I haven’t posted in a few weeks because I was in Ukraine. I was volunteering for a really cool charity called GOGLOBAL, who run camps for the children to teach English all across Ukraine. It was a really amazing experience as I got to meet people from all over the world. I had the best team to work with over my two weeks there I could have wished for. Also I only put on 0.5kg despite all the crap I was eating so I’d call that a win!
As I said I was there for two weeks. I flew into Kiev where I was meeting for training for three days before the start of camp. The training was good fun, like I said there were volunteers from all over: The UK, France, Germany, the USA, Latvia, Indonesia, Egypt and many more. Due to this it was a real cultural experience as I learnt more about their individual countries other than the stereotypes much of the world place on them. We had to take part in many team building exercises and learnt songs and games to do with the children. (At my camp their favourite song was Baby Shark).
Luckily, because my train was late I had an afternoon in Kiev beforehand. Kiev is a remarkable city considering its history. In the last 28 years there have been 3 revolutions. This means the country is a relatively new and exciting place to visit as things are changing a lot. Whilst we were there we visited a secret bar, called The Last Barricade. It acted kind of like a speak easy, you have to give a password in order to enter. The password is “Boritesya I poborete”, it means fight and you will win- I did not say this confidently or well, they let us in anyway though… It is such a cool bar/restaurant and we chilled there for a few hours. After this we went to look at some cathedrals, but they were shut- so we just took photos before getting more food and alcohol somewhere else. Yeah we’re fat and lazy, deal with it! In fairness I hadn’t liked the food at training so hadn’t really eaten all that much. It was either watery soup or odd looking meat and usually all the same colour. So I don’t actually feel bad.
Then we moved onto our schools, my school was in a small town called Berehove, 4km from the Hungarian border, the train was 15 hours long!! And overnight! It wasn’t too bad as I was with people I knew but still- it was a long time to be confined to a cabin. I mean I probably slept most the way but when I was awake time dragged and it was really, really cold at night! By the time we got there though I think I smelt terrible and I needed to change. I had eaten a few snacks, which may not have been the healthiest but they were at least different colours! I was placed in the same school as 6 other volunteers and we were running a special program. Around the World in Nine Days. It was a really interesting camp as even we learnt interesting facts about not only other countries but our own as well. I mean I knew most of the facts. The kids though said I didn’t speak proper English after my colleagues started making jabs at me for my accent and pronunciation. I’m sorry but I am from England and the language is called English therefore it is my language not theirs!! Anyway, they speak American English so they were wrong, regardless of their level. Nah camp was great fun and I got on with everyone, we became a little group- well 6 of us did, I did feel bad for the other girl because we were so close.
We did not eat the best food, I’ll be honest I was not a fan of Ukrainian cuisine, it was rather bland and sometimes vinegary. So I ate a lot of pizza and chocolate. Sorry but not sorry, it was either that or I didn’t eat so… The pizza though was amazing and one night we had home cooked Hungarian food by the lake because our headteacher’s family cooked for us, so we got to have a swim and eat good food. We also went to the hot springs which were so nice and relaxing- we were there for two hours and I was so relaxed at the end of it. I loved them!
We did have one trip to a city called Lviv, about four hours away. It was so beautiful but I spent most my time going from one café to another! Two girls and I went to another secret bar which was an old bunker which had been used by the Ukrainian People’s Army during times of occupation. It was really cool. There was also a BDSM café which we did not really like and left straight after walking in after we realised what it was but not before I’d been whipped on the arse two times. We went because it was right next door to the chocolate factory and our friends teacher recommended it- bad call! But the food all over Lviv was amazing so all in all a beautiful and fairly cheap weekend!
It was sad when I had to leave last week because I had made so many friends especially on my team and I didn’t really want to have to say goodbye to all them. But I am looking into going to Egypt to see my roommate at Easter and also London to see others. This means that we shouldn’t ever lose contact- well hopefully not as I love them all and their uniqueness so much.
My healthy lifestyle journey 