Finally Here!!

Well I finally made it to Ukraine! I took a 2 and 1/2 hour flight from Denver to Chicago, had a 3 hour layover at the Chicago airport, then got on an 8 hour flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, had another 3 hour layover in Germany, THEN got on a 2 hour flight from Frankfurt to Kiev! And so here I am :) Besides having to completely repack my luggage to avoid paying a $200 'overweight' fee, and besides the Polish man who sat by me on the way to Frankfurt, who kept asking me to stay at his cabin with him and to let him buy me a drink.....the trip was fairly uneventful and safe. 


I got really lucky with my living situation! I get to room with another girl from my group, Kaitlin. So it's nice to not just be with my host family. My family consists of my host mom, Anastasia, and her daughter Polina, who's 3 and 1/2. She's the most adorable girl, but she only knows Russian so it's hard to understand her when she wants to play.

I'm really tired now....I don't think I've slept for more than 30 minutes at a time over the past 24 hours, so I'm going to sleep. But first, I'll show you pictures of everything so far :)

 At the Kiev airport, waiting to be picked up by the ILP bus......

 The head ILP coordinator and our bus that picked us up!!

 Polina, my new host sister :) She immediately found my water bottle and became enthralled with it. She filled it up with water and kept shaking it around, going "svist, svist, svist"

 Our room :) and my roommate Kaitlin

 The room used to be Polina's, but she and her mom now share a room so they could give it to us. Now we get the jungle gym!

 The dining/living room. The apartment is pretty small, but very cute, modern, and well decorated!

 The kitchen!

 Bathroom! I still don't know what the 'other' toilet is......

 Polina and Kaitlin :)

 The view of Kiev, right outside our window!

 The living room. I love the bookcase that goes around the entry!

 Me & Polina. Look at that cute belly :)

Haha Polina again :-) She loves taking pictures on my laptop.