McDonald's is NOT Their Kind of Place

Yulia had given us directions to get to a nearby McDonald's. We thought that would be a special treat for the boys and be a welcome change in our diet.

It turns out they had no idea what McDonald's was. I figured they would know french fries, since we had eaten them in Ukraine. But I guess living in a small town like Lutugino, McDonald's and fries were a mystery to them.

We got them bundled up for a walk through the snow. It went ok for a while, but Ruslan seems to get cold easily. He wasn't that jazzed about going to a restaurant in the first place. When he saw the entrance to a place we had eaten before (a small cafe in a supermarket), he tried to pull us in there. We said no, it was a couple of blocks further. He wasn't happy with that.

After about 2 blocks, he started complaining about being cold (though that didn't seem to be an issue when he saw a Playstation 3 display in a store window). He began to get more upset as we walked about 3 more blocks. He was literally dragging his feet. We kept telling him we would have already been there if he would walk normally.

Finally, after another block we saw McDonald's. But by this time, he had gotten sullen as he tends to do. He stood at the counter moping and would not order food. I ordered him and Valik a cheeseburger

Хеппі мил (Happy Meal). The meals for 5 of us came to about $25. Not bad.

McDonald's is a happening place in Kyiv. The restaurant seats about 300, and there were about 350 people there.

We got our food and headed to the one table we were able to find available. Ruslan was too mad to eat, and Valik only eats air, so the 2 of them sat for a long time, while the rest of us ate a McDonald's meal that we actually liked. We truly have been gone for a long time.

After about 10 minutes, Ruslan tasted a french fry which he found to his liking. That and the toy slowly brought him out of his shell. He finally ate most of his cheeseburger. We got Valik to try his. He could tolerate the fries but hated the cheeseburger. He began whining for morozhena (ice cream). We bought some McNuggets and said he could only have ice cream if he ate a nugget. Eventually he did.

The boys cheered up quite a bit after they got ice cream.

As we were preparing to leave, Valik got up and wandered to a nearby table where a family was eating. I chastised him for bothering them and the mom, a pretty red-head around 30 said something in Russian. I apologized that I only spoke English. She responded in pretty good English that she was happy to have my son play with her daughter.

We explained we had adopted and only had the boy for a few days so far. She didn't understand. I said he was from a Detsky Dom (children's house). Then she understood. She asked how we liked Ukraine. I responded, "Very much". She said, "Are you crazy?"

I said maybe I hadn't seen enough then, but I was enjoying it. Besides I like pork and chicken so was enjoying the food.

After a few minutes we broke off and headed home.

It turned out ok, but had not been the treat for the boys we had hoped. I guess American cultural imperialism only goes so far.

Yet....