Mom and Dad visit Ukraine and Russia!

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy summer and happy early 4th of July! I am very excited about this blog as I get to share with you all the experiences and photos of my trip with my parents to Kiev, Moscow and St. Petersburg! I had not seen my parents in about 21 months! Quite a long time to be without their hugs! It was wonderful to see them and we had a great time seeing the sights!

My parents traveled from MN to NY and then caught an overnight flight to Moscow followed by a much shorter flight to Kiev. They arrived in Kiev where I greeted them at Borispol Airport on June 13th. Though I had brought a welcoming sign, it was mom who had the camera out and many tears ensued! I had prearranged an apartment in Kiev just off the main street, Kreschatik. (Pronounced Kre – Shattuck!) Kiev is a very colorful city as my past photos have shown – golden domed churches, pastel colored buildings, lots of large cement buildings in the European style as well as plenty of Soviet ones too. It was very exciting to show the parents the city which I feel I have labeled my second home as I’m so frequently there! A tour of Kiev exists in two large loops – the first took the parents to see the National Opera House, the Golden Gate, St. Sophia’s Cathedral, St. Michael’s Cathedral, and St. Andrew’s Cathedral. We climbed the bell tower of St. Sophia’s Cathedral from which I was able to point out some of the sites of the city. It was dad, however, who pointed out to me the under construction football stadium which is being built for the upcoming Euro Cup in the summer of 2012. He asked if I’d been to this city before (I have seen the stadium before but not from above!) It was in front of the National Opera House where dad started to weed the flower beds – he did not stop throughout the entire trip from either pulling a weed or commenting on them! We could have left him multiple places for hours and he would have been quite busy!

Lunch in Kiev was a cultural one as I took the parents to a Ukrainian buffet and loaded our tray with traditional foods. The parents tried varenyky (dumplings) filled with potato and mushrooms, deruny (potato pancakes), beef shashlik (shish kabob), chicken Kiev (or as my mom called it – “exploding chicken”), borsch (beet root soup) and pampushkis (garlic rolls eaten with borsch). Though they tried everything, their favorite dish at lunch was a cheese covered brussel sprout dish probably designed off a more western dish. Sigh.

The second loop in Kiev showed the parents the President’s office, the Parliament, the Marynsky Palace (officially the residence of the leader of Ukraine but currently under renovation and uninhabited), the Kiev Dynamo Professional Football Team’s stadium and overviews of the Dnipro River (which flow all the way down Ukraine and through Velyka Lepetykha!). My favorite part of the day was taking the parents in the evening to see the ballet, Don Quixote, at the National Opera House! Though the performance had little to do with the story of Don Quixote (there was still of course the windmill scene), the dancing was excellent and has added another show to my repertoire of performances viewed at the Opera House!

The following day, my parents and I flew to Moscow. Aeroflot, the Russian airline, has many daily flights from Kiev to Moscow which take only 1 hour 15 minutes and still serve you a sandwich and beverage – come on Delta, where is my sandwich on a 3 hour flight to NY!? Dad had booked us a nice apartment through a mutual friend’s Russian friend and we were thrilled to see that one of the apartment building’s first floor tenants was a Papa John’s Pizza!! “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza” was printed in large letters on the welcoming sign in Russian – it was great (and was our dinner on the second night in Moscow!)

In Moscow I took the parents directly to the center to see the Kremlin and Red Square. Our first visit was to the Armory of the Kremlin where all of the most precious jewels and treasures of the Tsar dynasty are kept on display. Faberge Eggs, porcelain dish sets, gold and silver serving trays, and gem bedazzled bible cases glittered in front of our eyes as we listened to the commentary about the history of the tsar empire and the changes in tastes and fashion over the years. The lower floor was filled with clothing back to the days of Catherine the Great, carriages which brought Elizabeth to her coronation, and the crowns of all the tsars from the beginning. The armory was my favorite part of Moscow last year and continued to be this year – I just love all the jewels!

On the second day in Moscow we started with a trip to see Lenin and as my dad stated “Lenin is still dead.” But when one looks at him – you wonder if he was ever really alive! Lenin’s body has remained on display since his death in 1924 and he looks like he is made of wax. When Lenin died, he requested to be buried in St. Petersburg alongside his mother, but it was to Stalin’s demands that his body was embalmed and put on display. Russia this year created a website which asks fellow Russians to vote on whether or not Lenin’s body should finally be laid to rest but for now he still lies in his mausoleum in Moscow.

