FINALLY OUR COMPUTER IS BACK UP!!!

Saturday, June 2, 2007 11:20 pm Kyiv time


Sorry that we didn’t add to the blog Thurs. or Fri., for some reason our computer froze & we could not get on to the internet.

So, lets catch you up - Thursday (May 31st) our facilitator took use to an authentic Ukrainian buffet restaurant for lunch called Puzata Khata which means “Fat Belly House” which is how we felt when we left! For those of you who have been there before, you will remember this place for sure (it’s across from TGI Friday’s). For those who haven’t yet, it is a must for a great Ukrainian meal. Our facilitator guided us to the Borscht, which we didn’t know what to expect, but it was delicious! Now we know what people have been talking about, and we will learn how to make it at home. We also tried their blintzes, home made sausage, Chicken Kiev (ha-ha), Pirenky’s (not sure of the spelling) which is what we here in the U.S. call Pierogies (I don’t think that’s spelled correctly either!). Interestingly enough, here in Ukraine pierogies are actually a sweet roll with a sweet ricotta-type cheese inside it. (which our facilitator kindly treated us to after our first appointment with the SDA.). Anyway, we really felt like “fat bellies” after that meal. But the 48 steps at our apartment are helping us to work off all the good food we‘ve been eating here( we hope). No stair masters for us - We ARE the “stair masters” Ha-Ha.

After that we went to the SDA to sign for our referral appointment (between 5 & 6 PM).
There was a short wait and within 5 minutes we were out again & on our way.


On Friday June 1st we had a slow day with our daily trip to the Mega Market and a walk around the area. We had lunch at “our” ( we ate there twice now) pizza place.
The pizza was good and they had an English speaking waitress on. We then strolled through the under ground mall in the area. I still don’t get the underground part since only one floor is underground and the other 4 are above ground? We found a nice shop that we bought a few unique items to take home. Most of the mall is dedicated to women’s clothes (can you tell that Ed is writing this part?) and women’s shoes. It was interesting to wander through, although a little pricey since this is an upscale neighborhood. We had to leave the mall (boo-hoo) in order to be back at the apartment to pay the landlady the weeks rent at 4 pm and she was fashionable late, although very nice & she was so proud that her son had taught her English, which she was much better at that than we were at Russian unfortuanately!

Then last night, we decided to try the Japanese restaurant up the street for dinner. We were surprised that most of the waitresses (picture Ukrainians dressed in kimono’s ) spoke some English and the menu was in English. After an explanation from the hostess that the numbers under the pictures were the weight in grams and not the price, we ordered a nice meal of sushi and shrimp in a spicy garlic sauce. It was very good!


Today, Saturday June 2nd, our facilitator and driver took us for a tour of the old down town Kyiv. Since they weren’t going to pick us up until 3 PM we decided to go where else, but to Mega Mart and pick up some things for our trip to Donetsk tomorrow. Then we had a good ride around Kyiv and saw some of the famous cathedrals. They had the downtown streets blocked off to cars so that the people could wander around without getting hit. There was a group there with huge speakers & very loud music break dancing and the young girls all screamed when their favorites danced. It was very cute to watch!

We had “lunch” at a local pizza place in that area that also served Caviar blintzes. Laura LOVES caviar, & LOVES Blintzes, but the 2 combined didn’t go together as well as expected because the caviar is salty & the blintzes are sweet, so she’ll have them separately in the future! But the pizza was excellent. After that, we headed back to our place to try and fit 4 suitcases of gifts, children’s toys, clothing and our “stuff” into 3 suitcases so that we would have room for the children on the way back to Kyiv. Laura fried some hamburgers for dinner ( you should have seen us at the market trying to find ground beef! The meat manager was called to help us, since only he could speak English), the meat consistency was “very loose”--not much fat to keep the burgers together, which was probably healthier, but it did taste a little different--good, but different than the ground beef we get at home.

Now that you have figured out that all we write about is what we eat, eat, eat, we hope to give you much more “interesting” info & news about the 3 children we’ve traveled ½ way ‘round the world to see on Monday! Well, that is about all for now. We leave for the region at 10 am (3 am EST) tomorrow for a 9 hour drive. We will post more as we get time. We’ll also update the blog to reflect Donetsk’s weather if possible!

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. We’ll try to answer individual emails once we get to Donetsk--they mean so much to us, until you are here you can’t imagine how important they are to us! Please keep praying for us, the “big moment” is right around the corner! J

Love,
Laura and Ed