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Everything in Ukraine was so much different from what I was used to in Western Europe, different buildings, different language, and a really different culture. It took me some time to get use to all of it but once I did I really learned a lot. After a while I even started to call this place my home.  This place has stolen my heart and it's hard to leave.

Even though this was not my first choice as in internship I can say that I never thought I would learn so much and enjoy my time here so much as well! The main goal I had when I got here was to learn some Russian. however I never thought I would learn so much more. I learned how to become a better teacher, not only in English but in other subjects as well, also a better listener, and a better friend.  I have learned how to read maps better and how to be more aware of my surroundings so I don’t get lost and also to avoid bad situations when I see them.

There is loads of things that I have done here but that never feels like enough. I've partied at clubs with friends, gone to countless restaurants for dinners and lunches, seen boat loads of sights in Kiev, gone outside of the town on weekend adventures, and I have even danced with old people in metro stations. I know parts of this town like the back of my hand, able to navigate where I needed to get to without getting lost. I know some parts of this town better then my own town, Pataskala and I am completely ok with that. I feel like this is home for me and I love it.
 

My name is Darla Holland. I am 20 years old and live in Kiev Ukraine. I have been through teaching crazy little Ukrainian kids, standing awkwardly as people talk to me in Russian, a revolution, brink of war and this is my last post as in American in Kiev. tomorrow I will make my long way back home to Ohio. I will miss everything here terribly. I just wish I can put down on paper everything I learned here from this experience but then I would be writing a novel. 

I am going to miss everything here in Kiev Ukraine so much. I cannot put in words how much I will miss the things here. I have grown from this, all of it, I am a better person because of it. I am going to miss the friends I have made, the family that I call mine, the old communist buildings that I think are now beautiful, the Roshen Chocolate, and my kids that I have taught for the past 4 months. I'll miss Toma and his Pirate ships , Misha and his toothless smile and his enthusiasm for life and Spiderman, and Masha and how she tried so hard to do everything right. These kids stole my heart.

 I am frustrated at myself for going home. I should have tried harder to stay. I don't want to leave. this is not bitter sweet to me, just bitter. however I feel blessed that I have had the opportunity to be here in this time.

I have one tip for anyone who is reading this. do something unpredictable or completely different because life is too short to live in the same little town and do the same little job. learn a new language, a new skill. just go on an adventure.

it's been a blast

Darla

 

Birtdays, friends, and family.

This is a really short post about the friends I have made here and my birthday. everyone that is working for ILP with me is absolutely amazing! they all have their differences but I need every single one of them in my life. this trip has been life changing, it really has.

ok for my birthday, this has to be one of the best birthday weeks in a long time! I don't remember when I had such a great birthday as the one I had this year.  it just doesn't seem to end! The activities that I have done with friends this past week has been so fantastic, I just can't explain how much I have enjoyed spending time with them.

Starting off my birthday week was Saturday. First Saturdays party was filled with dancing in metros and the London Pub Bus and also the park. The day started off with the park. I ran around with friends through open fields, danced on a hill like no one was watching, and took loads of photos. 
at first I just was planning on going to the park and going home afterwards. I didn't know that we were going to the London Pub Bus, in fact everyone left the park early, leaving me and Camden alone.

I was bummed out at first when everyone left because I wanted to spend time with everyone but Camden and I had loads of fun walking around the town. He just makes me smile, that kid is so funny. I am happy that he decided to come with me to Ukraine and try something new. But eventually we made our way to the London Pub Bus. The hot chocolate is just the best hot chocolate ever. it's cheep and rich, what more do you want. but it's on a bus! I love it. one of the reasons I like it so much is because it's called London Pub I do not feel guilty for using English and that is the only restaurant that I will speak English in.

