Okay, so here it goes:

Some of you know that I have not been able to sleep very long for about the last three weeks just stressing out about this adoption trip. I just couldn't sleep more than 4-5 hours a night. At least it left me more time to prepare (not! - I just watched more episodes of Bones and The Dog Whisperer). So, of course, on my last night at home I was up packing at almost 1am, as noted in a previous post. I did get some sleep before my flight, but not more than 3 hours. We left the house just before 6am and the drive to the airport was uneventful, as was the first leg of my flight to JFK. I almost got to sit in first class, though. I flew up on a CRJ9 which is a regional jet, and they had to redo their weight and balance figures once they found out that their was more heavy luggage in the back luggage bay than they had originally anticipated. Probably it was mine. But, alas they had asked too many people to come forward and I ended up sitting in the first row of cattle class. At least I had mega leg room, though.

There were almost no delays on my flight to JFK (except the weight and balance issue - kudos to all my coworkers at I90! Even with a 20 minute delay, we still landed on time), so I got there about 1:30pm EST and had to sit about 4 hours at the gate for my flight to Kiev. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I did not have to go through customs to leave the USA, I'll only have that lovely task as I come back in. Only non-US citizens have to go through customs to leave the USA.

Unfortunately, my flight boarded about 30 minutes before kick-off. I, Ms Super Steeler Fan Herself, was going to miss history - The Steelers playing in their 7th all-time Superbowl and their 6th all-time win! I know this because one of the flight attendants kept me abreast of the action and the score near the end of the flight. Once we were over Europe she was able to look up the info on her computer. She was a classmate of Ken Wizenhunt, so she was rooting for the Cardinals, but, Oh Well! Mr. Mike Tomlin is now the youngest coach to ever coach a Superbowl team and the youngest coach to win a Superbowl. Kudos to him and the entire team. At least they did it in Steelers fashion, you know, making us wait until the very last minute of the game to make the winning score. (Ok, wait a minute. Now I feel old. I'm like 5 yrs older than the Steelers coach!)

I was one of the last to get off the airplane, so there was a line ahead of me in the Non-Ukrainian Citizens line (not like there was a sign or anything, just that there was not a sign that said: Ukranian Citizens Only, like the other end of the room. So, me being me, I went potty. And, when I came out the line had not moved one inch. It ended up taking about 1 hr from the time I got off the plane until I had my checked baggage and was walking toward the designated pick-up area where my driver, Andrei, was waiting for me. It was kind of hard to miss him, he had a large piece of paper with "Natalie Moloney" written on it.

It took about 30 minutes or so to drive from the airport into the center of Kiev. The apartment I am staying in is almost right on Independence Square, all you have to do is look out the balcony to the left and there it is. My facilitator, Konstantin (aka Kostya), called while we were enroute to the apartment. He told me that Andrei would take me to the apartment and then asked if I had a cell phone? I told him I had one from another couple that may or may not work, so he said that Andrei would take some of my cash, convert it to grivna (pronounced "GREE-vnah"), and buy me a SIM card and some pre-paid time, then he would put it in the phone for me. There went the first Benjamin. The exchange rate is pretty good right now, but not the highest it's been: about 8.10 grivna to each dollar (that's 810 grivna for each Benjamin for those of out there that are mathematically challenged). But, it costs more to buy dollars back, that rate was 8.35 grivna per dollar today (pay 835 grivna and they give you your Benjamin back). It was about 25 grivna for the SIM card ($3 - I'm gonna round off the dollar equivalent here because I'm too tired to be a math genius and too lazy to use the calculator), so Andrei gave me 685 grivna back in change.

Two minutes later he showed me the apartment. It's much nicer than I expected, but it is relatively cheap for Kiev, only $130/night, and that includes a one bed/one bath apartment with a living room and small kitchen with a microwave, a refrigerator that works and a washing machine. It also comes with two big stand up plug-in electric heaters that are awesome. I actually had to turn them off last night because I was sweating too much.

This one is getting long, so I'm gonna take a break for a few minutes and then continue posting again.

Natalie
TX