and all I can think of is...... WHY AM I AWAKE AT THIS HOUR? I was awake for 30 straight hours and got about 4hrs of sleep last night. Gracie and I (Tony) got up at the same time and couldn't go back to sleep. The travel yesterday went great. Flights were smooth and people were friendly. I got searched in Germany and thought I lost my wallet, but Leah has just thrown it in her purse. Leah did awesome on the flights and only got scared a few times..... Once we arrived here we were met by a driver who brought us straight to our apartment. It's very nice on the inside and has a balcony overlooking a busy street with lots of people and cars. We're at a very active intersection near a mall and a grocery store. After arriving here, the driver took me to exchange some money and showed me where I could find things. The people here are very nice, but move extremely fast. This is not an "excuse me" or "pardon me" culture, rather people move very fast and you would be wise to stay out of there way.Our time at the grocery store was more about avoiding getting run over than shopping. Buying groceries was interesting to say the least. After a few minutes of trying to figure out what things were, we decided to just go for the essentials; eggs, bread, milk, cereal, hot dogs, bologne, ketchup, pasta, and coke. When we arrived back at the apartment, we realized that the bologne was actually cheese (don't ask) and the milk was some sort of yogurt (we think). We're not sure what the hot dogs really were, but they were mushy and smelled funny. So we put a little cheese on them and covered them in ketchup. The coke was good though..... Even the water is not "water".... it is some sort of sparkling water. We're going to pull out the old translation book today and give it another shot at the store.
Today we will meet our facilitator today and discuss our court appointment for tomorrow. We've been told that there is a cool circus right around the corner from us, so we may try that this afternoon. If all goes well, we will be on a train to meet our kiddos within a few days.... hopefully no later than Friday. The weather is cold, but not nearly as cold as we thought. It's a little below freezing, but no ice or snow to speak of.
Oh I hear you on the milk and the water. Hard when you have no help and don't read the language. (We would have actually bought some weird type of milk yesterday too if it hadn't been for the fact that our driver was at the store with us =).)
ReplyDeleteThe sparkling water is very normal here. I had a normal bottle of water in my hand and the lady told me that wasn't what I wanted...so I listened to her thinking that I was accidentally getting the fizzy stuff...then got some to sparkling water. Yuck.
Truth be told, the food is good once you figure out what you are buying. Try getting the frozen dumplings (look like little white ravioli) and some powdered soup. They usually have pictures that tell you what you are getting to some extent. Those are good together. For water, the big jugs in a blue looking bottle with a blue lid are usually normal. (I don't think they sell the sparkling stuff in the huge bottles.)
Also, at least for us, region is much easier than Kyiv. We had a harder time there and the people were different than in region. Hope you find the same. (I think of it like a big city at home...much harsher there too.)
If you need anything you can e-mail me too. I will give you my phone number (Ukrainian) in the e-mail too. Just want to keep it from being all over the internet =).
-Amberlyn Nemes, adopting Anastasia