I lived in Ukraine from 2017 to 2018. I posted on my blog about training with professional dance ensembles, the Ukrainian lifestyle, and places I visited. My one year in Ukraine has provided me with a lifetime of stories — and then some.
Since returning to Canada, I continue to post on my blog about my experience in Ukraine and about the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada. Feel free to sign up for my newsletter to get the posts straight to your inbox.
I've been away from my family and friends for three and a half months. As I'm sure you can imagine, I miss them. But I wouldn't say I'm home sick. Just "people sick."
I miss lunches at Baba and Gigi's, sibling dinner dates, running around with my niece and nephew, answering my mom's technology questions (though, this is still ongoing), checking out a sports game with my dad, and laughing, eating, singing, dancing, and chatting with my friends.
Read MoreJust as I was starting to feel comfortable in Kyiv, more into a routine, I moved. Two Sundays ago, my roommate and I sat on our couch to thank our apartment for the shelter it provided and the good times we had. (Kyrylo, someone helping organize our year in Ukraine, said it's a Ukrainian tradition to thank your home).
Though I was sad to leave, I am happy to be in Lviv, the city that made me fall in love with this country three years ago.
Read MoreIn September, the English magazine What's On Kyiv relaunched after being on a break since the Euromaidan Revolution/Revolution of Dignity in 2014. It's a lifestyle and culture magazine, highlighting issues, events, and people in Ukraine.
I'll be writing for What's On every month, giving readers my take on the Ukrainian lifestyle as someone who hasn't spent a considerable amount of time in the country, until now.
Read MoreThe mystery around the Chernobyl disaster is fascinating.
The number of deaths linked to the April 26, 1986 explosion varies between sources. So does who's responsible.
Thirty-one people died from the explosion itself, but thousands of deaths are linked to its radiation.
Read MoreI walk the walk but I don't talk the talk.
While walking the streets, ordering in restaurants, and buying groceries people have mistaken me and the other Canadians/Americans as locals. We just smile and shake our heads or offer a "Я не знаю" (I don't know) or "Я не розумію" (I don't understand).
I do my best to keep up at dance, and at times (very few times, that is) I even blend in with the other 40 dancers, if I do say so myself.
But the language, I'm not quite there yet.
Read MoreWhile we're in Kyiv, we're training with the studio group of P. Virsky Ukrainian National Folk Dance Ensemble (commonlya known as Virsky). The studio group has about 40 dancers who train six days per week for three hours per day. There's also the Virsky school with younger dancers. Many of the studio dancers were with the school, but others have moved to Kyiv from surrounding areas.
Read MoreI was supposed to tour Ukraine with my dance group, Troyanda Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, in 2014, but because of the Euromaidan Revolution, the tour was cancelled. Visiting Ukraine has been on our minds since, and this year we made the trip happen. And conveniently, our tour ended just days before the yearlong program started.
I wrote about the 15-day tour at troyanda.com/blog, so check that out for more details of what we did and what we saw, but below are some photo highlights from the trip. We stayed in Lviv, the Carpathian Mountains, Zhytomyr, Chernivtsi, and Kyiv but also made stops in other cities and villages, including Kolomyia and Mamaivtsi.
Read MoreПривіт!
What makes a science student turned journalism student move to Ukraine to study dance for nearly a year?
Well, if you think of a good reason, let me know and I'll pass it along to my parents.
Actually, it's not so out of the blue. I've been a Ukrainian dancer for 19 years, starting out with Rossdale Ukrainian Dance School then Troyanda Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, a group I joined seven years ago.
In 2014, Troyanda travelled through Croatia, Hungary, and Austria, and after our trip, I went with my mom and her cousin to Ukraine for a few days to meet our relatives. Our connection to them is my mom's baba (grandmother) who moved to Canada in the early 1900s.
I've been interested in Ukrainian culture for a while, dance sparking my interest. Through dance, I've learned about folklore, traditions, and history, but I never made studying Ukrainian culture my focus — until now.
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