Pictures from Ukraine!

As the computer will not allow me to change the order of these pictures - please feel free to start at the bottom and work your way up as the bottom picture is from my arrival and this first picture is the most recent addition to my experiences here in Ukraine!



This church is St. Michaels - It also has a large bell tower just to the left of this picture but I loved all the domes of this church best.
This is St. Andrews- also gorgeous and on top of a hill overlooking a winding street which was covered in little stands selling Ukrainian souvenirs and gifts.
This is the Boguslav group in front of St. Sophia - a beautiful church in Kiev!
This is the other side of Independence Square. The people in white are supporting the prime minister for reelection in January.
In the Center of Kiev is Maiden Square which is also known as Indenpendence Square. This is where the Orange Revolution took place in 2004 in support of the candidate who had not been elected in the elections. The Revolution occured because supporters thought Russia had interfered in the elections to get the other candidate to win. In the end, there was a reelection and the candidate supported by the Revolution won by quite a bit. His name is Yuschenko and he is currently the president but elections are coming up in January so it will be interesting to be here then!

This picture is in front of the monument which was created in 2001 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union. I'm standing with Kelsey in the picture.
While in Kiev we ate at a traditional cafe with Ukrainian dishes. I got the most traditional items you can think of. The bowl of soup is Borsch which is a Ukrianian staple - it is a soup with boiled cabbage in a meat broth usually with other vegetables and then topped off with sour cream - EVERYTHING here is topped off with sour cream. The plate in my hand had Varenky which are dumplings - mine were filled with potatoes which are another staple here in Ukraine. The water is gas water as I read the label wrong. Quite a meal!
We had a cooking day one day at our language teacher's home to test out our knowledge of cooking words and phrases. The meal included Chicken and pineapple, maccarroni and cheese, boiled cabbage and carrots and Sangria. I made the Sangria.
This is my host mother, Iryna (I will get a family shot up in the next blog!). She was showing off the fish she bought that day at the market. Here fish is often prepared in a salted form which means it is just cut into pieces, salted and then cooked - so the whole head to tail ends up on the plate. It makes me miss Cedar Lake Fish more than I can explain!
The Boguslav Crew - From Left to Right: Me, Kelsey, Matt, Rudy and Whitney. We spend almost every waking moment together here as training is a very long process!
Bogulsav has a bridge that they say looks like the Golden Gate Bridge. It is quite a bit smaller but it still really nice. It is a tradition here in Boguslav for recent brides and grooms to get their pictures taken at the bridge. We actually saw a couple leaving as we approached the bridge.
Peace Corps divides volunteers into clusters of 5 people per cluster for training. Each cluster has a link group that they train with on Saturdays for teaching English. This is a picture of the Boguslav Cluster with our link from Mironivka in my Language Teacher's home where we have class each day.
This is a photo of Boguslav, my town for training. It is very beautiful!! There is a river that divides the town into two parts and it is spectacular here now in the fall!

This is a picture taken outside my apartment building in Boguslav. The first white balcony on the right is my family's apartment.

This picture is taken alongside the river where the retreat was located in Desna. I'm standing with Meaghan, a good friend of mine from Northwestern University - we were very lucky to receive P.C. services in the same country!
Our First Night in Desna we were welcomed with a special Bread Ceremony - I am standing with Pat on the left and Alia on the right - both natives of Minnesota