Ushering in the weekend

It was a nice, sunny day when we got up. And the sun actually decided to stay out for the majority of the day. Its the little things in life that are so pleasing to the eye.

Today we explored the nearby Andrivcsky's Market in Kiev. This market stretches for some blocks and is a street lined on both sides with a variety of art work and craft pieces. Some of the oil paintings were very striking and would have been considered if it wasn't for the logistics nightmare of having to bring this stuff home. There are smaller items that we'll consider buying. Things like those layered Russian matrushka dolls. You know - the nested dolls where you buy several dolls that are all layered into one. There were also religious icons painted on wooden or stone eggshells.

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We also ran into a group of American college girls at the Market, apparently on Spring Break. I was a little surprised to find that college kids would actually prefer coming here rather than doing what we all know as "the norm" for Spring Break. To us college kids back in the 1980s, Spring Break meant a 20 or so hour ride from Philadelphia to a Florida hot spot followed by a week-long frenzy of getting sunburned, getting crazy and doing everything under the sun except getting any sleep (sleep was for the first couple days of classes AFTER getting back from Break). Yet here were a group of students spending their Spring Break here with a cultural experience. I guess there is hope for our future generations . Good thing the future of America never depended on BrainDeath like us!!

Near the Market was the St. Andrew Church. We didn't go into the Church but you can see the typical onion domes of the Orthodox Christian Church. The Church actually looked very picturesque, perched on top of a hill overlooking the Market as if offering protection as an overseer.

Tonight's dinner was chicken kiev and noodles. Not very exciting but it worked well for us. Not to mention that it is very "native". At the time of this writing it is about 9:00pm local time. My wife is getting ready for bed and I am not far behind. Do we lead exciting lives or what??!!!

We'll continue to update the blog as time goes on. Thanks again for keeping in touch with us through SKYPE Instant Messaging and through the emails. We love getting them all. God bless and we'll be in touch.

Steve and Shirley

Touring the city

Thursday March 13th. It was a beautiful day out today. Not too warm because we still needed our overcoats. But the sun was out - at least for part of the day. Apparently overcast and rain is the norm for the spring season in Kiev. A sunny day means that a city twice the size of Philadelphia - suffering from cabin fever - wants to bust out. And we were right there with them.

When we were told about this apartment last Saturday, they said that we would be in Kiev but not near the center of town. Well maybe not but there are certainly some interesting sights within walking distance of our apartment. A couple sites close to our apartment are the Cathedrals of St. Michael and St. Sophia at St. Michael's Square. I've included pics here of both St. Sophia by itself and the Cathedral from the opposite side of The Square. St. Sophia Cathedral is Kiev's oldest standing Church (built in 1037) and is also the most visible site from the city's center. The original St. Michael Cathedral was built in the 12th Century but was blown to bits by Josef Stalin in the 1930s and the lot was left bare until recently. The St. Michael Cathedral was rebuilt in 2001 and is currently an active Church. Versus St. Sophia which today is more of a monument than an actual Church.

If you want to see Christian persecution first hand, go no further than Kiev. The Ukrainians really suffered, not only under Josef Stalin but during the entire 75 year long Communist Nightmare.

In an earlier post I mentioned The Golden Gate. In medievel times Kiev was a city that was completely surrounded by a wall. There were only two ways in and out of the city. On one end of the city there was a gate for commoners. And on the other side of the city was "The Golden Gate" used by nobility and rich folks. The Golden Gate is fairly close to our apartment and in this post I've included a few pictures. I'd say that The Gate is about 20 or so meters tall; if you can fathom a guess via these pictures then by all means please do so. It is near a few major intersections in Kiev and makes a nice, little park like area with benches. There is a tall statue at the foot of the gate. The statue dwarfs Shirley but then the statue is dwarfed by the Golden Gate itself. At first I had no idea who the statue was. I tried to guess but all I could come up with was that it looked like a cross between Vladimir Lenin and Robin Hood. Later when we returned to the apartment we looked it up. We found the Statue to be of Yaroslav the Wise, protector of Kiev. And that "small" Church that he is carrying is the St. Sophia Cathedral. Apparently Yaroslav is the one who built the St. Sophia Cathedral also pictured on this page. Yaroslav ordered the construction of the Cathedral in 1037 to thank God for protecting the city against the Pecheneg invasion of 1024. Yaroslav modelled and named the Cathedral after the Aghia Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Constantinople. Yea I thought that Cathedral looked familiar.

OK enough history lesson for now. Sorry but in addition to loving to write, I am also a history buff. This city is old - more than 6 times as old as my own country. It is a history buff's Club Med.

We spoke to our facilitator this afternoon. He had nothing new to report which doesn't surprise me. Its only been two days since we officially rejected the little girl's referral and requested another SDA appointment. He did say though that when we get word of another appointment, its going to happen quick so we need to be ready. And we intend to be. A new appointment leads to a child and a child is still our priority for being here.

Stay tuned. More to come later....


Steve

Happy Anniversary

Today is Wednesday March 12. Thanks for all the cute emails and ecards wishing us a Happy Anniversary. We liked one in particular; the one that wished us a combination of Happy Anniversary and Happy Department Store Day. Since March 12th is the day that John Wanamaker of Philadelphia first opened his department store doors to the public, we also commemorate Department Store Day on March 12. How suitable is it for someone like my wife Shirley to have been married on Department Store Day!!

We knew that we'd be here on our Anniversary. And even though we've wished each other a happy one, it still doesn't quite feel like an actual Anniversary to Shirley and I. But thats OK. It is still a special holiday for us. It'll just be a quieter celebration this year. If anything it will give more meaning to the day.

