see some good sized geese and a lion or two though.
The zoo was able to keep a snake though. Mom, I thought you'd like this.

It is unacceptable to make fun of the animals....or feed candy to them for that matter.

Although there wasn't much to see at the zoo, it was a fun day relaxing with the fam!

Happiness is a choice

Today is a good day. It may be a chilling 5 degrees Celsius, but that is okay! I'm in Ukraine. I'm teaching my cute Followup kids, Vanya, Raya, and Yulya. They sure are fun! Why shouldn't I be happy?

Manicures

Tonight, I got a manicure from my host mom, Ira.
I can't speak Ukranian.
She can't speak English.
BUT this is what made my day.

Ira went to school and studied cosmology. She can do hair and nails professionally you could say. She has a 16 year old daughter and almost every night they sit in her room and do each others nails with glitter and creative designs. I think it would be so much fun to do mother-daughter things like that! I love it and think it's so cute.
Since I have moved into my Ukrainian home, I haven't had the best communication with my family. The parents don't speak little English and I speak a FEW words of Ukranian/Russian. She offered to do my nails last night and so I eagerly accepted. I walked into the kitchen and she had little cloth set out on the kitchen table and had her bag of nail gadgets. I didn't know I was getting into a full salon experience!
She put some smelly good nail oil on. Then she pushed back my nail cuticles and clipped them. She was so delicate and precise. She wasn't just going to paint my nails. She was going to make sure that she did them well. She wanted to make an impression and show how much she loved doing them and how well she could. She worked and worked on my cuticles and then got the file out and worked on rounding my next to nothing, scrawny nails. Then she got out her hand cream and gave me a hand massage. We just giggled like two little girls as she just pampered me. I was just so happy to see this side of her. Then she painted my nails and put 2 little sparkles on each nail and did a neat design on my ring fingers
....after she was done her daughter told me that I needed to grow out my nails a bit so she could shape them and make them look good. I just think I might take her up on that! 

This is just one small thing that made my day! Even though it was through painting nails, I got to know Ira a little better and share a happy moment with her.

LIVOV AND ROMANIA VACATION

I went to Romania a few weeks ago. Let me just say that no one knew what our trip entailed. No one. All I knew was that we were going to Lvov and Romania and that we were getting there by a train and a bus. First, we took a  sleeper train to Lvov, Ukraine. Doesn't it sound like a Harry Potter adventure?? I was sure excited since this was my first sleeper train. We got on at 11:30 pm and headed off to the beautiful city of Lvov. I loved being rocked to sleep on the tracks and hearing the train roll along.
Lvov is the most European city in Ukraine. The architecture is beautiful. We climbed MANY stairs to the top of a tower to look out over the beautiful city of 200,000 people. It is a quaint little city. I loved it. From the top of the tower we could see almost everything! Some of the roof tops were caving in. It looked like it could have been from bombs. The homes and buildings were so colorful!

After our day there, we got on a bus to drive to Romania. Our tour guide informed us that it would be about a 6 hour drive. Well, that's not too bad. We got on. 6 hours passed. We drove on. We continued to drive, and drive....and drive. Little did we know it would be a 17 hour drive. The rode we drove on for about 14 hours was a 2 way road that wound up and down the mountain. Don't worry. We got to Sinai, Romania. It was gorgeous. The mountains reminded me of home. Someone even compared it to being a Park City country. In some ways it was.

This would be the windy 14 hour long road I would be talking about.

1st EXCURSION---------Peles Castle

Isn't it just beautiful! It was built just a few hundred years ago. It has about 80 rooms and 30 bathrooms. Wouldn't that be a wonderful hotel to stay at?! The dining room was huge. There were about 40 seats for dinner guests. The decor was fancy and it was well preserved.

2nd EXCURSION-----DRACULA'S CASTLE!!

Yes, I said DRACULA. Okay people, Dracula was real. He was. His name was Vladimir. Maybe he wasn't a vampire, but who's to say he really wasn't? Anyway, he was a creepy man. His castle was built in the early 1300's. He wasn't the first one to live in the castle though. I'll give a very brief biography of Mr. Vladimir. He was in the royal family, but somehow he didn't get bequeathed and left everything he wanted. Instead, all of the good family fortune went to his brother. He became very upset and bitter. It changed his life...obviously for the worst. He became known for his torture techniques that he would perform on people that didn't agree to his commands. His castle was built up on a very high hill. He conveniently had a forest behind this castle of His. He found a use for it alright. He chopped down the trees and only left a few feet left of it. With the remaining tree, he carved out spears. He had his servants through off people form the top of his castle onto the sharpened spears. He also did a lot of other stuff that I don't really want to go too deep into. If you want to learn more, look it up! Now, I don't know how credible all of this information is, but I found it on the internet.

