We think the metro is super cool.  And I think I am super cool when I ride the metro.  On Friday I even rode the metro with Kathryn and Amelia to our friend’s house for a get together.  I felt very empowered that I could do that by myself, and also find their house.  The trip took over an hour each way, but getting there was half the fun anyway.  (That is not to say we didn’t have fun at their place.  It was a woman in our ward whose husband works at the embassy, so some embassy moms and kids were there and she invited us.  There were kids, toys, and pumpkin cookies.  Can’t go wrong with that combination.)  The reason it took so long was mostly because we walked at Kathryn’s pace on each side of our metro ride.

We’ve been on the metro a few times now, and the only time it wasn’t very crowded was going to church – Sunday morning at 9am.  But actually I think it was crowded by the time we got to the city center.  When you ride the metro, be careful or you might get left behind.  You have to push your way on and off or the doors will close before you have a chance to get on or off.  I know because this happened to my companion in Romania.  She was a new missionary, and hadn’t been on the metro before.  She was standing next to me and I pushed my way on.  Next thing I knew, the doors were closing and she was not inside yet!  I mouthed the words to her “stay there”, and rode to the next stop where I got off and went to the other side to ride back to my companion.

I enjoy being part of the “metro mass” that gets on and off, and rides up and down the escalators to the station.  But I really love to just watch the throngs of people.  The best is when they are getting out of the metro.  The doors open and suddenly there are tons of people everywhere.  I am always impressed that they all know where to go, and they are always in a hurry.  We usually have to stop and think about which way we need to go out, and people are practically running us over. 

We’ll post some pictures as soon as we can take some good ones of the metro.

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For years I have fondly remembered “prigat” juice in Romania.  The best thing about this brand of juice was that it was not carbonated, since most everything was carbonated.  It was also very sweet and tasty, and came in all sorts of fruit flavors – including peach and pear.  I even made “prigat” my email address, which I will liken to getting a tatoo that says “prigat”.

Well, I am sorry to say that I have not found Prigat here in Ukraine.  I actually looked it up on Wikipedia and it doesn’t look like it is sold in Ukraine.  Speaking of Wikipedia, Darryl has thoroughly converted me to it.  I looked up the Wiggles the other day (I had always wondered how they came to be, and if you go around singing “fruit salad, yummy yummy!”, you may want to check it out, too).

Anyway, I have discovered Sandora juice here in Ukraine.  It is the main juice here, and also happens to be Darryl’s client.  So we feel an obligation to try all the flavors and enjoy our favorites on occasion.  I really liked this cranberry-raspberry “mopc” (morse), which I think is puree.  The mango nectar is quite yummy, and we also tried banana nectar.  The other one pictured is “multivitamin” juice, which is a blend of fruits (and vitamins, I assume).  Juice is big here, because water is not.  But I have discovered a favorite brand of bottled water – morshinska.  Mmm.  I do love water the most.

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Each place that we’ve stayed the past month we’ve told Kathryn is our “new house” – assuming she wouldn’t really understand “temporary apartment”.  Here is our “new house”, that we will make our home for the next two years.

First of all, I have yet to see a house, so most people do live in apartments.  This we knew.  We also knew that renting an apartment is quite expensive here.  What we didn’t know is that you actually use a real estate agent to find an apartment to rent.  Darryl and some KPMG people looked on the internet, but there are many apartments that are only listed for agencies.  The point is, the agent takes a chunk of money – in our case 50% of a month’s rent (a month’s rent happens to be about twice what our mortgage at home is!).

It is almost embarrassing how nice our apartment is.  I think ours was originally 2 apartments, and it was remodeled or whatever, and we are the first people to live in it.  But it is not embarrassing enough not to enjoy it!  Here are some pictures.

Here are two of the three bedrooms.  Kathryn is always asleep in the other one when I think of taking a picture.  One great thing is carpet!  Not common, and it is not very soft, but I am still glad the bedrooms have it.  You can see the couch pillow Amelia has been sleeping on.  Also, our bedroom has a balcony.

This first picture is from the balcony in the bedroom.  Then Kathryn in the play area right outside our building.  There are three of these areas behind the building, so if the swings are busy at ours, we can walk to the next area to swing.  The third picture is out the window from the other side of the house – from that long hallway picture from the first group above.  This is the sunrise one morning when I was up with Amelia.

I am so glad to be here.  We can finally settle in.  We are on the 7^th floor, of 17 floors.  The building is huge, has several entrances – we are the 4^th.  There is a play area right out front.  We are also very close to a metro stop, and we are 7 stops from Church, about 15 minutes.  I have never seen so many strollers!!!  I am so happy!  And there are ramps everywhere, too.  This is definitely a family neighborhood.  Little kids everywhere, and at the market there are reasonably priced kids clothes and toys galore.  I was getting nervous when we lived downtown, because the stores in the malls were extremely expensive – more than I would pay at home for kids’ clothes.  That’s one observation – we thought things would be so cheap here, but that is not really the case. 

