St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv

I had to post some pictures from my tour of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. This cathedral was actually built in the 11th century (in the flowers in one of the pictures, you can see the year construction began). We toured the inside, which, unfortunately, cameras were not allowed inside. but the walls were covered with colorful paintings from the history of the church. Throughout the cathedral, some parts had been renovated and other parts were the original. In some of the pictures, you can see where the outside was not renovated and the original cathedral walls are brick-colored.

We climbed the bell tower (the white column with the gold dome at the top) - 210 steps, but who's counting? As we left the cathedral grounds, we walked into a wedding occuring in the middle of the square!

Tomorrow (Sunday), I am headed into Kyiv again with Grace to relax, write some lesson plans, have some good food and drinks, and I am also on the hunt for a new pair of shoes and a long wool coat (the roads here are eating the soles of my shoes)! Wish me luck!

Take care,
Natalie

Happy Halloween! (and my birthday, too!)

Happy Halloween!

Believe it or not, I was actually invited to a Halloween party in Ukraine. All of the PC trainees in my group went to this party hosted by the House of Culture (extracurricular establishment for students). I had to throw a costume together with the clothes I brought...so I ended up as a ninja! The decorations were great - with hanging body parts from the ceiling, carved pumpkins, and many scary stories and skits (which I could not understand, but that made it even scarier!).

From the pictures, you can tell that we put together a scary story with people. My role was as a black night and I had to continually say "ooh hooo" whenever it was my turn. I had to sit on Freddie Krueger's lap during the entire story! I should mention that the person in the white is Molly, another PC trainee, and she is a statue. The other ninja is Grace, another PC trainee who is actually from Oregon! Also in the picture, dressed as a journalist is Lena, my Technical and Cross Cultural Trainer with PC.

I have also posted some pictures from my birthday dinner with my host mom (Tania), sister (Ania), and my sister's boyfriend (Alexander, but he goes by Sasha) . We had a large dinner complete with white fish (my favorite), meat (I'm not sure what kind), potatoes, sandwich meat and cheeses, bananas, apples, and my yummy tort (cake)! I was definitely full!

Great way to end the week - cake, balloons, and my ninja costume!

Happy Halloween!
Natalie