First Excursion Day with the girls!! (And random musings about my stressful schoolwork)

Wednesday was my first day back at the internat after my trip to Poland. I arrived in Ternopil at 4:00 am, like I mentioned before, and I slept for a few hours before going to see the girls. Jen, Jessica and I had planned to take a few of the girls on a small excursion to the park, so no matter how tired I was I did not want to miss it for the world!! I called Jen in the morning and asked her what time we were supposed to meet, as I did not have the details. She said maybe we would take them at 1:00 pm so I could stay home and sleep in a little. That unfortunately did not happen because as it turned out the staff had told the girls we would take them at 10:00 am, so Jen called me back and suggested that I met them at the university (in front of which is the park) at 11:15 am. That was nice as it let me sleep for at least one more hour :P She called me soon after though, since they got to the university 1/2 hour earlier than accorded, but unfortunately by that time I was in the shower and it was too late, so even though I took a cab and tried to make it as soon as I could, I still ended up being there at 11:15am! I felt bad that they had to wait for me, but there was nothing I could do. The cab ride was kind of sketch and the driver took me on this weird, long, complicated ridiculous ride all around the outside of the city... which DID NOT need to happen, and I think he did it just to charge me more. He probaly assumed I did not know how to get to the university and he jipped me! :( Even though he spoke a bit of English, fact that he was accompanied by another man in the front seat made me a little nervous, since I we ended up going rather far and I was alone... Finally, and 20 hryvina later, I made it to the university, and the girls received me with a chorus that Jen and Jessica taught them, saying "Finally!" :S Oh well... from then on, the day went pretty well.

We went to the grocery store, where the girls each got a bar of ice cream, curtesy of the Students for Development grant hahaha! They were having a great time! A few of them also had a bit of their own money, so they bougth themselves some weird tasting corn puffs. Something we found funny (but also very sad at the same time) was that Jessica had a banana that got horribly squished in her backpack, and when she was about to throw it out, Alina 'Boss' went, "Noooooo!!!!", and then she took the banana from Jessica and proceeded to eat it, sharing half of it with another girl... They took it like it was some kind of delicious candy, licking the peel till there was not even the banana strings left on it! (you know what I mean, right?) Considering the kind of food these girls have to eat every day, it doesn't half surprise me. That teaches us North Americans a lesson: Do not waste food!! For these girls, a snack constitutes a couple slices of plain semi-hard bread. No butter, no jam, no anything. So think about it twice next time you open your fridge and think "There's nothing to eat!"

After the ice cream, we finally headed towards the park, and we came across an awesome little zoo, kind of like the one that is at Waterloo park, except it had some pretty awesome HORSES!! (I LOVE HORSES!!!) The girls started to pick up grass and feeding the horses, and I of course, joined in!!! I also got to pet them, which was awesome! They were beautiful!! Did I mention I love horses?? Hahahaha! I think I was having even a greater time than the girls were!! Hahaha. Ok, I am getting carried away. Back to the story. I took a few pictures, and the nice thing is that Luda allowed me to take pictures with her too! Luda did not like us (the Canadians) when we first arrived and she used to be mean, cold and standoffish with us, but even since the face painting day she opened up, and at the park she was in an awesome mood! It was sweet!











We walked along, with one of the horses following us, asking for more food, hahaha, and on the other side of the same zoo cage there were some sort of albino-looking raindeer. They were so cute! Further down we came accross a set of really large swings and a bumper car station. Two of the older girls went on the bumper cars, and the other five went onthe swings. They were having a great time, and that made me very happy. After taht, we walked back to the university, took a really crowded bus back to the internat, and shorty after we went home. Jen, Jessica and I talked about making plans to go to Poland, and afterwards each of us went home.

I spent that entire evening working on an assignemt for my logic course, trying to hand it in before its due date, which was at midnight, Ontario time. I worked up till 4:30 am, but I still couldn't finish. I was so exhausted that I couldn't concentrate very well on the material, which I find rather difficult. So the next day, when woke up at 8:00 am I was feeling really really really crummy, and I ended up not going to the internat at all. I called Jessica to let her know, and then I slept for one more hour before I got up to continue with my schoolwork. I was hoping to finish my assignment soon so that I could work on my budget, as Jen and Jessica have been putting a lot of pressure on me to spend the money of my grant. Particularly, they want to spend the money on excursions and that sort of thing, but I have to be careful how I spend the money because even though it souds like a lot, it is incredibly how fast the money can slip if I am not careful (especially considering how much of it is had to go to my ticket, insurance, the Ukrainian lessons, room and board, etc). I have a few projects in mind working alongside the churches, but I will have to use a translator for that, and I am not sure how much that is going to take. So I have to be careful. So anyway, those were the sort of things that were on my mind and that I wanted to take care of.