Following our trip to the mausoleum, I took the parents around Red Square. First up a trip into St. Basil’s (also know as the Onion Dome Church or the Ice Cream Church to many) in which my dad was very excited to see church relics dating back to the 11th century (one of the oldest items he had ever seen before). The inside of the church has been well preserved and many of the original paintings still coat the walls. Also in Red Square is the GYM, a large mall which houses some of the most expensive shops – we visited to use the bathroom and steal Internet from Coffee House.

The most famous street in Moscow is called “Arbat” street and is a walking street lined with street performers, artists, souvenirs shops, cafes and restaurants. This is also the location of a number of American chains, which this Peace Corps Volunteer has been deprived of, including Cinnabon, Starbucks, McDonalds, Wendy’s, Subway, and Hard Rock Café. Russia also is home to Dunkin Donuts, Hardee’s (Carl’s Jr.), Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Burger King and others. I did get Starbucks which was delicious! In the afternoon we did a boat tour down the Moscow River which borders the southern half of the city. On the boat there was a group of NASA workers who had come to Russia to work with their Moscow counterparts on space development. Though I of course was not alive for the Cold War, through my time in Ukraine I have learned just how strained the USSR – USA relationship was and the incredible steps which have been taken to mend this relationship. Considering NASA working in partnership now with Russia seems quite a large step in the mending of the Russia-USA relationship of the past!

On our last day, which dad labeled as the “day of churches,” I took the parents inside the Kremlin to see chapel square, a portion of the Kremlin interior which has 5 large churches, used during the time of the tsars for coronations, weddings, services and burials. Amazingly preserved and restored, despite the Soviet Union being anti-religion and destroying many churches, these churches house beautiful paintings of the apostles and passages from the bible. One of my favorite parts about visiting the Kremlin was listening to the number of languages the tourist groups surrounding us were speaking. Last summer Sean and I used our language skills to pick up information on the church interiors – this summer there was a large presence of Spanish and Japanese tourists which allowed me to use my Spanish skills to get some of the info on the churches.

In the evening we took an over night train to St. Petersburg, however, this time I got to ride 2nd class! Trains in Ukraine and Russia are the same – there are 3 classes one may choose from which varies the number of people in the wagon car and the level of privacy a passenger may have. When traveling with Sean last summer, we opted for the cheapest, 3rd class ticket which has 6 people in a compartment without doors and thus no privacy. While traveling with my parents, we bought out a compartment in 2nd class. Meaning that there were 4 beds, which can be closed off by a door that locks - definitely a safer way to travel but obviously a bit more costly.

We arrived in St. Petersburg to rain at 5 am and spent a number of hours sitting around a café and McDonald’s waiting for the Hermitage to open at 10:30am. The Hermitage was originally a small portion of the Winter Palace, built by Catherine the Great to house her collection of paintings and works of art. However, as the years went on, the Hermitage was expanded and now takes up the whole Winter Palace where one may see works of art from antiquity to modernism. Seeing the whole museum would take days, and with my mother’s incapacity to go for long without Diet Coke, a toilet and food, we were unable to see it all. However dad ensured that we hit up the rooms with Monet, Van Gogh, and moved along to Picasso. I loved visiting the rooms decorated as the palace would have been in the day of the tsars. The colorful rooms and golden furniture were beautiful.

June is known as the month of the White Nights in St. Petersburg as it remains light out until close to 1 or 2 am! (We did not see this as mom’s bedtime runs about 9:30 pm each night but even then it was still light out!) While we were visiting, one of the largest festivals took place right next to our apartment! The festival is know as Scarlet Sails (Алые паруса in Russian) and is an outdoor concert honoring the recent high school graduates. Students flocked to the streets and covered the center of St. Petersburg, which hosted a concert and fireworks ending in the sailing of a red sailed ship along the Neva River. The city was packed with students, especially on Nevskyy Prospekt (the main street leading to the Hermitage), and we watched them dance and sing with their fellow classmates as they headed to the concert.