Camden wanted to get hot chocolate so we walked in to find every one of my friends there waiting for me!  Marilee planed the whole thing for me. I am just grateful that I have such a great person in my life. she is amazing. then she took me to the metro but didn't tell me where we were going. we got off the red line and made it to a metro stop close to the town center. as we got off music filled the metro and it only got loader as we made our way out. it was Metro dancing!  The dancing has to be by far my favorite that night that we did. Old men kept on asking me to dance like I was the only girl there. They would also show me new dances and how to do them, even though I do not speak Russian that well (hardly at all) I understood what they were telling me to do. The music that the live band was paying was up beat and fun. it was just really fun all together!

on Sunday I got to go out with my host family. we got to go to St. Sophia's church. it's one of the oldest churches in Europe, dating back to the 11th century. Sadly I didn't get any photos of inside the church because it wasn't allowed (fearing that the flash would damage some of the tiles) but it was breath taking because of the oldness of it. They decided not to refurbish it so the church was covered in old fading paintings on the wall as well as mosaic's and graffiti that dated back 1500's. In a way I kind of liked not taking photos because I tired to imagine a time where this church was in it's prime, when people worshiped often and feared God with all their might. it was magical. Because they didn't refurbish it, it almost like you where seeing it for the first time before anyone else.

My Birthday was on Monday and that was great as well! Marilee planed another great adventure for me. we went to a huge mall across town off the blue line. this mall has everything, including a water park. but we got to go ice skating! I used rentals but even with rentals I was able to do some tricks like Mohawks. it made me miss my skates back home for sure. We also got fish messages and ice cream! The fish message was amazing. I couldn't stop giggling for the first couple minutes because it tickled and felt funny!

After teaching my host family made me Pizza (yulya makes the best pizza ever. it is by far the best thing she makes. she won't tell me how she makes it either! :( ) and we had soda. they even got sprite for me! They know I don't like any other soda then that and they picked it out for me! they got me flowers and earrings that are so beautiful! my host mom even said she loved me! I got a little chocked up, really. I never thought I would care for them as much as I do. I love them so much! they are great people! we also had cake, witch I cut myself (I am not good at cutting cake but they wanted me to cut it). and to finish up an amazing day I helped Maxim (my host brother) with a piñata he had to make for school. needless to say, one of the best birthdays I have had in a while.

weeks update

as my time in Kiev winds down it's hard to believe I only have two weeks left in this town. I have fallen in love with my family, the kids I teach, the culture, and the Russian language. I have gained a love for different languages and want to keep up learning more languages and expanding on them. Because I travel so much at this time in my life the need for me to know these languages is high. my fear is that I will lose them once I don't need them. Someday I want to find a job that I can use them or keep on traveling. I have worked this hard to learn them I want to keep them and learn more. starting with French and moving back to Russian. I have gotten the Russian stare down! it only took me 4 months but I can do it, kind of. I love the culture here and how the people react to things differently. people are interesting, that's all I can say.

this week was hard getting back into teaching, well the first two days where kind of hard. after the vacation I still had the vacation mind set. it was hard to focus and start to teach again and have my mind in the lessons I was teaching. Although I am starting to get back into it. The time started to speed by again as I explored the city before school, then taught, and then went home for the night to spend time with my family. This weeks highlights include dancing withhold men in metros, buying shoes from a street vender, cooking party at Marilee's house (because her host family was out of town), and last but not least party with other Americans.

Dancing was amazing it was totally unexpected too. we were going to go out for pizza and outside of this metro on the red line there was a live band playing Ukrainian folk music and old people dancing. I watched for a little and tried to dance by myself to understand their footwork but eventually an old man came up and asked me to dance. he knew no English but yet it was still cute that he asked me to dance. he showed me dance moves and how to do the steps right. we didn't stay every long dancing though and I was a bit sad because of it. I was grateful that we did spend at least 45 minutes there because it was amazing.

At Marilee's we cooked muffins, brownies and pizza! it was great because there was a couple other people over so it was like a small party. Camden came over and so did Brendon, and Alysha. we just joked around and cooked. because we were the only people in the flat it felt like it was Marilee's place and she owned it. it felt like we really lived in Kiev and we were locals and we were here to stay. the friends didn't stay super late, till 10? I stayed though because it was just easier to spend the night at her place.