However, I did not end up having any time for working on my budget. The material for this assignment was 3 times as much as I had originally expected in terms of how long the lecture notes and the readings for them were, and the material itself was very difficult, since I don't think the notes were clear at all... If I had known how much work this was going to be, I would have done a lot more of it while I was in Poland! (I did do some work , but clearly not enough!!) So in the end, I ended up spending the WHOLE day working, did not get any rest, and ended up pulling an all-nighter. That is to say, I did not sleep at all until the next morning... and still, I handed in the assignment what would have been 2 days late... that SUCKS! That is 20% taken off right of the bat, and since I think I did very poorly in it, I probably failed the assignment... THAT will be a first! :( However, it is over now and I whatever happens, happens. I have always been a good student, so I guess I can take a hit for once in my life. I will just have to make up for it... I am just worried about the final... I will have to study very very hard for it!

So anyway, Friday I went back to the internat, and it was fun. I brought some of the toys Chopin's family had sent, and played with the little girls for a bit. Then, the nice old man who works at the internat and who is in charge of the little auditorium room, let us go inside of it and play music on the stereo! I had brought some of my old-school 90s dance music, and so we had an awesome dance party! Some of the girls prentended to be singers, and Rosa even tried to do a bit of break-dancing for us! It was hilarious!! Hahaha....







After that, I went with Jen and Jessica to the unversity to use the internet and find out a bit about our Poland trip. I found and awesome tour company that does tours to Auschwitz and the Salt Mine, but the girls did not seem that interested in booking it ahead of time. This company does not ask for prepayment though, so I think it would still be a good idea. Since Chopin is also coming, I will discuss it with him and see what he wants to do :) He said he would be love to go to the mines, so I think him and I might take a little side trip while the girls visit Krakow. Even still though, I thnk it will be cool to go to Auschwitz with them! It will be a group experience :D

Taking 3 full courses, plus the one that requires me to blog (which I enjoy :) ) is a lot f work and a lot of pressure when you are also volunteering and trying to get events going. However, when Jen asked me if I would have rather not done it, I cannot say that that is the case. I enjoy my schoolwork, I just don't enjoy the fact that I am always playing catch up because of how far behind I fell when I was preparing for my trip... I am the type of person who loves being busy, and I love school and learning, so it is not so bad. Plus, I REALLY want to graduate by December, and this is going to allow me to do that. If I had not been able to take courses, I might not have come to Ukraine in the first place, as the courses I am taking right now are requirements for my Master's, which I hope to begin in the Winter term. I haven't applied yet because the application process starts in November, but I talked to the admissions director and looking at my academic record she said that I would be just fine to start in January, even if my official graduation transcript did not come in until after classes had already started.

Some of you may be wondering how am I going to graduate by Christmas if I am only taking 4 courses this Summer (including the one I will receive as part of my placement and which requires me to blog and to make a presentation in front of the university community when I come back). Well, since I took Choir Ensemble on top of my other subjects one term, and that counts as .25 credits, that means I only need 5.5 more courses to graduate after this Summer term (that is 3 full credits, considering each course is .5 credits) , in the Fall I will be taking 5 courses, plus Choir Ensemble once again, and that will allow me to graduate in time! :D I just hope I don't ruin my average with my grades this term hahahaha. I will have to be very diligent, especially if I am to go to Poland again and to my host family's village, which they have asked me to do this upcoming Friday. So if you pray, pray for me; and if you don't, wish me luck! :D

But you may be asking if I take any breaks at all! Well, I do. Otherwise I would go mental. I have a few friends who call me and talk to me on msn quite regularly, so that is very nice and at times even comforting. In addition, for every 2 or 3 hours of work, I take about a 10 to 15 minute break, in which I usually check facebook and watch YoutTube videos.

Aside from that, sometimes I go for walks around the town and I often go to Church, especially on Fridays. They have Adoration from 3-6 on Fridays at my church, and after that there is Mass, so it works perfect for me. Bloging and posting pictures is also a bit of a passtime, although posting pictures and labelling is a big job... it take a looooooong time :P So anyway, I think I will leave it at thatbecause I think you guys will have a very hard time catching up, hahaha. Love you all, miss you all. God bless!

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POLAND = AWESOME!

