Last Night in Kiev

So tonight is our last night in Kiev until this weekend. We are supposed to pick up Tetyana on Friday even though our 10 day wait is up on Thursday. We can't pick up the court degree until Friday. Yana, our facilitator is traveling with another family to Lviv and we hope she will be back before Friday. Adoption is very secretive here and sometimes it is hard to get straight answers. We were told we could 'expedite' the passport and not wait the 5 days but now we hear we should change our airline tickets to Sunday, April 13th or just stay until our original return date of the 15th. This just totally stresses me out! Drew says I am over reacting but I just want go home! So we wait until Friday to see what Yana finds out about the passport, I guess. Yana will not discuss costs or 'expedite' fees over the phone. I think Ukrainian's think "Big Brother" is listening in on every phone conversation. I can't get a straight answer of how much our court costs were and how much we need to pay.

We have to leave first thing in the morning because President Bush is coming here to meet with Ukraine's president and they are closing off all of downtown to all traffic. Our driver is also raising his rate for the return trip. I feel like we are being taken advantage of at every turn right now just because we don't speak and understand the language.

Yesterday we went to the Monistary where the caves are. There are Monks who are buried there from 1000 years ago. We went to the ticket counter and the ticket person rattled something off in Russian. We had no idea what she was saying so we handed her our calculator and waited for the price. $90 Ukrainian and with that we could take pictures. I think we spent $50 on just the ability to take pictures! So we head into the monistary and the woman asks us if we have or want an English speaking guide and we say we do. She runs up to another ticket booth and cuts everyone in line off and tells the ticket person something we don't understand and leaves. We just stand there and the ticket woman askes me for more money and I pay her and she gives me the same exact tickets I already have! So we take them back to the entrance and the woman says the same thing...do you want a English guide? By then I am ready to leave and some sweet couple takes mercy on us and asks us in ENGLISH what the problem is. We explain it to them and the guy goes back to the ticket counter and cuts everyone in line off and then back to the entrance where he gives the woman all of our tickets. She says in plain English "ahead and to the left for the tour guide"!!!

The tour was facinating and the churches are beautiful and have so much history. Had we not had the guide we wouldn't have been able to appreciate all that we saw. Luke on the other hand, was not as impressed by all of the paintings/fresco's and just wanted to see "the dead people wrapped in toilet paper". So our tour guide tells us how to get into the caves and says goodbye to us. We think this is simple, just follow the crowd. We get our candles because the caves are dark and head into what we think is the entrance because we only see one door. After pushing past a heard of people that are going against us we figure out we went in the exit! On the way out of the exit, I moved in a way that made Luke poke himself in the eye with his (unlit) candle.

We finally find the entrance to the caves along with the rest of what seems like everyone in Kiev!! Do not go to the caves on the weekend! We light our candles and head into the very narrow hallways. At first I was worried about Luke having a candle, but my worry has been replaced with severe fear that I will be caught on fire by the person behind me. The lack of personal space is just the same down in the caves. I can smell peoples hair burning! We see the first monk in his glass case and Luke is gravely (pun intended!) disappointed that they are not mummies in toilet paper but they are covered from head to toe in their garb. I was getting more and more worried by the moment that we were going to catch on fire and we all blew out our candles and left!

There was a very neat place there called the "Micromini Museum". Google it. It was very cool and unbelievable!

Today we went to the WW II museum that was closed! It took a phone call to Yana to translate to us that it was closed! See the pattern here?

Another thing for PAP's to be aware of when they come to Kiev....TGIFridays is way over priced! We ordered 2 hamburgers, chicken fajitas (which tasted so good!!!), two glasses of wine and 4 cokes (no free refill's) and the bill was $100 US! I did however very much appreciate the clean bathroom and the paper towels!

So that is what the last couple of days has looked like for us. We hope that are drive back to Cherkasy is a safe one!