My New Host Family

I can’t remember if I posted about this on my blog before, but I had to move from my first host family’s house at the end of September because I lived too far away from my school.  I was really sad that I had to move because my host family was great to me, but I could not travel two and a half hours every day to school.  I was moved into an apartment with an American girl who is working here (not through ILP) and her Ukrainian roommate.  I was only supposed to stay there for a few weeks while they looked for a new host family for me.  Well a few weeks turned into a month and then I found out that they were never looking for a new host family for me.  I was having a pretty rough time in this new living situation so I finally told my head teacher, Dianna, about it.  She then got them to find me a new host family.  I was called by Oksana on Wednesday morning and was told to pack all my stuff because the next day I would be moved after I was done teaching.  I was very excited to have the opportunity to live with a Ukrainian family again.  I packed everything and was ready to move.  A car picked me up from school and Dianna, my administrator Alina, and I picked up my stuff at my old apartment and headed to my new host families apartment.  I now live on the blue line of the metro so I have to figure out public transportation for a third time.  I can’t believe I have had so many problems with my living situations.  But this new situation is AMAZING!!!  I have only been here for four days and I absolutely love my new host family.  There is Edik (Ed), Marina, Nadia (9), and Vika (6).  I share a room with the two sisters, but I have my own bed and it has an actual mattress!  I can sleep now.  They are the sweetest people.  Ed knows English pretty well and Marina know a little too, she is just shy when it comes to speaking it.  The girls are also learning.  Marina holds something up and says the word in Russian and then asks me to say it in English.  We are teaching each other.  We spent Friday night getting to know each other.  They wanted to know all about my family and where I was from.  I showed them pictures of my family and friends and they showed me pictures of their vacation to the Black Sea.  Marina teaches gym classes at our house so there is a room with mirrors on the walls and there are exercise balls.  They are also very conscious about health.  They cook very good, healthy food.  I am very excited about this because I have not been eating too great since I’ve been in Ukraine.  They are such a nice family and I already love them so much.

            Marina is a friend with Alex and Lily’s host mom so she invited them over after church to have a picnic with us.  It ended up being too cold outside and the girls are getting sick so we decided to have a picnic at home.  We got to help make the food.  It was so much fun.  My host mom called it Cooking Club.  We made soup and Veriniki.  

I was so excited that she taught us how to make this because Veriniki is my favorite food in Ukraine.  Now I can make it when I get back to America!  It is really easy too.  While the food was cooking, we played a game.  The game had cards with categories and words and phrases on them.  One side had English and the other side had Russian.  If we spoke English the Russian speakers would read us the phrase in Russian and we would have to guess what it was.  We would do the same in English.  It was a lot of fun and a good way to learn Russian or English.  After playing for a while, we ate.  We set the table up in the workout room and dug in.  The food was delicious!  After dinner, we played some more of the English/Russian game.  Then it was time for Lily and Alex to head home.  I am having such a good time with my new host family that I just can’t stop smiling.  My last month in Ukraine is going to be awesome!