From Bama to the Borderland: 01/01/2013

In my last post I promised to dedicate a post strictly to mine and Jesse's trip to Poland. I also believe that I said to check back in a few days for it. It's been more than a few days, but here is the post that I promised.

Ukraine is fortunate enough to be surrounded by some extremely beautiful countries. One of them is Poland. Since we began dating almost a year and half ago (yay!), Jesse and I had been planning on visiting Poland, specifically Krakow. Because of a lack of vacation days on my part and an extremely difficult counterpart on his, we didn't know if this was going to be able to happen. We were also having some difficulty figuring out the best/inexpensive way to get there. Thanks to the New Year's holidays and a generous Christmas gift from my parents, we were able to make our Polish adventure happen.

We decided to book tickets on a fancy international train that would take us from Lviv (Western Ukraine) all the way to Krakow. Of course this meant taking a trip from Kiev to Lviv (around 10 hours) first. We arrived in Lviv with a day to kill, so we spent it wondering around the city and trying to see things that we didn't get a chance to see when we went last year. This included the Harry Potter restaurant which is actually called "The Three Broomsticks". We had heard that it was really expensive, so we only went in for a beer and a snack. Later that evening, we ate at a Tex Mex bbq place owned by an American. We filled up on decent (for Ukraine) enchiladas and burritos before heading back to the train station to catch our fancy pants international train.

My love and I in Lviv

It turns out that Lil' Sebastian isn't dead. He's in Lviv!

The Three Broomsticks

After having traveled in cramped buses and smelly soviet-era trains for two years, we felt like high class folks on the international train. Beds with soft sheets and complimentary snacks?!? We were in heaven. Unfortunately that heaven was interrupted at around 1 a.m. when we were woken up by Ukrainian and Polish customs. After an intense hour of customs, we were able to sleep for a few more hours before arriving to Krakow at six a.m..

It's sad that our train beds were more comfortable than our
beds at our apartments.

Jesse modeling our complimentary snacks

We got off the train tired, but excited. Even in the dark, the city was beautiful. Thanks to Jesse's keen sense of direction, we reached our hostel in no time. We stayed at the retro and conveniently located Goodbye Lenin hostel. We were greeted by friendly Polish 20 somethings and a complimentary breakfast. Even though we were exhausted, we got ready and headed into the city. Our hostel was only minutes from some of the most popular attractions including Market Square, Cloth Hall, and a lot of gorgeous churches. Not only that, but everywhere we looked was some sort of delicious bakery or restaurant. We were in heaven.

Cloth Hall

Jesse and a famous statue in Market Square

Beautiful church

Tasty Polish food

Enjoying his first Subway in two years

Jesse was convinced that these statues were dancing

Feasting on popcorn before seeing The Hobbit

Old Jewish Cemetery

Outside of a church in the old Jewish quarters

Lovely steeples on a sunny day

Wawel Cathedral

We spent our short vacation (only 3 days) sightseeing, eating, and simply enjoying being away from the stresses and frustrations of life as volunteers in Ukraine. Of course the trip couldn't last forever, and we headed back home with heavy bellies and happy hearts after a wonderful vacation. If given the opportunity, I don't think either of us would say no to another trip to Krakow. The sights were beautiful, the food was delicious, and the people were friendly. Krakow, you get an A+ in our book.

-Jesse and I were fortunate enough to be able to take a tour of Auschwitz. It being such a historical and heartbreaking place, I think it's worthy of it's own post.

Merry late Christmas! Happy late Holidays! Happy late New Year! Happy/ Merry any other holidays that I might have missed in my one month absence from blogging! After my last (slightly depressing) post, things got a little busy and I didn't have time to sit down and update you all. Now that the holidays are over and my Winter blues have subsided (a little), let me catch you up on what's been going on. And what better way to catch you all up than by using my personal favorite, a list.

New Apartment
That's right. I moved. I actually got the call on a Thursday right after my last blog post. I was told that my (old) landlady wanted me to be out by Sunday. Yikes. Because of some time conflicts with my counterpart and other friends, I did end up having to move myself (it took me 32 trips) to my new 6th floor apartment, but I did it. As I'm sure you can imagine, my body hated me the next day (make that the next week). It's lucky for me that I happen to find old 70's inspired places charming or else I would be one unhappy lady. Seriously though. The apartment is fine. It's older and barely has running water (bucket bath city for me), but these are things I can handle. It's close to my school, has a somewhat comfortable bed, and has plenty of room for activities. I can't complain.

