Pictures

Finally, pictures! Since many of you will never be able to come and visit me in Ukraine I took lots of pictures and will take you on a photo tour of my town.

This is a sign near the beach that made me laugh. Be careful!
This is the bus stop near the beach. There is a bus that goes here every hour. It's pretty far from town, but not everywhere in central Ukraine has its own beach!
This looks like a lifeguard stand, but it's not. As far as I could tell it was a place for kids to hang out to drink beer with their friends and smoke cigarettes. I've been back to the beach since and last time I was there they had a waterslide set up here. Pretty cool!
Some kids built an amazing sandcastle. I asked if I could take a picture and they let me. Then I told them "good job!" and got my Ukrainian corrected. It's always worse when the correction comes from children!
This is a shot of the beach. It's very different from the beaches I'm used to. In Florida beaches don't typically have nearly so much vegetation. It was much more natural and I enjoyed that.
More of the beach.
Lots of paddle boats and you may not be able to see it, but there is a jet ski on the end there! Cool stuff, but unfortunately I didn't see any of it being used.
It's a really big river!
This is the closest thing to Florida I've seen since being in Ukraine. Note the plastic palm tree and plastic flamingo.
I don't know what kind of bird this is, but they made really big nests on several of the telephone poles on the way to the beach. Almost half of the telephone poles had a nest like this on it.
There are many monuments in Ukraine, but I've never seen one quite like this. I asked many of the people in my town who had no idea why it was there. Finally someone told me that there used to be a meat packing plant here and the golden bull is a memorial to this plant. An interesting story, and maybe even true.
This is the graveyard. All graveyards in Ukraine are very different from the ones in the United States. There are flowers everywhere and the graves are very well taken care of by relatives.
Pictures of the deceased are also present on the graves. Sometimes there are even pictures of their hobbies. One guy had a picture of his car on his gravestone.
A woman I ran into along the road with her chickens. I didn't even notice she was there until after I took the picture. I just smiled at her and she didn't seem to mind. Why is she by the side of the road with a trailer full of chickens? I don't know.
This is the adrenalin club. One of the more popular discos in my town. Many of my students go here, but I have never been inside.
One of the monutments in my town. It's not unusual to see tanks like this in many cities of Ukraine.
A World War II monument with the names of all the people from the region that gave their lives.
It's okay to climb on just about any monument you see in Ukraine. The locals do it, so Avery did too!
Sadly these things were just left in a field and they aren't very well taken care of.




One of the most beautiful churches in town.
That yellow tank is villed with kvas. It is a popular beverage in Ukraine during the summer and you can see yellow tanks like this just about anywhere you go. It is also one of the oldest drinks in Ukraine and has been around even longer than vodka. It tastes like a mixture between beer and soda and has very little alcohol content.
This is the store where I buy all my bread. Unfortunately there isn't a real supermarket, so I do most of my shopping at small stores and, of course, the bazaar.
This is the functional downtown. You can see the bus station there. I always take a bus here to go shopping or on my way to school. Another shot of downtown.
This is the Millenium club which is the other popular club in town. That jester kind of creeps me out, but I'm sure it's a classy place.One of the main streets in town.
A few little shops. It's always interesting to me how there are so many abandoned and crumbling buildings, but some of the regular shops are elaborately designed and very nice. I don't know why.
This is a sign for the elephant. They have the best pizza in town.
They have free wi fi too, and if you're paying attention you'll notice it's pointing away from the restaurant. Oh well.
The restaurant.
One of the many casinos in town. They never have any table games, only slot machines and that kind of thing. This is the vegas casino, almost as good as the real thing.
Lenin square.
Some typical Ukrainian shops and apartments, near Lenin Square.
One of the many monuments.
A billboard wishing a happy birthday. I've seen several of these since coming to Ukraine.




Some babushkas selling their goods on the street. It's very rare you see men or younger people, always babushkas. My theory is that the younger people are out planting and harvesting the food, while the babushkas sell it.

That's one of the buses I take to go to the bazaar or to school.

A nice and inexpensive cafe next to the covered market.
My bus, out in front of the university.
This is the road to the university, the dorms where I live are the tall buildings off to the right.
That is the student store. It's the only place nearby where you can buy food or things for the home. If you want something else, or if it's closed you have to take the bus downtown.
This is a cross between a playground and a gym. It's in front of the university I always walk by and see the college kids playing on it. It's definitely better than sitting in front of the TV, but I think it's definitely closer to a playground than a gym.
The best ice cream in Pereyaslav! It doesn't look like much and there is only one flavor and one size, but it's delicious! You can see by the line of people waiting to get a cone.
This is the bazaar. This is where I buy most of my food and the things I need for my apartment. I also walk through here every day on the way to school.
This is the school where I teach. It is a primary school, but there is a portion in back that is used for the foreign languages department of the university.
This is a shoe repair shop. It seems small, but this is actually average size. You can get your shoes repaired all over the place and very cheaply. Buildings this size also house barbers, furniture stores, and lawyers offices.
The playground near my school.
A typical apartment building.


One of the nice valleys where people grow their vegetables and have picnics near the river.

I made a post a few months ago about the airplane. Since then they have started dismantling it. This picture was taken several weeks ago so it may be completely gone by now. We'll see if they put something there in its place.
A World War II memorial in the park in the center of town.
Another shot of the same memorial.
The main monument downtown. The relief on the bottom goes all the way around and represents Ukraine during different parts of its history.
The main park downtown
Some of the government buildings downtown. This is the main square.

This is the oldest church in Pereyaslav. It dates back to 1415.
A grave of an unknown soldier.
Some statues and a small park near the Shevchenko museum.
That is a bust of Taras Shevchenko. He is one of the most famous people from Ukrainian history. He was a poet and wrote about a free Ukraine. This is the reason he is so loved today. A museum dedicated to his life is in the background.


I always try to teach ukrainians about recycling which hardly exists here, but in some ways they are creative and do this already!
You can notice the locks on this bridge. It is a tradition in Ukraine that when you get married the couple goes to a bridge in their town and puts their locks on it. They often write their names on them.


This is the field behind my dormitory. I usually take the bus downtown because it is a long walk, but on a nice day I'll walk to town through the field on this path. I need to be careful because sometimes bikes or mopeds use the same path!
These are the dorms and the fields behind. Mine is the one in the middle!