Long Day

Long day, but good day! We have been away from home two weeks, today. We could say it has been 3 weeks if we count the week we were at home but not really feeling like we were at home, because we were furiously preparing outside of any normal routine. True, all is going smoothly and people are working at top speed, but there is still a slight edge starting about now. Hard to explain, but I think it may just be a part of being away from home for so long and missing the pets and friends and all. I am sure it will pass. We are not complaining. Everyone has been so wonderful to us. We are hoping for a court date mid-next week. Perhaps, once we have that information - the date, the certainty that will result enabling us to plan the forthcoming weeks will take the edge off. We think that will do the trick.

The Sea of Azov is really nice! It is a port and a beach! There are nice places to rest and relax on the beach, as well as ships dropping off containers of things. It is clean and the sand is good. It is not like Galveston was when we visited as a child. It is not full of kelp or plants either. It is also not sticky, but clean smelling. Very nice, indeed! We wish the day was not so foggy, but the temperature was perfect!

Beach, port, and relaxation spots

 

 Sanatorium on the Sea

 More Sea shades.

House on the berm.

We also dropped off several items at the Children's Home today --some heavy coats, and gifts for Nikita and Ana, and a few other items like arts and crafts things (sock puppet making kit), etc. We did not see anyone except Karina and Inna this afternoon. Inna comes to feed Jacobi, the parrot, and we gave her a big hug. Here are some photos of the Children's Home.

 The front door and walking up to it.

The parrot room, where we go daily.

The art/reading room where we spend most of our time with Little Chix each day.

The stuffed pig is the biggest hit!

The wall in the parrot room.

Little Chix danced for almost 2 hours today with us! Yes, papa cut the rug as well! That is probably why we are a bit on edge - she is really active - and mama is worn out from dancing! We like dance a lot and are thrilled that she loves it! Stacy - we will need you big time when we get home!! We need a couple of new songs, as well - there are 2 Hannah songs that we play over and over and over and over and over....  and over! She loves them, though! They are her favorites! (Thank goodness papa bought them! There is no WiFi at the Home, so bring the music you want with you.)  Little Chix even asked for a Hannah wig! We hope to be able to take Little Chix to the Kiev ballet once everything is final at the end of April. Sleeping Beauty is playing as well as Swan Lake - that would make her day!

Tomorrow is April 1st. It is a prankster day here as well as in America. We are planning on walking to the market tomorrow. That will be interesting. The weather should be 50-degrees or so. Nice! We also went grocery shopping today and will cook stew with cabbage, carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, and dumplings again this weekend. We bought soft-milk (kefir) because that is what the children at the Home drink before going to bed each night. It really tastes good! Here is some information about Kefir: http://rwood.com/Articles/Kefir.htm We also bought biscuits (like Maria cookies), cucumbers, dried figs and dried apricots, water, cheese, and bread. And, we went to a big shoe store today that sells nothing but shoes - two floors worth of shoes! There are some beautiful, really beautiful HIGH, really high heeled shoes for women! Wow! Never have we seen so many high heeled beautiful, sparkly shoes in one place before! The photos from Kiev (the work shoes) posted earlier do not even come close to what we saw in the store today! These must be the evening-wear shoes! Glittery and stunning! No wonder Little Chix wants mama to get some heels! Yikes!

Yummy Breakfast!

Oh my goodness - this is a dessert/breakfast worth eating: pineapple cottage cheese/yogurt! Delicious! It is smooth and creamy like yogurt with chunks of pineapple in it. Absolutely terrific! And, the brown cubes on the plate is a sunflower seed and sugar paste, another wonderful food! Sunflowers abound here, so there is a lot of sunflower oils and products. This paste is really tasty! We thought the ketchup was in an interesting package.

DELICIOUS!!!

Today we will travel to the sea. More soon!

