Volfs all over the place

Jim:

С Рождеством! (Merry Christmas!) It's Christmas day here in Ukraine. I'm back in Kherson, Josh and Ashley are at their orphanages, and Kari, Austin and Tatum are jetting over the Atlantic right about now on their direct flight from Frankfurt to Denver. Thankfully, their flights were both on schedule today so they will be sleeping in their own beds tonight, and Kari and Tatum will have their cats to snuggle up with ( Doh! - Sorry, Matt - I used that word you hate! :-) ) They should land around 3:30pm Denver time today. Lufthansa took good care of them yesterday after canceling their flight. They reimbursed Kari for 3 meals, and put them up in hotel room so they had somewhere to pass the time yesterday. My day went by rather quickly as I caught up on all my work emails. Having the Japanese restaurant with wifi so close was nice - I had a nice booth, ordered a coke, and had free internet. After awhile I got stir crazy so I went and cruised the underground mall. (Never did find the Baskin Robbins, Allie). I broke down and bought a nicer stocking cap - the bronco one I've been wearing had to go. At 6:30pm, I dropped off the key to our apt and headed to the Metro. I stopped in Independence square to take one last picture of the Christmas tree there when two college age students walk past me and I hear them speaking in English, so I said, "Ah, English". They are from San Diego and were trying to figure out where to catch their bus. I told them I hadn't even tried to figure out the bus system, so they were on their own. I jumped on the Metro and successfully navigated myself to the train station. I hadn't eaten dinner, so I decided to try one of the pigs-in-a blanket items that they were selling everywhere. The bread part was good. The meat part left something to be desired, so I ate the bread and pitched the hot dog. I also ended up with my first bottle of water WITH gas. I ordered it without, but didn't double-confirm it with her when she handed it to me. I didn't realize what I had until I opened it and it fizzed up. Oh well, I figured I could handle it. After a couple of drinks I was wondering why in the world would anyone ever drink this. It's disgusting. Dis-gust-ing.

When I went down to my train, I could tell from the outside that this train seemed much nicer than any of the others I've ridden on (and they've all been OK). When I got inside the car, it looked brand new, with digital readouts for the time and temp in the hallway. My cabin door opened and shut without any issues. Oh yeah - I forgot to mention on our train ride with Austin and Tatum to Kherson I shut the door, and then it didn't want to open. I thought of Cindy and Allie, and us with no Pringles. It turned out that the door just needed to know who was boss, so it opened right up when the lady outside pulled on it really hard. (ha). I shut it again just to prove to myself that I could open it if I had to. I could, but it was still a pain (it took a strong pull and a shoulder slam), so we left it cracked open all night with just the security latch engaged. Back to last night's train. When I went into my cabin I had to laugh - there was a flat screen TV on the wall. It did get a little warm in the cabin, so I slept without any blankets. Also, I only saw 2 other passengers in the whole car. I'm guessing that's because it was Christmas Eve, and this wasn't the normal train to Kherson, it was bound for Simferopol, with just a stop in Kherson. This meant I needed to set my alarm and make sure I got off at the right stop. And one other thing - the ride was only 8.5 hours long instead of the normal 13. I think it made fewer stops, and it did seem to be traveling faster. I managed to get off in Kherson, and caught a cab to the Bible House. He dropped me off and the gate was locked, so I called the phone # of the Bible House and the security guard came out and let me in.

Once in the room, I immediately connected to the internet so I could check on Kari's flight. Felix was on facebook so we chatted for a while. Then he said "good night", and I said "good morning". I found out Kari's flight left Kiev on schedule, so I'm thankful for that. I crashed on the bed for a couple more hours since I stayed up late watching a DVD on the train. After I got up, I decided to walk to the market, and drop in on Ashley to say Hi and Merry Christmas. I pulled up Google Translator and typed in several questions and things I wanted to tell her, then wrote them all down in Cyrillic. I called Oksana. She tried to call Ashley but got no answer. She said I could go to the orphanage whenever I wanted without permission, so I told her I thought I'd just walk up to her room and see if I could find her. I think this made her a little nervous because she offered to come with me, but I said I only wanted to drop in for a minute and I'd be fine without her. I knocked on Ashley's door and Olga answered and got the point across that Ashley was not there - she was out shopping for magazines (or something like that), but that I should wait. So while I waited I walked down the hall to say Hi to Zina and Rimma and tell them that I talked to their Papa today and that he loves them and misses them. Zina translated and confirmed that Ashley was out shopping but would be back soon. Sure enough, a few minutes later she came up the stairs and gave me a hug and a smile, and invited me into her room. I pulled out my cheat sheet of translated questions and info and we walked through it together. I told her that my computer will help us talk to each other. I got our 2nd camera back from her so I can pull off the pictures. Then I told her I was going shopping and that I'll see her tomorrow. I think I surprised her that our visit was so short, but I don't want to force a long, uncomfortable meeting. I want her to feel completely comfortable around me by the time she comes to stay with me (probably on Monday the 12th), Tomorrow I'll bring stuff to do, but today I just wanted a quick visit and then leave before she started wishing Oksana was there with us.

Next - and I thought this was going to be a quick, short blog.... - I walked to the market and bought some water, milk, juice, fruit and other necessities. Since I had a heavy load, I thought I'd try the Marsutka (bus). I jumped right on one and paid 1.5 grivna to ride back to the Bible House. That was easy! Now it's morning in the US, so I'm going to work for 5 or 6 hours and try to get some skype credit set up so I can call normal phone lines. For some reason it's not taking my credit cards - I'm wondering if it's because it knows I'm in a foreign country.

Finally - my genius brother John (he was always the smart one) has fixed our home internet issues. Thanks, John! And thanks to Johnny, Richard and Greg for offering to help get it fixed. Turns out our router went bad on us, so John bought a new one and got it all set up yesterday. Kari will be SO pleased.