This morning, we visited the Embassy. The embassy is giant, surrounded by a huge fence, with tons of security. How American. Our actual visit was easy, the intake of documents. We will go back next week for the interview, once we have her passport.

It was a rainy day, so once we were done at the embassy, we had some downtime until we finally ventured out for lunch. We checked out Oliva, an Italian restaurant. It was really top notch in service and food.

I wanted to go to the Chernobyl Museum.

I don’t know what I expected, but I don’t think I imagined that the sadness would be so palpable.

The loss of life, homes, and the ripple effect that is still occurring.

The children in these photos are all my age, born shortly after the disaster. Their parents either lived near Chernobyl, or helped with cleaning it up. They are 7x more likely to have chromosomal abnormalities than their older siblings.

This gateway from a church which was burned down. It symbolizes the gateway between heaven and hell.

In black with white text, sign that would indicate that you’re leaving Chernobyl.

Vehicles from Chernobyl.

I can’t entirely wrap my brain around the extent of this tragedy. Frankly, I’m still trying to process what I saw. If you’d like to read more about how children are still affected, take a look at Chernobyl Children’s Fund.

The rest of our evening was low-key. We had eaten lunch late, so we decided to go to Lyiv Chocolate Factory for dessert, instead of dinner.

I got chocolate Spartak cake.

Lyuda got vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. And my mom got blueberries and cream.

It’s amazing we’ve only gone here once when it’s right next to our apartment.

Tomorrow, the only thing on the agenda is to go back and have Lyuda’s TB test read.

The main thing on the agenda for today was Lyuda’s medical exam. Olya was meeting us, and together, we would take the metro. The metro was jam packed this morning, but fortunately we only needed to be on it for a few stops.

We visited a different medical center than the one we took Reed and Lena to. This one was fairly new, but smaller than the other. When we walked in, I pointed out a sign to my mom, in English, Ukrainian and Russian. The English stated: adoption cases take priority, thank you for understanding. I joked that it probably said something completely different in the other languages. 🙂 5 hours later, she suggested that I was right!

The place was hot, and jam packed with people of all ages. There was a running loop of video showing life in Canada, the US, Australia and the UK. We laughed a lot about how different the clip, showing beautiful, touristy areas of the Pacific Northwest, is from real life. Yes, we all drive RVs and spend our days fishing and walking the beaches. Best of all, this video was in French… not the Canadian part, just the American part. Any idea why? Me either.

Lyuda had to get her height, weight, an eye exam, and a brief exam for the doctor. We had a couple of hours of free time. I suggested that we grab lunch. We walked down to Kreschatyk and found a different Ukrainian cafeteria. It was not Puzata Hata, and just so-so. I think I need to make Lyuda go to Puzata Hata at least once more in Ukraine, and in exchange, I’ll take her to McDonalds in the US. We’ll tolerate our fast food dislikes for each other?

We then headed back to the clinic, where Lyuda got her poke for the TB test. Much more time spent waiting than actually with doctors and nurses, but it always seems to be.

Finally, freedom. We headed on the metro back, where I told Olya that we could make it back by ourselves. I don’t think she believed me, as she hesitantly agreed to leave us and told Lyuda which stop to get off at. Maybe I shouldn’t tell her about our Sunday adventures? The metro is very simple in comparison to American cities.

We returned to our apartment, set our stuff down, and headed out again. We wanted to walk down the Andriyivsky descent and check out the souvenir booths.

Found at the top of the Andriyivsky descent. My curiosity won, and Google told me a bit about this about the mural. No real explanation of why this particular scene, but a bit more info. The buildings on the right, my mom mentioned the contrast between the new and old. Lyuda said that the new building belonged in Chicago. Thoughts, Amanda J?
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For dinner, we went to the 3B cafe– beer, beef and burgers. If you know me, you are aware that those are not really three of my favorite things.  Lyuda got the double beef burger, the most American of us… I got the vegan burger, which turned out to be a small piece of eggplant, a mushroom and a pepper on a bun.

