Since living in Ukraine and being from America I have noticed many differences here.
One thing I've noticed most (which probably is something every American would notice) is that everyone walks. In cities, towns, and the countryside, people walk everywhere. I think the reason why everyone walks everywhere is because, if you think about it, having a car can cost a lot of money. Like the gas or possibly a flat tire, even just buying the car itself-- they probably would not be able to afford it.
In America everyone I know has at least one car. I think the reason people can't walk from their house to the store is because the people who are driving won't be aware of the people walking places. I also think it might be because there aren't really any back roads like there are in Ukraine.
Another difference is that in America, lots of people are not all from America; there are Chinese, Spanish, French, German, and Russian people. In Ukraine there are mostly Ukrainians, and some Russians. One time my brother even met some Germans here. Even though most people here are Ukrainian, many people speak Russian. This is because Russian is a much easier language. We try to encourage people by talking in Ukrainian and not Russian.
Church is also very different here, because there are two or three sermons. During the service there is prayer and singing. When we do prayers, instead of the pastor praying for all the prayer requests, the people in the church pray out loud by taking turns for 10 minutes then the pastor prays last. Here people pray standing up. At our church here in Ukraine, the church doesn't put up numbers for hymns on the wall, but instead when it's time for a song the women decide what song to sing. I say women because I don't think the men care what song it is. During the last sermon we go to Sunday School. The women always make kids tea and put out cookies. Then after Sunday School all the kids go outside while the adults have their tea and cookies.
In America there is only one sermon and for singing there is always a system on what songs to sing. Prayer requests are always put into a bulletin. Sunday School usually starts in the beginning of church instead of at the end. In American churches, we don't have tea and we don't always have a snack. Usually kids do not go outside, but stay inside while their parents talk.
For Easter at home we do an Easter Egg hunt, but in Ukraine they do pysanki eggs. A pysanki egg is a hollow egg with all kinds of designs on them. People give them as gifts to friends. Here they also make an Easter bread as small as a cupcake to as big as a birthday cake. At our church there was a big lunch with potatoes, huluptsi, which is a cabbage leaf stuffed with rice or meat. I think it's very good! We had boiled eggs with a dot of mayonnaise on top (it tasted like deviled eggs), and some slices of sausage. For dessert, we had cake, rolls with cherries inside, and a chocolate and vanilla cake with coconut on top. In America we would go to a friend's or relative's house to eat.
The last thing I'm going to write about is the fruit trees. In America, to get fruit off of a fruit tree in perfect shape with no spray would be rare. But in Ukraine to get bad fruit off of a fruit tree without spray would be even more rare. At home, people need to water the trees all the time to t get fruit. But in Ukraine, people just let the trees grow without even touching them! In America, you would have to wait until July to get fruit, but we already have six cherry trees and one apricot tree ready to be picked and two other cherry trees already finished! Some of our string beans are ready to eat and my mom said that she didn't even water them!
So now you can see there are many differences between life in America and life in Ukraine.
Karissa
