Some Exploring :)

We didn't visit Carter this afternoon, so if you're here for photos of him...I guess you'll have to wait until tomorrow!  We decided to explore a little bit, and take the metro to a different part of the city.

We ended up taking the blue line to Petrivka - we heard there was a large department store near there called 'Ashan'.  Apparently the Hillsong Church is also near there.  We plan to go there this week - so I'll update about that after we go.  There were a few things we needed for the apartment, and we've heard that we can get everything that we need from this store.  So off we went!

First off, taking the blue line from Kreschatyik is....different.  You walk through a long tunnel to get there.  Just follow the crowd - that was our motto.  When we got off at Petrivka, we walked toward McDonalds (we read somewhere that we should head toward McDonalds) - and just kept stopping people and saying "eez-vee-neet-yeh?  Ashan?" Which means 'excuse me- ashan?'.  Actually, I should say that I kept stopping people and asking them.  Jake was afraid.  He would say 'you should ask that person...'  but never wanted to ask them himself.  It kind of cracked me up :)

Eventually we made it there.  Wow!  It's just like Wal-Mart!  Really - if you ever need anything while you're in this region - go to this store!  We got a strainer, a sturdy bowl (for mixing stuff), a spatula/pancake flipper, 2 mugs (one for coffee, one for tea!), a tea kettle (not just for tea, but for heating water for our oatmeal), an ice cube tray, a small flat iron (for my hair, not my clothes), and a comb (because, yes - I forgot mine...).  We paid about $30 for all of it.  They also had clothes, groceries (but don't go here for groceries - there are stores much closer), shoes, electronics, etc.

As we were leaving Ashan, a police officer stopped us.  He was in our face...and we just said "english?"  he pulled out a water bottle that was in Jake's backpack.  I'm pretty sure he thought we stole it.  We motioned that we brought it in with us, and he let us go...but I'm not sure he totally believed us.  We all had a good laugh about it.  We just spent $30 on all this stuff...but we stole this bottle of water.  Right.

It was really interesting to see another part of the city.  It's much - MUCH different than where we are staying.  The street we walk to get to the metro is the most upscale street in the entire city (so we've been told)...it's clean and it's modern.  And that's nothing like this other part of town.  It was an eye opener to see what the rest of the city is really like.

After Ashan, we decided to take Rachel to Celentanos :)  Not native food, we know.  But we're easing her in slowly!  I had a calzone - Jake and Rachel split a pizza, and for dessert we all shared an apple and cherry pancake.  And 3 sodas - all for about $16.

Rachel is keeping the Coke bottle - because it has cyrillic on it :)

Yep - we really loved this coke bottle...

Proof that Jake was there.

Every time we've been here, we've had to wait.  But tonight's wait was ridiculous!  I'm pretty sure we were there almost 2 hours.  But, we left with full tummies :)  Can't complain, right?!

Now we're all catching up on emails and I think we're going to watch the greatest movie of all time...The Sound of Music!  Rachel has never seen it (shocking, I know!) and I could watch it every single weekend :)  The first time I saw it was when I had a little lady in my preschool class who just loved it - so I thought "If this movie entertains a 3 year old, I've gotta see it!".  That's when I fell in love with it!

Tomorrow we plan on going to both visits - so there will be more interesting posts tomorrow :)

One Thing I Know For Sure: I'll be going to bed singing 'I have confidence in sunshine, I have confidence in rain...." :)