Popular Videos

For those with children from Ukraine, you may enjoy these popular Ukrainian children's stories - cartoons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHnvdMqzBjc&feature=player_embedded
It is called Илья Муромец и Соловей Разбойник (2007) Мультик
Also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH04Al5KH9o&feature=fvwrel 
Три богатыря и Шамаханская царица мультфильм 
And:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYM6WB1Yci0&feature=related  
"Добрыня Никитич и Змей Горыныч" [2006 г., Мультик HD 1080p]
And:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giRtDpUDLaI&feature=related  
Алеша Попович и Тугарин Змей (2004 год) Мультик [HD 1080p]

Dance, Dance Shake Your Pants!

Little Chix has tremendous stamina when it comes to "The Best of Both Worlds", her favorite Hannah Montana song! We spent our entire time with her yesterday dancing to this one song, over and over and over! What a workout, even for Papa (who can twirl her better and hold her upside down, which she loves!) Thank goodness his back is better now. Little Chix's future as an aerobics instructor is pretty certain if you ask us! We have close to 90 minutes of dance video but chose to post the first one that Little Chix said she liked the best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8enk9QzVFqY

We have a camera saga. The truth of the story is still vague at this point, as it is in a "translation bogdown". We need an interpreter to talk directly with Little Chix to learn what is really going on, but the mystery is really fun! What we have figured out so far is that the camera was given as a present by Little Chix to a boy. We think the little boy thinks the camera is an mp3 player or something and wants to play music on it, which is why he apparently asked Little Chix to ask us for ear buds for it. Without charge capabilities, the cheap used camera will soon not work, and it can't play music, so the little boy may be more disappointed than he already is. (ipods, by the way, are big things here for kids, we know that is true.) Wonder what the trade value is for the camera, hmmmmm? We will try to figure out more of this story when we have a translator face-to-face. Frankly, more has been lost in translation than actually understood at this point.

The unicorn puzzle was set aside in our time together, and rightfully so - it did have 750 pieces! It was, however, a desired item for taking upstairs. We are so curious to know what goes on up in the kids' zone. The trades, the conversations, the deals, etc. All of the food we bring (except drinks) is taken upstairs as well. Oh to be a fly on the wall in fairy land!

Chix Visit

This afternoon we will visit Little Chix again. This is the highlight of every day for us. We had a delightful time yesterday playing crazy eights card games and saying each color and number in English and in Russian (every person had to say both languages in order for it to count, but we helped each other all the time!) Then, Little Chix went for the technology! She loves apps! Today, we are bringing the new Hannah music from Papa and a unicorn puzzle. Chix LOVES Hannah! If she had her way, she'd want us to rename her Hannah (or as she says it: "Honna"), as she has asked several times! Sorry Little Chix! Maybe as a second nickname...

Lunch - Dinner

Today is another slow day - primarily, because it is raining and gray. One would think that with all the beets people eat here, there would be an abundance of red dye that could be used in the stucco, concrete, and paints that could brighten things up a bit! Miss_A had beets for lunch. Beets are purchased 3 or 4 in a package already boiled! (How nice, because they are a messy pain to cook!) All you have to do is slice and eat! (Or slice and put into borsch, etc.) Melted butter on top of cold thinly sliced beets is delicious! Add some cheery and chocolate yogurt, some cherry juice and boiled eggs and it is a nice lunch! (Notice how many eggs come in a container.)

Last night, we found a tucked away store across the street from our apt. A place where locals regularly go. We had cole slaw, beer, bitter lemon soda, tasty-mystery-meat, and deviled eggs. The most commonly ordered meal, though, was a double shot of vodka, a single sausage link, a slice of bread with butter with a slice of white cheese on it, all chased with a beer. Many locals went back for seconds! Yes, another round of vodka, sausage link and cheese bread (minus the beer)! The store must have gone through a whole bottle of vodka in 20 minutes! One gentleman simply ordered half of a deviled egg and a double shot of vodka - hope it was a snack and not his dinner! Very popular!

Papa Crumpled

OK - so I have to tell you that I don't really believe in downloading from iTunes and swore that I never would because I have tons of CDs at home of my favorite music so why would I ever need to get more (especially given that most of the music I like is REALLY old)? Yes, I have a music addiction but that is another issue. Add to that, my friends and I burn each other CDs. But today I gave in. Yes - I crumpled. I have fallen. And what did I need so bad that I paid for on iTunes? Hannah Montana! Need I say more?