Unfortunately, the “furnished” apartment had no bed for Kathryn, no dishes of any kind, or blankets.  Luckily we had been borrowing a pack’n’play from some people in our branch for Amelia, so Kathryn slept in that.  Amelia slept in the carseat, or on a couch pillow on the ground.  The landlord was kind enough to buy a bed for Kathryn which arrived on Tuesday, but for some reason it is a couch that has a bed to pull out.  Better than nothing, and much better to have Amelia back in the pack’n'play. 

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The past couple of days nothing much has happened.  Still living out of suitcases…  But we are moving into our apartment tonight!!!  Here are some pictures of what we’ve been doing. 

This is Darryl and Kathryn playing games at the Veggietales website.  A fun one is matching the tunes of Larry’s silly songs on the arcade part.  Then Amelia and Kathryn after having a bath, and Kathryn likes to brush her teeth in the shower.

Amelia is being cute, more cars on the sidewalk, and Kathryn carrying cheese.  She really likes to help carry things.  She is also very much into a possessive phase (at least we’re hoping its a phase).  She likes to say “It’s mine”, “I need it”, and “I want it now” – particularly if Amelia is using something.

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I tried to capture the fact that cars and people often share the same space.  This is in the main square and cars will just drive through part of it, so you have to watch out.  Also, the place where we’ve been buying bread is on the right, with yellow letters at the top.

 

I just thought it was a riot to show the broom above.  Its just a bunch of sticks tied together.  Workers clean the streets and sidewalks with these brooms.  Another thing, I realized the other day that all the street workers I’ve seen have been women – sweeping and picking up garbage, and planting.

Here is our new apartment building.  Its huge!

In honor of Kathryn saying “KPMG” all the time, I took a picture of her holding this little flag.  And here is Amelia in a hat – I think she is so cute in a hat.

This picture is taken on Khreshatyk, the main street downtown.  We thought this arch was pretty.

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Lest anyone think it is all fun and games for us, I thought I’d better write a little about my frustrations.  #1 – we’re still living out of suitcases!!!  This was greatly compounded on Thursday when we had to pack up again and move to another temporary apartment.  It was only a block away, and is actually next door to Darryl’s work, but that is beside the point.  We bought some big bags and threw all of our stuff in them (there was no way everything would fit back into our suitcases as we had vacuum packed several bags).  So now we are in a different apartment, our stuff in all these suitcases and bags, and I have no idea where anything is!  I spent some time yesterday searching for church clothes for everyone. 

But I was unsuccessful at my attempt to find a razor for myself.  I personally like to shave my legs before I go to church, especially if it has been a few days, which it has.  And as I said to a friend of mine that remarked on all the hair Amelia had as  a newborn, “We’re hairy people!”  That refers to the Harrisons, and I recognize it as a fact that we are hairy.  I’m not saying I like it, but its a fact. 

Our new temporary apartment is fine, but the floors are all hardwood (or whatever the floors are, I just know there is no carpet), and also has no rugs.  The “living room” is quite small.  What does all of this mean?  Not much space for little ones to play, and no place to put Amelia.  Sure, I can put a blanket down for her, but it is still really hard. 

Then there is the food issue.  We have none!  There really isn’t a whole lot of food shopping close by, and we also don’t want to totally stock up since we will be moving into our permanent apartment one of these days.  But it is quite frustrating when you are trying to make dinner with flour, sugar, oats, butter, milk.  Sometimes we have cheese, sausage, and eggs.  But the last couple of days no meat, eggs, and we left the flour in the other apartment. 

These are some frustrations of the past couple of days.  (I will write about more general ones in a future post about Culture Shock.)  I was trying to get Amelia asleep last night and bumped into the bed, giving me a very painful bruise.  So I got angry and frustrated.  When I am that way, I like to throw things.  I know it is terrible, but it really feels good, and actually I don’t do it very often these days.  I just threw my clothes and Kathryn’s toothbrush, which for some reason was on our bed.  Then I started feeling sorry for myself and wallowing, all that good stuff.  I was able to get Amelia to sleep, so I came out and swept the floor, did the dishes, and even ironed my blouse and skirt for church.  Maybe I should get angry more often! 

I was feeling a little better (I knew it really wasn’t that bad, but unfortunately I was enjoying the self-pity) when Darryl and I got ready for bed.  But I still complained about the razor thing, and then some words popped into my mind.  “Are we looking for blame or are we looking for a solution?”  I immediately started laughing, because that is from Mr. Kramer, a teacher at James W. Marshall elementary school, which I attended in the 80’s.  Anyway, Mr. Kramer has a good point.  Even if you find someone or something to blame, the problem still exists and you still need a solution.  My solution was getting some sleep and going to church today.  Church was great and I am feeling much better now! 

