We have arrived!!

First I want to apologize for the abundance of pictures, but I had a lot to sort through :) We left LAX at 9:05pm PST on Monday, May 16, 2011.

We checked in so early that there was nobody in line for check-in and absolutely nobody in security! So we got right through and ended up waiting around 4 hours for our flight. It went by fast though. Finally our plane arrived at the gate, and we got a good picture of it pulling in. This is the actual plane we flew 10 hrs on! :)

When we first checked-in, the lady at the counter said that since there were so many babies on the flight that there was only one seat with the bassinet and that we'd have to be separated on the plane. We decided to forfeit the bassinet so we could sit together. Then I asked the lady at the gate desk why we had that problem since we checked in so early. She was able to move our seats right away so that we'd be together AND have the bassinet. It was a really good thing because it came in handy:

The flight from LAX to Munich, Germany went well for such a long flight. Annie was fussy at first, but it was way past her bedtime. Once I got her to sleep she slept in the bassinet for a few hours, then woke up super confused. We played for a little while, then she went back to sleep and slept another 5 hrs or so until we were ready to land. Overall, the seats were comfortable, the food was very good, the staff was helpful and pleasant, and landing was so smooth I didn't even feel it! That's my least-favorite part of flying, so I was very excited about that.

Oh, one story from the plane: everybody has their own personal tv's, so Barry and I decided to watch "Little Fockers" simultaneously. At one part I was so surprised that I yelled, "OH NO!!!" super loud forgetting where I was and that nobody else was watching what I was... it was so funny. I had people turning around and looking at me. Barry started laughing at me and saying, "SHHH, that was really loud!" We were laughing so hard. If you haven't seen the movie yet, it was funny and I suggest it. But if you have, it's the dump truck scene that got me laughing to tears.

Once we landed in Munich, we had two hours to get to our gate. So we stopped at this little cafe and had "lunch/dinner". We had Bayerisches Entengrostl for 13,90 euros (about $18-20). This was roasted strips of duck with potatoes, green beans, and marjoram). It was DELICOUS! Then we each had a bowl of Bayerische Kartoffelsuppe for 6,20 euros (about $10). The description on this was potato soup with sausages and marjoram). It also very tasty. We didn't know what the bill came to because the waiter never came with it even after we stood up and asked. We were in such a hurry to get to our gate that we left what we hoped covered the food and a tip... $40 for lunch was a little high to us, but it was so good we didn't even care... looking back maybe that wasn't enough after all... oops :/ Oh well.


This was Annie's disposition almost the entire trip. I wasn't surprised but was very thankful.
And her on our last leg... she fell asleep on take-off. She stayed that way for almost the entire 2 hour flight.

We landed in EE about 20 minutes late because of a delay in Munich. There were some sort of "techincal difficulties" with one of the planes, so they had us go down the walkway, get on a bus, and get bussed out to the new plane in the middle of the runway and load from the outside steps there. No biggie, just interesting. Once we got to our destination, we had to go through customs which was uneventful, but we were told by the military man to go to the "visa" line even though we were "no visa"... by doing this we got stamps in our passports! I was so excited. (I was told they don't do stamps anymore so if this is wrong then I'm excited over nothing). :)

Our driver, Niko, was waiting right outside the doors for us with a sign that said "RAY". He had an Al Pacino look but dressed like Bono from U2. Super nice man with a heavy accent. He drove us for what seemed a long way to get to a 24 hour "market". It was after 11pm by this time, so the banks weren't open to do exchanges. This market had an exchange counter in it. So we got to exchange some US Dollars for UAH and get a few grocery items for our apartment. He helped us shop since we had no clue what we were getting. Everything is written in Cryllic, but some things had pictures on them so we could tell what was apple juice or strawberry jam for example. They don't have peanut butter here!!!! MOMMMMMMM send us some!!! :) :) The entire bill came to 270 UAH or something like that which is about $30. Not too bad I guess.

So then, he drove us to a dark alley. I'm not kidding. We were trying to be good sports because we have heard the stories about how the alleys are here, but it was dark and late and we weren't sure where the heck we were. We trusted that Niko knew what he was doing. Then he said they'd never rented this unit before... hahaha. Prior to stopping, he told us about the area and where everything was. He was confident this was a good part of town, but still. All the buildings are soviet-era style where you enter from the street, then go up stairs to hallways with apartment doors (kind of like New York if you've been there). So we go inside this seemingly vacant, dark apartment building and the lightbulb is burnt out. We climb a set of stairs in the dark and get to a "hallway" with three doors. It's pitch black! Did I tell you it was dark?! LOL... so he uses his cellphone to light up the numbers on the doors and he gets the door unlocked... and...