Morning Venture

This morning, we ventured out into the gray, cold streets in search of a slice of cake. We exchanged money and found a slice of cake at the buffet down the street for $1USD. Yum! Breakfast! Cake doesn't have yeast, and Ukrainian cake is not as sugar-filled as US cake, so it makes for a good breakfast! Here are some sights along the way today.

Outside of some nice apartments. With limited cash, people focus on the insides and not the outsides.

Typical steel door entry. 

And, bars on windows below.

 Every apt. complex seems to have a playground in the interior. Ours is no exception.

This is the concert hall down the street from our apt.

 Pretty wrought iron gates and fence adornments abound!

Snow on the street this morning. Not many people were out at 9AM today.

A street cat (he was looking for a slice of cake!)

Restful Day

It snowed. It rained a bit. It was daylight Savings time here (so we experienced it in the States before leaving and again here, today!) We slept and it was luxurious! We said to each other: never have we ever had such a relaxing day since we met each other. We ate the rest of our soup. Never left the apt. Just relaxed and lavished in laziness! OK, we did work on school stuff a bit, but that was fun, too. Purely, 100% homebodies - that's all we can say for today!

Dancing Friends!

Enjoy the performance with the parrot cheering them on in the background!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdfacwGRnZw

Best Friends

This morning, we played camera and computer games with Little Chix and her best friend! It was super fun! The girls showed us how to feed the birds and fish, and enjoyed taking photos of each other and us. They like posing. Then, we brought out the hard boiled eggs for breakfast that we brought and those were a total loser. Don't bring eggs. They were polite about it. Mama ate the eggs. Then, we all played on the ipad and iphone. (We had brought math flashcards as well, but did not even attempt to take those out of the satchel after witnessing the egg-flop.) The girls played together on the same equipment, and each on their own equipment together with us. They enjoyed angry birds, annoying fruit, squeek-my-voice, memblock music memory game, mazes and labyrinth games. We left Little Chix with her camera that we brought for her (a Craigslist special!) and we'll see what she takes photos of this weekend. It was wonderful to share our 2 hours today with both girls. They get along famously well! So fun, and so sweet! It is amazing how well the 4 of us all communicate with broken Russian between us and broken English between them - we get by quite well, and ended the wonderful time together with 4 dozen hugs! Kiss, kiss kiss, and many hugs!  Mr_S is heating up the soup for his lunch (Miss_A is full of eggs), and if the drizzle stops, we hope to venture out today. We have the rest of today and until Monday at 3pm as "free time" so exploring we will go! Paka!

The girls were overjoyed today! 

Sleepy Day

We slept and slept last night and today. Two weeks ago we received word to travel and we spent the week before flying preparing night and day (little sleep), then the last week here, all has been new and fast paced (little sleep) - plus time change - and last night, whew! We were out of it! Then, today, our attorney traveled to another town to work on paperwork on our behalf, so we had the day to ourselves. We slept more! And, we are still tired! We think that yesterday was such a good day that we finally let ourselves say, yes, all is good and we are with our Little Chix! No inspector, no evaluators, no one watching us, just the three of us together as a family. Our driver took us to the Children's Home from 3-5 this afternoon. One must be flexible in Ukraine. People value relationships, so if someone is taking longer than expected or things change, then you respect that and go with the flow. OK by us, we were napping! So good to let the body heal and get back to itself via sleep! At the Home, we let Little Chix teach us some Russian using a children's "you can learn Russian, too" workbook. We also had a book of mazes, because she likes doing mazes and Papa showed her how to do mazes on the iphone, which she went bonkers over! Technology is a universal attraction for kids! We bought a snack for Little Chix at the Comfy the other day - it was like a bag of chips with a cow on the front and a stalk of corn on the front. We had no idea, and figured it was milk popcorn or something. Well, it was like Sugar Pop-Cheese Puffs! She loved them! Imagine Sugar Pops (the breakfast cereal) stretched out to look like light yellow cheese puffs.That is what they were!

