Weekend in Kiev

On weekends this part of Kreschatik is closed to traffic

At the Hydropark Metro we found these two areas (above and below) that look like they might be set up for paint ball.

Teresa wading right at the edge of the Dnipro River

We saw these costumed folks out on the sidewalk outside the theological building on Sunday morning.

Scenes from our apartment that we moved into on Sunday afternoon

Well, we are moved into our 3rd apartment. The funny thing is that it is exactly straight across the boulevard from our last one! This place does NOT have an air conditioner but does indeed have a working computer connected to the internet--and as of 5:00 pm even has a mouse. On the one hand, it has 2 TV's but so far nothing in English :( -------- and on the other hand, Teresa's DVD's work on THIS player so she is surviving.

Yesterday we rode the Metro across the Dniepro River to the Hydropark stop. I wanted to see what this was. When I saw the sign on a previous trip I'd thought maybe it was a water park of some kind. No, it seemed mostly to be a bunch of beach-side, tent-type restaurants and bars-- quite a few places were grilling meat (though one guy seemed to be melting a plastic bottle on the grill right next to the meat) One area looked like it was set up for paint ball. There were quite a few carnival rides out there, too but very few seemed to be operational. The main activity appeared to by laying on the beach and we saw all ages sunning in their bikinis--not necessarily a pretty sight, believe me :) Teresa did put her piggies in the edge of the river and picked up some snail shells from the sand but we have been discouraged from swimming in it--the very brown color of the water helped reinforce the plan NOT to dive in. Good grief! it was so hot out there that the back of my shirt and pants were amazingly damp. Afterwards, we stopped off at the mall for McDonalds--but the LARGE pop was definitely the best part. On the way home we decided to try to find the metro stop nearer our apartment knowing we'd need it for getting to church in the morning. Thankfully, I could read the Cyrillic signs well enough to figure out which street it was on. And we got to church and back this AM using the new Metro stop where we actually had to transfer from the green line to the blue line--it's funny how scary something so simple seemed--AND we made it home about 1:45 to meet the moving guy at 2:00 pm.

Tomorrow is a holiday here--Constitution Day--so no official business will be conducted. Thank you so much for all the prayers. There is SO MUCH that needs to be accomplished on Tuesday and Wednesday so we can fly home on Thursday. We are getting pretty homesick here--having been gone 4 wks and a day.