In case you were wondering, I was able to shave my legs.  Darryl lent me his electric shaver.  It didn’t do a very good job, but good enough for today.  Plus it was fun to use.

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We had to move temporary apartments and this one has internet access and cable TV!  We feel very much more connected and I had a great time yesterday catching up on everyone’s blogs.  There was plenty of English TV to watch, including the Duttons!  It is nice to know people are just a click away with the internet! 

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The first thing about KPMG here is that Darryl has to wear a suit and tie to work everyday! That is the dress code. In fact that seems to be the general business dress code. I see many men dressed in suits and women dressed equally as nice walking around downtown everyday. It makes it hard to spot the missionaries!  It seems to be a very big deal to work at KPMG.  Darryl went to a 2-day orientation for 50 new hires last week.  He said everyone was extremely motivated and excited to be working at KPMG.  Apparently their starting salaries are much higher than most other jobs.  The down side is that it seems everyone works a ton of hours, and that will include my dearest Darryl. 

Since we have been married, and especially since I stopped working at PwC, I feel like I work at KPMG, too!  Well, I know I don’t do the work, but I feel a part of KPMG.  That sounds really cheesy, but I mean it in an un-cheesy way.  I know as many people in Darryl’s office as I knew in my office.  Kathryn is also becoming part of the KPMG family.  She recognizes the logo.  Today we were at his office and she was drawing on a notepad, saw the KPMG logo on it, and said “daddy’s work”.  Then we went back in the afternoon (we were meeting people to look at apartments), and she said “KPMG” when she saw the KPMG sign.  The other day when we walked past it on a walk (it is just a block over from where we are right now), she recognized “daddy’s work” and we hadn’t been there in over a week.  I was very impressed.  She even says she is going to work sometimes, and it is always “daddy’s work”. 

Darryl has already been on a business trip for one of his clients, the biggest juice company here that was recently bought by Pepsi. So he was gone for 3 days to Nikolaev, near Odessa, 2 days on a manager/partner retreat in the Carpathian Mountains, and 2 days at an orientation.  If we’ve been here for 14 days, how many have I been here by myself?   Now we see how those word problems in math class relate to real life. Darryl could obviously tell more about KPMG in

Ukraine, and hopefully he will sometime.  But from what he tells me, quite a few of the managers and partners are international people, but living here in Kyiv, not temporarily as in our case.  The managing partner is American, a partner from England, a couple from The Netherlands, a manager from Macedonia, one from Germany, Armenia, Canada (besides Darryl), and Russia.  Most of the associates are Ukrainian, though.  Everyone speaks English, and the manager meetings and things have all been in English.  Many of the partners don’t speak Russian or Ukrainian. 
Here are a couple pictures I took from standing right outside KPMG.   The car on the sidewalk is a hoot.  This kind of parking/driving is very typical, people just drive wherever they need to.  In fact, many places have metal blocks so no one will drive on the sidewalk.  Going up on the curb is no big deal, and probably expected.  Jay walking is also a biggie here.  If you want to cross the street, you just do it and hope the cars stop (which they do, but it makes me nervous).  Because I’m a little afraid of this, if I need to cross the street I wait for a crowd and cross with everyone else.  There are cross walks, but they are only used for about half of the street-crossing from my observance. 

If we’re talking about KPMG, I must also put in a good word for Christina, who has been an enormous help.  She is the office manager.  When we first arrived she met us at the apartment with some groceries.  The next day she helped us open a bank account, and is currently helping us look for a permanent apartment.  She is Ukrainian but grew up in London and studied in Moscow, so she speaks perfect English, as well as Russian and Ukrainian.  As we look for apartments, she can tell us about the area, if it is on a hill, how far from shopping or the metro.  We are very grateful for her help!  Now I realize I should have taken a picture of her! 

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Here are a couple pictures of St. Michael’s church, not the church we were looking for, but it is very close to our apartment and we walked over there one evening. 

When we first arrived in Kyiv, we of course planned to attend church.  Finding where we could go to church proved to be more difficult than we thought.  On Friday (the day after we arrived), we were walking in a park just up the street from our apartment.  A woman asked me a question (it was the first time, before I was prepared with “I don’t understand”), and Darryl was able to talk to her.  Then he overheard her making a phone call telling someone she was meeting some young missionaries at the park.  We were so excited!  We thought missionaries would be coming and we could ask them where and when church was, and about the wards, etc.  We decided to hang around the area so we could talk to the missionaries, too.  We wondered around the park keeping an eye on the area where she was waiting.  An hour later we were still waiting!  So was the lady.  We imagined all kinds of stories about why the missionaries were late– they were new and had said the wrong time, they were teaching a discussion and were late, whatever.  We both expected two guys in suits and backpacks to walk up at any moment.  Darryl even chased after some people we thought looked like Elders!  We were also quite impressed with this woman who was waiting so long to meet the missionaries!  What a great investigator!  Finally we looked back at her and there was a group of people around her.  However there were no Elders and at this point, we realized they were not from our church, and we had a pretty good laugh about waiting so long in hopes of finding the missionaries.

