I had heard from several people about the Water Museum in Kyiv. It sounded like a place Kathryn might enjoy, so I arranged to go there with a Ukrainian sister from our branch.  Besides showing me where the museum was and helping with language barriers, she helped with the girls a lot. I was so hot, tired, and sweaty when we got home. Two girls and a stroller on the metro, and stairs is not ideal. I thought, if I only had one child this would be so much easier. But the next day I took Kathryn to enrichment with me and we had a “pee-pee’s coming” experience half way home on the metro which resulted in me carrying Kathryn and running a lot and I was much hotter, tireder, and sweatier than the previous day with 2 girls. Anyway…

At the Water Museum we were able to get a guide that spoke English and seeing that we had Kathryn and Amelia, she asked if we would like to just go to the kid area instead of the 40 minute tour. I said a resounding “yes!”.

So we spent the better part of an hour feeding/looking at/touching fish, and playing with bubbles. Kathryn had a splendid time. I had been telling her for a few days that we were going to a “special place”, so it was cute to hear her talk about the “special place”. Amelia was clingy because she was missing a nap, but some cheerios cheered her up towards the end.

I had been told about the largest toilet in Ukraine (or maybe the world, I’m not sure), so I was expecting something much larger than this:

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Usually a trip for President Bush wouldn’t interest me all that much, but since he visited Kyiv and we live here, it was a little more exciting.  I don’t know or understand everything, but I am trying to keep up a little on what is going on here.  President Bush arrived on Monday night, and there was a demonstration all day Monday very near Darryl’s office.  In fact, they marched from the square up the street where his office is, so we have some pictures.  These are the people against Ukraine joining NATO – mostly old people and a few young students, Darryl said.  People from the Communist party and the Nationalist party.

 Click here to see some pictures of the actual visit, courtesy of a friend’s website.

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  No, I’m not trying to be politically correct.  But we’re not celebrating Easter today, because in Ukraine they celebrate the Orthodox Easter, which happens to be April 27th this year, and we wanted to celebrate with them.  I do feel a little like an Easter Scrooge today, but it just seemed like we should celebrate with the rest of Ukraine.  I know it will be a huge holiday and I want to have the festive atmosphere, Ukrainian Easter eggs, etc. 

 However, we have been celebrating spring.  On Thursday night a friend of mine taught me and another friend about cake decorating.  I was a little hesitant because I haven’t really even frosted cakes successfully in the past.  But it was a lot of fun and my cake turned out way better than I would have expected.  I do feel it necessary to say that I did not do the flowers on the cake.  It was especially nice just to have time to do something like decorate a cake – to be able to concentrate and take my time on something. 

In thinking about the first day of spring I realized there aren’t any flowers or blossoms in bloom yet that I can see.  So I had the brilliant idea (at least I thought it was) to make some out of my scrapbook paper.  I am so pleased with how they turned out.  Darryl knew right away some were tulips.  I don’t consider myself to be very artistic or crafty, so these flowers and the cake are pretty exciting.

Here is also Amelia in what I thought was a really cute spring outfit.  So Happy Spring and Happy Easter!

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 We had a great day Saturday, although unfortunately I have no pictures to document it.  We forgot to take the camera.  You can see the new photo gallery Darryl added on the left sidebar.  If you click on photo gallery, it may not work the first time, but it will work the second time.

I brought a couple of babysitters home with me from enrichment on Saturday morning.  At their recommendation, Darryl and I went to the Chernobyl Museum.  First we walked around that area of the city for an hour.  Not intentionally, we just couldn’t find it!  But we finally did, and now we’re not sure how we missed it in the first place.  It cost a whopping $1 to get in for each of us.  There was a tour that had just started, with a guide in Russian (or it could have been Ukrainian) and English.

It was very interesting, but I’m sure I won’t be able to write or remember everything.  So here are a couple of particular things I remember. 

In order to cover the reactor, they brought 15,000 young men to each give 2 minutes of work.  In exchange they would not have to serve the regular 2 year requirement in the army.  However, they weren’t told what exactly they were doing, that they would get radiation, etc.  So there were pictures of these guys joking and having fun. 

No one was told what happend until a few days after, in a very short, very vague statement that appeared in the newspaper, in small print at the bottom of the page.  Contrast that to the front page headline in the NY Times.

