Here are some pics for you...

 House of the Chimeras

 Independence Square

 St. Andrew's

 St. Sophia's

 St. Michael's

 St. Nicholas Cathedral (where we went to church)

 The Lavra

 EPIC

С Рождеством Христовым и Новым Годом

So last time we talked I was about to embark on a trip to Kiev to pick up my brother and sister.  ONWARD!
My 15 hour train ride to Kiev was fine, and I arrived at 7:43 in the morning on the 21st of December.  Nick and Jess weren't going to arrive until 4:50 that afternoon so I had some time to kill in the city.  I took the metro into the city center where I found a place with wifi to check on airport delays.  There were none so I explored the city and got something to eat until it was time to head to the airport.  I arrived at the airport just as their flight was coming in, but after an hour of waiting for them to come through the doors I was starting to get nervous.  Eventually, Nick found me and said ", what are you doing here?"  It turns out that since I arrived in Kiev in September, a new international terminal was constructed across the parking lot.  How was I supposed to know about it, Google maps didn't show that it even existed!  Anyway we headed into Kiev and caught out train a few hours later to L'viv. We arrived the next morning (22) and walked to the Hostel.  Once we arrived we were shown to our room (after waking up the attendant).  We immediately showered since we all hadn't for almost three days, and after that we got something to eat.  We climbed the city hall tower (again), and walked around the city for a little before we got something else to eat (i think).  We did a lot of eating, so if I don't remember what it was that we did, i'll just say that we got something to eat.
On the second day we took a tour that was very informative.  Jess took pictures of everything and was generally insufferable, but I made it through. After the tour we ate.  Early the next morning we took a cab (their only cab experience, thank God it was a good one...)to the train station, and about 6 1/2 hours later we were in Kiev again.  We headed to the Hostel, that we were staying at up town, on the metro.  I had gone there once before, but unfortunately this time I went out the wrong exit at the metro station and was lost right away.  Nick started to get huffy, mainly because he and Jess over packed.  After about 15-20 painless minutes we found the Hostel and were soon out the door again to eat.  I really like eating.  That night Jess and Nick began feeding their addiction.  You see, when we were in L'viv we all tried Ukrainian hot chocolate.  It basically tastes like your drinking melted chocolate bars, probably because that's what it is.  Their addiction got so bad that we would just randomly stop at Coffee House, the Ukrainian Starbuck's, and get hot chocolate.  Anyway, the next day was Christmas.  We took a tour of Kiev at 12 in which the guide kept trying to convince me that I was going to find my future wife in Ukraine.  I even rubbed a bronze cats tail to make it come true.  The tour was really good, which made Jess slightly more bearable.  We ate and then went to church where I had a typical Ukrainian public bathroom experience that was saved by a Christmas Miracle!  After church we ate Christmas dinner ie pizza. 
The next day we went to the Kievo-Pechersky Lavra, or crazy big monastery thingy, and the Great Patriotic War Memorial, or epic Soviet thingy.  Jess had to use a squaty-potty that day, which she completely blamed on me for some reason.
On the 27th Nick and Jess left after we did a little souvenir shopping.  It was sad, but I had a 15 hour train ride to cheer me up.  This is really long, and I didn't even get to talk about new years... New Years: drinking, dancing, eating, laughing, avoiding dancing, falling asleep...
COMMENT!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is officially in the air in Chernivtsi.  There's a huge Rockefeller style tree on Saborna Square, lights hanging all over the city, and a nice layer of snow on the ground.  However, Christmas isn't on the 25th here.  Most people celebrate Christmas on January 7th.  This means that the 25th is just another day in Ukraine.  Also, I've been told that New Years is a bigger celebration that Christmas in Ukraine. 
In other news, I'm heading up to Kiev this afternoon to pick up my brother and sister from the airport.  Unfortunately I won't actually reach Kiev until early Tuesday morning.  That means that I'll be cooped up on a train for 15 hours.  I plan on sleeping through most of it, but people might have other plans for me. 
Once I pick them up we'll being heading out on another train to L'viv, where we'll spend a few days.  Then we'll head back to Kiev and have Christmas there.  There's a lot that could go wrong so everyone should keep me in their prayers.
Anyway, I promised a Christmas photo.  

Obviously it's a blue Christmas without you all.  Oh, and I bought that ornament specially for this photo.  It was pretty embarrassing buying it.  The look the cashier gave me was priceless.  Have a good Christmas and try and make the most of it even though I won't be there.  Don't forget to comment!

It's been a long time coming.

I realize that it's been a while since I've put up a post, but unfortunately I was having a procrastination flare up.  Fear not, your about to witness a whole new level of awesome!
Christmas is just around the corner, and I find myself asking where did the time go?  Where did the time go, there I said it?  My hair is long and I need a haircut.  I have been trying to work up the courage to go and get it cut, but every time I walk past a Salon I hear that Ray Stevens bad haircut song playing in my head. 
It snowed about three inches last week, which I was pretty excited about.  In case you didn't know I love winter time.  I also love the cold.  For me it just couldn't be Christmas without the cold.  The snow was a very interesting experience.  It gave me an insight as to what I should expect in the future.  Here's what happened, nothing.  I don't know if it was because there just wasn't that much snow, but nothing was done to the roads as far as I could tell.  This made it interesting to be both a driver and a pedestrian.  Every time I stepped in front of a moving vehicle I wondered if it would be able to stop in time.  You will be happy to know that I have not been hit by any cars, yet.  As far as I can tell, the only thing scarier than driving on cobblestone streets when they are wet, is driving on cobblestone streets when they are covered in snow.

