An Adventurous Day

Today we started to feel settled in a little bit. We slept in, got up and made breakfast (Alan & Mary – we made your bacon/eggs/fried potatoes-style breakfast!). Then we decided to trek up the hill – for me, a pretty STEEP hill – to the President Hotel to see if we could find internet access. And thankfully, we did.

We felt a little bit stranded yesterday since our local cell phone ran out of minutes, so we were going to email our contacts in Kiev. While I was on the computer, John went down the hall exploring, and came back with a new SIM for the cell phone. KyivStar, I think? The clerk in the little hotel shop didn’t speak much English, but she could definitely put a cell phone together. Thank God! So hopefully if we keep running out of minutes there will be a store near by that sells SIMs. I’m not going to bother to post the number yet, I think it may change soon.

The President Hotel is pretty old-style swanky. We almost wish we were staying there, but it’s fairly expensive, and we wouldn’t have a kitchen. Plus, the rooms may not have a refrigerator (that I need for medication). So, we trek up the hill. I am such a geek, I would have really felt anxious if I couldn’t get on the internet to communicate with our friends and family. Especially since we’re strangers in a strange land, as it were. I know we won’t always have access to it, and that’s okay too, as long as we can communicate with phones. Here are a couple of photos, one's the fountain in the hotel lobby and the other's a view from the parking lot:



















We’re pretty much on our own until Monday morning, as far as the adoption goes. Our coordinator Serge and translator Marina will pick us up about 9:00 am for our 10:00 appointment. Thanks for your continued prayers!

This afternoon we ventured into a kiosk (Russian for store, apparently) right next to our apartment, and found they had most of the basic things we’d need. We’re still figuring out the currency – the basic unit is a grivna. The paper money comes in 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 grivnas. The coins are kopecks and they come in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50. I believe 100 kopeck = 1 grivna. The exchange rate right now = 4.75 grivnas to $1 USD, but that changes daily. We’re getting pretty good at changing money! Of course, now that I think I have this figured out, tomorrow I’ll find out I was doing it all wrong.

After we took our few little things home from the kiosk, we decided to be bold (for us!) and venture out a little. Yesterday our coordinator Serge took us to a western-style supermarket, and he pointed out a TGI Friday’s. So of course, we had to try and find it for dinner. It’s quite a little hike from our apartment (for me), but we went right to it. The hostess that seated us didn’t really speak English, but our server did. We’re still working on our Russian, it’s definitely a work in progress. We just know a few phrases at this point. I had a delicious creamy mushroom soup and interesting salad, and John had a cheeseburger. We splurged a little on a chocolate dessert that was really good (Lisa and Mona – it was REALLY chocolatey!) I think we’re going to try to find traditional Ukrainian food tomorrow.

So that was our adventurous day. We hiked back to the apartment, John crashed, and I’m working on the computer for a while. Tomorrow we will be meeting up with some friends from Columbia, Missouri, who have been missionaries here in Ukraine for about 10 years, David and Mindy Henson. That should be a lot of fun, and I’m sure we’ll have a million questions for them. And they’ll be glad to get the American goodies we brought for them, including Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks coffee.

(Accidentally posted from John's account...)