MoldovAnn

We went jogging last night on the track near our apartment. The goals? (A) keep me from falling asleep on the couch at 6pm; (B) wear me out so I would sleep through the night; and (C) start to tackle the extra “luggage” we brought back with us from the US.

Definite success with goal #1: I was up until the whoppingly late hour of 9:00 pm. Slept until 4:30 am, which is progress but I still wouldn’t call it total success. Goal C will take a lot more than one evening’s jog to accomplish, but we started on it at least.

Considering the primary aerobic activity of my month in the US was driving from one eating establishment to another, and my weight training involved the serious exercises of lifting a full fork or glass to my mouth, I was darn impressed that I pulled off 5 running laps and 1 walking lap at the track. We don’t know the distance- Igor guessed 300-350 meters, I guessed 250 (but I have absolutely no metric sense, so he’s probably closer), I may have run anywhere from 1.25 kilometers to 1.75. Whatever the distance, it’s both pathetic (for a person who used to easily run 5K) and impressive (for the person I am now).

And today I’ve managed to stay up until 11:00. Would it be too much to hope I could sleep until 6 am?

It’s been beautiful in Kyiv, warm and sunny, just the way summer ought to be. And the long, long days are in full stride – it was sunny when I woke up at 4:30 this morning, and there was still a bit of sunlight at 10:00 pm. Gosh, I just love it!

We are missing Pepette immensely. The apartment just doesn’t feel right without her. She was with me almost all of the time I’ve lived in Ukraine. And it just feels nice to have a pet in the house. Igor is warming to the idea of getting a new pet, although he’s not completely ready. That’s OK, I’m not completely ready either. But I know it will be good when do get a new cat.

Much to our surprise, the internet guys came out on a holiday (Constitution Day) to set up our new connection! Yeah, we are back online!

We’ve been back in Ukraine nearly a week and still not sleeping normally. Man, ten hours is a bitch of a time difference. Tonight I quit fighting with it though; I’m going to plow through until 10 pm (I hope!) and take a sleeping pill to get me through the night. I can’t function like this anymore.

The week has been good. We went to Korosten for Igor’s nephew’s high school graduation. It was the usual Ukrainian semi-organized chaos that is typically of nearly all events here – I’m sure they rehearsed but it still nonetheless looked like they’d pulled it together only a couple hours earlier. That kind of stuff used to drive me nuts (having planned many an event in my day), but now I just find it entertaining and I get a good chuckle. It was hot as hades in the auditorium, though, so Igor, his mom and I ducked out after Denis received his diploma. We hussled home and worked on getting things ready for the family party. Denis went out with his classmates, while his parents, grandparents, Igor and I celebrated at home together.

Somehow all my clothes shrunk while I was in the US- and not just the clothes that I took there with me but all my clothes here in Kyiv too. Since I can’t afford a whole new wardrobe right now, the only thing to do is lose some of this American fat that I brought back with me. As long as we keep the trips to Korosten (where’s my mother-in-law’s fantastic cooking is always oh-so-tempting), we should do OK since the beautiful and delicious Ukrainian fruits and veggies are coming into season. We’ve been devouring the gorgeous tomatoes and cucumbers – gazpacho soup, yum! Blueberries and cherries are available now; I bought peaches yesterday. Soon the melons will be ready…. Hmmm, I think we might need to take a road trip to Crimea to really get a full dose of all the fabulous fresh fruits!

Speaking of road trips, we picked up our “new” car this weekend, a 1992 Toyota 4-Runner. The registration is still not completed, so we can’t drive it yet, but hopefully we can finish it up in the next week or two. It’s the most enormous car I’ve ever owned (although still relatively modest in size compared to the gi-normous monsters on the streets of Kyiv). It will be good for us, though – tall and rugged, able to tackle the roads and so-called roads in the places we like to travel to. I just need a step ladder to get up into the thing! Looking forward to some more road-tripping this summer!

And summer is in full force here. We sat on our balcony last week trying to boost up the rather feeble tans we got in cloudy and cold California – no one will believe us we spent over three weeks in the southwest! It’s hot and humid here in Kyiv, though. Now if only we had a beach or swimming pool next to the hotel, I mean apartment.

We arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday- fat, exhausted and full of wonderful impressions and memories from an absolutely fabulous vacation.

Apparently our internet provider went out of business during our absence, ’cause our service isn’t working and the phone number is disconnected. It will take a bit of time to find another provider in our part of town, and is the main reason for not updating here or emailing folks since we’ve been back. Hopefully we’ll be back online soon.

We’ve had a couple of great days in Monterey, and head up to San Francisco today for the last leg of this incredible vacation. We’ve logged over 2100 miles already!

I’m slowly getting photos uploaded, but haven’t had a chance to add descriptions yet. The new underwater camera has provided some extra fun; check the photos from Elk Grove and Phoenix.

Some highlights of the trip so far:
Igor ate his first taco (liked it) and taco salad (loved it).

We drank a yard of margarita in Las Vegas, and have been drinking them most nights ever since.

Igor bought real cowboy boots in Carson City.

We sat RIGHT NEXT to sea lions on the wharf in Monterey, and got a great video of a sea otter dining on a crab.

I’m about ready to again live with closets and not out of a suitcase (but not entirely ready).

We’re in Carson City, Nevada, at Aunt Martha’s. First internet connection we’ve had in almost 2 weeks -and it’s been great! Lots and lots of pictures and stories to post. In brief:
Huntington Beach, CA- Igor swam in the (cold!) Pacific Ocean
Riverside, CA – great visit with my cousins Pat and Laura
Palm Springs, CA – rode the tram car up the mountain, gorgeous!
Phoenix, AZ – hot hot hot! Awesome Desert Botanical Garden
Grand Canyon – too amazing for words. Mule ride was fantastic adventure
Las Vegas – Disneyland for adults
Loooonnnngggg drive north to Carson City. Great to be with family, home-cooked meals. Igor’s having a great time working in the garden, I’m catching up on work (which is not so much fun, but 300 emails need to get cleaned up).

Photos to come…