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR YET ANOTHER HUMONGOUS BLOG ENTRY! :D You might actually have to take breaks since I doubt you will be able to read it all in one sitting! Hahaha... This is the tale of my ENTIRE trip to Poland, so that is why it is so long :)

My trip to Poland was sweet! The bus ride there was hot and uncomfortable, but I sat beside a woman who spoke a little bit of English, so conversation made the trip a bit more bearable. It took 3 hours to cross the border, but aside from that there were no issues. When I arrived at 5:00am the next morning (Friday), Matt (whom I will refer to as Chopin) and his uncle Tom picked me up. Chopin's family (on both sides) was very nice and hospitable, and I felt right at home! At the house where I stayed live Uncle Tomek with his wife and their two children, as well as Chopin's grandma. They live in a small municipality just outside of Warsaw called Lomianki.

After a glorious nap, a bath and a few text messages, I got ready and went with Chopin to visit his other grandma, and there we met with Uncle Tom (they are both Tom's). Chopin's grandma made some awesome crapes and then Uncle Tom showed me his bike, the back workshop, and his "Crazy Car", as he calls his mini-camper van.







Later that day we took a bus to Warsaw and talked around the Old City, which has very beautiful architecture and it is very historic because of the Warsaw uprising during WWII. We got to see some great displays about the war, a few churches, statues and the wall where the actual battle was won. We also saw a really awesome painter painting on the street. I got a small painting from him :) There were also some stores that had war-related artifacts, as well as jewelery stores DECKED with amber, which is a major Polish export. After that, Chopin, his grandma and I took a bus to a recreation center, where we attended a concert by a local singer. Chopin and I were a bit nervous that we were going to hate it, hahaha, but it was surprisingly actually quite good!! She was a very good singer (even if I couldn't understand the words of the songs), and there was one song especially that I loved! One of the band members specialized in percussion instruments, and he composed an awesome piece with all kinds of percussion gadgets, and it sounded like an awesome jungle beat with the sounds of the jungle in the backgrounud, like animals, birds and stuff like that. I loved it!! Unfortunately I was not allowed to take pictures.










The next morning we got up really early and got to join a bunch of people who were taking a bus to the shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa. We originally thought we were going with a youth group, but it turned out the youngerst person there was probably 60 years old hahaha. It was still awesome. Once we got to the shrine, we went off on our own and we were able to make it for mass at the church. We squized in through the crowd and got almost to the front. It seemed like a good idea at first, but then the church got so ridiculously packed, especially during the distribution of communion, that you couldnt even lift one of your feet for fear that you wouldn't be able to put it back down lol. The church was prety amazing. The walls were very ornate and they were covered, COVERED, in metal and amber ornaments that were put up as signs of thanksgiving by pilgrims. A whole wall was also covered with crutches that were left behind by people who had come with them but got healed, so they left them behind as a sign of thanksgiving! (Make sure to check out my album... to do this look on the right hand side panel of my blog, and there you will find a list of links to my different albums. You don't need to have facebook to access them). Unfortunately, even though I was almost at the front, I was still too far to take a good picture of the image of our Lady (which is called the Black Madonna of Czestochowa). In fact, I took one from the wrong side of the lineup, where people were getting out, without realizing that it was precisely the side where people were getting out, so a lady got mad at me... I didn't mean to cut in! I promise! I wanted to go on the line up on the other side, but that would have taken hours... literally. So instead, after Mass we left and walked around the town, going in and out of religious items stores. Then, we walked all the way to the train station, from where we took a train to Krakow.









(For info on the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Madonna_of_Cz%C4%99stochowa) (You can also click on any highlighter words for links to websites related to those words)

I thought we were going to just walk around the city, but Chopin had a surprise in store for me... He took me to the shrine of the Divine Mercy! :D :D :D :D :D :D!!! It was awesome!! Chopin knew that I really love the Divine Mercy image and the whole message of Jesus gave to St. Faustina, so he thought it would be more meaningful and significative if he took me there instead of to any other place in Krakow. And he was right. I was not allowed to take pictures inside the church, which is a shame, but I also understand it. Inside, the church is very simple and ordinary, but yet beautiful. The original picture of the Divine Mercy (Jesus) that was painted by an artist by request of Jesus through St. Faustina (so the story goes... I believe it but I know some of you don't), hung on the left, and below it was a reliquarie with a giant relic of a bone of St. Faustina. It seemed like the end piece of a bone of her arm, and it was almost 10 cm long!






