Saturday's Train Adventure

Of course, this was followed by the perfect smile from Ivanna.

A brief excursion away from the swings led to Ivanna driving a car like her mommy.

I'll take what's in the box.

One at a time is not her forte, but she certainly enjoys putting the lids back on after she's had her fill.

St. Michael's Monastery, or a small part of it. Kyiv truly is a lovely city, with a great history. It is clean and feels much safer than Moscow.

Good evening (at least for us it is). I am sitting in our apartment (we are finding it easier to write here and then just copy it to the blog – more time to actually talk over dinner or coffee then instead of just staring antisocially at the computer). The boys have stopped at our little corner grocery store to grab some food for supper and I came home as my feet are tired from walking tons today (and I had to pee!). We got to go out to the orphanage today – despite it being a Saturday (or maybe we’ll get to each week – we are not sure). It seems that each day is better than the previous one. We took the train again today – it was even more of an adventure than yesterday. The seats were all pretty much full by the time we got there (25 minutes early) so we decided to stand at the entrance of one of the cars. Well, by the time the train left, the car was full: as in the seats were full and people were standing throughout, including the entrance area where we were. (BTW, this is not like “standing room only” at home; there is no ‘personal space’; everyone is touching at least a couple of other people). It was packed (or so I thought) with people, luggage and a rat in a cage (because it’s a holiday weekend we figure people were heading out to dachas etc…). We each had a little breathing space – but not much. I wondered what would happen when we reached the next few stops. Well, apparently, the train was not full after all, as at the next few stops, despite there really being no room – more people (5-10 at each stop and at every entrance to the train) pushed their way on. It was remarkable (kinda like: how many marshmallows can you put in your mouth at once? You can always squeeze another one in). People got a little heated with the cramped quarters and Jonathan was amused by a ‘discussion’ occurring between a few people (one younger man and an older baba especially). I couldn’t understand, but I could tell people were upset by the crowded conditions. It was definitely the most snuggly I’ve gotten with strangers in a long time – oh, wait, probably ever! (j: Riding the train becomes an intimate experience: I really don’t like knowing my thigh is between another person’s buttcheeks, but so is everyone else’s.) Anyway, we made it without being crushed – and it was lovely to get some fresh air and personal space back when we arrived in Boyarka.
We had a great visit with Ivanna. She is showing us each day that she is becoming more comfortable with us and that she is starting to trust us. After we walked a brief while and had our ritual swing, (we bribed her off with a snack again), Ivanna showed a little more initiative by taking us for a long walk all over the yard. We ended up near the entrance the orphanage workers usually use with the children. In the neighbour’s yard is a chicken coop with three (we think) chickens. She was quite entranced by the Kooritsa – at least until one of them came right up to the wire fence and she backed up into me and said ‘mama’ (at least, that’s what I heard). My heart could burst. She wasn’t completely freaked out though because we could barely woo her away from the fence! She threw a minor little temper tantrum (stamping both her feet on the ground and vocalizing unhappily) when we wouldn’t let her into her regular entrance to the building (we still had 15 minutes or so and weren’t about to give that up!). As we were packing up to head in, we saw her most animated display yet as another couple from the states came out with their daughter and older son. The boy went running off to play on the playground equipment and Ivanna took off after him and followed him up a large slide (with help from her mama who was having a minor heart attack at her trying to climb up the ladder which had 1/3 of the rungs missing). Darren caught her at the bottom and she was off again. Eventually we really had to take her back (I hate that part) and so Darren picked her up and in we went. As we took her to her living area (because no nurses were around to take her) she waved goodbye and blew kisses to her uncle jonathan for the first time. I hope she’ll remember him when we get home.
The train back home was a little more spacious, though we stood for most of the ride. We then had a soft ice cream appetizer and headed to Mario’s for lunch, where we posted the early blog, ate, emailed and posted pictures (the boys made me wait to post info. about today until now-they figure that spacing out the postings will feed addictions to our blog). After lunch we stopped briefly at home to dump my bag of kid stuff then headed back to look for art. Saturday is apparently a much better day as there were more people out with their paintings. The paintings that we had thought we’d missed out on (when we were there yesterday, the 2 paintings Darren and I had decided to buy, weren’t there anymore and we thought had been purchased) were there! Yay! So we bought more art today. I could just keep buying, but Darren thinks we should be done for now. It’s just so hard to stop buying because equivalent stuff at home is really so ridiculously expensive! After jonathan also bought another piece, we headed home because we were pretty much out of the money we’d brought. We took the metro home and Jonathan is now cooking us supper. We plan to go out for dessert later so we can post this. We have no firm plans for tomorrow except to go to the ballet. We may try another church or just wander the city. There are definitely a lot more people around for the rallies and upcoming holiday, so the next few days should be interesting. We’re hoping to catch the parade on May Day.
We are feeling quite settled here (we are able to get around and find our way on foot and in the metro, as well as have found some great eats), but we still miss home immensely. Your comments and emails make us feel very loved and supported: they bring us great joy (although I’m still a bawling baby when I read the comments and emails!). Thank you.