We got into Kyiv, and after dealing with Alyona’s near seizure, we rested and got a little bit to eat at the McDonalds at the Kyiv train station (if I never eat at a McD’s again, it’ll be too McSoon!) It’s hard to do the lunch menu at 8am, since they don’t do the breakfast stuff. Plus, the place was crowded and finding a table was near impossible.
Victoria came back earlier than we thought from dropping our luggage off at the apartment she’d arranged for us, so we were off to the Medical Clinic a bit early. It worked out, since the clinic didn’t start until 9am, but a little after 8:30am Victoria had somehow gotten us into a doctor before anyone else there.
She’s pretty amazing at pushing things through. The doctor was a very nice lady, who joked around with the girls, did an examination, and complained about the quality of the medical history from the Internat — basically she called it useless. She was very reluctant to commit to much, since she had so little to go on, and could only write that Alyona had possible epilepsy-type problems since she had nothing to work on for a diagnosis. She asked me several questions about her seizure last January at the Portland airport, but we didn’t say anything else about other episodes, as it didn’t look like it would help anything, and we were concerned about other consequences. So, the girls got some shots — Alyona over Victoria’s and Olga’s objections, but the doctor was adamant. We’d finally found someone more stubborn than them!
That done fairly quickly, we were on to the US Embassy. We had prepared all the paperwork ahead of time, so we handed it all in and just had to wait while they worked out problems with their fingerprinting system. They told us on Tuesday that the problems were actually global, but they managed to get what they needed for the visas. Everything was in order, so we were told to come back Tuesday at 2pm to get the visas.
We went to the apartment, which was at 4 Velika Zhitamorskaya Street, just about 2 blocks from our apartment when we first got to Kyiv. The apartment was very nice, but the internet access didn’t work. So, Victoria and the lady from the apartment service had to agree to a different apartment, this one at 14 Velika Zhitamorskaya, which had cable internet access. This apartment is also very nice, the internet worked, and we said good enough. We were tired of hauling bags, hungry and tired. The funny part — the apartment, while nice with a good view of north Kyiv, seems a bit more like a "love nest". It has a round bed in one room with little lights overhead that have a dimmer control, a jacuzzi bathtub and shower stall with body massage jets, etc. Pretty funny, but more than OK with us. It’s in a good location and near Independence Square, St. Sophia’s, the SDA and St. Andrew’s descent, etc.
We took the girls to the underground shopping center (Globus and an adjacent area) at Independence Square, got lunch, got them watches which they both really wanted, and some ice cream (italian gellatto), since they preferred the softer stuff to the Baskin-Robins next to it. Yes, Luda and Olga, we tried to keep up the post-adoption BR tradition, but they had an alternative for "morozhnoie".
After that, it was back to the apartment for some well-needed rest, and a chance for us to catch up on this blog, work, etc. We also had to get our travel arrangements changed. So, for all to know, we are leaving Kyiv Wednesday, 1/30 at 5:35pm on KL 1386. We land at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, but have to stay overnight as we can’t get on a NW/KLM flight back to Seattle until 1:15pm on Thursday, 1/31. This will put us into Seattle at 2:30pm Thursday afternoon Seattle time. So, Sue or Theresa, we may need a ride.
We’ll call from Amsterdam when we’re getting ready to board to let you know that we’re really on the plane. Sue/Theresa, since you may not be able to get us due to work, we can always use Shuttle Express. It might even be easier all around.
Here are some pictures of the ladies preparing our dinner of pelmeni in the evening. It was pretty good!
The Hlavaty-LaPosa's little plot in cyberspace 