Traveling Post # 5: getting settled in Kiev

[Note:  I wrote this after we finally got to our apartment in Kiev, the night before our SDA appointment, but didn’t get a chance to post it until now.]

I am finally able to sit down and have time to completely update our blog.  It has been crazy around here getting settled for the few days we will be in Kiev and getting everything together for our adoption process.  When we were met at the airport by our driver, Niko, it was go! go! go!

I really like Niko.  As we were driving into Kiev from the airport, he made sure we were okay.  He told us what the next few days would be like for us.  We were given a cell to use while we are in-country.  The phone had all of our facilitators’ numbers in it.  We will also use the phone to call and stay in touch with the other Reece’s Rainbow families who are also in Ukraine.  He also told us some of the history of Kiev.  He also told us the landmarks that we drove by. 

Our first stop was to pick up our keys for our apartment.  Our apartment was already arranged by Yulia.  We stayed in the car as Niko went to pick up the keys and get the address.  David and I had a fun time watching all of the drivers trying to get the best parking spaces.  It was pretty much a duel to the end with the driver actually willing to crash into the other car being the winner.  The number of car horns going off, it was a symphony.  It really reminded me of Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

The next stop was to a grocery store to pick up some necessary items.  Forget the Super Wal-Marts and the Super HEB stores, the grocery stores here are like the local stores of small towns back in the 80s.  For those of you who are old Frisco, the store we went into looked exactly like Henry’s, but about half the size.  It was more the size of Douglas’s.  This made me smile as I remembered the times that Shane, Stacie, and I would walk down to Douglas’s to get candy or a coke.  Then we would get a snow cone from Mary, before she was dubbed the “Snow Cone Lady.” 

You may laugh about this, but since we are on a VERY tight budget we brought granola bars, peanut butter crackers, instant oatmeal, Ramen noodles, and a ton of peanut butter.  This is what we plan to live on for the next few weeks.  Our menu for the coming days reminds us of college.  Besides, all this fiber will be good for us.

We only bought water (the water here is unsafe to drink), a quart of milk for our oatmeal, and bread.  Niko kept showing us things to buy saying that we would be hungry later.  We told him that we brought food and that these items would be enough.  We are still in budget: the food cost 30₴ which is about $3.75.

Word of warning:  the store bought milk in Ukraine IS NOT like American store bought milk, it tastes more like buttermilk.  They must not homogenize their milk like we do.  David doesn’t think it’s that bad, but I do.  It doesn’t taste too bad in oatmeal, though.

Now, on to our apartment!!!