(For more information about the Divine Mercy and the shrine, go to: http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/mercy/index.htm)

As soon as I walked into the church, I felt so overwhelmed with all kinds of emotions that I broke into tears. I was so overjoyed, so blessed, so humbled, and so very grateful to both God (and Chopin) for getting me here. I kneeled for a ling time with tears running down my face, making wonderfully unappealing roads of black eyeliner down my face, hahaha. I didn't care. I was too happy. Chopin just smiled :P The Eucharist was exposed for Adoration and you could truly feel Christ's presence in the little church. After Adoration, they distributed Communion, so I gladly went up and received it again. I know generally you are not supposed to, but you are allowed if you are going to several pilgrimage places, or something like that. I was so happy!!

Then, Chopin and I went outside of the church to line up in the long line to see the image and the relic up close. Once we got to the very front, I was able to move to the side to contemplate the image for a little while. It was wonderful. After that, we left and walked towards the basilica, which is a giant modern church located right behind the shrine church, where the second painting of the Divine Mercy is. I loved the church!! It was huuuuuge! It was a giant cicle without columns in the middle, similar to the basilica of Guadalupe for those of you who have been there, but it was all white inside. It was wonderful.It also had a really tall tower outside with a statue of the late Pope John Paul II. This completed my visit, and to be honest, it was the best birthday present ever!!

After that, we went back home on the train, where we got a cabin to ourselves. It was so cold in the cabin until after 2 hours of freezing, chopin discovered there was a heat regulator lol. It was a 6 hour train ride, though, so it was good that we got to be a little warmer.



When we got home, we were picked up by Chopin's uncle again, and the next morning we got up early for Mass. It was my 23rd birthday and I was so pleased to be there on that special occasion! Even though it was a bit cold, I decided to wear my hot pink flowy skirt, which is a skirt I wear when I feel really happy hahahaha. After Mass, we took a few pictures with the family, whom I got to really really really love. They prepared a small surprise birthday party for me!! They got me a beautiful heart-shapped strawberry shortcake, and also cheesecake on the side, so as not to break the tradition, because I told Chopin how I have always had cheesecake for my birthday, ever since I can remember!! In addition, they got me a bouquet of three hot pink roses (which perfectly matched my skirt hahaha), and Chopin's other grandma gave me a Jesus Fish keychain. In addition, I also received a very special gift Chopin got his uncles to put together a little something, but before I tell you what it is I have to explain...

Uncle Tomek, who is the one at whose house I was staying, works designing specialty boxes for special products. He has made all kinds of cool objects out of cardboard, like two cloc ks, a toy spaceship for his children, and a chest for his daughter's toys. Uncle Tom, on the other hand (Crazy Uncle Tom as Chopin calls him), is a jeweler, and he makes all kinds of pins, jewlery, medals, etc. Well, together they put together my gift, which was a wonderful little cardboard box containing two incredibly beautiful stained silver rosary rings!! The design is so intricate and beautiful. And I love all the thought both of his uncles, and Chopin himself, put into this gift, as well as the whole family did with the birthday surprise. I had expected none of this, and I felt so loved by all of them. They are such great people, and I am not just saying this for what they did for my birthday. Even though I was there only for a little while, I got to see what a great heart they have. I fell in love with Chopin's family! :D





















That day, while seating to eat cake, the family asked me about my experiences in Ukraine, and Chopin did a wonderful job of translating. In the evening, we went to his other Grandma's for dinner, and after that we went to a carnival because it was the municipality's 20th anniversary of receiving municipal rights! Hahaha. There was live music, includying a group of hippies who played African music with jumbes, hahaha. It was awesome. It started to spit rain pretty hard, but it was funny because on my left side there was this horribly menacing black cloud, and on my right side there was clear sky and sunshine! So sure enough, there was a rainbow!! Yay! Rainbow for my birthday! And in fact, it was a DOUBLE rainbow! Hahaha! It was sweet! (It is too bad that it is hard to see in the picture, but it was definitely a double raibow :P) We got some shelter at the booth where Chopin's aunt was selling some clay crafts, but it stopped raining soon and we were able to walk around a little bit before going back home. That night Chopin and I talked for a long time and it was nice. He told me all about his fiance and their upcoming wedding. He is so happy and I am so happy for them! He is a good friend :)









The next morning, that is Monday, we went with one of Chopin's grandma's to the museum of the Warsaw Uprising. It was pretty cool, although very sobering. Then, his grandma took us to lunch at an Asian restaurant. The meal there was HUGE! e plate was like 30 cm in diameter, and the meal went like 7 cm high lol, packed with chicken, noodles and cabbage. It was very good, but I couldn't finish it! Those of you who know me well, know that I can eat A LOT for my size, hahahaa, but even still, it was too much food for me. After that, Chopin took me to buy my train ticket, buy a few things for the ride, and get some foot medication to treat some foot infections some of the girls have. He was wonderfully generous (as always) and bought the medication himself. When we came back, I spent some time on the computer answering emails, doing a bit of schoolwork and talking to friends. I was very happy because I had received a few text messages from my family and from friends wishing me a happy birthday, well well as other emails and your typical facebook birthday messages, so I spent some time answering back. In the meantime, Chopin was playing on the computer with his uncle some funny battle computer game lol, cuz his uncle is cool like that! Hahahaha.









