Flight Over and Day One

All of the flights went relatively smoothly, though when I told Jon to take off his shoes, he grabbed the one out of his bag and Tom got busted for two bottles of shampoo in his carry on. In Chicago it was my turn for trying to smuggle a bottle of water they had given me on the first plane past security. The plane to Vienna was almost as colorful as the air hostess' garb. The flight was tolerable and dinner and breakfast where very good. We stood in the Vienna airport for a couple of hours seeing some interesting clothing and hair styles. There were two gentlemen with turbans and sweet beards and 'staches. The plane to Dneproptrosk was smaller but still okay. Fatigue had sat in by this flight, and was really the power that saw me through the lunch that was served. We landed at an old airport and stood in line at the customs stations for almost an hour. There was a handball team from Norway there going to compete in a tournament trying to qualify the world championships. All of our bags made it through. The translators and preacher was there to meet us (a very enthusiastic group) with hugs all around. We loaded the van and were shown to our flats. Tom, Greg, Jon, and I are in a two bed, two bath, and two kitchen flat on the eight floor of a very nice building. They are air conditioned with hot water and heated towel racks. They also have free internet. The power conversion was a little bit of a struggle but the jerry-rig is working. The time difference is eight hours and we are in our flat about to go to bed right now. We changed some money and went out for dinner. I learned a few words in Russian, and t
he numbers 0-10. We went to the grocery store afterward and bought some breakfast stuff. Jon and I got some cereal, milk, eggs, and apples. We went back to the flat showered (some of us), and went to bed after being awake for 30 hours.

Day one: we met our translators in the lobby at 9 after having breakfast, and met the whole group outside of the opera house. We the went to the gym; the coach met us there and let us shoot around for a while. He then showed us some of their facilities including a weight room that was really nice. We then went out for pizza that was pretty good. We then split up into groups to go visit the homes of some of the members to teach and listen to concerns and opinions. Aunt Kathy and I went to the home of some of the older ladies (the babushkas). We had some time before we were to meet them so we looked around the market. We walked through the meat market, and I found a power extension that worked. We met the ladies at the mall and went to the house. There we talked (I mean they) quite a bit about various things. The most interesting thing I was asked was what I thought about the Harry Potter series and th DaVinci Code. They maintained that since Jesus was not treated as a holy man the writer of the book is a satanist. I decided not to delve deeper into their opinion of a man thousands of miles away. After we talked, we met the rest of the group and ate. The waitress did not get Jon and I's orders correct, but we ate anyway. We the went to the Dnep river (largest river in the Ukraine) and walked along the bank. We got to the end of the walk and there was huge screen set up with lots of people milling about. We had heard that Paul McCartney was going to be in Kiev, but they were doing a huge promo and were going to show the concert live on the screen. We stayed a little while but there was a storm sitting on the other side of the river so we went back to the flat. Jon and I are sitting in the room watching the concert on the tv. I learned some more words and the Russian alphabet. I can now read words (though quite a few are in Ukrainian which has some different letters) in Russian; I also learned 20,30,40-100. I might try to investigate verbs tomorrow, but for now shower, more food, Paul, and bed.