Goodbyes are hard. Writing goodbyes is hard, too. That’s probably why I have procrastinated on this blog. Thursday, we said goodbye to the town of P. I woke up at 7:20 and to my pleasant surprise found hot water. So, I got a quick bath since J was coming to say goodbye to V. He goes to a town school, so he wouldn’t be at the orphanage later in the day. I started packing up and J came to the room on his way to school. He and V chatted for a few minutes (do boys “chat?”), let me take a picture, and then said a very casual goodbye. I don’t know if they just really think they’ll see each other this summer and it’s not a big deal - or if that’s just boys for ya.
After packing everything, we headed over to the orphanage to say a quick goodbye to the rest of the kids. They were on a “snack” break where classes briefly stopped for them to eat. We went up to the classroom to wait. The kids slowly trickled up, they hung out for a few minutes in the classroom while I took some pictures, Sa walked the halls with C, and then we decided to head out. There were hugs (multiple ones for each kid from me) and I got a picture of all the kids on the steps of the orphanage one last time. It was kind of weird to think that they had lived together for years and now would never be together again with each other. Sure, he will see hosted kids this summer and in the future if they’re adopted, but ALL of those kids will never be together again at one time. The boys (Sa, J2, Va, M, and A) walked us out to the gate and waved as we left. I just love all those kids. It was really hard to say goodbye to them and leave knowing I will not see most of them again. V*ktor is just so excited to get home that he doesn’t seem sad about leaving his friends. I’m glad that it’s not hard for him. I’m also wondering if/when it’s going to hit him later.
We were going to see the last castle on the way out of town, but it was raining/sleeting, so we didn’t stop. After our last lunch at Kant*na, we grabbed our luggage and rode to the train station. Due to the inordinate amount of luggage that we have, there were 2 taxis. Apparently, our dear, young taxi driver from Wednesday learned nothing from getting pulled over by the police… Thursday was the scariest cab-ride yet! It was snowing/raining/sleeting. He was still going up to 120 km/hr (75). I think he was racing with the other driver. Dummy. Anyway, we arrived in one piece and finally got everything unloaded and into the train station. Aleksey took the 2 biggest bags to the train then came back for us and the rest of our stuff. I crammed coats and blankets on top of the heating vents right away, so it never got absolutely roasting in there this time. We had a cabin with 4 beds. Aleksey and V*ktor got the upper bunks. C slept on her own bed (and slipped down once, but I grabbed her pretty quickly). I took the other lower bed. We read books, played games on the tablet, ate sandwiches, passed the time, watched a movie on the computer, etc. C stayed up pretty late, but I was thankful that once she fell asleep she stayed that way!
Friday morning, we got moving about 30 minutes before the train stopped in K*ev. A taxi picked us up at the train station and we got settled into our apartment. After hanging out there awhile, we got lunch at a nearby mall, went to a grocery store, and went back to the apartment. It was only 2pm, but I was exhausted! We ended up just staying in the rest of the day and snacking for supper.
Saturday, we ate around brunch-time since we were heading out at 11. I had really wanted to see the ballet and realized there was a show at noon! We walked/ran/slid up the hill to the beautiful opera house where I went in search of tickets. I knew from looking online that tickets ranged from $1.25 (10 grivna) to $18.75 (150 grivna). From what I saw of the seat map, you could get some decent looking seats for 30 grivna ($3.75), so I kept asking for those. They kept trying to sell me the more expensive ones, but finally we bought the right ones. We had “box seats.” The box had 6 seats in stairstep fashion by 2s. Then, there was the little parted curtain behind the last 2 seats and a small room with 3 seats scattered around (I assumed for the ushers). Uh, no. Our 30 grivna seats were right behind the parted curtain!!! LOL - wonder what the 10 grivna seats looked like?! It worked out fine because 2 of the seats were unoccupied so we just moved forward. It totally cracked me up, though. We couldn’t have seen a thing without standing if those seats were taken! The ballet was really fun to watch. It was “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in 3 acts. C actually sat and watched for the first 2 acts. By the third she was having enough of it, but we kept stuffing her mouth with cereal and let her play around in the back. After that, we ventured down to the museum where we saw stuffed animals, dinosaurs, rocks, and various other exhibits. We went pretty fast. It would have taken me a lot more time if I could read any of the signs, and I don’t think V*ktor is used to just wandering through something like that. On our way back to the apartment, we stopped at a pizza place to eat. It was kind of pricey, but the food was good. Day 50 away from home complete.
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