Tonight, we cooked up our New England Boiled dinner (minus the corned beef; vegetarian style) and it was good. We topped it off with a dessert of pineapple yogurt, cheery juice, dried apricots, and figs.We slept through lunch, but did have a good breakfast of oatmeal and bread, so were fine waiting till dinner. Here are some pics of our apt. from the inside. It is very, very nice. Enjoy!

Carrots - we ate them for dinner. Very sweet and more intense in flavor than US carrots.

And yes, they are HUGE!

Space is very limited. The window-sill serves as a counter also! Mr_S is cutting cabbage and we were listening to Ukrainian radio on the jambox.

 Kitchen

Kitchen to scale. This is it .

Standing inside the front door. The other side of the arch is the "plumbing rooms" - the kitchen, shower room and toilet room.

Toilet has a room to itself.  In the shower room, notice that the towel on the right is sitting on the washing machine. The sink is on the left. There are no dryers. It is very environmental compared to the US, because the washers are low water and has such great extrators that the clothes are nearly dry when you remove them. One night on the rack and they are dry! Saves electricity too!

 Clothes drying in our "computer room."

 Bedroom - nice wardrobe! No closets here - they use wardrobes.

The room were our attorney sleeps. We share the apt.

Oh, and a funny story that happened on our drive from the train to where we are now. We were looking out the car window along the highway. Mr_S was sitting in the front seat and Miss_A in the backseat of the car. Almost at the same time, we said outloud: "Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior!" Then we laughed hilariously! You had to be there. There is a movie that our friend Matt recommended called "Everything is Illuminated." (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404030/). Many pretty scenes are in the movie, and one was of a beautiful yellow field with a blue sky (like the Ukrainian flag, actually) and when we both saw that scene out of the car window, it reminded us of the movie, but we could only say the dog's name: Sammy Davis Junior, Junior! What a hoot! (This is what happens when you have been married for a long time!)

Terrific Day!

We began this morning at 8:45AM by going to the notary's office. Our attorney worked hard on our behalf all day today. She had meetings all morning and afternoon, and we had a chance to figure out several interesting things - like why play-yards are painted light blue and yellow. Why? Because that is like red, white and blue in the USA - it is the colors of the Ukrainian flag. We shopped at the Comfy (like Wal-mart in America) and ate cold fish slices with onions, a meat pie, and water for lunch (totaling $1.50USD)! We bought groceries - primarily carrots, cabbage, potatoes and onions, oatmeal, cheese, eggs, milk, butter, cheery sok (juice) and "water with gas" and then went back and purchased some tic-tacs and dried fruit with nuts for Little Chix, who we knew needed some vitamins and protein. We then went to the Children's Home and had one of the best days of our life! Little Chix was so glad to see us! We had a three-person group squeeze! And, things were much more relaxed today. She could not stop hugging and kissing us, and I held her hand for the first hour. It was so good to be with her! We took a craft (paint the glass bubble kit) and some matching cards and some photos for her to look at on the computer and a little camera for her to play with. At her Home, we play one-on-one, and the other children are not with us. It was hard to leave her this evening, but we were all good about it, in spite of Papa crying a little bit (he is a sensitive and good Papa). We will have a chance to see her tomorrow and Sat. from 10-12AM but not on Sunday. All of the kids are on spring holiday this week. Like in America, they get spring break. Next week, she returns to school, so we won't be able to see her until the late afternoons. We all got along famously! It was just a blast! We ate a great Ukrainian meal for dinner - borshch, herring with beets, carrots, mayonaise, etc., grilled veggies, and chicken Kiev with potatoes. We just arrived home at 7:30 PM, and are doing our first load of laundry. Little Chix took a few photos to share with everyone. Here is what she chose to photograph:

 Mama & Papa doing crafts

Artwork by Children in the Home

 Little Chix's fav

 Mama & Papa say Hi to Little Chix in the parrot room

Little Chix asked Papa to take this one!

And we took this one of Little Chix! She was all dressed up for us!

