Sunday check-in

Hi Everyone, Had a busy Sunday here, we were awakened by our cell phone this morning and it was Luba our translator. We were to be ready to move to a new apartment at noon. Right at noon she was at our door and away we went. Much nicer apartment and we have internet to boot. If you have e-mailed us and we don`t reply, please don`t be offended. We downloaded over 160 e-mails today due to our 3 day absence and there probably won`t be any way to answer them all. We spent the day with John and Char, our friends from Kentucky. We travelled on the subway and met them at a station where we were to tour the Chernobyl museum. We had directions but couldn`t find it, so we started asking 3 different people and got three different answers. After striking out with all three we found a taxi and made him aware of what we wanted. No problem- for 50 gryivna he would take us. (about $6.00) So all 4 of us got into this tiny car and away we go. We went about a block and he motions, we`re there!! So close and yet so far :))) and to top it off the darn thing was closed on Sundays. So we walk back to tour a Church we had seen and of course had to walk by the same cabbies parking spot. I`m sure he thought "what a bunch of stooges". The Church was actually a church that is currently in use, not just a museum type place. People would come in and approach not an altar but all sorts of pictures and statues and light a candle and say a prayer. No pews or anything like a service, just come as an individual and walk to where you want and for lack of a better term, just have your own private worship service. It was actually really neat to be involved in something like this. The subway rides are something else! We ride an escalator down about 344 ft.- no not a misprint, it is the deepest subway in Europe I believe. But anyways, once you get to the bottom where the trains are you have to decipher if you want the blue, red or green train and which way you want to go on it. Once you have that figured out, just stand with the other "cattle" on the platform. When the train pulls up wait for the onslaught of people coming off before the onslaught of people getting on runs your butt over. No hurry though, you have about 30 seconds before the doors slam shut and away you go at a very brisk pace. Oh yeah, remember the 344 ft. deep thingy? That means when you travel across town, you are also travelling underneath a quite large river. All we can think of is, we hope that the tunnel is better maintained than some of the apartments and buildings are over here. We were just getting settled in at the apartment tonight when we heard the Skype ringing. Collin had already noticed that we were back online so we were able to talk with the kids for a long time, and also Judy/Kenny so that alone made us feel alot better after 3 days of no skyping. Well nothing else to add but we have had a few requests for some picture so we will tack a few on here. Oh, one last big bit of news, Gail did finally give in on letting me get a nanny. She will love it in the U.S.. The only problem is that she has two kids of her own and I`m not sure if they will be able to adapt. I`ll put her picture down below.

`Til our next posting, Gail and Craig














Here is a picture of our new "nanny" and one of her "kids". Sorta cute eh? Doing dishes is easy with a little help from our own personal "Fairy"Street musician by one of the Cathedrals serenading us for a few gryivnas.Gail at the internet cafe doing her thing. The only person in Ukraine with a green coat.One of the buildings off the square lit up at night. Neat to see all these buildings at night. Picture from a bell tower of the St. Sophia`s CathedralOnce you get out of downtown Kyiv things aren`t quite as neat and tidy. This was at one of our subway stops on Saturday.