Day 13 – 8/16

Its Sunday so we have another free day (no paperwork), we start with the yogurt / banana breakfast. Instant coffee with heavy sweet cream, hey I can’t read Russian and it looked like milk to me, and toast for the adults. The girls are still recovering from the emotional day we had at the Embassy. They didn’t understand a word but they knew it wasn’t good news, why else would he pull out all his hair and turn white like death. Ira is speaking only in Russian and Ola won’t even speak to us. They were feeding off our emotions, I tried for two weeks to keep a positive attitude and only have a smile on my face, but the Embassy was my final straw. I lost control of my mind, every challenge of the past 16 months came rushing in and my body responded with a heavy heart. Now is the time we find out what you’re made of, is all I could think about. We needed to have some fun and I needed to exercise out all of my inner demons. The park seemed to be the perfect place. The girls had everything they needed, even an inflatable bounce house with a slide. Cheryl and I took turns making laps around the ½ mile park until it was too hot. After a quick shower and fridge detail, oh yeah you can’t leave two ten year olds alone with any food right before lunch or they will eat everything except the lunch you just purchased, we head for another new experience Cafeteria style restaurant. The trays seem safe enough until they have an empty bowl, now we are in front of twelve different salads OH NO it’s brain lock, the girls walk back and forth like caged animals. What do we want? Not what someone put in front of us to eat. They go with “cucumbers and tomatoes”, this after 10 minutes of spooning through every salad bowl and investigating each ingredient.
Now we move to the main course, they look like deer in the head lights – eyes glazed over and frozen in there tracks. They walk back and forth; soup, meat, pasta, pizza, cabbage rolls, stuff peppers, viriniki, rice, bread and more food than they ever seen in one place. After 10 minutes of circular motion we find ourselves in front of the meat counter. The server asks what they want and they look as if they don’t understand Russian, just a blank stare until I start pointing out each item, eta ela eta ( this or this). Ira picks a fried chicken patty and Ola a fried round item covered in bread crumbs. I assume that this is something familiar to them and even though I wouldn’t order these it’s OK. Now on to the final journey, the drink selection; the shelves have water (regular, mineral, with gas or with out), juice of every flavor (by the glass, bottle, box or keg) , sodas , teas and even some energy drinks. Another ten minutes on gaze and we settle on some orange Fanta. With some strong herding by Cheryl, she has experience in herding three cats at home, we finally make it to the cashier to check out. The girls both are fascinated with the counter you can slide the tray right up to the register and stare at the cashier as she enters each item. Wow, 105.25 kryvnia ($23.00) for a dozen plates and four drinks. Again Cheryl uses her herding skills to guide them to an open table and we don’t even drop a single tray. The girls take one bite of the mystery meat and push the plates away with a crinkled face. OK they’re new to the choice thing. They eat the vegetables and bread circles, bread in the shape of the letter O covered in sesame seeds, looks like a pretzel but soft and moist. Doesn’t look like were going to starve for at least another day. We head back to the apartment to escape the mid day heat and watch some Russian and English cartoons. Later we take another big walk around the area to get the feel of the land and top it off with some soft serve ice cream swirls “Lemon and chocolate”. I thought it was vanilla. Oh well, the girls wear most of it anyway. You give them a nectarine, tomato or a plate of cucumbers and it’s gone in seconds. Now give them an ice cream on a hot day and they try to make it last for hours and of course it melts all over until it falls on sidewalk.