The government finally made a statement (the same found later in the newspaper), after Scandinavian countries reported abnormally high levels of radiation in their air. 

In the hallway of the musuem were many signs hanging from the ceiling.  They looked like big road signs or something.  I asked what they represented and the guide said they were all the names of towns and villages that no longer exist because of Chernobyl.  There were 76 in total.

Two or three days after the accident, people were told to evacuate.  There was a picture of an old woman carrying what she could with her:  an Easter cake and a cat. 

 I enjoyed seeing and hearing everything, and it made me eager to learn more about the subject. 

We went for hot chocolate afterwards.  I believe I have mentioned hot chocolate before, but I hadn’t had the real thing until now.  It is literally hot chocolate – like melted chocolate.  It is served in a glass with a spoon, and also a glass of water.  It was SO good!  I couldn’t even eat my whole thing, it was so rich (and things are rarely rich to me).  Darryl got dark and white chocolate, and I got mint chocolate.  Oh, chocolate will never be the same after living here.  Even the hot chocolate mix is richer, and I even mix it with more milk than the package says.

Amanda, Darryl, Kyiv Adventures | 2 Comments »

A senior missionary couple lives near us, and attends the local branch.  We saw them last week, and Sister Lackey invited me to come to the branch’s Women’s Day celebration on Saturday.  I avidly agreed.

I met them at the metro stop one away from our stop, and we walked 5 minutes to the building.  That was the first thing that made me want to attend this branch – it is so close!  We walked into the kitchen and I saw little slices of bread with mayonaise (or some kind of spread) and large, orange caviar eggs.  Later, the plate that was served to each woman also included a slice of bread with raw fish on it.  I never planned to eat it (and didn’t have to because I left early to entertain some dinner guests we were having), but I was actually delighted that it was served to me – what culture!

As we waited for things to get started, Sister Lackey showed me around the building and we met the members coming.  So many women – at least 20!  It was so fun to see all the Ukrainian members.  A couple of them spoke very good English, and many others could say a few words.  I tried to talk to some of them, and it was so much fun.  That is the kind of thing I need to really be able to learn Russian. 

Then the program started.  All the men filed in (there were 5 Ukrainians, 4 young missionaries, and one senior missionary).  The branch president talked about how wonderful women are (at least that’s what I was told), and then they sang some songs.  They gave each sister a flower.  Three of the men sang a song that to me seemed to be with different words they had written, appropriate for the occasion.  The women really got into this one – clapping to the beat, laughing, etc.  I couldn’t hardly understand a thing, but it was a lot of fun to watch everything. 

Then the children came out – 4 girls.  Each said a little poem or something, then they all sang a song together.  One girl (about 10 years old) did a belly dance!  I’m not really into that sort of thing, but I could tell she was very good.  Someone had painted pictures of 6 women (members of the branch), and we had to guess who they were.  They had a great time guessing, and again, it was so much fun to see everyone enjoying themselves so much.

 I was sad to have to leave before the activity was over.  I realized the experience I have had so far in Ukraine has not been exactly what I envisioned culturally.  Now that I’ve had a little taste, I want more!

Amanda, Kyiv Adventures | 3 Comments »

March 8th is Women’s Day in many countries, including Ukraine.  I didn’t realize what a big holiday it is until Katya told me she had school off both Friday and Monday, and we found out Darryl has work off Monday! 

One might think this holiday is kind of like Mother’s Day, or Valentine’s Day.  But Darryl’s coworker pointed out that it is actually much more.  This coworker said besides his mother and wife, he needs to recognize sisters, aunts, female cousins, coworkers, basically any woman that you know on this holiday. 

I went outside shopping on Friday and there was such a festive mood at the market.  I had a great time just walking around.  Usually there are people selling flowers right at the metro entrance.  Well, this day (and for the rest of the weekend) there many times more people selling flowers.  They lined the walkway the whole way from the metro to the end of the market.  Men were lined up buying flowers!  And everyone was buying cakes.  It was just so fun to watch.

It seems to me that holidays are such a big deal here.  Not that they aren’t back home, but it is different.  There isn’t as much buildup (at least that I can see – so I think that means less commercialization).  But there is such a feeling of celebration on the holiday, and it is really a big deal. 

