Delusions Regarding Cheerios and String Cheese

All is well!  Our flight left yesterday at 8:15 pm.  We arrived in Germany about 10am (German time, which was about 3am EST).  Enjoyed a two hour layover, left Germany at 12:30 and arrived in Kiev at 4:20pm (Kiev time, which was 9:20am EST).  One of my traveling friends said that Lufthanza was their favorite airline.  I can see why.  Each seat had a touch screen TV with 18 movies to choose from, music, read aloud books, news and I don’t know what else.  It was amazing.  If I had  known the airlines were so nice, I wouldn’t have packed so many books in our carry-ons.

In fact, it was lugging all the carry-ons (and children) to and from the planes that was difficult.  Every time we raced through an airport, I became Bilbo Baggins running out of his house and down the road without any extra pocket handkerchiefs.  The running monologue inside my head went something like this:  "Are we late?  Why are we walking so fast?  Did I pack the converters?  I don't KNOW!!  I'll just have to wait until we unpack to find out.  Where is Gandalf when I need him?  ...for that matter, where are the children?  I don't KNOW!" 

When I finally found the kids, rather than ask something rational, I blurted out, "Matt, did Gandalf remember to bring Bilbo the extra pocket handkerchiefs when they met up at The Prancing Pony?"  (If you don't love the books, that will make no sense to you, but some of you will understand.)  Matt both understood and remembered that Gandalf remembered, so all was well.  I sent him ahead to tell his father to slow down. 

Anyway, if we have it right, we are seven hours ahead of our US time.   Customs in Kiev was amazingly quick, as was luggage pick up (everything arrived), Nadya (translator) and our driver met us at the exit and we got to our apartment about 6pm. 

The city is nicer than I remember.  I was here in 1988, just after Glasnost but before the fall of the USSR/Berlin Wall.  Under communism, it was a color-less, life-less pit.  I can't even describe how desolate the place was.  Now, it's more like America, but there are still enough differences to keep us all wide-eyed. It’s a CITY, which we are not used to.  The buildings are close to the road and they are REALLY TALL.  I’d guess our apartment building is 20 stories.  Our area is a little run down, but it’s clean, it seems safe, and I think we chose well.  In fact, I can’t imagine a nicer place.  Our building is brand new.  There are two play areas nearby.  There is a market, bank, pharmacy and McDonalds (insert heavenly angels singing) about two blocks away. 

We have a GORGEOUS apartment. WOW.  It’s MUCH nicer than our house.  I don’t think the former occupants had children.  I can’t express how grateful I am for this apartment!!  It’s clean.  Everything is new.  All the appliances work.  The walls are cement and the floors don’t squeak when I check on my kids.  There are two balconies, one off the kitchen and one off the living room.  There is a lot of SPACE for the kids to spread out and play. There is also a separate opening/hall with a table and two chairs where I have set up my computer, right in the middle of everything and Bill has a desk in our room, far away from everything.  Just like home!  We can see the sunset over the city from our balcony.  I’ll try to get a picture tomorrow night.  It’s really, really beautiful.

This is the living room.  The kids rotate between the floor and couches and wake to freakishly tasteless TV.
They are in heaven.

Bathroom.  I posted this so you could see how narrow the washing machine is.
It's about as deep as that hairdryer inside and can hold about five things.  There's no dryer.

Kitchen with sunroom.  It would be perfect, if it only had an oven.

We couldn't get on the internet when we first arrived and we had to wait about 12 hours until they fixed it.  I was relieved when we realized it was down because I had actually remembered to pack the converters. So, finally, at least this ONE THING had gone wrong.  If it had not, I would have been very uncomfortable with this whole arrangement, and certain that we had landed in some sort of parallel non-Murphy-like universe, with little chance of ever feeling truly at home.  As it stands, I’m quite content. 

So, all is well.  We found Nickelodeon on the TV, we have internet access, everyone is clean and we are off to the store to stock up on Cheerios and string cheese.  We have an appointment tomorrow at 9am with the Ministry of Sports and ---I can't remember, but some sort of appointment.  Then we meet with someone else on Tuesday and then on Wednesday, we can finally meet Ruslan.