I got Toms at a street vender! I haven't used them much but they are super comfortable! I plan on using them once I get back to the states. I'm sure I'll use them around campus.

it's sad to think that I'll have to get back to boring America soon. honestly I don't want to think about that. there is a part of me that is accepting of going home but then there is a part of me that says I'll go home kicking and screaming. I want to keep on traveling the rest of my life. so I plan on doing just that.

Euro trip!

so this past week all the teachers in Kiev had a week vacation. Because of visa rules we had to leave the country for a little, it almost renews the visa in a way. so me and almost all the teachers went to 5 different countries in 7 days. yup, it was that crazy. But it was also amazing and full of great stories and laughter. However I don't think I would do something like this again. don't get me wrong, it was great fun but it was just too fast, like in Vienna I only have 6 hours in the city. it was not enough time to see what I wanted to see. but I saw A LOT. it was like a huge road trip across Europe.

We started off the trip on Saturday. Yulya ad Taras took me to the international train station were we where getting on the bus at. We left in the mid morning and drove all night until we made it past border control and ended up in Budapest Hungery at around 8 in the morning. because I was still sick no one wanted to sit by me so I got two seats to sleep on were most people had just one. during the night I had a fever and at one point I woke up to someone putting a blanket on me, I have no idea who this person was but I was grateful that they gave me it.

When we got to Hungary we had the choice to walk around the town or go to the spa. I chose to go walk around so me and a hand full of people walked around town. some of the people I was great friends with like Thomas, Camden, and Marilee, but there was another girl that tagged alone as well. we saw a lot of old building and sights in the mere 3 hours we had to ourselves. we road the metro and got breakfast from a street vender. I fell in love with this city with the warm sunny weather (a great change from cold kiev), flowers blooming in the parks, and the laugh people on the streets. it was amazing and much different from Kiev. during the time I was here I couldn't help but think about my great grandfather that I never got to meet. he was Hungarian and grew up in Budapest. I walked the streets with him in mind, wondering if he walked the same streets at one point. that night we got to go on a river cruse of the city. it was completely worth the money I paid to go.

next was Vienna. this was such a royal town and I couldn't help be feel like a princesses as I walked down the streets. there was artwork everywhere in this city, from the buildings to the art on the side of buildings, everything was so perfect here. However I didn't like it as much as I did Budapest. it could be that I didn't spend as much time here or that it was pretty cold but it didn't feel like home. it was beautiful and I would love to go there again but I don't think I would want to live there. Every building there was in this town had something on it like a face or a statue on the buildings. the town felt like a museum, my head was always up in the air, trying to soak it all in. it was really amazing.

Prague was next! this town we had 2 days in. I did a lot and saw a lot. when we first got there we had a tour of the town and then we had time to walk around ourselves. we split up into small groups and we somehow lost Camden in the mess but we found him a few hours later with some Russian tour group. when the sun started to go down most people went to go on a river cruse but I decided to stay behind and walk around. I got to ride a Segway in the town center witch was pretty awesome. I also got to live my dream of riding a bike through a big European city! three hours of going up and down hills, through small roads, and big roads. it might have been the high light of the trip for me. after that we walked around town just on our feet. we even got to see the Eiffel Tower in Prague. pretty cool! and with the sun gone and the whole city lit up from the tower it was something magical. after such a tiring day I was the leader and managed to get everyone home safe and sound! Mom would be so proud! I could never do this come only a few months ago.

next was Dresden. this town was amazing. I had never heard of this town before getting here and I was pleasantly surprised in what I found there. it was full of modern shopping malls but also old castles and other old buildings. it was the best of both worlds! and I got to do some shopping witch was awesome. I didn't get much for me but Doug wanted some European swim shorts so I got him some. they are short, like mid thigh, I know he'll love them. we also went out for lunch with a small group of friends.

