Daily journal...Days five and six...
Day five and six…Still cold and raining! 42 degrees. BRRRRR!
So, let’s start this journal off right. For your entertainment I have some follow up thoughts concerning my current thoughts of the Ukraine:
Kharkov does not suite my tastes. I don’t like anything about it. Others find it old, quaint and charming, but not I. I just find it old and irritating.
In Sak. the ladies in this region are heavier…I have seen very few thin people like I mentioned in Kiev. They still mostly walk, but I guess they don’t have to walk as far as in Kiev. So therefore in that forum I feel right at home and blend in well....:)
They cook a lot of fattening and starchy foods here. It all tastes yummy, but you gotta watch it or it will pile on your hips real fast. Most of what they cook I do not eat as part of my everyday diet so I am safe :) On the other hand, John is a different story.
Absolutely at NO time do you drink the water here…can you say Chernobyl?
Hardly anyone looks you in the eye…if they do they rarely ever smile.
There seem to be many more old people on the streets than younger. I just don’t see a lot of ‘30 something’ folks…I’m sure they are here somewhere though…
And I’m sure you will find this amusing. There are attack geese here! I literally was chased by one the other day! Here I was walking home – minding my own business - and there was a whole herd of them beside the road eating and drinking water our of the pot holes. (Apparently rain water fall after Chernobyl doesn’t scare ‘em any) A person was riding past me in a bike so I scooted closer to the center of the road and I guess I over stepped my bounds ‘cause next thing I know there is a goose nipping at my boots. I turned and walked away quickly, but obviously not fast enough. It came after me with a vengeance. The old lady standing there was laughing and trying to shoo the goose back where it belonged, but it obviously wanted a good bite out of me. I broke out in a full run to get away. I fully believe she was standing there laughing at this crazy American woman afraid of a ‘woman’ eating attack goose. I’m pretty sure I not only made her day, but the drama of it all is fully circulating among the gossip grapevine as I write. “Hey! Did you here about that crazy American lady my goose almost ate the other day…?”
Of course John thought it was quite funny…He has even come up with a list of stupid jokes to entertain me daily:
What do you call a Ukrainian chicken? Dinner
What do you call two Ukrainian chickens? Lunch and Dinner
What do you call French Cats? Scaredy cats!
What do you call Vietnamese cats and dogs? What cats? What dogs?
What do you call three Ukrainian geese? Guard dogs
What do you call Ukrainian cats? It doesn’t matter. They don’t understand English and won’t come anyway. (Seriously…they just look at you with a confused face and scurry away…LOL)
And John’s favorite: Why did the goose cross the road: For American fast food! See Kym run! See Kym run FAST!
You seriously have to maintain your sense of humor around these parts!
On to other things:
We had dinner with Ludy yesterday afternoon and ended up staying till 8 pm looking at pictures of Yana who was adopted last March. We also shared the pictures on Johns lap top for Ludy and Oleg’s trip to America. Boy, can Ludy cook! We had roasted chicken, (YUM! And from her own back yard) with mashed potatoes, pickles, homemade coleslaw, and some sort of terrific cake which appeared to be chocolate with sugared candies on top. We really had a great time with her and her family.
Today she met us at the school and we were able to use the computer lab’s internet. We were able to catch up on a lot and post my journals to the blog. The computer teacher was having a good time with John’s laptop and was asking a lot of questions. He even assisted John with a new translation software and now we can use it to communicate with the others that have no idea what we are ever saying around here…:)
And in other great news, we have a court date! We have been informed that we will meet with the judge this coming Wednesday October 25th. (Just our luck. Our regional judge is away at some sort of ‘judicial seminar’ and we have had to wait for her to return. I ask you, “What are the odds?” Well. It would appear pretty darn good in our favor. If it can happen, it will happen with us...)
I will leave that Friday as it is the next available flight out of Kiev, and will touch down in Bakersfield at 5:40 pm that same day…I’m sure I packed my ruby slippers somewhere amongst my luggage…For sure I’ll be the American standing at the airport terminal with my eyes closed saying “There’s no place like home! There’s no place like home….”