On our second day in St. Petersburg, we got up early and caught a bus to a town called Peterhof. Peterhof is home to one of the many palaces once inhabited by the tsars, but this one is famous for its gardens and fountains. We arrived at the palace before its opening and stood in line with the group tourists also waiting entrance. When the doors opened, a group of 3 Russian tourists pushed passed us and headed towards the entrance (Russians as well as Ukrainians do NOT stand in line – they WILL find a way to get in front of as many people as possible no matter where you are – post office, bank, airport security etc. It really is one of the few things I genuinely dislike about this culture) When I told the woman she needed to wait in line she informed me she wasn’t with a big group and thus could push ahead, when I told her we weren’t either, she invited me to skip the line with her and we pushed ahead through the group tourists and entered the palace. I may despise this cultural belief that lines are suggestions not fact, but it got us into the palace without having to wait in line!

Sadly the Grand Palace at Peterhof is entirely a reconstruction as bombs demolished it during WWII. The skeleton of the palace remained when the Russians returned to find it in ruins and have since rebuilt the entire thing, decorating it as close to its originality as possible. Outside the palace, at 11am, a music performance began signaling the turning on of the park’s fountains. Throughout the park, which lies along the Gulf of Finland, fountains flow with statues of Adam and Eve, cascades of water, and plenty of golden figures. The whole park was delightful and I was glad that on this trip I was able to visit! (Last year Sean and I visited a different palace in the town of Tsarskaya Celo).

On our last day in St. Petersburg, I took the parents on a bit of a circular tour of the city – we climbed to the top of St. Isaac’s Cathedral for a view of the city from above, crossed over to see the columns which have been used as light houses for ships traveling along the Neva River and ended at the Peter and Paul Fortress to see the cathedral which houses the remaining tsars’ tombs including that of the final Romanov family. The fortress has a cannon which is shot off each day at noon, a sight which dad thought we shouldn’t miss – upon hearing the cannon sound and my filming hand jump about 1 foot, we realized we could have been anywhere in St. Petersburg and wouldn’t have actually missed it! In the afternoon I showed the parents “The Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood.” A gruesome title but this is the onion dome of St. Petersburg, which was built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was murdered. The entire interior of the church is decorated in mosaics – not a single spot is painted. The parents exited and stated that it was one of the most spectacular things they had ever seen – please check out a picture below!

My last day with the parents flew us back to Kiev where we had a chance to do a little more shopping (including a trip to the brand new Gap in Kiev where I scored some very very needed new jeans). We ended the trip with dinner at TGI Fridays where I had baby back ribs! I know I’m in Peace Corps – but Kiev does have some American perks which can keep a volunteer going!

Saying goodbye to my parents on the morning of their flight was really hard. 21 months apart cannot be regained in 10 days’ time! But I reminded myself that I only have 5 months left of my service here in Ukraine (which is very hard to believe!!) and I will soon be back in the states with all of you and my family! It was an absolutely wonderful trip and I am so glad I got to show my parents a bit of the country which has been my home for the last 21 months.

As for the rest of my summer – I am headed off to begin all of my summer camps! In July I will be working 3 camps – Camp HEAL (HIV/AIDS Education), Camp IKNOW (Environmental Education) and ABC Camp (Leadership and Project Development). In August I will be taking my last trip out of Ukraine to Croatia where I will be meeting up with my best friend from Northwestern, Page. When I return to site following all these adventures, I will be sure to update my blog!

Have a wonderful and very warm and happy summer!

Megan

Pictures Include:
- Greeting the Parents at the Airport (3)
- Kreschatik Street in Kiev
- National Opera House
- Dad weeding outside the National Opera House
- View of St. Michael’s from the St. Sophia Bell Tower
- Getting our “Faribault Daily Newspaper” shot outside St. Michael’s
- Ukrainian lunch
- Inside the National Opera House for the ballet
- St. Basil’s in Moscow
- Bolshoi Theater
- Church of Our Savior
- Moscow University (Soviet Union themed building)
- Kremlin entrance
- Chapel Square inside the Kremlin
- Wendy’s on Arbat Street
- Inside the metro in Moscow – the escalators are at intense degrees and go quite a long ways down!
- Peterhof Upper Gardens and Grand Palace
- Wearing our booties for walking around the Grand Palace at Peterhof
- Peterhof Grand Palace fountains (2)
- Performance by one of the cascade fountains at Peterhof
- In St. Petersburg at the Peter the Great statue
- View across the Neva River of the Hermitage
- Catherine the Great statue outside the St. Petersburg Library
- Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood Exterior and Interior (2)
- Final dinner with the parents at TGI Fridays!

