Here it is! My first big overnight trip in Ukraine!
I recently celebrated Thanksgiving at my site with a group of incredible new Ukrainian friends, who learned about the U.S. holiday from a previous volunteer, and loved the idea of it.
But, if an American holiday is an excuse to travel and see other volunteers in-country? I’m all over it.
Several of my friends and I booked an Airbnb, and spent the Thanksgiving weekend exploring the Ukrainian city of Lviv!
Hopefully, you know that Thanksgiving is a very American holiday. It’s not as universal as Christmas or New Year’s. Thanksgiving Day — as it stands on the calendar, at least — is celebrated solely in America, by Americans.
Until it isn’t.
I’ve mentioned before that Ukrainians love holidays and festivities and will turn just about anything into a celebration if they can. So, when the chance came for some of my new Ukrainian friends to celebrate Thanksgiving, they pounced.
The other day, I had the chance to go to my first Ukrainian concert.
Because my host sister Ira lives in Kyiv and works as a music journalist for Kyiv FM, she knows pretty much everything there is to know about Ukrainian music and artists. She also gets tons of free tickets and backstage passes… really cool stuff!
She recently visited Khmelnytskyi, and gifted me a ticket to see Marina Krut, a Ukrainian singer and bandurist, in concert.
Whew. It has been a MONTH! I feel like everything is happening so quickly I don’t have time to soak it all in, and I’m so afraid I’m going to forget all of these wonderful, incredible sights and experiences I’m so lucky to have.
One thing I won’t ever forget, though, is my host family.
These people have already been so kind, wonderful, welcoming and generous, I know I will never, ever forget them.
And it’s only been a month since I’ve known them!
I did not ever in a million years think that my adventure in Ukraine would involve freaking CAVE DIVING, but guys, I went spelunking last week!
Yes, spelunking. In a REAL cave. Filled with crystals and bats.
Hi, everyone!
I’ve gone through Pre-Service Training and I’ve officially sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and now I’m all settled into my site!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Peace Corps lingo, my “site” is the city that I’ll spend the full two years of my service living and working in. The site assignment process is… interesting. Peace Corps staff interviewed each of us to determine what our living priorities are (for example, I said I would love a site that had a yoga studio, even though I was of course willing to be flexible — pun absolutely intended) and then matched us with our sites based on our skill set, language abilities, etc.
We all got our site assignments via email in the middle of language lessons. Needless to say, the language learning immediately stopped and we ALLLL opened up Google Maps to start scoping things out.
With that said… welcome, Randi, to Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine!
I guess this is an extension of my Fort Tarakanivskyy post, but, I had the chance to tag along on an all-day class field trip.
Our field trip started with a tour of a stuffed animal factory, then we ended up at Lubart’s Castle in Lutsk.
Are you guys ready for some cool photos from one of the COOLEST abandoned places I’ve ever been to?!
Keeping in mind, I haven’t even made it over to Chornobyl and Pripyat’ yet.
A few days ago, I had the opportunity to join my counterpart Oksana and several of our students on a field trip to both Lutsk and Fort Tarakanivskyy.
It was the perfect Halloween field trip.
One of the things I’m starting to realize about Ukrainians is that they LOVE celebrating.
Almost every day here is an unofficial holiday of sorts, and because Ukrainians loosely follow both the Gregorian and Julian calendars, some holidays are celebrated twice.
And, if it’s not a holiday? Ukrainians will find some other reason to celebrate.
My school, Gymnasium No. 2, recently held a dedication ceremony for its new sports field.
