Done. Phew!

Today started out with assurances that nothing could go wrong – so we were quite relaxed and ready for an active day. Then reality set in. Our Kyiv facilitator Yulia got stuck in a THREE HOUR traffic jam this morning, which necessitated Jean and Elizabeth going on their own to the medical center for the exam. As Yulia was carrying necessary documents for the exam, we had to wait for her there. Our 9:00 am medical appointment soon turned in to 10 am, then 10:30….as we anxiously awaited her arrival. With a US Embassy appointment time looming at 11:30, we were sweating the cross-city taxi-dash in a big way. Not to mention that Jim, Taylor and Kate were back at the flat – without a cell phone.

Well, to make a long morning short, we screeched into the Embassy parking lot at 11:29. Yulia then mentioned that since she was stuck in the traffic jam, we did not have a chance to fill out the Embassy forms she had for us at the office. We had to tell the Embassy staff we had not pre-done our paperwork, so we stood in the hallway filling out 30 minutes of forms. We then were asked to wait for a consular officer. It was lunch hour, so we waited til after 1:30. However, the young man was very kind and grinned at us with a big, ol’ American smile plastered across his American face. We figured that not having papers pre-done would hamper our ability to get a same-day visa, but not so, he assured us. The queue for visas today was short! So we were able to leave the Embassy and return at 4:30 pm to get Elizabeth’s visa. YEAH! WAHOO! DONE!

In the time between our Embassy appointment and the visa retrieval, we were able to: sit in a 45 minute traffic jam; have lunch with Karen Springs at McDonalds; meet briefly with the Passanitas at the agency office; get a picture of Elizabeth in front of a large Saint Olga statue; buy a Ukraine flag from a little old babooshka; and fit in a mad dash to the street market at St. Andrew’s. We quickly picked up several items at the first tables we got to: Ukraine T shirts, a hat, a Shevchenko soccer shirt for Elizabeth, and two traditional embroidered blouses for Kate and Elizabeth. (Taylor had benefitted from a previous market-run, so she stood by and watched the other two go crazy.)

We were VERY glad to get back to our flat, cooling in the evening breezes. We have made plans to meet Rob and Laura P for dinner at DeMario (yes – we went there with our friends Sergey and Laurissa last night, but it is right across the street, is good, and has an English menu!) It’s almost time to say “Das-Vi-Dan-Yeh, Oo-kray-ee-na!” See y’all on the flip side. : )