John will remain here for the mandatory 10 day waiting period and then following that will arrange for Oleg’s passport, visa, physical, etc…He will need to rearrange his and Oleg’s flight also. If all goes well he should be home around November 9th or so. Oleg is very excited to come home!
Oleg got in trouble at school yesterday. Apparently my wonderful son decided to call the teacher a bad name. John and I were on our way up to the computer room when a very miffed teacher with the whole class walked up to us and said ‘BAD BOY!” while pointing at Oleg. Okay, I could see this was not good. Poor Oleg, he looked so embarrassed and mortified…he just walked off. He went to his room and would not come out – even for John. After two hours John finally gave up and came home. Oleg will work through it. He always does. I don’t know what he said to the teacher, or why. But I do know I would not have handled it the way she did. When a fellow peer says to your new mama and papa ‘Oleg Bad Boy!” you are crushed. A lot of this is happening because we are there and he really doesn’t know how to handle it. We will have a talk with him tonight as soon as he is here and find out what this is all about. Actually, we went to see the Director today and he was trying to communicate with us concerning Oleg. While he was speaking with our translator on the phone I smiled and said to John “I think we are having our first school parent-teacher conference” Cool! That must have been a really bad word!” LOL
It is hard for Oleg at school right now. The negative peer pressure is pretty bad when everyone knows you have a family and are leaving soon. The children are not always kind. I have tried to help alleviate this by handing out goodies to children each day. Sometime I do it and sometimes Oleg does. We try to leave no one out. I’m telling ya when I have a box of cookies there are so many hands hovering over the box I can hardly hand them out. But they all smile soooo big and say thank you. The children are addictive. Their smiles are contagious. They are getting use to us now and say hello in both English and Ukrainian.
And our special news: At dinner tonight Oleg said grace for the first time. Each time we eat we ask him if he would like to, but he always says no. Today as we took each others hands he lifted them up and said ‘Papa. I do in Ukraine?” We said okay and he said a nice long prayer. I’m not sure what he said, but God knows… that’s all that counts! Oleg attended church for the first time ever with us during the hosting, and we always said prayers before eating. What a statement that with no religious background he recognizes the importance. Praise God!
Well, another day down, another day closer to the end. Gotta run!
So, let’s start this journal off right. For your entertainment I have some follow up thoughts concerning my current thoughts of the Ukraine:
Kharkov does not suite my tastes. I don’t like anything about it. Others find it old, quaint and charming, but not I. I just find it old and irritating.
In Sak. the ladies in this region are heavier…I have seen very few thin people like I mentioned in Kiev. They still mostly walk, but I guess they don’t have to walk as far as in Kiev. So therefore in that forum I feel right at home and blend in well....:)
They cook a lot of fattening and starchy foods here. It all tastes yummy, but you gotta watch it or it will pile on your hips real fast. Most of what they cook I do not eat as part of my everyday diet so I am safe :) On the other hand, John is a different story.
Absolutely at NO time do you drink the water here…can you say Chernobyl?
Hardly anyone looks you in the eye…if they do they rarely ever smile.
There seem to be many more old people on the streets than younger. I just don’t see a lot of ‘30 something’ folks…I’m sure they are here somewhere though…
And I’m sure you will find this amusing. There are attack geese here! I literally was chased by one the other day! Here I was walking home – minding my own business - and there was a whole herd of them beside the road eating and drinking water our of the pot holes. (Apparently rain water fall after Chernobyl doesn’t scare ‘em any) A person was riding past me in a bike so I scooted closer to the center of the road and I guess I over stepped my bounds ‘cause next thing I know there is a goose nipping at my boots. I turned and walked away quickly, but obviously not fast enough. It came after me with a vengeance. The old lady standing there was laughing and trying to shoo the goose back where it belonged, but it obviously wanted a good bite out of me. I broke out in a full run to get away. I fully believe she was standing there laughing at this crazy American woman afraid of a ‘woman’ eating attack goose. I’m pretty sure I not only made her day, but the drama of it all is fully circulating among the gossip grapevine as I write. “Hey! Did you here about that crazy American lady my goose almost ate the other day…?”
Of course John thought it was quite funny…He has even come up with a list of stupid jokes to entertain me daily:
What do you call a Ukrainian chicken? Dinner
What do you call two Ukrainian chickens? Lunch and Dinner
What do you call French Cats? Scaredy cats!
