Euro Cup 2012

I was so fortunate enough to have gone to a Euro Cup game, and a Ukrainian one at that.  June 19th, I was in the stands along with almost 49,000 other people (most of whom were cheering for Ukraine).  I personally thought it was an awesome game, and I cheered my Ukraine until the very end.  At times I couldn't take the pressure, but I managed.  Though Ukraine got robbed of one goal, they still should have made about 2 other goals.... next time...

Donetsk is a city located all the way to the east where it is known as coal mining country... I believe it because on the way there and once I was there, I was always covered in black dirt on my face and my clothes... I felt like I was doing archaeology all over again.  It took 22 hours to get there from Ternopil which was actually not that bad (I think I was just excited), but on the way back we took a 15 hour train to Kiev and then a 6 hour bus to Kremenets, and I just about died...

I am still a bigger fan of American fans.. to my surprise, I think American fans are more crazy than Ukrainian fans (in a good way).  I think the loudest Ukraine fans were the entire time was when they booed or whistled.... whatever.  I was decked out in Yellow and Blue chanting in Ukrainian and screaming in English.

This is the sweet juicy warm up to the hopeful idea of going to Brazil for the world cup in 2014.  Rescheduling my GRE to go to the game was SOOO totally a brilliant idea.  

Thank you dad for the tickets, Tanya and I had a complete blast!  (she says to thank you and mom, too!)


I am now headed off to camp for quite some time and I don't know how often I will go online, but just know I am OK (mom..). Plus, I know for at least 2 weeks I will have no cell reception. :)  

Until Next Time,
Aloha to summa tym!!
(and GO PORTUGAL!!!)

УКРАЇНА *clap clap clapclapclap*

So, I guess it has been several months since I have "blogged".  There are reasons, I promise.  1. I am lazy 2. My life is just flowing, I forget to blog. I won't go into depth on what has happened in the last 3 months, simply because I don't remember.  So here is are the highlights:

March: 

Me and Jenny after we finished the race!

• I went to Warsaw, Prague, and Vienna for a nice little getaway and saw 3 beautiful cities!
• ran my first real 1/2 marathon in Prague!

April: 

Jesse, Me, Mamma Inna, and Robin: Easter Dinner

• Easter at the host family's house (church 3am, discotheque, awesome food, and clustermate reunion--minus Simon)
• My fridge broke and everything molded so cleaning that up was just a blast (was broken for a little over a month)
• My dear friends Samantha and Adam got married on April 21, and though I was unable to make it, I am so happy for them, and I loved looking at all the pictures!
• Project Development/ Management conference/ hung out in Ternopil!!!  (the start of mine and Sharece's awesome May Day weekend adventure!
• April 28- watched повний привід
• April 29- "Beach" day.  The ferry never stopped completely at the dock to the beach, so we never got off.. .but we did have a fun ferry ride!  and we ended up going to the grassy beach which was more like a section of weeds where Ukrainian men walk around practically naked. 
• April 30- went to Ivano Frankivsk and walked around the city.  missed the last  bus so had to take kupe (train) back to Ternopil. 
• May 1- attempt at Shashlik by ourselves (thankfully our Ukrainian friend Yurii knew what he was doing so he took over)
• May 2- Headed to Terebovliya to visit Brendan at his site and got an awesome walking tour of the cute town!

The gang who did "Shashliking" together 

May:

• Sharece and I headed to Pochaiv so that Sharece could see the huge monastery there.
• Did the water project in a village called Diadkavuychi
• helped Sharece with one of her English Forums at her University and then celebrated by probably going to listen to "повний привід" like usual
• May 20th was "День Місто", Kremenets birthday, and took all the kids from the dorms to go there.  It was like a carnival and they all had a blast, including myself!!
• May 24th I had a "salon" party in my room where I painted all the girls nails and did their hair in preparation for the last bell the following day (May 25) 
• The 36 party was a HIT where we attempted to do 36 things around town (scavenger hunt like) as a way of saying farewell to our dear friend, Sharece, who was getting ready to head home after living in Ukraine for a total of 36 months. 

June:

Art students working on their paintings of Tondraya

Me dancing with Sasha and Tanya dancing with Vasya...

This picture pretty much sums up my life right now. 

• I said goodbye to gluten to see if it would help my stomach aches go away... (which it didn't)
• Summer camp began, but I didn't really do anything because the local church did everything. I did meet 2 Americans, though, which was pretty cool. 
• Tondraya came to visit on the 5th and that same day I bought a TOASTER OVEN!!!!
• the next day, we went to a town 3 hours south with the sports school trainer men where I played soccer with old men, and ended up staying the night in a hotel there and drank a lot of wine and danced in too many circles!
• 2 other PCV friends came to visit, Eddie and Elyse, and we all just relaxed, hung out, ate good, and enjoyed each others company. 
• My school installed a shower head in my bathroom!  A REAL shower head! no more bucket baths!  SOO AMAZING!  plus, the water turns off all the way now!  It only took an entire year...
• There are art students staying at my school for 3 weeks, and Ton and I ended up posing for them so that they can paint us.  We sat still for a total of 12 hours.  IT WAS SOO HARD!
• Today is the day that me going to Euro Cup is finalized!!!  Received 4 tickets to the England vs. Ukraine game from my lovely parentals and am taking that 22 hour train ride with 3 awesome Ukrainian people that have been nothing but kind to me since arriving in Kremenets.  SO EXCITED! 

Summer is just beginning, and I am excited for all the adventures that are going to come.  Got 2 awesome camps where I will be working at, along with a fun hiking trip in Crimea with some awesome friends that I can't wait for, plus a mystery trip that I am going to take, but have no idea what it will be yet... It will be spur the moment/ last summer hurrah type thing.

So Until Next Time,
Soak up that sunshine when you can  folks, because Kremenets be storming everday!!