Day 2

Our apartment:

Hot water. Eileen hopped in the shower. After a few minutes, no hot water. Called Becky for help. Did you turn on the hot water heater? Looked at the hot water heater. It looks like it holds about 5 gallons. Next time, quicker showers.

Our toilet. After you flush the toilet, it sounds like one of those horror movies, where something comes up out of the plumbing. Bloop bloop... bloop bloop... bloop, for about 5 minutes. Then another 5 minutes of hissing as water slowly does something.

Our fridge. The poor thing probably needs cleaning. It runs for many minutes, and then rests for just as long. It sounds like a friendly jack hammer. It does keep things cold.

Our bedroom door. The door is a sliding door. I tried to close it from inside the bedroom. It sort of jumped its track. OK, lift it up, put it back, and pull some more. It jumped its track a couple more times, until the door was almost closed. Then I tried to push it back open. No deal. Lift, push, drop, push. Finally I found a way to lift and push, and the door moved, and jumped its track. Several more minutes, and we could leave the bedroom.

Our bed. It's big, so we were not bumping into each other all night. It's like a thin mattress laid down on wood, so it is extra firm. Eileen really likes this. I like softer. There are also ridges under the mattress, sort of like you would find in a bed from a sleeper sofa, only not as cruel. Either the bed is quite good, or we are still jet lagged out of skulls.

Our elevator. With the door closed, its about 4ftx3ft. Scrawled on the wall in English (read it carefully), "Graffiti is not crime." Bad smell inside. Our translator told us that someone probably took their dog our for a walk, but waited too long to start the trip, and the dog did not need to leave the elevator by the time it got to the bottom. Our apartment is on the 9th floor. Seems like the dog could have waited a little longer.

Our view. We can see "Hotel Ukraine", the world's largest most gaudy Christmas tree, one of the largest TV screens in Europe, an ice skating rink, a lighted government building, the statue of independence, a car sitting on a glass roof that is tilted at a 45 degree angle over an underground mall, and lots of clouds (snowed all day).

Downtown Kiev. We are within easy walking distance of McDonalds, O'Brien's, Potato House, the Guam Embassy, many other exciting locations.

All in all, I would say the apartment is OK.

We spent most of today with Becky and Nadia. Becky teaches English to Russians, and Nadia teaches Russian to Americans. They have a car and can speak the language.

They took us to a large Christian church service. Like many modern American churches and mega churches, it had multimedia, live band with drums, bass guitar, etc., a choir, and the volume was painfully loud. A well known poet (well known to many, but not us) got up and read some of his poetry. The pastor gave a sermon of reasonable length service. We have heard of multi-hour services in Ukraine, but not this one. At one point, I think visitors were asked to stand. Becky and Nadia told us stand up. The pastor saw us, and asked us to come up on stage. He asked what we were doing in town. After we told him and everybody else about our adoption plans, he prayed over us and blessed us. This is a pretty big deal, since adoption is just starting to be accepted, even in the church. Becky said it has great meaning when the pastor blesses a couple who are doing this.

After church, we went out to eat. We could have stopped at "Mister Snack", but instead went around the corner to a buffet. We had borsch, chicken Kiev, beets, bread with garlic paste, vareniky (a childhood favorite for Eileen), and NestTea tea. Nadia had kvas. I've had that before, and decided it is a aquired taste. It's a drink that, I was told, tastes like root beer, but it's more like molasses water. Lunch for the two of was was about $10.

Then we travelled to the outdoor market. OK, it's below freezing, light snow is falling, and these people set up stalls every day. No heat, no lights, just small 8x10 stalls. All kinds of goods for sale. Eileen picked up some stuff for our kids, and I got a hat. Becky knows some of the vendors, so we gave them the business (the good kind).

Next we went to a mall. Typical mall. Skating rink, food court, electronics, jewelry, clothes, blah, blah, blah. At one point, it looked like we had stepped back into America. Most writing was in English. "Sale, 50% off." "Lingerie." "Tommy Hilfiger." "Hallmark." "Sbarro." Under the signs was the Ukrainian. (And speaking of English, advertising is here in all its glory. An apartment block is named "Desire." Right.) We stopped iat the equivalent of KMart, to shop for food. When you are buying drinking water, it goes faster than you would imagine.

On the way to the mall was a flea market. This only happens on weekends. It is outdoors, just like the outdoor market. No stalls, just people standing with their goods at their feet. They looked cold.

After the shopping, it was time to eat again. Back to downtown. We tried to eat at O'Brien's, but no wifi (for essential internet connection). So we went to "Planet Sushi". No seating available, but a table was opening soon in the smoking section, so we waited and were seated almost immediately. Again, typical good food, decent prices. As we talked, we found out that Eileen's 2nd cousin is well known in many parts of the Russian speaking world. She has written poetry that has been read over the radio, and her voice was used in a reading of the New Testament. Way to go, V.K.!

We got a new sim card and number for our phone, we are now on "Kiev Star". We'll try to get the new number out soon.

Finally, back to our good old apartment. Last night we got 10 to 11 hours of sleep. It was still hard to get up, but it's almost 10pm now, and we feel good. Maybe we can be completely on Ukrainian time tomorrow.