We are not in America anymore!

Hey there folks! After what seemed to be many hours of sitting on a plane, we are finally here. I just have to say that I am officially confused on the time difference and day vs night...it is going to take a while to get used to this! Our travels went rather smooth considering other stories I have heard. Our flight out of Phoenix was probably the most troublesome (and it wasn't even that bad!). Only one (out of the four) of our suitcases was overweight by five pounds. Instead of trying to repack, we just a paid a little extra fee and we were off! We boarded the plane on-time which was great until we started to move out on to the runway and our plane completely shut off!! Apparently the auxillary power systems broke down....I thought they were going to make us switch planes, but no they just left us sitting there without air while they did the legal paperwork to let us take off. Once they were done the plane started just fine and we were finally in the air! Luckily we were on time for both connections.

It was nice to see Amsterdam (from the plane!). There are a lot of farm lands, all very green. We ran from one plane to the other so there wasn't much time to experience even the airport! It looked nice, from what we could see! Lots of fun shops! Then it was off to Kiev. I could not see the ground in Kiev from the plane until right before we landed. There were SO many clouds and snow everywhere! I thought we would be pulling into a normal "airport gate", but no, they just parked the plane out on the runway area and we hopped off and took a shuttle to the main bldg! Things are just done a little different around here!

After checking through customs we met our Facilitator's husband. He is very nice, and I was so excited to see my name on a piece of paper that he was holding! I worried that we wouldn't find anyone and then we would be on our own! He took us to the grocery store so that we could buy some food to last us a few days until we travel to a region. There we met our Facilitator. She is very sweet and they both helped us shop for what we asked for. There is no way we would have been able to do it on our own!

Both then drove us to our apartment. This was an experience....it took a while because the traffic here is apparently horrible ALL the time! The lanes and signs here do not mean a thing! Everyone was all over the roads, heading whatever direction they could squeeze their cars into (even if it is what we would consider the wrong side of the road!). We made it safely to our place without a dent to the van! Here are a couple pictures of our apartment that we will be in for a few days.



We will post more tomorrow!

PS: For those of you that are getting ready and packing for Ukraine, I highly recommend getting Flight Ear Plugs. It helps to relieve air pressure and discomfort. Last time I flew long distance, I thought my head was going to explode. I wore them just through the ascending/descending parts and I had absolutely no problems on this trip. They also make them for children which you may want to buy. We had a little 3 year old in the seat in front of us, and he cried the whole way over because his ears hurt. I bought a set for our child hoping it will help....I would really hate to have our child go through what that little 3 year old did for 8 hours!