 Have you ever seen a foggy snow covered landscape, I have?

Other than the snow I can't say that I have anything else to say, OH WAIT, my brother and his wife are coming to visit me on the 21st until the 27th.  I'm pretty excited.  I'm getting the train tickets tomorrow, and then all I'll need to do is book the hostels that we'll be staying in.  Wasn't there a romantic comedy called "Hostel?" 
For my next blog post I have an exciting Christmas themed picture to share with you all, which I hope you will stop by, if for no other reason, to see.  Oh, and please post comments or I'll take to drinking. 

Witches Brew

On Tuesday night I went with some of my friends to a bar named "Public," where a local band was playing.  After we sat down in a booth and ordered some beer, I noticed that the TV's in the place were playing a live concert of Nightwish.  It seems that Nightwish is actually quite popular in Ukraine, much to my surprise.  Anyway, the band was actually really good.  I don't know if they played any original songs, but some were in Ukrainian and others were in English.  Along with the beer my friends ordered, and this may come as a shocker to some, pigs ears.  I was envisioning something different from what came out.  What came out was slivers of gray meat that didn't look very appetizing.  Along with the cut up ears were some spices that you were supposed to dip them in.  Everyone was digging in and so finally, apprehensively, I took one and ate it.  To say that it was good would be lying, so I will say that it was interesting.  Apparently they were boiled, but they seemed to be of the same consistency of what I would expect a raw ear to be.  It was a combination of chewy and crunchy, which was a little disconcerting.  My friends told me that they went good with beer, but the only way I can see that is if you were too drunk to taste them.  But alas, I am here to try new things, and try them I will.

Anyway, I think you all may recall that the other week people were knocking on my door, giving me stuff for my bathroom, and unlocking the other room I share a bathroom with.  Well today something happened!  It's nothing major.  A German guy, who I only talked to a teeny bit so far, will be staying for a week doing something that I haven't found out yet.  So yeah, I have a room mate now, but I don't think we'll be hanging out much since he looks like he might be in his late 30's or early 40's.

extreme post!

So last Friday I went to a Halloween party that one of the English classes was having.  When I arrived, the students were still preparing, by putting makeup all over their faces.  They went all out with gory scars and black eyes, but I declined since I had my Russian class right afterward across town.  Anyway, we played a few "traditional American Halloween games" which I had never heard of nor played before in my life.  The next thing that happened is what makes Ukraine different from America.  Let me start off by saying that this party was taking place in a university classroom at 10 in the morning.  Anyway, next we ate and drank.  By ate I mean that we had sushi and cake, and by drank I mean that we had champagne.  So yes, it was a pretty good day.
That same day I went to an anniversary celebration concert and awards ceremony for the History, Political Science, and something else department.  It was held at another Theater in the city, which was amazing.  It had an orchestra section and three balconies one on top of the other.  My friends and I went up to the second balcony to sit, which I was happy about, because I like exploring buildings.  The show was a combination of student talent performances and award presentations.  It was boring at times, but let me just say that the ending was the "icing on the cake," and I mean that quite literally.
Last night I went to a club, or as they call it, disco, for the first time in my life with some of my friends.  I wasn't really sure about what to expect.  I just kept picturing people dancing and looking normal doing it, unlike myself.  The club was three stories tall, with the dance club on the third floor.  It had scary looking bouncers that could have broken me in half, and a coat service!  When we arrived we sat down at a table and ordered drinks, since most of us would not dance without one.  I got a lovely drink called a "Dead Russian."  When the music started I got a taste of what people in Ukraine like to dance to.  No surprise, it's just techno remixes of popular songs.  It turns out that most people dance just as bad as I do, and just don't care.  I took heart in this fact and may have even made it to the dance floor myself, but who can really tell.

halloween, what's that?

So obviously Sunday was Halloween.  You may be interested to find out that almost nobody does Halloween in Ukraine.  There's no trick-or-treating, dressing up, or parties (well there might be parties, but they have nothing to do with Halloween).  Anyway, that meant that this past weekend was just like any other weekend during the year.  I ,however, made a night of it by myself watching some movies and rotting my teeth.  It was a good time made even better by the fact that I have no classes on Monday's. Funny story.  I had just started to watch the first movie, Edward Scissorhands, when I realized that I had no candy!  So I put on my coat and started walking to the corner store.  On my way I passed a little convenience store with three teenagers standing outside of it with painted faces.  They were laughing and peering into the store, when suddenly one of them ran into the store.  I turned to see what he was doing and laughed as I saw him point a gun at the cashier.  Ukraine must really be messing with my head, because I was not shocked or worried by this at all.  I saw the cashier laugh and the kid put the fake gun down.  Think about what would have happened in America if a kid had done this.  It would not have been funny, and the kid would probably would have gotten the cops called on him. 
Local elections were also held on Sunday in Ukraine, so for the past two or three weeks political parties have had tents up all over the city passing out flyers.  It was an eye opening experience when I saw the first tent...

That's right, the communist party!  On a good not, it is encouraging that the communist party is still aloud to exist in Ukraine.  What I mean is that it's good that you have the freedom to express your political ideology, even if no one is listening.  It does look like one guy is listening though...
Yesterday when I woke my internet wasn't working.  I thought it was something wrong with my computer, but after checking some things I decided that it was the internet itself.  I wasn't sure when I needed to pay for my internet again, but the first of November made sense, so I was left to wait for the guy to come around and collect the money.  He did around 6 pm and by 10 pm the internet was back on in the building.  It's a good way to make people pay in my opinion.