Oh, wow, I didn’t realize it had been so long since I had blogged! My apologies. J Our week days are typically quite tame here, mostly schoolwork, hanging out around the apartment, and occasionally going out in the late afternoon. Not much of any interest in the blog world. Quite honestly, I don’t really want to do much sightseeing without our little V. And since he’s still in school, he goes back on Sundays for the weekL . We look forward to having him more often.
Monday; October 8:
Monday was cold and rainy…..brrrr. We passed on J&P’s offer to go walking about town as we were not interested in being cold AND wet. Cold is ok…wet…not so muchJ So we spent all day at home, doing school work, playing games, drinking hot tea…until we needed OUT! By late afternoon we were getting stir crazy and the rain had finally stopped so we called P & J to see where they were and met up with them. We met them and the B. family, who are also here adopting! We didn’t really care where we went, just needed out of the house, so followed them to the Opera House to get their ballet tickets for the following night. We decided to pass on that ballet since the online photos looked a little risqué for children. (Unfortunately, we heard we missed a good one and it wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked online…but we’re going to try to go see Swan Lake later!)
After getting their tickets at the Opera House, we then proceeded down an adjacent street toward Kreshatyk, the main street in town. We stopped off in a little bookstore and found some neat learning English workbooks for the boys. I decided to wait and take V. with me there so I can see what level he needs. Fortunately, V. LOVES to learn and begs to play the English and Geography games we have!
We strolled a bit more around town then decided to head back to the apartment where my awesome “should have been a Chef” Hubby had prepared warm, tasty Chicken noodle soup from scratch to top off our chilly, chilly day! We fed all 9 of us (5 of us, W. Family and B. Family) for only ~$12!:)
Tuesday; October 9:
St. Sophia’s
On Tuesday we visited the number one attraction in Kiev, according to tripadvisor.com. St. Sophia’s was built in the 11th Century! From the guide book I have, called “Yours Truly, Kyiv”, St. Sophia’s was “the center of spiritual, cultural and political life in ancient Kyivan Rus’. Kings were crowned here, foreign ambassadors received and bilateral agreements were signed. Grand Prince Yaroslav established the first library in Eastern Europe here….”
So in we went to experience a slice of history! It was ornate, colorful and beautiful.
In addition to seeing one of the most amazing and beautiful landmarks here in Kiev, we met some neat people! We met the first couple in an unusual way. My husband, who does not care nearly as much as I do about “blending in” here, J wore his big West Virginia University hat and sweatshirt on Tuesday. So, as we stood in line to get tickets at St. Sophia’s, a man in line said, with a strong (not American) accent, “Take me home, Country Roads. How many people in Ukraine would know a John Denver song?” So we laughed and carried on. Later on the grounds of St. Sophia’s we ran into that man and his wife again. It was then that we chatted more and he asked us to guess where he was from. The first thing that popped into my head, by looking at them, was Israel. But for fear of speaking the name of Israel to one of their enemies, I shrugged. When he confirmed that indeed they were from Israel, I was thrilled! We’d never met anyone from Israel before! We told him our Pastor was in Israel THAT DAY! Sadly, they told us that in their travels, the only people they tell that they are from Israel are Americans, because so many others in the world hate them. L They can’t vacation anywhere near their country so that fact brought them to Kiev. Wow. That broke my heart. God’s chosen people….rejected by so many. I was glad we could show them a friendly smile. And we were glad to see theirs, too, in a land of scowling! :I
And if one sweet smiling couple wasn’t enough for one day, we also ran into a precious lady on our way there! She was Ukrainian and overheard my kids speaking English. This sweet, adorable little lady, smiled ear to ear and said, “English!” She spoke in a heavy accent, but had a BIG smile for us and adored the kids. We found her so surprisingly pleasant we asked if we could take her picture with the kids! AND when we asked her name, she said, “Lydia!!” We told her we have a dear, precious, amazing friend named Lydia back home, and she was thrilled. It turns out her English was so good because she has a lot of family in the US, and grandchildren in New York. She lived in the U.S. for a year or so and obviously learned how fun it was to smile at strangers while there!:) We wanted to take her home with us, too!:)
