gelato madness

(Me, Connie, and Emilie. You can see how cold it is cuz we all look so puffy from our 12 jackets we each have on :)

i don't need to announce that i have a gelato obsession, this is a well known fact. i know i'll be in danger once i get to Italy but guess what? I had 2 yesterday and more today. Good news is that we found the best place right in the middle of the city in Prague. It's called Boom and we refuse to try anywhere else anymore because our worker friend at Boom gives us giant GIANT scoops. Everywhere else in the city only gives you a tiny little ball of goodness, but this kind sir does NOT hold back. Because of his generosity we now will return there everyday we are in Prague. YUM.

i should have warned you from the beginning but if you don't want to go out and get some ice cream/gelato, do not look at the next photos...

Connie and I get the 4 scoop deal together cuz we save 10 crowns that way. crowns is the money here in Prague. I like that word. Now take a moment to drool over this NUTELLA GELATO WE FOUND::

Here are some different places we have gone to enjoy little pieces of heaven...

the streets of Prague...

Why would I waste my time online while in Prague, you ask?  This is going to be a quick one, I've got too much to enjoy here!

At first when we looked at the weather and saw that more than half our trip would be rained out we were so disappointed, but guess what? It just adds to the beauty for me. Umbrellas everywhere, wearing my rainboots and stepping in the puddles...I LOVE PRAGUE even in the rain.

I'll just share a few pictures I've taken so far and then catch up with the stories later on. Hope you can feel the beauty as much as I can :)

surreal...my life is surreal

more kiddos

It's Friday, next week is vacation week so we'll be in Prague and Dresden. We will have wifi though so I'll be able to keep updating if I have that down time.

We are really starting to get the hang of things here, teaching gets more exciting everyday. The kids trust and love us now, we just have to pick our battles. (Which is what my parents used to say about me...sorry bout that...)

Anna, Bagdona, Nikita, Masha, Julia, Elyia, Stasik, and Liza

Anna, Bagdana, Em, and Julia

Em with Julia

Masha, Liza, Anna, Nakita

Left to right leaving me out :: Bagdana, Masha, Nikita, Julia, Anna, Liza

Chornobyl

This is the Chornobyl Museum. One word: Incredible.  

"The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union). It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history"

This nuclear accident was 500 times worse than Hiroshima. It was so interesting to learn all about what happened on that horrible day.

This is a dog that they found after the accident:

I'm standing on the actual tiles from the Chornobyl Nuclear Plant

These scriptures and the picture of Mary and Christ survived the explosion

Someone donated this painting to the museum. It's drawn from the words of a poem about faith and hope. If you look at the close up pictures you can see that even the shadows on the little boys face and the wrinkles on the old woman are made from the words of the poem.

Here are some newspaper clippings from America about the disaster

my first BROTHER

I'm the oldest of 5 girls in my family, I don't have any brothers. Even when I was married I only got more sisters. When we were little we always wanted a brother and would wait patiently for mom to get home from the doctors. But...it was always a girl, which I'm so grateful for because I LOVE my family, but it's SO much fun to have a little brother here in Kiev. Eliya is the sweetest little thing. The only time I don't like him is at 6 in the morning when he has to get ready for school. By his screaming and crying I assume he isn't a morning person.

Em loves him too :)

He has these cute rainboots and Lyuda makes him wear like 3 pairs of socks with them so they really DON'T go on or come off....

Grocery Shopping

Every week we are given 50 Hyrvnia to get things to teach the kids in the kitchen. So today we went to the local grocery store.

Compared to the U.S. it's teeny tiny! There are only fresh things there, lots of veggies, lots of fish, lots of nutella.  They have grocery carts, but they are all super tiny. Everything is in Russian so you pretty much have to guess.

And we're off...

The meat in grocery stores are only bought in bulk, you don't find just packages of meat for sandwiches and stuff. Same with cheese, you'll never find grated cheese, just blocks. Here are the gross things to us, these shrimp are so bit you can see their eyes. Never seen that before.

These fish just sit out there, next to it are chopped up full salmon, and also shrimp and baby octopus. Blech...

Here are the different candies at the check out lines, the green bars in the first picture are hazelnut chocolate and waffers, pretty much a nutella candy bar. YUM.  The Milky Way's in the second picture aren't like the ones in the US, they have some kind of marshmellow in them. No carmel.

I haven't tried anything here except the Kinder Joy Eggs, apparently Kinder chocolate is HUGE and I'll tell you what, it's delicious. Plus you get a toy in there! 

Don Quixote

We went to go see the ballet Don Quixote this past weekend. Again, for only about $3.75 in dollars. Fabulous.

I decided that I prefer the ballet to the opera, but both were so incredible to me. Here are some shots I was able to get:: (I know, I know, no pictures are allowed during the show. It was like the camera had a mind of it's own! NOT my fault)

Next one will be in Prague! We'll be leaving this coming Saturday and will be there for a week. Can't wait...except for the 26 hour drive...