We left Belarus Friday, a week and a half ago while it was freezing cold and snowing, landing in Kiev, Ukraine an hour later.
Kiev was under a siege of snow just as was Belarus. It has snowed off and on for the past week.
On Valentine's Day, I came out ahead of whoever the lady was who got this bouquet of balloons. I got a very beautiful silver and amber bracelet. I like balloons but I love jewelry. :-)
One of the families we met with in Kiev took us sightseeing to the museum on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown. It was rather interesting. Much of the radioactive cloud coverage landed in parts of Ukraine even though the worst of it went to Belarus.
While we were in Kiev and having member care visits, we stayed in one of our families' apartments while they are in the U.S.. We didn't have a car so most folks had to haul us around, but we were able to walk some in the neighborhood ... the sidewalks covered with snow!
We tried to order online a Domino's pizza (yes, the real thing!) but because we didn't have a local phone number, they couldn't call us back to verify our order ... so they canceled our order and we had to walk a mile in the snow to get a pizza.
And it was worth every bite!
Oh! I failed to mention that our first night in Kiev we went to a cafe in one of the malls with one of our couples and we ordered pizza. (I never get tired of it.) I have to admit, it was the first time I'd ever had a pizza with pickles on it, and to be honest, it was pretty good!
On Saturday morning, we flew to Kharkov to visit with two of our single ladies.
They wanted to eat at this restaurant in a mall where you order your food from a computer screen at your table. You place your order then the waitress brings the drinks and food you punched in.
You could choose between Russian or English, so naturally, we used the English menu which made it a whole lot easier on Glenn and me (and we didn't end up with pickles on our steaks!) However, there were a couple of mistakes, such as "Your order in cooking" as opposed to "Your order IS cooking".
We were able to join Linda and Amanda in a Beth Moore bible study at Linda's apartment. There were 12 ladies from Africa who are in Kharkov, studying at one of the universities, who came for the study. I was quite impressed with these young ladies, most of whom were studying to be doctors or pharmacists! Unfortunately, none of the ladies came from Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) which is where we lived from 1984-1993.
As I mentioned earlier, it snowed off and on all week and the snow was piled up on the sidewalks and on the sides of the roads. Every once in a while, we'd come across cars that evidently hadn't been used for a few days! I also found out that there are not nearly as many diesel cars in Ukraine as there are in Belarus. (Diesel cars don't run well in very cold temperatures because the diesel gas gets thick, like syrup.) In Belarus, the roads were empty of cars, but NOT IN UKRAINE! The roads were packed with cars, and the drivers are pretty impatient.
A lot of the apartment buildings have a lady that serves as the "receptionist" for the building. Some of her responsibilities would be to provide some security for the owners, keep the stairwells clean of trash and the entranceway mopped. Those who are physically able and industrious would also shovel the snow off the sidewalks around their building. (Yes, most apartments are owned, but a wealthier person might have inherited a second apartment that they rent out.)
If no one shoveled the sidewalks, we'd be walking on 2-4 inches of packed snow. Treacherous!
Even though temperatures were below zero most afternoons, Linda and Amanda drove us through Kharkov to see some of the major sites. This is a statue of Lenin. It was hard to get excited about sightseeing if it required getting out of the car!! I was really a wimp on this trip. Guess my blood is too thin for this kind of weather. I miss my thermal blanket in Budapest!
This is reported to be the third largest plaza or square in Europe. Hmm, it was big, but who figures out these kinds of statistics anyway?
On Sunday, we went to an International church that was predominantly attended by foreign students from various African countries and a few caucasians (us). I would say there were about 60 Africans and 8 caucasians. The worship style brought back fond memories of our days in Africa.
Monday, Amanda embroidered something for me on her new nifty Bernina sewing and embroidery machine. I am going to be decorating a Christmas stocking per grandchild with something from each year that was significant in the life of that particular child for that year. For 2011, I had Amanda embroider a stork carrying a baby in a blanket with the names Alec in the blue one and Jaz in the pink one, and their respective birth dates underneath. I will then attach these to their stocking. Something for each year, up until they graduate from high school so that will be 18 different decorations per stocking by time the child graduates and gets the stocking as a keepsake of their life. Thanks, Amanda, for helping me get it started!!
Well, we are now in Donetsk and will be here until Friday, which is our daughter's birthday. We're having a great time visiting with each of our families in Ukraine but need to get home on Friday in time to call her and wish her a happy birthday!
1 comment:
I love the embroidery! Very cool.
We went out to lunch today and our friend ordered the veggie pizza. It appeared with olives, zucchini and carrots!! Pickles could be interesting to try...
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