AND we even met some Americans there at St. Sophia’s! Who weren’t here adopting! Wow! Their parents were missionaries and living in Kiev so a brother and sister and their respective spouses came to visit. They were coming out of the restrooms and we overheard them speaking English! Wow! It is SOOO rare to hear English here! So, we struck up a conversation and learned more about them. Although they aren’t here adopting, the sister of the group had FIVE adopted children from US Foster Care back home with her niece. I thought how neat it was that we got to know them, exchanged emails, etc., when if we had passed another couple or two coming out of the bathroom in the U.S., we wouldn’t have given them a second glance! J We all thoroughly enjoyed our time chatting with them outside of the bathrooms! We forgot to get their picture:)
Speaking of these bathrooms, initially, the girls and I thought, “Wow, these are the nicest bathrooms we’ve seen in all of Kiev!” Ab. even exclaimed, “These look like Disney bathrooms!” Wow! BUT THEN we opened a stall and said, “Oh, never mind.” Squatty potties in ALL with NO TOILET PAPER! That is SO incredibly bizarre to me. In most places with the basement, dingy, dirty bathrooms we’ve seen, the ‘no toilet paper’ isn’t as shocking. But this bathroom was SO pretty that we had to have a photo! And the other American couple had taken a photo of it, too! Ha! But….good thing we were warned to ALWAYS bring our own TP! Great tip, C. family who is soon to be following us!
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(I needed a definite transition line between the potties and stories about our wonderful host! :)
We were expecting Sv. and his fiancé, Ir. home from their trip to the U.S. Tuesday night at around 6:30- Yay! It is not the same without them! Unfortunately one of Ir.’s bags was delayed in Amsterdam so they had to wait for it and weren’t expected home until after 8pm. So, since the “hoardes” here were starving, we decided to go for pizza at one of our favorite places, “Mafia”. The last (& only) time we were there, we got “the special” which was a 3 ft long pizza for only $12! It even came with free drinks and breadsticks! Actually, there were several of us last time, so we got FOUR specials. The crust is VERY thin- nearly cracker-like, so it is easy to eat several slices. But last night, it was just the five of us. No V., no P & J, no SV. & Ir., No Sa. & Sl. Just the five of us…..and it was dull we must say. We have grown used to a big, zany crowd of people to hang around with here…but it was just us. AND we got scammed on the price! Since we can’t read the menus, we point to what we want. We CAN however read the numbers and prices, so when we saw the pizza we wanted had the 99 hrv (~$12) sign on it, we pointed at it. Since Weej could eat one by himself, we got twoJ and brought home leftovers. Imagine our surprise when we got the bill and it was WAYYYYYYY more than we expected. It turns out that pizza was no longer on special (even though it was marked special on the menu AND the server didn’t bother to mention it when we POINTED RIGHT AT THE PICTURE WITH THE SPECIAL STICKER). The “Special pizza” was now TWICE the price. $24 for a pizza??? And we got TWO?? Yikes and double yikes. We’ve never paid that much for pizza! We brought it to the attention of the manager, who speaks pretty good English and knows our host, Sv., but the answer was still “it’s not on special anymore”. “but it’s on your menu”, “sorry”. So, please be happy the next time you shop or eat out in the US and the price you are given is the price it is marked even if it is the store’s mistake. Not so here in Ukraine. At least not at Mafia.
Wednesday, October 10:
We were supposed to get our Court Date today. Not to HAVE our Court date, but to RECEIVE our Court date. But alas….they are waiting on someadditional paperwork from the SDA (Dept of Adoptions), so no Court date yet. We were able to arrange a trip out to the orphanage tomorrow to meet with the Director and pick up our sweet little V. for the weekend. He wants to show us his school so maybe we’ll pick him up from school with a little help.
Today was just another home school day, hanging around the apartment. The kids are doing really well staying focused on their school work and have been very diligent to finish their work so we can go sightsee. It is actually so nice to not have any phone calls, no urgent emails to deal with and no extracurricular activities. We get SOO much schoolwork done here!:) Maybe we’ll move to a remote cabin with no phone when we get backJ.
