Day 3

Jet_lag update. Sunday was awesome. We were alert, moving around, having a great time. Sunday night at 10:30, what, time to go to bed? Well, all right. Monday morning at 9:00, do we have to get up? Now it's noon. Not on Ukraine time yet.

We tried to use our washing machine. No internet connection in the apartment, so we have to guess at the settings. Plug it in, turn it on, pour in some soap, add the clothes, hit the play button. It sounds like an angry robot. The timer made us think it would wait 2 hours before starting, instead it ran for 2 hours. Shouldn't have washed jeans with whites. Yeah, it was that good.

Jim called and had us meet him at St. Michaels church. It's just up the hill. The sun was out! Quick, get outside! We dashed up hill, got to the church, and started snapping pictures. St. Michaels is at one end of the street, St. Sophias is at the other. We are right in between the two, about 1/2 mile between the two. The sunlight lasted for 30 minutes, then the sun went behind thin clouds. It started to get cold right away.

We went shopping with Jim and Joshua and Ashley at the outdoor mall. After a few (?) purchases, we went through the underground mall to exchange some money, hopped on the subway. I have never lived in a BIG city, so subways are new to me. But this is not like the train ride at DIA. When the train stops and the doors open, everybody moves at warp speed. Jump on, get out of the way of the people coming out, grab on to a pole. And when the door closes, it means business. Just like the doors in Star Trek, they slam shut. You better not be in the way, or you will lose an arm. There's none of this, "The doors are closing, please move out of the way," spoken in a firm but non-threatening way. Just, wham! And when you get to your stop, you had better exit quickly or you will get trampled by the crowds moving in.

We ended up at Eunice's house. Eunice and her husband work for Teen Challenge. The home is at the western edge of Kiev. Becky and Nadia joined us, and eventually Leslie, who is rooming there temporarily. Eunice has internet, drool, drool. We were served a tasty spaghetti dinner. Afterwards, Nadia tricked us into playing some word game. "Just one more round." As we left, snow started falling.

Eileen and I took the subway back to downtown. We were a bit confused at the start. Do we pay attention to the red signs, with a single name on them? Or do we pay attention to the blue or green signs, with more names? And what was the name of the stop we wanted? We jumped on a train with everyone else, and then we could read the map on the walls of the train. The announcement of the first stop confirmed we were on the correct train. Up and down a few escalators, then up the long escalators. The long escalators have signs every 15 or 20 feet, there must be 50 or 60 signs, and the escalator goes at a 45 degree angle. How far underground does that put us? And the top of the escalator is at the underground mall. There are lots of vendors near the gated entrances to the subway. It's out of the weather, and perhaps slightly warmer. One long section of walkway had row of flower vendors.

Tomorrow is our first big day. Our appointment with the SDA. Are we acceptable as parents? Are Sasha and Nastiya still available?