Day 47 (March 25th) Kiev > Paris > Salt Lake City

Friday morning we decided we needed to leave the apartment at 4 instead of 4:30.  We still got up at 3 though.  Natasha was really cute.  The girls were both in the living room with her so she came to my room shortly after 3 and knocked.  I was already up, but it was very sweet of her.

We were downstairs right at 4 and got all the luggage back in the car.  Little One really wanted to sit by Natasha on the way over there so I was in the front.  It was actually kinda nice to be able to really see Kiev on our way out of town.  I hadn't gotten that when we'd tried a couple days before.  It was still sad to be leaving though.

Once we got to the airport I figured things would go much smoother.  There weren't nearly as many people and I had Natasha right there by my side.  She and Irina helped get our luggage checked and went upstairs with us.  They couldn't get through security (though they didn't really try either), but it was just fine.  They stayed right there on the other side of security until we'd gotten through passport control.

That was interesting, by the way.  The line wasn't too long so we didn't wait long, but man, the guy behind me was mad.  When we got up there I had everything out to show the lady.  She took it, but of course it took awhile.  Not only was I trying to leave the country with a Ukrainian girl, but then there was the little issue of our passports already having been stamped that we'd left the country two days before.  Not that it became a big issue, but still.  When the lady handed me back my passport as well as Little One's but not Ira's, the guy with his family waiting for his turn behind me yells, "Hey, Lady!"  I looked at him and yelled back, "What do you want me to do?"  I almost asked him if he'd like to leave HIS son there (who had Downs, by the way) so that he didn't hold up the line.  I was good and didn't though.  It was interesting to see them take a leisurely  stroll though the departure lounge.  Why in the world was he yelling at me when he wasn't even late for his plane?  Jerk.  Ah well.  I'm not bitter. ;)

We really didn't have to wait long before it was time to board the plane.  They took us out to a bus which took us to the airplane.  It didn't take too long and we were on.  The girls had the window and middle seat and I had the isle in the row above them.  I asked the girl that came to sit there if she would switch with me and she was sweet and did.  Then someone asked to switch with her again so she ended up a few rows down, but still on isle.

France

The flight was nice and uneventful.  Europe has lovely tops of their clouds.  I honestly was hoping for a bit more of a view than that, but hey.  It's all good.  I did get to see a bit of France as we landed.  It looked beautiful and I really wish I'd been able to stay a few days and see some things.

The Paris airport was big.  Very big.  We found out as we got off that the girl that switched seats with me (her name is Nichole) was also headed to Salt Lake.  After finding that out, we stuck pretty close to each other. :)  We didn't have too much trouble finding the bus to take us to the correct terminal, but we didn't find where to go to the right gate right away.  Really, if we had been looking a little better it wouldn't have taken as long, but hey.  At least we had each other there.

Once we found the right place we got in line to go through security again.  The sign said it would only take about 10 minutes.  It was a LONG 10 minutes.  Things were moving fairly fast, but then someone pulled the people in front of us as well as us (Nichole tagged along LOL) out of line to go through the handicapped area.  That was all fine and good, but every time someone in a wheelchair or something came up they put them in front of us.  It would have been faster if we'd just stayed in the regular line.

They were already boarding the plane by the time we got through security.  I went up to the desk at the gate to get our seats changed since none of us were together.  Nichole came along with us. :)  The guy at the counter was very nice but the guy next to him felt he needed to tell me how to avoid being apart again next time.  I tried to tell him we'd missed our flight on Wednesday and I had no way to check in online since I'd gotten the tickets late the night before, but he wasn't listening.  I just told him thank you and went on my way.  The hilarious thing was that they put us in the middle all together...right next to the isle seat that Nichole had. :)  When we got up to the place you give the gate person the ticket to scan we got asked a TON of questions.  I've never had that before.  After that though we went down some stairs and out to a bus.  Have these people never heard of a corridor to take you right to the plane??  Ah well.

The flight was VERY long (10hr 15min) but uneventful.  It was nice having the three middle seats to ourselves.  I spilled Little One's sprite once and Ira spilled her coke, but hey.  Not on any iPod's this time at least. :)  Once we landed in Salt Lake we stood in another line (think Disney World without the fun ride at the end or the cute things to look at while you wait) to go through passport control.  I got up and handed the guy my stuff.  He told me to pick up our bags and wait until they'd gotten most people through the line and then he'd look over our documents.  It took a little while, but we finally were able to get the stamp saying Ira is now a legal resident of the US.  They did one fingerprint of her but that was it.

We were all exhausted by the time we walked out the doors to see everyone.  Our family was there as well as Andreas and Ray. :)  Thanks so much guys, for coming!  I'm sure it didn't seem like it at the time, but I very much appreciated it!  People took pictures, but I don't have any except a couple that Andreas took.  I will see about posting them when I get them. :)

The group, minus Andreas who was behind the camera. 

We went to Mom and Dad's house to try and keep ourselves awake, but only made it until about 7 or 8 when we went home to crash.