She is one happy Little Chix!
Yippie! and hugs to all!
And, we saw Abbie on the way out the door and gave her a huge hug! She was surprised and happy to see us both! A terrific day indeed!

New Destination

We are now in destination #2 located in Priazovye - a geographical region around the Azov Sea. We have been taken care of like VIPs and it is very comforting to feel so secure, looked after, and protected here. A wonderfully nice team of people help us! We rode a first class train sleeper for 12 hours overnight. Very clean, very comfortable and Eric & Cindy again saved our marriage! They and Joe told us software to download so we could watch DVDs on the crunchy-munch old computer we brought along, and that worked! Now, they shared advice of covering the train heater with the blanket to keep it from being so hot  in the compartment. With Mr_S's ability to sweat lifting a fork, it was much appreciated advice from his point of view! From Miss_A's perspective, it wasn't a problem because she is from Texas and hot is good for her. She never seems to "dew!" Anyway, one of us slept like a snoring baby on the train and the other player solitaire for about 5 hours to try to make herself tired enough to sleep and got in about 3 hours after running the phone battery down to nothing. As soon as the train arrived in our new destination, we were kindly met, driven a couple of hours to our new location, and the business meetings began. Non-stop we met and waited and met and waited and met and then waited some more, and finally had the opportunity to have a wonderful Ukrainian meal around 5:30 tonight. We hadn't seriously eaten since lunch the day before (except for some bread and a banana and a bag of french fries on the train, some water, and a cup of coffee). Miss_A also wore her PJs on the train (a black jersey knit travel dress, so it can fake as a real outfit if needed - it is a real outfit for people who can wear it with style, mind you) thinking it would have helped her sleep easier to be so comfy. Well, that baggy short dress with leggings and tall boots (no heels though!) was - low and behold - the outfit we met everyone in today! Hint to future families - whatever you wear, it may be seen by the most important people on the trip so don't chintz just because it is an overnight train ride. And, carry a toothbrush with you, too. (And, yes, I have put the water here in my mouth and also drank some, thinking I was using the tap at home; I am not sick yet). Girls Scouts paid off - always be prepared and just in case, like Mom always said: If you wear your PJs in public that is the day you'll get pulled over and have to be seen on the nightly news in them. She was almost right! We talked with Little Chix today! We hung out in the parrot room for hours at the children's home and Miss_A flirted with the caged birds there. We saw an excited Ana catch our eye! Didn't see Nikita, but will check tomorrow. Will know more tomorrow about the kids and daily plans. For now, we are full of yummy borsch, dumplings and neopolitan dessert all Ukrainian style and very, very delicious. We are ready for bed. A lot was accomplished today, emotional and otherwise. The people in Ukraine have been very kind and good to us today.

Shoe-Pings

 

Today we slept late. Both of us were really tired. After lunch, we walked around the Kiev town square and decided to play a game: "catch that shoe." Some people play Angry Birds and ping pigs eating bird eggs. We played "Shoe-Pingers" where we take turns with the camera clicking shoes before they walk past us! The goal was to appear inconspicuous and nonchalant about it all (faking that we are examining and discussing the photos we already took on our camera) while clicking quick enough to get the fast-walkers' interesting shoes. Here are typical Ukraine fashions, from a foot's perspective.  Enjoy!

Now for the guys - we call these "elfin shoes." Christmas has come and gone, yet the elves have remained! Mr_S want to add jingle bells to the front of these.

 And, then there are a few colorful exceptions.

So, we wonder what Ukrainians may think of American shoes - Ugh boots and tennis shoes, hunting & hiking boots, and flip flops everywhere we go, not simply in the snow, on the court, in the woods, or on the beach! Mr_S says he wants to play "look at my feet" where he wears sandals with socks and observes how many people stare at his feet! Miss_A told him to wear black socks and striped shorts with a plaid shirt and fishing cap so he'd score more points!

Here are some quick pics of the town square where we captured the lovely foot fashions!

We're off in an hour. So long to Kiev for now! Wonderful city! Here are some things to do in Kiev - we'll check this out further next time we are here: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ukraine/things-to-do