Sunday, May 27, 2007

Today was a little cooler than yesterday. It was only in the high 80s!  When we were planning out our day last night, I decided that we would pick up the girls at the orphanage and then head to lunch. After lunch, I planned on bringing Khrystyna and Amina back to our apartment so that we could work on English. When I told Svieta our plan, she told me that she had talked to Ludmilla and that we are not allowed to bring the children back to our apartment until after our court date. We decided that we would just go from lunch to the beach! We didn’t have beach towels, so we had our driver pick us up and we headed to Amstor. We were quite surprised to find that beach towels cost 170 grivna (or 34 dollars!!!!!) We were not quite prepared to spend that. I found 2 beach towels with a tic tac toe board on them that came with Xs and Os. The material was super thin, but they were only $8 each. They only had 2 of them, so we decided we would just have to share! We also found some rackets and squishy balls that were designed to be used in the water. When we got back to the apartment after going to Amstor, we loaded a bag with fun beach stuff…Frisbees, the rackets that we got at Amstor, a kite, some gum, and bottled water, then we headed to the orphanage. Since Khrystyna told us last Sunday that she doesn’t like pizza, we have been eating primarily at the 2 cafeterias. We all enjoyed the pizzeria we ate at last Sunday and had been wanting to go again, but we didn’t want Khrystyna to be upset. Fred and I decided on the way to the orphanage that we would tell Khrystyna that we were going to the pizzeria for lunch. They offered other foods there and we decided to tell her that she didn’t have to eat pizza, she could have something else off the menu. We had Svieta tell her that she could eat what she wanted, but that she needed to have a good attitude or we would not go to the sea. Svieta explained all of this to her and she agreed very quickly! She was even smiling about it. As we walked to the car to head to lunch, Khrystyna asked Amina if she liked pizza and was going to eat some. Amina quickly said yes! Khrystyna told Svieta that if Amina would eat pizza, she would eat it too! We were completely amazed. When we got to the pizzeria, they didn’t have any outside table available. We headed inside to sit down. Our waitress told us that you are not allowed to put tables together inside the restaurant, so Svieta sat with Mark, Christine, and Masha, and we had our own table! Amina and Khrystyna did a very good job translating what the various toppings were for the pizza. We all ordered pizzas and they were really tasty! Khrystyna picked at one piece of her pizza and then just ate the toppings off the rest of the pizza. She didn’t eat very much, but she was very pleasant and didn’t complain. I had bought a few bags of chips with me to give them at the beach, but brought them out at the pizzeria instead. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy the chips! When we were all finished, we headed for the sea! The girls were thrilled!!!! I was the only adult with a bathing suit, so I was elected to go in the sea with them. When the girls pulled off their clothes, I was relieved to see that Amina and Khrystyna both had modest swimsuits! Khrystyna’s was quite funny, though! It was a navy 2 piece with a McDonald’s logo on it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bathing suit with a McDonalds’ logo on it! The girls didn’t want to spend anytime sitting on our beach towels, they just wanted to swim. We taught them the phrase “I want to swim” and then headed into the water. The water seemed a little cold at first, but it was sooo refreshing. Masha and Amina paired off once we got in the water and Khrystyna was stuck trying to get their attention and doing flips. I tried to applaud loudly each time she did a trick. I think she was frustrated that Amina and Masha were playing together, but she handled herself quite well! After playing in the water for a while, we headed back to the beach. Svieta told them they could go in the water again once they were dry. They spent some time playing with the rackets and Fred tried to teach them to fly a kite. Unfortunately, there was no wind so the kite didn’t do much good. After sitting around for a while, the girls started pointing to the sea again and asking Svieta in Russian if they could go back in. We made each of them say “I want to swim” before we headed back to the water. Khrystyna got a little confused and said “I want to sleep”. She immediately realized that she said sleep instead of swim and we all giggled and told her that the other girls could swim and she could sleep. She kept saying “No, no…swim, swim, please” We smiled and told her that of course she could swim with the other girls. The 3 girls and I headed back into the water. When we got in the water the second time, the girls were all trying to do flips and handstands. Amina was doggy paddling through the water. She said “Mom, I swim like dog”. I hadn’t even noticed that that was what she was doing, but it made me laugh that it was called the same thing in Russian…and her translation was quite funny! After 15 minutes in the water, Svieta waved us back in. She told us that we would need to dry off again before we could go back in. This time, the girls decided to play in the sand. I was really ready for some shade and since Fred had been sitting in the shade while I was in the sea, we decided to switch places. He headed down to the water’s edge where the girls were playing in the sand. They played for quite some time before coming back up to play with the rackets again. They were definitely worth the $2 we paid for each of them. When the girls were dry again, we headed back to the sea for one more swim! We all splashed and had a great time. No one wanted to get out when the time came. We told the girls that they would need to dry off and then we would head back to the orphanage. While Khrystyna and Amina were hitting the ball back and forth, Khrystyna and tripped backwards and ended up flat on her back in the sand. She hadn’t dried off much and the entire back of her was covered in sand. We quickly headed back to the sea to wash off the sand. Masha took her place hitting the ball with Amina. When Khrystyna finished washing the sand off of her back, she wrapped herself in her towel and sat on the beach quietly. She was exhausted. After the girls changed clothes, (we held a towel in a circle as a makeshift dressing room and each girl took a turn) Masha began complaining that she had water in her ear. Svieta turned to Mark and Christine and asked “Do you have a stick?” The look on Mark’s face was priceless. He looked at her like she was crazy. Christine quickly realized that she meant a Q-tip. Christine told Svieta that she had some at the apartment, but not at the beach. Personally, I was relieved to find out that it is not an approved practice to put sticks in children’s ears! On the way back to the orphanage, Amina and Khrystyna were very quiet. They were both exhausted. Khrystyna struggled to keep her eyes open the whole way home. We didn’t spend much time saying goodbye because the girls were soo tired. We hugged the girls, told them that we loved them and would see them tomorrow, and headed back to our cars. Mark and Christine invited Fred and I to go out with them after the beach. We went back to our apartment, took quick showers, and hopped into the car to head to Mark and Christine’s apartment. We spent some time relaxing in their apartment and chatting and then walked to a restaurant that was a few blocks from their apartment. It was a really nice seafood restaurant and it was air-conditioned! We sat ourselves at a table by the window and the waitress headed our way. Unfortunately, she didn’t speak much English….and we don’t speak much Russian. Also, the menu was very large. It had pages of hot and cold appetizers, soups, salads, entrees, desserts, and drinks…all in Russian. After giving us some time to look at the menus, she could tell we still had no clue. She tried to explain the menu to us. She said “Steaks?” I knew what a steak was and it sounded quite good so I just said “Yes, steak Y Kartoshka” or steak and potatoes. She said ok and then she tried to explain more of the menu. She started pointing at entrées and explaining them. She showed us steak with potatoes and steak with vegetables. When she pointed to the steak and vegetables, she said Steak…moo moo. She was letting us know it was cow. Then she pointed to an entrée and told us it was chicken. She seemed to be at a loss for words and then she said chicken and starting hitting her leg. We figured out that was a chicken leg. She pointed to the next item and said chicken and then she waved her hand across her chest! We thought it was hysterical, but we got her point…it was a chicken breast. We placed our orders, ate delicious food, and had a wonderful time. We finally got back to Mark and Christine’s a few hours later. Our driver picked us up and we immediately headed back to our apartment to go to sleep!