What do you call Vietnamese cats and dogs? What cats? What dogs?
What do you call three Ukrainian geese? Guard dogs
What do you call Ukrainian cats? It doesn’t matter. They don’t understand English and won’t come anyway. (Seriously…they just look at you with a confused face and scurry away…LOL)
And John’s favorite: Why did the goose cross the road: For American fast food! See Kym run! See Kym run FAST!
You seriously have to maintain your sense of humor around these parts!
On to other things:
We had dinner with Ludy yesterday afternoon and ended up staying till 8 pm looking at pictures of Yana who was adopted last March. We also shared the pictures on Johns lap top for Ludy and Oleg’s trip to America. Boy, can Ludy cook! We had roasted chicken, (YUM! And from her own back yard) with mashed potatoes, pickles, homemade coleslaw, and some sort of terrific cake which appeared to be chocolate with sugared candies on top. We really had a great time with her and her family.
Today she met us at the school and we were able to use the computer lab’s internet. We were able to catch up on a lot and post my journals to the blog. The computer teacher was having a good time with John’s laptop and was asking a lot of questions. He even assisted John with a new translation software and now we can use it to communicate with the others that have no idea what we are ever saying around here…:)
And in other great news, we have a court date! We have been informed that we will meet with the judge this coming Wednesday October 25th. (Just our luck. Our regional judge is away at some sort of ‘judicial seminar’ and we have had to wait for her to return. I ask you, “What are the odds?” Well. It would appear pretty darn good in our favor. If it can happen, it will happen with us...)
I will leave that Friday as it is the next available flight out of Kiev, and will touch down in Bakersfield at 5:40 pm that same day…I’m sure I packed my ruby slippers somewhere amongst my luggage…For sure I’ll be the American standing at the airport terminal with my eyes closed saying “There’s no place like home! There’s no place like home….”
John will remain here for the mandatory 10 day waiting period and then following that will arrange for Oleg’s passport, visa, physical, etc…He will need to rearrange his and Oleg’s flight also. If all goes well he should be home around November 9th or so. Oleg is very excited to come home!
Oleg got in trouble at school yesterday. Apparently my wonderful son decided to call the teacher a bad name. John and I were on our way up to the computer room when a very miffed teacher with the whole class walked up to us and said ‘BAD BOY!” while pointing at Oleg. Okay, I could see this was not good. Poor Oleg, he looked so embarrassed and mortified…he just walked off. He went to his room and would not come out – even for John. After two hours John finally gave up and came home. Oleg will work through it. He always does. I don’t know what he said to the teacher, or why. But I do know I would not have handled it the way she did. When a fellow peer says to your new mama and papa ‘Oleg Bad Boy!” you are crushed. A lot of this is happening because we are there and he really doesn’t know how to handle it. We will have a talk with him tonight as soon as he is here and find out what this is all about. Actually, we went to see the Director today and he was trying to communicate with us concerning Oleg. While he was speaking with our translator on the phone I smiled and said to John “I think we are having our first school parent-teacher conference” Cool! That must have been a really bad word!” LOL
It is hard for Oleg at school right now. The negative peer pressure is pretty bad when everyone knows you have a family and are leaving soon. The children are not always kind. I have tried to help alleviate this by handing out goodies to children each day. Sometime I do it and sometimes Oleg does. We try to leave no one out. I’m telling ya when I have a box of cookies there are so many hands hovering over the box I can hardly hand them out. But they all smile soooo big and say thank you. The children are addictive. Their smiles are contagious. They are getting use to us now and say hello in both English and Ukrainian.
And our special news: At dinner tonight Oleg said grace for the first time. Each time we eat we ask him if he would like to, but he always says no. Today as we took each others hands he lifted them up and said ‘Papa. I do in Ukraine?” We said okay and he said a nice long prayer. I’m not sure what he said, but God knows… that’s all that counts! Oleg attended church for the first time ever with us during the hosting, and we always said prayers before eating. What a statement that with no religious background he recognizes the importance. Praise God!
Well, another day down, another day closer to the end. Gotta run!
posted by Kym at 8:30 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home