Darryl was able to find the address of where a couple wards meet, and with the help of someone at his work, they told him the area and how to get there from our apartment.  On Saturday we went walking to make sure we could find it.  We found the address but it definitely wasn’t a chapel, and we wondered if that is really where they had church.  We decided to go early on Sunday and hope to see people going to church outside the building so we would know where to go.  We did just that and as we approached the building someone said in English “Are you going to church?”  Yes!  She said it was on the 5^th floor and showed us the way.  However, Darryl was a little suspicious because the address on the Church website said it was on the 3^rd floor.  We were very surprised when we came out of the elevator to be greeted by 2 American couples who welcomed us to English speaking International Branch. If the truth be told, we were quite disappointed to be at the International Branch.  Darryl of course wanted to go to church in Russian and I was also anxious to meet some Ukrainians, try to listen for words I knew, and see how the Church is here.  Going to a ward here was going to be my way of getting into the culture, and would be a non-threatening way to experiment with language. But people at the International Branch were so excited for us to be there!  It’s hard to stay disappointed when people are so happy to see you, and I will admit I was glad for English.  We mentioned that we were interested in going to a Ukrainian ward, and that Darryl speaks Russian.  However, it seems that the policy is unless both spouses speak Russian or Ukrainian, you are supposed to go to the international branch.  I think they don’t want an issue of too much translation going on and being a distraction.  That makes sense when you learn that at least half of our branch are people teaching English through ILP (you’ve maybe seen their booths advertising at BYU).  They are here only for a semester, usually.  Right now there are over 20 in the branch.  There are 4 married couples in our branch, including Darryl and me.  The good news is that there is nursery!  Two other kids in nursery with Kathryn, 2 kids in primary (ages 4 and 6, I think), then a one year old and Amelia.   There are 3 missionaries in the branch – 2 Elders, and a senior sister that works in the office.  And several Ukrainians – they are apparently assigned to come to our branch for a time.  One is in the branch presidency, one is RS president, and a few more.  They of course speak English and are very strong members.  Our first week was Fast Sunday, and in one man’s testimony, he said he was one of the first members in Ukraine.  From what I have read there are almost 10,000 now. After our first week at the International Branch we felt good about it, and it must be where we are supposed to be (especially since we aren’t really allowed to go to a regular ward J).  I met several people last Sunday, and one of the ILP girls (they are all girls, by the way, so RS has almost 30 people while EQ has about 7) said she would love to babysit for me!  My only regret, if it can be called that, is that none of the members of our branch (besides the Ukrainians) will be here when the temple is done, so it doesn’t seem to be a big deal.  For me it is a very big deal and I was looking forward to experiencing the joy of the members and the special spirit of the temple.  I’m hoping that I still can. 

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Today Kathryn took her baby to the “store”, which was Kathryn’s room.  I asked her what she was going to buy and she said water, juice, and bread.  No coincidence that those are the things that we buy almost everyday here.  Amelia is almost rolling over and also almost sitting up.  She will sit up on my lap by herself for a few seconds before falling forward or to one side.  She is a real baby!  She spits up, drools a lot, and almost has a daytime napping schedule.  Kathryn hardly did any of those things.  Now I know why so many baby outfits come with a matching bib – for the drool!

People continue to ask me questions on the street!  Twice yesterday.  Then another lady said something to me and I used my standard phrase “I don’t understand”, and then she said in English, “boy or girl?” – referring to Amelia.  I said a girl and she said two cute girls.  So maybe that is what people are asking me.  Today I realized that one word some of the people are saying that smile and talk to the girls is “daughter”.  I made it with the stroller to the main square downtown.  I went up and around to another street, then down, thus avoiding the stairs underground.
I am impressed with how polite/kind people are to me.  Each time we have ridden the metro (okay, only 3 times), someone has gotten up from their seat so that I can sit down, with Amelia in the baby bjorn.  When I go to stores with both girls, people are always holding doors open for me.  And the other day when I went shopping for water and bread, there were long lines at both places and I would have just gone away except that we didn’t have any water or bread at the apartment (and not much other food, plus I am not ready to drink milk here).  So I got to the end of the line each time.  At the water a lady came up to me and started talking and motioning me to the front of the line.  The cashier was happy to help me, and even offered the non-carbonated water.  The same type of thing happened at the bread place.  Perhaps I would let someone go in front of me if I saw them holding both a baby and a toddler, and especially if they had a confused look on their face, which I probably always have.

