Our front door

I know many of you have wanted to see what our apartment looks like. We have been putting off showing too many pictures until we actually had some furniture to show you. Now I think we have enough that it actually is looking like a home!

Here is what our place looked like before we moved in:

The bedroom

The kitchen with small balcony/pantry

The living room

The shower room (toilet is in a small separate closet-size room)

In the midst of moving in and unpacking:

Organizing the kitchen

First meal… picnic style!

Now that we have settled in, we have been able to buy a sofa, a desk, some lamps, and even a treadle Soviet sewing machine!

Our lovely new couch, it also turns into a bed!

Looking away from the window

A Podolsk 142

The sink is out of view since it was full of dirty dishes…

The bedroom

We are still hoping to get a few more items, a small freezer, a drill for Lance, a coffee table, a chair or two, and a cabinet for our pantry.

There is also a spare bed for anyone that would like to come visit! Please come see us! It’s not pictured since that room is being used as a storage space and it just doesn’t look very neat and tidy…  🙂

Sunset view from home

Just thought it would be interesting for some of you to read Ukraine’s national anthem in English. There are many different translations, this is just the one we chose. The lyrics were adapted from a poem written in 1862 by Pavlo Chubynsky, the music is arranged by Mykhailo Verbytsky.

Держа́вний гі́мн Украї́ни

The Anthem of Ukraine

Glorious spirit of Ukraine shines and lives forever

Blessed by Fortune and brotherhood will stand up together

Like the dew before the sun, enemies will fade

We will further rule and prosper in our promised land

We will lay our soul and body for the cherished freedom

Cossack blood will raise the nation of the joyous people

For the liberty the folk strives ardently from San to Don

And will let no alien power in our common home

Grandfather Dnieper* and Black Sea rejoice

And Ukraine will see daylight and live by Fortune’s choice

We will lay our soul and body for the cherished freedom

Cossack blood will raise the nation of the joyous people

Passion and hard-working hands prove bright future true

Song of freedom, loud and clear, guides us all the way through

Over mountains and steppes it flows, over ages told

Valorous Ukraine stands strong in a striving world

We will lay our soul and body for the cherished freedom

Cossack blood will raise the nation of the joyous people

*Dnieper is a river that runs through Ukraine.

Painting done by a young girl, displayed in a shopping center.

April 12th is Cosmonaut Day, its a rather obscure holiday that many people forget about.

This year, a friend of ours decided to celebrate her birthday on Cosmonaut Day. She told us to dress up. So we did.

M.E.R 1 and Jetpack Lance

Apparently no one else got the memo about dressing up. Needless to say, we were a hit at the party!

Things in Ukraine have been changing hourly for the past week or so.  It has been a real emotional roller coaster here.  So to begin, I will take a look at the bigger picture and then get into specifics.  At least from my point of view.

It is hard, sometimes, to listen to commentary about the Ukrainian situation from outside Ukraine.  Most big news organizations portray this unrest in terms of people mad about not being aligned with EU.  Sure that is what started this whole movement, however it was never really about being with EU in the first place. It was more about getting away from Russia.  Being a part of the EU trade circle will not all be pie and diamonds.  It has the potential to be really rough for the country.  However, most Ukrainians see it as better than Russia.

That all said. The current movement does not have much to do with the EU at all.  It is a movement towards freedom from oppression.  A friend of mine did an interview with a US news station and summed that all up quite well.

To really understand why this unrest got to the place it did, you have to look at the demographics of Ukraine as well as the history of the people in power.  The country is mostly split into two major demographics. The ethnic Ukrainian Ukrainian and ethnic Russian Ukrainian. The ethnic Russian population of course has stronger ties to Russia.  This is where the currently former President comes from.  Not only that, he was in prison twice and basically a mobster.  When the Soviet Union fell, a lot of mobsters and corrupt officials became leaders of the country since they had the money.  The region where he came from is strongly influenced by fear, manipulation and corruption.  So you can now see, his presidency has been very much that of fear, manipulation and corruption.  In his side of the country, this has worked well for years but not in Western and Central Ukraine where it is predominantly ethnic Ukrainian.

Ukrainians are fighters.  In the past few hundred years they have had about 80 years of freedom  and only a little over 20 of that being since the Soviet Union fell.  This entire time, they have fought against the oppressor. So a new oppression in the form of a president who was acting more like a dictator/mobster did not do him any favors.  (Just google “Yanukovych palace” and judge for yourself if this president was on his way to joining the dictators club.) He was bold enough to use his tried and true tactics on the nation of Ukraine (such as imprisoning the opposition, putting friends and family in important positions, stealing money from Ukrainians etc.) and it totally backfired. Character has a funny way of coming out no matter who you are and this was the case with the president.  He eventually saw violence as the answer… big mistake.  So now you see a nation taking charge of it’s future and fighting for freedom.  Side note, this is the first time in recent times, people have actually died for freedom.

So, the former president seems to be running things, the protesters want to make sure change happens before they back down and true leadership for the country is uncertain.  The nation really needs prayer during this time. Not every Ukrainian is happy with what is happening.  A lot of the Ethnic Russian population sees this as a loss. Whatever happens, Ukraine is and will be different.  Most Ukrainians want change in a big way, just ask Lenin. His statues are coming down all over the place.  It is the Ukrainian symbolic gesture that screams “we are done with the old and rooted corruption, we want something better for our nation!”  They proved this with their lives.

My birthday is shared with George Washington’s birthday, February 22nd. I always thought it was pretty cool, basically my birthday is marked on everyone’s calendar… via our first president.

This year though, my birthday was marked by something else, something exciting. No it was not just that I was turning 30 (that is pretty cool though!) It was a new day in Ukraine, a day without corrupt leaders. Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted and new leaders took control! It was a new independence day!

Photo credit: KyivPost

There has been so much happening in Ukraine politically. People became tired of the corrupt leaders and wanted an end to the lies. Now, former president Yanukovych, has fled leaving ruins. He stole millions from the country, he put his friends and family in power who followed his lead and also stole from the country.

Photo credit: Anastasia Taylor-Lind

Though February, 22 was a happy day in Ukraine, it was also a day to remember those who gave their lives to help rebuild a new Ukraine. It will be a long a bumpy road to rebuild a strong and thriving Ukraine, but the people are not afraid of hard work. Ukrainians are tough people and will not shy away from getting their hands dirty.

I’m so happy I got to celebrate my birthday with a whole country!