Thanks to everyone who has been instant messaging us via SKYPE. Its kind of fun to get those instant pop up windows while online. Sort of like having people walking past the desk and starting a conversation out of the blue.

There is nothing new to report on the Adoption front, other than our facilitator did not see it taking more than a week for the State Department to come through with a 2nd appointment for us. In fact he is helping another family today who accepted a referral to visit. He has to get their paperwork together and get them off onto a train tonight, just like he did with us last week. Once that is completed, we will have his undivided attention.

Thats all for now. This post is a small one. Count your blessings!! ;-P

Steve

Back on the working schedule

It is now Tuesday March 11th. As he said he would, our facilitator showed up promptly this morning to take our paperwork into the State Department (SDA) to both officially decline the referral of the little girl in DP and also to request a new appointment date. That poor guy looked as bad as I did on Sunday. We were both strickened with the same bug that I imported from DP and neither of us got virtually anything done while being bedridden. Just as well that this was a 3 day weekend. Had yesterday been a business day things would probably have either not gotten done or gotten done sloppily.

Our facilitator did get our hopes up and discussed some of his contacts and leads as well as ideas. But in his current state of health, what he can actually get done today remains to be seen. We'll contact him tomorrow; he should be better by then.

Otherwise today has been another quiet day. Shirl and I did managed a short walk to a local grocery store to stock up on a few essentials that were running low. Unfortunately when we can't even figure out the local alphabet, a lot of our shopping is guesswork. Shirley thought she was buying milk - it turned out to be buttermilk. Buttermilk tastes more like liquid, unsweetened yogurt than milk. I didn't fare much better. I thought that I was buying Orange Juice but instead it turned out to be some knd of an orange drink. It tasted like pure sugar with only a hint of orange taste. That container is staying here when its time for us to leave. Meanwhile - better luck next time.

This story reminded me of stories that my Greek immigrant family used to tell us when describing their first days in America. My favorite was when they went shopping for one night's dinner. My Great Aunt - then a teenager - and her mother walked to the grocery store to buy spaghetti. At that time neither could speak or read a word of English. When the grocery clerk asked them what they wanted, they pointed to what they thought was a box of spaghetti. It wasn't until they had gotten home when they realized that for dinner they had bought a box of straws.

I first heard that story when I was a little kid, probably in the late 1960s. That would have made the actual incident nearly 50 years previous to it being told to me. Yet despite it being that long ago, it still drew belly laughs from my elderly Greek family.

This afternoon while I napped (again) Shirley took a walk to a site that the Ukrainians call "The Golden Gate". As I mentioned before, Kiev is 1,500 years old. At one time centuries ago Kiev was completely surrounded by a wall and the only two ways in and out of the city were through two different gates at opposite ends of the city. A gate for commoners and the "Golden Gate" for rich folks. The Golden Gate is fairly close to our apartment and Shirley took pictures. Unfortunately they're not digital and we don't have a scanner here so I can't post them yet. A few days ago I did see the Gate from the street and it is very impressive.

We did manage to find a TV station in English. Actually we managed to find two. One was the BBC world news and the other was CNN. I'd just as soon say that we found one station since I'd rather watch a Russian soap opera than the Clinton News Network.

We are loaded with DVDs and books from home so there is plenty for us to do here.

Just curious - do any of you have skype? You can go to http://www.skype.com/ and download it for free. Its an easy way for us to communicate and I've been Instant Messaging friends and family from all over the world. Now we didn't bring any webcams or webmikes so we can't do any fancy Star Trek style of communication. But you can IM us if you're interested. "Steve.Zimnes" is my skype id. Anyway, it was just a thought.

Hope all is well back home. How much snow is left in Ohio?

Be well and God bless.....



Steve

3 day weekend in Kiev

Well it looks as though I brought back a flu from DP. Yesterday I was pretty sick. Totally bedridden, unable to do a whole lot of anything except sleep. And drink water to keep from getting dehydrated. Plus it was rainy out - typical spring weather here in Kiev. Poor Shirley was going stir crazy. Nothing like sharing an apartment with a sick husband who sleeps all day. At least she did manage a few walks outside during breaks in the rain. Not to mention playing just about every computer game on our laptop to death. I felt sorry for her.

Today is Monday and as I indicated in a previous post, it is a holiday. All offices are closed so we won't be able to do anything with the State Department until tomorrow (Tuesday). That is when we officially apply for a new appointment date. Lets just hope and pray that we get a new SDA appointment quick.

I must say that our facilitator hooked us up with a nice apartment in Kiev. We are within walking distance to a lot of things. And this time it is an actual apartment, not a hotel room. We have our own kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, laundary room and balcony. We already hit a grocery store and now have a stocked cupboard and full fridge. This Russian kitchen is actually kind of funny. We couldn't find a lighter that worked (to light the stove or burners) and there wasn't a can opener anywhere but in case we want to booze up, there are plenty of corkscrews, bottle openers and shot glasses. I guess its all in the priorities.

Once we get the SDA paperwork out of the way, Shirley and I will begin spending some time sightseeing. We've already seen the beautiful Churches of St. Michael and St. Sophia. There are other sites to be seen here in the city. Kiev is 1,500 years old. There is a lot of history here.

We got word from home - Ohio was hit with 20" of snow. Its always surprising when that happens in March. In Ohio it could very well have been 70 degrees the day before and the day after the storm. We hear that our Siberian Husky is loving every minute of it. The snow is up to his belly.

Well thats all for now. Thanks for all the emails and comments. Hearing from people at home is always encouraging.