Here is a picture of Kathryn at the park.  We’ve gone there a couple times and both times the boy sitting in the sandbox and his grandmother (babushka) were there.  I purposefully included the other girl’s babushka in the picture, complete with scarf over her head. 
I try to read signs and things outside whenever I can.  I am so impressed with how quickly Darryl can read!  He sees a word and just says it.  I take several seconds to sound it out.  But I always get a kick out of the things I read that end up being a Cyrillic-ized word of English.  A lot of these are at McDonalds – chicken, happy meal, desserts, big mac.  I’ve seen several others, and both Darryl and I laughed when we read a sign and realized it was Papa Johns at the mall food court.  We were anxious to try it, but pizza has never been the same for me outside the United States.  Perhaps it is more authentic, but I like American pizza.
A word about McDonalds.  For some reason when I am in a foreign country I love McDonald’s, but at home it doesn’t do much for me.  In Romania my first area had no McDonald’s, but after that it was always a place that was clean inside and had a bathroom.  I really liked the Fish Mac (Filet of Fish) there.  In China someone took me there for my birthday, because it was pretty far from where I lived, but I craved a hamburger.  The nuggets there had bones.  Now here in Ukraine I am also drawn to McDonald’s.  They give kids a balloon that has a backwards R, a heart, and McDonald’s, meaning I love McDonald’s.  Backwards R is “ya”, which means “I”.  So I guess in the U.S. then we have Babies “ya” Us, and Toys “ya” Us.  P is an R, and a gate is a P and H is N and backwards N is I.  Now are you confused?  Me, too! 

Amelia, Kathryn, Kyiv Adventures | 2 Comments »

I have started calling Amelia my Sweetie-Sweet-Sweetie or my Cutie-Cute-Cutie.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  One is that she is very cute and sweet!  The other comes from a cartoon called “The Emperor’s

New School”, which is on Saturday mornings and is based on the show “The Emperor’s New Groove”.  In general I am not a fan of cartoons, but we stumbled upon this show awhile back and watch it occasionally (that is if we are living in the States and if we remember that it is on and don’t have anything else going on).

In the show Kuzco, the emperor, has to go to school and graduate high school before he can actually be the emperor.  Izma is the principal (in disguise) and tries to keep him from graduating.  Cronk is also in school and is Kuzco’s friend but also seems to help Izma without knowing it.  Then there is Malina, who is another girl in the class.  Kuzco calls her the “hottie-hot-hottie”.  And that’s where I got the phrase “sweetie-sweet-sweetie”.

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Here are some pictures of our temporary apartment.  When we first got here and I walked in I was extremely impressed.  Much nicer than most missionary apartments I saw in Romania.  There is a large living room, 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and kitchen.  One bedroom is quite small, but it is fine for Kathryn.  I am assuming and hoping that we have something similar to this (though with 3 bedrooms if possible) for our real apartment.  We have a washing machine but no dryer, no disposal, and no dishwasher.  I think I knew these things before we came, but I tried to block them out.  No blocking, now!  Just dishwashing and hanging things to dry on the balcony.

 

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We arrived in Kyiv on Thursday evening (the 30^th).  We were quite tired and went to bed as soon as we could get the girls in bed.  But everyone was wide awake by 5am.  So we had breakfast and were ready for the day by 7.  We decided to take a walk outside.  Here are some pictures of

Independence Square

from that morning.  Also some pictures from the main street in downtown the next evening.  It is closed off to traffic every weekend and tons of people are walking around.  It looks like we are super-imposed, but we really are there!

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Darryl has actually had to be at work quite a bit for various things, so I’ve been left to myself (and Kathryn and Amelia, of course).  The first time was Monday, after we had arrived on Thursday.  Darryl was at an orientation all day.  I was actually excited to try going outside by myself (meaning without Darryl, who had been buying and saying anything we needed).  I walked with the girls (Amelia in the baby bjorn, Kathryn walking) down to the square.  We’d been told about a baby store and I wanted to check it out.  I saw what I thought was it and went in.  It was actually just a clothing store, and not even for babies or toddlers.  But there was a kid play area in the store which Kathryn really enjoyed.  I had to carry her out.  Then we made our way back to the square (

Independence Square

, the middle of downtown) in search of drinks and bread.  We needed both and I was up for the challenge. 