It has become quite cold here now (coats, hats, scarves and gloves!), so we’re not as eager to get out! But after sitting around all day, it is actually colder than getting out and walking, walking, walking like we do everywhere. So at about 4 pm today we decided to go explore!:) Note to future travelers: even though it is now coat, gloves and scarf weather, if you are at all hot natured make sure your shirt under this outer layer is short or ¾ length sleeves. They keep the insides of ALL buildings HOT enough to cook an egg! Upon entering all buildings, we are immediately tearing off said coat, scarf, gloves and hat! WHEW! Think they’d stare if we had swimsuits on under our coats?:) I hope my visual friends enjoyed that hilarious mental image! HA!
Our host, Sv., who never ceases to amaze us, travelled back from the US on Monday - Tuesday, a 24 hour ordeal, didn’t sleep on the plane, slept just a bit here on Tues night, then went to work today! He not only worked a full day, but even went to the gym afterwards! I was such a mess after arriving here a couple of weeks ago I could hardly think straight, much less work an 8 hour day and then go to the gym! Mid afternoon today we learned that sweet Ir., Sv.’s Ukrainian fiancé, was planning to make a Ukrainian dinner for us at 7 pm….mmmmm.
Dinner was an ADVENTURE in Ukrainian cooking! SO fun and SO yummy! Ir. brought this cool, honeycomb-looking, round, flat, heavy contraption which appeared to be made of cast iron. She made dough out of flour, water, egg and salt and rolled it out on the counter top. After rolling it wide enough (12”?) to fit the honeycomb contraption, she laid it on top and pressed it down firmly enough so we could see the honeycomb cell outlines. Next she filled each little honeycomb cell with a ground beef, onion, salt and pepper mixture. She taught the kids and I how to fill the honeycombs with meat so she could prepare the second layer of dough. As soon as she got it rolled out, we were finishing the meat. She then covered the meat up with the next layer of dough, like a little blanketJ . Then she took the rolling pin and SMASHED the dough down on top of the meat until it cut each cell- making adorable little tiny ravioli looking things! They are called “Pelmini” and they are similar to one of our favorites here, “Vareniky”, only smaller. They are similar to a Pierogie, if you’ve had those. If not, they are a lot like ravioli. In restaurants we have seen Vareniky stuffed with meat, potatoes, cottage cheese, cherries. I think you could put anything you want in there!:) It was a LOOONNG process, but SO delicious. I asked Ir. to please ask V. about his favorite foods this weekend so I can learn to make them. I reminded Weej how terrible it would be if he moved away from his country and NEVER, EVER had another Cheeseburger! He nearly cried, since he’s REALLY missing Cheeseburgers now!:) So he’s motivated to help us discover V.’s favorite local foods so we can keep him happyJ
After dinner, Sv. and Ir’s sweet, funny and amazing friends, Sa. & Sl., who are now OUR friends, too, stopped by for some conversation and laughter. We watched a wonderful slide show Sv. had put together from their trip to FL, and enjoyed chatting for a while. As we sat in the midst of three Ukrainian women who flip back and forth so easily between Ukrainian and English, surrounded by smiles, laughter and fun, we discussed how incredibly blessed we are. Not only did God provide a place for us to stay, but the connections we’ve made with Ukrainians have made this experience so much richer …and easier! When we have V. there aren’t many moments yet during this transitional phase when we can’t ask Sa. or Sl. or Ir to help us understand each other. We don’t ALWAYS have them and do very well with the basics without interpretation. But when deeper things need to be communicated (such as V.s’ pondering regarding when court will be and will we take him home with us then or come back and what will school be like…”) it is SOO helpful to have bilingual friends! And how incredible that God has already put in place a wonderful bilingual friendship back home, too!:) And even a playmate for V. with P & J & E living so close by!:) God is SOOO good!
OK, it is technically not even Wednesday anymore, bit since I’m still up, it’s still Wednesday to me!:)
Until next time…..
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