Hi from Ukraine!

I made it! I arrived in Kiev, Ukraine (the capital) on Thursday morning after a very uneventful trip and so far, I am loving Ukraine. It is a beautiful, very green country. As we flew across Europe from the north on our way in, there were some beautiful views of the countryside with lots of green. However, once we got over Ukraine, the shade of green deepened dramatically and it looked more lush and fresh.

By the way, there are two correct spellings of Kiev: this one is the English equivalent of the Russian spelling/pronunciation; and Kyiv is the way we translated the spelling from the Ukrainian usage. Those natives and missionaries with a stronger background in either one language or the other will tend to use one spelling over the other, and I’ve had people from both sides corresponding with me, so you’ve probably seen me use both. I’m working to find the most common one and stick with it, but many times I use the other spelling without realizing it.

I’ve had a few experiences in the city so far. The day I flew in, I experienced a Ukrainian chain grocery store with the missionaries who collected me from the airport; it was very interesting. They had many things that looked familiar, including U.S. brands and products; but other things were very unfamiliar. We picked up some things for our lunch then rode the bus back to the apartment where I am staying. Later that day, the missionary with whom I am staying took me to the little market across the street from the apartment. We found some things that looked good for dinner and then headed back to have a relaxing evening.

The next day (Friday…I’m a little confused on days still) I managed to find my way to the Kiev Theological Seminary where my host works as one of the teachers. I had a tour of the building, a brief history lesson, was allowed to sit in on a class, and enjoyed lunch in their cafeteria.

My biggest challenge has been sleeping at the right time. I’m either sleeping when I need to stay awake, or I wake up at 2:30 in the morning and can’t convince my body that more slumber is necessary. This is not usually a problem for me, so either it’s this specific time difference, or my body is just really out of sync for another reason (age? Yuck!) Anyway, this is going to have to stop really soon, since everyone knows how much I love being up before the sun…yeah.

We have some plans for the weekend before I begin language school at the beginning of next week. As I’ve been reviewing, I am lamenting not having more consistent usage of the language over the last year and I am now defaulting to Spanish and not Russian words. Let’s see what happens when I reply to my Russian professor next week with “No es claro…repite por favor”.

And so the adventure continues…