There are kiosks all around that sell bottles of soda or water and other little snacks.  I found one that they were re-stocking so I reached in for a couple bottles of Fanta.  Now water is an issue here.  We were told not to drink the water, nor do we want to.  Darryl did boil some the other day but he said it tasted bad.  And if it tasted bad to him, it would be undrinkable to me.  Unfortunately since we have that filtered water in our fridge I’ve become a water snob.  I didn’t mean to, but I just really like that water and most other places I go I don’t like the water.  Not drinking the water in Kyiv is for health reasons, though.  We have been told that many people have bottled water delivered to their door and we plan to do this when we get to our real apartment.  So we have to keep buying water or something else so that we have something to drink.  Now to me, if water is carbonated, then it isn’t really water!  That I’ve never understood.  Why would you add carbonation to water?  I definitely didn’t want to buy that at the kiosk, but I didn’t know which was carbonated and which wasn’t.  Darryl had taught me how to say “water without gas” – I think it is hilarious that it is called water with gas.  It’s a very accurate description and was the same in

Romania.  I summoned my courage and said to the girl stocking the drinks – “vada ni gaz?”  I forgot how to say the whole thing for gas, but I hoped she would understand and she did.  She pointed to the kind with a light blue lid – I made that mental note, opposed to the dark blue lid.  Then I just took them all up to the cashier and gave them some money.

I didn’t realize until later that I had done it the wrong way.  On Thursday Darryl left again, this time on a retreat with all the managers and partners to the

Carpathian Mountains.  I think it is so funny that people kept saying to the

Carpathian Mountains.  It is a pretty large area, including part of

Romania, so not very specific.  So here I am again buying drinks.  I went to the same kiosk as before, thinking I knew what to do.  Well, the place where drinks were was locked, yet there was a line of people buying things.  I tried to open it, then discovered it was locked.  Someone said something to me and I of course didn’t understand, and was embarrassed so I grabbed Kathryn’s hand and we walked away.  Later I realized that you are supposed to go up to the counter, tell the person what you want, and then they unlock it for you.  I had just gotten lucky the other day when the girl was re-stocking.  Unfortunately that is the way most things are purchased here.  You tell the person what you want and they get it.  That means you have to know how to say what you want!  At a different kiosk I tried just that.  I said one liter bonaqua (that’s the brand of water) and one liter fanta.  Then she unlocked the thing and I grabbed them and paid.  Success!  I guessed for the word liter, which is just saying liter with an accent, and I do know how to say one.  Here is a picture of Kathryn saying “hi” to the birds.

Now back to buying bread.  I walked into the bread place, carrying both girls.  It was pretty busy so I hung back just to look around at first and not get in anyone’s way.  I was delighted to see all the breads and pastries.  When the place cleared out the bread ladies saw us and made cute faces at Kathryn and Amelia.  Darryl had taught me how to say a specific kind of bread that he had bought the other day.  So I said that and she asked a question.  I guessed that it was how many and I said “adin” and held up one finger.  Then she got it.  I had also seen some cookies that were a favorite treat of mine in

Romania, so I said “and that” (Darryl taught me those words, too), and pointed to it.  I didn’t know how much the cookies cost and I didn’t understand when they told me, so I just put some money up there and they gave me change.  I was feeling very successful!  One thing about the bread store.  There is a sign out front with a camera crossed out, so I assume that means no pictures.  Sorry about that.  I’m sure I’ll get a picture of bread another time.

That night Darryl said sometimes the ladies at the bread store can be gruff.  Perhaps like the soup nazi or something.  But I was there again today and they were very nice.  I’m convinced that it is Kathryn and Amelia doing the trick.  I have read that Ukrainians love little kids and babies.  I can’t count how many people have come up to me and smiled at Amelia or Kathryn and said something.  I have no idea what they said, so it could be that they said “put a hat on that baby or she’ll freeze to death!”  But they usually seem very happy.  Here is a picture of people selling flowers downstairs in the underpass.  I think the flowers are beautiful and I love to see them everyday.

One more thing.  An important phrase to know is “I don’t understand”.  Several times people have come up to me to ask me something.  I have been able to use the phrase successfully each time.  One time a lady was asking for directions (Darryl was there that’s how I know).  Once was in line to exchange money and a lady seemed to be asking about the line.  A couple times walking down the street.  To me, I stick out like a sore thumb as a foreigner, so I’m not sure why they are asking me.  I can tell that there are quite a few foreigners, at least downtown, so that must not mean much.  Maybe I look very smart!  Or maybe because I am walking with Kathryn, meaning at her pace which is pretty much dawdling, they figure I have time to answer a question.  In any case, so far I haven’t understood a word and I just say “I don’t understand”.

Kyiv Adventures | 2 Comments »

We celebrated Kathryn’s 2^nd birthday yesterday.  I can’t believe she is 2 years old!  I love realizing how many things she knows when I look at Amelia.  We had been talking about Kathryn’s birthday for awhile. I had bought a little potty seat and a step stool before we left as her presents, and she had already been playing with these.  So I wanted to make her birthday still special with presents to open.  I decided to wrap some other things up:  An outfit that Brad and Bobbi sent for Christmas that will Kathryn will finally fit into, a Veggietales sticker book the Skidmores gave her for her birthday, and the Wiggles videos we got for our trip.  The next question was how to wrap them.  I had no wrapping paper or tape.  But I did have some construction paper and stickers.  So I wrapped the book and videos in that, and just put the clothes in a bag. 

