Day 2 (Tues Feb 8th) - Kiev

First, a few pictures from when we were driving to do our errands.


This is the University in Kiev.  I thought I was turning OFF my flash and instead turned it on so sorry for the lovley light in the middle.



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A playground near the notary office.  The picture above, since I can't seem to get blogger to work with me, is the Golden Gate of Kiev

 

A cool building.  I don't remember what it was though....



This is the Opera and Ballet house.

Luckily, my nerves went away once Natasha was here and we headed to the notary office to give our facilitators power of attorney.  It was quite painless.  Natasha explained the paper and it was very cool to see my name spelled out in Ukrainian. :^)

Husband and Little One going into the notary office

Once that was all finished we headed off to eat close to the apartment.  That was the place I got internet yesterday.  I tried a small salad but didn't like it at all.  The apple crapes were super yummy though.  So were the mashed poataoes.

The cafeteria.  Le Borst (not sure of the spelling)

Once we finished up there we took off to see the Kiev temple.  That was just what I needed.  It was the best taste of home I could have gotten.  I came away feeling like I could do this.  I hope to keep that feeling with me the rest of our trip.

This is my favorite picture

This sign says Kiev Ukraine Temple

This sign says The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

A little closer view




The temple doors

 


Natasha, Little One and me

 From there we went to see the Statue of Motherland.  That was very neat.  I enjoyed it at night, seeing it all lit up.  The view of the city from there was amazing as well.  It would be fun to see it all in the day time.


Some of the carvings in the rocks



Statue of Motherland.  Her sword was cut short because it was higher than the bell tower at Laftra. :^)





This is a statue depicting the crossing of the Dnepro River during the war

Natasha is an amazing tour guide.  While we drove around from one destination to the next she would point out buildings and sights and not only tell us what they were but also historical information.  I wish I could have filmed her so I had all that information.

We have gotten to see the lovely driving here.  It is quite interesting.  Very entertaining.  I really haven't felt unsafe though which is amazing because normally I am gripping my seat for far less!  I attribute it to the Lord.  I honestly feel like a missionary as far as protection goes.  Hopefully that really is the case!

Vacilli's van

Don't you love how they park on the sidewalk?  They also drive on the sidewalk.

Masha was waiting for us when we got back to the apartment.  It was SO good to see her again!  We got to sit in our apartment and visit while Husband and Roger went to finally get sim cards in our phones.  It was cute because she kept saying that she was trying to process the fact that we were really here in Ukraine and not in America.  She brought Little One a puzzle and her cute mom knitted Little One some socks.  So sweet of her!



Husband also went to check on getting a wireless card so that we can have internet whenever we need it.  no such luck though.  It will work here and it will work in Dnepro, but more than likely it won't work in the village we are going to.  We found out we have a cord here in the apartment that should hook us up, but we had trouble getting it to work.  We finally found that it was a problem with our computer and then got that all fixed so now so we at least have internet while we're here.  If we can't have internet working while we're here though, I say we just stay in Dnepro.  We'll see when we get down there though.

I feel lots better knowing Masha will be on the train with us.  I didn't think it would make any difference since she would be waiting for us, but it did. :^)

Little One showing off a key in the apartment.