A Close to Spring

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Memorial Day! I hope that you all have had a great spring season! I am now officially done with school for the year and looking forward to the great fun I will have this summer both traveling and working at summer camps. Before I head off for the summer though, I wanted to write one more post with updates on how my spring has been!

To begin, we finished the World Map in School #2! A week after the first map was painted we began school #2’s map. Completed on the same type of wooden backing, School #2’s world map also took a week’s time. Along with the organizational support of my site mate Shannon, I had help from a number of students from School #2 and other PCVs from the Khersonska Oblast. This time we had Anne, Stephanie, Alia, Lucas, and Kaity (who came back for a second weekend of painting)! Shannon painted the ocean blue throughout the week and tracing went well on Friday with the help of a few of Shannon’s students. On Saturday and Sunday we worked on the countries, Ukrainian flag and PC symbol. The art teacher, Viktoria, of School #2, assisted us. Viktoria is also my personal Avon/Oriflame provider! The map turned out great! Below I have attached pictures of the process, but if you are interested in seeing more pictures – please check out the albums on Facebook via the links below!

World Map School # 1
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.802801342535.2325266.2411718&l=2b804fee69

World Map School #2
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.804735935595.2326161.2411718&l=6ae4e90a80

As a member of the Environmental Working Group, this year I was very excited about Earth Day on April 22nd. I partnered with the Center for Youth and Sports and its director, Leena, to lead two clean up projects with our 11th and 10th grade students. Sadly in Ukraine, there is a serious littering problem. Garbage is thrown on the streets without regard to its effects on the environment or the beauty of the city. In a country obsessed with the beauty of everything, it really does bother me that individuals are not more aware of their environmental impact on their own towns. Along with Leena’s help, I organized a clean up from the school to the river and around on separate days for the two classes. Burlap sacks were distributed and garbage was assorted into bags of plastic, glass or paper to then be recycled afterwards. A lot of garbage was collected and I asked the students to remember how the smallest pieces of paper tossed on the ground can add up quickly to a lot of garbage. I hope that the clean up days showed my students why littering is such a big problem in Ukraine and something that they need to work on to stop.

A great cultural moment for this season was my Easter Weekend. Easter is a very important holiday in Ukraine. Last year I attended the beginning of the Easter service so this year I decided to attend the conclusion. Lent in Orthodox Christianity is also 40 days but the rules are much stricter. Orthodox Christians are unable to eat meat, fish, eggs, and sunflower oil or consume anything with alcohol. This means that come Easter, Ukrainians are drooling for some homemade sausage and wine! To prepare for the Easter service, Ukrainians make a ton of homemade sausage, wine, Easter bread called “Paska” and dye many eggs. All items are then placed into a basket and covered with a hand-sewn cloth and brought to the Easter Service. The whole service begins at 11 pm and ends around 4 or 5 am. This year I went from 3 am to 5 am along with the director of the Social Services Center, Alona, and her family. My host mom Vera is a member of the Church Choir and was at the church well before 11 pm to begin preparations for the ceremony and was thus busy throughout. Ukrainians arrive and begin to form a circle around the church continuing down the road. Every Ukrainian has a basket and I had one too thanks to Vera’s baking frenzy the week before Easter. Upon the signal by the priest, candles are lit in each basket and the priest begins to loop around the church and bless all the patrons visiting and their baskets. The second loop made by the priest brings the holy water blessing. In America we are very economical with our water dousing, but in Ukraine buckets of holy water are tossed onto the patrons. As the priest neared my group with his branch soaked in water, I ducked behind a friend. Both this act and the act of wiping the water off your face are considered sacrilegious. Seeing my friends, however, soaked in holy water while it was still quite chilly out, allowed me to justify my actions. Once the blessing has concluded, Ukrainians take their newly blessed basket of goodies home and begin the overindulging which ensues for the coming days. I have never eaten so many hard-boiled eggs in my life! But it was a wonderful ceremony and I am glad I was able to attend with such great people!


