I couldn't believe it . . .

Since I’m not used to “keeping up” on my blog writing, I’ve not shared with all of you this most exciting news…  Our son, Mark told us he and his wife, Hillary, had decided to have another baby and that Hillary was pregnant – they currently have three daughters.  Mark then related that while Hillary was at work (she works at University of Utah Medical Center as a labor and delivery nurse) she and another nurse decided to try to find the heartbeat.  So, they did an ultrasound and the other nurse found the heartbeat, then said there was another one.  Hillary said, no that can’t be, but the other nurse was sure.  They then asked the doctor who was there to check and, yep – there were two heartbeats! Twins!  But, wait, no – he found another one – three heartbeats!!!  Yep, you guessed it – we’re having triplets!  This is so exciting.  Now for the next news...

March Madness has arrived. Believe it or not, we have already shed our warm winter coats for our lighter coats, or no coat at all. Spring started last week with a day of bright, warm sunshine, then light snow, then warm sunshine, then light snow, and then warm sunshine and light snow at the same time! Ah, yes, fickle Spring.

Last week we moved to a new apartment. This one is slightly larger, has an extra room, which we use as an office, and is on the second floor. The floor plan is very unique. One enters from the stair well (no double steel door on this apartment, but the apartment next door in our same stairwell has double doors). Through the door is a hall and immediately on the right is a sliding door to the toilet room, which is big enough for one toilet, one “toy-sized” sink, and one person to barely turn around. The tub/shower,a  rather large sink, a storage area and a washing machine are all located in a room just off the living room. Oh, yes, and I must mention that most apartments here have built in towel warmers in the bathroom.  Nice!  The kitchen is very small, but there is a DISHWASHER! The bedroom is quite large with more closet space than last time. The office and living room are a nice size - and all decorations are again - something like early 1950's. This one has some "modern" rock design features going on in the living/hall area.  Also, note our one-of-a-kind stairwell. 

The view out of our windows is not as nice as the last place, but we're told it's pretty when there are leaves on the trees. From the kitchen window we can see vacant buildings across the street and litter all over, but, interestingly enough, the main street just around the corner is swept every day by a babushka (older lady). Out of the living room window, we can see the neighbor's backyard where she feeds countless cats and a few dogs every day. Out of our other windows, we see our courtyard - which is asphalt and dirt. Be sure to tell everyone you know to be thankful for litter laws.

Everywhere on the street you see people with fruit stands, bread stands, or perhaps used clothes to sell. This was the case even on the coldest winter days. Perhaps one of my friends described it best with the phrase: " The outdoor market in the snow feels of old survival without expectation." 

I had an interesting experience the other day on the trolley-bus. Here we have marshukas and trolley-buses (larger and run via electrical lines running over the street). They come in all colors (white, hot pink, black) and various models; however, they are all always dirty as they are never washed. See pics below.

You can board the bus or marshuka from any of the doors, front, center or back. On a marshuka when you're ready to get off, you make your way to the front (which is often difficult when crowded) and hand your money to the driver as you disembark. On the trolley-bus, a lady walks up and down the aisle (again difficult) and collects your money. Anyway, one evening we boarded a very crowded trolley-bus. We are usually nice and friendly to the ladies who take the money, so we smiled as usual. I actually think we had been on a bus with this money-taker before, but anyway, she smiled back, took our money and then motioned for me to follow her to the front of the bus. I squeezed past a few people and stopped, not knowing if she really meant for me to follow. She again motioned for me to follow her to the front, so I did. After pushing, shoving and squeezing my way to the front through all the standing people, she motioned for me to sit in her cushioned seat! (I think I may have received some glares from others, but I sat down and thanked her.) Later, when the bus was less crowded, I began to go to an empty seat so she could have hers, but she motioned for me to stay there. Also, she was watching Leon in the back to see when it was time for us to get off, and when it was almost time, she indicated it to me. Wow - what service. Not sure why I got so lucky though :)

One day we rode a marshuka to a nearby island for a walk and to see where some baptisms were held in the river. Attached are pictures of a beach, the bridge to the island, and car tracks on the frozen ice!

I’m including various interesting pictures.  As mentioned earlier, Kherson has a maritime school.  Attached are a couple of students in uniform.  One of the more “fancy” stores in the city is “Robbin-Bobbin” which sells cookies and candy. 

Now that we are in our new apartment, we have continuous internet access, so the blog will hopefully be updated more often J  Until then….



Oh yes, and between the time I started this entry and now, the fickle Spring weather has turned colder again and rainy.  Love the sound of rain on the window J

New things to share...

Frozen River

New things to share...

