Sorry for being MIA

Hey loyal readers~
I am so sorry for leaving you disappointed the last several days. I know I promised to update you all on the details of my Easter celebration (which was awesome by the way) and I have not updated since then! My work at the orphanage has increased lately now that I am getting ready to start my data collection. All my internet time has gone to planning for that, reading literature from science journals and planning my upcoming travels. Tomorrow I leave Artemivsk to do some traveling around Ukraine. I won't return for three weeks so much of my time has been spent packing and making other arrangements. Tomorrow my journey will be begin by taking a 2 hours bus ride to Donetsk-the nearest large city- where I will board an overnight train to Kyiv. I arrive in Kyiv Tues. morning and will spend the day with some other Fulbrighters until we board another overnight train to the south-western city of Ivano-Frankivsk. We will stay there from Wed. to Sun. for a Fulbright Graduate Student Retreat and Symposium. We will do some sight seeing and cultural excursions as well as present our initial research findings at some local universities. After Sunday I will head back to Kyiv until my flight leaves early early on wed. morning to take me back to St. Louis for a short visit with my husband and our families. I am so excited to see Jeff especially; it has been hard to be away without the comfort of easy internet access to call or email whenever we want to. I will return to Kyiv on the 5th of May and will stay with a Fulbright friend for a couple days. Then over the weekend she and I will go to L'viv, a large city on the westernmost border of Ukraine. I was invited to go there and meet a Fulbright Scholar who specializes in disability rights. He works with a rehabilitation center in L'viv that is highly progressive for Ukraine and they are working together to create autism-friendly classroom environments. I hope I will learn much from them that I can then share with organizations in my community on the eastern side of the country. I will finally return to Artemivsk on May 12. I don't know what my access to internet will be like but if I get the chance I will share some pictures with you of my travels and of my Easter celebration. Take care all of you and thank you for reading!