Futbol in Kyiv

Mike's letting me write today's update It’s day 4 of our journey and all is well in Kiev. Up until now, we’ve spent all of our time walking around the neighborhood where we’re staying. When our facilitator stopped by yesterday, we asked him if he could show us the metro stop so we could take the train into the city. He told us it was a not a good idea and subsequently offered to drive us into town this morning. We also asked if we could get tickets to see the EuroCup Championship game on Sunday and again he said it was not a good idea. I guess he thinks Mike will turn into one of the crazy European Futbol Fans and find himself on the front page of a newspaper in tights screaming “Bandicoot!”. That probably wouldn’t look good when we meet with the adoption agency on Monday at 2PM.

Our day in Kiev was great. We saw so many amazing things, the best of which were the many different people from around the word. The EuroCup Championship will be held here tomorrow at Olympic Stadium (Olympics were here in 1980, when the US boycotted) and many streets in downtown Kiev are blocked off for fan fest. There are soccer balls and EuroCup flags everywhere. There are kiosks within the fan fest zone serving food and beer from each of the participating countries.

It seemed like 75% of the people were proudly displaying their favorite teams, even if they didn’t make it to the finals. In our few hours in the city, we heard people from Germany, England, Spain, Italy, Russia (could have been Ukraine), Brazil, Ukraine (could have been Russia), France and Canada. We saw very few Americans. If you’ve read any of the news reports on the event, you’ll have heard that discrimination has been a big problem. As amazing as it was to be out with the fans, we did notice (or rather did not notice) anyone of color. Everyone was very welcoming to us. Perhaps it was Mike awesome ability to speak some Russian. Rosetta Stone seems to have been a good investment. We’ve been pretty good at asking for prices, paying with Grivna (Ukrainian currency) and basically just being friendly.

Some small Ukrainian tips if you’re ever in this area: 1) Coke is known as Coca Cola, 2) Diet Coke does not exist here, it’s Coke Light and is quite sugary, 3) You need to pay for bags at the grocery store so bring your own, 4) If you’re a woman, it’s quite common to go shopping in platform stilettos or while checking out fan fest or walking your baby in a stroller, 5) They have grilled chicken flavor potato chips (tastes like the smell of your spice cabinet)-quite nasty, and 6) Netflix does not work here, but Watch ESPN does (we’ve been watching Wimbledon).

Two more sleeps until we learn about our child.

It Begins...again

We've made it to Kyiv with no delays or flight hiccups. We did get stuck in the very middle of the row on the Atlantic flight, which makes for very difficult sleeping conditions. Needless to say, we didn't sleep much getting here. Oh well, it will only help with adjusting to the time difference. So we haven't updated the blog with our progress, or lack thereof, as it was not in our best interest to post. I'm still not gonna post anything about what has transpired. We are here to adopt another child and we will pray that God finds little Vova a family. Our appointment is on Monday but due to very short notice, the cheaper flights were available on Wednesday. This will give us a few days to adjust and recover a bit. I've come down with a cold of sorts and I'm looking forward to sleep. We'll try to take in the sights around Kyiv, not to mention practice our caveman style Russian. Unfortunately, because we got here early in the afternoon, we can't fall asleep or it makes for a long night and next day. So to keep from falling asleep we went for a stroll around the apartment building and found the tank, the soccer stadium, and the open air market. Seriously, for any family that is coming over here, they'll take you grocery shopping to get you started, but that market rocks! It's got everything from motor oil to underwear to raspberries. Also, flying in to the city I noticed a lot of, well let's call them neighborhoods, but they're more like long streets with the homes at the front of a long lot. Behind each home was a huge garden. No wonder these kids like vegetables so much. Lisa and I got to practice our Russian, which we find a lot of fun being able to communicate with a complete stranger in a foreign country. Funny moment for the day came when Lisa was buying raspberries and the older lady said the price was 12 grivna. This is the equivalent of about a $1.50 for a pint...very reasonable. If my wife knew more Russian, I have no doubt she would have tried to negotiate it down. Well, we're learning the value of the various colors of paper money, and after trying to buy the pint with just a 2 grivna note, the lady said 12 again. Fine, here's a 100 grivna note. We finally get our change and satisfied we have communicated well, we start to walk away, forgetting our berries. You would have thought Lisa stole from her the way she was yelling at her to take her berries. Ah well, tomorrow's a new day and we can't wait to see what we find.