Friday, June 8, 2007

Our plan today was to have our driver pick up Mark and Christine along with myself at our apartment at noon. Mark and Christine had a driver bring them to my apartment this morning and then they walked from here to the center of the city. I spent some time around the apartment this morning and then walked to the center of the city to get some pictures printed of Sergey, Khrystyna, and our family. I wanted him to have prints of the pictures. Also, I want Khrystyna to be able to pick out a frame and we will frame one of the pictures to give to him. The photo place was a zoo today and so it took forever to pick up the pictures I dropped off last week and have them upload the new pictures I want to have printed. As I walked back towards my apartment, Mark called to tell me that he and Christine were running a little late. They wanted to know if I would ask the driver to pick them up at Vivat time instead. I said that wouldn’t be a problem and headed home to get all the things we would need for the day. I grabbed the necessary stuff from the apartment and headed down to the car. We picked up Mark and Christine and headed to the orphanage to get the girls. When we got to the orphanage, the girls ran over to hug us and say hello. After all the hugs, Amina said “Mom, dad is America. I am sad,” I said “Yes, Amina dad is on his way back to America. I’m sad too. Are you sad Khrystyna?” Khrystyna put on a very sad face and said “Yes.” The sad face lasted about 3 seconds, then she put on a bright smile and said “Lunch?” It totally made me laugh! We let the girls decide where we wanted to go to lunch and they picked Vivat Time. While we waited for Kseniya, the girls all got in one of the cars and pretended that they were driving. Masha pretended to be our driver Misha, Amina sat in the front seat and announced “I am Papa” and Khrystyna waws content to sit in the back seat and be herself.” After Kseniya came out and gave instructions to our drivers, we headed for Vivat Time. My girls picked out a TON of food. You’d think they’d never eaten before. Our normal lunch bill for Amina, Khrystyna, Fred, and I has been 55-70 grivnas. Our bill today was 67 grivnas and I only got a piece of chicken and some mashed potatoes. Khrystyna had 2 salads, a piece of chicken, a sandwich, a large bag of chips, a large glass of juice, and a bottle of water. Amina had a salad, a hug plate of pasta stuffed with meat, a sandwich, a large piece of cake, a yogurt drink, a box of juice, and a bottle of water. They both ate everything but the sandwiches and they asked me to put the sandwiches in my bag so they could eat them at the park. When the girls had finished most of their food, we went through the flashcards I made. I added another 70 or so and they did a surprisingly good job with the ones we hadn’t taught them. After a while, the girls seemed tired of the flashcards and we were all ready to head to the park. We hopped in the car and headed for “Crocodile” park. We decided to only give the girls 15 grivna each, but that we would pay for their ice cream. Amina tried to negotiate how much money we were giving her, but I stuck to the 15. They paid to go on a few rides and then they discovered a playground that was back behind the roller coaster. You had to pay 1 grivna to get into the playground, but it was large and quiet. The girls tried out various pieces of playground equipment before settling on a large row of swings. They were all having a fabulous time swinging when they decided they should swing AND sing. Christine and I were quite surprised when they started singing “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands” in English. Christine and I ran over and joined them and then began singing it in Russian. We had learned it in our Russian class earlier this year! The girls then went through their repertoire of English children’s songs. When they exhausted their knowledge of English childrens songs, they began singing Russian children’s songs. They sang a really cute song about 10 bananas and a gorilla. It was a really fun time. After a long time of playing, we headed out of the playground to hit a few more rides before heading out for ice cream. Masha and Khrystyna wanted to go on the roller coaster and Amina wanted to go on the castle bouncy thing. I’m sure the lady who runs the crocodile was completely depressed when we ran by without stopping. I think she was counting on us to put all her kids through college! Mark and Christine went with Masha and Khrystyna over to the roller coaster and Amina and I headed to the castle bouncy thing. I think Amina was totally enjoying the peace and quiet of being able to bounce by herself! It didn’t last long because Masha and Khrystyna came over soon after to jump with her! The girls jumped for quite a while before time was up and we headed to the ice cream shop. We went to the same shop we went to on the first day with Khrystyna and Masha We had all talked about the shop, but none of us remembered where it was. We discovered yesterday that it is the coffee shop across from my apartment. We didn’t have our bearings when we went there the first time, so we had no idea where it was! We all got small bowls of ice cream and when we were done with our ice cream, the girls were all still hungry. I had the sandwiches Amina and Khrystyna had left over from lunch and they ate those as well as each having a bag of pretzels I had in my bag! The girls can pack away an amazing amount of food. We were quite surprised when we got our bills. This café has prices like we’re accustomed to in America. Each of our bowls of ice cream was nearly $4 and our bottle of water was over a dollar. It’s not quite like the prices at the other ice cream shop we usually go to! After ice cream, we headed back to the orphanage. I had the driver take me to the internet café so I could check my e-mail and then I walked back to the apartment. I was tired and hungry, so I made myself a small snack/dinner, made a few quick phone calls, and headed to bed! I knew that Fred would be getting in around 5am my time and I wanted to be awake enough to talk to him when he called! He ended up getting in closer to 7am my time, called to let me know he made it home safely, and then he went home and crashed. His trip home was about 36 hour of non-stop travel!