Thursday, June 17, 2010

Court Date!!!!

Today we started our day with a trip to the notary with Nadiya, whose name I have spelled 3 different ways but I think I finally have it right :). We had kind of a funny experience when right in the middle of working with the notary she suddenly stopped, rambled on about something, looked at us and held up her hand showing the number 5, shut out the lights, sent us out the door, and locked up behind us! Apparently she had somewhere she needed to be....right in the middle of what we were doing! We just started laughing. The notary said she would be back in 5 minutes but Nadiya knew better so we went to a coffee shop to hang out until we heard back from her. It was a great opportunity to get to know Nadiya better. As soon as I can I'll get a picture of her. She is 27, single, and adorable. We have really grown to love her in just a few days. After the notary she went out to Vorzel to deliver our documents to the judge and we already have a court date! We will be in court on June 24th! After that comes the 10 day wait and hopefully July 5th will be gotcha day!!!

Overall it was kind of a quiet day so I thought I'd take the opportunity to post a few pictures and observations that have been side tracked with all of the excitement about Oksana.

We are really starting to enjoy this city. Many people speak at least enough English to get by when they talk to us. If not, pointing works well too! There are a good number of restaurants that have English menus so that has helped. The other day I used a public restroom while I was with Jill Claxton, not because I needed to go, but because I wanted the experience :). We walked in and handed 2 hryvnia to the lady which is about the equivalent of 25 cents. Then we took a piece of toilet paper from a dispenser on the wall and off we went to find an open stall. Yep, you heard that right....toilet paper first, potty next! Larry's big question was "What if you need more than one piece?!" I guess you are out of luck. We haven't encountered a turkish toilet yet and if I have my way we won't anytime soon!

Here are some pictures:
Our apartment from the outside....you'd never guess would you? It looks run down like this all they way up to the point that you walk in the room and then it's like walking into another world!


This is a church that we got to go inside on our walk home from the notary. It is St. Vladimir's Cathedral and it is absolutely beautiful!


Here is an ad for Toy Story 3:


This is a Papa John's Pizza! I don't know if you can tell but "Papa John" is an African American man! When I've told some of the Ukranians that he is not African American they get a kick out of it!


This is our favorite Ukranian buffet. Mmmmmm....we are yet to find something bad there and it is so cheap!


And here is the famous TGI Fridays...I've heard more English speakers coming in and out of this door than any other!


We are being picked up tomorrow by our driver at 8:45 to see Oksana again. More to come tomorrow.....

2 comments:

Ellen Stumbo said...

Love the pictures!
Make sure to tell Seb we say hi!
And if you speak Spanish, his Spanish is better than his English :)

mark said...

That will give a whole new meaning to the phrase "independence day". We are just giddy crazy for you guys....