Another great moment for me was the visit of my good friend from Northwestern, Rachel, for my birthday week here in Ukraine! Rachel arrived on April 28th to Kiev Borispol where I greeted her in the brand new Terminal F, the new international Terminal. Though Rachel had flown across the world to see me, the first thing I made her do was get on an all night train to the south west corner of Ukraine to a city called Mykachevo. On the Hungarian border there is a Ukrainian town called Beregovo. Beregovo is known for its wines and each year there is a wine festival in which the locals taste all the vineyards of the region. As there is a Peace Corps Volunteer in this town, she has for the past two years, combined the wine festival with a 10K and Half Marathon Run. I took Rachel down to see the region and help volunteer at the race. Many PCVs ran either in teams or solo, either 5 K, 10K or the Half Marathon. We cheered on my friends who raced as team “Whiskey Tango” and handed out water at one of the checkpoints. It was a great time and the southwest of Ukraine is a beautiful region! Such an interesting mix of cultures too as most locals speak Hungarian or Russian, not Ukrainian which is quite unusual for the west! When the marathon ended Rachel and I headed back to Mykachevo where we enjoyed a tour of a Hungarian Castle outside town.

Following the southwest, Rachel and I headed up to Lviv where I celebrated my birthday for the second year in a row. It was a cloudy day but we were able to site see a bit and spent the day in a café with some Peace Corps friends. Rachel’s trip ended in Kiev with an all day site seeing spree in which I showed her all my favorite corners of the city. It was a dry run for when my parents come and I get to show them the city too! Rachel and I attended the ballet in the evening to see “Vienna Waltz,” an interesting Ukrainian rendition of Austrian life. We spent the night in the airport as Rachel had a 5 am flight back to America. It was a wonderful week spent together reminiscing about Northwestern life and Chicago. I was so honored to have a visitor in Ukraine, especially on my birthday – and Rachel proved to be an excellent traveling companion! Please check out pictures below of our trip and the beautiful countryside of the southwest of Ukraine!
Following Rachel’s departure, I traveled back to Boguslav where I trained about 1.5 years ago! I was accepted for a program called “Adopt a Cluster” in which experienced PCVs travel to visit trainees to offer advice, lead sessions and answer questions about PC life. I was lucky enough to be able to “adopt” my original training site! I arrived in Boguslav with a flood of emotions overwhelming me. The place seemed the exact same, of course there were a few new cafes and store changes, but it felt like I was back home. When I met the trainees it amazed me how far I have come since training. Their questions and concerns were of course some of the same I had faced 1.5 years ago and yet now I am calm, I feel at home in Ukraine and I’ve done a lot of what I had originally set out to do here! It really was a fantastic realization to have – just how far I have come since I was in training myself!

I spent 4 days with the cluster attending their Russian language lessons, helping with their English club at school and attending and critiquing their lessons in the Ukrainian English classroom. The best part of the weekend was when I got to visit my host mom Iryna and host brother Max. You may remember Max from my posts so long ago, as the kid with the cute Harry Potter glasses and shy smile – sadly, Max has now grown up! He has lost the glasses for contacts and now spikes his hair up. He is still shy and blushed from ear to ear when I called him my favorite brother in the whole world, but he is definitely matured. My host mom Iryna is doing well and still working as a childcare taker at the kindergarten. My host sister Rimma and Host dad Sergey are still in Kiev studying and working respectively. Rimma, however, is no longer engaged as she was when I left Boguslav but is now dating a new guy who the parents approve of much more. As I rattled off in Russian, Iryna just smiled at how far I’ve come with my language skills! Jenny, the current trainee living in the house, exclaimed how she cannot wait to be at the same level – it was such a nice compliment and just another reminder of how far my language skills have come! Below I have pictures of me with my “Adopted Cluster” as well as one with Iryna and Max!

When I arrived back to Velyka Lepetykha, Vera had a surprise for me – 45 or so baby geese were now living on our porch!! Throughout the year Vera had been collecting the eggs from her geese and storing them until 3 months ago when she had them placed under an incubator to begin to grow. I was so excited and frantically began to name them all. Vera told me I couldn’t name them as then I would know who I was eating, but I was able to name one – Penguin, a black footed baby goose which looked more like a baby penguin. They were a riot and chirped constantly. The best was watching how they reacted to Vera’s voice and presence – clearly they had named her “Mom” and went with it. We have since moved all the geese out to the shed where they have a pen set up, but it was a lot of fun living with baby geese for a short while! A few got some camera time as Vera continued to bring baby geese to my room anytime I was on skype to show them off!

