Beautiful day in Kyiv......

I think we are adjusted to Ukraine's time now.  It is so weird to think that it is only 1pm at home, it is 8pm here and we are about to head out for dinner. 

This morning Alyssa and I woke up at 2am wide awake.  I don't know why, but since there was no way that either one of us were going to go back to sleep, we took some benadryl and went back to sleep until 10am.  I wouldn't normally do that, but I KNEW that we both needed our sleep after not getting any the night before.  She and I slept on the fold out couch and Chris slept on the big bed.  When we got up,  I fixed Alyssa eggs for breakfast.  Chris and I didn't eat...........I'm not sure why, but I don't have the appitite here like I do at home.  Alyssa had milk with her eggs, and the milk we bought was in a bag, but the problem with that, is that we had no container to put the milk in when we opened it, so we had to pour it all out. :(  I didn't try the milk, but Alyssa said "Mommy, this milk tastes like it came right from the cow".  Now, how would she know that??  She ate breakfast and we got read to go out for the day.  I wanted to eat lunch at a place we had ate at the first night we were in Ukraine in 2004, it is an Italian place on the Left Bank next to Hotel Slavutych (fellow adoptees know this hotel).  It was a journey to get there...........we took the metro to the stop that is closest to the restaruant, then we had about a 2 mile hike to get there and we stopped a lot along the way.  Once we stopped at a flower bed where there were hundreds of butterflies.  These butterflies were cool because you could pick them up and hold them.  Alyssa met a friend there and they were piccking up butterflies and handing them to eachother.  It is amazing with the language barrier how well the girls played.  I'll attatch a picture of them together.  When it was time to go I told Alyssa to tell her "Paka" (bye-bye).  Alyssa told her and they girl frowned and said in a sad voice "Paka". 

We finally made it to the restaurant and it took about an hour to get our food.  Well, Chris got his food right away, he ordered a calzone.  Alyssa's chicken and my gnocci took about an hour to come out.  This is why I had to go to this place, becuase of the amazing Gnocci.  It is sauted in a butter sauce with blue cheese and basil.  VERY YUMMY!!  I attatched apic of it above as well.  After our 2:30pm lunch, we hiked back to the metro and took it to the HydroPark.  The Hydro Park is a really neat place.  There are beaches that line the Dnipro river, lots of restaurants, vendors, and kiddie rides.  Beleive it or not, there were LOTS of people laying out on the beach even though it is only about 70 something.  Alyssa had fun on the bumper boats and motorized cars.  It is so funny though, because where she had the most fun was on these wooden animals in a grassy area in the Hydro Park.  We sat there for about an hour while she played on these things.  Oh, and she met a friend here too.  They girl was talking to her in Russian, and she was talking back to her in English.  They had no clue what one another was saying, but somehow got thier points across.  I have also attatched a picture of  them. 

After the HydroPark, we rode the Metro back to where we are staying and went to the market to buy a few more things.  Things are so cheap here.  We bought milk, bread, yogurt, 2 packs of cookies, pastachios, 2 small bags of chips, 2 cokes and 3 fantas all for $7.  We are in the apartment right now and Alyssa is playing very contently with her My Little Ponies. She wanted to watcch TV, but we are definately putting a limit to that here.  We told her only TV in the morning before we head out and at night before bed.  I may end up limiting it more than that.  The way of life is so different around here, it is a very simple life.  All you really have to do is to go outside and enjoy the nature, walk, play on VERY simple playgrounds, eat, and just enjoy eachother.  If I let Alyssa watch movies whenever she wants, she won't want to enjoy the "simple way of life" with us :) 

Allright, I gotta go, we are going to eat at Cheletanos, a pizza place right down the street (very good salads here).  I'll check e-mail when we get back.  Oh, and some have asked me how we have wireless.........truthfully, I don't really know, we must be getting it from someone who has a router in the area.  We were going to try to figure out how to get AOL dial up from the room and then Chris found out we could open IE through a wireless connection.  I don't know if we will continue to have this the whole time, and I am almost positive we will not have it when we ge to Kerch, but for now, I am LOVIN' it!!!  :)

Inaddition to the pics of Alyssa and her "friends" and my food :) I have also attached a few pics from the plane, our apartment, etc.

Thanks so much for everyone's comments and e-mails, makes us feel "at home".

Love,

Chris, Julie and Alyssa