NO EPISODES - NO PASSPORT.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Andry got up early without incident.
I made the kids German pancakes and Vassily was picking us up shortly after nine am.

(Pippa writing: All of us looked at the pictures Erik had emailed us of our life in America. The pictures he sent of family, our dogs, cats and birds, our living room, kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms have been comforting. We try to imagine ourselves in the pictures. While this trip has not been a huge hardship, we aren’t hungry, no freezing weather, no lice infestations or blights, WE WANT TO GO HOME!)

Here is the view our of our apartment window in Kiev.


The playground below.


Yelena didn’t need us to go with her to submit the “legalization”, but asked us to stay close by in case she needed us. We went to the internet café/movie theater.

After we got there Andry didn’t want to play any video games. We knew going there was might to set him off again, since the internet café was the scene of a recent episode. But it needed to be worked out.

He surprised us by asking to see Harry Potter again upstairs at the cinema. Olya was in her typically good mood and would do whatever. So we traipsed upstairs and caught the 10am showing of a movie we had already seen and didn’t understand, in Russian.

(Pippa writing: Funny, a couple of weeks ago Andry stated several times that he would not watch the Harry Potter movie. Now this is the second time he’s wanted to see it. During the movie I sat next to Andry and he laughed the whole time. Wanting me to also enjoy the movie's humor, he smiled and said, "When we see it in Miami you will laugh, too.")

After the movie we went around the corner to a Ukrainian restaurant where we had eaten before. Tasty food and reasonably prompt service and the waitress spoke a little English.

We went back to the cinema and waited outside for Vasilly to pick us and drop us at the apartment. Then he went back to the passport office to get Yelena.

She showed up at our apartment a few hours later with a sad look on her face. As Yelena was meeting with the woman at the passport office the woman got a phone call. Someone in her family had died and she was needed at the morgue to identify the body. Obviously, one more passport-less day.

The woman told Yelena to come back the next morning at 9:00. If we get the passport back in one day, there is still a chance for us to get the medical done and our approval from the American Embassy and we could make our Saturday flight. We’ve been waiting for the appointment for six days getting the passport back in one day is not likely.

The rest of the evening was a blur for me. I cooked a pork roast. Andry, Pippa and I ate dinner, while Olya slept. She hadn’t felt well all day. Andry seemed to like having us to himself for a bit.

After dinner, Pippa stayed on her computer; I think Andry worked on Olya’s computer. I went to bed and watched Hallmark.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings at the passport office.

(Pippa writing: While Olya slept on the sofa I taught Andry a little Photoshop. We sat close giggling as he retouched a photo of Olya so that her ears were huge. He gave her one blue eye and a Dali-style mouth. Then he went to his room to watch Russian Spiderman cartoons, his favorite.

When Olya woke I fed her and we watched a scary movie on Hallmark, much scarier than I thought Hallmark would show. If we were in the States I would have changed the channel but here there is no other choice.)