Nathan has a Girl friend!

Yes, Nathan has a girl friend. Her name is Lesya. She just happens to be our facilitator so we will be seeing a lot of her over the next week. He took to her instantly as he is her little friend.

I will try to catch you up of what has happened in the last two days.

Tuesday, January 18

Yesterday (Tuesday), we woke up at 10am had some breakfast and we out of the apartment by 12:30 to meet our fellow Canadians Scot and Patti from Thunder Bay. They have their appointment tomorrow as well. We walked around showing them some of the grocery stores we had visited two years ago. Much to our surprise, the main grocery in the square was not there but the other two grocery stores were. We also found our favourite restaurant - Le Borsch.

We continued our tour with Scot and Patti until we arrived back to the square and then said our goodbyes. We hope to meet up with them tomorrow after the SDA appointments for lunch/dinner. We went and did a little shopping under the square, visited the temporary outdoor skating rink and then took some pictures in front of the Christmas Tree. Then we were ambushed by Bart and Shrek who started to pose with Nathan and Martha. They came out of no where and when all was said and done, held their hands out for payment. Of course they took advantage of the fact were were tourist and demanded $200 Grivnas ($25 USD). After refusing to pay this amount, I gave them what I felt was reasonable and walked away.

After having a late lunch at Le Borsch, we were back at the "Castle" as Nathan calls it for a quick break. We were back out at night to catch the Christmas lights and take some pictures up and down the square. Just as we were settling down for the night, we took a call from Lesya to plan our itinerary for tomorrow. She also asked to have our bags packed as she was moving us out into another apartment as she was not happy with the conditions - not that we complained. She felt that for the price we were paying we could do much better.

Nathan had a rough night is a nice way of saying no had any sleep or very little. He was in no mood to sleep even after our walking tour. He was wide awake ready to play and both of us were in no mood for it as we are sharing a bed together. After about an hour of this horseplay, Martha abandoned ship for the couch. Another hour passed until he finally fell asleep and I was right behind him.

Wednesday, January 19

Our appointment lasted just over an hour. We were presented with several profiles but none of the children were healthy enough to pass immigration requirements. We were expecting this so we are not disappointed at this point. We were then driven to our new appartment which is close to TGI Friday's restaurant to wait for our next appointment at the SDA.

This apartment was much nicer. According to Nathan it is gorgeous!! Flat Screen TV, modern bathroom with a jacuzzi tub (I don't think I will be able to get Martha out of this one), and a more modern furnishings.

After settling in, we were out walking again. Weather was still overcast +1C. We found another two grocery stores - one that was small and one that was very large with a full assortment of fruit and vegetables (Peter, Martha promises we will start eating our share of veggies and fruit as you instructed). Lunch was at TGI Friday's. After that it was a quick walk back to the SDA to sign a register. While waiting at the SDA, we bumped into Scot and Patti who told us they were presented a profile of a little boy.

Lets hope that Nathan has a better sleep tonight.

Joe