We slept so good last night! Our flight got in at about 4:20 pm yesterday. We had no idea what to do when we were in the airport. We had to go through Customs (at least I think that was what it was) and they lady kept asking me for our address in Ukraine. I told her we didn't have one. She kept looking at me (very rudely) and saying "ADDRESS:" I kept telling her very nicely we didn't have one yet. She was very disgusted with us but let us through anyway. We picked up our suitcase and then filled out a customs form. A lot of people were putting their luggage through the scanner so we headed that way. The guy there yelled something at us and motioned for us to just go on through. When we hesitiated, he yelled at us again so we just got out of there as soon as we could. When we got outside we saw the sign with our name on it. A man was holding it while talking on his cell phone. He motioned for us to follow him to his car. So, we followed while he kept talking. As we reached the car, he got off the phone and told us he is Alexi, Nastya's husband. Nastya is our facilitator. He is a busy guy. His phone rang every few minutes. Twice a driver got in his way and he rolled down the window to yell something at them. He drove us to downtown and showed us a few places to eat and shop. We exchanged our money for grivna and then he showed us our apartment. It's really nice. I will post pictures at the end. So, he left and so we headed out for dinner. We decided to head to McDonalds where we would have a better chance of ordering correctly. It was still hard, even there. I feel ridiculous trying to say things in Russian so I just tried to mostly point. We went to the grocery store because we needed detergent and water. We got the detergent right, but we accidentally got carbonated water instead of regular. We tried really hard to get the right one, but its hard to tell. I've read that we are supposed to always use bottled water, even to brush our teeth. Does anyone know if that is in Kiev also? We came back to our apartment and got to skype with the kids and with my sister. Our skype name is jeterredding if anyone wants to skype with us! It was fun and we showed them our apartment. They had some kind of march down on the street yesterday. We heard yelling or chanting on the street. We looked out and there were people holding signs and flags marching down the street. I wonder what they were saying. Ellie fell asleep around 10 pm and she is still asleep right now (8:30 am). We slept so good! Jody went down to McDonalds to get coffee this morning. He looked up "I would like coffee" on the translator in his phone. He tried to order in Russian but they had no idea what he was saying. Anyway, we got coffee but no creamer. We will work on that for tomorrow. We have our appointment at 10:00 am at SDA. So we will post again this evening and tell you how it went. Please pray that our appointment will go smoothly! Here are some more pictures from the trip and some from Kiev.
Dinner on the plane
Jody slept in the airport in Germany
Dinner at McDonalds
Outside of our apartment building.
Hallway to our apartment
Entry
Living Room
Table in living room with kitchen view. Outside the doors is the balcony.
Kitchen
Bathroom 1
Bathroom 2
Bedroom
Make note of how to book your apartment because I want it! Thats the nicest one I have ever seen!
ReplyDeleteWhen getting water (if from a kiosk) ask for "vadah beez gozzuh" (without gas) or get the one with the light blue top :)
I would use bottled water for everything. I was sick for days until I figured out you cant even use tap water to boil things. Save yourself the tummy troubles.
That is the exact same apartment we stayed in while in Kyiv. We were in Kyiv the entire 5 weeks and that apartment was super comfortable!! The light switches were an issue sometimes.. the stand up shower leaks so put down towels. But i was soooo thankful for the amenities that seemed to be a luxury for everyone else. That place brings back a lot of memories!!
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