Paperwork in NY

Well, I had to call Eagle Postal to verify the tracking number of Bill's package today. I tried the number Bill gave me to no avail. Seems one of us has dyslexia - the 3 and the 1 were reversed. According to DHL's website, the package left DHL's NY facility at 9:39am Tuesday. Praying for arrival tomorrow morning.

Today was lovely. I don't know if I'm PMSing it early or if Y is just being frustrated, but I got a lot of, "I don't knows," and "I don't wants," today. Those were pretty much the only two responses he gave to any question, like "What do you want?" - "I don't know." "Do you want this?" "Nee ha-choo!" It didn't matter if it was food or going on the funicular or a souvenir or anything. All he wanted to do was sit on the couch and watch TV while eating chips and drinking soda. NOT on my watch! Boy was he pissy when I made him shut off the TV and go for a walk this morning. He wasn't very impressed with the funicular either. I have a short video I'll post soon. For those of us expat Pittsburghers - it's known as an INCLINE. It's not as long as the Pittsburgh Incline, but it's still pretty cool. Brought back childhood memories, too. It would've been a great view, but the sky was overcast. We met some people from Virginia going on the funicular as well, mom and baby in a stroller along with gramps and granny. Gramps saw my Steelers scarf and asked if I knew who Heath Miller was. As if! He said he knows him and he's a great kid as well as a great football player.

It didn't help that after we got back from our walk, we spent less than 30 minutes in the apartment (watching that precious TV) before we had to go to Y's dentist apointment. He wasn't real thrilled about that either. He hasn't complained of any teeth problems, but even I could see he really needs to have his teeth cleaned. I thought it would be best to do it here where he could understand the dentist, then we can wait six months and I'm sure he'll be able to understand the dentist in TX then. The diagnosis was only three cavities (not knowing how long it's been since he's seen a dentist, I assume that's good). They only had time to fill the cavities today, so we go back at 4pm tomorrow for his cleaning. The only surprise there was that it cost more than I thought it would. About $165 for the three fillings. I guess I've been spoiled with dental insurance for too long.

Then we had to go pick up the medical report and deliver it to the embassy. They said the report would be ready at 2pm, we didn't get there until 2:15, but this being Ukraine, we waited for almost and hour and a half for the paperwork. And it's only 3 degrees Celsius. I want my 15 degrees Celsius in TX!!!! Waa! Waa! Waa!

We got back to the apartment a little after 4pm, and I told Y that we would leave for dinner at 5pm. We hadn't had anything since breakfast at about 10am and I was starving. He said, you guessed it, "Nee ha-choo!" I about lost it then. I yelled at him (in English) that I didn't care whether he wanted something to eat or not, I'm starving; he could go to O'Briens and watch me eat for all I cared at that point. Actually, that's what he did. He didn't want anything to eat there. I told him he couldn't have any chips or snacks when we got back to the apartment. He said, OK. I did relent and let him eat the leftovers from last nights dinner from the supermarket, though. O'Briens was nice, but a little bit pricier than I would've liked, until I figured out it only cost me $20 for a big salad, fish and chips, a piece of cheesecake and a coke.

There was a very nice group of kids there with a man who runs a language school here in Kiev. He teaches the kids English and part of their learning was taking place tonight. He said they study different countries that speak English and how the accents differ, etc. He offered to put Y in an intensified class, but hopefully we won't be here that long. The kids had to study a list of words and then write down as many of them as they could remember, correctly spelled of course, a few minutes later. The gentleman came over at one point to ask me if he was spelling Leprechaun properly. He wasn't - he had an 'i' instead of the second 'e,' so I corrected him. He even told me to enjoy my meal when my food came. That was most surprising. It seems to me that most people over here think the correct 'English' expression is "Bon Appetit!"

That's about it for now.

Natalie
TX