3rd EXCURSON---GOOD OLE' TRADITIONAL ROMANIAN DINNER

Me and a group of kids from my volunteer group signed up for a Romanian dinner. In the description it said we'd dance around a campfire and enjoy entertainment and then be fed real Romanian food. Fun right?
We drove another hour up the windy roads in the Romanian wilderness to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. We were greeted by this.

Cheesy men dressed up in Dracula "costumes." Don't you just love the guy rockin' the bunny fingers? His hat even said Halloween on it. These was the first feel of how this dinner shin dig was goin down.
They had a bonfire alright. Me, and about 40 other people sat around this fire while 4 people came out dressed in traditional Romanian attire and started singing and dancing. There was also a random dragon thing that walked around the fire poking his faces in peoples' business and shaking his booty. Interesting..... They had a jug of Dracula's blood so of course we had to try that. It turned out to be...wine. when you're gulping down supposed warm cider you wouldn't think there would be burning! That was my first taste of spirits! I took a drink and didn't want any more.
Then, they escorted us into the basement of the restaurant.

This is our little ILP group that braved this adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

First they brought out this....

Looks fancy right?

I had never seen this before, as well as the others. We decided to poke it around first, just to test it. We gave it a good poke and it bounced back. What the heck? I was pretty sure it wasn't any meat I had ever eaten. I took a little snag and popped it in. Mush. Mush. Mush. The lady came out and informed us it was brain. It was cold! You could have taken the knife and spread it across the bread. I ate about 3/4 of it and had to call it off. I was not prepared to conquer it. No way. Welp, that was only the appetizer. They didn't even try to get us accustomed a smidge to what we would be eating. They just brought out the big guns!
The next plate

The only thing I felt comfortable eating was the red peppers. Before this picture was taken there was a dark brown deviled egg. I ate that too. The stuff in the tomato is some kind of cheese. It was STROONG. The round gelatin meat looking stuff was who knows what. I'm pretty sure it was a mixture of things. I heard it could have been tongue, ear, and liver. The sausage stuff on the left wasn't sausage. When I cut into it it was like meat spread. The taste was so foreign I couldn't get it down.

The Dinner Plate

This was grits and stewed liver. The orange things weren't carrots. It looks appetizing, I guess if you like liver. We had another dish with an assortment of pickled food. One was pickled watermelon. I didn't find much of a taste for it. For dessert we had a squirt of strawberry ice and wined prunes. Let me just say, I tried everything! When I left, 3 hours later, I was pretty dang hungry. It was a fun and a good experience, I would just rather eat good food!

LAST EXCURSION----MIDNIGHT TORCH TOUR

We showed upand they gave us this big, cheesy torches. Our guide led out. We roamed Brasov till 1 am, looking like a bunch of ridiculous English people. When we passed a church the guide stopped us and talked about it. She had even brought pictures of the inside of the church because apparently it wasn't open at 12 am. Awesome huh? While we waled through the city sqaure, some men passed us. The tour was in Russian. They didn't ask if we were English or not, but blurted out. 'What...are you doing?.." Enough said.

All in all, it was a spontaneous night that took us to places that we ate and did things we never thought about doing! I'm not going to lie. After the midnight torch tour we stopped at McDonalds. No more brain for me please!

metro?

One nice thing about being in a foreign country is that you have an excuse not to know how to do things right. You also are put in little, yet OFTEN humbling situations.
Yesterday I got on the wrong bus, so I hopped off and got onto another one. I asked the driver if it went to the metro and he said yes. We hopped on. A few minutes later he yells, "Diavichki!"I had been on this bus before and knew for a fact that we had a good 15 minute ride ahead of us. Why was he telling us this was the metro stop? Well, I guess it was the hint to get off at the next stop. I ignored my better sense of judgement and got off.So...of course that's what we did. We all got off....and the bus sat there...then he yells the same thing at us and waves us in. He just wanted money for the trip. I knew it wasn't the metro....We flashed them our metro cards, and got back on the bus.

Take the 56 D!

Yesterday, I got on the wrong bus to ride back to my flat. 56 K. I have taken this bus the same route a few times before and have never landed in the right place. When I wait for a bus at this particular stop it usually takes 45 mins, so when a 56 bus micro bus came zooming along, I decided to hop on! We got a good 30 min ride out of it until I fully decided it was the wrong bus. After I hurridly hopped off, I dropped one of my reallly nice gloves. Now it is gone. And now I roam around Kiev with one bare hand. Classy.