A New Addiction

My friend Allison and I have a bit of an addiction here in Russia. Actually we have a lot of addictions. These include but are not limited to eating soroks, making awkward noises, acting like old men commenting from a balcony, and doing tattoos. This past is about that last addiction I mentioned. Allison is a freaking good artist. It scares me sometimes how good she is. One day she drew WallE on my hand and since then we've enjoyed giving/getting tattoos. And we've been smart enough to document all of them! However, I don't have pictures of all of them because Allison has many of the pictures. But you can see as many as I have access to right now...

This was one of the first that I got. Mufasa saying, "You have forgotten who you are" but half of the word "forgotten" got cut off.

Another early one. Inspired by Lady and the Tramp

Sometimes other people want in on the action too. This was an owl for Lauren.

This is what you get when you don't know what you want...an Allison on your foot for Kristen.

Sometimes we would keep it pretty simple

Just a basic robot. Right?

Wrong! Don't worry. We did this on a Saturday and it all washed off before church

A little more of a close-up of the random but awesome tattoo sleeve

We really like to personify animals

It's a Modest Mouse. Get it? (I know Steph, you're probably the only one this time)

This one's hot off the press today. Lauren was sick so Allison drew her (on the far left) on one hand and then Allison and I being sad on the other hand. Allison has a hat that's an owl head, in case you were wondering.

This one's still one of my favorites. Good ol' Winnie the Pooh!

I have to say thanks to Allison for always finding new ways to entertain me and being willing to share her skills with everyone. I hope she's okay with me posting all of this since I didn't ask or anything. And if you're interested in seeing more of her coolness, wander over to her blog which I have a link to over on the right side there.

Week Vacation Part 2: Kiev

I realized today that I never got around to blogging about part two of our vacation...Kiev! I didn't get a lot of pictures there but we sure got a lot of experiences!

It started with a bit of misery as we were leaving Tallinn. Our flight was delayed about five hours so we were pretty trapped in a little portion of the airport. We got a little stir crazy but we did make it to Kiev finally around 8 at night. Then we went to our hostel...let's just say that we were pretty much always singing that song from School of Rock, "No you're not hardcore unless you live hardcore" (and we added "in a hostel in Kiev"). It turned out to be cool though and not too traumatizing for the most part. I'll spare you the nitty gritty details right now. On our first day there a head teacher for ILP showed us around the city and helped us buy ballet tickets. We got a good feel for our bearings that day and what we would do in the days to come. We hit up the souvenir market one day and I got some sweet stuff that I can not disclose in this public location. And bartering is quite the experience. You know you just got ripped off when they throw in a free magnet. Anyway, the next day we hit up a monastery with some catacombs that would be a claustrophobic's worst nightmare as well as the coolest WWII memorial/museum I have ever been to. Overall it was a fantastic trip and I loved almost every minute of it!

In front of the Riga Airport (aka proof I have been to Latvia).

A really big monument down the street from our hostel. Unfortunately, I have no clue what it signifies.

I'm going to be honest here. There are two really amazing and famous cathedrals in Kiev that are right by each other and I'm always getting them mixed up. But I'm pretty sure this is St. Michael's.

And I'm nearly certain now that this is St. Sophia's. But I could definitely be wrong.

The tile park! There was this great area that was completely clear of buildings behind some apartments and the government wanted to come in and build something there. So the people in the apartments were not going to have that ruining their view of the city and they decided to work together and build this amazing tile park so the government couldn't build anything there.

My second favorite part of Kiev was surprisingly going to the ballet. It was Romeo and Juliet so that made it easier. This is the view from our seats that cost $2.50!

Still looking good at the ballet, even after five days of traveling!

We had a clear view of the orchestra which was actually really cool

After an hour bus ride and a half hour walk along a freeway in the dusty wind we made it to the recently dedicated Kiev Temple. It was well worth the trek.

I was rather cold but happy all the same! What you can't see is the slightly noisy freeway right to the left of this picture. Surprising, right?

A bird lady at the Monastery. I had to change it to black and white for dramatic effect of course.

A beautiful view from a lower portion of the monastery.

Me with my all time favorite person in Ukraine. Big MAMA!!!

My favorite Ukrainian woman looking over two of my other favorite people (who are actually not made of stone)

I started reading All Quiet on the Western Front on this vacation so I found this especially relevant. However the book is about WWI and this memorial is WWII. A bit of a let down but oh well. Same thoughts I suppose.

Can you see why I love her so much?

We strolled along the river as we walked back to the metro. It was a lovely day and an even lovelier stroll.

Just walking under the over pass. No big deal.

I had a fantastic time in Kiev. We went through a lot of Russian ramen, maps of the city, patience, and pictures. And it was worth every single minute.

Happy Birthday Stephanie!

Today is little Stephy's birthday! She's 18 and I can't believe it! She's getting to be so grown up and blossoming into a beautiful young woman (sorry, I couldn't resist saying that). So in her honor I thought I'd do a post all about style in Russia...

Don't be afraid to go for the gusto!

Matching is overrated!

Nothing wrong with wearing a red Spongebob shirt and black and green pipe cleaner glasses...

...and the same goes for pink striped shirts and those fantastic glasses!

Always be true to who you really are!

Keeping warm is number one!

And apparently drawing attention to yourself is number two...

Uh...yeah, no words for this one actually (dog and reindeer, for real)

Even animals deserve to look good.

And humans can use animals to look good too!

Even those gone before us have a sense of humor.

Being a superhero never goes out of style though!

Okay, it's not style necessarily but it's still cool!

Star Wars boots. That's all I have to say about that!

And it doesn't matter how you look as long as you have good friends on your side!

I hope your birthday has been great Steph! I love you so much and I can't wait to come back home and give you a big, awkward hug!

PS: Credit to my fellow ILP teachers for some of these pictures!

Stage Four

9:30 pm Russia time. The sun is setting and I'm heading west so I get to walk towards it. I'm wearing my black wool coat, khaki pants, black converse, my green messenger bag and my hair is straight but pulled back in a pony tail. I have my ipod in and I'm listening to "Shadow of the Day" by Linkin Park. I'm a sucker for cliches sometimes.

And in the past seven days I've never felt more homesick than any other time I've been here.

But for some reason today was the first time I've actually had the thought and desire to come back. Even though the language barrier is still there (as proved once again when someone tried to talk to me on the bus) and the work is still hard and I still miss everything in America so much. But I enjoy it here sometimes and I wouldn't mind coming back. So I think I can comfortably say that I'm finally reaching the "home" phase of culture shock. Seven weeks left to soak it in and I want to take advantage of every minute.