The Blue Wall

March 7th, 2018

    I love surprises! Ok,I love to be the one doing the surprising, being on the receiving end of surprises isn't something I'm real familiar with, but the few times I have been it generally results in tears.  Good tears of course.   So when I had planned to surprise Andriy, I did not want that to be the case for his grandmother.  I mean, could you imagine.  They both are expecting Kostya to be at their front door and instead it's me.  Ummm, no thank you!  Kostya even suggested he drop me off at the last bus stop that gets you to their house so I could just be the one to show up and then he head back to Kiev.  Again, no thank you!   So when I asked if he had told grandma, mind you I am already IN Ukraine and we are planning to go there the very next day.  He said he hadn't, but he planned to.  Can you imagine my response. Ha!  Planned to when?? It's evening the night before we are hopping on a bus and he "Planned to".  With laughter between the two of us I said "Kostya!  You have to do it now!"  So he made the call, hung up and said "It's fine".  Bless America!  I have no idea what I would have done had the answer not have been "It's fine" but I am thankful it was and that part was over.

Outside the Grocery Store 

 
   To prevent a multitude of I said, then He said conversation type dialog I'll share here that we did in fact tell Andriy I was coming.  That evening Kostya had mentioned that he felt we should tell him so that he wouldn't be mad at Kostya for keeping it a secret.  So while at the store Andriy had called Kostya and I answered Kostya's phone.  He couldn't quite figure it out at first, but eventually realized that I was actually in Ukraine.  Come to find out though grandma had actually told him I was there.  So he knew whether we had followed through the surprise or not.

Dinner - For real this time

    We finish up at the grocery store, which was another SO FUN experience.  I couldn't read any of the labels, you weight and put a bar code on your own fruit, and they had snickers!  I had exchanged American money for Ukrainian so I was able to pay like a big kid, with minimal help.  We made the walk back to his apartment - the store was walking distance.  Not necessarily walking distance to the average American, but to the Ukrainian it wasn't far, and to this new girl I did not care where we had to walk because there was snow and lots of it!

   We get back home and Kostya's mother then prepares another full meal.  This one very familiar and oh so good!



March 8th, 2018

Coming into the City

Waiting for the bust that goes to his city.

     My very first Uber ride, EVER.  Kostya had made the arrangements the night before so it was waiting for us that morning!  We Ubere'd (is that what they call it) to the Subway station.  Let the fun begin. I'm telling you, I seriously could not contain my face entire way through those things!  Things were funny and no one else thought so which made it even more funny.  This particular time we rode the
subway for about 20 minutes straight, to the last stop.  From there we boarded a passenger van that would be what took us into Andriy's city.  This was about a 2 hour, very bumpy ride.  The only stop was to let a man get off and use the restroom - in the middle of no where - and then off we went again.  I am no longer surprised by anything by this point in the trip, so whatever!  There was not much along the way, primarily fields and fields covered in snow, which for this Texas girl was magical.

Hotel was TOP notch... $100 for 4 Nights Total!

Off the Balcony of the Hotel - Downtown Apartments

   We arrived in the city at my Hotel which Kostya had suggested I get as it was right at the bus stop in the center of town.





Hotel Ukraine, located on the square right on the corner.  I had booked this Hotel as a backup in case grandma was not thrilled with me being there, I would have somewhere to stay.  This would not be the case as you'll learn later, but I did go and check in, leave some things at the room and then began the next small trip to get to his home.  This would require another sardine bus that would take us to a bust stop very near his home.  Cue the laughter as I again, could not help it.  People were NOT amused by me, but I was so curious about them.  Poor Kostya!  He was such a trooper and laughed and explained things every step of the way!  After about 15-20 minutes on this bus we arrived at his stop.

Looking back toward the bust stop on our way to Andriy's house.

 Here begins the heart checks and glimpses into Andriy's life.  We had passed the orphanage (school) along the way and while I didn't get a very good look the first time I would pass by it every day after and just take note of what it was Andriy has to do each and every day.  As we walked from his bus stop to his house I thought, "He does this every day, by himself, and has been for 7 years."  It's not that it's that far, but it is certainly not at the end of his street where someone sits and watches making sure he made it.   They have more of what would be considered villages.  The "streets" are equivalent to our alley's and houses are scattered all around.  While walking to his house we passed by what I would assume was a mother with her two small children and sleds.  SLED'S ya'll!  So cute!  I'm still just laughing and amazed at the snow and just the fact that I am walking to my child's house! We make a few turns, and I spot it, the Blue Wall.  Andriy had shown us his home on Google maps one of the first times he was with us. An image that show'd us his house that just happened to have him and grandpa out front.  So I had known somewhat what it looked like, and there it was. It was such an overwhelming feeling standing outside his house.  I new God would get me there, but I never knew it would be under these circumstances, nor did I know just how hard the next few days would be.