last but not least was Auschwitz. this was... Depressing but I felt like it is something you need to see at least once before you die. it was terrible to see what the Jews had to go through during WW2. it was really sad and I did tear up in a couple places because of it. Because my great grandfather from Hungary was Jewish I felt like some of this history was my own. At one point on the bus Camden just wrapped his arm around me and I tear up into his shoulder. he is such a sport, putting up with me.

but over all, it was amazing! It was so much fun! I pretty much eat my way through every country we stopped in, between gelato, sausages, soups, and sandwiches I think I gained 5 pounds on this trip alone. but I don't regret any of it, I had so many good foods! at one point I was in three different countries in one day. so breakfast in Prague, lunch in Germany, and dinner in Poland. it was something else and something that I don't think I could manage again.The trip was so much fun and I was glad I got to go. I made new friendships and built on my old ones!

Just some of my photos from my eurotrip. I hope you enjoy them all :)

 

and that's it!

house arrest take two and..... action.

This weekend I was supposed to be in Lviv, sunny, warm Lviv. As you can tell I did not make it to this lovely place. On Friday morning I got an email from the head director of ILP saying that we are to remain in the city for the weekend because of the referendum. I spent $30 on the train ticket and I never got to use it and sadly, I don't get a refund. Of course I was a bit mad at this email but at least we got the chance to see Lavra on Saturday.

This church was just about 1,000 years old. It was absolutely amazing. It wasn't spectacular, like covered in gold or anything but it was just amazing because of the history of it all. We explored some caves under the church with mummified monks and the only light was from the candles we held in our hands. because it was a church one of the monks yelled at me in Russian for wearing my skating pants so lucky me, I used my scarf as a skirt. it looked like a kilt. I was probably the most fashionable person there. but he didn't just yell at me, he yelled at almost every girl that was wearing pants. the others got to use tie skirts that the church provided. We also hiked up a hill to see the view of the whole town of kiev. It was magical even though it was cold and threatening to rain soon.

Now today is Sunday and we are under house arrest, take two. at least we got to go to church in the morning. It’s been raining the whole day and windy. It’s been dismal. Me and Marilee were joking but also kind of serious saying that this was God showing his emotions towards the situation. No one knows what is going to happen tomorrow but I don't want to be under house arrest again. Been there and done that, not fun. and honestly pretty boring. I want to leave the house and walk around the town as soon as possible. I pray for peace in this country that wants it so badly. 

The government started a draft for the military here. Any able man between the ages of 18-40 will be entered into the draft to serve the country. I never thought I would see my host mom more in fear like that one day three weeks ago when there were shootings on the streets but I was wrong. she looked so worried about this, even more than three weeks ago. My host dad, he seemed cool but I could tell he is nervous about this as well because he's 38 and could be entered into the draft.

What’s scary is that I could never see my host dad in the military. He’s a chemist, he works in a lab, he’s not huge or muscular for that fact. I don't think he's even sporty. My host mom told me today that she wouldn't be surprised that ILP would get kicked out of the country soon. This was the first time she's said something about this to me. I have already made plans for if I get kicked out but I want to finish my internship.

It’s odd because my family has started to make plans for the worst, without power, without running water. This is the true meaning of food storage right here. We have been told to do this as all members of the church but they could use this now more than ever.
 

I have never looked forward to church more than I have in the past month. I find myself relying on the people there and the feelings I get while I attend. I feel safe there, comforted, calm, like everything is fine and ok. I feel really blessed that we live in a country that is stable, yes we have a cruddy president and yes we have corruption but it's not nearly as bad is it is here. I am grateful for what the Lord has given me and raised me in but I am grateful that he lead me here.
 

some of the walkways in Lavra

this had just been newly remodeled within the last 25 years or so because it was bombed heavily during world war 2

This is the older part of lavra and me looking out at it. photo creds go out to Thomas for this one. the scarf is for going into the churches.