My last update of this post occurred this last week at school – Last Bell. You may recall last year when I described last bell. I enjoyed the ceremony much more this year as I have had a much closer relationship with this year’s 11th grade class! The Last Bell ceremony took place on Friday the 27th, it was a beautiful sunny day and the 11th graders were dressed in their finest Ukrainian uniforms and suits. Speeches were made and certificates were given out. This year there were 3 1st grade girls who were selected to ride on the shoulders of 3 of the 11th grade boys to ring the “last bell.” One of these little girls was the daughter of one of my fellow English teachers and so I was instructed to photograph the event heavily. I have attached a picture of Nastia riding on Sasha’s shoulders below! She did an excellent job and the ceremony was a hit. I’ve also attached a picture of all the flowers I got by the end of the day! It really does pay to be a popular teacher – I have peonies all over the house now!

Following last bell, there is a graduation ball. The ball took place Sunday evening and the house of culture concert hall was packed! Ukraine does not have prom but the Graduation Ball offers a chance for the 11th grade students to dress to the nines! My three young ladies, who completed the anti smoking project in the fall, were dressed beautifully!! I was so proud of them as they accepted their diplomas as well as their medals for being in the top 10 of the 11th grade class! It has been a great year this school year and these young women certainly have been a huge part of my life here in VL – I am so sad to see them leave the school but excited to see where they end up!


It really has been a great year here in Ukraine and I feel like I’ve done a lot both at site and in this country! I now have only a half of a year left in my service but still a number of things I wish to accomplish!

On a last note, please check out the following two links! The first is a promotional video for the Environmental Working Group in which there are a number of photos from both of my World Map Projects as well as my Water Filter Project. The second link is the official close of my Water Filter project in which you may read about the conclusion and success of the project.

Environmental Working Group Video: http://vimeo.com/23845660

Close of Water Filter Project Page: http://appropriateprojects.com/node/700


I would like to wish you all a wonderful summer. My next big excitement is the arrival of my parents on June 13th!! I will be sure to post again about their visit and our trip to Russia!!

All the best,

Megan

Pictures Include:

- Shannon and the Janitor Olya who constructed School #2’s Board
- School #2 Students trace the outline of the World Map
- School #2 Students with completed traced map
- School #2 Students and PCV Alia paint
- PCVs and School #2 Students plus Viktoria with completed day 1
- PCVs Anne, Alia, Stephanie, Kaity and Shannon with me and completed day 1 map
- PCVs making dinner at my house after day 1 painting
- Completed School #2 World Map
- 11th Grade Clean Up Day
- 11th Grade picks up garbage near the school
- 10th Grade Clean Up day
- 10th grade cleans up by the river
- 10th Grade and filled garbage bags following conclusion of Clean Up
- Easter – with my basket
- My Easter Basket with lit candle – contents include home made sausage, easter bread, cheese bread, and rolls.
- Alona and her family, my companions for the Easter Service
- VL Priest blessing the lit Easter Baskets
- With Vera and my Easter Basket
- VL Priest blesses the crowd with holy water
- Rachel (far left) with my PCV friends Meaghan and Kari in Beregovo at the start line of the 10K/Half Marathon Wine Festival
- Rachel and I with our supporting poster “The Faster You Run, the Sooner the Wine Flows!”
- 3 of the members of Whiskey Tango
- Cheer team for our check point
- Tagging team member for team “Super Fly”
- Cheering on fellow PCV Scott who ran the half marathon
- Ceremony congratulating team “Super Fly” for winning the team half marathon race
- Beregovo
- Beregovo
- Mykachevo Castle (3 Pictures)
- Mykachevo Town Center and Square (2 Pictures)
- Rachel and I in Lviv at the top of the Town Square governmental building
- Lviv chocolate factory
- Rachel and I in Kiev climbing the St. Sophia’s bell tower
- Rachel and I at the ballet
- With my Adopt a Cluster in Boguslav in the same room I learned Russian!
- With Max and Iryna
- Vera with some of the new baby geese!
- Attempting to hold two of the baby geese
- our new baby geese!
- Last Bell Ceremony (3 Pictures)
- My flowers from Last Bell!
- Graduation Ceremony – arrival to the culture house (2 pictures)
- Graduation Ball (4 pictures)
- With Inna one of my project students
- After Party hall
- With Alina, another one of my project students
- 11th Grade at the after party
- With Alina, Inna and Olena my 3 project students
- 11th Grade with the Vice Principal