Home Sweet Home (HSH). Part 1. AIESEC

9 days in May were cut out from our Prague's life and devoted to the trip home. My Mom had her birthday on May, 14th and, besides, it had been 4 months since Christmas time. Considering Prague is not very far from Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivs'k Yuliya and I don't want to keep "a between travel" duration much longer than that.

Our route was a bit complicated this time as we travelled overnight to Košice where we found that the bus to Uzhgorod had been cancelled. With one more girl from Ukraine we travelled to Michalovce, then got a taxi to the border where for 6 EUR we got into the car to get us through the border. Then Yuliya and I went to Mukachevo where we spent a lovely half a day walking around the city, having a nice lunch and sitting next to the Latorytsya river. Then we caught the train to Stryj where Yuliya's father picked us up and from where we had 1.5h drive to Ivano-Frankivs'k. The next morning I had a usual almost 3h trip from Franik to Ternopil. So only 7 changes on my way home (smile).

Usual and every time unique experiences of the family time will come in later posts. In this I'll mention all AIESEC-related things happened to me (smile). Mainly those were the 3 mentioned below.

1. Evening in "Koza"

Great evening with AIESEC in Ternopil alumni spent in usual meeting place - "Koza" bar. It was really great to see Valyus, Vuhasta and Olichka. I was positively surprised to meet Olichka's husband Mittul with whom we had spent a very quality Ukrainian style New Year time in Kyiv. Guys had had their wedding just couple of weeks before which, unfortunately, Yuliya and I had missed due to the planned home visit.

It was a really nice evening and nice talks. Everybody had his own life happening - Olichka was moving to Belgium, Vuhasta was waiting for her visa to continue her employment in Poland, Valuys decided to search for some other opportunities in Ukraine, but potentially in another city. Having realized this, I guess, we all strived for a great quality time that evening in "Koza" bar in our native and very dear Ternopil'.

2. Evening at Muzychenko's

The same time I was in Ternopil', one more a very close friend was there as well - Muza (aka Svitlana Muzychenko), a Ternopil'-born Lviv AIESECer, former President of AIESEC in Ukraine, and a very great person. She's now in Florida following her love and life. We communicate quite often but it's hard to replace with it a great evening spent at Muza's parents in Ternopil that beautiful warm May evening.

So the people who had a great time that night were - Muzychenko with Marcelo, Olichka who happened to have a birthday that day, Lara Muzychenko, myself and Penkivs'ky family who had one more person in their family since the last time I had visited them during Christmas (smile).

Lots of food, lots of drinks, perfect yard, weather and a very great bunch of people. Very very great bunch (smile).

3. AIESEC in Ternopil 16th Birthday

The last day of my May stay in Ukraine our family went to Ivachiv to celebrate Mom's birthday. By some chance AIESECers planned to have the 16th Birthday celebration of Ternopil Local Committee at the very same place thus making it possible for me to combine two events and had a really great last day.

Unfortunately, due to the fact of early travel the next day, I couldn't stay long, but couple of hours for me were enough to get back feeling of my LC, meet old friends and new generation of Ternopil' AIESECers.

I had a bit weird feeling to be the oldest alumni present there... but it was gone when I began to chair the boat race (smile).

Once again I understood that AIESEC-related part of my visits home is something I need to have and will continue having. And this one can't really be fully substituted with anything else, neither friends' visits to Prague nor my attendance of AIESEC conferences here.
The next experience is for sure coming during the next trip home which, I guess, should happen in September-October.