We have arrived

Hello all, sorry for the lapse in posts but it has been a bit of a whirlwind here. We are in Kyiv. We love our apartment. We have had a bit of time in our classrooms. We have made friends with other new teachers. And we are finally feeling a bit settled.

My previous post was from the airport in Frankfurt. Up to that point the trip had been very smooth. The flight from Frankfurt to Kyiv was a little odd. As it turns out, the Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans on the plane with us could care less about directions from the airline staff, rules, etc. Most of them spent the entire flight standing in the aisles, drinking, and generally being a pain. When the plane was landing, the steward actually got on the intercom and yelled at a passenger to “be quiet, sit down, and behave! Or you will be going to court!” This made everyone quiet down for a few minutes. However, five seconds after touching down everyone was on their feet getting stuff out of the overhead bins. This led to more scolding from the airline staff.

Our next experience with culture shock happened while disembarking. As it turns out, there is no such thing as lines here in Eastern Europe (which surprised me, as all I think of when I think of the former Soviet States is bread lines). Seriously, if you are not right on top of the person ahead of you, people will jump right in. It is like being in pre-school. Needless to say the line to get through customs was an absolute joke. People were yelling at others, there was pushing, people watching here is awesome.

We were met at the airport by Cassie’s boss. He is a really nice guy and was very helpful. As there were other people coming in on the same day, we waited around the airport for two more couples before heading out to the school. One couple was coming from another QSI school and we clicked with them immediately. Since our arrival we have hung out with these two several times.

Once we got to the school we were separated and each taken to our apartments. The ride up the elevator and walk down the hall to our apartment reminded me of our stay in Romania. However, on the other side of the door, our apartment was awesome! It has been newly remodeled and looks very modern. We were shocked and very pleased.

This is our kitchen

this is the view out our kitchen window

Since that first day we have been tied up in pre-orientation lectures, group trips around town, and getting used to the city. We were able to set up internet and water delivery. So we now have a great connection in our apartment. If anyone wants they can contact us on our Skype phone, it is on most days. Probably the best day would be Sunday, as we will be at home most Sunday evenings (we are 7 hours ahead of East Coast Time).

Well, I have to get to work on planning for the first week. I will update later this week. Talk to you all soon.

P.S. We have a maid… I promised everyone I would get one, and sure enough we have one…

Most of the way there

Hey all, just wanted to check in with you and update while I had the chance. Cassie and I are currently in the Frankfurt Airport waiting for our flight to Kiev. So far everything has been smooth. We checked 10 pieces of luggage in at Grand Rapids. Each piece was exactly 50 lbs. Seriously, anyonw who travels from now on needs to invest in a luggage scale. This thing saved us a ton of money.

Well, I got to catch this plane. I will update this as soon as we have internet access in the other side.

Talk to you all later,

Further Complications…

As if the final 24 hours in the United States were not stressful enough, Mother Nature in conjunction with Detroit Thomas Edison have ensured that the last day stateside will be without power. We needed to get a few things done online, so I am currently making this post from a Panera Bread in Grand Rapids. I am enjoying being “that guy” who sits in the corner of a restaurant and types. I find that writing in public is so cool…

Anyway, for those of you we did not get to see while we were back, I am sorry. We will be back next summer for sure (and maybe this Christmas). With luck the next post will be from Kiev.

We will talk to you all later:

Summer wrap-up

Hello all and welcome to our blog. Cassie and I have decided to once again venture into the “blogosphere” as we travel to Eastern Europe. For those of you who remember the blog from Japan, this should seem quite familiar, for newcomers welcome and enjoy. We will be making every attempt to keep this up to date and want you to make comments, give us feedback, and tell us what you would like to see.

Our summer vacation officially started on the 7th of June. We were going to meet some friends in San Diego on the 30th of June and the thought of spending a month in the Yuma sun did not sound great. Thus we planned to travel the American West camping in the national parks and just enjoying the beauty of America.

After two and a half weeks of camping in the rain, we gave up on roughing it and finished the journey “camping” in hotels. Below are some pictures from this part of the journey…
The car with all of our belongings

The area around Yuma

Our first real stop was Northern New Mexico. We went to a National Monument and a National Park while there. The first was called Tent Rocks. We were able to climb through a canyon and then climb to the top of a mesa and look all around. It was very cool...

We then went to Bandelier National Park to see the cliff dwellings

Next we travelled to Colorado to visit the Ojennes's...

From there we travelled to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks driving through Wyoming we took these pictures:

At Yellowstone we had to get a picture of Old Faithful aswell as some of the wildlife


These are the Tetons


From the Tetons we went to Glacier National Park. This was our favorite, even though there was snow.


We then hit Seattle, Portland, the Redwood Forrest and San Francisco, where we met up with Rita. Rita showed us around the bay area and I was able to catch a Tigers game in Oakland.



After that we met up with Tom, Alister, and Doug in San Diego. With them, we travelled to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.


Cassie had training in Toronto, so she flew there and I drove across country to meet her. Nebraska and Iowa never end…

Since we got to Rockford we have been busy, busy, busy. I built a shed for Barb. Cassie has been prepping for the mother of all classes: she gets to teach high schoolers philosophy. We have been getting together with friends and family. Not all of this has been joyous: my cousin Matt lost his battle with cancer last week. It was a shock, but I was very thankful that I was near Chicago and able to attend the funeral services.

As I have posted this same thing twice and succeeded in erasing it both times, I will end here. With luck I will not delete it again. We look forward to hearing from all of you..


By the way, here are some photos we just got from our new apartment in Kiev, it looks as though we will have an extra bedroom: perfect for guests...