Day 8

(Eileen)
I like our room at ‘The European’ Hotel much better than the ‘Hotel Ukraine’. It seems more in tune with the flavor of the culture rather than just another hotel chain. We are on the floor level with the street (no stairs, Felix). It’s in the back of the hotel in a wing so we have 5 large windows facing east, west and south. It’s always warm in the buildings here in Slavyansk so it’s great to be able to open a window to keep from overheating our poor hides. Something we weren’t able to do in ‘Hotel Ukraine.’

The only drawback, I discovered, is that just in the back of our hotel, across the back drive, is a steam spa. This afternoon, I saw a fellow walking around in just a towel, sort of waving his arms around to cool himself. Eh hem.

We were eating our breakfast-included breakfast in the restaurant part of our hotel. The building is kind of fashioned like a chalet. Very attractive from the street. Wooden on the inside and well lit from skylights. They asked us the day before what time we would like to eat. This morning Svetlana, the hotel hostess, knocked on our door to let us know it was ready. Eggs with a little ham, tomatoes on the side and sliced cucumbers. There was sliced bread, but no butter or jam, and white tea. Lipton, believe it or not, is popular here and good.

We were finishing up and here comes our Tanya! She’s a chatty thing. I love to hear her voice but today, I’m afraid, she realized how few of her words were understood and is speaking less. She was wearing heeled boots (not as foolish as it sounds, the pointy heels help keep you from slipping on the ever-present ice) but we decided anyway to walk the half mile to the orphanage. It’s a nice walk along a tree lined avenue. When we rounded the corner of the gate to the orphanage, there was Sasha who broke into a run with arms outstretched to embrace us. I love it.

We settled on a taxi for transport (now 5 of us mind you, in a Fiat) and took off for the open market. I was looking for a scarf to wear to church tomorrow. Sasha’s boots were too tight and Nastia’s too big. The market was amazing. There were several long rows of booths with not much space for walking between. Shoes, socks of all kinds, men’s slacks, angora sweaters, fur coats, jewelry, jeans, children’s wear, the ever endless selection of hats and a scarf or two. Some of it looked quite expensive. The roofs were of corrugated tin. The temperature had risen. It was difficult to avoid the pools and waterfalls of melting snow.

We found Nastia’s boots first. She fell in love with a red pair. No fur. Good. I’m trying to discourage it on account of the rock throwers in the U.S. I found a beautiful scarf for $7 (thanks Mom! Your Birthday gift is going far). Finally, we exhausted the open market and went into a more enclosed building. Meats. Exposed to the air and everybody. Big slabs of bacon, ham and sausages, smoked chicken quarters. Very crowded. We were quickly on our way through to another building. Just as we were leaving, I saw a little dog standing on his hind legs staring intently at a coil of sausages just out of his reach. The usual Ukrainian dower countenance was replaced with laughter by the crowds around him.

Boots. Sasha. Not having much luck and she was getting discouraged. Finally found a pair to fit. Bright red. A little dyed rabbit fur along the top. DON’T TELL. I live in Boulder, remember? Hopefully people will assume it’s synthetic and we will avoid any nasty confrontations.

With treasures in hand, we grabbed another taxi for “Lenin Square,” our name for it as it has a rather large, imposing statue of said infamous communist. Right next to it, rather ironically, is a gold domed church in the process of full restoration. On the other side of Lenin is a Christmas tree. There is also a small skating rink and a fellow selling pony rides. We walked through the square to the pizza place. Two medium, three topping pizzas and 5 cokes for $10! For dessert, we bought what we thought were ice cream sundaes but were more like strawberry mousse(s). Not too sweet. I’m finding I really like Ukrainian food. It’s not what I was expecting at all. A lot of terrific salads I would love to learn to make. Tanya has been promised a cookbook so I hope she can make Ukrainian food for me. Oh Yeah. But I digress.

We talked names. I thought Tanya would keep her name but she surprised us twice with “Evalina” for a first name (wow, great choice) and “Ann” for a middle name (wow, that’s my middle name)! Sasha has decided on “Sophia Ann.” Is Sophie ok for a nick name? Dah. Tanya thought “Emily” would be a good name for Nastia but I want to see if Nastia can make a decision on her own. Everyone robs her of making her own choices (except in boots). I will, with Tanya’s input, narrow the choices down to three for Nastia.

Sasha has retained an amazing amount of English. She bridged more than a few communication gaps with Tanya. We bought a few Russian music CDs for memory sake and I found some yarn to make Tanya a scarf. Then Tanya said farewell for the day. She lives in town. The remaining 4 of us hopped a taxi for our hotel.

Our sweet little girls are so impressed with everything we take for granted. Our hotel room for example, was amazing to them. Nastia found an air freshener dispenser in the wall in the bathroom. “What’s this?” Fffffshshsh. Sniff. AH!

We decided now is a good time to take the hats to the orphanage. Forty-five hats. Sasha and Nastia made their choice. We packed up the rest and snacks and off we went back to the orphanage on foot.

It was almost cruel really, to go on foot. Nastia loves her shoes so much she doesn’t want them wet or dirty. She found a shoe brush in our room and worked for at least 15 minutes. “What’s this?!” She asked over every tiny defect she found. I finally told her not to worry, the shoes are way down there and our eyes are way up here. The half mile to the orphanage was slush and mud and pools of water. She wanted to stop a couple of times to wipe away the minute accumulation of snow crystals. “Nastia!” I laughed, “they’re boots!”

I’m positive she’ll sleep with them.

We returned the kids to the internot, and went back to the hotel by foot.

Once again, internet connection is problematic. The software could not see the modem. Reboot. Reboot. Unplug, plug. Argh. After 6 tries, it works. Why? Why not? I tried uploading pictures, to see how slow it is. Quite slow. I guess from now on I wait for a better connection.

We tried the laundry service in the morning. I hope it’s a laundry service, and they did not assume we were giving away clothes. At 10 this evening, no clothes yet. I may be riding the train in some interesting garb. We are packing up everything, time to checkout and travel, again.