Save the Sofa! And other questions answered

Many of you have asked questions in the comments, which I'll try to answer. Because we really love to see comments!! It makes me feel like all my hard work making this blog so wonderful is really worth it... So kudos to each and every one of you who have made the heroic effort to post a comment on the apparently tempermental blogsite. (and the many of you who have tried to post a comment, not been able to, but sent me an email instead -- big fat pat on the back to you too.)

We do now have internet, in our apartment, although we didn't for the first 2 discouraging days here. Having internet really makes a huge difference here -- lets Ted do his work, allows us to blog and email, stay in touch with our family by Skype, and gives us access to all the wonderful information on the web -- we've been able to look at maps of Kiev, weather reports, even look up local events here, research ministries in the area, and of course stay on top of NFL draft developments.

Dima's name (which is the traditional nickname for Dmitri) is pronounced "Dee-mah". As we did with Tristan, we will be giving him another name and keeping Dmitri as his middle name. Once we go to court and it's all official... we'll tell you what it is!

We do have a TV in this flat, but no DVD player. The TV gets every single channel produced outside of the English-speaking world. So I guess you could say we are "fasting from TV for Lent" -- especially since we discovered that you cannot watch The Office on NBC.com unless you are watching it while you are in the States. However.... we can watch DVDs on our laptop, and boy, do we ever! We didn't bring enough with us (what were we thinking??) but we make every one we have go for several evenings.

I have now baked one batch of chocolate chip cookies here, albeit without all the traditional ingredients (no brown sugar, no vanilla). And since today is Ted's birthday, I think I will be attempting cake today! I have 1 multi-use pan for the oven -- it's sort of like a 9x13, out of cheap aluminum, that I bought for 53 grivna (approx $6). I use it for everything -- I can bake 6 cookies at a time in it, we put a strange frozen pizza (quattro formaggio! which meant mozarella, gouda and edam cheese, who knows what the 4th cheese was) in it, and I use it to make toast (which is breakfast every day) since I don't have a toaster.

Cooking is a real challenge here -- but I still like the challenge! The most difficult part is finding the correct ingredients without being able to read the labels. Some things are easy (juice, for example, has a picture of which kind of fruit it's made from. Still, I mistook grapefruit for orange once...) Other things are tricky -- a picture of a cake on a package might mean it's sugar, flour, baking soda, coco powder, or even salt. And think about how many differnt products have tomatoes as the main ingredient! And I have my handy Russian dictionary to help me, but it is a painstaking process to look up the words from the package, and if I don't find the word in my dictionary, it could mean 1)that word is just not in my dictionary 2)it's a Ukrainian, not Russian, word -- I cannot often tell the 2 languages apart or 3)that word is the brand name, not the contents. Also, every item we consume (including water!) has to be purchased at the store (about 3/4 mile away) or a kiosk (4 blocks away) and carried home and up to the 4th floor. There's no filling the car with bags and bringing them in one at a time from the garage!

Dima has lost all traces of shyness with us, and constantly babbles away to us. And no, we understand absolutely none of what he's saying -- once again, I don't know if it's Russian or Ukrainian (many people here speak an unconscious mixture of both.) I have no doubt he'll pick English up quickly and that we'll soon begin to have ways of understanding each other. He has already begun to call Ted "Dadu" and Tristan "brahti" (braht is Russian for brother). He has the most adorable little voice, we are glad to hear it even speaking words we don't understand.

We do, indeed, hope to be able to ship our awesome Soviet sofa home to Grand Ledge -- as suggested by the always-clever Rachael McAlvey. Feel free to contribute to the "Save the Sofa" fund, a tax-deductible foundation we'll be setting up ASAP. (Megan Brus: this is a joke. Just like Ted's book "The Shaq" was a joke.)

And finally: do we like it here? I think each of us get frustrated with different things that are hard. Everything seems to take a little longer to do here, and more effort. Tristan misses school, having friends his age to play with, and places to run around and play loudly. Ted misses his routine, feeling a little more in control, and the comforts of home. I miss my kitchen and the conveniences of car, dishwasher, washer and dryer, etc. We all miss our friends, family, and church. Speaking only for myself now, though, I can say -- I really enjoy being here. Maybe it's the city-living that I've always wanted to do, or the historic nature of everything around us. I love seeing this place, and watching the people who live here, and hearing the music of the different languages. I like the adventure of going new places and the feeling of accomplishment I get every time I do something successfully (like find a bank, buy a bottle of water, get across the street alive, make a meal out of the ingredients I bought -- everything is harder here!) Even though I will be glad to come home, for now I am glad to be here, and to have this experience.
-- Kristin