His family came out to say goodbye, and they gave me lots of stuff to take to the girls at the orphanage, such as chocolates, clothes and toys. It was wonderful. Then, the next morning I took a train back to Ukraine. I was NOT talking the bus again! Hahahaha. In all honesty, even though the way back was 19 hours, I would take another 19 hour train ride instead of a 12 hour bus ride any day!! It was much more expensive, but it was worth it!

The train ride was not bad. I had a cabin to myself for the first part of the trip, and later I was joined by a 22 year old girl who spoke English, which was awesome. We got along great. I was also able to talk to another lady who also spoke English. She was from Iceland! However, I did have two unpleasant experiences on the train. One is that I accidentally bumped the soap container in the bathroom, which was very poorly secured, and I spilled the entire contents of it all over my purse and my clothes!! It was such a mess!! I had to change my shirt but I kept my pants because they were the most comfortable and breathable ones I had on me, and it was pretty hot and stuffy in the train. At least my room smelled nice with all the soap! Hahaha. The other unpleasant experience had to do with an old man who was a worker at the spot where they change the train wheels (I will say more about this shortly). He came in to talk to me, but clearly that did not work because I don't speak a word of Polish! Nevertheless, he tried to communicate with me, but he was being much too friendly, to the point that it made me very uncomfortable... When he said goodbye, he extended his hand out (which was missing the middle finger), so I politely extended mine to shake it. Then, in old European fashion, he kissed it, then pulled me towards him so as to do the old fahioned kiss on the cheek, and then he tried to kiss me on the lips!! GHAAAAHHHHH!! I was horrified! I pushed him away and pulled my hand out. I was scared lol. I wanted to book it for the door, but he was right infront of it. He just laughed... I looked visibly upset, so eventually he go the hint that I didn't want him there and he left soon after that, still laughing... He wasn't trying to hurt me. He was just trying to have some dirty old man fun... You know, young foreign girl sitting alone on the train lol... I know better now. From now on, when I travel by myself I will make sure to keep my cabin closed whenever we make stops lol.



So anyway, about the wheels. You probably found that strange, and indeed it is! What happens is that Ukraine has a different standard width and size of train wheels than the rest of Europe. Ukraine, as you may or may not know, is not part of the European Union, and in fact this was done as a political tactic to keep the country separate from the European Union country alliance. (Ukraine is still very much influenced by the Soviets). So that means that when you get close to the border, they have to change the wheels on all of the cars of the train!! It is ridiculous, and ti takes such a long time!! It is also annoying, cuz the train goes back and forward and back and forward in a very small piece of rail lol. Oh well, I still rather have that than the bus! Lol. Crossing the border by train was actually very easy too. No issues.

I arrived in Ternopil at 4:00 am, and Orest picked me up in a cab (thank heavens!!) So with that, my trip to Poland was over. The next morning my host family received me with a set of gifts of their own, including a necklace, a pen and a little glute, all made of wood! To these, later in the week were added a set of birthday cards that were made by Jen, Jess and the girls, and they too were pretty awesome! Thanks so much guys!!



I am glad I had such a great experience there!! I am actually planning on going back in 2 weeks, this time accompanied by Jen and Jessica. We want to go to Auschwitz, and I also want to go to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. (For info on this check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wieliczka_Salt_Mine). Jen and Jessica are not really that interested in going there, and they want to g around Krakow and maybe do a pub crawl instead, but Chopin said he would love to go so he is going to join me and go with me! Yay! He is also thinking of going to Auschwitz, so that would be fantastic as well!

So I guess that is it for my trip. Thansk for having taken the trouble to read this novel-sized entry, hahaha. Please don't forget to check out my albums on the right hand side panel. It takes forever to upload pictures here, so I have opted for putting up only a few and leaving the rest for the facebook albums posted on the links on the panel (I did post a lot of them on this post but only because it is so long so I wanted to make it a bit more interesting and readable for you :D). And just a reminder, you do not have to have facebook to be able to see the albums, so please enjoy and feel free to leave comments! Love you all, miss you all. God bless.

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