• We've heard that 160 people have died in Ukraine because of the record cold - 90% alcohol related.
• We are lucky to have warm coats and a warm, cozy apartment.
• When we tell people we have 22 grandchildren, they are astounded.  One lady said, "All in one house?"  Here several generations of family often live together in one apartment.
• Not sure what's in the air, but there seems to always be black dust particals around.
• We think a baby lives upstairs from us - haven't seen it yet though.
• The shower water sometimes smells faintly of fish.
• The Christmas lights are still up across the main street - and lit at night.
• We live in the center of town and during the day there is always music playing from speakers around the main streets.  Sometimes it's Ukrainian music, sometimes it's American 80's music, and sometimes it's Christmas music in English.  We can hear it from our apartment.
• We needed new hats for the cold - see attached picture.
•   People here don't mind the cold.  When it warmed up to about 20 degrees F, people began setting up outdoor markets in the snow.  We can see them from our window in the square behind our apartment.
• We visited a lady in her apartment.  Our homes in the US are gigantic!
• We have a fairly roomy apartment, but our closet measures 25 inches in the back, 36 on one side, and 22 on the other side.  The forth side, of course, is the door.  There are about five very small triangular shelves in it also.  It seems there are no built-in closets, only free-standing ones.  I'm sure they are small because most people don't have a lot of clothes or other possessions, so no need for large closets, many drawers or other storage.  They would be very surprised to know that many people in the US have possessions that overflow the capacity of their large homes and they have to rent extra storage units to keep all of their belongings.
• We have been advised via an apartment memo that rather than let food waste and grow stuff in our fridge, if it's still good we should put it in a bag and hang it on the side of the large outdoor trash bin by our apartment, and it will soon disappear.   
• It's snowing - beautiful!
• We're loving our experiences here.

Park near our apartment

New hats for the cold

By the river

Outdoor market in the snow.  Selling oil paintings, socks, fruit, etc.

Newly scrubbed and cloroxed veggies and eggs

Scene from our window.

Countryside - miles of snow

One of many colorful bus stops in the country.  Seems miles from nowhere.

Winter wonderland!

Typical pack of stray dogs.  The good thing is they all look healthy and frisky and they don't bother people at all.  Some people pet them and feed them.

First Days in Ukraine

We've been in Ukraine now for one week and 8 hours. Our first stop was in Dnepropetrovsk where we stayed in a beautiful three-bedroom, four-bath apartment on the 8th floor overlooking the river. The days were sunny but cold, and snow and ice covered the sidewalks. The river is frozen and we could see a few men ice fishing close to the shore. On Wednesday, a driver brought us to Kherson, about a five hour drive south of Dnepropetrovsk. Kherson is a city of about 350,000 and used to be a major ship port.

First View of Ukraine from airplane.

Our first impressions: Everyone wears fur - fur coats, fur jackets, fur trimmings, fur hats, sometimes fur purses. It's blistery cold! Everyone dresses up. There are packs of homeless dogs everywhere, but the good news about that is that they all look quite well fed and healthy. We've heard that people are kind to them. No grass. I know, I know, there is snow everywhere so we wouldn't be able to see it, but there is no grass under the snow - mostly cement or dirt. There's nice tree-lined walkways that will be beautiful in Spring. It's the older grandmas (baboshkas) who chip ice off the sidewalks (usually this isn't done at all), or sweep streets, and we've heard they are also the ones who do road construction.

Our apartment in Kherson could be out of a Soviet World War II movie - including the large metal door opening to a stairwell and then another large metal door (which we were advised to always keep locked from the inside when we're home) on the outside of our apartment's entry door.

There are also large metal shutters which we open each morning and close each evening. These are operated from a crank inside the house. The window sills are very wide, the barred windows are beautiful, and the apartment is nice and light. The doors to the bedroom, living room and kitchen (yes, each room has it's own door off the hall/entry way) are quite beautiful, in a 1950's sort of way, as they are a combination of wood and glass. The furnishings remind me of a 1940's or 50's newlywed era. The small washing machine in our bathroom holds two towels and two washcloths at a time. There are no dryers, so everyone has a drying rack in their apartment. Oh yes, and to get water to come out the shower head, you have to have a stream of water running in the sink at the same time.

Food: We love the yoghurt, which is liquid. We wash all of our fruits, vegetables and eggs and then soak them in bleach water for a few minutes. We're lovin' it! We haven't had too much experience with food yet, so more about this later.

Today was a major triumph as we went to the grocery store by ourselves for the first time! We have been really lucky to have another couple here, the Lattins, to show us around, i.e., how to ride marchukas (small buses) and trolleys and how to shop. More to follow later.