Graduation and our fiesta fiesta in UA...

So Summer English Intensive Module number 1 officially came to a close today. It was actually quite a sad ordeal :0( Even though we've only been here for just over 2 weeks, we've grown really close with our students and have formed strong bonds with them. I spent most of yesterday giving the final in my Pre-Intermediate class and grading papers in time for the students to know whether they passed before they went home. And even though I felt horrible having to mark them down when they were wrong (even little mistakes). As soon as I took their tests to them and saw their faces of relief and just hearing them say: "OHH I love you!" brought joy to my heart. To know that our help in those classes and the encouragement and shared laughs and life stories added up to that moment. Alot of them keep asking us to come back next year and some are even planning to come visit us in the US, and that's so exciting.

Today was the graduation ceremony, which turned out to be a blast and a half. The students went up by levels and got their certificates and had people cheer, we all felt like proud parents haha. And a few of us had the amazing opportunity of singing Hosanna for the students with some of the Ukranian students on guitar, it was absolutely amazing. (I'll post the bit of the video we have on youtube soon). Then Hannah and Rachel had been leading a singing class while people waiting for their english conversation practice and we all got to sing "You are my Sunshine" "Michael Row your Boat Ashore" and "Lean on Me" and it was sooo much fun. And once we were dismissed we had to say goodbye and get last minute emails and addresses from everyone before they left. The good thing is that some of the students are coming back next 2 week module so we'll see them again.

**We've been working closely with a team from Grace Church in Minnesota, we've become part of each other's familes and now its time for them to go back home and we're all pretty bummed about that because we've gotten attached to these amazing people. Especially Annalisa, Dani, Ron, and even this crazy mean kid named Jesse (who insists on making everything about my mom) he says he onlys does it out of love, that liar! lol... we've learned to joke with each other, pop water balloons, virginia reel it, and share our small tables and meals, but the most fun has been playing apples to apples on off days. They've become a part of my life here in Ukraine at the moment, and to see them go is going to be difficult. Its exciting to see how God is working in each of us and to see how much He's worked in the Minnesota team, so we wish them a safetrip back home :0) On the other hand we got a new group from Alabama today and we got to talk for a while after dinner so hopefully we can gel with them soon and get things ready for next intensive on Monday.

Ok, so we've also been working closely to this woman named Rosemary and she's a completely amazing woman! We all love her, she has the best sense of humor and some of the funniest stories about being really outgoing and how sometimes she gets on peoples nerves for being too straight forward (hmmm...see a bit of myself in her...lol) she's so cool. She makes friends everywhere she goes and she calls me her Debbie Doll because she says I remind her of her niece. She's also one of the favorite teachers here and she's going back to New York to visit her sisters after not having seen them for 2 years. So we wanted to do something nice for her and i came up with the idea of cooking her a mexican meal. Things to remember when cooking a mexican meal in UA:

1. They don't have tortillas
2. Often they run out of the next best thing, called lavash
3. Parsley is a pretty good subsitute for cilantro
4. Ukranian cheese=puddy
5. Their hot peppers are pretty freakin hot
6. If you can't even find cornmeal to make they have tortilla chips
7. Unless you read Ukrainian, you don't know what type of meat you're buying
8. When in doubt, always ask the local KGB for help

So we bought a bunch of stuff and i decided to make steak nachos with pico de gallo to surprise her with a going away dinner. And some of our friends that had brought us traditional Ukrainian food the week before came over as well (since i promised to let them taste our food too). So while our team sat with Rosemary at a choir concert, Amy and I went over to Margarets house and started cooking. We chopped up vegetables and i seasoned meat and got the stove ready for the steak. And the whole time we talked with Margarets husband Jim, who just happens to be a professional chef and we heard stories about his family and how he was a specialty cook and field cooking for the army back in the daaaay. He gave us a bunch of spices and things to use to make the food. We had a blast in that small kitchen just hanging out. And as people started to show up we kept distracting Rosemary so she wouldn't see the food and once it was all done it looked amazing and the cheese was tasty but had an interesting texture. She loved the food and everyone was super impressed with nachos in Ukraine. What made me the most happy was getting compliments from the Ukrainian guys who came to dinner and had never tasted nachos. The whole thing worked out perfectly and Rosemary was extremely delighted with our surprise. It was a good time to hang out with one another and just share laughs and good food. It was a huge success. Margaret and Jim have invited us to go back again so we'll definitely take them up on that, their hospitality is amazing! I love all the people here :0)

Tomorrow we get the day off so we're going to go into Central Market and visit some orthodox churches, it should be quite lovely. Continue to pray for us as we start week 3 here on Monday morning and responsibilities continue to grow.

LOVE<3