Catch Up Note: Last Day in Lugansk

I resolved to get up early and slip into Ruslan's room so as to not have him go into a jealous frenzy first thing in the morning.

Valik is a squirmy sleeper, and the bed we were on (where Colin and Claire had been sleeping) is very thin with about very sharp springs. Further, no one in Ukraine seems to have fitted sheets, so the sheet kept slipping off. And I am like the protagonist in "The Princess and the Pea" (or "Once Upon a Mattress" for you Carol Burnett fans) when it comes to irritants in the bed. So I didn't sleep so well after going to bed at 2am after completing my blogging.

Valik woke up at about 6am singing to himself. He likes to sing when he is happy. It's really nice, though I would have enjoyed it even more at about 8am. Before long, he realized I was in bed with him and we snuggled up for about 45 minutes.

We started playing the "Ya teb-yah loo-bleu" (I love you) game. He would say "Ya teb-yah loo-bleu", to which I would say "Eee Ya teb-yah loo-bleu", to which he would say "Eee Ya teb-yah loo-bleu", to which I would say "Eee Ya teb-yah loo-bleu", etc. etc. This wen ton for about 5 minutes.

Then he decided to wake up Ruslan. He left the room before I could stop him. I slipped in to Ruslan's room to minimize the damage. I was wrong. There was no memory of the problems the night before. He was as happy as a clam (and we all know that's the happiest animal in phylum mollusca, so I think you can envision it).

The boys are great in the mornings. Nancy works with them to make breakfast each morning, and they love it. One of their favorite things in the world to do is to make scrambled eggs. They take the shell and smash about half of them, but the other half make it into the bowl to stir. Of that, about another half makes it into the pan. But the eggs have been very good. I think they have a knack for cooking.

We spent a couple of hours packing, which was no small chore. We don't have that much stuff, but had been crammed into a small apartment for a month, with a tiny washer, and no dryer. Things just migrate around the place, so collecting them took a while.

Nancy left for a couple of hours, and honestly I can't remember where. I think she went to look at furs with Natasha and Claire, but can't recall. I like to block that sort of thing from my memory. Meanwhile I took care of the boys.

We tried reading the grinch, going over the Disney English book, and stuff like that. there were a few incidents but not too bad. I recall Natasha calling to ask how things were (she had been staying in a separate place since returning from Kyiv for New Year's / Christmas). and telling her there had been a few incidents, but all told the boys were doing well and behaving pretty well. And that was true.

But as the day went on, things wore down. We were mostly done packing, but still somewhat preoccupied since we had to get to the train station for our 4:40pm train to Kyiv. The boys began shouting and kicking at each other, taking offense and swinging fists at each other for minor things, and we found out more about Valik's gift for speaking in tongues (that's the nice way to put it). By the time Nancy got home, I was worn out. She took the boys out to take out trash (one of their favorite pastimes) and to go on the swings. that gave me a chance to finish the final packing details and get a bite to eat.

After that, I had to get cash to pay Peter and Sergei for the past week's driving as well as for the train ticket to Kyiv. I got about $500 worth of hryvnia at 8.50 to the dollar. I also got a few last minute groceries to take with us on the train. Unfortunately, I forgot that we needed to pay Peter for the train tickets he had picked up the prior night while we had our going away party at the orphanage. The train had been sold out, but they were able to speak to the station manager who just happened to have a couple of sleeper cabins reserved. We got two cabins (4 beds each) for $260 (a fair amount above the going rate, but greatly appreciated nonetheless).

So I didn't have enough hryvnia to pay Peter all I owed him, but I just worked out the difference and paid him in dollars. I also paid Nikolai for 15 days at the flat at $75 / day.

All in all, we have been spending about $150 - 160 a day between lodging, food, and transportation. Food has been less expensive than expected, lodging a bit more (versus about $60 we had expected) and transportation about $50-60 a day (versus about $30-40 expected). Fortunately, we brought more money than we thought we would need.

Nikolai and Nadia dropped by to collect their money and to say goodbye. They were great with the kids, though I think they were a bit shocked by their behavior. The boys had been cooped up in the flat most of the day and were getting more and more moody. When we took our good-bye picture, Ruslan was in a mood and refused to get in the shot.

We gave our little birch Christmas tree to Nikolai and Nadia and invited them to stay with us in Charlotte should they ever visit. They are the nicest couple. Especially Nikolai, who seems like the nice next door neighbor who would have visited Mr. Rogers in the Land of Make-believe. We were glad to avoid an issue with their gift as we were concerned that Nancy might have inadvertently given them the Christmas gift I gave to her (meaning Nancy). I bought her a little art-decoish / arts & craftsish candlestick statue. We had it out on the table by the tree the day after Christmas. When he stopped by Nadia looked at it and asked (in Russian) what it was. Nancy told her it was a Christmas gift. Her eyes got big and she called Nikolai, and they said "spaseeba". Nancy smiled and nodded. I suddenly realized they must have thought it was a gift for them, but didn't have enough Russian to explain the situation at the moment. We had been living in dread that they would want to keep it. Fortunately, all seemed ok in the end.

We gave Peter (who is Nikolai and Nadia's son, as well as one of our drivers) a Carolina Panthers cap as well as an LED flashlight. We had to explain to him who the Panthers were (and after their drubbing by Arizona, I don't think we were at risk of him finding out who they were otherwise). We gave Sergei a Gerber all-in-one pair of pliers (you know, the Swiss army knife type of thing).

At about 3:45, we began loading the car, finally leaving at about 4:15. I was worried about making the train, but we were able to make it on board with about 5 minutes to spare. The only thing I had wanted to get but could not was a show of the Lugansk train station.

No matter. We got our bags put away, just in time to head off to Kyiv.

[Again, pictures will be added later.]