Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

So we get to catch our breath before heading to the last stage of the adventure. Today started, as our Sundays here have, with church. Again we didn't do the so much "understanding what was going on" part, but we did sing along with one song we knew, and I think I finally figured out which scripture text they were using. I'm pretty sure it was Psalms something.

From there we hustled downtown to meet two more students from two summers ago. Alyona is a 20-year old blessed enough to be born on New Year's Day. Her mother is exactly my age, having been born the same day I was 38+ years ago. And yes, it still annoys me I'm old enough to be Alyona's father. When I first heard that two years ago, it about knocked me back for three weeks. I'm not ready to start feeling old yet. We had lunch at an Irish pub/restaurant off Lenin Square called Golden Lion. I had the shashlik which was very good. Shannon has promised to make me some shashlik at home; if you want an invite, let me know.

Alyona also gave us a gift, a "piggy" bank in the shape of a cow. Apparently I got to learn my "something new for the day" over lunch: in Ukraine, much like in China, they do "the year of the _____" here. And 2009 is the year of the cow/bull. Interesting. (Alyona's mother - whose name I'm regrettably forgetting; it's on the tip of my tongue if you can see it there) and I were born in the year of the dog. I'm not sure what that explains.)

We returned to the apartment via Amstor/Amctop, laden with some more chocolate (some of which we'll try to keep uneaten so we can give it away back home) and the Barbie-esque dolls the girls wanted. Oh, and some breakfast foods for the train ride to Kiev Tuesday night. Only thing we forgot was water, so we may be brushing our teeth tomorrow in the boiled stuff.

It's starting to feel real, that we'll be leaving soon. I already have the bittersweet feeling I get at the end of the trips I take here. I don't want to leave, but I do want to go home. I think we're all ready to return, but it's been a great time even with all the waiting the Ukrainian system has built into the process.

Shannon has been doing some packing, and I've been thinking about doing some packing. So we're about even on effort. The girls did some homework, and early bed. I've been spending the evening pulling stuff off to the side that I want to pack tomorrow, and trying to find streaming audio of the Vikings game (KFAN says they're not able, and NFL.com charges for it. Fortunately, I can "watch" via espn.com's GameCast feature.)

Tomorrow is up in the air as to what we'll be doing, but mostly we'll be preparing for Tuesday when the fun begins. Not only do we get Galya for good on Tuesday, but we start running yon and hither toward Galya's visa.

'Til next time -
Ron