 

 

Maidan

Two days ago we got the chance to go to Maidan with our head coordinator, Tanya. Maidan is in the center of the city where all the governmental buildings are. It’s like our Washington DC. I had already seen it on Monday with my host family (it was by accident that we ended up there and we decided to look around even though it was not allowed for me to go yet.) but I wanted the chance to see it again so I went again. Both times I went I felt completely safe even though, at one point it was a battle front. It is really surreal to be there in the center of all of it. For months we have seen it on TV, heard about it on the news, been under house arrest because of it, but we finally got the chance to see it in person. I didn't know what to expect when I went, but what I experienced was something I never thought of. 

The reason we got to see it was because even though there are still protesters there they are peaceful. The coordinator thought it was safe enough for us but also thought that it would important to see what has happened with our own eyes. As I walked the streets I expected the protesters to be holding up signs and causing a ruckus but what I saw was completely different. I saw them sitting in chairs, talk on the phone, listen to music, and talk to friends, and cooking meals by fires. Just like normal people do however they are living in tents in the city center. like a huge camp out. As I walked around this area with some of the girls I teach with I couldn’t help but notice the atmosphere is something for respect. People are still grieving for the people that lost their lives just a mere two weeks ago when things got suddenly so violent on that Tuesday night.

I was surprised that the protesters were still here. they got what they wanted or so I thought. I asked why they are still here and our coordinator replied that they are going to stay until the new president is elected. They want to make sure the government lives up to its word with all the promises that they gave to the protesters. They are also still protesting because they don’t like what the new government is doing right now. They have already made some poor decisions and they are not happy about them. So they will remain here until May (or maybe later) when the new president will come into office and put together some new change, some real change that the people want.

 Nothing is cleaned up over there. The streets are still missing loads of stones from the walk ways, the streets are covered with blacken soot from burning tires, and windows still remain shattered. It looks like a movie set. There is a huge building that is blackened from fire in the middle of the square that the president caught on fire, this still remains a reminder of what the president has done to his people. There are still barricades on the streets but they have opened up some different entrances so people can wander in. families now come with their little ones and old couples walk around to get a feeling for what had happened just a mere few weeks ago.

I think it’s truly amazing to care about something so much as to go and spend months in one spot and even risk your life for it. I have never felt like that before in my life about something. However I hope that someday I will feel so passionate about something that I might be able to change it for the better.

 

I got interviewed for a national news show because I played the piano in the background :)

anti war posters

protesters still here

Andrew's descent

On this last Saturday Camden and I went to this place called Andrews descent. It’s right off of the blue line under 215 (if anyone cares to stop by ;). It’s part of the oldest part of town as well. I didn’t know what I was excepting it to be but when I walked out of the metro stop and down the road a little we found this windy road that was made of cobble stones and old buildings lining the streets. The buildings were all so beautiful and ordinate. This was something out of a fairy tale story more than anything. I hard a heard time believing that this was in Kiev out of all places. I can easily say this is one of my favorite places in Kiev alone.

After we walked around some, hiked up stairs for views that could take your breath away, and exploring random roads, but we eventually got to the top of the hill where the church was at, Saint Andrews church (in English). This church has been at the top of this hill for over a hundred years and has faced major repairs during this time as well. It was made by an Italian artist who painted the inside of the church as well as helped design it. He only did two churches in this town and the other one I managed to see a month ago.  

When the sun started to set I decided to go home. Camden long ago left me to join his host family for dinner, but I didn't mind walking the streets alone. This past Saturday was a national holiday called women’s day. It celebrates all the women in our lives, not just moms but girls and grandmas as well. I think it’s a fantastic holiday and that the United states should do this instead of mothers day. Normally people give small gifts to women like flowers or chocolate. So because of this before I was about to go home I went to the store and picked out some flowers for my host mom. I also made her a small card to tell her thank you for all that she has done for me. It was a small act of gratitude but I think she really liked it. They also got me something, it was a fancy hair brush that I really like and works well with my hair.

I’m just really grateful that I have such great people in my life like my host family. They are truly great people and I love them.