Vice Mayors, Ukranian Girls, and Verynaki

Quote of the day: "If you want to reach something special in your life, it is not enough to act, you need to dream; it is not enough to plan, you need to believe!" - School 162 Students

We began our day visiting the School 162 Specialized school. We received a very warm welcome from the students through a presentation on their outreach work and created a small show for us. Many students got up and sang and danced for us in their auditorium, a couple were award winning in Europe. Afterwards they suggested that we should get up and sing something for them too! Possibly embarrassing our country in the process, we scraped together "Hey Jude" in an octive five times lower than our voices capable before they cut us off....Very embarrassing but very memorable. Despite our terrible singing voices, they still were kind to us beyond belief. The girls took a particular liking to Alex...hahahahah. Something he's been hoping for the entire trip. His Ukrainian dream, now achieved.

Next we were honored to visit the vice mayor of Kharkiv, something that most citizens here are not given the opportunity to do. The meeting was filmed and had cameras, and apparently we will be in the newspapers and a portion on the news! This was so special to be able to take part in.

After lunch, we visited the blind school for children. We saw their classrooms and how they learned and it was all so interesting. We were able to meet our old friend, Galyna Chala, who was a delegate that had visited Cincinnati this past fall.

Next we went to the new American center where we were given the opportunity to Skype with some family from home. We had a great time there connecting with the Ukrainian teens that will be visiting us in the end of May. They are all so friendly people and we can't wait for the opportunity to show them Cincinnati.

Finally we saw the dolphinarium show. It was comparable to American Sea World. Fantastic!

After a long day, we are so happy to have been given this opportunity for such an amazing trip and meeting such wonderful people. Some of the best times we have are when we get to just talk to the Ukrainians about their life and culture and compare it with ours. This is truly a chance of a lifetime.

More to come for tomorrow, when we will visit the homeless children orphanage. !! (:

By: Grace Brown and Alex Mangas