8 DAYS 6HRS 12 MIN. TO GO!!!!

Hi everyone, As the title states we are counting down. The time is really d r a g g i n g here. We continue to visit Briley twice a day and that helps, but not enough. Tomorrow we get to take her out of the orphanage to get her visa and passport photos taken. We are looking forward to seeing how she reacts to being out in public and just being "out" of the orphanage. We have her new duds to put on her for her pictures , so that will be fun to see also instead of the typical orphanage attire. We did take a cab today to a store that says it`s a Target store but not quite by our standards. It was nice for here and it helped alleviate our boredom somewhat. Last week we were whining about the rain. Guess what- we`d like it back because now we have snow and cold and that is worse yet. On Sat. afternoon we didn`t even go on our visit as it was blizzarding out. We don`t go on Sun. mornings so on Sunday afternoon when we finally got back there Briley gave us the "look" as if to say where in the world have you guys been!! She got over it right quickly and we are back in our daily routine. You know the one- two juice boxes, 1 banana,meat or cheese and assorted cookies plus 2 hrs of horseplay!! She continues to warm up to us to the point of throwing the other kids out of her way when she sees us. When we show up the caregivers say "Oxanna- mama and papa are here", so the other kids start saying "mama, papa, mama, papa". It doesn`t help that I like to grab one or two and put them on my lap, then they all get wound up, much to the dismay of the help. I figure they`ll get over it! :) The last few visits we have been using the office off of the groups play area to visit. Briley makes sure that the door is closed so she doesn`t have to share us with her little friends. For those of you asking about a potential go-karting career for Briley: she showed us today that she has the "need for speed". One caregiver brought us a little tykes 4 wheel scooter for lack of a better term. Gail would push her from one end of the room to me and I would push her back. She leaned back to minimize air friction and away she went. The faster the better was her theory. We all had a hoot for the better part of an hour. We`re going to call her the "Ragin` Russian"!! She`s going to have a sign on her bumper that says "You just got passed by a girl!"

On Monday we will finish up paperwork in her birth town and the region. From there we will head back to Kyiv. On Tuesday we will do our visa, medical exams and passport stuff. We will load and go early Wednesday morning. Hopefully everything goes alright. By the way, we are down to 8 days,5 hrs,58 minutes to go!! Not that we are counting or anything!

On a side note once the weather has gotten cold our apartment has gotten a little chilly. The floor is downright cold. Gail just got the idea to warm up her skechers over the flame on the stove. Not a good idea- she now has scorched skechers!! Her favorite pair too. Can you imagine what she`d call me if I did that? No, I didn`t say a word. I know better!!!

We have noticed that over here that the mechanical aptitude is not very well displayed. We got some pictures of some things that we noticed and will put down below. We have a few more things that we made a mental note to photograph this week pertaining to the same type of repairs and will put them on our next blog.

One thing we haven`t elaborated on is the driving here. For those of you that have been here before you know where we`re going with this. Typical taxi ride: drive up on curb to pick you up, try talking to you 3 times before he realizes that no, I really don`t speak Russian! Drive down two lane road as quickly as possible while honking at the rude pedestrians who dare to walk in front of you! If car in front of you is too slow take the middle lane! Notice that previously I said 2 lane road- it is still 2 lane but the middle is open to whoever gets there first in whatever direction they happen to be going. Don`t worry about other traffic as they will move out of your way. They usually do move as we haven`t seen any accidents, just near misses. While doing our taxi ride today the driver tried to talk to us in Russian and he finally realized that it was futile to communicate as he didn`t speak English either. The funny part is after we paid him his fare and gave him a little tip he says " Thank you very much" clear as a bell. hmmmmm.


Oh yeah, one other thing his week that made us go hmmmm............. We were leaving the orphanage one morning at 11:00 and as we came out of the gates we looked ahead of us at an apartment building and saw a bunch of flowers. I thought it was a flower stand at first glance. WRONG- there was a casket with stools around it right on the sidewalk and the flowers were for the memorials. It was an old style casket that is narrow at the bottom and wide at top. Looked to be made out of cardboard and purple velvet and it was parked right at the entrance to the apartment. I hope we don`t come out of our apartment some morning and get greeted with that sight. We would love to know the full story on why this is done but again, No speak Russian! We also don`t have hot water tonight so we have to plug in our auxiliary water heater in the closet to get hot water. Just another day in paradise. When we first got here we were curious as to why there was so much alcohol consumed by the young and old alike. We now have it figured out- if we were to have to stay much longer we would have to start drinking too, because there is nothing else to do!!!! Thinking about trying it nonetheless as it would have to help our ability to sleep on these things that they call beds here. In the US we would call it a sheet of plywood with a sheet but NO- here they call it a bed. We did look at some new cars today and they will be in the pictures below along with the prices.A little cheaper than the U.S. but not too sure about the brand names of some of them.

Some more of the food differences here:

- mushrooms are very popular and inexpensive, pickled, canned, fresh etc.

- Lays potato chips: crab flavor, mushroom flavor, ham flavor, bacon flavor, red pepper flavor

- piranha in the fish section- picture down below, Looks like piranha anyways

- whole Easter bunnies in the meat section( without fur or eggs of course)

- pig ears, pigs feet, not pickled- whole, just boil and slice according to our friend Vlad mmmgood

- fried lard slices- haven`t tried and don`t care too

- bread is eaten with lard spread on it. Have to request maslo(butter)better restaurants only- some don`t have butter at all

- pop- looks to be coke, coke light not diet, pepsi, sprite, fanta-haven`t seen a Mountain Dew since we left home.

- canned veggies, peas,peas and carrots, corn or mushrooms, no green beans to be seen

- icky looking watermelons in the meat case floating in a tub of liquid stuff

- haven`t bought any of the wienies over here, sorta scared of what`s in them

- there are things in the beef section that we didn`t even know are on a cow!!

- lots of alcohol in the aisles, mostly vodka obviously

- bulk frozen veggies in big boxes, just scoop what you need-

- bulk frozen whole shrimp with the eyes, again scoop what you need

- still can`t wait for a good glass of milk

- oranges here are very good- better than home


This is the $10,000 house I mentioned in the last post. Tin type roof and wood type siding.
Every apartment has these benches outside, some nice, some broken or bent.
Trolley bus that runs on electricity, notice the rods going up in the back to the power lines. Lines go everywhere in town.When the base board is too wide to get cabinet up against the wall. No problem,you trim the cabinet off to fit.Picnic table along our path we take every day.Sewer cover by all the apartments, this one is actually in good shape. Most are in disrepair.Hole in the side of the apartment with a coat thrown in to help the cats keep warm.Pretty typical car here. Notice the static straps hanging off of rear bumper.Ukrainian pickup. No Chevys, Dodges or Fords here.New 4 door 4 wheel drive, make unknown- About $12,000Nice car for $11,000. A little"bug" type car inside the store was $6,000Good selection of paraphernalia at the mall.Besides vodka they love their coffee over here. These Nescafe machines are everywhere.Grandma Judy and Tory skyping us. This is the view we look forward to seeing every day. Her eyes don`t usually glow like that!! :)Briley doing some "hot laps" with her set of wheels.
These are the "piranha"type fish we saw today in the fresh fish section.