We have arrived!!

We finally made it to Ukraine - all in one piece with no missing baggage or missing family members. Nathan was great on the plane. He only had one crying time when he fell asleep on the connecting flight from London to Kiev as his ears were popping. He has also been doing his part carry his knapsack and dragging his luggage on behind him - child labour at its best. He runs into other travellers from time to time but has not caused any serious accidents.

Getting through customs in Kiev as so much easier this time. For one thing, they had a new building. The lines were moving much faster and there were less people. I think we were through in 20 minutes compared to the 2 hours from 2008. Lesya, our facilitator, met us at the airport and had us in our apartment by 4pm. Our apartment for now is located up the street from the McDonald's.

As we were driving in from the airport, we began to recognize buildings and statues from our visit in 2008. It only seems like we were here yesteday as all the memories came back quickly. We were pointing out all the places of interest we had in our first trip, hot spots that we visited all the time, and the various buildings we stayed in before. Even Nathan took interest as he spoted the big M and began to say he was hungry.

Independance Square was still lit up for Christmas tonight. They have a huge Christmast tree lit up. Hopefully the weather tomorrow night will be better for us to venture out and take some pictures to share with everyone.

Weather in Kiev today was rain and +2. Most of the snow has melted and they are calling for mild weather for the next few days.

Our appointment at the SDA will be Wednesday at 9am. Until then we are resting.

Joe