Darryl went to an orientation thing at work for the morning, so Kathryn opened presents after her nap.  She had a great time and was VERY excited about the “Bob and Larry” stickers (even though she had opened up the same present a week before).  She also tried to put the jacket and pants outfit on herself, and wore it when we went out later.  We went out to dinner, partly because we didn’t have much food at the apartment, partly to celebrate.  We went to a Ukrainian buffet place some people had told us about.  Kathryn really enjoyed the borsch!  We found another underground mall downtown and walked around, discovering several stores with baby clothes and toys, but which were quite expensive.  Then we made some phone calls from Darryl’s work to Grandma Harrison and Grandpa Melanchuk, and finally had some gelato ice cream (Italian) at the food court of one of the underground malls.  It was extremely delicious, worth the $3 (

US) it cost for each cup.  I don’t know if Kathryn will remember, but I will surely remember her 2^nd birthday.

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I finally bought a double stroller just before we left for Kyiv.  Originally I really didn’t want to get one – they are so huge!  But I finally caved in.  I had conflicting thoughts on if I would need/could use a double stroller (or any stroller) in Kyiv.  I knew we’d be walking a lot, so that was a major point for double stroller, but I also couldn’t remember ever seeing one in Romania, and I figured the sidewalks (if they existed) wouldn’t be very smooth.  Anyway, I researched (something I’ve begun to pick up from Darryl) and found one that I wanted but could only order online, which I did.  I was so excited for it to come.  When it did I took the girls on a test ride to QFC (the grocery store very near our home, and a place we frequent on our walks).  I was in love! 

Kathryn thought it was lots of fun to be in a stroller with Amelia.  Amelia fell asleep on our first ride which I took for a good sign.  It was easy to maneuver for a double stroller and I was content.  It proved extremely helpful in the airport.  I would not have wanted to carry Kathryn around, or try and wait for her to walk, or have to carry Amelia in her carseat around or something.  They both slept in it for awhile in the

Amsterdam airport. 

Unfortunately our temporary apartment here (which I’ll tell about in another post complete with pictures) is right in the heart of downtown Kyiv.  The unfortunate part is that it is not very convenient for a stroller and nearly impossible for a double stroller.  There are stairways everywhere to go underground to cross the street.  This is a very cool thing, and we have discovered 3 malls underground already!  But we haven’t even attempted to take a double stroller out because I don’t know how we’d get it down those stairs.  So it’s the Baby Bjorn for me and Amelia.  Kathryn does like to walk a lot, but inevitably wants to be up for part of the trip (maybe most of the trip depending how long).  I’m fine with that if Darryl is the one carrying her!  But it gets very old very fast when I am carrying her and Amelia up and down lots of stairs, and up the hill to our apartment.  How could I do this with groceries also?  The good thing is this is not our permanent residence.  I am hoping that we end up living somewhere not quite so downtown-ish so that we don’t have the stair issue (except for the metro).  I’ll keep you posted (pun intended).

Family | 2 Comments »

This was brutal!  We were so tired during the day, fighting to stay awake.  But nighttime would come and we wake up after a couple of hours, thinking it must be morning already.  Amelia, being a baby, is awake and asleep anyway.  It hasn’t seemed to bother her too much except one night when she really only slept a couple of hours.  That means I only slept a couple of hours.  So when she finally went to sleep about 7am, I did, too.  Also, she was waking up much more often at night but would go back to sleep.  Kathryn has also been pretty good, but waking up by 5am and being wide awake.  One day we tried to let her nap only a short while but she was so grumpy when we got her up I don’t think it was worth it.  One night Kathryn woke up and would only go back to sleep in Mommy’s bed, so I brought her in with me and Darryl slept in her bed.  Amelia was also sleeping in our bed (we don’t have a crib or anything for her yet).  After an hour or so Amelia woke up to eat and Darryl came up thinking it was morning, then Kathryn woke up.  It was about 3am.  Darryl was able to get Kathryn back to sleep in our bed with him, and I went with Amelia to Kathryn’s bed.  So we had a nice game of musical beds.  The worst thing for me was fighting to stay awake during the day.  Going outside and keeping busy helped.  As I write this things have gotten much better.  We have had two very good nights.  Both girls have slept well, getting up at reasonable hours in the morning.  I still feel quite tired a lot, but I think that is also normal when experiencing a big change

Kyiv Adventures | 1 Comment »

Here are some specifics of our plane rides from Seattle to Amsterdam, and from Amsterdam to Kyiv.  It seems that Kyiv is the Ukrainian spelling so we are going with that now, and also it seems that in Ukrainian people pronounce with one vowel sound, a long “e” sound. 

