Welcome to Kiev!!

I'm finally here! I knew as soon as I stepped into my new apartment, that I was home. Home at least for the next two years. It was a long day getting here, but I arrived to an extremely warm welcome by my roommate Mary Anne, and my supervisor and his wife. I had no problems getting through customs and I got both of my bags! Everything about Kiev felt extremely familiar to me as the similarities to Russia are astonishing. Everything down to the smell of the stairwells as you enter our apartment. The elevator even looks the same and the graffiti that liters it. It definitely feels like home. Everyone that I have met on my team and others in Kiev have been great, nothing short of wonderful. Everyone is so genuinely kind. I'm settled in, and I've had the chance to look around the city a bit. It is so gigantic! The river is frozen so one day we might go hand out hot tea or coffee to the fisherman, and who knows, maybe do a little bit of ice fishing ourselves! My Russian is rusty to say the least, but it's starting to come back to me a little. The Ukrainian signs all over the city have kind of thrown me off some, but the similarities to Russian are enough that I can figure most of it out.  I'm really excited to be here and I'm for the most part adjusted to the time change, and really looking forward for the rest of our team to arrive! I would like to post some pictures, but for some reason it won't let me. I will try again later, and for now I'm going to try to post some on facebook for those of you who have it. 

Cheerio for now!