We've arrived safely in Kiev.
Friday morning we left Denver around 10:30am. We had a great itinerary: depart Denver 10:30am, arrive JFK at 4:20pm, depart JFK 5:40pm, arrive Kiev on Saturday at 10:10am. So, we had a short but long-enough layover in New York followed by a 9-hour flight straight into Kiev. (Kiev is 9 hours ahead of Denver time.) We had no weather or baggage issues and made the trip without incident. If you're planning on flying into Kiev, we highly recommend you look into using Delta.
Upon arrival, we ran a few essential errands - exchange money, buy a SIM card and charger cord for the cell phone (thanks Scott and Micheline for the loner phone) - and then settled into the apartment. We'll be here through at least Tuesday, which is our appointment day with the SDA. If all goes perfectly, we'll get our referral on Tuesday and also be able to travel to the orphanage. If all goes normally, we'll get our referral on Tuesday and travel to the orphanage on Wednesday.
Our apartment is about 2 miles from where we stayed last time we were here. Basically, we're in the central part of the city of Kiev. Within easy walking distance we have everything we need... department stores, shopping malls, grocery stores, McDonald's, post office, etc. We also have high-speed Internet access in the apartment, which makes it great for checking email, blogging, and staying up with world news. We have cable TV in the apartment but no English channels. Just like before, soccer on TV in Ukrainian is just as boring as soccer on TV in English.
Saturday evening we wondered out for a quick bite. Pam had pasta stuffed with spinach and cottage cheese and Stephen had lamb meatballs and potatoes. Both dishes were excellent. Bedtime was about 7:30pm.
Today (Sunday) and tomorrow are just days of relaxation, sightseeing, and shopping. We have a list of items to buy before going to the orphanage... serrated knife, foam mattress pads, etc.
We'll post again tomorrow with sights of (and insights from) Kiev.
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Glad to hear you guys made it. Hopefully the weather is holding up for you. Sorry about the phone charger, don't know how that got lost :( The good news about not having English language channels is that you don't have to hear about how bad the economy is for a few weeks!
ReplyDeleteWe'll be watching and praying,
Miche and Scott