Anyway, on our flight to Amsterdam we each had a seat (including Amelia) and we were 4 seats across in the middle section.  I had decided the best seating arrangement would be Amelia, me, Kathryn, Darryl.  But the flight attendant said we couldn’t have a carseat on the aisle seat, so Amelia and I switched places.  Each side section had 2 seats.  We were the last row in one section of the plane, but our seats still reclined enough and we were also right in front of the lavatory.  This proved to be advantageous as I was there 3 times to change Amelia’s diaper, 2 times to change Kathryn’s, and 1 time for myself (no diaper though).  Also it provided a little room for me to stand with Amelia when she was fussy. 

Each seat had a little Panasonic screen.  Darryl was quite excited since he knew all about them as he audited Panasonic this year.  Once I saw how great the screens were, I was excited as well!  There were movies to watch – Darryl and I both watched “Shrek the Third” on ours, and Kathryn watched some “Baby Einstein”, and “Cars”.  Everyone wears headphones for whatever is on their screen, of course.  When Kathryn started watching “Cars” we heard a few shouts of “Kachow!”  I thought it was really cute, hopefully the other passengers did, as well.

Also on the screens were different maps you could look at. Darryl and I both enjoyed that a lot, I particularly liked seeing the day/night map that shows where it is day and night in the world.  Also time zone maps.  There was a trivia game that you could play against other passengers – John knows about this.  Darryl started playing a little and then I decided to try.  It was really fun!  Darryl won at least one round, and I also won a round!  Okay, there were only 4 people playing in my round including Darryl and me.  There was the typical map showing the plane flying to our destination.  I always like this on international flights (sounds like I travel internationally all the time).  It is overwhelming at first when you see the plane and still see

Seattle on the screen.  Then you see ocean, and finally

Europe.  We practically flew over

Cold

Lake – about 3 or 4 pm.  And we could look up flight information, such as the outside air temperature, which was -65 F at one time, and tail or head winds.  We had a 100mph tail wind at one point.  I thought those were interesting.

For weeks I’d been worrying what to do with Kathryn on the plane.  How could we entertain her for so long in a chair?  The handy dandy Panasonic screens were fabulous.  That helped for awhile, and then we brought some Wiggles DVDs to play in Darryl’s computer.  Fruit Salad, yummy yummy! (If you don’t know the Wiggles, you’re missing out on some really catchy songs!)  Then she took a couple hour nap, which we were very glad for.  I had purchased a number of little things that I thought (hoped) would occupy Kathryn on the plane.  Mostly dollar store stuff.  Someone gave us the idea of wrapping them up, which was great fun for Kathryn and also took up more time.  This worked out great and I even had some leftover for the second flight.

We got to Amsterdam when it would be late evening for us, but it was the morning for them.  So I was getting very tired.  We sat down at a food area after getting something to drink and I took a nap.  Amelia was also sleeping, and soon Kathryn was also.  I don’t know how Darryl did it, but he wasn’t sleeping.  We had 5 hours there, and Amelia slept the whole time (it was nighttime to her after all), Kathryn slept most of the time, and I slept a couple of hours. 

The second flight was uneventful and quite short compared to our first one.  Amelia slept most of it, after waking up for some food.  Kathryn was wide awake again (I was exhausted) but was mostly entertained by the “presents” and stickers and things.  It was fun for Darryl and me to pick out Americans on our flight to Kyiv. 

When we arrived we were thrust into the culture.  We were so tired that we couldn’t be upset, and I actually thought it was quite funny.  But there is no sense of line, as in they must not be familiar with the phrase “no cuts, no buts, no coconuts”.  We were in line to go through customs and plenty of people came in after us, but somehow when we got to the front of the line, we were the last ones!  I didn’t really mind, except that Kathryn was so tired she needed to be held, and even though we had checked 10 bags and the stroller, we still had a backpack, diaper bag, 2 coats, 2 pillows, and Amelia in a carseat.  Luckily we got through with no problem and our luggage was all there.  Then we had to somehow get it out to the place where the KPMG driver would be waiting for us.  I got the girls in the stroller and we started taking the luggage a few feet at a time, so that everything was always in our sight.  I was relieved to finally see a man holding a sign that said KPMG.  There were 2 cars and 2 drivers for us.  One loaded up our luggage and the other took us to our temporary apartment.

Amelia was quite fussy and hungry in the car.  So I just took her out of the carseat and fed her and held her!  I was scared at first, but then I remembered my mom saying she always fed us in the car.  Kathryn had no carseat, we didn’t bring it with us since we are not planning to get a car.  The drive from the airport to our apartment was a riot.  First of all, when you get out of the airport you realize you are in a different country.  Much smoke in the air, and a very small parking lot, and a bus stop – compared to multiple levels of parking, ground transportation and such at other airports.  Every parking spot was within walking distance.  At one point in the drive we were in a little traffic, so the driver just drove up on the curb and around on some dirt to get ahead of about 20 cars.  Half of the rest of the trip we were straddling 2 lanes.  This is why I don’t want to drive in a foreign country.

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