Yes, she needs to get on with the Russian studies..

I thought Ukrainians were a bit warmer and more open than my perception of Russians, and the people in Belarus. The people in Odessa were brilliant. In terms of nice people it's first rate. And it's all natural,
I really liked them a lot. People were incredibly kind and helpful to me, even though my Russian grammar and vocabulary was very bad.

It's not like in Western Europe where most people simply will not bother with someone who doesn't speak the local language (or English).

I had heard/read stories about crime etc and was expecting problems. But I felt quite safe and absolutely nothing remotely scary happened.
I have recommended Ukraine to several people and a couple of friends of mine already went there. One for the Football last year, and another for a holiday on the sea and some climbing. They liked it too.

I wish I had seen more of Ukraine because I just liked the people. Kiev was very grand and commercialised in a rather random manner. (some places very commercial; flashing neon etc... some had a Southern European feel (markets and a general chaos) and some were Soviet-like.

I chose to leave earlier than I had planned and went to Belarus instead. The reason was that I wanted maximum exposure to Russian language and the Ukrainian language is used almost exclusively on signs etc.

I liked Ukraine a great deal and I'll take any opportunity to got there again.

I've only seen a FRACTION of this HUGE country...