Living in limbo

It's been a rough few weeks...after much debate, we (temporarily) moved into another apartment. As many of you know or have heard, our bathroom has issues. I'm not going to lie, I cried the first day we got here when I saw the bathrooms. Nothing was actually wrong with them, they were just a little different than I had pictured. Old tiles, 50's green (like an old Chevy wagon), then another green for patching broken ones, and a shotty job with larger, newer tiles on the floor that didn't quite make it to the wall on the back and one side and had piles of "gunk". It's no wonder that pictures of our apartment didn't include the bathroom. Over the past few months we've grown fond of our cozy little apartment, except for the hazard zone. Right before Rawly was born water started dripping from the pipes near the toilet. And that crevice between the floor and wall, well it would be wet in the morning and dry up during the day. There arose a damp icky smell that we tried to mask with candles. It became habitual to take a deep breath, run in, relieve yourself, wash your hands, and escape as quickly as possible. The pipe was fixed in December, but when we came back from Italy, it began leaking again. Then the hot water went out. At first we thought, well, they must be fixing the leak. But it never came on again.
A week they said. Fair enough, our bathroom was to be remodeled; tiles taken off the wall, bleached, moldy grout removed, etc. The way Ukrainian time goes, I figured on at least two weeks (it's kind of like the "manana" of Latin culture.) Week one passed; week two brought the news that if the hot water was fixed, then they would go ahead with renovations--as they "Europeanized" our bathroom. Apparently Europeanizing involves enclosing all visible water pipes--an added plus.
Then just this last Thursday we were told, "The guys are there to work, can you make sure everything is out and ready, now?" It was the middle of the day, and we had classes to teach, so I went over after school. The guys had begun and as an added bonus they were also tearing apart our shower bathroom! (Most Ukrainian apartments have a toilet room and a separate bathroom.) So it had been two weeks. Two weeks to begin, not finish! We'd moved clothes and food to the new apartment, back to the old one, then to the new one. Living between the two places has proved to be difficult. They taped off our bedrooms so that they don't get dusty, but the kitchen and living room are a different story as they've become the storing place for all of the tiles. We go on vacation next week and they are supposed to be done by the 26th--let's hope so! Then we'll be back to our home sweet Ukrainian home!!!

My silly quirks

I like numbers. Generally odd numbers; except for today’s date. Today is grandma’s birthday. I know that she has passed on, but it’s still a happy day in my heart. From the time I was a little girl, I’ve enjoyed the day. With Grandma living in California, I never actually spent the day with her. But, I remember seeing her charm bracelet when I was nine or ten and ever since then this day two days after Valentine’s Day has been special.

Speaking of the grandmotherly type…this morning on my way in, I was accosted by BG (Galina has a similar stature to my grandmother for those of you who loved her, you know what I mean.) Anyway, BG looked at me in that “tisk, tisk” sort of way and said, “You have to keep your breasts warm. What is this open jacket? And…wet hair? Ahh, where is your mother? She would get you right (as she swatted my backside.J)” I think that this must have something to do with another Ukrainian superstition that if a girl sits on concrete without a cotton barrier for warmth her ovaries will freeze. While I was pregnant I sat on cement steps, benches, water fountains just to prove my point—am I ornery or what?

That song, “Only in America!” keeps ringing through my head, but instead I sing, only the elderly—honestly who else could get away with that? Luckily, I find the whole situation quite humorous!

In my defense, we walk only 300 yards from our apartment to the school (some days Ken doesn’t even wear a coat, but I guess his milk isn’t going to freeze!) It’s just under freezing today, but our apartment is SOOO hot from the radiators, as is my classroom. So I enjoy the brisk jaunt. It makes me feel alive! Since my ovaries never froze, as far as I can tell, the milk will keep flowing whether or not I zip my jacket.

Recent highlights

Yesterday while giggling and looking up at me, Rawly interlaced his fingers with mine. I don't even think that I know how to begin to explain that connection.
Saturday our school had a baby shower for Rawly. I teared up (big surprise) as Ken thanked everyone there for their support before and after Rawly's birth. We are so grateful for our friends and co-workers here and so thankful for their love and generosity. Right after Rawly was born, a family arranged meals for us for two weeks and gave me some English DVDs to watch! And at the shower, they were just as apt to jump in and help another family in a similar way. There's a special bond being formed among us all. It's a relationship that couldn't be duplicated. We rejoice at silly things like finding "real" tortillas or Parmesan cheese in the supermarket. We share in the excitement of travel and the struggle of immersing ourselves in another culture--which can be a daily challenge. Being a language teacher, I've always tried to combine culture into my lessons. Being immersed in a completely foreign one, I'm constantly reminding myself, "Take a step back Alyssa." But it sure is difficult sometimes!
On another note, I don't think that I communicate this enough...Ken is really fantastic! During the end of my pregnancy, he took over and did the shopping, most of the dishes, and a lot of the cooking. And even now he jumps in to make dinner without being asked :) Tonight's fajita night (thanks to Mom for bringing over spice packets!) As I'm sitting here, he just brought me a slice of red pepper--one of our favorite treats. This morning in the hall Ken and I were chatting before school began, our school Registrar commented on how strange it was to her to always see us together because most of her married friends did everything in their power to not be with their spouses--let alone would they want to see them at work everyday. What a sad existence! We are so fortunate that we get to work along side our best friend (as cliche as that may sound.) While I'm tooting his horn...the other day one of Ken's students brought in guacamole to his geography class (it was the first time that many students had tried it--so weird). Being the "guac" connoisseur I am, I ran up the stairs after his class began hoping to get a spoonful of the beautiful greenness. What I stumbled into as I rounded the corner was one of the coolest classes ever! His students were in the middle of a mock EU conference where they were debating which countries should or should not become a part of the EU. The kids were completely engaged in it and were having lively, relevant debates siting intriguing facts and current events that weren't even on my radar. It was sweet. Don't worry, I did get a taste of goodness later in the period!

