Day 34 - Are we tired yet?

While in Ukraine I have not been sleeping well.  It's not jet lag.  It's a combination of uncomfortable beds and not being able to turn my brain off.  Last night was an all-nighter.  I didn't sleep at all.  Add that with the three hours of sleep I got the night before last and you can imagine what kind of shape I am in.  Alex isn't much better off.  She got less that three hours of sleep herself last night and I know the last few days she has been too excited to sleep.  Needless to say, we are wiped out and ready for some rest.  Soon!

Today we were picked up in Lugans'k by our facilitator at 5AM.  Drove to the Lugans'k airport for our 7AM flight.  You know you are getting on a small plane when at 5'1" tall you bump your head coming through the door!  Once in Kyiv our facilitator here picked us up and drove us to the US Embassy to apply for Visa's for Alex & Maksim.  Our appointments were at 10:30 & 11:00, but everything went so smoothly that we were finished there before 11:00.  Next we were off for the medical exams.  Not the most fun any of us have had, but it wasn't too bad.  We were finished there and heading to our apartment around 1:00.  Our facilitator here found us a two bedroom apartment so Kelly and I are staying together with the kids.  By 2:00 we were about to start eating our own arms so we headed out for some food.  McDonald's was the winner.  I never eat at McDonalds in America, but from the way I ate today you would have thought I had an addiction.  Chicken nuggets, fries, a COKE (I *never* drink soda) AND and ice cream sundae.  Man was it good!

Tomorrow we go back to the Embassy at 2:00 to pick up visas and then: We. Are. Done.  Yes, you read that right!  Flight out of Kyiv leaves Saturday morning at 5:30....YIKES!!!  Short layover in Frankfurt then straight to Atlanta.  Insert big sigh of relief here.  :)

Something funny happened to Kelly and I earlier today that I thought I would share.  We had landed in Kyiv and rode the bus from the puddle jumper  airplane to the terminal to collect our baggage.  Kelly and I were chatting away and a man standing next to us commented on the english speaking ladies.  He asked a few small talk questions and we answered and in turn asked him a few questions as well.  When we told him we were from Georgia he complimented us by saying we didn't sound like hillbillies.  (Yep, it's true)  He asked why we were in Ukraine and we told him and out of courtesy we asked him why he was in Ukraine.  His reply: "Well I came here to meet a lady.  I've been all over...China, Japan, Philippines, Thailand."  What exactly do you say to that?  Good Luck?  Any takers?  Then we were able to snag our luggage and start our getaway when he decided to welcome the kids to America.  Ummm...we are still in Ukraine, right?  Thank goodness his luggage hadn't come yet.

And that was our day.  We did do quite a bit of walking around this afternoon which was nice.  We will have most of the day tomorrow to explore as well and then it is time to pack it up and say Dosvidanya, Ukraine!"