Amanda, Kyiv Adventures | 3 Comments »

On Saturday Darryl and I went to Costco, I mean Metro Cash and Carry.  It is just like Costco!!!  We had a babysitter come watch Kathryn and Amelia, and our friend Tom (an embassy person) took us to the store.  You need a card/membership to get in (which Tom has), and you also need a car to get all the food/stuff home (which Tom also has).  So we are very grateful for his assistance!

We are trying to actually have some food storage (our food storage is currently in storage).  I am so funny!  In fact, let me write something I said the other day that was really funny.  Darryl was looking on iTunes at the movies you can rent.  He was looking at Westerns.  He said, “Maybe we can watch a Western tonight.”  I looked at the computer screen and saw “The Hunt for Red October” and said, “That must be an Eastern.”  Anyway, we bought lots of food and it feels so good to have it.  We also love that we have a storage closet in our apartment.  Next to the puree (instant mashed potatoes!) in this picture are some jars of peanut butter.  There are different flavors of peanut butter!  One is sweet – very tasty, one is dessert (different than the sweet one), and one is regular.  I like the sweet one, and it is good for baking.  Darryl likes the regular.  All are creamy, no nuts.  I think that’s for the best.  We also bought four folding chairs.  Now we don’t have to use the computer chair and arm chair when we have people over for dinner.

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Darryl got home from work about 8pm on Valentine’s Day.  He called to see if Kathryn was still up (which she was).  He walked in with a red heart balloon for her.  From the way she squealed and ran around with the balloon, he concluded it had been a good idea!  Darryl and I had already planned to go out to dinner Saturday night (but he also brought tulips and a chocolate candy bar for me.)  Later that evening Amelia took her first steps!  She took 2 and 3 steps, and has done so a few times each day since.  She was 2 days shy of being 9 months old. 

Saturday we had a couple of the ILP teachers come over to babysit.  Darryl had made a reservation at a restaurant recommended by one of the partners at KPMG.  He ended up eating there twice during the week for work things, before we went there!  So by then he could recommend it himself.

It is a French restaurant, very small (about the size of our living room), and is on Andrievskiy Sputsk, a very old street lined with souvenir vendors.  That street alone is on my list of places to go to in Kyiv.  I’m always glad Darryl speaks Russian, but the woman offered us English menus which was nice.  The partner that recommended the place mentioned that one reason it is so nice is there are no TVs in the restaurant.  Even Mcdonalds has 3 or 4 big TVs.  The only thing I would change is the smoking.  By the time we left it was getting to me, and when we got home my sweater was extremely smokey. 

While we were still discussing the menu, I saw the server bring out someone else’s food.  To me it looked like raw meat shaped into a hamburger (without bun), but with a raw egg on top.  I thought surely this was on its way to some oven at the other side of the restaurant.  Not so. 

We shared a salad – pretty much a novelty because lettuce is very expensive and bag salads are non-existent.  It was delicious and included duck meat.  I have to say I really like duck – I had it a few times in China.  I got a steak shashlik (shish-kabob) which was very tasty, and homemade puree (which is mashed potatoes).  We also had carpaccio as an appetizer.  It was quite tasty – especially when we sprinkled it with lemon juice.  The whole meal was very delicious, and just as nice was not having to feed Amelia, jump up for something for Kathryn, wipe up the spills, and especially do the dishes (by hand).

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Since the new year, every time I pass this bank (which is on the edge of the market nearer to us, so basically everytime I go outside), there is a large, angry mob outside!  One day it was 2 or 3 times as big as you see in the picture, and I did hear yelling and murmuring.  I thought, if anything looked like a run on the bank, this did!  I kept seeing it several times and mentioned it to Darryl, who also noticed.

He asked someone at work about that particular bank, and got an explanation.  During the Soviet era, everyone had a certain amount of money in a bank account for pension.  Now, Russia has released that money for Ukrainians, but the bank is exchanging it 1 for 1 roubles and grivna.  In the past few years the Ukrainian Grivna has gone way up compared to the rouble, so people are getting significantly less money.  I’m not quite sure who decided this exchange, if it was one of the governments or the bank.

On Saturday morning I went out and as I passed that bank, I heard someone calling my name!  It was our neighbor, and she explained the same thing Darryl heard.  She was there waiting to get whatever money she could.  Apparently only one person is allowed to go inside to get this money at a time – hence the big crowd outside.

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