And she updates...many days later...

Sorry for the delay...I've been beyond tired this week and couldn't even muster up the energy to blog the past few days. Isn't that pitiful? I thought so, too...

Anyway, our second day in Ukraine was also quite full of classes (I think Team A had 5 classes on Tuesday). We started our day at a different school than our primary focus school. Because we were working with a lower-level group of speakers, we had to tweak our lessons ever so slightly, but it worked out just fine. Matt was a huge hit with the female set, which was pretty funny to watch. The group really perfected their presentations of their pictures and life stories. I know they got SUPER tired of it before the end of the week, but the Ukrainian students absolutely LOVED getting to learn about their lives and see pictures of everything.

At the end of our day, we had a class to teach at the private school (it was the same school where we had worked with the little guys the day before). They divided us into two groups because there were two small classes of about 5.

*Semi-funny story: one of our teammates (she really will remain identity-less, so I'll call her Z) had a super upset stomach when we got to the private school. I helped her locate the bathroom... Let me paint a picture for you of our location; you know, to set the stage for this story. This private school is located in the bowels of a building that houses lots of offices for various and sundry businesses. However, like most Ukrainian work places, the hallways are pitch black (theory: flashback to the Soviet Union. Ukrainians really just don't turn on lights except in the room of immediate use, so hallways are almost always completely dark.). We were stumbling and tripping in the dark on the uneven floors. The bathroom was a floor up from where we were teaching, and I promise you that the walkway into the stairwell had prison bars. I kid you not.

Anyway, we got upstairs and were both coughing and gagging from the overwhelming haze of cigarette smoke. The bathroom, surprisingly, did not contain squatty potties. However, once we started investigating, we realized it would have been better if it had...None of the toilets had seats and every single one was full of...stuff...ew. It smelled bad but not the worst ever. Z was feeling really bad, so I went back downstairs to give her some privacy.

Come to find out, she had an adventure. Ukrainian bathrooms notoriously are toilet paper deficient, so we always carry tissues in our bags. Unfortunately for Z, she'd forgotten to slip hers into her bag that morning, and guess what- no t.p. According to her retelling of the story, she went through a few options:

a) Don't wipe. NO.

b) Use hand. NOOOOOOO.

c) Ask lady in next stall. Um, no Russian...

d) Dig in bag and find notebook paper. Hmmm...

She went with option d, thank goodness. She actually ended up using a sheet of paper from her sketch pad. Oi...discomfort...At the end of the process, though, she won an "I've had a real missionary experience" award.

For our evening program, we made a virtual tour of Union. We set up the room to look kind of like an airplane, passed out Union bookmarks to be used as "tickets," had our flight attendants (Juliana and Kayleigh) give the pertinent instructions, and then we each narrated pictures of ourselves in our "natural habitats." The Ukrainian students really enjoyed seeing pictures of us at school, so all in all, I think it was a hit. Vova gave a short message, and then we spent a lot of time visiting and getting to know students. Julie, Matt, and Daniel got into some particularly great and meaningful discussions that carried over into the following days. Yea! I didn't actually get pictures of that night...I know...fail...but I hope you enjoyed the bathroom story!

Matt talking about the U.S.

Alex sharing about her family and friends.

Julie leading a game/making friends.

Me and the Mary Ellen look-alike, Masha!

So, someone had the idea a while back to create a bobble head that looks like our University president. Then, someone else had the idea to start taking pictures with him in different places, Flat Stanley-style. All of the teams that went out over Spring Break took one. Here's one of our pictures. I'm holding him, even though you can't see him very well. It's weird...we know.