We walked into a hallway with a shelf, open one door to a large bedroom with a bed, chairs, tv, and computer desk ("Yea, it has internet" I say). Then we open a 2nd door to a small bedroom with a bed, then another door with a bathtub and sink, then another door with a toilet, and yet another door with a very small kitchen. "Where's the living room?" No living room, no kidding. The "living space" was in the first bedroom. The whole place was a big hallway with doors. It smelled really musky, but I thought "I guess it'll do for now until we can ask how much it is and if this is what we should expect here." It wasn't dark, and it had all we needed.

Then I tried the internet. "Please enter password." Are you kidding me? All I want to do is let my mom know I got here and Skype the kids. And I can't. I was so upset. I even tried calling but the phone wouldn't let me and my phone from home doesn't get service here. Lovely. I turned it around to "count your many blessings" and started naming all the things that have gone perfectly right this trip and I snapped out of it. I'd get a hold of everyone tomorrow. Nothing else I can do right now.

Here are some pictures of the "first apartment". Sorry for the mess. There wasn't really anywhere to put anything and we got in so late that everything just ended up where it was.


This morning, I called Yulia and asked her how much this apartment was. She said $60, but we could only stay one night. So we'd be moving to a new apartment today around noon. She said it was only $50/night if we stayed at least two weeks and it normally rented out for $80. It was supposed to be really nice. I was hopeful, but she hadn't seen this unit either. Still it had internet she said, and two bedrooms like this one. I asked about the living room thing and she said it just depends on the units because for rentals they like to set them up for more sleeping space. So we walked around our little area before moving. We were right next to Independence Square. It's a beautiful day and not humid like I thought it would be.

This is a picture of the building we slept in the first night. The entrance to our apartment was on the right side on that little street (what I earlier called an alley).

The square was really neat. Lots of old buildings and architecture. People were dressed very nice going to/from the metro station here. I didn't take a picture of it, but there was a McDonald's right by our building too... they are everywhere here.


After our walk we went back to the "first apartment" to wait for the landlord to pick us up and take us to the 2nd apartment. Annie has been clinging to Barry since we got up this morning. She's very quiet too. We think a mixture of jet lag and missing her sisters. She's as sweet as pie, just really quiet. She climbed in Barry's lap and fell asleep.

After waiting a bit, our landlord, Ivana, came to get us. She's a very nice woman who speaks English. Her driver (don't know who he was to her) drove like a mad man, honked twice at the same man two different times, rolled down the window and yelled at him because he was in his way, and finally parked at this very beautiful tree-lined street. SAFE at last, lol. People drive like nuts here... total road rage and NOTHING like California drivers if you can believe it.

We went three flights of stairs up to the 3rd floor (this building was a lot more welcoming, but then again it is daytime). Ivana knocked on the door and a woman opened it. "HUH??!" I asked if she was staying here too (we've heard stories!) and she laughed at me and said, "No she cleaning lady." THANK GOODNESS :)

This apartment is SO much nicer. It has a living room and ONE bedroom, not two, but it has a sofa bed. The bathroom is large and normal and the kitchen is also much larger with counter space... and a dishwasher! And the fridge is a decent size here, not the small camper one like in the other place. There is a washing machine in the bathroom but I haven't the slightest how to use it. Low and behold, there is Wi-Fi in here and it's hard-wired so we don't have to worry about passwords!!! Too bad it was 2am in CA when we got here or we would've Skyped right away. By the time I'm done with this blog, I should be able to call.

Here is the bedroom we will be sleeping in for at least the next two weeks.

Pretty living room.

Entry way:

Bathroom with huge bathtub:

Kitchen:

I'm so much happier here. It's lighter. We have a door to a balcony with a view to the street instead of painted shut windows to a parking lot. It stays cooler because there are shade trees everywhere. It's bigger and more inviting, and it has a common area to hang out instead of a bedroom.

So to sum it all up, we got here safely without any horror stories, and have been welcomed and taken care of by our facilitation team which is exactly what we had expected. We will be eating dinner at TGIF's with another RR family, the Coleman's. Our SDA appt is tomorrow morning, and we should be meeting Micah in just a couple days! And our friends, the Goldens, will be arriving in just a week and a half and will share our apartment with us (the reason we were hoping for a two bedroom)!

Last funny story: I had an email today from the woman who we were supposed to stay with from our church for only $20/night. I have been waiting to hear from her since the beginning of April. She said she was waiting for us yesterday but we never showed up.... lol. I wrote back and said I'm sorry for any miscommunication but we had not heard back from her and didn't want to just show up at midnight after flying for 16 hours. And I had literally JUST paid our landlord for two weeks in advance. OOPS!!! Oh well... this will work out great here. We are right near the main street in downtown. There are lots of shops and restaurants and the metro station is visible from our house. We will have to take the metro to Micah's orphange each day, so our location is very good here. Once the Goldens get here, we will split the apartment cost so it will not be much more than it would've been with Valentyna. I just feel so bad! Kind of comical with the language barrier. Hopefully we'll get to meet her before we leave.