He keeps growing...and growing!

What determination! He loves tummy time, well he likes it for as long and he can hold himself up. The other morning Ken had set him down for some early tummy time, turned on some Tom Petty and Rawly crashed! He also loves to stand up and have people hold onto his hands. Ken's never seen it, but I'm pretty sure that Rawly can sign "milk". It's the only sign I've taught him, it's likely to be a coincidence, but who knows...

I've been back at work for two full weeks now. Our nanny is able to bring Rawly to school for his meal times. We're really fortunate that he's happy with a three hour eating schedule as it works out perfectly with my breaks!

He loves to smile and laugh and coo! He mimics too:) We have some Led Zeppelin lullabys that he listens to while snoozing during the day and Ken and I are certain that he's singing "O, oh, oh,o-o-o, you don't have to go!" Whatever the case, we love all the fun time we get to spend with him.

December 20: Pisa

Yes, it really leans! I'm not sure that the pictures really do it justice.

One month and traveling--not expecting a white Christmas

December 19th: Fifteen hours, three changes of baby clothes, and a rental car later—we weren't quite dreaming of a white Christmas, but it looks like that is what we'll have. Three weeks ago Florence was a warm 60 degrees; last week when we checked the projected weather it was supposed to be in the fifties. Excited to get out of the cold temperatures in Kyiv, we all packed accordingly...

Rawly had been doing very well, first there was the 3:30am airport pick up, then we we stopped at Customs because they wanted a copy of his Birth Certificate in addition to his Passport, and finally our three hour flight to Treviso—just outside of Venice. From there we were to drive two more hours to our villa outside of Florence. Such was not the case. The weather had turned and the Treviso airport had closed due to snow. Milan was the next closest airport, but even after we had landed we had to wait on the plane another hour. Our car rental in Treviso had been canceled and couldn't be transferred and was going to end up costing an arm and a leg to have a different drop off location. Budget Rental, however, came to our rescue and gave us a better deal than we originally had. Ready to get out of the snow, we were all hoping that Florence would not be experiencing the same bone chilling temperatures. So far our time in Tuscany was looking to be much bleaker than we were wishing.

Finding Florence had been easy enough—finding our villa proved harder than the directions had boasted. Round and round in circles we drove trying to match the directions to landmarks, straining to see the limited road signs in the dark, and being pointed this way and that. At last we asked to use someone's phone and the owner of the villa met us at a gas station and led us along (to our credit, the directions didn't match.) It was an uncanny -13 C and almost that cold in our stonewalled apartment. Even with the heat turned up to 28 C and layers of clothing, we never warmed up that night. Mom's clock thermometer read 56 F. (Ken and I have been spoiled in Kyiv with the hot radiators in our apartment.)

The next day the sun was out, so although it was cold, at least we had real sunshine--something we haven't seen in Kyiv for quite some time!

Gigi is coming to town! (Grandma Pat's arrival in Kyiv)

December 17th, Rawly's four week birthday! What a great present to see his Gigi.

As much as we love how efficient public transportation is here—it's by no means quick. We have been very fortunate to use the Skousens' car during our time here in Kyiv. Wednesday night Ken went to put gas in the “Lada” so that we could leave quickly after Ken got out of school to go pick up my mom from the airport the next day. It wouldn't turn over. The battery was dead. Luckily we have a great maintenance staff who took care of the whole car issue so that as soon as Ken's last class was over, I met him down in the parking lot and we were off. Mom's flight arrived at 4:08pm, we made it to the airport around 4:30 searching for any sign of her. It was quite possible that she had missed her connecting flight in Munich. But we had no way to tell. Just when we were considering leaving, Ken got a call from mom—her luggage is what hadn't made the flight, so she had been filling out paper work and the likes to get it delivered the next day.

With bundled baby and grandma in tow, we trucked across the snowy parking lot and were at last on our way home. Or so we thought. Apparently men waving glow sticks at night means that you should pull over. Exiting the airport we were waved down by two guys, the final one standing in front of our car. He started yelling at us and eventually went to get someone who spoke more English than he. We considered just driving off, but they had blocked us in—the police force is often corrupt and just want to be bribed. The second guy also yelled at us also in Russian because we hadn't stopped the first time for him. Then he asked for our paperwork and made Ken get out to look at it. We think that he stopped us because our tags weren't up to date (which they were.) Realizing his error, we were freed! Or so we thought...as it turns out, snow mellows out the Kyivian drivers. Drivers who are usually aggressive and erratic became meek and hesitant; except for a few rouge vehicles, who actually cut across the median and drove down the opposite side against traffic—only to get to the bottleneck bridge and be denied access by most drivers. It took us almost three hours to get home (without traffic it takes ½ hour.) Our friend and apartment neighbor, Elysa, was wonderful and had made us spaghetti to take home so that we didn't have to bother with anything. After we were fed and Mom had settled in a bit, we headed back over to the Skousens' to celebrate Diego's birthday.