In a funny anecdote, after we went to apply for Lyuda’s passport on Monday, we stopped for lunch. I wanted a Caesar salad and I requested it “bez meyasom”, without meat. The waiter gave me the most confused look, and I looked to Oksana, wondering how horrible my pronunciation had just been. Until the waiter replied… bez meyasom? No meat? No bacon? No chicken? He had understood me just fine, but was shocked that I didn’t want meat. Oksana later pointed out the chalkboard on the wall, which read, “Any vegetarian meal is tastier with meat”.

Cynthia, thanks for the suggestion on Cafe Imbir on my recent post. We haven’t checked it out yet, but I hope to go this weekend!

We walked back to find a piano in the middle of the park, where they were playing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”

One more little thing to share tonight, I need to brag about Lyuda and her language skills. Despite my Ukrainian lessons, often people don’t understand me, or they speak in Russian, or any number of scenarios… she is now at the point where she will jump in and translate. She will clarify our dinner order, ask where something is in a store, and she even got a “sale” for us today from a street artist. She is getting much bolder with her English and translation skills, out of necessity and desire to help us. ❤

Yesterday, we were able to pick up the tax ID without incident. That was really the bulk of our day– we walked around just a bit in the morning, and we went out for dinner when we got back, but nothing too exciting. However, we were quite glad to get that tax ID.

We noticed this mosaic on the bus stop on Wednesday and yesterday I asked the driver to stop. I am in love with it. Can someone recreate this in my house?

Another stop on the way home, to see ceramic lawn ornaments.

This one is for Lena. No, I didn’t buy it. I’m sorry, it was too heavy and big for my suitcase.

Chernihiv? Moscow? Kyiv? Which do you pick? We chose Kyiv for the night.

Today, we had a free morning. We didn’t too much, just exchanged money and grabbed lunch at a food stand. We got burgers, and I was quite impressed that they had fish burgers and vegan burgers. Both were only tak-sobi (so so), but still exciting to find. In the afternoon, Oksana, Olya and our driver met us to go to the big city of Lyuda’s region to apply for her passport. We were all happy to see Oksana.

One of our stops, at a favorite gas station. Lyuda, Oksana and Olya got these hot dogs, which are inside of a loaf of bread. Oksana made Lyuda ask me for the money in English– I appreciate that she helps and encourages Lyuda to learn English.

We drove up to this city, almost two hours away, and when we arrived we found out that the passport office was closed. Argh. Please pray that we can do this on Monday, and that it will be a quick thing. Lyuda requested that we visit her grandmother, and Oksana suggested that this might be a good opportunity. Sure!

When we pulled up to her grandmother’s town, we were surprised to find tons of soldiers, and a guarded gate. We explained why we were there, but they told us that we would need someone with registration to let us in. Argh. This small village is one of the main training camps for the soldiers. While we are very far from the war zone, the war was suddenly very real as we could hear gun fire in the distance and we were surrounded by soldiers. Fortunately, the matter was easily cleared up with a phone call, and we were able to enter the town.

Her babushka welcomed us with open arms, literally. Hugs all around. She lives in a classic Khrushchyovka 5-story apartment building. On the 5th floor.

We got to see photos of a young Lyuda, as well as all kinds of other family photos.

Walking back to the car to say goodbye.

Back in Kyiv, our driver twisted down some old, gorgeous streets on our way back to our apartment. Sometimes, Ukraine looks very Soviet, but many times, it has ornate beauty. This was one of those times.

Oksana had suggested a restaurant for dinner, Gastrorock. While its vegetarian dishes were lacking, overall the food was very good. I would highly recommend it for meat-eating Americans coming to Ukraine– English menus and the street (just off Andriyivsky descent) is worth the walk.

That’s it for today. The plan for the weekend is explore Kyiv.