A Day in the Life

I am a night person so, in my odd way, I will begin this story with the night time routine. Bedtime ususally takes place betwen 11:00 and 12:00. This is usually after a board game, and maybe some computer time as it is only early afternoon at home and we like to check our mail. Some nights we have dinner in, other nights we go out. Sometimes we eat in then go for a walk. Tonight I cooked fried chicken, potato salad, corn, and peas. Linda Tur and her friend, Sergey, came over for dinner. Afterward, we had peach shortcake. Felt like home! After they left, we undertook our third game of monopoly today. Bought this game 2 days ago and Vitalik loves it. He would play all day. It is better than computer games but my back is getting too old for leaning over a board game for hours! Still, it is fun.
Our days vary. We get up around 8:00 and for the next couple of hours there is showering, doing laundry, cooking breakfast (always fried eggs for my boy), checking email, reading, etc. Then we usually head outside for either errands, exercise, anything to get us out of the apartment. Yesterday, we took a long walk around the center. It was a holiday and things were busy around Independence Square. Vitalik insisted that Alexandra and I visit this haunted house that he and Gabe had visited last week. We gave in and went with him. He was so excited for us that he told us everything that was going to scare us and he lead the way through, pointing to where we needed to look to be "surprised". Sunday we attended Holy Trinity Presbyterian Church for the second time. We were very happy to finally meet the Peipons. Also met some other Americans here for an evangelistic outreach. The service is translated. After church and lunch, we stopped at Schevshenko Park and found a concert and break dance competition and ended up staying there until the rain came about 6:00pm. You can see from the photos how varied the entertainers were. Gotta love Ukraine!

Saturday, Alexandra and I went out on our own and did some girl shopping. Then we all went to Sams,the "other" American restaurant (besides Fridays), and had steak and hamburgers. There is a nice arcade across the street from our apartment that we visit occasionally and we go to the supermarket daily. Today, Gabe went to the Emabassy to sign the I600 so that he can leave whenever posible.
He has decided to go with us to Lugansk. He will come back to Kyiv Monday night to begin the paperwork here for Vitalik on Tuesday. Hopefully, we can all return with him; just depends on how paperwork is proceeding in Lugansk. We will be staying at the camp this time instead of a hotel in Lugansk. Not sure if we will have internet access. I think Roman has used up all his minutes as he has not been texting me. I call him every night at bedtime and last night he told me he couldn't text so I can only assume that's the problem. I will be so happy to see him and am glad that Gabe is able to go. Its sort of sad, thinking it will be our last ride on the train.......well....... maybe not!