Christmas

Christmas kind of came and went for me this year. This mainly has to do with the fact that I didn't really get to celebrate it (depressing, huh?). I had to stay at site this year due to a limited amount of vacation days (going to Hungary, Greece, America, and Turkey will do that) and the fact that Jesse and I were planning a trip right after New Year. Having to be at site wouldn't have been a big deal if Ukrainians celebrated Christmas on the 25th like we do. However, Ukrainians follow the Orthodox calendar which means they celebrate on January 7th (And even then, they don't celebrate like we do. They do all of their present giving on New Year's.) On Christmas Eve, I spent my time making Christmas cookies for my colleagues and putting the finishing touches on the gifts that I made for my Ukrainian friends. I didn't watch any of my holiday favorites such as Home Alone or Christmas Vacation because I didn't know if I could handle it. After all, it was my second Christmas away from home and unlike last year, I wasn't surrounded by my love and our American friends. I went to bed with a bit of a sad heart and the hope that Christmas day would be better. Due to the fact that I got to play Santa Claus and deliver my cookies and presents to the school, my spirits lifted tremendously. All of the teachers were thrilled that I had made them cookies and my other gifts were a huge hit. I was also greeted by many of my students telling me "Merry Christmas", which definitely warmed my heart. Later, I was blessed by the technology gods and was able to Skype with my precious family. I got to see my beautiful niece, Collins, open all of her gifts. We were even able to get a family picture! It ended up being a pretty good Christmas. That being said, you better believe that I don't EVER plan on missing anymore.

New Year
The Friday after Christmas was the last day of school. Hooray! It was also the day that I (finally) left to see Jesse! That night on the train felt more like Christmas Eve to me then, well, Christmas Eve. It had been two long months and I was more than ready to hug my sweetheart and give him his Christmas gifts. I arrived to find a precious homemade Christmas tree that my beloved had crafted especially for me. Under it were several presents wrapped in Ukrainian newspaper. I'd like to take a minute and brag about my amazing boyfriend, because this was a gift giving year for the books. He made me several personal, and thoughtful gifts that surprised me and warmed my heart. We spent our first night cuddling and enjoying "Our Christmas". The next few days were spent catching up on lost time by doing absolutely nothing. Seriously. We just wanted to be a lazy, in love couple with no agenda, so we did. On New Year's Eve, we began our night with a hearty meal and some Bloody Mary's. We had every intention of going out later in the evening to celebrate with our Ukrainian neighbors, but that just didn't happen. Jesse and I were already starting to nod off around 10:30, and the thought of having to emerge from his cozy apartment into the cold winds of the world just didn't sound good to us. Instead, we stayed in and watched a movie. We did make it to New Year's, but we didn't stay up late enough to get to chummy with 2013 just yet. We have an entire year for that.

Poland
I am not going to speak too much about his yet as I am planning an entire post specifically for this glorious little vacation. However, I will give you a little bit of information. Jesse and I took a five day trip to Krakow and it was perfect. We both fell in love with the city, it's friendly people, and extremely western atmosphere. We spent our days sightseeing, eating more than our fair share of delicious Polish food, and enjoying being away from Ukraine. Of course it was all over entirely too soon, and before we knew it, we were having to say goodbye to our beautiful vacation spot and worst of all, each other.

And, now here I am. Back at site and enjoying the busy routine of being back at school. I'll admit that my first day back was not the best. I arrived back to cancelled lessons and an ice covered town that all too quickly reminded me that grace will never be my middle name (I have the bruise to remind me). After a few days, I settled back in and things are going just fine.

I have a lot to look forward to in the next few months, and also in 2013 in general. I get to see Jesse for his birthday (or one week after it, that is) in February, and then after that, I'm heading to London to meet my beloved pal, Bradley for some London adventures. After that, I will have less than three months left here in Ukraine! I I can't even talk about that right now. Not because it makes me sad, but because it deserves it's own post.

So, here's to you 2013. I'm so ready for you.

Of course I'll leave you with some photos, however you will have to excuse the poor quality of some. My camera was murdered by the foot of one of my sixth graders, so I've been having to use the extremely poor quality camera on my old i-phone. Don't worry. Thanks to my Mom finally purchasing a new camera for herself, her old camera is on it's way to me.