My trip to Kiev

Victor's mother lives here

 I had to get more pages in my passport, it was so full that the officials who stamp passports were starting to grumble, there are three pages with Ukrainian visas and more used  pages for the registrations. Since it is a US passport it lasts for 10 years, and there are four to go, so I paid to have more pages put in. I had to make an appointment at the American embassy in Kiev to get it done while I waited. Since Victor was going to Kiev this week anyway to move the Porters, who are finished with Russian classes in Kiev and are getting ready for the Summer English Institute in Dnepropetroesk next month, I tagged along, and here are some of the photos I took.We stopped on the way to Kiev and dropped stuff off at Victor's sister's house in the village he grew up in, his mother made us food potatoes, salad and zuchinni before we continued on to Kiev on Monday afternoon.

Girls in the fountain across from Mc Donalds in Kreamachuk

The new American embassy opened in January

 It started to rain about the time we were going to leave the apartment to go to the embassy on Tuesday, so Victor and I took jackets and umbrellas and headed to the bus stop. We took a marshutka and the red line of the METRO (subway) to the closest stop to the embassy. Vicotr got direction form a passerby and we walked about 10-15 minutes to find it. "Go straight and turn left at the construction, and we found it. We were so early for my appointment we walked back to the Metro stop, through the woods this time, and got some food. Lucky that the stand had a roof because more thunder, lightning and pouring rain.



That evening after dinner Victor helped Anya, who used to led the praise singing at Morningstar, and had been living with the Porters since moving to Kiev a couple months ago; to move her stuff to her new apartment right downtown. I went along and we checked out the Fanzone for the Eurocup soccer matches while she talked with her new roomates. We took each other's photos, as you can see.

Me in the fanzone for Euro2012

Victor- the street is closed in the city center

There are a lot of beer tents set up for the events.

Victor says the man was asleep and the dog awake when he first saw them

On our way back, Wednesday afternoon

Yes that man is lying right on the pavement, right next to the dumpsters at the nice apartment building the Porter's lived at in Kiev, taking a nap in the shade of the shelter, holding the dog's leash.
We saw a few men looking for useful things in dumpsters, but I admit Molly and I took a couple empty shoeboxes to recycle from the dumpster the next morning, one box was a Gucci one, with a 600 dollar price tag on!

Grain fields are ripening, there is a herd in the background

Make hay while the sun shines!

 I saw many cornfields between here and Kiev, from 2 inches high to about three feet tall. Nothing as tall as Garry's-look for the photo on Monday! There were some showers as we drove, but they were hit or miss and we missed most of them! I am sure there were happy farmers who got some rain for their crops, very close to ones who did not (happy only if they were making hay!) We saw some farmers baling and some that were making haystacks.


 I didn't get a photo of the little blonde kids selling strawberries in one town, though, or the man cutting hay along the roadside....too slow to get the camera up as I looked out of the van.

Back in Dnepro- a lady walks her goat up the street

We met up with Garry after dropping off Anya at her mother's home on the street where we saw the goat. Some very friendly kids decided we were from England and had come to see their street on our excursion. It was good to get back home, but Garry had to go off when we got home at 9:30 pm to breed a cow in the village. He seems to have at least one cow to breed everyday lately. Today someone banged on the door after the cows came home to get him to breed their cow, he said the parents and two kids watched him breed the cow, and commented how fast and easy it was to do.